Cluster was confused. Angry and confused. And mostly confused on why the shit she was even angry.
Ever since they had met these people she didn’t know what to think. There was a second Scythe!
Sure, she wasn’t exactly like Scythe. But Cluster knew Scythe better than anyone, including her issues and tribulations, her worries and traumas. And despite being different Vuthe exuded the exact same feeling.
She had also experienced great tribulations, must have had to make sacrifices, and watch the world around her burn to the ground with nothing she could have done about it. It was almost eerie how similar the two were, despite their outward differences. But once Vuthe had stopped acting like a bitch with a stick up her arse it was clear as day for Cluster. And She was almost sure her other self would see it too, if she could see past Scythe peculiarities..
So why the shit was she so angry? What was she angry at?
She had no clear answer to that, she just… felt angry. Watching the two of them fight, honestly it was more like training, she just couldn’t help but feel angry.
While their style was obviously different they were still oh so similar. Yet it was clear that Vuthe had the upper hand, even if she loathed to admit it. Scythe was a quick and strong attacker, completely overpowering her opponent as quickly as possible. And while she had endurance far higher than any human could match, against another dragon Cluster quickly realised how outmatched her lover was.
Vuthe on the other hand played the long game, almost playing with her prey. She was strong, no doubt about it, but she didn’t attack with the same kind of fury going all out, damn the consequences. She was an endurance fighter, waiting out her opponent with her high stamina and agility, testing her foe to see what sticks and what doesn’t.
However, in this brawl between such unlikely foe’s it was quickly apparent where their weaknesses lie. At least it was to Cluster, who knew the girl, or rather girls, in the hologram or illusion or whatever better than anyone, despite only ever truly meeting one.
Scythe had never been one for tactics, acting in the moment and with whatever she had at her disposal. She was just as likely to use a high tech rocket launcher as she was to use the shit off the ground, as long as it worked. She didn’t think ahead, she just did, which worked wonders to throw people off guard in her short skirmishes. They never had the time to adapt, and it showed. Vuthe was clearly caught off guard in the first exchange when Scythe blew up her own gun with no thought to consequences.
The problem was that Vuthe was the polar opposite. Her stance suggested rigorous and deeply ingrained training, she probably expected her foe to use tactics and strategy. That meant that she was taken aback early on, but once she realised that Scythe just acted she could better adapt to be, well, adaptive. And the longer the fight went on, the more obvious it became. She attacked less and less, let Scythe make mistakes and capitalised on them. She wasn’t a counter attacker that much was clear from her style, but she was quite good at adapting to her enemies movements. Probably some kind of generalist mercenary or assassins training, if Cluster had to guess. Her style of weaponry would fit.
The longer Cluster watched them, the more she realised why she was angry. It wasn’t really at herself or Vuthe or her other self, she wasn’t even angry at her friends for trying to push this healing deal on her, she was angry at the universe.
Ever since they had woken up in those labs all those years ago Scythe had tried her best for her and her friends. Cluster had done all she could to give Scythe all she ever wanted, yet despite that all her efforts were costly. Losing a city of civilians to bombings, needing to make the hard decision to poison prisoners to kill off a military outpost, sacrificing her dignity to keep her friends safe.
And now there was another Scythe, another Rin. And another version of her. And her friends. And for some fucking reason they all seemed to have the same issues. It’s as if the world couldn’t give any of them even a small fucking break.
What had they done to deserve this multiple times?!
She bawled her fists, frustration running through her. At least until Tizanta sat down next to her.
“You okay?”, she asked, so familiar that Cluster already knew what she would ask before she even opened her mouth to speak.
“You fucking know how I feel, no need to pretend to care”, she replied through clenched teeth.
Tizanta shrugged, “I do. Same way you know how I feel. Same way you know I feel exactly like you. We can’t change what happened, but we can change the future.”
