Kahli watched as Taubitha's charged up purple lightning crackled closer and closer to her. She strained with all her might to reduce the [SPEE] at which it traveled through time, and indeed it was working - it seemed almost like Taubitha's attack was approaching a bit of an event horizon for a moment, although it was truly still marching forth. Kahli was at this point wishing that she'd more seriously considered throwing all her [attribute] points for her new [class] of [Time Manipulator] into just one of her new [attributes], as Froufrou had done with her [attributes]. At the same time, doing that just wouldn't have been her - and if there was one thing Kahli admitted wholeheartedly that she was good at, it was digging her heels in and committing with full force to something with proven diminishing returns and lesser effects than a more optimized course of action.
All the while, something else indeed was afoot. Well, not something else entirely - it was something related, related that is to the handbag that was slung over Kahli's shoulder. See, the writhing mass of tendrils known as Froufrou was of the opinion that her tendrils, especially thanks to her [skill] known as [Tendrils of Fury], were indeed so powerful that with the right opportunity, her already well-tuned reflexes from yet another [skill] along with the fact that Kahli was slowing time itself down was enough in that she could actually deflect and parry this wretched attack away from her [paired] companion. All that said, Froufrou could only communicated through squelches, and Kahli didn't seem to be hearing them at the moment. Or, worse still, if she was, she was too befuddled and bewildered by the attack from her malicious ex-friend to even notice what it was that Froufrou wanted to do. Regardless, Froufrou wasn't one to stand idly by, and it didn't seem like they were yet about to get slung into a [checkpoint], so she chose to act unabated and unconcerned with Kahli's thoughts.
Indeed, at this very same moment, something else yet was also coming to pass in the same vicinity of the general mess of things in the air. G'athoong the water dragon was face to face with Princess, Taubitha's malicious fony that was debated by some to be the actual Harbinger of Doom. Indeed, it seemed that Princess was looking intently at G'athoong's head - almost too intently, like she was trying to use some sort of a deadly spell on the dragon, or something of a similar nature. With that, G'athoong had a number of options that smaller beings - like taumans, indeed even time manipulating taumans - generally did not. One, the most obvious one, was the one that G'athoong chose. For G'athoong had no powers of time manipulation or indeed any [attributes] that allowed her to extrapolate and plot out the repercussions of choices in an extrapolated manner. No - G'athoong had her dragon body as one of her biggest assets and her elementality as her other. All that said, what G'athoong opted to do, was to open her jaws up wide and chomp down at the foe. Then, with a terrifying gulp that was deep and booming, G'athoong swallowed Princess whole.
Now, Taubitha had yet to notice this development - whereas Princess had been a bit too far to really get caught in Kahli's [SPEE] manipulation, Taubitha was fully in its thrall. Resultantly, time to Taubitha was passing in a distinctly different manner to how it was traveling for Kahli, Froufrou, G'athoong, and indeed even Sahdi - whom had taken a moment to practice some deep breathing as she braided her hair over and over again. Had Kahli asked, Sahdi would've of course explained that her hair actually contained aspects that improved and multiplied the power of several of her healing [skills], but as Kahli never saw fit to ask, she oftentimes - including this one - just assumed that Sahdi was being quite lazy, dismissive, and indeed aloof.
"Did you see that, Froufrou? I think G'athoong just ate Princess!" said Kahli with excitement as she noticed her [paired] companion slide out of her purse and hop up to her outstretched arm.
I did, indeed, eat Princess, said G'athoong with a deep, dragony burp. And I'm worried that wretched creature is going to give me indigestion. It was like eating a humongous slice of cake, but then you automatically found out that the cake wasn't even a cake at all and indeed what it was was a large piece of icing and glitter crafted to look like cake and when you look a bite and swallowed you immediately could feel all the sugar hitting your stomach and sending your digestive system into a flurry... Yes, that was what it was like. G'athoong released from her rear end noises that scarce a tauman had heard in the better bit of five centuries, and indeed they were horrifying to behold with one's ears or nose.
"That is... intense, G'athoong," said Kahli with a sigh. She was trying not to show a strong reaction, despite every signal from her tauman mind begging her to start dry heaving immediately. Kahli didn't want to be rude, though, so she instead focused her interest on a burning question of hers. "Also, Froufrou, what on Nomachiato are you doing? I don't want you to get zapped by Taubitha's lightning or something. Also, since when could Taubitha summon up lightening? Is she completely abandoning her stone elemental roots? If so, that's very uncool. Not that Taubitha was ever cool to begin with. But seriously, Froufrou, what on Nomachiato is the matter with you?"
