Garret and Lyra found their cadence. Garret became the anvil, hammering the ground, shifting terrain, raising walls of rock, creating pitfalls, forcing Doom to constantly adjust, draining his focus. Lyra became the hammer, a relentless storm of light, exploiting every micro-opening Garret created, her blade a constant, searing threat that forced Doom to prioritize defence against her purifying energy. She began to glow, faintly at first, then more intensely, her Blessing mark pulsing in time with her heart. Her own transformation was starting, slower, subtler than Garret's. A hardening of her light, a faint golden lattice seeming to form beneath her skin, her movements gaining an unnatural, fluid precision.
The fight became a deadly ballet of stone, light, and devouring void. Doom was pushed. He used [VOID DASH] to evade terrain traps, the strain registering as minor HP drains. He parried Lyra's light with the Ossuary Blade, the dark metal drinking some of the energy but not all, the purifying residue burning where it touched his skin. He met Garret's hammer with his blade or talons, the impacts jarring, the transformed Bulwark's strength immense. He landed hits, talons scoring deep grooves in Lyra's Dawnforge plate, the Ossuary Blade shearing off chunks of Garret's stony armour, but they were costly, leaving him open to counter-strikes that drew blood, burned flesh, and chipped away at his formidable resilience. Civilians watched, wide-eyed and trembling, from behind wagons. Marik tried to summon crackling energy, but it sputtered weakly. Elara could only watch, helpless. Bron tried to drag himself towards the fight, cursing.
'Take the hit!' Ainar commanded, her voice taut with focus as Lyra launched a particularly vicious thrust. 'Left shoulder! Let it bite, then gut the earth-shaker!'
Doom obeyed. He twisted slightly, letting Lyra's blade pierce his left shoulder instead of his heart. White-hot agony lanced through him. [HP: 72%] flashed in his vision. But in that split second of Lyra's commitment, he ignored her, pivoting with the impact, the Ossuary Blade reversing in a blindingly fast, two-handed grip. He put every ounce of his void-enhanced strength, every lesson from Kael, into an overhead strike aimed not at Garret's shield, but at the join between his stony helmet and shoulder guard, a point stressed by the transformation.
[VOID REND]! The blade didn't just cut, it devoured. It sheared through the thickened, magically reinforced stone like rotten wood. Dark violet energy flared, crackling with destructive hunger.
SHINK-CRUNCH!
The blade bit deep, cleaving through stone, flesh, and bone. Garret's roar of defiance became a wet, gurgling scream of agony. Blood, thick, dark, and shimmering faintly with amber particles – erupted from the horrific wound. Not just blood, but flecks of stone. The Ossuary Blade pulsed fiercely, crimson veins blazing as it drank deep.
```
HARVEST: [GARRET - CRITICAL WOUND]
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BIO-TITHERIUM EXTRACTION: [EARTHEN BLESSED ESSENCE / ADAMANTITE REINFORCED BONE / STONEBOND FLESH]
YIELD: SIGNIFICANT (45% - PARTIAL DUE TO BLESSING TRANSFORMATION)
CONTRIBUTION TO [BOUND ONE]: MODERATE
SYNCHRONIZATION: 28.7% (+0.1%)
NOTE: PURIFYING LIGHT AURA (LYRA) PRESENT - REGENERATION COST DOUBLED
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
```
The influx of potent Bio-Titherium flooded Doom. His wounds, the gash from Lyra, the bruises, the burns, began to knit with visible speed, steam rising from the closing injuries even under the harsh glare of Lyra's light. But it was slower, more laborious, the purifying energy actively fighting the void-driven healing, demanding twice the stolen essence. [HP: 75% - Rising Slowly]
Garret staggered, collapsing to his knees, clutching the ruin of his shoulder, his transformation flickering erratically. The stone armour seemed to be fusing to the wound, trying to seal it with rough, jagged rock, but the damage was too severe. He coughed, a wet, rattling sound, and spat. Not red blood, but a thick, gritty sludge the colour of wet clay, flecked with minute crystals. His skin, where not covered by stone, was turning a sickly, mottled grey, losing its elasticity, becoming dry and cracked like sun-baked earth. His glowing amber eyes dimmed, filled with agony and the dawning horror of his body turning against him.
