The crystalline monster continued to hover in the air as it stared down at Scarlett. Scarlett nervously stared back at the crystal monster while holding a crystal in her hand. She glanced between the creature and the crystal in her hand a few times, even looking over at Zalroth once. She looked at the crystal one more time before sticking her tongue out at the monster and smashing the crystal between her hands. The creature glared at Scarlett, making her sheepishly flinch and run behind Zalroth; Scarlett stuck her head out from behind him and angerly stuck her tongue out. The creature glared at Scarlett and started to raise its arm.
"You wouldn't be planning on hurting a kid would you, because things won't end well for you if you do," Zalroth remarked while retaining his fighting position. The area where a mouth would be on the creature started to stretch and crack until a rigid mouth had formed. The creature slowly breathed in before letting out an ear-piercing scream that made Lola and Scarlett cover their ears. As the creature continued to scream, an energy ball gathered in front of the creature's mouth and was aimed at Scarlett. Scarlett quickly ducked behind Zalroth as the intensity and size of the energy ball increased. The second the creature was about to fire its attack, Zalroth instantly dashed in front of the creature and uppercut it in the mouth, causing it to bite down on the energy ball. Zalroth jumped back to Scarlett right as the energy ball exploded and a cloud of purple smoke surrounded the area around the monster.
"D-did you beat it?" Scarlett asked. Zalroth smirked making Scarlett smile a little.
"Why don't you quit messing around, and pull yourself together already." Zalroth snarked, making Scarlett nervously look over at the purple cloud as it started to gather. The cloud spiralled together and reformed into the crystal creature.
The creature made eye contact with Zalroth and violently clenched its fist, causing them to slightly crack. The creature darted for Zalroth as it charged an energy ball in its hand. The creature swung its hand, with the energy ball in it, at Zalroth as the energy ball rapidly increased in size but Zalroth easily kicked the creature's hand. The energy ball was sent flying into the sky before violently exploding with a blinding bright flash, making Scarlett and Lola cover their eyes simultaneously. The creature went to punch Zalroth but it was knocked backwards with an air blast, followed by Zalroth spin kicking the creature in the stomach and launching it through multiple trees.
"Tsk, too easy. Heh, always wanted to say that.". Zalroth grinned as he closed his eyes and crossed his arms. Scarlett was left stunned at what just happened but quickly slapped her hands on her face. The sound of Scarlett slapping herself made Zalroth turn his head. Scarlett lightly rubbed her cheek, which had turned slightly red, before opening her eyes and noticing Zalroth was looking at her with a bewildered/amused expression.
"W-what?" Scarlett asked while she slightly averted her gaze and, although hard to tell, embarrassingly blushed. Zalroth just shook his head and said it was nothing before looking in the direction of the large dust cloud. Dust and ash littered the area a few meters ahead of Zalroth, with the majority of it centralized into a large cloud. The dust cloud slowly scattered and descended to reveal the creature indented into a large cracked bolder.
"What is that thing anyway?" Scarlett asked while she picked up one of the Angorthite.
"The official name for these things sounds stupid, so I just call them Silhouettes.". Scarlett tried to ask what the official name was but Zalroth quickly deflected an energy ball that tried to hit her with his foot. Scarlett stumbled back a little but stopped herself from falling over.
"It's too long to remember off the top of my head, so it'd be better if you ask Lola," Zalroth replied before turning to face the Energy Silhouette with a callous glare making the Energy Shilloette instinctively flinch. Zalroth closed his eyes and slowly exhaled as his body, aside from his forearms and the bottom half of his legs, was surrounded by a cyan aura that made his hair rise and flow as if it was suspended in water. The Energy Silhouette pulled itself out from the bolder leaving a humanish-shaped hole in the bolder. As it landed on the ground, it slouched its head down and staggered forwards.
"Curse that Basta-". The Energy Silhouette paused when they saw a shadow appear in front of them. It quickly looked up and realised Zalroth was moments away from punching them in the face. The Energy Silhouette barely covered their face before being launched through the boulder by Zalroth's punch. The Silhouette crashed into the ground before rolling backwards and landing on its feet. Zalroth placed his foot on top of the biggest remnant from the boulder with a super smug grin. The silhouette angerly glared at Zalroth.
