In synchrony with mine, Me're's Chimera Mark lit up on her brow. Wyvern wings unfurled from her back.

  My own wings were already outstretched as we dove toward the cathedral-like glass floor. We sliced through the air. Above us, an upside-down jungle sprawled like a reflection. Our feet shifted into talons as we swooped at one another.

  Me're's claws missed me by a hair's breadth. I twisted midair, backflipped over her head, and launched a fiery [LeapKick] that sent her spinning off-balance.

  Her wings flared, halting her fall. Our eyes locked. She smirked, wiping away the trickle of glowing particles at her lip.

  "This has been fun. But I think this shall make our glorious occasion far more delicious."

  She raised her arms as though for an embrace. But instead, her hands crossed, glowing with power. Summoning circles flared into existence. And from them, two accursed beasts emerged—Skyrawsoars.

  Creature: Skyrawsoar

  — Species: Skyrawltal - Wyvern

  — Sobriquet: "Feathered Wyverns"

  — Evolution Stage: [Emergent]

  — Variance: [Rare]

  — APeX: [500,000] Units

  — Attributes: [Deino], [Wind]

  They were already upon me.

  They snapped their fanged beaks, then slashed their talons at me. I was fast enough to blur away with bursts of [MereSwiftness].

  Again and again, I blurred sideways with [MereSwiftness]. Afterimages cracked and distorted in my wake. The first Skyrawsoar dove where I had stood. Its hooked beak cleaved through the air with a shriek that split my eardrums. The second swept around. Hurricane gales flared off its wings as it banked to strike me from behind.

  I twisted. My talons scraped the glass. My wings snapped wide. The shroud of the [Aera Avatar] coiled around me again. Pale blue aura solidified into that towering silhouette just in time to intercept the second wyvern. Its claws ripped across my Avatar's forearm. Shards of light flared like splintered crystal.

  I staggered but pivoted with the momentum. My Avatar's elbow came down in a vicious arc and smashed into the creature's ribs. It shrieked. But wind erupted from its feathers in a spiraling backlash. I was hurled several meters across the surreal environment.

  I hit, rolled, came up crouched. My lungs burned. My eyes watered from the wind shear and the faintly acrid smell of wyvern ichor.

  Above, Me're hovered. Her arms were outstretched. She controlled the Skyrawsoars with tethers of silver-orange spectral flame. The gesturing of a puppeteer. Her laughter was light and delighted as she focused on me.

  "Oh, they're spirited, aren't they? I was hoping they'd break your bones before I got to."

  One wyvern dove again. This time I did not run. My fist met its beak. I forced its maw aside with a teeth-gritting wrench. I pivoted under its bulk and drove my talons up under its feathered breast. [Spectral Flames] erupted from my hands. They burst through its spine in a fountain of crackling silver and blue.

  It convulsed. It shrieked a haunting, warbling note. It toppled sideways and crashed through the glass floor. Shards exploded in a kaleidoscope of light and vanished into the void below.

  "Mm, that was rude." Me're's voice dropped an octave. Her eyes were half-lidded. "But let's see if you can dance with both at once."

  Before I could draw breath, the second Skyrawsoar dove. The first burst back up from below, wreathed in the burning aura Me're poured into its wounds. Its eyes were hollow pits. They leaked Specter Fire.

  I darted between them. Claw swipes rang off my Avatar's shoulders. A tail whip nearly took my head off. Instead it tore across my Avatar's scalp. Hot particles ran into my eyes. I still punched, managing to strike both with tremendous force. The second one retaliated swiftly.

  I seized the chance. I ducked under the next lunge and leapt with an upward slash. My fist sank deep into its jaw and triggered a frenzy of furious frost. It staggered back, choking on spectral embers. I vaulted over its head and slammed my heel into its spine. The impact cracked like thunder. It dropped in a broken heap.

  The first, the mangled one, still snapped at me. It was driven by Me're's fire will alone. Its body crumbled, but the flames kept it alive. I braced as it lunged. At the last moment, I launched into the air and flanked one of the wyverns mid-turn.

  My Avatar's hands spun with cold light. [Mirrorburst], an echo of force rebounding on contact. The wyvern snapped at me. I let it. My forearm met its jaw. When it clamped down, the triggered feedback exploded through its skull like a shock grenade.

  It shrieked and reeled. It spiraled off-course into its twin. They tumbled into each other, screeching in fury, wings and claws tangling in chaos.

  I capitalized. My body blurred again. I phased through their gusts, kicking off their hides with fluid, impossible combinations. When I emerged, I was above Me're.

  She looked up, startled but smiling.

  "Skyrawsoars," I said through clenched teeth. "Seriously?"

  "Don't act surprised, twin. You knew I'd saved something sharp for dessert."

  She kept those too-intense eyes on me.

  "You're starting to savor it too, aren't you? The way it feels when you tear through them. When your power sings back to you."