'Ah, the price!' Ainar noted clinically. 'The Stone Bond rejects the living flesh. His cells are literally petrifying. The earth he called upon is consuming him from within. Crude. Dangerous. Fascinating.'
"NO!" Lyra screamed, pure rage and terror fuelling her. She yanked her blade free from Doom's shoulder. But before she could strike again, before Doom could finish the crippled Garret, two voices shouted in unison.
"[TORRENT BLAST]!" Elara screamed, unleashing a concentrated jet of superheated steam and concussive force from her staff.
"[VOLTAIC LASH]!" Marik roared, hurling a whip-crack of pure lightning from his gloves.
They converged on Doom. Not at him, but at the ground between him and the fallen Garret. Elara's steam blast hit the churned, muddy earth, instantly flash-boiling it into an expanding cloud of scalding vapor. Marik's lightning lanced into the superheated steam cloud.
KRA-KOOM!
The combined energies detonated. A deafening thunderclap of superheated steam and arcing electricity filled the space. Doom was hurled backwards by the concussive blast, seared by steam, jolted by residual lightning. He slammed into the side of a supply wagon, wood splintering. [HP: 68% - Moderate Burns, Concussive Trauma]
The scalding cloud dissipated, revealing Garret still on his knees, shielded from the worst by his mass and stone, but now wracked by violent, shuddering coughs, each one spraying more of the gritty, stone-flecked sludge. Lyra stood over him, her Dawnblade held protectively, her own slow transformation pulsing with renewed, desperate light, her face a mask of fury and dawning horror at Garret's condition. The path to the tent was momentarily forgotten, replaced by the smoking crater and the gasping, petrifying Bulwark. The cost of defiance was etched in stone and blood.
The concussive blast still echoed in Silk's ears, ozone and scorched earth thick in the air. She watched, numb, as Doom pushed himself up from the shattered wagon, splinters raining down. Steam rose from his seared skin, the healing fuelled by Garret's Bio-Titherium was visibly slower, visibly strained under Lyra's relentless purifying aura. [HP: 68% - Moderate Burns, Concussive TraumaVOID ENERGY: 85%] The Harbinger's borrowed trousers were shredded, hanging in charred rags. He stood, effectively naked once more, the fractured Void Sigil pulsing with agitated light above the deep, smoking gash Lyra had carved across his ribs.
Lyra didn't hesitate. Garret's agonized, petrifying form was a beacon of fury. Her Dawnblade blazed anew, a miniature sun in her grip. "Herald!" The word was a curse, a prayer, a battle cry. She launched herself at Doom, a streak of incandescent rage.
'She's burning too bright, too fast!' Ainar hissed in Doom's mind, sharp with tactical urgency. 'The potion fuels her, but her incomplete transformation is volatile. Exploit the instability! Void Shroud disrupt her light cohesion! Energy cost be damned!'
Doom triggered [VOID SHROUD]. Dark violet mist erupted around him, swallowing the lantern light. [VOID ENERGY: 65% (-20%)]. Lyra's blazing charge hit the edge of the cloud. Her light didn't extinguish, but it frayed. The coherent beam became a shimmering corona, losing focus. She slashed wildly, searing gashes through the mist, but Doom was already moving within it, a phantom predator.
'Left! Talons to the knee joint! Her armour is weakest there!'
He lunged, talons gleaming. Lyra sensed the attack, twisting with preternatural speed granted by her burgeoning transformation. Doom's claws scraped sparks off her greave instead of biting flesh. Her riposte was blindingly fast, a backhanded pommel strike infused with solar energy that cracked against Doom's temple. Stars exploded in his vision. [HP: 62% - Minor Concussion]. He staggered back, the Shroud flickering, the void energy demanding constant focus.
"FOR GARRET!" Lyra screamed, pressing the advantage. Her movements were becoming smoother, faster, less human. The faint golden lattice beneath her skin grew denser, visible even through her Dawnforge plate at the joints. Her eyes glowed with pure, molten gold, pupils vanishing. She moved with the terrifying grace of a hunting falcon made of light. Each strike was faster, harder, radiating intense heat. Civilians whimpered, shielding their eyes. Elara gasped, "Lyra... she's going too far! The Tear... it's consuming her!"