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"What's wrong, I thought you wanted me to take this seriously?" Zalroth snarked while resting his arms on his knee. The Silhouette gritted its teeth before standing up straight. A purple aura started to build up and condense around the Silhouette before erupting into a giant aura that blew all the dust around them away, which got Lola and Scarlett's attention.
"I'll wipe that smug look off your face, mortal.". The Shiloette's comment made Zalroth let out a quick laugh.
"What's funny now?".
"It's nothing I can tell, just know what you said was inaccurate.". The Silhouette gritted their teeth even harder, managing to crack some of their teeth, before slamming their foot into the ground and launching themselves at Zalroth. Lola finished putting out the last of the magic fire right as a shockwave raced past her and almost knocked her over making her rapidly flail her arms. She stabilized her balance and looked over in the direction the shockwave came from and noticed what caused it. Lola watched Zalroth and the Silhouette hurling a barrage of kicks and punches respectively at each other. Lola wondered if she should try to assist Zalroth.
"Don't worry, I can handle this," Zalroth told her telepathically as he punched the Silhouette in the face while being punched in the gut. Lola's ears drooped down while she frowned and complained to herself. She turned around and realised Scarlett was gone. Lola's ears twitched when she heard multiple chimes from below her. She hurried over to the edge of the barrier and looked over the edge of it. She spotted Scarlett on the barrier below her while she was gathering some of the crystals together before smashing them. Lola quickly wrapped one of her tails around the sleeping Snow and lifted her before jumping off the barrier, followed by it disappearing. Scarlett turned around when she heard Lola land behind her.
"What're you up to?" Lola asked.
"Your dad asked me to break the crystals with these gloves.".
"And how's that going?". Scarlett quickly glanced around before looking back at Lola.
"Pretty sure I got all of them, why do you ask?". Lola pointed at the battle between Zalroth and Shiolette making Scarlett tilt her face with a confused o-face.
"Well, the last time papa fought one of those things, they changed colour when all the Angorthite was disposed of," Lola explained. The two scratched their heads wondering why this time was different. Scarlett's eyes widened when an idea came to her.
"Maybe... it's on the woman!". Lola's eyes widened at hearing Scarlett's suggestion. Lola nodded her head and said that sounded like a good idea. The two of them looked over at where the unconscious woman was and were surprised by what they saw.
Meanwhile, Zalroth drop kicked the Silhouette through multiple trees; and before he could land back on the ground, the Shiloette instantly flew above all the trees as their aura started to shrink. The Silhouette stared daggers at Zalroth as its aura started to flow into its body and the cracks all over its body faded away. Zalroth taunted the Silhouette by lifting his hand and moving his fingers back and forwards. The Silhouette visibly struggled to contain its disdain for Zalroth, until they couldn't contain it anymore and the Silhouette let out another ear-piercing scream as it was surrounded by a sphere of energy.
Before Zalroth could figure out what it was up to, a barrage of energy balls exploded out from the energy ball and rocketed towards the ground. Zalroth dashed out of the way of the energy balls as they indiscriminately tore through the terrain and obliterated the surrounding trees. As Zalroth continued to evade the energy balls, one of them ricocheted off another energy ball and managed to strike Zalroth on his right lumbar, before exploding and knocking him over.
The Silhouette noticed Zalroth had been knocked off balance and quickly concentrated all the energy around them into a single large energy ball. The Silhouette hurled the large energy ball at Zalroth before it collided with the ground and exploded with a loud bang. The Silhouette had a crooked smile as they started to laugh with an increasingly distorting voice.
"Haha! Take that you old fu-". The Silhouette slowly stopped laughing and glared downwards as the debris created from the explosion dispersed. The debris completely dispersed revealing a large crater with an unfazed Zalroth brushing some dirt off his shoulder. Zalroth looked up at the Silhouette and clicked his neck.
"That last attack was fairly impressive, it's a shame it's fueled by stolen power, tho," Zalroth remarked as he repeatedly clicked his shoulder by rotating it. Zalroth eventually stopped before smugly getting into a fighting stance and the Silhouette braced themself to continue fighting.