V S M A Watery Grave in the ocean of Sand

[Ridley]

The jump to Mesa Roja was long and uneventful. Ridley hardly cared much for the sand-ball, but it was good to get back to business harvesting the desert world’s resources - it’s physical resources, population, and influence alike. The trip through warp-space was uneventful, and took only a few hours for the Dreadnought to make, but Lilith seemed to at least appreciate the flow of unrestricted color and shapes as they travelled through space at an accelerated pace.

He’d been forced to Pick her up and move her to the arm of the throne when a call from Olivia came in, though the little biohazard seemed to just enjoy the rough handling, as the Dragon leaned forward.

“Doctor.”

“Ridley. I’m picking up some strange readings on the planet’s surface. Something valuable that hasn’t shown up on my sensors consistently.”

“And?”

“And, it’s a power-source. The type that could run the dreadnought’s system by itself. But it’s unstable.”

Ridley’s interest was piqued as the old bird’s eyes snapped wide.

“...Continue.”

Olivia gave a smile. “I am convinced its power must be concentrated in a small area, so this might be a handheld device. It’s caught in one of the great canyons, deep in the wastelands. Quite near where some of our maps from the Qiraji place their territory. Its instability might be due to damage.. Which is something I can fix, with a proper sample.”

Ridley raised an eyebrow. “Is the brat uninterested?”

“I am busy with the dozen or so products you’ve already asked for me, not to mention the upcoming robotics tournament.”

Ridley’s eyes clasped shut briefly at that. Robotics tournament. “...Speak of this later.” He snapped to Omelette, who seemed curious, if irritated. “Where will I retrieve our new prize, Doctor?” The great Wyrm asked, before a beeping noise emanated through the ship.

“Another call from a… secret admirer, sir.” Ratt spoke, in his usual irritating voice.

Ridley gave a groan, talons clacking against his crocodilian jaws.
“On-screen then, Ratt.” The titan snapped.

A massive, armored form appeared through a hazy mirage filter that seemed to emanate sparks of what Ridley assumed were magic, as a massive, chitinous form appeared in front of him. The Beetle-like hierophant wore his signature purple robes, his Mandibles clacking causing Liith’s spinte to stiffen as she observed the creature, as she seemed to finally be paying attention to the conversation. As she looked the creature up and down, the look on her face suggested the massive insectoid might be quite to her tastes.

Ridley curled his lip in disgust at the notion. Truthfully, he found the mammalian interest disgusting in the first place, but it seemed Lilith still had new lows to sink to.

“Greetings, Wyrm of the stars. C’thun bids me speak with you on a mutually beneficial matter.”

Ridley simply blinked in response. Sektiliss was a prophet of C’thun, and even from what little he absorbed from the Qiraji in the past, while they may occasionally take a conversational tone, they didn’t call about a few nasty Kodos. No, Sektiliss wanted something, and if he called Ridley, he wanted something big.

“Prophet Sektiliss.” Ridley enunciated, keeping his tone and words deliberate. “Speak quickly, then. I’ve other matters.”

“A warrior made of light and stone, one of Jasper’s soldiers, has been injured in the area. The beast has killed dozens of qiraji in the long war, and possesses uncommonly high power, even for one of her kind.”

“Kind?” Ridley asked, eyes narrowing.

“A gem. Blue as the sea and cracked halfway down the middle. She has been wounded by one of our soldiers, deep outside her territory. He will be sung of, but his spirit rests with C’thun, now. I bid you to track her down and finish his work.”

“Psh, I'll beat down that blue bitch, no sweat!” Lilith volunteered, enthusiasm filling her voice. “No need to waste your time with easy prey, master.!”

Ridley snapped one eye to Lilith, then Sektiliss. “Do you require the gem’s carcass?” Ridley asked, as the thought made sense. He’d heard of these gem’s powers, but he assumed it was some other form of magic. If it was an energy source, however…

“No, merely assurance of it’s death. These creatures’ paltry technology does not interest us.” Sektiliss replied, and Ridley was quick to notice the hidden haughtiness in his tone.

Watch the scope of your vision isn’t betrayed by your undisciplined, flapping tongue, mongrel.

