Chained lightning swallowed the sky, sharp winds trailed the eye. A vibrato, unmistakable and shrilling called out.
'Schu-hu-hu-hoo'
Vector spread his wings in preparation, he yelled before sending out a breath attack. "TAKE COVER!"
The Storm Crow slammed into the Ice Beam that was charging in Vector's mouth, they fell backward, tumbling over the mountains.
Vector kicked the Crow off of him and a bolt of lightning as wide as his claw came down to strike at his body. Vector was no where near fast enough to dodge but the Lightning wasn't the threat he had believed it to be. Wincing while waiting for the pain, he felt so little that it became trivial. His eyes widened, 'Finally.. a level playing field.'
Planting his legs into the ground, Vector forced out a breath attack to push the Storm Crow away on his approach.
The Storm Crow twisted in the air, he evaded the beam and bore his claws down onto Vector's shoulder. Raking his talons down, it pecked with its beak and worked at a single spot along Vector's back.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
"Fuck That!" Fapp looked at the battle between two Divine Beasts.
"Shut up and get the others to safety." Puyai launched himself onto a tree and watched the battle.
Noyuki called out to Puyai. "You can't stay here." She could barely be heard over the wind. "PUYAI, WE HAVE TO PULL BACK!"
He heard her but it was the sweeping with that was charged with electricity that made every hair on his body stand up. The loose charges in the air had made him come down from the tree, "Fights like this are impossible to encounter by chance. Such a shame." Puyai jumped down and Noyuki caught him.
"Lets go Old Man." She already had him in her arms, as they were flying away a wave spread out from Vector and the Storm Crow's collisions.
The sweeping winds stripped the land bare and craters marked their path. Raging storms collided and tornadoes appeared in the middle, both storms fighting for equal footing across the plane. It was an explosion of natural forces.
"This is insane!" Puyai grabbed onto Noyuki's arm, he was being blown around like a rag in her hands.
"You're the one that did it!" Noyuki strained herself to keep him in her grasp and flew toward the others.
Vira and Kuzunoha were standing in midair, there was no way that either of them could enter the battle.
It was a battle between Divine Beasts, beings so massive that they could topple regions with just their bodies.
Lightning chained above and white beams of ice spread out randomly, sometimes they cut across the distance and sometimes they impacted the storm crow. Its body would take the impact but shake off the frost, storms often carried cold winds and hail was already impacting them both.
Vector could feel the storms working in tangent, though their affinities were different, they were still both storms. Two storms colliding would always make a double effect on the pressure systems. When they created Tornadoes, cold air was funneled down and into the area. Frost accumulated and the Tornadoes turned to dancing blades of Ice. They tore through the storm crows breast and shredded its feathers. It was not enough to kill the beast but it was enough to make it scream in pain.
'Ur-rakk'
'Xiu, Xiu, Xiu, Xiu, Schu-hu-hu-hoo' Lightning culminated again, it changed targets and struck the Storm Crow.
'Xiu, Xiu, Xiu' The cries got louder and Vector knew something was coming. He spread his wings and batted them, rising into the air.
The Storm crow was unable to fly in its condition, it would certainly have fallen had it tried to flee. A Divine Beast would rather perish than submit, admit defeat or run from danger.
The Storm Crow shot a wild and bizarre string of lightning, it changed colors, Twisting from a blinding white and blue to a golden splendor. Fire in the shape of vacuum, it tried to seal Vector's movements and rolled in a ball to chain him.
'Xiu,' 'Xiu,' 'Xiu.' The Storm Crow shuddered and fluttered toward Vector once again.
Withstanding the attack, Vector surrounded himself with Ice and pushed out. Like a split melon, it shrouded him in a protective shield of Ice. Each moment that passed, more of a glacier like layer of ice began to cover his body.
Vector yelled and the Ice split after serving its purpose. He flew into the air above the clouds and rained a beam of ice down onto the battlefield.
With a bleeding chest wound, the Storm Crow was in no shape for flight. It scuttled out of the way but the beam traveled, following its path downhill.
A Clash of energies, the storms below Vector were still fighting over supremacy but the scuffing noises were outpacing all others, a Rain of Ice turned sharp like razors.
Vector's beam was still coming down and the Storm Crow was using its chained lightning from the storm to stave off the force of the beam. Lightning chained together to form a net. Each moment, the lightning was beaten back and impacted by solid matter, scattered ice piled below.
Soon, the storm crow was buried up to its thighs in ice but the beam was still coming, crashing down upon it. The water and rain turned to Ice as it fell like swords, gathering momentum and size on their trajectory. The sharp rain started to fall down onto the Storm Crow, bits of it were torn away, feathers began to freeze and shatter.
'Xiu' Hu-hu-ur-ur' Its body shook and shattered, a golden light swallowed the area when lightning began to disperse. The Storm crow had died under the attack and turned into a spirit stone, its core had been separated under the freeze, isolated from the body before its death.
The Core flowed though the Ice, burning a hole to set itself free.
Vector saw the tiny light and grabbed at it. No treasure would escape a True Dragon's Eyes.
His claws dug through Ice and clasped around the golden sparking ball. 'Divine Beast Core?' Vector held it between his claws as delicately as he could and tried not to squeeze. It was sparking in his grasp and there were waves emanating from it, dust and particles that were loose in the air, swept up by the storms began to traverse around him, orbiting slightly around the core from the storm crow.