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Froufrou squelched with a putrid determination as she prepared to parry the attack. Only, there was a problem. Kahli seemed to be adeptly slowing time to the point that the purple electricity had indeed relented to a minor crawl, and at the present moment it was still too far away for Froufrou to even attempt to redirect it.
Froufrou squelched in a disappointment that barely smelled bad at all.
"Froufrou, what's wrong? Why are you squelching so non-stinkily? Are you feeling overshadowed by G'athoong's flatulence? Look, Froufrou, it's nothing to feel bad about. You've literally got a [skill] called [Putrefy]. Sure, G'athoong may have made one gross sound that smells like death itself, but you release foul odors on a regular basis. Froufrou, you might as well be a professional. The last thing I want, is for you to feel lesser at one of the things you do best just because someone else had a bit of a one hit wonder. No offense, G'athoong."
None taken. I'm still quite embarrassed, actually, thought spoke the water dragon. We water dragons are supposed to be, well, as pleasant and refreshing to be around as a cool stream of water, to paraphrase my father.
Kahli did a double take. "You had a father?"
Of course I had a father, replied the water dragon. What, did you think that I just apparated out of thin air one day because there weren't enough dragons around on Nomachiato or something? That I didn't hatch from my mother's egg, like every single other dragon out there... since ever? Seriously? Kahli, what were they teaching you in post-post-pre-post-secondary school?
Kahli sighed, feeling a little self conscious. Then, she was struck with shock. Froufrou was outstretching her tendrils, reaching ever so far to try and hit the lightning beam!
"Froufrou!" cried Kahli. "What are you trying to do?"
Froufrou tried to squelch out an explanation, but Kahli simply sighed and shook her head. She'd been using her [CLA] and [PER] to work out an ideal way forward following Taubitha's attack, but she hadn't involved Froufrou in any of it! Of course, he [paired] companion had access to the [attributes] herself due to their shared systemic abilities, but that didn't mean that Froufrou could read her mind.
Kahli looked deeply at her [paired] companion with a pained, regretful expression painted over her countenance. "I'm so sorry, Froufrou, I should've explained my plan for this earlier. Look, I don't want to put you in harm's way, even if indeed you could parry that attack away. I don't really know what all it is, or what it's capable of, and I thought of a way to use my [attributes] and escape the attack without hurting you. Really, Froufrou, I'm sorry."
Froufrou squelched warmly and stinkily. In hindsight, it all made sense to her, too - after all, Froufrou was highly intelligent, and with that she was easily able to on second thought devise of many different more prudent methods of evading such an attack. There was indeed no reason for her to leap into action and parry off the attack, especially when there were a myriad of other ways to move forward without putting herself or Kahli at risk. Froufrou, again, tried her best to squelch this out - and while some of the nuance was lost in translation, it did indeed seem to her that the key nature of her thoughts was well imparted to the tauman she was [paired] with.
"Oh, Froufrou, you're so sweet. I know you just wanted to save the day for me," said Kahli with a warm smile that cracked some of the plaster on her face, and indeed caused some of the specks of living wood dotting her cheeks to rub together. She stroked Froufrou calmly with her left hand, its course living wood calmly caressing the writhing tendrils that made up Froufrou's form. "G'athoong, would you please lower yourself a little bit in the air?"
Oh? You want me to do an old altitude maneuver, eh? thought spoke G'athoong slyly.
"Is that what they call it? It has a name?" said Kahli with an incredulous gasp. Froufrou squelched in key.
Of course it does. G'athoong made a deep cooing noise that could best be equated to a dragon's chuckle. That being said, I've got something a little cooler I'd like to do, if you don't mind.
Kahli looked at Froufrou, and then over at Sahdi with a little bit of disdain. "Sure, we don't mind, I guess."
Great, said G'athoong. This is going to be fun. Hold on to my scales!
"What?" Kahli felt living wood scrape as she raised her eyebrows. She gripped G'athoong's scales tightly, and Froufrou in turn gripped her.
Three, two, one, GO!
With that, G'athoong not only dropped down but indeed started twirling and spinning in the air, rolling through it like she was a dog on a mat. As Taubitha left Kahli's sphere of influence her attack sped up, only to shoot across the sky and crackle into nothingness. Kahli heard a wretched scream that indeed included a voice crack emanate from her former friend as the wind battered and G'athoong rolled further and further through the air.
Kahli wanted to scream herself, indeed the whole situation was so stressful she almost wanted to cry, but then all her attention was immediately arrested by a familiar feeling in her lower back.
She was ready, now of all times, to level up.