Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

I decided to split this one in 2, too!

What do you thinkk??

First part:

The lizard took another step toward him.

Raizen shifted his weight, sword angled low. The air around the beast rippled from the heat rolling off its scales.

"Don't let it get bored!" Atman shouted, amused from somewhere behind him. "They start inventing new tricks when they get too much time."

"Working on it" Raizen muttered.

He moved first.

A small pulse of Eon kicked through his legs, enough to blur his step. He dashed in toward the right side, not committing yet.

The beast tracked him.

It didn't twist wildly, like Raizen expected. Its head turned with him, body following half a beat later. The wings adjusted, throwing little gusts that pushed loose leaves across the platforms.

It wasn't clumsy. Quite the contrary.

Raizen slashed for the foreleg, going for the tendons behind the thick plate where he had cut earlier.

Steel met scale with a hard, jarring impact.

The blade bit in, but not deep. Another bright line opened, steam seeping out. The beast hissed and pulled the leg back, claws tearing even more grooves in the wood.

Raizen pushed off and retreated before the head could swing down.

Flame scorched the space he had been in.

His shirt stuck to his skin for a second, then cooled. His shoulder protested where the tail had hit him earlier, but it held.

He drew a quick breath.

Leg cuts. Neck cuts.

Regen, both times.

Alright. So much for that.

The beast advanced a few more steps. The wound on its leg glowed, then began to close again. Knitting. It didn't even limp while it healed.

"Observation" Atman's voice floated over. "You are doing very well at making it angrier."

"Helpful feedback" Raizen said through his teeth.

He darted left.

The platforms here were staggered, cut into rough squares at different heights. Some were connected by thick roots that had been shaped into ramps. Others had small drops between them, half a person's height.

Raizen let his body remember the Arena. The Underworks pipes. The Mountain's broken ledges.

He jumped gaps, slid along roots, cut angles.

The beast followed, slower but relentless.

Every time he tried to go in for another cut, fire chased him away, or claws blocked his blade. When he tried to circle behind, the tail swept, forcing him to jump or get thrown again.

He managed a few more strikes. Shoulder plate. Tail base. Once along the ribs.

They all opened.

They all closed back a few moments later.

Scars layered faintly over thicker scales now. But no weaknesses Raizen could use.

He dropped behind a thicker cluster of roots, catching his breath for half a second. The beast's steps shook the wood behind his cover.

"It just keeps fixing itself" he protested under his breath. "Like hitting something with a healer glued to its side."

"Regenerative mutation" Atman replied, joyfully. His tone held too much interest for Raizen's liking. "Whoever built that pattern overdid the safety. No wonder the bond snapped."

Raizen scanned the platforms again. The ring was wide, but not endless. If this thing broke out of the zone and climbed higher, it could hit quieter parts of the Academy, or even break free in Ukai.

He couldn't keep playing tag forever.

"Any weak points?" he asked. "Tips would be great."

"If we knew, we would not need experiments" Atman answered. "In theory, enough damage to the core structure should overwhelm the regenerative loop. Then it collapses like a normal construct."

"Core structure? Where?"

"Use your braincells, Raizen! It's something alive! It technically has organs and all, despite being made of Eon. Strike at vital points. Maybe at the chest. Maybe the neck. Maybe the skull."

"Maybe you should shut up" Raizen replied.

"Maybe you should find out very quickly. And be respectful." The laugh came back.

Raizen ran a hand through his hair once, wiping away sweat. His fingers shook just a little.

He pushed it down.

"Great. Love the clarity."

The beast's head came around the roots, jaws opening, breath flaring bright. Fire poured out, sweeping across the cover.

Raizen was already moving.

He leaped up, fingers catching a hanging vine. The sudden pull on his shoulder left its scream, but he ignored it. The vine swung with his weight, carrying him above the sweep of flame.

He used the swing to launch himself sideways onto a higher platform.

His boots hit the ground hard. He rolled once, then came up in a crouch facing the lizard.

From up here, he had a clearer line.

The beast turned its head, following him. It placed one massive leg on the platform below his, then another on a root. Everything under its weight creaked.

Raizen tightened his grip on his sword.

He could not chip away at it.

He needed something it could not fix.

"Oohh, no-no-no. You're thinking of something stupid." Atman called.

Raizen stood.

"Probably."

He unsheathed his right sword.

Then he drew both.

