Returning right where the previous chapter had left off, Valorie was standing next to the foot of her adversary.
Her lips pressed into a thin line as she thought about the scene at hand.
"Disappointing." She uttered in annoyance. Plain as day.
In the short exchange that had transpired, if one could even call it that, the woman had spitballed the level of speed and power she was dealing with at that moment. And in her opinion, it wasn't enough. Not in the slightest.
Like a pair of beautiful glaciers, her crystal white wings unfurled for flight. And a powerful flap sent their owner gracefully into the air, with enough force to cause a sonic boom in her wake.
In the cyclops's perspective, he was trying to stomp a stubborn insect in one second and another he was witnessing a live Michael Jackson concert for free.
For Valorie, she had jumped up to his face and blasted him with a nameless beam attack. The kind of technique made just to make killing off droves of fodder easier. That one technique that costs no mana cuz it's just that weak.
She'd simply raised her palm up to his face, which she was inches away from at that point, and fired a beam of white energy.
Despite the nature of the attack, its damage output in proportion to the victi- enemy at hand was comparable to the bullet of an anti-materiel rifle hitting a human skull.
In fact, there is little better comparison than just that. Seeing as the monster had ended up with its head getting put in the past tense. On top of taking pieces of the thing's shoulders as well.
With the cyclops dead, Valorie wasn't done with it. Just its head being gone wasn't enough for her.
"The block button isn't enough, I want this guy DEAD." She smiled to herself, like the boss mob wasn't already super dead as is, she went on to throw out a new attack.
Clasping her hands together, the silk haired beauty closed her eyes for half a breath. And when she opened them, she spoke.
"Divine Dividing." Two words, unnecessary to skill's casting but uttered nonetheless.
On command, a spell circle appeared below the cyclops's feet, and a white beam wide enough to encase the entire corpse sprung up from below. Vanishing in a second and taking the headless humanoid with it.
All before the thing could even rock backwards, far less fall an inch.
Still floating where eye level used to be for the boss mob, she was smiling. For half a real time second, her features were twisted into a smug grin of satisfaction. Then her head tilted as if told it was going to rain and she didn't have an umbrella.
"Yeah yeah, I know you said one don't one shot it. But there's no way I'm wasting my time on such trash..." That smile had turned into a grimace, pure annoyance dripped from her mouth with such potency it was damn-near visible as she snapped to her right a little.
A rock sinking to the bottom of the ocean, Valorie dropped to the floor. Her sheer weight alone making her crash landing crater to granite several inches. A crash landing she didn't even flinch for when her feet hit the ground.
"Why are we even walking anyway?" She asked nobody in particular, rolling her eyes to her left before returning her attention to her right, after getting whatever the answer was. "Scenic route? Our man is fucking about without telling us where and you're talking about taking the scenic route?FUCK the scenery"
Letting out a an exasperated sigh, Valorie looked up at the sky, doing that spouse ping thing again. A blink later the information requested hits her brain.
"Two degrees west." Snow white at home chirped before getting ready to take off again, her gaze shifting from dead ahead to slightly off to the right. "I know he's just fine, I don't care, Val, I wanna see him RIGHT now."
The internal argument continued for one more exchange before an outside force broke it up.
"Don't you dare 'Albeon~' me with that Boston accent bullshit, whore!" Another eyeroll, this time smoother, adding her neck to the roll while she was at it.
As she rolled her eyes, she spun on her heel for added emphasis, facing even more away from the other speaker- or at least trying to. Lading to the woman spotting a new arrival.
Floating a few dozen feet away, was a new woman. Her hair purple with frosted tips, donning a violet dress that could be best described as a table cloth and some strings. Laying down on-
[RAPHAELA: ELDER DRAGON OF ANARCHY]
Her own title card, apparently it made for quite a comfy couch with how she was lazing on it. Or better yet one of those air mattresses for the pool with all that skin she was showing.
