CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.73 'WINDOWS TO THE SOUL! ANDREI VS. VIVIAN!'

At the statement, Vivian's smile became wild, animalistic... though not in that otherworldly way which she often found herself falling victim to beneath Geryon. Andrei nodded as she mirrored his statement, and gave a satisfied smirk, his golden iris flickering as molten energy flowed behind his eyes. Their eyes were still locked on one another, and Vivian was flung backwards as her initial strike was thrown back at her with a burst of black-red flame.

She landed, feeling the bones in her leg shifting for a moment before she flinched. Andrei was now closing the gap, too fast for her to avoid given her current injury. Flames seemed to fire from the soles of his feet as he burned through the soles of his shoes, and the talons which replaced his toes dug into the ground, flinging up fire and brimstone. He drew back his fist, a flash of light catching in his palm and leaking through as his arm reached its full tension. The twinned lashes of flame which erupted from his hair whipped in the wind as he shouted out a war cry. "Of course I'd go all out..." Andrei shouted, his voice like gasoline to the fire of their duel. Vivian and Andrei's still had not broken as she raised her arms to defend from the punch. "If this is what you need to feel liberated... I'll do anything for a friend!"

Managing to see through the blinding flash, which erupted into a blast of raw, volcanic mana, Vivi's smile shifted to something more serious as her guard was shattered, and her eyes went wide as Andrei leapt into the air, his leg moving between her parted arms. She grunted as his magmatic talons locked themselves around her throat, and suddenly, Vivian was in the air. Below her, Andrei had hoisted his leg upwards, choking her with a vice grip before erupting into a ball of flame, flipping with her neck still in his grasp.

Vivian felt her back slam against the ground in an instant, and she felt the burns on her neck as Andrei pressed his full weight down on her. Choking out a violent sound, she felt the world around her begin to narrow again as that tunnel began to form, clouding her vision with a void of swirling colors as the world began to spread out before her. "Even if you don't hold back..." Her mouth was frothing as she struggled to breath, and she felt the plasma on her body grow brighter. "... I'm not going to take this sitting down! I'll tear this whole damn building down, if it means-"

In an instant, Andrei felt his calf seize up, and his grasp was broken as millions of volts began to course through his muscles beneath the black-crimson energy of his Install. Vivian's words, the next ones she would have uttered, echoed in his mind as she vanished into a streak of blue and yellow energies. "-... I can prove my worth!"

Once more bouncing off of the walls, ricocheting back into the ground, she could tell somehow that she was behind Andrei now. Her leg no longer hurt, whether that was an effect of adrenaline, or her body's natural healing factor, she didn't care. Pushing forward, she felt the remnants of the fracture as her body attempted to stitch itself back together. Her chimeric bones strained against the force she was putting on herself, something which pushed her limits up to that point as plasmatic energy began to condense around her fist.

Andrei's pupils went narrow as Vivian's vision cleared. The streaks of plasma faded as she appeared in front of him, her back turned. His jaw tight, he felt boiling blood well up in his throat, and a shiver ran down his back, even though he was numbed by the mixture of electricity and the damage his Install was doing to his own body. The binds of his flesh were severed, and he watched as the beam of light finally died, the one which had cut clean through him. Their duel... it was done, wasn't it? "V-Vivian... Hrk-!" Andrei finally gasped as his torso, from side to side, spouted blood.

Then his eyes refocused, and the pain became obvious again. He locked eyes with his fellow warrior once more, and he felt the blood pulsing, pooling once again. His hands clenched, opening and closing as the severed torso beside them spouted fire, not blood. He managed a harsh smirk as he felt his wounds cauterize themselves. Even in his Install, the sign of the damage was obvious. A scar outlined in crimson red across the black body, melding with the red outline. He raised his chin in defiance, and spat embers, which were once blood, as they floated into the sky. "... You don't expect me to lay down and lose either, do you?"