The morning sun, filtered through the thick canopy above the ridge, painted the scene in hues of dusty gold and vivid red. Pulse raised a hand, stepping closer to the still-glowing girl who stood over the pulverized remains of some subterranean beast.
"Uh, hey… need some help?"
Crystara turned, her crystalline sheen receding, melting back into smooth, slightly sweat-slicked skin. She gave him a crooked, slightly unsettling smirk. "The fight's already done, good knight." Her tone dripped with dry, teasing mockery, a rough edge of adrenaline still clinging to her voice.
Pulse scratched his neck awkwardly, trying not to stare at the congealed blood splattered across her bare shoulder. "Name's Pulse. Didn't mean to interrupt your… crystal murder show. I was just trying to enter the cave then I saw, well… that."
The girl chuckled, brushing dried blood and reddish dust off the front of her worn shirt. "Name's Crystara or my brand name at least." She twirled a small, broken locator device on her finger, tossing it carelessly into the dirt. "I was about to check this cave out too."
Pulse hesitated, glancing past her at the cave mouth, a jagged wound in the earth oozing shadows and a faint, metallic scent. "Then… I'll find another one. Don't wanna steal your spot."
She lifted a brow, her eyes sharp. "What, afraid of a little company?"
"Just trying to be polite," he insisted, feeling the familiar prickle of defensiveness.
Crystara grinned, a flash of white teeth beneath the grime. "You sound like a bitch-ass nerd… and kinda innocent, too... So, wanna go together?"
Pulse blinked. "Why the sudden offer?"
"'Cause it's more fun wrecking monsters with someone who still blushes when a girl swears and wears booty shorts," she replied, her eyes sparkling with malicious amusement.
He let out a short, incredulous laugh. "Fine... But just so you know, I'm not a bitch, asshole."
She grinned wider, leaning in conspiratorially. "Sure, bitch."
They moved toward the cave entrance. The air grew immediately colder, the walls slick with condensation and faintly glowing moss that provided barely enough illumination. The rhythmic drip of water echoed like a slow, damp heartbeat, quickly masked by the sound of their boots crunching on loose stone.
"Hey," Pulse said quietly, glancing at her minimalist attire. "No armor? No weapon either?"
Crystara, chewing her gum lazily, shrugged, the movement tight and economical. "Armor just slows me down. My power is my armor and you could also say my weapon.. As for my weapon… I lost it during the drop. Didn't seem to affect my lizard-cleaving abilities much, though."
Pulse almost laughed but caught himself when she side-eyed him, a clear warning in her gaze. "Right. Wouldn't wanna make fun of the girl who ripped a lizard in half with her hands."
She smirked. "Smart guy."
They crept deeper. The main tunnel quickly split into winding, narrow passages. The air began to smell strongly of iron, sulfur, and rot. Ahead, something scraped against stone, a deep, wet sound, like scales dragging over rough grit.
Then the ground trembled, a low thrum that vibrated up through the soles of Pulse's boots.
Pulse drew his sword instantly. The metal blade glinted faintly blue as the kinetic energy flowed from his specialized glove and into the steel. The blade began to hum, vibrating faster and faster until the air around it quivered perceptibly, making the faint motes of dust dance.
From the deepest shadows of the joining tunnel, three giant lizards lunged out, each the size of a service truck, with thick, jagged scales and dripping maws. Their eyes flared a feral, predatory red.
"Guess we found the welcoming party," Crystara said, her voice calm but edged with metallic excitement.
The first beast charged directly at Crystara. Her skin flashed, not with light, but with density. In an instant, her entire body hardened into crystalline armor, refracting the faint moss light into jagged shards of color. The creature's immense claws scraped across her chest with a screech, generating a shower of hot sparks. She didn't flinch, didn't even shift her weight.
Then she punched it in the throat.
