Zombie Domination

Emma stepped forward and drew the heat inward like a furnace drawing breath. Flames wound around her like living ropes, building pressure that warped the air. The smell of scorched ozone and hot metal thickened. "Fey, wrap us. Make the liquid a conduit, not a cage. Guide the blast away from the weapon emplacement." Her voice, while fierce, had the calm of someone who'd already chosen the cost.

Fey's expression hardened. She pushed her liquid into a tight, braided sheath under Lea's feet and around Emma like a channeling river. The liquid didn't merely shield, Fey sculpted it into vents and curves, engineering the path the energy would take when released. "I'll control the flow. Don't let it scatter," she warned, voice taut.

Lea planted both feet, shoulders squared, and took the role of physical dam, ready to punch the concussive force into a focused vector. "When you say go, Emma, hit hard. I'll redirect anything stray. Fey will keep that conduit open."

Emma inhaled deep until the flames weren't merely on her skin but inside her bones.

"Try to withstand this attack with your shell, you damn turtle!"

Then, with a scream that was more hunger than sound, she detonated.

The world tore open.

A white-hot column of fire and pressure erupted from her palms, funneled by Fey's liquid channels into a controlled, jagged jet. Lea's forearms met the edge of the blast like anvil to hammer, slamming the wave and whipping it sideways in a single brutal arc.

Creatures caught in that arc were vaporized or reduced to ash and shredded armor, the swarm that had been a living tide collapsed into a choking cloud of smoke.

The blast hammered the turtle's cracked flank directly. The shell, already fractured and weakened, took the full concussive load. Rivulets of steam hissed as Fey's liquid boiled and then chemically reacted with the foul ichor coating the beast, purple acid eating at the seams.

The turtle screamed, a sound torn from the abyss, then staggered, its legs buckling as the combined assault stripped away a massive sheaf of armor and scorched the regrowing flesh beneath.

When the smoke cleared, the battlefield was a ruinous silence for a breath. Bodies of small mutants smoldered in piles, the turtle lay on its side, breathing raggedly, its regeneration stalled, worse off than before, but not dead.

Emma sank to one knee, chest heaving, singed hair and blackened palms. Lea laughed, half triumph, half exhaustion. Fey let the liquid relax into puddles that steamed on the earth.

Lea's grin only widened as the smoke thinned. "That was sick, Emma, that blast was gorgeous," she crowed, chest still pounding with the aftershock of the strike.

Emma puffed up with pride, shoulders back, as if the flames themselves had told her she'd done well. For a single heartbeat the three of them let the victory feel real.

"Don't get cocky," Fey snapped, sliding her gaze back to the turtle. Her voice was sharp enough to cut through the rash joy. "It's not dead yet."

They barely registered the warning before the beast did something none of them expected: it began to chew. Slowly, almost ritualistically, the turtle dragged its damaged shell toward its mouth and started gnawing at the very armor they'd cracked.

Foam and steam hissed as broken chitin and oozing flesh were torn and swallowed, the act was grotesque and deliberate. Fey's eyes went wide, then narrowed. "What the—? It's eating its shell."

A hush fell over the trio. For a few tense seconds they watched the creature's body absorb the shredded plates, a dark, wet alchemy stitched battered tissue into something new.

The cracks sealed, seams knitting and hardening into overlapping scales that shimmered like forged shields. Heat and steam rolled off the healing flesh as the beast rebuilt itself into a far tougher form.

Fey's annoyance turned into a hard edge. "We have to finish it now. That regeneration, if it finishes reframing that armor, this will get a lot worse." She spat the word idiots at them, half in anger, half in fright. "Move, don't dawdle."

Lea's grin snapped into focus; the playfulness drained into steel. "Got it. No more celebrating." She tightened her stance, muscles coiling. Emma's flame already flared, smaller now but more controlled, a furnace tempered for precision rather than spectacle.

Fey's liquid pooled at her boots, forming tense, coiling channels. Without another word they leapt forward, but the turtle's new scutes glinted maliciously in the light, an armored silhouette rising fast.

Emma wiped the blood trickling from her lip, her flames flickering unevenly around her shoulders. "That damn turtle's too stubborn to give up," she growled, her voice cutting through the dust.