A Boom of cheering could be heard when the storms suddenly vanished overhead, Vector had used up a great deal of his energy and the phenomena that was originally looming overhead had subsided.
Mursayade saw him swaying but Vector was still alive. She raced from their position and arrived at his side. "That was... That was impossible! Vector! You did it!" Her voice could be heard, Vira and Kuzunoha were standing with her and Noyuki brought Puyai closer. "Vector?"
"Sisters, Something's wrong. He's not answering." Mursayade searched his body, there was a claw shunted under his ribs, blood was spilling out. "He's injured." Until Vector decided to lay down, there was nothing they could do.
He heaved and rocked, Vector was having trouble maintaining his own spacial awareness and toppled over, the wound was exposed but he had also landed hard on his wings. Vector remained poised on his side while the claw was still embedded in his chest.
Mursayade beat across his face, "Don't you dare give up." With her free hands, she tried to pull the claw out. It was a claw from a Divine beast, its length was more than twice her size but the talon had been lodged near his heart. She was unwilling to let it move forward but as she was pulling, Vector's body began to reflexively shiver.
Vector felt the pain and cried out, his arm bounced and slid down, Mursayade evaded its fall but the brush of his arm had pulled the claw from its perch. The claw hit the dirt and Mursayade pulled it to the side. "Kuzunoha, this prize is his. Let no one take it. We need to stop the bleeding."
The claw was picked up by Kuzunoha, she wasn't sure why Mursayade decided to hand it over to her rather than just to put it away into storage but the more she thought about it in that instant, the more she understood. She had not seen a single storage ring among the warriors, not even the mages in their forces had a spacial device. Kuzunoha nodded and strolled back to the other three.
The Storm Crows Core fell to the ground and floated off the surface. "Vector?" Mursayade grabbed the core and tucked it into her robes, her hair stood on end.
He moaned and passed out.
Puyai came up to Mursayade. "He will recover, I will have our healers attend him as well. There is much we must discuss. This battle changes everything." Puyai's eyes trembled at the sight of Vector. "Everything."
Four Green beams of light came down from the sky, Puyai saw the light and knelt down. "Your Majesties."
'Royalty?' Kuzunoha got into a defensive posture. She whispered to Vira, "I don't like this."
"Me either, something doesn't seem right." Vira nudged at Noyuki. "Lets go."
Vira drifted up and into the air, she came up to Mursayade with Kuzunoha in hand. Whispering among themselves, the situation was understood quickly. 'Royalty doesn't come to a battlefield unless..'
Noyuki flew toward the closest of the four green beams. "What brings non-combatants down from the sky after the battle?" She wasn't going to place nice just because Puyai felt the need to kneel.
"Insolence. Know your place." He raised his hand ready to slap at her.
"If you bring down that hand in anger, you end all discussions in our future. Are you really that naive to believe me to be one of your subjects? Do I look like a Blue Monkey?" Noyuki stepped on air and strut around carelessly and in contempt. "We are not your enemies but if you have come to claim some sort of victory, it was not yours to be had. Victory belongs to Vector and the Armies in the distance."
"Sharp words." The third beam revealed a female ancestor, she pulled the first prince's hand down. "Ebata, you know she's right. Also, we don't come to claim victory over the battle but ownership of that Core you're so cleverly hiding within your robes." Pointing to Mursayade, she grinned.
"You own nothing here, not us and not the spoils of the battle." Mursayade pulled a hand up with a spear in it. "This belongs to Vector."
"Vector? Is that this divine beasts name? He will serve our cause greatly." Ebata sneered.
"He will not serve you, any of you.." Kuzunoha yelled out coldly.
"Oh? Is that a challenge." The Second Prince came out of the the beam.
"I would challenge anyone who chooses to enslave us." Vira gnashed her teeth while she spoke.
"Enslave? No.. but you will serve." A blast of light shot out from the Second Prince's hand toward Mursayade.
'Bastards.' Vira watched the whole thing and threw out a formation plate to block the strike. It slowed the beam but the beams were going to break through.
Kuzunoha and Vira worked with Mursayade, then, the beam was stopped.
"This is how you treat allies that fought beside you?" Noyuki spat in the air.
"Allies? Everything that touches the ground belongs to us. That includes you!" The First prince fired another beam but directed it toward Noyuki.
She dodged and appeared next to Mursayade. "These people, what's their fucking problem? Hey! OLD MAN! I thought you said these people were honorable!"
"Puyai, I see you're still alive." The Female Ancestor laughed and pointed to Puyai, "Too bad. I thought I had given you a warriors death."
"HEALERS! FOCUS ON THE DIVINE BEAST!" Puyai transformed again, he shed his armor and roared at the Royals that had just come.
"Oh, one of the lessors thinks he can challenge us?" A figure in green stepped out of the beam, his facial features were unreadable, blurred and beyond distinction.
"Green Emperor! You betray us?!" Alarms were sounding for the third time in a row throughout the region, Puyai sucked in a deep breath and then yelled. "DEFEND THE DIVINE BEAST!" Launching himself at the nearest opponent, he found himself face to face with the Second Prince.