Kiego was blown away in the process, sent spiraling in the direction of the punch.
"VORTEX!" the Vampire roared.
An irresistible force took hold of Kiego, dragging him through the air back toward his enemy. The Vampire's grin widened as he prepared his next move.
"DOOM BREAKER..."
He clenched his fist tight. A thick, oppressive weight began to coalesce around his arm—gravity itself, engulfing his limb like a shroud of living darkness.
"MASS IMPACT!"
POW! A brutal right hook buried itself into Kiego's stomach. The boy coughed up a spray of crimson, his lungs seizing as he was launched high into the air. Before he could recover, the Vampire shifted the gravitational field; the upward momentum vanished, replaced by a crushing downward force.
Kiego plummeted. The Vampire met him halfway, his hand still wreathed in that dark, heavy aura. He struck again, sending Kiego flying backward with enough force to plow a furrow through the earth. The boy bounced and scraped against the jagged ground before finally rolling to a violent stop. Blood masked Kiego's face, and his vision swam in a haze of red and grey. He tried to force his limbs to move, but his body refused. Every muscle fiber was screaming, an agonizing chorus of protest against the damage he'd taken.
"VORTEX."
Once more, Kiego was hauled across the dirt, pulled helplessly into the Vampire's reach. The monster caught him by the throat, hoisting him up before slamming him back-first into the cracked earth.
"Look at you, trying to play the hero," the Vampire sneered, his voice dripping with disdain. He lifted Kiego and slammed him down again. "You're weak."
SLAM!
"It sickens me."
SLAM!
The Vampire hoisted Kiego high, holding him dangling by the neck. The boy's feet kicked uselessly in the air.
"This world is for the strong," the Vampire hissed, his eyes cold and murderous. "The weak have no place here. All they deserve is DEATH and BLOOD."
The Vampire hauled Kiego closer, his fangs bared and ready to sink into the boy's throat. Kiego hung limp, motionless but still painfully conscious, watching through a red haze as death leaned in. Suddenly, the Vampire stopped. He sniffed the air, then recoiled, his face contorting into a mask of pure disgust.
"Your blood is... different," he spat, his voice trembling with revulsion. "I have never seen a human with blood so foul. It reeks of monsters." He tightened his grip, eyes searching Kiego's face. "What are you?"
Before he could get an answer, a shadow swept over the battlefield. A griffin screeched, diving through the clouds directly toward them. The Vampire dropped Kiego like a piece of trash and stepped forward, squinting at the sky. As the creature drew closer, he caught sight of the rider perched firmly on its back. It was Lily. A cruel smirk returned to his face. He pointed a single finger at her. "DOOM BREAKER."
Lily saw the tell-tale shimmer of his gravity magic. She didn't flinch. Instead, she spun her rapier in a rapid, blurring arc above her head. A violent gale began to howl around her, whipping her hair into a frenzy.
"AWAKEN... TEMPEST!" she cried. "HURRICANE!"
The griffin dived at terminal velocity, fueled by the magical wind.
"JUDGEMENT!" the Vampire countered.
The air itself seemed to solidify as gravity spiked across the entire clearing. The force slammed into Lily and her mount, sending them crashing toward the earth. Only a last-second maneuver allowed them to bank hard, narrowly escaping the center of the crushing zone. They hit the ground hard, sending a massive plume of dust billowing into the air.
Through the haze, Lily didn't miss a beat. She channeled her magic again. She seized control of the dust cloud, swirling it into a blinding vortex and hurling it directly at the Vampire. He didn't even flinch, merely waving his right hand with effortless grace to sweep the debris aside. But the dust was only a screen. Lily was already moving, using the distraction to close the gap in a heartbeat.
"RUSHING GALE!"
Lily lunged, her rapier a streak of brilliant white light.
"GRAVITY CANNON!" the Vampire bellowed.
BAM!
His brass-knuckled fist collided with her blade. The shockwave tore through the clearing, the ground groaning beneath them as the very air seemed to explode outward. The sheer weight of the gravity sent Lily skidding backward. She hit the dirt hard, tumbling onto her back, but the will of her order echoed in her mind: A Defender must never show weakness. She drove her rapier into the earth to anchor herself, sliding to a halt before getting on one knee. Before her, the Vampire stood bathed in an overwhelming aura of bloodlust and dark magical energy. He was stronger—monstrously so—but she couldn't afford to care. He flicked his hand, sending a second invisible sphere of compressed gravity screaming toward her. Lily caught the subtle movement of his fist and threw herself into the sky, the wind catching her and hoisting her above the impact zone. Seeing her airborne, the Vampire's lip curled. He swept a finger horizontally through the air, shifting the gravitational pull sideways to swat her out of the sky. Lily reacted instantly, spiraling through the air to negate the pressure and charging back down at a terrifying speed.
"WIND DANCE!"
She became a blur of steel and gale-force winds. Her rapier rained down a relentless flurry of stabs and slashes, a continuous stream of attacks designed for one purpose: to keep him on the defensive. She couldn't give him a single second to gather the magical energy required for his more devastating gravity strikes. The Vampire snarled, his arms moving in a frantic rhythm as he blocked and parried. He lashed out with a counter-punch—a strike backed by enough gravitational force to send an elephant flying—but Lily wasn't there to be hit. Like the wind, her movements were a beautiful, deadly display of spins, leaps, and lunges. Every time her white-glowing blade whistled through the air, it released a sharp burst of wind that sliced at his defenses.