The air in the cavern curdled, thick and heavy like static before a storm. Dust, roused by unseen currents, hung suspended, mirroring the motionless tension between the trio of hardened men and the pair who stood defiantly before them. Behind Pulse, the younger girl was a fragile silhouette, her torn jacket clutched tight, eyes wide with the raw horror of a trapped animal as the strangers' predatory grins stretched wider.
Pulse, a quiet storm barely contained, straightened. His voice, a low current beneath the surface, carried a calm that was far more menacing than any shout. "Back off dude," he warned, the words laced with an unspoken promise. "You'll don't want this to turn ugly."
The lead thug, a brute with a scar bisecting his brow, threw his head back and laughed, a rough, guttural sound that scraped against the cave walls. He rolled his neck, a symphony of pops and cracks. "Ugly? Oh, it's already ugly, kid. Be a good boy and walk away. We'll take care of the ladies."
All three pairs of eyes pivoted, a collective hunger settling on Crystara. She was still kneeling by the grotesque remains of the lizard, her blood-stained hand prying a stubborn claw free, ichor slicking her fingers. She rose, slow and deliberate, the otherworldly glow of her crystalline veins painting sharp, shifting patterns of blue and violet across her face.
"Like hell," she bit out, the words edged with ice. She cracked her neck, a defiant snap louder than the dying echo of the thug's laugh. "You think I'd let disgusting pigs like you lay a finger on me?"
The girl behind them flinched, her voice a frantic stammer. "You two should go! I'm sorry... I... I didn't know anyone else was here, I'm so sorry—"
"Listen to her," one of the men sneered, a smirk twisting his lips. "You don't wanna play some hero, twig. Just leave. But the scavenging bitch stays. We've got questions and inspection to make ."
Pulse's eyes, usually a placid grey, deepened to the color of storm clouds. His hand dropped, not to a weapon, but to the ground.
The cave floor groaned, a low, ancient growl. Then—CRACK!
The very earth beneath the men revolted. Jagged fissures spider webbed outward from Pulse's hand, stone screaming as it tore apart. Spikes of compacted rock, like monstrous teeth, burst upward, slightly impaling one man through the leg and flinging the others backward with bone-jarring force. The shockwave detonated, a concussive thunderclap that rattled the very air.
Pulse didn't hesitate. He shot forward, boots grinding against the fractured stone. "Crystara! Let's go!"
In a blinding flash of refracted light, Crystara's body ignited. Her skin rippled, coalescing into a hard, translucent shell of pure crystal, shimmering with an inner fire. The air itself hummed, vibrating with the raw surge of her liberated power. She charged, a blur of blue and silver, a living weapon.
The girl stumbled back, pressing against the cold cavern wall, her body trembling uncontrollably. "My powers aren't for combat!" she cried, a whisper against the rising storm.
Pulse didn't even glance back. "Then stay low and run when I say so!"
He gripped his sword, the metal vibrating violently, a keening, high-pitched wail that sliced through the sound of collapsing rock. The air around the blade warped and shimmered, every edge trembling as if it held a living, frantic pulse.
The first man, the scaled one, roared. His impaled leg twisted and reformed with a sickening crunch, instantly sheathed in reptilian armor. Black scales spread rapidly, crawling up his neck, his muscles swelling grotesquely. He raised a spear, its tip crackling with static energy, and fired a round from the mounted gun beneath its shaft.
Pulse tilted his head, a barely perceptible shift. The bullet screamed past his cheek, leaving a faint sonic trail. In the same fluid instant, he slammed his sword across the ground. The vibrations ripped through the bedrock, sending a tidal wave of pulverized stone and debris erupting upward, a geyser of earth.
Crystara darted past him, crystal claws gleaming with razor sharpness, and slammed into the second thug, the one with the monstrous jaw. The man's mouth unhinged, wider than humanly possible, teeth expanding into serrated blades. He lunged, catching her punch between his terrifying jaws, and bit down.
CRUNCH.
His teeth cracked, fragments of bone and enamel scattering. Crystara's grin flashed, a feral white against her luminescent face. "Tastes like glass, huh?"