The second blade slid free, twin to the first. The weight of two hilts in his hands steadied him. He rolled his wrists once, feeling the familiar, perfect balance.

Gold threads of Eon hummed under both blades, eager.

Not yet.

He looked up.

Above them, the living ceiling of vines and branches existed in thick knots. Some vines hung lower than others.

Raizen set his jaw.

He backed up a few steps, measuring the distance.

"Raizen, you're an idio-"

"Don't care."

He sprinted.

Eon burst through his legs in a controlled surge. He dashed forward, feet pounding across the platform, then kicked off the edge toward the nearest trunk.

His boot hit bark. He ran up the side for three vertical steps, each one losing more momentum.

On the last one, he pushed off hard and reached.

Fingers caught a hanging vine.

His body swung out into open space.

Below, the lizard lifted its head, tracking him. Blue fire flickered at the edges of its teeth.

Raizen used the swing to throw himself higher, toward another, thicker knot of vines. His shoulder screamed again, but he held on, hand over hand, pulling himself up to where the ceiling thickened.

He got one foot onto a horizontal root grown into the mess, then hauled himself the rest of the way.

The whole living ceiling swayed with his weight and the beast's movement below.

From here, he could see the whole zone.

Platforms broken. Slight scorch marks. Training circles cut or scratched into the floor.

And the beast.

Its wings flexed, half open, stretching.

The glow along its spine had intensified. More lines. More light.

"Raizen! What the hell are you doing!? You're going to die-" Atman started to panic.

"I'm not going to die. I think." he called back, breath quick.

He balanced on the thick vine, both blades reversed in his hands, points down.

The lizard shifted again, front claws braced. Its head lowered, watching him with those cracked blue eyes.

This is it.

He focused.

Eon gathered in his muscles, in the blades, along the fine gems of Luminite. He felt the familiar weight of it, the pressure building.

If he did this right, he would hit the same neck gap, but with both blades. All the force in one strike. Enough to sever whatever pattern kept its core together.

If he did it wrong, he would embed himself halfway and then probably die in fire.

Raizen inhaled once, slow.

His ribs hurt, but the pain stayed in the background.

He let the breath out.

Then he dropped.

He fell straight toward the beast.

Gravity took him. The distance vanished fast. Wind rushed in his ears.

He spun midair, flipping the swords forward, points aimed at that thinner line between the plates at the base of the neck.

The beast's eyes widened.

Fire built in its throat. Light pooled behind its teeth, ready to burst.

Then suddenly, Raizen felt as if time slowed down. Unexpectedly. Completely.

He had felt it in the Rust Room when a strike would land just. In the Arena when he nailed the first dash. On the Mountain when the boulder was about to be shattered.

His body knew its own limits better than his mind did.

This is not enough.

The thought clicked in, clear and cold.

He could feel it in his arms, in the weight of the blades, in the shape of the fall. He had power behind the strike, yes. But not enough to crush through the plates, ignore the regen and destroy whatever sat under that living armor.

He predicted the line his blades would carve.

He knew the beast would survive it.

He imagined the fire that would follow.

Too late to adjust.

He could twist. Turn the blow into a glancing cut. Try to dash away on impact and go for the wings instead.

His eyes flicked to them, spread wide, big targets. If he shredded them, he could limit its movement.

Spine. Wings. Legs.

Options flipped through his head in the space of a heartbeat.

His fingers shifted on the hilts.

Alright. Change it. Cut and roll. Survive first, kill later.

He opened his eyes fully.

The world snapped back into speed.

The beast's fire surged up.

Raizen brought his arms down with everything he had.

And the swords went through like the neck was water.

No resistance.

No shudder of plates cracking, no scrape of steel on bone. The blades sank all the way to the hilts, clean.

For a second, he felt... Something.

Not pressure. Not weight.

Just a strange, smooth pull. Like something else moving with him, faster. A shadow crossing the same path in the same instant, too sharp to see.

A thin line of light, same kind of gold light flickered across his vision, not where his blades were, but along the same arc.

Then it was gone.

Raizen hit the beast's back with his knees and boots, then pushed off, kicking himself away as hard as he could.

He tumbled, hit a lower platform shoulder first, rolled and came up on one knee, breathing hard.

Behind him, something heavy hit the ground.

He turned.

The beast's head lay on the wood, a few meters from its body, Eon strands unraveling from the open neck.