The lightning between Lucy’s fingers wasn’t growing anymore. It had stopped expanding, stopped crackling with wild energy. Instead, it condensed, compressed down until the brightness beca almost unbearable to look at directly. The air around her hand warped from electromagnetic force concentrated into a space smaller than a fist.
Arthur’s smile widened, his grip on her throat never loosening despite the voltage building inches from his face. "There it is."
Lucy’s eyes flashed pure blue. Not the normal blue of reflected light or temporary power surge. This was different, deeper, like staring into the heart of a star made from electricity. The glow spread, consuming her irises completely, then bleeding outward until thin lines of luminous blue traced across her skin like circuit patterns.
Her body began to change. Not physically growing or shifting shape, but the air around her started to shimr with heat distortion. Electricity didn’t just coat her skin anymore—it poured from her pores, from her hair, from every cell in her body simultaneously. The crackling sound intensified, beca a continuous roar like standing next to a power transforr operating at maximum capacity.
"Soul Form," Arthur said quietly, and for the first ti since the fight began, his tone carried sothing other than casual amusent. Interest. It carried genuine interest.
Lucy’s free hand shot up, grabbed Arthur’s wrist where he held her throat. The contact point exploded with electrical discharge so intense it created a flash bright enough to leave afterimages. Arthur’s grip spasd, muscles contracting involuntarily from the voltage flooding through his arm, and Lucy tore herself free creating distance from him.
She didn’t fall. Electricity erupted from her feet, creating a platform of pure energy that held her suspended in midair. Her hair floated around her head like she was underwater, each strand trailing sparks. The circuit patterns across her skin glowed brighter, pulsing in ti with her heartbeat.
Arthur flexed his hand, examining where her touch had scorched his palm. The burn was already healing, tissue regenerating, but slowly. Much slower than it should have. "Impressive output. You’re actually managing to overwhelm my healing factor."
Lucy didn’t respond with words. She moved.
One mont she stood twenty feet away. The next she was directly in front of Arthur, fist already traveling toward his face. The acceleration was instantaneous, zero to maximum velocity in the space between heartbeats.
*CRACK—*
Arthur’s head snapped back from the impact. His body followed, lifting off the shadow platform he’d been standing on, flying backward through empty air. Lucy pursued before he’d traveled five feet, appeared above him mid-flight, brought both fists down on his chest like a hamr.
*BOOM—*
The second impact changed his trajectory from horizontal to straight down. Arthur crashed into the settlent’s central building, went completely through the roof, disappeared inside with the sound of splintering wood and shattering stone.
Lucy descended after him, crackling with so much electrical energy that the air itself ionized around her. She landed on the collapsed roof, looked down into the hole her attack had created, saw Arthur rising from rubble and debris.
He was smiling. Actually smiling, even as blood ran from his nose and his tallic coating flickered. "Now you’re taking this seriously."
Lightning erupted from Lucy’s hands, two massive bolts converging on Arthur’s position. He threw up both hands, shadows forming a defensive wall, but this ti the electricity didn’t just vanish into the darkness. It burned through, pushed past his defenses, and Arthur had to dive aside to avoid being hit directly.
The bolts missed him by inches, struck the floor where he’d been standing, and punched completely through to the level below. Stone vaporized from the heat. The sll of ozone beca overwhelming.
Arthur erged from his roll already moving, closing the distance between them. His tal coating spread across his entire body now, not just his hands and forearms. Lucy t his charge head-on, both of them colliding in the center of the destroyed building.
They exchanged blows too fast to track properly. Arthur’s tal-coated fist aid for Lucy’s ribs. She blocked with her forearm, electricity discharging at the contact point, making his tal coating crack. Her knee ca up toward his midsection. He twisted sideways, took the hit on his hip instead, grabbed her leg and tried to throw her.
Lucy converted her body to pure electrical energy for a fraction of a second, passed through his grip intangibly, rematerialized behind him. Her elbow drove into his spine with enough force to crack vertebrae. Arthur grunted—the first sound of actual pain he’d made all fight—and spun with a backhand that caught Lucy across the jaw.
Her head rocked sideways but she didn’t fall. Instead she grabbed his extended arm, channeled electricity directly into his nervous system, made every muscle in his body seize simultaneously. Arthur’s legs locked up, his back arched involuntarily, and Lucy used that mont to deliver a palm strike to his solar plexus.
The impact created a shockwave that blew out what remained of the building’s walls. Arthur flew backward through empty air, crashed through two smaller structures on the settlent’s periter, finally arrested his montum by driving his feet into the ground and carving twin trenches.