Ridley blinked, and looked to Lilith. “You can kill this creature. But I don’t trust you to retrieve such a small power source on your own.”

Lilith gave a pouting response. “"Oh? You don't want me to do it? By myself? All alone in the desert… Well I suppose if I have to go solo again…"” the acid woman replied, giving a flip of her hair in response.

“Those missiles are large and durable. I need sensitivity and finesse in the final blow.”



"Have I not demonstrated myself? I'm sure you were watching closely. I understand my precision is not to your standards… But trust me, I'm very sensitive." The acidic woman said rubbing along her leader's shoulder as if to convince them. Ridley suppressed the urge to bat her across the room and waste further time.


“If you are pressured, you’ll be likely to fail.” Ridley replied, giving her a look. “I need guarantees this power source will be mine. I will go…”

Lilith looked disappointed for a moment, as Ridley spoke.

“...And you will accompany me.” Ridley stated flatly. “Are we clear?”

"So we're going out? Just us, no distractions?"

“The dreadnought’s rank and file would get in the way on a mission like this.”

Ridley had no words, but for the first moment in a long many, seeing the spider-like smile and visible shiver across Lilith’s features…

Well, the Wyrm finally recalled the feeling known as ‘uncomfortable’

"Of course, Lord Ridley. We'll hunt that whore together. Hmhm… Alone~"

Sektiiss fluttered his wings in the background, a buzzing echoing through the ship’s bridge.

“Then the pact is set. I shall inform my brothers that we have one problem less to deal with, and entrust the matter to you. Naturally, you will be compensated. If that is all, I have no interest in seeing mortals… copulation process-”

“Ratt.” Ridley snapped, and the officer, to his credit, didn’t need to be told to hang up on the Insectoid Prophet.

Ridley stepped out of his chair, and already Lilith was by his side, humming to herself. The old dragon’s hatred mounted at the cavalcade of annoyances, but something smaller brought him joy. It had been some time since he had dirtied his hands personally. It was time to get back in the field, doing what he loved:

Enforcing the natural order.

1,130/5,000 words

 

[Lilith]

“Good afternoon, we're back with more details of the gruesome disaster that struck our kingdom just last night. We still do not have confirmation on the total casualties, but our current estimates report well over a thousand.”

Norman Mackert wore his serious face as he read from the carefully constructed script. Millions didn't tune in to the Arcadian Broadcasting Company to hear his words—the evidence spoke for itself. Nonetheless, he prattled on, chocobo-emblazoned tie and all.

“One of the perpetrators has been identified as Lilith, the so-called Butcher of Hope for her previous involvement in the Nausicaa Incident. Authorities have yet to visually identify her accomplice, known only as Ghost. He is believed to be a humanoid male in his 30s and of a lean build. You can see in the footage here he covers his face with a mask, and can also be seen using a bow.”

The screen behind the news reporter lights up to show the two outlaws caught on camera. For the sake of avoiding offense to the audience, any graphic scenes are censored and edited. Can't go showing the truth in its unfiltered ugliness now. Maintain that fragile illusion of decency.

Curiously, Lilith's oozing visage is also blurred as it doesn't hide her curves. One has to wonder the sort of degenerate freak who would still get off to her like that...

“The terrorists began at a local business, posing as customers before killing the shopkeeper, Roland Hobbs. Hours later, they were discovered infiltrating the military vaults several blocks away. What followed was an unprecedented tragedy; hundreds of our brave soldiers gave their lives to defend us. Unfortunately, they could not stop the chaos.”

As Norman describes the devastation, a surviving witness recording shows the bright flash that ripped through the streets and left a vertical slice.

“...Executor Selendis has issued a state of emergency, presuming that the attack is part of a larger terrorist organization arming themselves for future assaults on the Crossroads. And now bringing you firsthand coverage, our on-site correspondent Layla Longstrider.”

Standing in front of the wreckage is a blonde, short-haired, petite elf woman. “The recovery effort is still ongoing. Response teams are sending every doctor and healer available. Dozens of people are out mourning and praying for all those who were brutally harmed. Just behind me is what remains of the military base where these horrific acts took place. As you can see the surrounding area is unrecognizable, and it could take months before the destructive trail is repaired. But it will be even longer before the public feels safe again. Back to you, Norman.”