Cluster laughed, a taunting and hollow thing, “Oh yeah? We’re what, ten people? What you gonna do? Overthrow the governments? Go do that yourself, we’re fucking tired. As long as they don’t fuck with us we’re out. Or do you wanna go public on magic? Or threaten the people in power to give us a nice holiday getaway? None of us fucking care, aight? We don’t wanna get into anything, we wanna sit back and relax, have a few drinks and maybe an orgy, that’s the extent to what we plan to fucking do!”
Tizanta looked at her sideways for a moment and Cluster looked away. She wasn’t even sure why she was exploding on her twin or whatever, she just really felt so… overwhelmed.
“Look, Cluster. We both know that neither of us would want any of that. Not unless necessary. But we can still help them. You want to help Scythe, I want to help Vuthe. We both want to help the rest of the group. Trust me, we both know how much of a chore that is. But I think together we can do something to help them. Rin’s sister is here, so maybe we should start there. Scythe’s first impression on Scarlet was not optimal, but I think she needs it. Vuthe definitely did”, Tizanta explained as they continued to watch the fight.
Cluster was just about to answer when Vuthe and Scythe finally took it to the finale, both transforming into their draconic forms and roaring.
Despite them being in a pocket universe, Cluster had no illusions of understanding how those worked, they all felt the overwhelming auras of both Scythe and Vuthe. And while Scythe was untrained, her presence easily matched Vuthe’s, even if they both felt different.
Vuthe was domineering, indomitable, protective, threatening, and eerily divine. She was a threat that lurked in the dark, waiting for you to let your guard down and would not be subdued by anyone, not even gods. And that just felt right considering her true form’s appearance.
While Scythe was of the same dimensions, Vuthe didn’t have the clearly artificial look that Scythe sported, covered in obsidian scales that merged easily with the shadows flooding off of her wings, shrouding her in darkness and obscuring the majority of her body, which was a feat. Her body looked roughly a hundred metres long, with half of that being the tail, and with a wingspan of eighty metres, the only thing not obsidian black or pure darkness were her signature glowing purple eyes that gazed out of the darkness with such an intensity that it had physical weight behind it.
Scythe on the other hand had a different look and feel. While also domineering and indomitable, she felt oppressive and like a loaded gun, nothing in her way would survive an encounter with her. And her entire look just supported that. Not shrouded in darkness, rather fully showing off her entirely cybernetic body with only one original wing, the other replaced by a modified wing with ion engines attached to it. She of course had similar dimensions to Vuthe, the two dragons entirely overshadowing the surrounding ruins.
Their gazes met and with another roar they jumped each other, their presence taking hold of reality around them and forcing it to submit. Which it did. Cluster could feel Tizanta straining to keep the pocket dimension from shattering, which was utterly mind blowing to her.
It seemed the real fight had just begun.
Perspective: Tizanta isk Thesekar
The pure strain that was put upon her pocket dimension was incredible. Tizanta was used to Vuthe’s full strength, yet she would not have guessed that two of her would make for such a demanding force to keep up the magic. She could feel her magic being unmade by the will of the two dragons to force reality against each other.
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It wasn’t unmanageable, but it was definitely harder than she first anticipated or even was comfortable with. And it also meant that their duel was felt even in the real world. Casting her senses wide she could see a rising panic in the streets, both Scarlet and Vladimir rushing to their room.
Vladimir arrived first, barging in and looking around in distress. A moment later Scarlet arrived behind her, a small side arm in her hands.
Tizanta gave them a strained smile, “Relax, nothing is wrong, it’s just that Vuthe and Scythe decided to have a little fight to get it out of their system”, she explained, motioning to the screen.
Both Vladimir and Scarlet looked and their jaws simultaneously hit the floor, Scarlet letting her gun arm hang in utter astonishment.
On the “Television” they could clearly see house sized dragons throwing punches and spells at each other that could, and did, level a city.
“I put them into a protected pocket dimension to prevent collateral damage, although it seemed that even that wasn’t enough”, she added after a moment.
The two newcomers could just stare in shock and disbelief.
