Experienced Integration

> “Even the flames of the sun began with a spark. Even the fires that ended me…began with a spark” ~Redacted

Katherine had never felt so enamored by the desire to take Frein. The chill electrifying her spine, the heat whelling in between her legs, the sensation and gratification of life, all gave her such unreasonable confidence that she ignored the three looming Nightmares behind her. Even after Frein had disappeared into the mist, all she could think about was what to do with him tonight.

She turned to face the three just in time to find one of them lunging at her with its dislocated jaws wide open.

Siffera, blade Meiyal Art, and Kaimera.

With those three Arts Drawn simultaneously, Frein’s meiyal in her reserves reacted with a purpose. The ease at which each of these Arts were Drawn into reality gave Katherine an out-of-body experience feel. A surreal familiarity she’d lost throughout the years of her absence suddenly giving her a glimpse of her prime.

No, not anywhere near close, but she could work with this.

The Jaws Lurking in the Forest froze in mid air as time literally stopped for her. She withdrew into her Exhibit and navigated towards the new meiyal-charged material she acquired not even an hour ago.

Expunged Blaze. A material only found in Forest Jaws on extremely rare occasions. As far as her knowledge went, the only meticulous study done on this particular Nightmare was in regards to this charged material. The rest of what they knew were from the scarce observations of their best scouts throughout history.

The material was the conclusive proof that the Jaws Lurking in the Forest were once part of the proud species of dragons that had slowly died out after the Divine Severing. The Blaze, a specialized organ surrounding the heart of a fire dragon was responsible for producing the ignition of their destructive fire breaths.

Thus, Expunged Blaze was the name given to the organs of Forest Jaws which, for most, had lost the ability to breath fire and developed acidic glands instead due to their Nightmarish evolution.

They probably never lost that ability, Katherine thought, the image of the largest Forest Jaws lingered in her mind. They probably just chose not to because of the Nightmare influence.

A piece in her thoughts clicked into place. She once questioned how it worked, but now everything made sense to her.

With a flex of her will, she touched the Expunged Blaze and integrated with it in just a few seconds. She knew exactly where to place it, how it would react to the other materials already in her Exhibit, and what it would do for her.

It was like replacing missing furniture with new ones.

When she returned to reality, the Forest Jaws was still in mid-air, albeit a bit closer now.

Still a few lapses.

Time resumed as she emphasized all three Arts to the extreme. She slashed upwards and Drew a Katastrofera with a mere speck of her concentration. The tidal wave of blades rushed at the Forest Jaws, piercing deep into its tough exterior. Then the wave followed.

It collided with the Nightmare, causing it to flip its massive snout and turn on its back. The feedback caused the ground to shake long before it fell on the ground.

The other two Forest Jaws flanked at her side. She did the same thing, toppling over these giants as though they weighed no more than paper after sending a barrage of sharpened waves of meiyal.

She casually checked her reserves after the short skirmish, leaving her attuned senses to track each Nightmare. The three Katastroferas barely made a dent on Frein’s meiyal. They, along with the three Arts, had taken more from her own reserves and only tapped on Frein’s to make the Drawing easier.

She Gathered and Milled the portion she lost. The discrepancy of ease between Drawing the Art and the other two processes were like day and night.

Katherine’s senses picked up on something. She had instinctively Opened her meiyal core with the I, Alone, Am the Center Void Control Technique right after she integrated with the Expunged Blaze. The scan caught Kristel approaching along with Enza.

She didn’t want to admit it, but the Princess would be a burden in this situation. These Jaws Lurking in the Forest were smart, or rather, The Mist That Carries the Nightmare had enough intellectual capacity to adapt a plan. Even if it was preoccupied with Frein, she doubted the Visitor would be enough distraction for it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Not to mention the presence of a Deep Nightmare for someone so untrained in the Void Region as the Princess was already risk enough. Frein had Elizzel to support him, Kristel had nothing.

Katherine approached the smallest of the pseudo-dragon Nightmares and opened her Display, Drawing her Dai-Kaimera. A different Forest Jaws flanked her at the side as the aura around her meiyal blade extended a hundred-fold.

The Lady of the Void slid backwards as though the wind carried her. The Nightmare missed, but its sheer size sprang rocks and boulders rippling into the air.

Katherine swirled and twirled, dodging rocks and slicing boulders. With a burst of Rivasia, she changed direction and spun down towards the assailing Forest Jaws. The form and movement gave the appearance of a gigantic, glowing sawblade. Dai-Kaimera parted shoulder and arm like freshly sharpened knife falling on tomatoes.

Katherine made one final pivot, delivering a crescent of death straight into that same Nightmare’s neck. The head of the second largest Forest Jaws fell off promptly in time with the erasure of Dai-Kaimera.

“Ferenfra.”

The Lady of the Void engulfed the beheaded Forest Jaws in a sea of flames, reducing it to ash in a matter of seconds.