"I'll pin it down with my liquid," Fey said sharply, already spreading her control across the battlefield. "You and Lea support me."

Both women nodded, ready to charge again,

But before they could close the gap, the turtle's body jolted with fresh, brutal life. Its limbs slammed into the ground, the sheer force erupting outward like a quake. In the blink of an eye, the beast lunged, its massive weight deceptively fast, and its hardened claws swept through them.

None of them had time to react. The impact thundered, scattering them like rag dolls. Fey skidded across the earth, choking as her own liquid lashed back at her, Lea crashed into a shattered boulder, dust exploding around her frame, Emma tumbled over the cracked ground until she slammed to a halt, coughing.

For a moment, silence. Then Emma forced herself up first, flames sparking back to life as she pressed her intercom. "Fey? Lea? Are you both still breathing?"

Through the static, a strained laugh answered. Lea pushed herself free from the rubble, wiping blood from her brow. "Hah… looks like we've entered round two."

The battlefield shifted to the second group.

Clarissa's eyes gleamed with focus as her telekinesis pulled the air into a deadly spiral. Dozens of small blades whirled together, forming a miniature tornado that shredded through the sky. The massive eagle shrieked, its wings struggling against the violent currents, every flap thrown off-balance.

"Now, Sefi!" Clarissa shouted.

Sefi nodded sharply, electricity already sparking around her body. She thrust her palms forward, gathering the charge into a single piercing current. The bolt tore through the storm of blades, striking the eagle mid-wing. The beast convulsed in pain, feathers singed, before it lost altitude and spiraled down.

Reimon, who had been standing by with precision, stretched out his hand. A glowing gate snapped open beneath the falling creature, then another, then another, forcing the eagle into a looping plunge, each portal dragging it further and further into a disorienting fall.

Before the monster could recover, Clarissa's knives shifted with a sharp gesture. The swirling blades snapped into a spear-like formation, then shot downward in a lethal rain. Metal met flesh with brutal force, piercing the eagle's body in multiple places. Blood spattered across the battlefield as the giant bird was thrown back, tumbling and shrieking in agony, its wings now riddled with holes.

The eagle slammed into the earth with a deafening crash, its wings twisted and bleeding from Clarissa's blades. Dust rose in a thick cloud, and for a brief moment it looked like the monster was finished.

But then, the ground trembled.

With a guttural screech, the beast forced itself upright, its massive body trembling but far from beaten. Its wings hung useless at its sides, shredded beyond flight, yet its chest swelled with violent energy.

"Wait, get back!" Clarissa shouted, realizing too late.

The eagle's eyes glowed a molten gold, and with a violent exhale it released a gale so fierce the earth itself groaned. A whirlwind erupted outward, sharp enough to slice stone, forcing Clarissa and Sefi to brace themselves. Reimon's cloak whipped violently, nearly dragging him off his feet as he clenched his jaw and anchored himself.

And then came the fire.

The beast's beak cracked open, spewing out a stream of blazing flames, fueled and sharpened by the raging wind. The fiery torrent twisted into a spiraling inferno, roaring across the battlefield like a living storm. The tornado of fire consumed everything in its path, dirt and stone melting under the sheer intensity.

"It's not done yet!" Sefi said, lightning already crawling over her arms as she prepared to push back.

Clarissa narrowed her eyes, knives hovering protectively around her, but the heat made them waver in the air. "Stay sharp! It's even more dangerous on the ground than in the sky!"

The fiery tornado slammed into them with the force of a falling mountain. It didn't just buffet, it cut and burned.

Clarissa's telekinetic knives shredded outward to intercept, but the heat warped the air and slowed her control. A column of flame licked past her shoulder, scorching the skin along her jaw and singeing a chunk of her hair.

She staggered, one hand pressed to her burning cheek, voice tight, "Keep moving, don't give it a target."

Sefi tried to answer with lightning, fists crackling, but the fire found her first. The bolt she launched arced weakly through the smoke. A gust shoved her off balance, embers braided into her hair and the electricity on her skin sputtered.

She took a heavy hit to her ribs from the wind's shockwave and coughed blood.