Phoenix
The Umbra Savage Stalker lunged again, its claws raking the air with a sound like tearing fabric as Phoenix dodged, barely, her paws skidding across the wet earth closer to the edge of the lagoon. The brackish water lapped impatiently at her heels, as if beckoning her to fall.
Her breaths were ragged, her pulse pounding like a war drum as the Stalker paced, black smoke curling from its body, its glowing red eyes narrowing with each step. She could feel the weight of exhaustion pulling her limbs down, feel the scars of the past threatening to drag her spirit under.
The Stalker lunged forward.
"Phoenix!" Drax's voice—a clear contrast among the pandemonium—boomed from the battlefield before her. But it reached her as little more than a dim hum as they broke the water's surface, dragging her into the depths.
The icy shock of the water stole the breath from Phoenix's lungs. Her vision blurred as darkness folded in, wrapping her in an almost inescapable void. The Savage Stalker's claws sank deep into her fur, dragging her down, deeper and deeper, as if the lagoon was an endless abyss. The light above faded quickly, replaced by the eerie glow of memories long suppressed.
"Why even try?" came a spectral voice—not from the game, but from her past. It was soft, dripping pity over something venomous.
"You'll never be like us, Lillian!" a louder chant echoed, followed by cruel laughter—mocking, sharp-edged.
"Freak," one spat, cutting like a blade.
"Nobody wants you here," mocked another.
Their voices grated against her senses, each taunt digging its claws deeper than the Stalker ever could.
"Lillian—" The echo from her past converged around her like barely-contained laughter on loop. Her name splintered again, repeating. The icy mist from the water seemed to stifle her light entirely. Her avatar flickered, her fur dulling, paws hung limply in the water. And slowly, her instincts—the ones honed to fight back—began to falter.
And then she saw her—the small, crumpled figure of a child crouched at the edge of the vision. It was her—just younger, smaller, more fragile. The girl huddled with her knees drawn to her chest, soft whines escaping her in between sniffles.
Phoenix's breath hitched. No. She wasn't afraid anymore. She wasn't that scared, broken kid who wished she could disappear.
But the shadows pressed closer—both her classmates and their warped reflections cast in dark, oozing shapes. They wrapped around the specter of her younger self, hissing cold, loathsome truths in voices Phoenix almost believed.
"They'll always hate you."
"You'll never be enough."
It all crashed around her, the weight of their words suffocating like the lagoon pressing against her lungs. She tried to run, to fight, but her legs felt like lead, her claws dulled. With her wolf silenced, the darkness had all the power. Clean as any blade, came a voice. "All shadows must bow to light." The words caressed the seams of her unraveling psyche like a balm. "From darkness, the light reigns brightest."
The words reached not her ears but her core, stirring something deep and primal within. A spark reignited under her skin. It wasn't a whisper this time but a howl—her howl. It rippled through her like a flame catching dry kindling, melting through the chains of fear.
Moonlight swelled in the still depths of the lagoon, not dazzling like fire, but something more crystalline—sharp in its quiet, elegant strength. This was not chaos's light nor vengeance—it was clarity, akin to frost coating glass on a winter morning.
The soft glow gathered around her form, glimmering through her fur, meshing with the white accents now streaking her paws. Silver light traced her chest, climbing outward where teeth of cold memory had bitten most fiercely. The faint shimmer then grew into arcs of pale brightness swaying like frozen flames. They melted the tar-thick shadow at her feet with a brittle hiss.
Strength—that's what began to grow in her—a strength unlike anything she'd ever tapped into. It came from within her fractured pieces, binding them, reforging them in silver-lined resolve.
Phoenix propelled through the water on her paws, claws sparking blue-white in the dark waters, chasing away the illusion of memory.
The Savage Stalker's roar invaded her mind with its rage, but something had changed. Her form grew fierce with streaks of icy luminescence, like frost crisscrossing a windowpane. "I'm not that scared little girl anymore. You will not drown me again"
The Stalker hesitated for once, its shadowy limbs sparking pale smoke. But hesitation was a luxury Phoenix wouldn't grant it twice.
With a howl, she tore forward, her silver-laced avatar exploding into motion—a spear of frost and moonlight colliding with the Stalker's curling mass of ink-black. The clash was instant.
The quiet brilliance of her restrained light burned outward, relentless yet elegant, freezing every tendril it touched in its wake. Every sharpened flick of her claws left trails of shining frostbite on the Stalker's surface, sapping its shadow-drenched presence until the creature writhed in agony.
A final shimmer erupted from Phoenix's core before she lunged, tearing straight through it with breathless precision. Moon-bright frost spread outward in tendrils of silvery mist, scarred with soft glimmers of frost that turned the Stalker into purified motes and dropped items. She surged through the water to its now frosty surface.
Drax was already there, towering at the water's edge with his blade raised, his roar echoing across the lagoon. "Phoenix!" he called, his voice raw as he stepped toward her.
Her paws found footing on the frozen patches of the lagoon, and the moonlight fused with her movements, illuminating her sleek form like fire and ice combined.
When Phoenix reached the bank, her allies were staring—Lira in wide-eyed amazement, Drax in utter relief.
"That's new," Lira muttered, a tiny grin twitching at the edges of her lips.
Celestial ice crystals still licked along her fur as Phoenix shook herself, frost scattering in her wake. Her silvery-blue eyes were sharp as the crescent moon above. "Shadows don't last forever."
Her companions watched as Phoenix turned toward the Lagoon Drakes, her snarl laced with icy determination. Whatever came next, shadow wouldn't win. Not tonight. Not ever.