“Thank you, Layla. Earlier this morning Police Chief Mannfred Burgess gave a statement regarding the attack. Let's listen to what he said.”

A brawny Rito with bright orange feathers addresses a crowd of journalists. “There is no excuse for what happened today in the Kingdom of Arcadia. And right now law enforcement and the Imperial Guard are doing everything in their power to track down the terrorists responsible for this cruel attack. We can confirm they were successful in raiding weapons from the military vaults and were spotted fleeing the planet in an unidentified spacecraft. These anarchists don't care how much damage they cause or how many of the great people of our community they kill. But as long as we remain united, they cannot break us apart.”

Mannfred paused for the crowd's cheers before continuing his solemn speech. “To all the first responders and everyone helping however they can, you have my deepest gratitude. The intergalactic terrorist Lilith is our priority, and we'll bring her, and anyone colluding with her, to justice. Let me emphasize—this is not one person we're dealing with, but a coordinated group, and they do not take hostages. I urge every citizen to stay vigilant and alert police immediately to any terrorist activity. Please, do not engage them. Always be aware of the closest place you can shelter from danger.”

One reporter piped up. “Is there any connection to the 7th Tyree National Bank heist?”

“We can only speculate their motives. Our detectives are currently investigating potential ties to the Heralds. Whatever the case may be, there will be increased security for the good of Arcadia.”





Tap. Tap. Tap.

A sharp-tipped finger scrolls across the repetitive headlines pouring out from every typical news publisher. Like any sane celebrity, Lilith keeps tabs on all the buzz and gossip surrounding herself.

“Well, aren't we famous?” the hedonist joked to the gargantuan dragon striding beside her, who evidently had a different sense of humor.

Ridley growled. “Just the beginning. Soon, the Crossroads will whisper our names with fear. It is the natural order.” He had to admit, his subordinate proved effective at leaving a vicious impression on their enemies.

“Purrrr~... I'd prefer if they were screaming your name, but you have me for that.”

Ridley would sooner go deaf than hear another word spill from the ribald woman. Luckily, he had an excuse to silence them for the moment. Scraping together his claws to indicate 'Shut up,' he turned his attention to a familiar cyborg on the vidscreen. “At least a parasite would stay latched on, deserter.”

On that topic, Lilith pondered the nature of her parasitic relationship. She and Ridley fed off each other's energy. I signed up to get used. It's no big deal if everyone gets what they want, right? Although, she didn't get the one thing she craved most. Not yet.

Suffice to say, Ridley's demeaning tirade worked the masochist up.

The pirate king‌, however, grew irritated with pointless talk. More so than usual.

Lilith did not consider this. “Wow, you really ate‐ I mean- chewed him out! How come you never talk to me like that?”

Ridley responded with a glare. There weren't nearly enough ways to reprimand his perverted enforcer without them enjoying it.

“Hmph. Hey, speaking of parasites, wanna know the difference between me and a mosquito?”

The dragon’s lack of an answer definitely meant yes.

“A mosquito stops sucking when you slap it. I’ll show ya after we’re done with our date~”

Ridley sneered. Weavel’s betrayal, Lilith’s repulsive remarks, Ratt’s everything. All of it left him exceedingly ticked off. He was past the point of letting the corrosive woman’s nymphomania inhibit his wrath.

“Maybe I should start misbehaving so you’ll have to personally handle me.”

She was asking for it.

“Now that's more- umff!—”

The tyrant’s razor-ribbed tail lunged at Lilith, coiling around and suppressing her by force. In a practical sense, Ridley could navigate the ship's labyrinthine layout far quicker after cutting out the torturous tedium. It was only natural that venting his frustrations brought him a modicum of satisfaction.

Lilith didn’t mind the rough ride. Not the appendage I want a mouthful of, but I’ll take it. As she glimpsed the eerie metal hallways, she wondered if she could fit inside the errant crawlspaces. Probably not, on account of her gigantic hips getting stuck like some cliche setup to a porno.

When he arrived at his dubiously qualified teleporter operator, Ridley wasted no time relaying the coordinates of his quarry.

