It was odd, Calypso running, evading—when she was in a form that was made for the hunt. But she couldn’t dwell on that—think in general, because her claw keeps melting away.
Because her claw fell apart for the third or fourth time by now.
Calypso felt the digits loosen due to the intense heat, until she couldn’t feel anything anymore while hearing a sickening thud. And once again, she felt the stubs ache, being cut from the inside of the wounds, as the claws grew anew inside, pushing themselves outward.
She couldn’t breathe, let alone focus. Not even see.
So when Cassie dove straight into Calypso, while the skeletal monster girl moved away—she was still grievously sliced at her midriff. Stumbling back, no time to try to hold back the black blood spilling out, Calypso just had to ready herself as she looked at the Vampire SymbiSubsumed chittered on the ground.
Only for the thing to lance her leg at her, while still having the rest of the limbs on the ground. Once again, while Calypso got away—she felt her face spilt open and leaked hurriedly.
There was no time to react to such a horrible injury, as Cassie’s back shot up as if it was a rat, forcing it upwards, only to spin in the air as the “tension” shifted into the arm once more—becoming a sharp mass that was trained towards the monster girl as she ran away. Calypso thinking that she got away enough, turning to look back.
The laughter was the only single that Calypso had, as Cassie’s head cracked—righted itself—and lunged as the jaws moved aimlessly up and down straight for her. Not only that, but the creature’s neck was beginning to spurt out its potent, steaming blood as it gave chase.
Worse part of it all was the fact that Cassie stared on, with her dead eyes that held no light, as they were so black and empty.
Calypso panicked. She couldn’t help it, stumbling—barely moving as the creature gained ground. It was practically over.
Until Calypso felt a pull—something that grabbed at her feet to tug her backwards, if not momentarily. Using this second to glance about, seeing a Gale that buried her black-covered hands into the ground, trembling. Knowing that this is all that she could do.
The monster girl just panting, backing away as Calypso shook, before using everything to get away as far as possible—watching the monstrous thing fade into the smoke.
There was no continuity to her. No logic, no strategy. It wasn’t like… With Calypso, with Subsumed—their actions were always savage, so it wasn’t in the sense of Cassie introducing this level of brutality never to be seen before.
This… Bond. So called “Symbiosis”, it was just parasitic. Whatever the Vampire was, it’s using Cassie’s altered, mutated body not only as a vessel—but as a weapon as well. The worm uncaring of the body it ate from the inside, as it shifted into the arm to fend off the attacker after it, who cared if the rest of the body flopped about. It only added the much needed mass, in the end.
This battlefield was a haze. It felt like it stretched forever, despite it just being in an area… Calypso thought. She couldn’t think, it was all just too much.
Cassie’s mess of blood she accrued this entire time was practically magma, in texture, in action, and in effect. The spread was methodical, but quickly encroaching—already covering a quarter of ground. The fumes that resulted smothered the air around them, too thick for even Calypso’s new sight. The smell… Overwhelming, putrid, to the point that it made Calypso’s eyes well up. And as this syrup-like hemoglobin steadily marched on, the crackle of grass proved to serve as an added soundtrack to this horrible event. Such a miserable picture, being painted.
The smoke hid Cassie perfectly, so Calypso could only dodge at the very last second as the monster shrieked in delight. Calypso’s limbs, her body, drenched in sweat as she felt it getting heavy with exhaustion that she could barely recover from. And even when she gathers herself in the moment, all she could hear is the fucked up laughter, the crackling of fire, and Gale’s soft muttering. Something about uselessness.
But what was there to do? It wasn’t like Calypso was better suited for this. In fact, Calypso knew—painfully so—that this is a hard counter in every sense of the word. This skeletal monster girl could only CUT things, make things bleed, which is clearly what this deranged thing wants.
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It was so hard. So hard to think. But Calypso has to, and brave the building irritation of having only broken pieces of ideas, letting that rattling within her fevering mind, and forced to keep thinking of something else. Something just as bad.
Only for the horrible, radiating pain to sear into her feeble mind, crippling her again as Calypso screamed out. She knew it was a wasted move, but she did not care—as the monster girl shook her claw furiously, trying to flick away Cassie’s blood, freeing her limb from this suffering.
The fingers were the only things that were flung away, as Calypso stared in mock horror as the blood hardened, at least surface level. Becoming a healed over, taut, black stub—feeling her claw not only trapped within the smoldering heat, but throbbing against the scar tissue in absolute agony.