'She adapts! Faster than anticipated!' Ainar's voice held a sliver of alarm now. 'Defensive pattern! Blade intercept high, talon parry low! She overextends on the diagonal thrust, Void Dash through her! Override the cooldown!'
Lyra unleashed [SOLAR FLURRY], a dozen thrusts in a heartbeat. Doom parried frantically with the Ossuary Blade, the dark metal screeching as it deflected searing light, while his taloned hand batted aside lower strikes, the purifying energy searing his knuckles. [VOID ENERGY: 60%] He saw the opening Ainar described, a fraction of a second where Lyra's momentum carried her blade too far on a downward diagonal lunge. He triggered [VOID DASH], ignoring its natural cooldown. [VOID DASH OVERRIDE: COST 30% VOID ENERGY!VOID ENERGY: 30%] Agony lanced up his legs as raw void power violently propelled him forward and down, phasing through the space her blade occupied an instant before.
He reappeared behind her, instantly lashing out with a vicious back-kick powered by void-enhanced strength. THUD! It connected solidly with her lower back, right above her armoured Fauld. Lyra cried out, stumbling forward, golden light flickering erratically from the point of impact. [HP: 57% - Rising Slowly - Regeneration Cost Doubled by Purifying Aura].
While Lyra fought, desperation fuelled Thorn and Bron. Thorn had crawled to Garret's side, ignoring his own shattered leg. His Stone Guardian blessing flared weakly, a soft brown glow emanating from his hands as he pressed them against Garret's petrifying shoulder wound.
"Captain! Hold on!" Thorn gritted his teeth, sweat beading on his brow. He wasn't trying to heal the flesh; he was trying to command the stone. "[EARTH'S EMBRACE: PACIFY]!" His essence flowed, not reinforcing, but soothing the rabid, invasive earth energy consuming Garret. The jagged stone spikes sealing the wound softened, their edges becoming smoother, less aggressive. The flow of gritty, stone-flecked sludge slowed to a trickle. Garret's agonized gasps eased slightly, the terrifying grey mottling on his neck halting its spread. It wasn't healing, but it was stabilization. "Bron! I need your strength! Buff the Captain!"
Bron, pale and sweating from his own injuries, dragged himself closer. He focused, drawing on his War-Affinity. "[WARLORD'S MANDATE: RESOLVE]!" A wave of shimmering green energy, smelling of iron and oak leaves, washed over Garret. The Bulwark's dimming amber eyes snapped open, refocusing. The flickering stone transformation steadied, the cracks in his stony skin sealing slightly. The sheer agony receded, replaced by grim, battle-ready determination. Garret took a shuddering, deep breath that sounded like grinding rocks.
'Foolish gnats! They stabilize the anvil!' Ainar snarled. 'Finish the light-bearer NOW! Use the Shroud again!'
But Lyra had recovered. Enraged by the kick, fuelled by the Sun's Tear and her accelerating transformation, she whirled. Her Dawnblade wasn't just blazing; it was crystallizing. Shards of solidified light, like faceted diamonds, began to form along the blade's edge and across her vambraces. Her movements became impossibly precise, almost mechanical, devoid of wasted motion. She wasn't just fast, she was efficient. She met Doom's next assault not with fury, but with chilling, calculated lethality. Her parries were minimal, deflecting his blows with geometrically perfect angles of solidified light, her counters landing with surgical accuracy, each strike burning deeper. [HP: 52% - Severe Burns, Multiple Lacerations VOID ENERGY: 30%].
'She's… optimizing! The transformation completes! Adapt! Void Shroud again! Disrupt her!'