Meanwhile Scythe and Vuthe were locked up in a hail of claws, fangs, and tails, black blood spraying around them from multiple wounds on both of their massive bodies. Despite the massive cybernetic enhancements that Scythe enjoyed a good part of her was still biological, and the parts that weren’t had clear damage visible and often signs of malfunctioning.
With a combination of magic and physical strength Vuthe pushed Scythe off her, sending her flying for nearly a kilometre, and through another building.
Scythe retaliated almost immediately, so far she had relied on her physical might, the pure strength every dragon, and in her case even a cybernetically enhanced dragon, was capable of.
Now, however, she revealed her own secret weapon. All over her body the metal shifted, revealing a myriad of weapons, from Railguns to Plasma turrets, missile pods and rocket launchers.
The weapons were built directly into her draconic form, so she couldn’t use them outside of that form, but so far she had never really needed it.
Vuthe, currently attempting to cast a spell, was quickly flooded with bullets and attacks in all forms, roaring in pain as not even her draconic fortitude was capable of just shrugging off the bunker buster weapons Scythe had deployed.
Once more Scythe had managed to surprise Vuthe, and once more Vuthe had to step back, trying to adapt to the newly arrived threat.
Scythe pressed her advantage, dealing severe wounds to her counterpart, not letting up the attacks until she had to reload the majority of her arsenal.
Tizanta sighed at the oversight on Scythe’ part, she should have staggered her reloads and kept on the pressure, but now she had given Vuthe an opening. And of course, she knew how to use it.
Giving herself just enough time to complete the cast, Vuthe vanished into the shadows.
Suddenly a huge amount of magic surrounded her in a moment, giving Scythe a hint of the massive planet sized ocean that was her mana pool, before she summoned forth one of her signature spells. Racial spells usually didn’t have any kinds of names, nor did she ever care to come up with some, but many of her former followers did, and this one was one of the most well known, Cathedral of Shadows.
It was the primer for all her subsequent spells, boosting shadow magic and her own personal magic in the area to frankly ridiculous levels. Within ten kilometres of the casting spot everything was shrouded in darkness, turning the surroundings jet black.
Scythe had pulled herself up by the time Vuthe started casting another spell and jumped forwards to dash back into the fray, throwing her entire not inconsiderable weight into the attack. But by the time she arrived at where Vuthe had been, she was no longer there.
Looking around, trying to sense her opponent Scythe found nothing, which was odd. She might not have been as well trained as Vuthe was, but she was still capable of sensing Shadow Magic, yet her senses told her there was none to be had. Which, of course, wasn’t the case.
What’s wrong, little Wyrmling? Lost your sight?
Vuthe’s ancient voice boomed through the pocket dimension, taunting Scythe. Of course, Scythe was out cold when the others had experienced Vuthe’s might the first time, so she didn’t know that part of her yet.
“Get out here and fight me, bitch!”, she retorted, slowly looking around.
A small sense of dread began to itch at the back of Scythe’s mind, like something was severely wrong. She continued to look around but found nothing. Then there was the hint of something in the edge of her vision.
She spun around, pouncing the spot, only to find the remains of some car between her claws.
Getting jumpy, are we? Are you perhaps a little scared, Wyrmling?
Vuthe’s taunting continued.
Tizanta of course knew what Vuthe was doing, and from the unhappy expression on Cluster’s face she at least had a guess.
Many people even in Satien weren’t aware just what levels of control draconics could have over their own element. Most draconics never get to the point to perfect their control in fact, which meant only those at the very top of the food chain ever learned how to utilise all aspects of their respective element.
A fire dragon for example would have near perfect control over fire and flames. For most they never got much further than that, outside maybe learning how to control Hellflame or some unique elemental interaction like Cold Fire.
However, true ancient fire dragons can do much more than just light the world on fire. They can control the concept of heating in general, and even immaterial concepts like the fire of rage, or the flame of purification. The Dragon Lord of Flames Chatan, one of the thirteen strongest dragons known in Satien, was able to literally enrage an entire army with the power of flame magic. Of course he wasn’t as good as a dedicated Mind Mage, but it was sufficient in most cases.