A perfect time for Cassie to swoop in, slamming her hooked feet talons within Calypso’s shoulders. Which were spiked.
Cassie took off, shooting into the skies that were somehow more caked within smog. The bat body twisted, twirled in the air with a finesse and glee that was barely contained. As a result, the talons that were embedded within Calypso’s shoulders were immediately crushed, and forced the girl to follow the motion which resulted in whiplash. If it wasn’t Calypso’s head being rocked around due to the “G-Force”, it was being choked within the tainted air, her mind becoming utterly flushed with over-sensory.
So there was no defense, nor resistance, as Cassie reached her zenith, contorted her wretched form and flipped Calypso downwards back into the ground—landing with such velocity and weight that it was a total, deafening crash.
It was totally different. As Calypso laid in her broken squalor, and maybe it was due to the possible brain damage she’d receive making herself think that they’re the same, but this wasn’t the Bat Subsumed from before. And yet back then, despite the control she had back then over that living stain—Calypso wasn’t clean in her execution.
And that was her skill level, her ceiling. There was no chance, here.
The sizzling of what was left of her clothing snapped the monster girl out of her funk, hoping her bones were healed enough, as the girl used her only claw to quickly sliced the articles and leaped from the hole she created with her own back.
Skidding on her bare feet and using her clawed toes to dig into the unsoiled dirt, Calypso looked up—shaking as she searched about for the true monster there.
Immediately greeted with a shower of cells pelting her, forcing her to skid onto the side that was just healing. The worst part being that it didn’t hurt so much, compared to the damage Calypso felt so far.
“Sorry—had to do my part, y’know how it is~”
Now that? That smug chatter the Fly girl pathetically sputtered, was the very thing that pushed Calypso over the edge.
There was a surge, and Calypso wasn’t sure that it was just anger.
Regardless, the monster girl rose to her feet. She roared. Balling her only claw into a fist, yelling so harshly and poured all of her lingering energy into such that it bypassed the pain. If only for a moment.
Her bone spikes finally shot out from her body completely, curling and snapping into the armor that covered her maturing body. The locking this time… While it was always rough, there was a fervent pace to it all. Her spine giving her the much needed height increase, the fastening of the armor adjusting her posture—all of which finally give her the strength to stand tall once again.
But it wasn’t until she felt her elbow scythe push out of the arm—the one that wasn’t ruined… It was the thing she needed the most.
With a growl, bearing her large fangs, Calypso angled her elbow blade into the forearm of the destroyed claw, stabbing it. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
And it wasn’t a clean break, as the girl who wept crimson tears begrudgingly found it.
To summon the strength, for what she needed to do next, Calypso cursed everything that plagued her. Fuck Cassie, fuck the Fly girl, fuck Willow Reverie, fuck the Subsumed. And most importantly, fuck this world to allow every single one of them to exist in the first place.
Screaming, Calypso grabbed her ruined arm and ripped it off the body—black blood spurting in high pressure before petering out. She wanted to land on her spiked knees, to break into much needed sobbing…
But she refused.
Throwing the useless limb, Calypso grabbed at the stump. Her human screaming turning into a roar.
I don’t care if it’s warped—I don’t care if it’s the fucking Grim arm again! Give me what I need! What I fucking deserve at this point! Let me… LET ME KILL THEM—IN ANY WAY I CAN
She felt something wrangle within the wound, the movement getting so violent that Calypso couldn’t hold her own mutilated arm.
A long, slender blade of bone slithered outward. It started off elegant, before thickening into a wicked, gnarly scythe head. The “base” of it having ridges as if it was rusted from years of inactivity. Her forearm—it shrunk and adjusted itself in response to the instrument, now allowing Calypso to angle this blade correctly and effectively.
Calypso grew a scythe, instead of an arm. She was as surprised as the people around her.
Looking at Gale, who was done transforming, who looked back in wide-eyed confusion. Glancing at the Fly girl, who was hovering in the air and despite having her own eyes covered in a mask, her scrunched lips said it all.
Even Cassie, who was on all fours and only mere feet away from Calypso, just looked on. Titled her head at the display.
And proceeded to look up at her piss-poor servant.
“…I told you,” the Fly girl answered the accusatory stare. “‘Don’t underestimate her’…”