In the centre of the arena, Lilac, Carol, Maria, and Tai are overseeing the end of the evacuation when they hear what sounds like a detonation come from the combatants' area. But it's when the dæmonic scream arrives a few seconds later that they feel a sense of panic rise within them.
"That wasn't Milla, was it?" Lilac asks, fearing the answer.
"Not even close," Carol confirms.
Their fear is confirmed seconds later when Rob sprints into the arena and slides to a halt in front of them, his arm clearly broken. "It's taken over her."
"And you left Milla alone to face her‽" Lilac snaps angrily.
"His arm's broken," Carol points out. "He'd be more hindrance than help."
"Backup's on its way," Rob assures.
"They better get here before Milla gets hurt," Lilac growls.
"Ancients dammit Lilac, stay focussed!" Rob snaps back. "Is the place empty?"
Carol quickly looks around the stands and sees the last few spectators fleeing. "The arena is, at least."
"Then we're the last line," Rob decides.
"You mean me, Maria, and Tai are the last line," Carol corrects. "Neither you nor Lilac are fit to fight."
"I'm not leaving Milla alone!" Lilac argues loudly, only to regret the volume an instant later. "Woah… OK, that made me dizzy," she admits, swaying slightly.
"I'll get her to a hospital," Rob promises, using his good arm to keep Lilac on her feet. "May the Ancients protect you all."
As Rob helps Lilac out of the arena, Carol turns to Maria and Tai. "Find the control panel for the fire suppression system and activate the sprinklers," she instructs.
"What are you going to do?" Tai asks.
"Whatever I can to help Milla," Carol answers.
"Will you…?" Maria tails off, unable to finish her question, tears forming in her eyes.
"I'll do everything I can to make sure everyone lives," Carol promises.
Maria takes a deep breath and composes herself. "Thanks," she smiles before she and Tai run off to find the control panel for the fire suppression system.
Meanwhile, outside what's left of the prep room, Milla is slowly backing away from Shade Kitsune as the monstrous malevolent mutant vixen advances while growling and drooling pure Phantom energy.
"Heh… Um… Can we talk this over?" Milla pleads, trying anything that doesn't involve hand‑to‑paw combat with a beast that could kill her with a single blow.
The response from Shade Kitsune is an intense blast of jade‑and‑orange fire.
Milla barely gets a Phantom Shield raised in time to block most of the blast, though she cannot avoid some light singeing as flames lick around the edge. That's a 'no', then.
Let me help.
No! One Shade Beast is bad enough!
She'll kill you.
I'll figure something out.
Will you?
Milla hesitates. …no.
As I thought. Let me help.
Milla closes her eyes. Very well.
Not that you have a choice.
I know.
Milla's eyes snap wide open, her irises no longer their usual jade green, but blood red.
Shade Kitsune hesitates, momentarily confused.
With a blinding flash, Milla transforms into Shade Milla, a mutated monstrosity fully ten feet long, its form that of a primitive canine, but with an oversized segmented tail ending in a large tip faceted with orange and green, and a face that is utterly alien, with one green eye above one orange.
The flash of light angers Shade Kitsune, and she unleashes an intense stream of jade‑and‑orange fire directly at her opponent. Shade Milla counters with a stream of Phantom Cubes from the open maw at the tip of her segmented tail, breaking the beam of fire apart and scattering flames all around.
Hungry for the kill and growling malevolently, Shade Kitsune pounces, jaws wide open ready to bite her opponent in two. However, Shade Milla won't go down easily: she counters with a dæmonic screech that drives waves of intense Phantom energy that slam into Shade Kitsune and propel her backwards straight into the wall surrounding the opening of the arena tunnel.
The impact causes enough damage to bring the ceiling down on top of Shade Kitsune, but the structures above remain intact, meaning the mutated vixen can simply shrug off the debris and charge at Shade Milla, the power of the Fire Crystal boosting her speed.
All Shade Milla can do is hastily raise a Phantom Shield.
Shade Kitsune slams into the Shield with enough for to cause it to violently discharge, catapulting her back at great speed through the arena access tunnel, ripping the tunnel to pieces on the way, and into the arena itself. Unable to control her flight, she strikes the edge of the raised combat ring and is thrown high enough to land in the seating opposite, the supporting structure buckling badly from the impact and the heat of the flames surrounding the mutated vixen's body.