Of course a big part was the usage of intent in the magic, or magick in those cases, since it was rather hard to impart something onto magic which was contradictory to the nature of the magic in question. So the belief that the fires of rage are part of the elemental effect of fire was a strengthening factor.
And Vuthe was a shadow dragon, who were widely feared for their intimidating and frightening presence. She had perfected the usage of shadow magic of intimidation and terrorization in the early days of her draconic career, back when she first became the Mad Queen.
Considering Scythe truly lacked aura training, Vuthe was able to affect even her, who would by nature be rather resistant to it.
Tizanta could see Scythe getting more and more paranoid, looking around hectically and trying desperately to pinpoint Vuthe’s location. She already knew it was too late for Scythe to do anything, she was falling straight into Vuthe’s trap.
“Yep, Scythe lost. This match is over”, she announced with an apologetic look at Cluster.
Cluster didn’t return the look, but she did speak, “I know. Whatever the shit Vuthe learned to do with her presence really is terrifying.”
Perspective: Scythe
Scythe was starting to lose her nerves. She had no clue what Vuthe had done, but it was utterly terrifying. At first it was just the eerie feeling that something was wrong, then the shadows started to appear and before she knew it she was running in circles desperately trying to find a way out of here.
Her hopes that her weaponry would surprise Vuthe enough to turn the fight and end it in her favour hadn’t come true, Vuthe had too much endurance and was too quick to adapt.
And, a small part of her mind chastised her, she should have thought ahead and not waste all her ammo at once.
She could feel her heart rate beating faster and faster, dread slowly creeping into her thoughts, the feeling of a guillotine hanging above her strengthening.
“SHOW YOURSELF, YOU FUCKING COWARD!”, she roared in desperation, noticing that her voice wasn’t nearly as confident as she wanted it to be.
But I’m right here. You just need to keep your eyes open.
Vuthe’s voice came from right next to her and she immediately started attacking the general area.
A deep chuckle ran through the sheer blackness surrounding her that not even her darkvision could pierce.
You truly are nothing but a newborn Wyrmling, aren’t you? I suppose I’ve had my fun. It is time to show you what it means to be an Ancient Dragon!
And suddenly the world crackled with magic, just barely contained enough not to rip reality apart.
Vuthe appeared before her, looking to Scythe like she was ten times her size and surrounded by a deep and terrifying ominous purple glow, her presence physically pushing Scythe back. She started to cower, desperately holding onto her thoughts. She would not be undone by this! But where the mind was willing, the body was not.
Vuthe roared, an earth shattering sound that ripped the world apart around her, rocks and dirt starting to float, surrounding them, giving the entire scene the look of the apocalypse with the deep purple background glow.
Between the debris floating around silhouettes started to appear, first one, then two, then four, then ten. All looked identical to Vuthe’s Hybrid form with nothing more than a too wide grin on their otherwise blank face, each holding a unique weapon.
On a silent sign of Vuthe they all jumped Scythe, who finally managed to get out of her stupor, trying to jump Vuthe once more. But just as she was close to her target a massive force pushed her to the ground, the force of Vuthe’s ancient gaze. There was a promise there, a promise of destruction and death, a promise of the end of the world.
Scythe held onto her iron will with all she had, she would not be outdone by this. With every fibre of her being she resisted this overwhelming disaster made form in front of her, slowly, very slowly raising herself into a kneeling position, even while her body was torn to shreds by thousands of those terrifying shadow clones.
She could feel her body slowly giving out, even with the massive amount of internal healing nanites and additional organs working in overdrive, the damage was simply too much.
A roar of frustration escaped her and with one last push she slashed at Vuthe, her weaponry firing a salvo in the general direction of her adversary, even if she couldn’t train them correctly because of the pressure, leaving a single clawmark straight across Vuthe’s muzzle, before her body finally gave out and everything went black.