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Za'Fia's battle with Verin continued with her on the ground, her head beneath Verin's foot. Za'Fia felt Verin apply more weight to her head. Though reluctant, before Verin could crush it, Za'Fia willed all of her energy forward and transformed in a blaze of glory.
The burst of heat from her sudden transformation ignited Verin's leg, causing her to leap back.
As Za'Fia rose from the ground. She stood, barely maintaining control. She wanted to avoid this due to the difficulty of preserving command of her anger in that state. Unlike the others, she never grasped complete control...she couldn't. Not after what she did...she promised herself never to lose control again.
Za'Fia looked around. Her transformation had changed the terrain to an inferno. She looked down at her claws and red scales, her extended reptilian wings, and felt the horns protruding from her skull. This was twice that she had to transform in a long time.
She hoped she could finish things off quickly like before. The longer she stayed in this form, the less control she'd have.
"Now we're getting somewhere," Verin taunted, flapping her leathery bat-like wings. The fire on her leg had been extinguished, but she was burned. "Show me what the infamous Tempered Dragon can really do."
Verin inversed the gravity within her immediate vicinity, which caused several rocks to levitate. She then used that gravity to crush the stones into smaller pebbles coated in her spirit energy before firing them at Za'Fia.
Za'Fia ran forward and attempted to swipe the pebbles aside. She expected them to be harmless since, with her added scales, her durability was only second to Arne's, but she felt the pebbles' sting as they penetrated her hand.
Za'Fia stopped in her tracks and leaped back as she clutched her right hand. As she observed, the pebbles drilled even deeper into her hand, causing Za'Fia's anger to flare closer to the surface. She gritted her teeth and tried to use the tips of her claws to dig them out, but Verin laughed as she continued to force them deeper.
Za'Fia pointed the palm of her hand at Verin and fired a torrent of flames at her. Thankfully, the flames were powerful enough to break past the spirit energy around the pebbles and push them out before melting them.
"Just let go already. You don't have a chance of defeating me unless you do," Verin spoke as she spun more pebbles around her.
Za'Fia suddenly felt the thread from Michael fade away. When she detected his energy rise from transformation halfway across the world, she figured he was also pulled into the fight.
Dammit, right when I needed it, Za'Fia thought.
Verin's face lit up as she suddenly unleashed a powerful gravitational burst that threw Za'Fia on her back. Then, a consistent down pressure pinned her to the ground as Verin hovered over her.
"When you first arrived at our lab, I noticed that string attached to you. It was undoubtedly Michael's energy signature. I couldn't figure out what its purpose was, but as we fought, I noticed minor wounds that were once there would be gone moments later. Then, it dawned on me that Michael was healing you. He likely did this for each of you."
Something suddenly occurred to Za'Fia: Verin hadn't explicitly targeted any major attacks at her.
"That's why you haven't thrown anything real at me."
"It's part of the reason," Verin gleamed deviously. "Yeah, I saw no reason to waste too much energy attacking you if you would just be healed. I could've gone for the kill to end things, I suppose," she shrugged, "but I've already told you what I'm after. I want to see the beast you once were known to be."
"And now that I know you can't heal..." Verin stated as Za'Fia felt the pressure around her left arm increase painfully. "I get to torture it out of you."
Za'Fia repressed her scream as the pressure increased further and further until she felt the bones in her left arm fracture. Still, she stifled a cry, but this displeased and annoyed Verin, who pushed even more until Za'Fia's entire arm was crushed beneath the gravity.
Za'Fia's scream was so intense she felt it reverberate across her mental link with the others before her mind blanked as her fury rose uncontrollably, and she entered a savage rage.
She felt her anger fuel her Conversion cintracy as it converted that anger into more power until she temporarily became more powerful than even Michael.
Za'Fia's mind was blurred red, but she held on to one singular focus: Verin. Though only capable of using one arm, she attacked Verin with animalistic ferocity. Verin tried to keep up but was quickly surprised as the fight became one-sided, leaving her on the defensive.
Verin was forced to raise her Heavy Clad gravitational protection to stave off as many of Za'Fia's blows as possible. But Za'Fia was determined. She let out a monstrous roar as she used spirit enhancement and sheer strength to resist Verin's gravity momentarily and forced her fist through until she could touch Verin. Then she used the technique, Searing Rage, where she focused all her flames and spirit energy onto her hand. Anything she felt would be marked with the combustible residue of her spirit energy, igniting a searing blast.
She touched Verin in three different locations before the gravitational force of Heavy Clad finally repelled her. But it was too late. In the next instant, Verin suffered three back-to-back eruptions of hellish flames at point-blank that forcibly deactivated her protective aura.
Verin wailed as she was engulfed for the brief moment of the blaze. When it ceased, she floated, slumped over, and huffed as her body and clothes were charred. Even her klevonian skin was burned to a degree.
"You'll pay dearly for that," she threatened shakily from barely suppressed anger. Next thing Za'Fia knew, she felt an increase in downward pressure around her that was strong enough to sink the ground itself. However, unlike before, Za'Fia's spirit energy was now much more potent than Verin's and could resist the effects of the downward push.
Za'Fia enraged, responded by sending out a beastly cry along with scores of flames that indiscriminately burned everything. Verin struggled to keep the fire shot toward her at bay and was struck with several burning impacts that forced her out of the sky in a ball of fire.
Za'Fia unleashed a draconic triumphant roar as she watched her prey crash into the ground before charging toward her for the kill. But Verin wasn't down just yet. Za'Fia saw a familiar thin film appear around her mindless body as she sprinted forward. It was the same one she'd seen Verin use to crush that guy once, but she was beyond the state of reason and couldn't stop. She swung her right arm across and shattered the forming film, then leaped toward Verin, grabbing her by the throat as her momentum dragged Verin across the ground.
Verin began to say something as she raised her arms, but without hesitation, Za'Fia started slamming her fist downward repeatedly with tremendous force. It felt good as she channeled her pain with each downward motion.
Eventually, Verin morphed back to her standard form and passed out with a bloody face, but Za'Fia couldn't calm down. She wasn't satisfied. Za'Fia wanted to feel Verin's heart stop within her hand, so she continued pounding.
Za'Fia, STOP! She's down! Alissia's voice filled her head.
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