In the centre of the combat ring, Carol, having instinctively thrown herself to the floor, looks up to see Shade Kitsune extracting herself from the wreckage. "By the Ancients…"
Shade Kitsune's ears twitch at the sound of Carol's voice, and she stares directly at the wildcat, her jet‑black eyes burning with malicious intent.
Carol scrambles to her feet and looks around frantically for something to fight with. Nothing… I'm dead.
Shade Kitsune leaps from the wreckage of the stands and dives directly at Carol‑
With an earth‑shaking howl, Shade Milla slams head‑first into Shade Kitsune, the force of the impact throwing them both away from each other to land just outside the combat ring.
Running on pure adrenaline, Carol scrambles across the arena, flees down what remains of the access tunnel, and sprints towards the competitors' entrance.
Shade Milla is first to recover, and after watching Carol disappear down the remnants of the tunnel, leaps onto the combat ring to find Shade Kitsune waiting for her.
Just outside the competitors' entrance, Neera arrives in her personal car, an unassuming slate grey mid‑size fastback saloon that hides a motor powered by crystal energy that makes it one of the fastest cars on the market. Parking a short distance from the door, she emerges from the cabin, retrieves her staff from the back seat, and approaches the entrance door, taking care to step around the deceased guards.
Just as her hand touches the door, it flies open and the adrenaline‑fuelled Carol barrels into her, slamming her to the ground with a pained yelp from both.
Running on instinct, Carol leaps to her feet and drops into a combat stance, only to realise it's Neera she's slammed into. "Neera!" she exclaims, dropping her guard.
"What on Avalice is going on in there?" Neera asks as she picks herself up and dusts herself off.
"Shade Milla's fighting Shade Kitsune in the arena," Carol explains. "The crowd's evacuated already."
Neera holds her staff upright and quickly chants a brief mantra. An instant later, Fire Shields pop into existence around her and Carol. "It's the best I can do," she replies. "Now, let's get back in there and end this before it gets worse."
"Will these shields be enough to protect us?" Carol asks, running alongside Neera as they enter the Battlesphere and head to the arena.
"I hope so," Neera replies.
A few miles away in an unmarked van with a secure cell in the back, Leader Lillith Song receives a message from Rob updating her on the latest developments. "Shit, we're too late: she's already transformed," she informs Leaders Tracy Metharom and Aziza Kyokan, the latter driving the van.
"I knew it was too much of a risk to allow her freedom to develop her powers," Tracy growls, though her anger is not directed at Lillith.
"If it helps, I now regret agreeing to Julian's suggestion," Lillith admits.
"What's done is done," Aziza interrupts, accelerating through the traffic. "All we can do now is hurry and do our best to contain this."
"What if that means killing Hanna?" Lillith asks.
"If that's our only option, then we do what we must," Tracy replies.
Deep in the service corridors of the Battlesphere, Maria and Tai finally find what they're looking for: a small room containing the control panel for the fire suppression system. The button for manually triggering the sprinklers is hidden behind a small yellow panel that Maria quickly rips away, but when she presses the button, nothing happens. "What on Avalice‽ Why isn't it working?"
Tai quickly locates the problem: the key switch next to the button. "It's set to 'Auto' and needs a key to change to 'Manual'. What's worse is it's a type of key switch I don't know how to pick."
"And the one person I know who can pick it is currently a scary monster," Maria replies. "We need to find another way."
Tai thinks for a moment. "What if we cut the power to the control unit? If the system's designed properly, it'll fail safe and trigger the sprinklers."
"What if there's a backup power supply?"
"Then we take that out too."
"Worth a shot."
Maria and Tai dash out of the small room and begin their search for the power supply controls. However, just a dozen feet down the corridor, Maria slides to a halt.
Tai stops several feet later. "Why did you stop?"
Maria points to a small panel on the wall. "Why don't we just smash one of these?"
Tai jogs back to see the panel reads 'IN CASE OF EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS'. "…because we're dumb and didn't think of that."
"Yep." Maria breaks the glass with the pommel of her tanto.
Halfway to the arena, Carol and Neera's Fire Shields are suddenly extinguished by the activated sprinklers that then quickly soak them both to the skin.
