FURY OF THE STORM

Mocha roared as she witnessed her human, her Iris, seized by a monstrosity of earth and slammed into the ground.

Mocha's eyes darted to the side as a flicker of movement caught her attention. There, the other mage had begun conjuring a sphere of intense fire, its heat radiating in all directions.

With a low growl and a wave of her tails, Akane stood, her fur bristling with raw aggression. Her magic swirled around her, an ethereal maelstrom of power. Suddenly, the world seemed to splinter and multiply as eight identical Akanes manifested, each one imbued with the same ferocity as the original. With a collective snarl, the horde of kitsunes charged, their eyes ablaze with a predatory resolve.

Meanwhile, the sound of steel leaving sheaths filled the air, a chilling symphony of impending conflict. The poachers, armed with swords, axes, and other various weapons, surged forward with a guttural war cry. It was a sight that would've struck fear into the heart of any observer.

But Iris's party, her group, they didn't falter.

Instead, they answered with a defiant battle cry of their own, a proclamation of their unwillingness to yield.

At the front was Kaira, her eyes ablaze with a resolute fury that resonated with Mocha on a primal level. It was the kind of anger that was born of a deep-seated sense of injustice, a wrath fueled by the determination to protect those they cared for.

The high elf woman brandished her weapon, her every stride a testament to her resolve. The battlefield was set, and as Mocha watched her friends engage in the dance of combat, a potent mix of fear and determination pulsed through her veins.

Mocha turned her head back to her friend, just to watch helplessly as a blue flare of light flickered and wavered through the earthen hand, only to be extinguished as Iris struck the ground a third time.

She always knew she was more than just a horse, more than just a creature for Iris to ride to and fro.

She was more than just a mount.

Iris is my best friend.

And her friend needed her.

Fury drove Mocha to action–her [What Works for you, Works for Me] ability flared to life, sparked by the connection she shared with Iris.

The familiar crackle of electricity her human used tingled through her, a sensation that had become a comforting part of their bond. Energy surged from her eyes, racing across her body in a shimmering cascade, until it burst from her hooves in a brilliant display of power. The world around her seemed to still as she transformed, her physical form dissolving into an avatar of pure, crackling lightning.

The ground beneath her hooves vibrated with her newfound power. Mocha reared, her roar a deafening thunderclap in the stillness, before surging forward with [I Am Speed].

The world blurred around her as she closed the distance toward the man in less than a single heartbeat, the one who dared to harm Iris.

The man used a spell that helped him avoid her initial rush, but Mocha didn't slow down. Her focus was razor-sharp, locked onto her target.

Just as Jonan dodged out of her path, Mocha landed, her form exploding forth in a crack and burst of lightning. The man was behind her, but Mocha [Can’t Even Spell Inersha], her body whipped around and charged toward him, but the squirrelly fuck managed to avoid her again.

This time she was ready for it.

Just as she passed him she used [Nothing a Kick to the Face Can't Fix], her hind legs lashing out with devastating force toward the man.

A wall of stone and dirt erupted from the ground with barely time to form before Mocha's kick pulverized it, sending a spray of shattered earth flying through the air.

Dust clouded around her, obscuring her vision for a moment, but Mocha didn't relent. She was driven by a primal need to protect Iris and nothing would stand in her way.

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Amidst the swirling dust and debris, Mocha perceived the unmistakable whir of incoming projectiles. Acting on instinct, she nimbly leaped aside, her ethereal form glowing brighter against the obscurity as large rocks crashed down where she had been a heartbeat ago.

Another two rocks shot toward her, but it was no matter for they [Can’t Touch This], veering wide at the last moment to narrowly miss her.

Already, she was pivoting to face her adversary, every fiber of her being screaming to charge once more. Yet as she drew herself up, a shift in the atmosphere halted her in her tracks.

Her nostrils flared and her ears twitched as the telltale smell of Iris’s magic filled her nose and the air around her bristled with a sudden intensity that made Mocha's hair stand on end.

Electricity crackled in a visible matrix, a pulsating web of raw energy radiating from a single point of origin–Iris.

