Ravens of Eternity

332 Rematch, Pt Beams of light streamed through the gaps in the tree canopy above, and shot down to the ground, everywhere. They broke apart the shadows that the trees created, and danced across the grassy, mossy, or bare ground.

A number of them shone down on Freya and Lucifer, even as the two of them exchanged blows with increasing fervor.

The two poured more energy into their strikes, more than enough to cause fallen leaves to whip around, and loose dirt to get tossed away.

Lucifer raised hir arms and blocked Freya’s heavy tornado kick in the nick of time. Though ze stopped most of the damage, there was more than enough force in her blow to push hir back.

Despite staying upright, hir body slid a half dozen meters backwards before ze stopped.

The shock of Freya’s kick caused hir arms to shake and shiver wildly. Ze whipped them outwards to still them, then pulled them back inwards and re-entered hir stance without blinking an eye.

“That all you got?” ze said. “I was half expecting you to hit me with a titanium leg.”

“Hah, if only,” Freya replied. “Since you didn’t defend with a metal body, then I can only assume we’re both in the same boat. We can’t turn into inorganic material, not like Amarok can.”

Lucifer nodded, somewhat solemnly.

.....

Ze very much liked the idea of having such fine control over hir atomic structure, to change it from such a fundamental level. But no matter what ze tried, ze couldn’t do it.

Not without being telepathically connected to Amarok.

“I guess it doesn’t matter,” Lucifer replied. “I don’t need to be titanium in order to be unbreakable. Or to win.”

Lucifer focused hirself briefly, and concentrated on hir molecular structure. Though ze couldn’t turn into titanium, ze understood its structure, how its atoms were arranged. And so mimicked its composition.

It was much like how they hardened their bodies in the past, but now with far more precision and finesse. Hir body reached a density and tensile strength just about equal to that as raw titanium, but with hir usual body.

And if ze mimicked carbon structures to mimic titanium carbide...

Lucifer realized that with enough speed, ze could catch Freya before she could evade, or even block. And if ze used hir most powerful attack, she would be forced to harden to metal as well, or take monumental amounts of damage.

And like hir, she would have to use a great deal of stamina to do so.

Ze poured as much energy as ze could through hir body, and shot forward in the blink of an eye. And as ze predicted, Freya was caught slightly off guard by hir speed. She seemed stuck in time as hir open palm shot forward, which was aimed straight at Freya’s chest.

In those few fractions of a moment, Freya seemingly watched helplessly as Lucifer’s hardened palm came closer and closer to her. But just as hir palm struck, and just as ze expected to feel heavy resistance, hir hand simply kept going. Freya’s clothes simply wrapped themselves around hir hand, as though ze caught them in midair.

Just as Lucifer realized what happened, ze felt claws as they ran up hir arm, then launched off hir shoulder. Ze skidded to a stop, looked over hir shoulder, and watched as a sleek black fox ran through the woods.

Ze glanced back at Freya’s empty clothing, then back at the fox, then cursed lightly as ze tossed them aside.

Lucifer launched into a sprint and tore at hir own clothing slightly – just enough to open it up wider. Then, in the middle of said rip, shifted into an all-white coyote, and leapt out gracefully.

Then, ze began the chase and followed Freya’s fox-like scent as she wove between the trees.

The two of them ducked and wove and ran around and between the trees at incredible speeds. Certainly far faster than if they were merely a regular fox or coyote.

Blood pumped heavily in their veins as their thin, muscular legs scampered all along the forest floor. Their claws dug into the ground and kicked up dirt while they each drew in lungfuls of air at a time.

Lucifer certainly did hir absolute best to catch up, and poured short bursts of power into hir legs at every opportunity.

Ze pounced at Freya a number of times and nipped at her flanks, though she always nimbly leapt out of the way in time.

As they ran, the sounds of the waterfall itself began to dominate the air surrounding. The splashing and tumbling of water became instantly omnipresent the moment the two of them ran out of the forest’s edge and closer towards the shore.

Freya adjusted her course and followed the lake’s edge all the way towards the cliffside, where a number of rocks jutted out on both sides of the waterfall itself. She lowered her head and ran straight towards one of the lowest ones, and jumped straight at it.

And in midair, shifted her body again. Her small vulpine body extended out and enlarged to some degree, and became more feline in nature.

By the time she landed on the rock itself, she was a fully-formed mountain lion, but with a sleek black coat. Even more, she didn’t bother to stop. Instead, she continued leaping and climbing up the rocky cliffside, seemingly all the way to the top.