The lizard's neck, thick as a tree trunk, caved inward with a sickeningly wet crunch. Bone and cartilage splintered under the impossible, concentrated force of her crystalline fist. The creature gagged, a desperate gurgle catching in its ruined windpipe, collapsing in a heap, its thick, bluish blood pooling swiftly beneath its twitching body.
Pulse stepped forward, his eyes wide, momentarily stunned by the sheer brutality. "Damn."
The second lizard roared, ignoring its downed comrade, and lunged for him. Pulse sidestepped the massive jaw, his sword humming violently in his grip. He slashed upward, aiming for the soft underside of the creature's snout.
The vibrating blade didn't just cut; it tore. It sheared through the creature's lower jaw, splitting the bone and sinew clean up to the skull. The rapid oscillation of the blade amplified through the dense bone structure, creating a catastrophic kinetic overload. The monster's upper head exploded outward in a spray of thick gore, white fragments of splintered skull, and shattered teeth that rained down onto the mossy floor.
The last beast hissed, backing away and circling them warily, sensing the unnatural violence of their attacks. Crystara grinned, her teeth flashing in the low light. "You take this one, or is it my turn again?"
Pulse smirked, wiping a droplet of warm liquid off his cheek. "Ladies first."
She cracked her neck, the sound audible even over the dripping water. "Your funeral, then."
The lizard pounced, a desperate, rapid attack. Crystara met it mid-air, both crystal-hardened hands clamping down on its immense jaws. Her crystal arms trembled under the tremendous, crushing force of the beast's bite. The creature snapped, trying to crush her head but her muscles surged beneath the clear shell, glowing faintly with stored power.
"Wrong move," she muttered, a low growl escaping her chest.
With a phenomenal roar of exertion, she twisted, locking her elbows, and drove her weight down and out. With a wet, tearing shriek of muscle and skin, she ripped the creature's head in half horizontally, its brain matter instantly pulverized. Jagged shards of her crystal shell were embedded in the lizard's flesh where she'd gripped it as thick, crimson blood sprayed across her face like rain. She let the corpse drop, wiped her cheek with the back of her hand, and took a deep, satisfied breath.
Pulse stared for a second, genuinely impressed despite the overwhelming violence. "Wow."
Something slammed into his side.
A fourth lizard, smaller but faster, had been hidden completely within the shadows of a side passage. Pulse hit the slick, stone wall hard, the impact knocking the air from his lungs. He coughed, hot blood rising in his throat. His sword flew from his numb grip, clattering down the tunnel floor.
Crystara spun, eyes flaring with genuine alarm. "Pulse!"
The beast lunged again, its jaw snapping for his head, but Pulse rolled aside, dodging the first strike. His kinetic glove sparked as he slammed a desperate hand onto the cave floor. The ground directly beneath the lizard vibrated violently, the pulse frequency hitting the exact resonance of the stone. The floor shattered into a thousand tiny splinters and jagged fragments of rock that erupted upward, tearing through the soft flesh and belly of the charging lizard.
Pulse scrambled, grabbing his sword just as the creature lurched, mortally wounded. He slashed, the vibrating edge carving through muscle and bone like butter. The lizard's insides spilled across the floor in a steaming, gray-pink slurry.
Crystara whistled, her breath ragged. "Nice save, nerd."
He exhaled slowly, pain flaring in his ribs, and wiped his blade clean on the corpse. "Found a new ability of mine... I'm starting to think you like calling me that."
"Maybe. Depends on how long you survive."
Another roar echoed deeper inside the cave, this one louder, heavier, vibrating the moisture in the air. The temperature spiked, and the heavy smell of sulfur intensified.
From the oppressive darkness, something vast and terrible crawled forward: a massive lizard king, its scales jagged and seemingly molten, eyes burning with internal orange fire. Its claws looked capable of cleaving solid granite.
Pulse and Crystara exchanged a look that was half terror, half exhilaration.
Pulse tightened his grip, the blue glow of kinetic energy surging into his blade. "You ready?"