  "Enough play," I growled.

  She twisted her hand. She drew out the defeated wyverns' glow into a writhing mass of burning chains. The beasts convulsed once, then split into vapor. Me're absorbed it with a shuddering gasp. The markings across her limbs flared violently.

  Her wings stretched wider, blazing with streaks of blackened silver. She clapped her hands as she dodged my strike. She spun. From her hands came a fiery whip of fossilized fangs that she snapped.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  I blurred away with bursts of [MereSwiftness]. Me're moved with grand finesse as she whipped fervently at me. One strike grazed my leg mid-evade. Just a feather, but pain lanced excruciatingly through my calf like a thorned blade.

  [Spectral Fortify]!

  The Avatar wrapped me tighter, reinforcing my limbs as my feet hit the glass floor again. It cracked under the pressure.

  I hurled a spear of blue flame skyward. [Aera Lance]. Me're yowled in bloodcurdling delight. She spun with unnatural grace to catch it in her hands. She ate the impact. Her lips widened into a grotesque smile before she retaliated with a cyclone of cutting wind. It carved into the side of my Avatar's torso. I endured the impact.

  I had another technique in mind. [Aera Implode]. My Avatar slammed upward, shoulder-first.

  She caught it. The impact still forced her to the ground after I feinted. Her talons skidded across the glass floor. Her wings flared as she tried to counter the momentum.

  My next punch came faster than a blink. It cracked the air. It connected with her several times. I struck across the realm with a flurry of fists.

  "I'll savor crushing you more."

  Her grin widened, bright and wicked. She weaved away.

  "Good. Because I'm done playing caretaker. Either you break me, or I devour you whole."

  She struck. Her claws hooked into my shoulders. Her wings folded. She slammed us together in a meteor dive through the cathedral's glass floor. We plummeted, locked in a tangle of limbs, claws raking, flames colliding, our screams blending into a single ragged snarl.

  Another pulse from her Mark. The ground beneath us shattered and inverted. Gravity reversed again. We fell upward toward the jungle canopy that now loomed like a roof.

  But it was no longer a jungle.

  The trees had morphed. Massive roots curled into ribcage arches. Leaves spread like veined insect wings. Everything glowed with low dread. I spotted shapes flitting between the branches. I was not sure they were real.

  And just as the Skyrawsoars were summoned into this world, a grotesque, hulking tree treant of terror burst out from the forest’s depths. A single eye of green ire locked on me. But the fiend was not alone. Beside it emerged a furious, enormous mass of vines that coiled and writhed with sadistic delight.

  I recognized that fanged Venus-flytrap-headed beast. It broke into a mad cackle.

  Creature 1: Terrotruth

  — Species: Tropiruth - Treant

  — Sobriquet: "Terror Treant"

  — Evolution Stage: [Emergent]

  — Variance: [Rare]

  — APeX: [500,000] Units

  — Attributes: [Plant], [Grim]

  Creature 2: Carnilash

  — Species: Ravilash - Mutant Fly-Trap

  — Sobriquet: "Living Vine Lasher"

  — Evolution Stage: [Emergent]

  — Variance: [Rare]

  — APeX: [500,000] Units

  — Attributes: [Plant], [Hazard], [Evil]

  The Terrotruth roared as Me're shoved me violently toward its gaping maw of splintered teeth. Its huge cylinders for arms swung with concussive force.

  I shot backward on a burst of [MereSwiftness], talons scraping hard enough to spark. I kicked off a fracturing pillar. The living jungle howled as its ribbed canopy flexed under the shockwave.

  Me're fluttered above it all. Her eyes were manic. Her hands conducted swirling glyphs of spectral orange.

  "Run faster, echo. Or let my new friends prune you down to bone!"

  The Carnilash let out a hissing giggle. Its vine-limbs lashed in a blinding flurry, each tip a dagger-edged blossom. [Aera Avatar] ignited around me in cold blue brilliance. The vines wrapped my torso and arms, tightening into a vise that could have shattered mortal ribs.

  Not today. My mind seized on the spatial gap.

  [Phase Displace]. A ripple of my mana fractured space, letting me slip free like water. I reappeared above the Carnilash's bulbous head, my [Avatar]'s claws already forming a savage crescent of cold light.

  "[Spectral Arm Claws]!"

  My claws tore through its crown, splitting the chitinous blossom in half. Sticky sap erupted in geysers of black-green, burning with toxic light. Vines shrieked and writhed around my Avatar. I pivoted with a fluid twist and drove a blade-hand straight through the creature’s eye-node.

  It convulsed, spitting a final acidic spray before collapsing in a heap of twitching vines. They continued to laugh, even as the main mass began to rot away under spectral frost.

  But the Terrotruth was waiting.

