Time slowed.
Her front foot landed, her arm swinging. Success at hand.
Right until it all changed.
A hard force punched Kira in the chest. The world spun.
Kira flew.
She landed hard, the impact knocking the breath out of her lungs as she hit the sand.
She lay there for several seconds, struggling to relearn how to breathe as her mind screamed at her to get up.
Somehow, she summoned the energy to lift her face out of the sand and squint through the blood she could feel pouring down her face.
What the fuck just happened?
Kira couldn’t understand. She’d had the stage two. Her blade millimeters from stabbing the crap out of its stupid crystal.
But now, her ears were ringing with a high-pitched and annoying buzz that usually only happened after she got a little too close to something that exploded.
Or when Jin decided to sing those Haldeel arias.
Kira forced her hands under her, lifting her torso as she assessed the situation.
First off—find the stage two.
Hopefully it wasn’t already preparing to deliver its own death blow on her unsuspecting self.
Then—check on the others.
Plan in place, Kira grasped for the hilt of the akieri, finding that the blade had rescinded the moment she stopped channeling ki. At least it wasn’t lying halfway across the arena.
Kira scanned the arena, spotting Finn not far from her on the ground. His limbs twitched, his head lifting to do the same thing Kira was.
They shared a quick look before searching for the stage two.
Selene and Alexander were on the opposite side of the arena. Alexander crawling toward Selene’s motionless body.
The stage two stood in the exact same place where they’d fought. The creature’s hands were held in front of it. Curiosity in its gaze.
“Fascinating,” the creature said, turning a hand palm up.
A swirling ball of ki manifested, playing above the surface of its fingers like a naughty sprite.
Kira got one leg under her as she remained crouched, not wanting to draw the stage two’s attention quite yet.
From the presence of ki, Kira was guessing that was how the stage two had managed to fling her and the rest back. The face changer must have incorporated the soul’s breath it took from the Tuann into its evolution somehow.
Just great. As if the monster hadn’t been difficult enough to fight before.
Kira manipulated her ki, projecting her voice in a way she’d seen others do but never tried herself.
“Alexander.”
Relief filled her as she saw him respond.
It was a small reaction, a slight lift of his head and a stiffening of his shoulders but she caught it nonetheless.