Doom triggered [VOID SHROUD] once more. [VOID SHROUD OVERRIDE: COST 40% VOIDENERGY!VOID ENERGY: -10% - ENERGY RESERVE DEPLETED!] The violet mist surged, thicker this time, but the cost was brutal. Blood trickled from Doom's nose, and the Void Sigil flared violently, sending jagged lines of cold fire across his chest. He felt a profound emptiness, a sudden vulnerability. Lyra's light flickered violently within the Shroud, but her crystalline form seemed to actively repel the disruptive void mist, pushing it back slightly around her. Her counter-strike, a crystallized punch to his sternum, landed with crushing force. [HP: 45% - Internal Trauma | VOID SHROUD DISPERSED EARLY].
'Environment! The wagon! Force an error!'
Doom parried a thrust that would have speared his heart, the impact driving him back. He triggered [VOID DASH] its natural cooldown had reset, but his Void Energy was critically low. [VOID DASH: COST 15% VOID ENERGY VOID ENERGY: -25% - SEVERE SIGIL STRAIN] The agony in his legs was excruciating, muscles threatening to tear. He streaked towards the supply wagon he'd crashed into earlier. Lyra was on him instantly, a relentless beam of destruction. He ducked behind the wagon as her blade sheared through the heavy wooden side like paper. Splinters flew. He used the momentary cover to kick a heavy crate filled with metal tools towards her legs. Lyra simply stepped over it, her crystallized boot shattering the wood beneath it without breaking stride.
Then Garret struck. "[EARTHGRIP]!" His voice was a gravelly roar. Doom felt the ground beneath his feet instantly solidify, locking his ankles in stone up to the shins. Before he could shatter it, Garret was there, transformed bulk moving with surprising speed, his Warhammer swinging in a devastating arc aimed not at Doom, but at the ground beside him. "[SUNDERSTRIKE]!" The earth exploded upwards in a deadly hail of razor-sharp stone shrapnel. Doom raised the Ossuary Blade and curled his free arm over his face, weathering the barrage. Shards tore through his remaining rags and bit deep into his flesh. [HP: 38% - Puncture Wounds, BleedingVOID ENERGY: -25% - REGENERATION HALTED].
'They coordinate! Break the hold! Void Rend the ground! Override!'
Doom slammed the Ossuary Blade down, unleashing [VOID REND] at his feet, overriding its cooldown. [VOID REND OVERRIDE: COST 40% VOID ENERGYVOID ENERGY: -65% - CRITICAL SIGIL FEEDBACK] The dark energy devoured the locking stone, freeing him, but the uncontrolled surge backlashed violently. The Void Sigil seared his flesh like ice-fire, and blood vessels burst in his eyes, momentarily blurring his vision. [HP: 35% - Sigil Feedback Damage, Vision Impaired]. Lyra was already capitalizing. "[DAZZLING LANCE]!" A beam of pure, focused sunlight, intensified by her crystalline form, lanced from her outstretched palm, not at his body, but at his eyes.
'DOWN!' Ainar screamed.
Doom dropped flat, the searing beam scorching the air above his head, destroying a bit of his hair. Before he could rise, Bron's voice rang out again. "[WARLORD'S MANDATE: FERVOR]!" The shimmering green energy washed over Lyra and Garret. Lyra's light flared even brighter, her crystalline edges sharper. Garret roared, the stone spurs on his armour growing longer, his movements gaining brutal momentum. The tag-team assault became a seamless, overwhelming storm. Garret hammered the ground, shifted terrain, blocked with his shield, forcing Doom to constantly evade or defend against crushing blows. Lyra exploited every micro-second of distraction, her crystallized blade and lances of light scoring deep, burning wounds faster than his void-healing, now completely halted by depleted Bio-Titherium and suppressed by her aura, could mend. He was bleeding freely from a dozen wounds, severe burns covered his torso and limbs, his stolen trousers were gone, and he was fighting a desperate, defensive battle, his Void Energy deep in the negative, the Sigil a source of agonizing cold fire on his chest. [HP: 28% - Critical Damage AccumulatingVOID ENERGY: -65% - SIGIL INSTABILITY].
Marik watched, awestruck and terrified. "She's... she's becoming something else. Not human. Not anymore." Finn, struggling to stay conscious, whispered, "The Tear... the transformation... she won't come back from this. Not fully." Thorn grimaced, still channelling his soothing earth energy into Garret, praying his captain wouldn't succumb to the stone.