The words, bold, italicized, and underlined, came in a font Shakespeare himself would've called too much- with how much it resembled that one word a certain yellow undersea sponge wrote for his boating report.
"Who the hell are you?" Valorie asked, unflinching to the not-so-subtle theatrics.
To answer, Raphaela lazily taps the title she laid on with an index finger, grinning as she stared up at the stars instead of the cyclops slayer below.
"Read, dearie." She chuckled, sitting upright with a yawn as her tail, just as lazily, swished into Valorie's line of sight, hanging off of the title card's edge. Mimicking the motions of a grandfather clock's pendulum.
Valorie, having already read the title card twice now, gave it one last glance over. Making a show of it this time as she lowered her neck ever so slightly to do it.
"Yeah that still doesn't answer the question, bitch." Adding her last word like an afterthought
With a pompous sigh, Raphaela slides- no, she slithers off of her title card. Treating the narrative construct like it was a beanbag chair she'd grown tired of resting on.
She'd flick her upper body to the side, letting her lower half follow suit as she plummeted to the ground with the grace of a dead log. Before she met the floor, the elder dragon oriented herself to land upright.
"Say, Valorie, Or should I say Albeon, what brings you to a VPU's pocket dimension anyway? From what I've read, you never struck me as someone to dimension hop just to kill shitters~" With the most smug tone Valorie's ever heard, second only to her husband whenever they'd fought, Raphaela spoke as she fell.
Tail first, the ground and Raphaela would unite for the first time on screen-
Or would it be on page...
Like a gelatinous mass, she fluidly slowed to a halt right when her posterior planted firmly onto the ground.
After all of that, Valorie's reaction as simply looking us dead in the face and pointing her thumb at the woman on her left with a deadpan.
"Oh, right." She chuckled to herself, reaching between the valley of her chest to fish out a case. Opening it and pulling out a pair of thin black glasses before wearing them.
Talk about a magic trick, storing eyewear between one's boobs. Speaking of, that dress did nothing to keep her C-rank cleavage from anyone looking in her general direction.
"They're Bs, blind bitch." The dragoness snapped.
I'm not the one wearing glasses.
"Perhaps obtaining a pair is the right call." She further retaliated, fixing her glasses with a middle finger.
"You two done?" Arms folded, Valorie cut in with an annoyed click of her tongue, her foot tapping the ground impatiently, her waist long hair rustling restlessly behind her.
The Dragon of Anarchy puffed her cheeks with a scoff, turning her head to look Valorie over her shoulder. Indigo eyes narrowed into slits, her toothy grin well-hidden behind those exposed shoulders thanks to that dress.
In fact, the entire top half of her back lacked garments of any kind, leaving her snow white skin bare for all to see thanks to her short hair.
"What You wanna fight, White Dragon Empress?" Raphaela asked with a cocky infliction, chuckling as her hands rose with open palms up to shoulder height. Drastically exaggerating her shrug for no reason.
Sensing the provocation at hand, the white dragon took a step forward, pointing a digit at the other woman.
"Words are cheap." Valorie scoffed back, opening her palm to point all five fingers at Raphaela.
"Can your body cash the cheques your tongue is writing?" She added with a raised eyebrow, possibly falling for said provocation despite seeing it for what it was.
On the balls of her black stocking-clad feet, Raphaela spun around to Valorie. Her Cheshire grin on full display now. Her arms still open.
At the same time, a tiger appeared from the fog, creeping behind the unaware dragoness for an ambush. The purple one, that is.
"I don't know, Albeon, can it?" She giggled bigheadedly, raising her left index finger between the two, growing the Claw by several inches.
That Tiger was almost close enough to strike behind her by then. Already readying itself for a pounce.
Valorie's gaze hardened further, or rather Albeon's. The blue flecks in her red eyes shifting as they zeroed in on their target. Raphaela.
"Don't go crying when I beat you to a pulp now, little hatchling." She shrugs, cracking her knuckles absentmindedly before taking another step. The muscles in her legs tensing under her long pants as she prepared to close the distance. Her wings unfolding as they primed themselves.