Lucifer remained completely undaunted, despite Freya’s elusiveness.

In fact, nothing had quite thrilled hir as much as this. Ze knew, from this moment on, that nothing else in life could ever top this for hir. There was literally no greater freedom than what ze was experiencing, and no greater power than what ze was exercising.

On top of it all, there was no greater partner ze could ever do it all with, and so continued chasing after Freya.

Ze leapt up to the rock as a coyote, but landed as an all-white alpine ibex. Hir padded hooves expertly landed on the rock itself, with little energy wasted, and with perfect balance. Ze then leapt up to the next rock with even greater agility than what Freya exhibited.

More than that, on hir head was a pair of thick and long horns that curved upwards and outwards. Which, combined with hir vivid red eyes, gave hir a truly satanic makeover.

The two of them climbed up the cliff as fast they could in their forms. Though both of them did so with expertise and precision, it was clear that Lucifer had the advantage, and easily gained on Freya with every leap.

Despite that, Freya was still the first to reach the top, which she cleared with a long leap. She ran along the bank of the rushing rapids alongside, for a dozen meters, then spun around just as Lucifer leapt up and over as well.

Without skipping a beat, Freya instantly ran towards Lucifer, though instead of remaining a mountain lion, also shifted her body into an ibex. She too grew out wickedly curved horns, which seemed equally as robust as Lucifer’s.

The two charged each other quickly and met somewhere in between.

And moments before they met, she leapt up, lowered her head, and rammed Lucifer horn-first. And Lucifer followed suit. Just as she reared up, so did ze. Just as ze hit the peak, ze pushed forward and counter-rammed.

There was a deep, resounding KRAK the moment their horns struck each other, which was followed by a shock wave that swept across the clifftop. Having been dazed, but taking no damage, the two of them reared back a second time, and crashed their thick horns into each other again.

And again.

Each time caused powerful waves of force to ripple outward, which shook the ground under their hooves.

Both their hearts beat heavily in their chests as the absolute thrill of the hunt and the chase and the fight filled their bodies. Their noses were filled with the thick smell of iron as their blood pumped in their veins.

The two of them backed up from each other, Freya’s black ibex against Lucifer’s white one. Both dipped their heads down and pawed at the dirt, challenging the other to charge first. In the end, they both charged each other at the same time.

This time however, Lucifer leapt up first, and as ze did so, shifted hir body into that of a huge Siberian tiger. Hir giant paws reached forward to slash Freya.

And ze would have easily torn her apart, had she not shifted herself in response. But instead of a tiger, she became a large black bear. Her thick fur and hide easily countered most of Lucifer’s dagger-like claws, though they still bit into her to some degree.

She felt their sting as they pierced and tore into her. But she paid them no mind, and threw a heavy left paw at Lucifer’s feline head at the same time. The strength of it was more than enough to toss hir a half dozen meters off to the side.

Lucifer hirself fell to the ground painfully, and much of the wind was knocked right out of hir lungs.

Both the blow and the landing was painful, and when ze tried to get up, simply collapsed right back down on the ground. To which Freya roared into the sky, as though to claim victory.

The sound of it reverberated all around, and caused the very air to shake and waver. It was loud and alarming enough that multiple birds in the trees around them flew up and away in panic.

But ze was far from defeated. Lucifer picked hirself up as quickly as ze dared, shook the dizziness from hir mind, then immediately charged Freya again.

As ze ran, hir body shifted yet again, this time into a white rhinoceros, with a devastatingly sharp front horn. Ze poured all hir power into hir veins and charged straight towards Freya with as much energy as ze could muster.

Ze lowered hir head and pointed hir sharp horn right at Freya’s chest.

Not that she was having any of it. In fact, this was one of the things she was waiting for.

But because she was in a lumbering bear’s body, there was no way she could hope to evade. Instead, she ran forward, straight towards the edge of the cliff, as fast as her thick legs could take her. She literally felt as though she was running through molasses with her trundling bear legs, but pushed herself as fast as she could go.

And when she got to the edge, simply jumped right off.

From there, her body shifted into that of a large raven – her absolute favorite. She spread her wings wide, caught the air, then twisted downward and to the side, just as Lucifer leapt off the side of the cliff as well.

And, like Freya, shifted hir body into a snow-white falcon. Ze too spread hir wings out and caught the wind. But instead of heading down like Freya, ze instead climbed up and soared high above.

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