Lucy shot after him, leaving a trail of electrical discharge in her wake. She caught up before he’d fully recovered, grabbed him by the shirt, and simply threw him skyward with strength amplified by her soul form.
Arthur tumbled upward, spinning end over end, climbing fifty ters, then a hundred, still ascending from the force behind Lucy’s throw. She followed him up, matching his trajectory, and when they were level she drove her fist into his ribs.
*CRACK—*
The sound of breaking bone carried clearly despite the altitude. Arthur’s ribs caved inward from the impact, his body folding around Lucy’s fist before montum reasserted itself and sent him flying higher.
Lucy teleported—not actually teleporting, but moving so fast it looked identical—appeared above Arthur’s ascending form, clasped both hands together, brought them down on his back like swinging an axe.
*BOOM—*
Arthur’s upward montum reversed instantly. He plumted, accelerating under gravity plus the force Lucy had added, beca a teor falling toward the settlent below.
Lucy raised one hand. Lightning gathered around her palm, building, concentrating, growing brighter until it hurt to look at. Then she thrust her hand downward and released everything.
The lightning bolt that erged was as thick as a person’s torso, brilliant blue-white, moving faster than sound. It caught up to Arthur’s falling body halfway to the ground, engulfed him completely in electrical discharge, and drove him down even harder.
Arthur hit the settlent with catastrophic force. The impact cratered the ground, sent shockwaves radiating outward that knocked several Grey soldiers off their feet, created a cloud of dust and debris that obscured everything in a fifty-ter radius.
Lucy descended slowly, riding electrical currents, her body still glowing with that internal light. The circuit patterns across her skin pulsed steadily. She landed at the crater’s edge, looked down at where Arthur lay.
He was moving. Slowly, painfully, but moving. His tal coating had shattered completely, leaving bare skin that was burned and bloodied. His breathing ca in ragged gasps. Blood ran from his mouth, his nose, probably internal injuries manifesting.
But he was still conscious. Still aware. And when he looked up at Lucy, he was still smiling.
"Good," Arthur said, voice rough but clear. "You’re actually worth fighting."
Shadows erupted from the crater, ford solid platforms beneath his feet, lifted him back to standing position. His injuries began healing visibly, tissue knitting together, burns fading, though it took longer than before. Lucy’s electrical attacks were overwhelming his regeneration faster than it could compensate.
Arthur raised both hands. Lightning sparked from his left palm, matching Lucy’s own elent. Shadows coiled around his right arm like living things. His tal coating began reforming, spreading across his torso in overlapping plates.
"Let’s see if you can maintain that form while I use everything."
He launched himself at Lucy, moving faster than he had before, pushing his speed to levels that created sonic booms. Lucy t his charge, and they collided mid-air with enough force to split the clouds overhead.
The shockwave from their impact traveled outward in visible rings, pressure waves that made the air itself shimr. They separated, ca together again, separated, collided. Each impact created thunder that rolled across the landscape.
Arthur’s tal-coated fist aid for Lucy’s head. She ducked under it, ca up with an uppercut that caught his chin, lifted him three feet off the ground. Her follow-up kick aid for his ribs. He twisted mid-air, took it on his shoulder instead, grabbed her leg and swung her in a circle before releasing.
Lucy converted to electrical energy again, passed through the motion, rematerialized ten feet away. Lightning gathered around both her hands now, two separate spheres building simultaneously. She thrust both palms forward, releasing twin bolts that converged on Arthur’s position.
Arthur’s shadows ford a wall, but this ti he didn’t try to absorb the lightning. Instead he redirected it, used his own lightning manipulation to bend the attack’s trajectory, sent both bolts curving away to strike the ground on either side of him.
The explosions from those missed strikes created two new craters, spraying dirt and stone in all directions. Grey soldiers scattered, seeking cover from the debris.
*FWOOOOM—*
A massive shape descended from above. KRO landed twenty feet from Arthur’s position, the impact creating its own crater, the ch’s fusion reactor visible through damaged chest plating and glowing blue-white. Kelvin’s voice ca through external speakers, slightly distorted but clear.
"Room for one more?"
Arthur turned to face this new threat, and his expression shifted slightly. Not concern exactly, but acknowledgnt that the situation had beco more complex.
KRO’s remaining shoulder cannon swiveled, locked onto Arthur, fired. The plasma beam lanced across the space between them. Arthur threw up a shadow barrier, but the sustained plasma fire pushed through, forced him to dive aside to avoid being hit directly.