What followed was a spectacle of natural power Mocha had never witnessed before.

The ground beneath Mocha's hooves trembled subtly, an ominous undercurrent of the looming spectacle. And then, as if obeying an unseen force, chunks of stone and clumps of dirt began to levitate, rising in a spectral ballet above the earthen prison that held Iris.

The scene was uncanny, a defiance of the very laws that tethered the world, one that laughed at the man Iris had called Newton–whose apples were likely stolen from some poor horse.

For a heartbeat, everything held in suspense, a snapshot of reality poised on the brink of unraveling.

And then, it did.

With a thunderous crash, the earthen debris came plummeting down just as a bolt of lightning, colossal in its enormity, streaked down from the heavens, its landing punctuated by an explosive upheaval of earth.

The ground shook more fiercely as a makeshift volcano erupted amidst the battleground, birthing a force more fearsome than the landscape could contain.

From the heart of the maelstrom, the storm incarnate that was Iris emerged, a figure of terrifying magnificence.

Her eyes, once a window to her gentle spirit that only Mocha truly saw, were now replaced by an ethereal blue glow, the flickering and crackling of barely contained lightning. Her veins, coursing under her skin, glowed as if conduits for the raw electricity that thrummed through her. The sight was breathtaking, a testament to the untapped potential of her friend.

Twin spears of pure lightning coalesced in Iris's hands as if summoned by her sheer will and anger.

She turned to Mocha, her gaze falling upon the spectral lightning dancing over her equine form. The pride that flashed across her face then was a sight that warmed Mocha's heart, driving away the fear that had taken root.

A silent acknowledgment passed between them, an affirmation that they were both [Close at Heart].

Her human was in pain and exhausted, and Iris needed to get through this fight quickly.

With the fury of a storm goddess etched across her face, Iris hurled the two [Lightning Spears] she had formed, directly towards the man. Jonan, quickly assessing the impending danger, conjured a solid wall of earth in the trajectory of the first spear. The spear crashed into it with an intense crackle, lightning searing across the surface of the wall but unable to penetrate through it.

Simultaneously, another massive hand burst forth from the ground, matching the trajectory of the second spear. However, unlike the wall, the earthen hand utterly failed to halt the spear’s path. The potent projectile of electricity pierced the palm of the hand, causing chunks of earth to explode from sheer force.

Despite this, Jonan was quick on his feet, or rather, with his magic. As the second spear continued forward, the man mustered his powers, ripping up a towering pillar of Earth right in its path. The spear met the pillar with a thunderous collision, lightning rippling across the monolith but ultimately halted, its deadly journey interrupted by Jonan's desperate defense.

The man stepped forward, earth and stone gathering around his hands as the pillar returned to the ground. His eyes darted between Iris, a goddess of lightning, and Mocha, her stormbound friend.

Then Iris began to speak, her voice echoing around the area with an electrified resonance that was impossible to ignore. The crackle and hum of her power infused her words, causing even Jonan to pause in his tracks.

To Mocha, it seemed as though her human had transcended, becoming something more than merely mortal.

✦ ✦ ✦

Iris glared at the fort leader as her [Stormskin] trait worked overtime with her [Mana Conduit] running through her own body.

“I really have to give it to you,” she started, her voice sounding as if running through a synthesizer, the man launching a stone at her that was zapped from the air with her [Arcane Capability] empowered [Storm Armor]. “You are the first person to actually give me trouble since I arrived in this shit world.”

Jonan's fingers twitched and suddenly, the earth around him rose from the ground and encased his body in a carapace of soil and stone, the armor an extension of his very flesh. His grim expression was set in determination as he squared up against Iris.

She retaliated instantly, flicking her wrist to conjure and launch a flurry of [Sparks] that shot toward the poacher-mage. Each one connected with a searing hiss, the stone armor superheating upon impact and sending up small plumes of smoke as the armor cracked and fused together in places.

Despite this, Jonan remained unfazed, his armored figure a grim monolith against Iris's electrical storm.

A raw war cry bellowed from his lips as he lunged forward, earth and stone magic rising at his command.