Skuld barely had time to draw breath.

  The volcanic chamber pulsed with heat and darkness, illuminated only by the flickering crimson light of molten rivers and the eerie glow emanating from Rourke’s warped form.

  Skuld stood up shakily. Sweat streamed down her temple, and her breath came in ragged gasps, but her grip on Phantom Wings remained firm. She flicked her wrist, and wind curled around her ankles, responding to her determination.

  Rourke moved with impossible weight, the ground trembling beneath each step. But Skuld was already airborne.

  She unched herself forward, slicing through the air in an elegant spin. Her daggers shimmered in the firelight, delivering a rapid volley of strikes. With each ssh, gusts of cutting wind whirled around her, buffeting Rourke from multiple angles.

  Rourke roared, the sound echoing through the volcanic walls. One cwed arm came down to swat her like a fly—but missed.

  Skuld twisted midair, disappearing in a burst of wind. She reappeared at Rourke’s side, daggers blurring as she activated Gale Barrage, unching waves of slicing air at his exposed fnk. She danced from shadow to shadow, moving too fast for the eye to follow.

  “Keep up, monster. You’re too slow,” she whispered.

  Rourke bellowed and smmed a massive cw into the ground, sending up a shockwave of darkness that tore across the floor. Skuld vanished again, reappearing overhead and diving into a Skybound Phantom, vanishing in afterimages before sshing him from behind.

  He stumbled—briefly—but spun with shocking speed. A tail-like appendage of pure shadow shed out and struck her mid-dash.

  The wind howled as Skuld was flung across the chamber.

  She hit a jagged rock wall, bouncing and rolling before coming to a stop. Her body screamed in protest, blood trickling down her side. Her Phantom Wings transformed back into Ravenveil Whisper, which flickered in her grip, the wind surrounding her now duller and weaker.

  Still, she rose once again, transforming her keybde.

  Her breath hitched, but her eyes burned. She extended her bdes and summoned another clone, both copies unleashing Hurricane Rend from opposite directions. The resulting cross-shaped tempest sliced through the air and forced Rourke into a defensive hunch.

  Rourke retaliated with a roar, hurling a storm of tendrils—each ced with spiked darkness. Skuld weaved through them in midair, her body bending and twirling impossibly. She retaliated with Razor's Fang, sending homing bdes of wind arcing through the storm.

  But even the most graceful storm has its moment of stillness.

  As Skuld touched down to redirect herself, a strand of molten stone beneath her foot crumbled.

  She slipped.

  It was only for a heartbeat, but that was enough. The air rushed from her lungs as she tumbled awkwardly, exposed. Rourke’s eyes, glowing with crimson malice, locked onto her instantly.

  He thrust both cws forward, and the darkness gathered around him exploded into a swirling mass—a growing vortex of chaotic shadow. It grew, pulsing with red lightning, and Skuld felt the air rip away from her lungs.

  The attack was massive. Final. Unstoppable.

  Skuld tried to move, to summon wind to carry her away, but the spell wouldn’t form. Her limbs were slow. Her bance lost. Her breath caught.

  Time slowed.

  She saw it coming—the swirling maelstrom of despair. And for the first time since arriving in Atntis, fear took hold.

  Then the world cracked with a fsh of silver.

  A shockwave exploded between her and the attack. A violent wave of darkness surged backward, scattering the vortex like smoke torn apart by a hurricane.

  A bck and silver bde hung in the air.

  Kurai stood in front of her, one hand outstretched, her other gripping the Shadow Sovereign, still humming from the force of her ssh. Her expression was cold, unfazed. Her cloak fluttered in the corrupted wind.

  "Tch," Kurai muttered, not even looking back. "You’re not allowed to die yet, Skuld. We still need you to do your job."

  Rourke hissed, raising his cws again.

  Skuld gasped, still stunned. "Kurai..."

  "Recover," Kurai ordered sharply. “I’ll take it from here."

  As Skuld fell back and cast a fresh Curaga spell on herself, Kurai’s keybde pulsed with coiled malice. She lifted her gaze to Rourke, her grin razor-sharp.

  "You like picking on girls smaller and weaker than you?" asked Kurai as she looked upon him like he was an insect.

  “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” asked a clearly upset Skuld at being called small and weak.

  “It means what it means. You are smaller and weaker than him,” said Kurai as she turned to look at Skuld. Rourke lunged forward and attacked, but Kurai raised her hand without looking and bsted the creature with a Dark Firaga, knocking back the heartless.

  Rourke snarled. Kurai unched forward, stopping just mere inches in front of Rourke. “However, you’re still weaker than me, so let's have some fun.”

  Kurai moved like a demon born from shadow and spite. One instant she was then crashing into Rourke with the force of a star colpsing.

  Rourke cwed out, each strike cracking stone and distorting the air. Kurai spun, deflected, ducked, countered. A flicker of the Shadow Sovereign here. A coiled bst of darkness there. Rourke’s massive swings should’ve crushed her, but Kurai was always one breath out of reach.

  She hurled a Dark Firaga, a twisting, crackling mass of violent darkness that exploded against Rourke’s shoulder and engulfed him in a column of searing shadow.

  Smoke billowed.

  Then the beast stepped forward—untouched.

  Kurai narrowed her eyes. “You’re tougher than you look.”

  Another strike came. She parried, then sidestepped the follow-up and smmed her palm into his gut, bsting him with another Dark Firaga at point-bnk.

  Rourke staggered back this time, but again showed no signs of damage beyond some singed residue.

  “Resistant too?” Kurai muttered, nding gracefully on a ptform of summoned darkness. “That’s annoying.”

  Rourke lunged, cws outstretched. Kurai didn’t even blink. With a sweeping arc of her keybde, she intercepted his ssh and twisted her stance, redirecting his momentum with a grunt of effort.

  He smmed into the far wall.

  Kurai remained still, poised.

  “Alright,” she whispered, eyes narrowing. “Let’s see what it takes to break… you.”