Lucy attacked from the opposite angle while Arthur was dodging. Her fist caught him in the kidney with enough electrical discharge to make his entire body spasm. Arthur snarled, spun with a backhand that Lucy ducked under, then had to block KRO’s follow-up strike—a massive tal fist that ca at his head with two tons of force behind it.
The impact drove Arthur backward. His feet carved trenches in the ground as he arrested his montum. Before he could recover, Lucy was on him again, delivering a rapid combination of strikes that Arthur blocked desperately, his tal coating cracking under the sustained assault.
KRO’s thrusters fired, lifting the ch off the ground, positioning for an aerial attack. Kelvin brought both arms up, targeting systems locking onto Arthur’s position, and fired everything. Plasma beams, micro-missiles, the resonance cannon—every weapon system KRO had that still functioned opened up simultaneously.
Arthur’s eyes widened fractionally. For the first ti, he looked genuinely pressed. His shadows erupted outward in multiple directions, forming barriers, creating platforms, trying to intercept the incoming ordnance.
Lucy used the distraction. She appeared directly in front of Arthur, inside his defensive periter, and drove her electrically-charged fist into his solar plexus with everything she had.
*CRACK—*
Sothing broke again.
Sothing important. Arthur’s eyes went wide, blood sprayed from his mouth, and for one beautiful mont he looked genuinely hurt.
Then Lucy grabbed him by the throat, channeled electricity directly into his head, and threw him skyward with strength that sent him accelerating like a rocket.
"KELVIN! AERIAL BOMBARDNT!"
"On it!"
KRO shot upward, following Arthur’s trajectory. The ch’s thrusters scread, pushing beyond safe operational limits, but Kelvin didn’t care. He caught up to Arthur fifty ters up, grabbed the man with both chanical hands, and kept climbing.
One hundred ters. Two hundred. The settlent below beca small, individual structures blending together. Grey soldiers looked like ants. The curvature of Hollowstar beca visible on the horizon.
Arthur struggled in KRO’s grip, shadows trying to form, lightning crackling across his body. But Kelvin held firm, prosthetic fingers crushing Arthur’s ribs, not letting go no matter how much the man thrashed.
Three hundred ters.
Lucy ascended alongside them, riding electrical currents, her entire body glowing so bright she looked like a second sun. She pulled ahead of KRO, positioned herself above Arthur’s struggling form, and began gathering power.
Both hands ca up. Lightning converged between her palms, building, concentrating, growing brighter and more dense until the sphere she’d created looked solid rather than energy. The clouds overhead began rotating, drawn toward the power Lucy was generating, forming a spiral pattern with her at the center.
"LET HIM GO!"
Kelvin released Arthur. The man hung in midair for a fraction of a second, montum canceled, suspended by nothing but inertia. Then Lucy thrust both hands downward and released everything.
The lightning that erged wasn’t a bolt. It was a column, a solid beam of electrical death three ters across, brilliant enough to be visible from orbit. It struck Arthur center mass and drove him downward with apocalyptic force.
Arthur plumted. The lightning beam pushed him down, accelerating him past terminal velocity, burning away his tal coating, his shadow defenses, everything. He beca a cot wrapped in blue-white fire, trailing smoke and electrical discharge.
He hit the ground.
The impact was visible from space. The shockwave flattened every structure within a hundred ters. The crater ford was sixty feet across and twenty feet deep. Dust and debris exploded upward in a mushroom cloud that rose three hundred feet before gravity reasserted itself.
The rumbling took ten seconds to fade. When it finally stopped, complete silence settled over the battlefield except for the crackling of scattered fires and the groaning of collapsed buildings.
KRO descended slowly, touching down at the crater’s edge. Lucy landed beside the ch, her Soul Form’s glow beginning to fade slightly, circuit patterns dimming as she exerted conscious control to maintain the transformation.
They looked down into the crater.
Arthur lay at the bottom, surrounded by shattered stone. His clothes were burned away, skin blackened from electrical burns, one arm bent at an unnatural angle. Blood pooled beneath him, too much blood, spreading across cracked earth.
For a mont, nobody moved. Then Arthur’s chest rose slightly. Fell. Rose again.
He was breathing.
Kelvin’s voice ca through KRO’s speakers, quieter now. "Is he... how is he still alive?"
Lucy descended into the crater, electricity crackling around her hands, ready to finish this. She approached Arthur’s prone form carefully, aware that he could be feinting, waiting for her to get close.
She was three feet away when Arthur’s eyes opened.
They weren’t brown anymore. They glowed red, like coals burning in a forge. His lips moved, forming words through blood-filled lungs.
"My... turn."
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