The jovial and impeccably dressed Teleporter Guy was elated to see his boss, greeting them with energetically outstretched arms as his rapid speaking matched his excitement. Despite his incomprehensible language, he seemed to understand the instructions. After meticulously manipulating a complex machine decorated with splashes of red, yellow, and blue, he produced a small gold ring.

What's that for? It's not gonna fit Ridley.

Teleporter Guy tossed the sparkling transportation apparatus like a coin, opening a grand circular gateway to Mesa Roja's vast arid stretches. Only then did he notice the strange circumstance of the Dreadnought's second-in-command. He couldn't tell if this was a punishment or a reward for the sadomasochist's misbehavior, although for them it mattered little.

I guess if it gets the job done. The spectacle of technology did not impress Lilith. Instead, her mind drifted towards how many people she could get off at once using the rings. Can't do that yet though. Ridley comes first.

Before the dysfunctional pair stepped through the portal, Teleporter Guy asked several things, one of which was “Fuck?”

“Mhh whh hmff!” Lilith vigorously nodded at Italian Johnny Cash's question. The spiny snake tightened its grip around her body in response to her squirming. “Nnhhhh~”

I'm seriously gonna explode!

The moans of ecstasy were short-lived, however, as Ridley was rushing into the portal, carrying the tied up woman in tow.



Severe sunlight bathing his scales. Talons digging into grainy, pliant earth. The familiar environment brought a moment of peace to the dragon tyrant. It would've been perfect, if not for the boisterous, lecherous lady.

Instead of being constricted for hours, Lilith fell onto the scorching sand. The powdery bronze magma immediately set her feet ablaze, but she had better things to worry about than a few 2nd degree burns.

“Haaahhh... huuff... aahhn...”

A sweat-soaked blush plastered her face, although the temperature was only partially to blame. Perhaps the positive reinforcement was too effective.

“Unf. I could get used to this kind of encouragement.”

Now that she thought about it, she recognized a bit of Italian from that guy with the pompadour. You pick up a few things when you've experienced almost everything Earth has to offer. Especially when I've got all this time on my hands. Ah, to be in Italy again...

Considering humanity is the predominant species in the Crossroads, she wondered about the extent of different cultures seeping in. Well, it doesn't matter where she is; humans are just as flawed, corrupt, and selfish as they've always been. But that's why she loved them after all.

“Oh! I almost forgot.”

Lilith set up her camera to conveniently hover behind her shoulder. She didn't bother with a long-winded, drawn-out introduction as she began her livestream. Jump straight into the action, that's her style. “A miserable morning to all you cretins. It's hotter than a bitch in heat out here in whatever the fuck desert this is, but I can't complain when I got Master Ridley by my side~”

The pirate king wore a scornful expression and snarled at the camera as Lilith pointed it towards him. Normally, his crooked gait concealed the full extent of his stature. He was in the spotlight now, may as well present himself at his best. With his wings fanned out and spine bent straighter, Ridley became even more menacing. Or attractive, depending on who you ask.

“Go ahead, give my boss all your praise!~” Lilith fawns over her scaly stud before stealing back the audience's attention, as if she was literally grabbing their necks. “You whores better keep your hands off him! He's mine, alright?!”

Ridley gave an annoyed huff at the overstatement of his relationship. Lilith was committed to their delusion, and absolutely intended to make their fantasies a reality. Ideally, he would redirect that energy towards productive goals that didn't involve him. As for now, he had to deal with predators lower on the food chain.

A subtle, almost imperceptible shift in the air preceded a faint tremor. On the edge of the simmering horizon, within a raging whirlwind of sand, a swathe of shadowy shapes was approaching.

“Hmhm, this should be good.” Lilith was unusually eager to indulge in mindless violence. Sure, I want Ridley to fuck my brains out, but he's not just a beast in bed. We're perfect hunting partners~ She savored the opportunity to spend more time together.

Lips curling into a manic grin, the ruthless woman ripped into each of her shoulders, carving rows of gashes along her arms. Her exposed blood vessels gushed red across the cloudless skies, coalescing into a swarm of droplets above her head.

“AAUUGHH!!”

As she screamed in masochistic pleasure, her skin became white hot candle wax, like vanilla ice cream left out too long, a moaning marble sculpture melting into pitch black ooze.