"Excellent!" Carol exclaims. "Nice one Maria and Tai!"
"I assume you asked them to trigger the sprinklers to weaken Hanna?" Neera asks.
"It's worth a shot," Carol confirms. "It might even power up your ice attacks," she adds with a wink.
"If it does, it might just be enough to give us the edge we need," Neera replies.
In the arena, Shade Milla's hastily‑raised Phantom Shield is barely enough to deflect yet another intense blast from Shade Kitsune, the flames licking around the edge of the shield and further singeing the already‑blackened fur on the mutant hound's flanks. In retaliation, her segmented tail opens and spews dozens of Phantom Cubes that land scattered around the arena, many of them striking Shade Kitsune, causing the vixen to break off her attack and dodge the barrage.
Shade Milla quickly capitalises on the opening by dropping her Phantom Shield and unleashing a dense succession of energy waves, each striking Shade Kitsune and pushing her back towards what remains of the seating opposite the wreckage that used to be the arena access tunnel. But Shade Kitsune's far from finished: with a deep bellow of rage, she leaps into the air and dives directly at Shade Milla, jaws open ready to bite.
Shade Milla tries to aim her jade waves at Shade Kitsune, but she's not quick enough: the vixen clamps her jaws shut on the hound's torso, fangs piercing deep into flesh. Howling in agony, Shade Milla again opens the facets of her tail, intending to fire a stream of Phantom Cubes at Shade Kitsune. However, she doesn't get a chance: the vixen violently shakes her head as she bites down harder, causing the Cubes to fly wildly around the arena.
Feeling her life bleeding away, Shade Milla starts to panic, extending her claws and slashing frantically at Shade Kitsune. The erratic swipes mostly miss, but a few land, though they fail to cause significant damage. However, they're enough to cause Shade Kitsune to release the hound and back away.
Shaking as the pain of her injuries threatens to overwhelm her, Shade Milla struggles to her feet just in time to see Shade Kitsune preparing to unleash an intense jet of pure flame‑
The sprinklers suddenly activate, soaking Shade Milla to the skin and dampening Shade Kitsune's flames. With a yelp of pain, the fiery vixen abandons her attack and backs to the centre of the arena, frantically looking around for a way to escape the water.
And that's when she sees Neera and Carol emerge from what remains of the arena access tunnel.
With a furious roar, Shade Kitsune launches herself at Neera and Carol.
Neera aims her staff at Shade Kitsune, the crystal in its tip glowing bright blue. "Bàofēngxuě!"
The water from the sprinklers freezes instantly as its directed at Shade Kitsune, striking the vixen and dousing her flames. The vixen wails as she desperately taps into the power of the Fire Crystal to counter the freezing attack, but it's no use: the blizzard is too intense, and eventually, her flames are extinguished.
With one last pathetic whimper, Shade Kitsune collapses, defeated.
Keeping her staff charged and aimed at the vixen, Neera watches carefully for any sign Shade Kitsune will strike back. However, her caution proves unnecessary a few moments later as Shade Kitsune disappears, leaving the unconscious Hanna Skarlett in the middle of the arena.
Sensing the battle is over, Shade Milla collapses with a pained whimper, her mutations fading as she reverts to normal.
Carol dashes over to Milla, horrified by the extent of her injuries, and kneels next to the unconscious hound. "Milla?" she asks, her voice shaking.
Milla doesn't respond.
A wave of despair crashes over Carol. "No… Not again… Not like this," she whimpers, scooping Milla into her arms and hugging her. "Please say something… Prove you're alive."
There's still no response.
Overwhelmed with despair, Carol buries her face in Milla's shoulder and lets the tears flow.
Keeping an eye on Hanna, Neera walks over to Carol and Milla and kneels beside them. "I'm sorry," she comforts.
"It's not… It's not your fault," Carol sobs. "I just wish… I just…"
"I know," Neera replies, hanging her head in sorrow… only for something to catch her eye. Curious, she looks up again. "Uh, Carol, you may want to see this."
Carol lifts her head a little. "See wh‑" she begins, stopping when she notices what Neera noticed.
Milla is wagging her tail.
A refreshing wave of relief washes over Carol. "She's… She's alive!"
"Strength… Bái Shén," Milla whispers.