She drove her knee into his ribs; the impact echoed like a cannon blast, sending him careening into the cavern wall. Crystal shards splintered from her limbs, glittering like shattered diamonds, as she advanced, her eyes glowing an incandescent white.
The third man, the whistler, exhaled sharply. A shriek tore through the air, a sonic wave so potent it shattered small stones into dust and sent ripples through the very ground.
Pulse gritted his teeth, clamping a hand over one ear, his sword held steady. His vibrations shifted, an intricate dance of force, countering the sonic frequency. He stomped the ground, sending out a resonant pulse that collided midair with the whistler's piercing scream.
The two opposing sound waves met and exploded.
The concussive pressure knocked the girl off her feet and sent a cascade of dust and loose rock raining from the ceiling.
Pulse staggered forward, his eyes narrowing to slits. "I'm learning a lot from this fight." he muttered, his voice a low thrum.
He swung his sword upward, the vibrating edge slicing clean through the sonic distortion. The whistler's next breath caught in his throat as a resonant backlash struck him square in the chest, sending him sprawling, gasping for air.
Meanwhile, Crystara was a relentless force. Her body glowed with a molten-white core as she grabbed the scaled man's spear mid-swing and crushed it in her crystalline grip. Metal screamed, twisting into a mangled ruin.
The man hissed, his scales darkening further, his claws slashing across her chest. Sparks flew, a shower of brilliant light against the dim cavern, but the attack barely left a scratch.
"Cute," she purred, a predatory smirk playing on her lips. Then she drove her fist into his gut. The crystal knuckles cracked scales, bone, and air in a single, devastating motion. He coughed blood, a sickening spray, and stumbled backward, but she didn't let him fall.
Instead, she seized his head, and slammed him into the ground with such force the entire cave shuddered.
Pulse darted beside her, his sword humming violently, vibrating with restrained power. They stood side by side, a terrifying tableau, one blazing like crystal fire, the other trembling with the silent, destructive power of an earthquake given flesh.
The man with the monstrous mouth clawed his way back to his feet, laughing through broken teeth, blood streaming down his chin. "You think this is enough?" he spat, his jaw resetting with a wet, grisly snap. "We're not just scavengers. We're experienced awakened explorers."
He raised his gun, but Pulse was already moving, his body a blur of vibrating force. The moment the trigger clicked, he slammed his foot into the ground. The earth erupted in a localized quake, throwing the man's aim wildly off and sending him crashing into his ally.
Crystara seized the opening, her body glowing brighter than a prism catching the sun. "Gem Burst!"
A shockwave exploded outward, shards of pure, razor-sharp crystal ripping through the air in a glittering, deadly storm. The two men screamed, their cries cut short as hundreds of shards tore into their flesh, embedding deep and spraying crimson across the cave walls.
The third, the whistler, barely managed to cover his head before the crystalline shrapnel shredded his clothes and skin. He fell to one knee, coughing blood, defeated and broken.
Pulse exhaled, lowering his sword. The vibration subsided into a dull, resonant hum. "You've got one chance," he said, his voice cold and unwavering. "Surrender."
But the scaled man, despite the blood dripping down his chin, only grinned. His body began to shift again, a horrifying transformation. His scales turned blacker, deeper than obsidian, his muscles swelling grotesquely, distorting his form beyond anything human. "You think… this is over?"
Pulse's eyes hardened, a flicker of anger and desperation igniting within them. "I guess not," he said quietly, the word a promise.
Crystara's glow dimmed slightly, but her feral grin returned, wider than before. "Good," she said, rolling her shoulders, crystal shards crunching. "I was hoping for round two."
The cave trembled again, a deeper, more primal tremor, the sound of the men's hideous transformation filling the air like bones grinding under stone. Pulse adjusted his stance, the tip of his blade vibrating like a wasp's wing. Crystara cracked her knuckles, her crystalline body glinting with a thousand internal shards of light.
The girl behind them watched, frozen, terrified, yet unable to tear her gaze from the impending carnage.