The dust storm soon enveloped the pair, obscuring their vision. Jagged fins, massive curved blades jutting out of the ground, were circling around them.

The subterranean creatures would not outnumber their prey so easily.

2,022/5,000

 

[Ridley]

The very earth below Ridley’s feet was filled with predators. An unexpected surprise for the space pirate gangster, but a welcome distraction from Lilith’s streaming antics. He fixed the sandstorm around them with a glare, his nictitating membrane keeping his eyes cold and ready. For a beast that flew through space, this was child’s play in comparison.

The first blow did not come for Ridley, however, as a cave burst open beneath Lilith’s feet, and the ground beneath the amorphous entity disappeared before Ridley’s gaze.

No, Ridley observed. It was not a simple sinkhole, nor was the rocky set of spikes emerging spires of stone. The truth of the yawning cave was the maw of a great beast beneath the sands. It held a passing resemblance to a shark, with the exception of its chosen territory.

Vicious creatures, and he would relish adding them to his menagerie one day. This particular specimen, however, had made a mistake: It bared its fangs brashly against a superior predator. Ridley paused to admire as the acidic woman reversed directions, holding up her elbow as she slammed back down into the creature with a wicked grin, and spraying blood and gravel across the virgin sands - among other exotic fluids that Ridley did not bother distinguishing between the sharks and Lilith’s own.

A second toothy creature bit through the sand, headed straight for Ridley’s body, and the Titan stood his ground. His body snapped like a whip, talons and tail in motion, and the Drake Pinned the creature’s maw open with raw strength as he pulled his way into the beast’s relatively fragile maw, white-hot magma metamorphosing into a gout of plasma released from his reptilian maw into the beast’s fragile innards.

The smell was foul, even to Ridley’s senses, but the slacking of the creature’s muscles was telling, as he let it go, the beast falling to the sand.

Ridley’s eyes turned to the side, satisfied with the kill and waiting for the creatures to show themselves next.

The exploding sand pelted him from behind before the muted sound of several tons of sand being displaced in a violent ‘fwoosh’ struck his ears, and it gave him just enough warning to dive into the air before a second predator struck from behind, cresting from below the sands and showing him the void-filled stare of a shark - one not native to Opealon’s waters, but Mesa Roja’s sands. And far larger than even Ridley himself in its full bearing, twice as long as the Drake was tall.

Ridley countered with a plume of singing plasma, but the creature had already thrown itself back into the ground, dodging his counter-attack by sailing back into the ground beneath.

The dragon glared, blasting at the beast with another stream of plasma, but the indent in the sand had already disappeared. The desert defied him, shielding the creature below from the melting temperatures and igniting his frustration instead.
The sound of sand blasted in every direction made him turn in time to see another one of the beasts - this time, flinging itself into the air with a frightening speed, and now he could see the full beast in the flesh. The shark's eyes were ebon gems, reflecting the desert sun with coal-black eyes, and its body was made of rock as much as skin, covered in rocky armor. A blast of green acid shot from the beast’s maw ahead of its strike, speeding like an arrow through the sky.

Ridley corkscrewed out of the way as the acid burst filled the air behind him. His eye barely caught a glimpse of the creature as it accelerated, moving through the air at superspeed as it flew back into the sands in the blink of an eye.

The dragon curled his scaled lips in disgust, as more fins bulged from the sands, all swirling around his position. They knew his position in the air, and it did not prevent their attacks.

The beast chose not to move then, hovering in place. If they wanted a look, he’d show them exactly what they were looking for.

For a moment, they kept circling, heedless of Ridley’s glare, or of Lilith’s impatient posture.

“Hey! The hell! I thought you wanted to brawl! What, not tasty enough for ya… well, I guess I can understand being distracted by Ridley. I want to devour him too, but specifically his-”

Ridley roared his challenge to the beasts below him, both to call his enemies forth, and to drown out Lilith’s next sentence with a screech loud enough to split eardrums for a thousand yards.

The Beasts answered by striking from below with a spray of exploding sand, striking from below. For most, a natural blind spot.

For Ridley, it was his best angle.