Crystara cracked her knuckles, the clear, terrifying light of crystal power rippling through her body. "Born ready."
The King moved too fast for its size, a blur of red and orange fury. Pulse ducked as claws slashed past his head, the wind shear alone making his ears ring. The claws carved a deep score into the stone wall like soft clay. Crystara slammed into the creature's side, her fist shattering several molten scales, but the monster retaliated, its tail whipping like a stone-tipped flail. It struck her across the torso, sending her smashing into the opposing cave wall. The impact left a spiderweb pattern of cracks across her dense crystal skin.
"Crystara!" Pulse shouted.
She merely spat a shard of crystal like a bullet toward the beast, it pinged off the lizard's eye, distracting it momentarily. "Don't just fucking stand there, do something!"
Pulse sprinted, his sword vibrating so violently it emitted a low, continuous screeching sound. He slashed across the creature's neck, managing to carve a deep, steaming wound where plate joined plate. Steam hissed from the gash, the blood flowing out glowing faintly orange in the heat. The monster howled, a sound of pure geological rage, and smashed its tail into Pulse, sending him flying in the opposite direction.
Pain seared through his ribs, a blinding, crippling agony, but Pulse forced himself up, spitting blood onto the ruined cave floor. "Alright… let's end this now."
Crystara was already charging, her eyes gleaming with manic intent. "Speaking my language."
She crouched low, a blinding intensity of energy building beneath her crystal skin. She didn't shout a battle cry; she roared a primal, shattering sound that echoed the kinetic force she was about to unleash.
"GEM BURST!"
Her body detonated in a blinding, instantaneous explosion of light and razor-sharp crystal shards. The cave erupted with the sound of thousands of tiny supersonic impacts. The shrapnel, born of her own hardened flesh, ripped through the beast's softer tissue, piercing its eyes, scoring its chest, and driving deep into its throat where Pulse had already weakened it.
Pulse charged through the storm of shrapnel and light, his kinetic sword vibrating like a chainsaw made of pure energy. He pushed past the screaming beast, ignored the searing heat of its molten blood, and leapt high. Driving all the stored kinetic energy into one focused point, he drove the blade deep into the creature's battered skull. The vibration intensified rapidly, the frequency climbing exponentially until the entire head simply burst apart, atomized by the kinetic oscillation, spraying incandescent, molten blood across the cave walls and ceiling.
The beast fell with a thunderous, earth-shaking crash. Its massive body twitched once, a final spasm of nerve and muscle before going still.
Silence followed, broken only by the quick, ragged sound of their breathing and the continuous drip of water.
Pulse leaned heavily on his sword, trying to suck air past the sharp ache in his chest. Crystara's residual glow faded as her crystal form softened back to flesh, leaving her skin flushed and shining. She looked at the carnage, the liquefied remains of the King steaming on the floor, and gave a slow, satisfied smirk. "Messy. I like it."
Pulse swallowed hard, wiping sweat and a mix of his own and the monster's blood from his brow. "You're insane."
She blew a bubble with her gum, letting it pop defiantly in the sudden quiet. "Takes one to team up with me."
Pulse chuckled weakly, adjusting his grip on his throbbing ribs. "Fair."
As they made their way deeper into the now-quiet cave, passing the grotesque, shattered remains of the welcoming party, light glinted off the crystal shards still embedded in the walls and the slick, crimson goo of the fallen beasts.
Crystara glanced sideways at him, her usual teasing softened by a hint of professional respect. "Not bad, Pulse. Maybe you're not a bitch after all."
He grinned, genuinely pleased. "Maybe you're not entirely unbearable asshole either."
She elbowed him, a light, familiar gesture that still contained surprising force. "Careful. Keep talking sweet and I might start liking you."
He laughed, the sound tight and painful but real. "Can't tell if that's a threat or a promise."
Crystara didn't answer right away, simply smirking, her crystal-flecked hair shimmering in the faint cave light. "Guess you'll have to stick around to find out."