To anyone who's seen a dragon in human form, it was obvious what Valorie was about to do. Rush.
As if feeling the tension rising, the very area itself began shifting. The fog receding like an old man's hairline, revealing the dilapidated and deserted buildings of a deserted city. One far past its days of having living citizens. A city eerily gothic and familiar to Valorie.
The weather was changing as well. What was a perfectly clear and crisp skybox, had became that dark depressing year round rain kind of overcast. Shit British people would look you dead in the eye and call "good weather for a stroll" unironically.
Clouds blotted out everything above it, painting everything below in a blotch of downdraft.
On the bright side it also changed the art style from CG to a rugged and harsh black and white pen drawing. Very similar to that one manga about the Dhampir that kills vampires.
On top of that, the wind began picking up as well, playing with the hair and clothes of the two as they stared each other down, daring the other to make the first move.
As for the third wheel, he too was there. Fully prepped for the pounce, the tiger went in on the offensive, planning on taking out Raphaela when she least expected it.
At the same time, Valorie dashed forward, paying the tiger zero attention. To her, it wasn't even there, the predator's lunge from behind was simply coincidence.
With the pincer of dragon and tiger going at her, the Elder Dragon let out a huff from her nose. As if she just found a funny comment on a Neppit post.
In one smooth motion, she would do three things.
With her right hand, she reached for and broke off the extended Dragon's Claw on her left index, then crossed both forearms over each other.
Behind her, she'd launch her tail forward, reaching the fifth appendage for the Tiger's mouth between detaching her finger nail and crossing her forearms.
The tail would grab and yank out the top right canine from the feline. Removing the Tiger's Fang before flicking her tail with it in tow, launching the tooth into her left hand right as her forearms crossed. Tossing that poor animal into the fog never to be seen again.
And like that, the two objects transformed into blades in a puff of smoke. Dual katanas of the same length. With black tsuka itos (wraps) and silver menukis (ornaments on the handle) and tsukis (the ring at the top of the handle). Alongside short black ropess that end with small tassels at the end of the silver kashiras (The pommels).
All of that happening just in time for the estrogen-fueled freight train Known as Valorie Morningstar to close the gap, her hand midway through a chopping motion.
The sword that was originally her finger nail raised up, catching that chop with relative ease and the weapon in a reverse grip. Stopping the attack dead in its tracks while the rest of her body refused to budge.
"Fast." Was all the Morningstar stated as the two held their clash, her lips curling into a smile of her own for once since this whole ordeal began.
Behind Raphaela was a dent in the granite, thank the white dragon for that. The purple woman glanced at her rear for a second, assessing the damage while repositioning for a counter.
She'd flick her wrist and let go of the Dragon's Claw first, sending the thing spinning between the two of them. Throwing an upward slash with the Tiger's Fang at the same time.
"Am I?" She winked with the attack, her glare now fully on Valorie.
Why specifically her chest tho?
Staring at the spinning sword, Valorie prepared for something to follow up involving it.
What came was that upward slash. Which she barely saw coming in her peripheral vision in time to backstep away from.
With some space between the two, Raphaela sent out a kick to her sword. Which sent it flying right for her opponent while she was mid step and therefore midair..
In a precarious position, Valorie found herself left with a few options of escaping it. Her wings, her tail, or her hands. She could just fly with her wings. Or try catching the sword with her hands since she had the time and space to. Or just letting it hit her right in the stomach where it was aimed for because why not.
Valorie went with option C, just face tanking that shit. It slammed into her sternum, dug in around half an inch, and stopped dead in its tracks.
"I'd say ouch, but that high key did zero damage." The white Dragon Empress shrugged before pulling the sword out like it was a splinter and holding it properly. Unfazed by both the stab and tearing it out of herself.
"Is that all you got?" She added with her now signature cocky grin, pointing Raphaela's weapon at its owner.