A different blast of flame erupted on her side. Katherine barely managed to fly away. Her proximity to the foreign, intense heat caused her clothes to set aflame. Even her hair was protected by the enhancement brought by Siffera, but since only the coat tied on her waist and the scrunchie keeping her ponytail were made through meiyal-crafting means, her normal clothes couldn’t handle such sudden rise in temperature.

She was quick to extinguish the fires before they singed too much of the fabric that they barely served their purpose.

I really need to acquire some battle gear soon.

The larger of the two remaining Forest Jaws stalked at her, arms and legs bent and ready to pounce, sparks of flame crawling around its sideways jaws. The smaller, more bloodied one kept a hefty amount of distance.

Katherine taunted the larger one by erasing her meiyal blade, ignoring it completely, and taking an elegant stride towards the smaller one.

The fire-breathing Forest Jaws spat out a couple of fireballs, each a size larger than the Lady.

Katherine deflected them with a pair of punches, sending out a wind force that pierced and dispersed the fiery projectiles. Within that few seconds, the acid-spitting Forest Jaws managed to reestablish the initial distance it maintained.

She knew what it was doing. Nightmares had innate ability to regenerate within the influence. Lesser ones barely needed any time to recover, but much larger sorts like the Jaws Lurking in the Forest—especially when within the weakened areas of the Nightmare Lands—took many times longer to recover. It had been making sure to avoid any of her flames to hinder it from healing its jaws and other wounds.

Which raised an intriguing question into Katherine’s mind. She looked at the larger, fire-breathing Forest Jaws. She wondered if its own flame could work against it.

How does it still breathe fire in the first place? Katherine felt a dilemma approach. Could she possibly capture this Nightmare? Maybe she needed to capture both so comparisons could be made.

Frein’s antics are rubbing off on me.

She smiled just as Kristel finally caught up to her. Enza was nowhere to be found, but Katherine understood that the yuma must be simply hiding somewhere safe.

“Only two Forest Jaws?” the Princess asked. She kept a particularly cautious eye at the larger, fire-breathing one.

“Got rid of one,” Katherine confirmed. “How’s your meiyal?”

“Half, maybe less. Should be enough.”

Katherine nodded. “You take care of the smaller one, then. Try to burn its wounds as soon as you can. Cauterization makes their injuries last longer rather than close them.”

“What?” Kristel glanced at her, then back to the larger Forest Jaws. “Then, that one doesn’t make sense.”

“I don’t think we can afford to figure that out.”

“Wait, what happened to you? And where’s Frein?” Kristel pointed at Katherine’s bloodied, ruined, and burnt clothes.

“Almost got eaten, but Frein managed to save me just in time.” The Lady produced a thin film of Imbelia to clean herself off the blood, dirt, and all the other mess. Doing so made her realize she just kissed Frein after throwing up and coughing up blood. And she did so for a long time while dry humping him.

“Katherine,” Kristel called out. “Are you okay?”

She had blushed without realizing.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t look, but Frein’s in the mist behind you. It’s a Deep Nightmare, so don’t stare straight towards it. If you catch its attention, it might force its influence on you. And if you turn into a Grinding Teeth, the only salvation I can give you is death. Even Frein can’t figure a workaround for you like he did for Frill.”

The Princess nodded nervously. Katherine could see curiosity eating at her.

“It’s also controlling those Forest Jaws,” the Lady added, quickly changing the subject so that Kristel could turn her attention to something she could actually handle.

“What do you mean?”

“Jaws Lurking in the Forest are intelligent hunters. They know to run away if they deem the enemy too strong. I just disintegrated one of its companions. That, alone, should be enough to chase it away.

“I also don’t like that they're keeping their distance. The Mist must be relying on their regeneration. Unfortunately for them, Frein and I had been Gathering almost every meiyal around here. And lastly, these Forest Jaws are already dead.”

“Already dead? Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be in the Nightmare Lands?” Kristel thankfully gave up on the idea of taking a glance at The Mist.

“No. Undeath is very much different from succumbing to Nightmarish influence. The undead, ghosts, wraiths, and whatever else you see in Befall are different from the Nightmares here in the Void Region. We can’t exactly sit down and have a lesson now, but those Forest Jaws are displaying both of those aspects. I suspect it’s because of The Mist’s.”

“Then we should get rid of them right now.” Kristel knew what to do, but the cadence of her tone gave away her crumbling courage.

“They’re locking me at equal length,” Katherine explained. “I can probably power through their strategy, but I’d rather have as much conserved meiyal as I can.”

“Fra Arts aren’t my specialty,” the Princess said. “I’ll take care of the small one like you asked, but I might burn through my entire reserve trying to turn something that large to ash.”

“Save some for a flare,” Katherine instructed. “I’ll come to you when—”

A soft paw nudged at her side; its claws barely dug through her Siffera-empowered skin.

“Enza will come save you,” she corrected.

----------------------------------------