  With a bellow that shook my chest, it swung both gargantuan arms in a crossing arc. The impact exploded like a quake, sending chunks of floating ground and glowing debris cascading into the void above. I dove under the first sweep, wings tucked, then sprang up as the second arm overshot.

  [Mirrorburst] charged at my palms. I planted both hands on its splintered wrist, forcing the feedback into its bark. The shockwave traveled up its limb and detonated out its shoulder in a brilliant spray of green light and gnarled shards. The beast roared and reeled back, but did not fall. Thick necrotic vines slithered out to patch the wound.

  Can't brute force it.

  I flexed my wings, diving between the treant's legs just as they stomped down. I pivoted into a low crouch. My nails scraped sigils across the moss-slick floor. Energy pooled into icy blue lines in a geometric flourish.

  "Try swallowing this," I spat. "[Spectral Flame: Virtuoso Revision: Frostfire Vortex]!"

  The vortex was not just damage. It was design. The [Virtuoso Revision] was my signature—my rewrite of the older, raw [Spectral Flame] discipline. Not just burn or freeze. Undermine.

  A ring of sigils blazed outward from my hands. Lines raced like quicksilver across the warped jungle floor. A cyclone of icy blue and ghostly silver erupted. The temperature plummeted. Frost blossomed across roots and vines in jagged fractals.

  The frostfire whipped around its trunk in a spiral, carving grooves into its bark. The necrotic vines froze solid.

  The Terrotruth bellowed, trying to tear free. But the vortex coiled tighter, pulling it into the center with a shriek of rending bark. Shards of frozen sap exploded from its trunk as the frostfire drilled inward. It spasmed, arching backward.

  I leapt through the storm, wings coiled tight. Its central root-core glowed with grim emerald light.

  Perfect. No time to recover.

  [KiAera's Tactical Chain]

  — [MereSwiftness] into an aerial pivot

  — [Aera Lance] forged within my hand, raw mana coiling in screaming helixes

  — [Spectral Arm Claws] reinforcing the lance with fracture lines of dark blue energy

  I drove the combined spear into its eye-node. Thunder cracked. The blow punched through, erupting from its back in a geyser of ghostly frost and splinters. The Terrotruth howled, spectral ichor pouring from its single glaring eye. Then it collapsed, roots curling inward like withered petals.

  "Well," Me're said from above, "I did say this would be more delicious."

  She floated down through the bioluminescent fog. Her arms were crossed. The whip of fossilized fangs spiraled lazily around her like a serpent waiting to strike. Her expression was hungry, delighted, unbothered by the fall of her summons.

  My breaths released in heavy clouds of mist. I rolled my shoulders. [Aera Avatar] still flared around me, frost lining my wings like crystalline armor.

  "You keep feeding me monsters, and I keep getting stronger."

  She tilted her head, smiling with twisted admiration.

  "That's the point, my sweet mirror. I'm not here to stop you. I'm here to see what you become." She paused with a smile. "I would love it if you could survive me. But…"

  Her Mark flared in a blinding heat of silver-orange. Mine flared too—black and blue, answering in cold defiance. [Spectral Flame] laced the air between us.

  The jungle twisted again. The bones of trees bent into crescents. Roots hissed with cursed steam. The battlefield was no longer a place. It was a stage.

  She struck first.

  Me're dove, trailing flame that sang like screaming violins. Her fanged whip snapped forward, cutting through space in jagged zigzags. I read the motion. I triggered [Phase Displace] again—but offset. I reappeared not behind her, but beside her. [Spectral Claws] led with an uppercut that caught her under the chin.

  She reeled. She grinned through the smearing particles.

  "You're learning."

  I did not stop. A flick of my wrist triggered a queued glyph at my side.

  [Spectral Flame Revision: Halo Lock]. A ring of light ignited around her waist and wrists. It collapsed inward with explosive force to bind her midair.

  "[Twin Spectral Dive.]"

  My Avatar tackled her in a downward spiral. My fist ghosted inside its palm, and drove toward her chest.

  Me're endured the impact. She gritted her teeth, then Oni horns erupted from her head. Her muscle mass swelled. She broke free from the [Halo Lock] through raw might. Her living hair caught my forearm as I threw another punch. Her fanged whip suddenly spun up from a fissure, lashing my side mid-spiral.

  Pain exploded through my ribs, but I was locked in. I willed myself to see this confrontation through to the end as I transformed into my own Oni-[Chimera] form.

  My twin screamed back, eyes wide with joy and fury.

  We collided in a blinding clash. Light engulfed the world. For a moment, I felt something give. Her Mark flickered, then cracked. The chains at her collar shattered into drifting embers. I saw fear in her eyes as I burned away those shackles.

  1st Anniversary Prelude

  Hi Chaos Crew! Let's celebrate with an enhanced release schedule.

  Looking back at [C31], [C32], [C43], [C56] brings back memories when the Chimera Fusion was introduced. KiAera has evolved significantly since then. See you all again on Thursday.