The sound of a whip screaming through the air rang through the air for miles as Ridley struck, the Speartip cutting through the Shark in an explosion of gore, combusting the shark with it’s own force used against it, as it fell dead to the sands below.

Ridley glared his eyes to those desert sands, and opening his mouth, spewed a blaze of charged plasma at those closer to the surface. Where before, he had given a puff of flame, a breath of fully charged flame buffeted the windswept sands now, and while several shapes retreated through the sands, several others stopped, slowly sinking as the sharks beneath the sand were baked alive.

The savage beast roared his triumph for all to hear across the desert, before landing.

“...Fucking Hot.” Lilith was quick to comment.

---

As Lilith had warned him, the creatures were mostly stone and sediment on the outside, and even in much of their insides. To the average creature, they were practically inedible. Ridley and Lilith hadn’t much issue, with Lilith able to simply absorb what she chose, and Ridley simply leveraging his talons and tails to sort flesh from stone.

The consumption was messy, bloody, and without any sort of gusto as Ridley tore piece after piece from the shark’s stomachs, pulling the jaw open and breaking the dead beasts apart to eat the delicious flesh contained within. Blood flowed from his jaws as he ate with no thought for pleasure, merely speed - after all, this was merely a pitstop.

“You look so ravenous when you eat!” Lilith coo’ed, consuming her own batch of flesh with no more gusto.

Ridley hated the fact this moment had to be shared with Lilith, in many ways. Eating was his alone time, had been the space pirate’s alone time for decades, the point where the distractions of the world fell away and the Predator could simply indulge his instincts. Lilith was, at this moment, an intruder. For almost any other creature, even Olivia, he would have simply bid them to shove off, but Lilith required nutrition, they lacked time… and with her recent displays, he had gained a respect for her position as predator.

Though if she got any closer to his food than she already was, she would quickly earn the position of unwanted scavenger, and Ridley would make sure she never made that mistake again.”

“Little overcooked.” Lilith complained, consuming her portion with a disappointed sigh as Ridley gave no indication that he’d heard her earlier comment, as she dug into her shark, hungrily consuming it voraciously, using her acid and her teeth both.

Ridley paused at that, tail slicing across the desert sand as the thought entered his head, a line traced across the sand.

“Agreed.” The beast replied. “This is merely an appetizer.”

Lilith’s eyes shifted up and Ridley noted a difference in her stance, shoulders stiffening as her eyes gained a predatory look befitting someone he’d selected for his personal hammer.

“Riiight. The watery bitch, right?”

“The gem.” Ridley notes. “Power over water, but light in a fake shape.” Ridley will note. “Formidable.”

“Against the two of us? Please. She’s probably not even strong enough to kill one of us apart, let alone both together”

Ridley’s eyes narrowed.

“This is no brawl. It is a hunt. She is prey. But she has protectors well within reach. Catch and strangle.” Ridley will snarl. “I’ve no interest in immediately earning the ire of her brethren.”

Lilith leans in. “Just immediately? So, ya planning some sort of war with these creatures?”

Ridley gave a shark’s grin. “The gems do not produce items of value.” Ridley replied, looking to make sure they were alone, his eyes tracing the cave. “They make no treasure, their soldiers tend to be emotionally unstable wrecks, they lack interest in any form of compromise, and have no goals beyond destroying all who are not like them. The Qiraji see the value of allies, they only desire this dusty rock. Compromise is pathetically easy.” Ridley replies with a hiss, yet a silky, softer tone seemed to echo in his rasping words. “These gemstones are only less dangerous than Darkseid in that they lack any form of competence or coherence in comparison.”

“Hoo-hoo, we talking full-on genocide, boss? Taking out the whole set?”

Ridley’s eyes narrowed, as he took in Lilith’s words, and for a moment, it seemed he would explode… before that grin returned in full, the tone of a preening bird echoing in his words.

“To the gem.”

Ridley’s gaze turned heavenwards, cocking his head to one side as coordinates were softly echoed. “Now, the doctor has given me a location. If your thirst is sated, climb aboard.”

Lilith didn’t need to hear Ridley say it twice before the woman practically threw herself on the Dragon’s back. The God of Death could only hope the journey would pass quickly, as the irksome parts of his war dog resurfaced like a nagging canker.

------

To Ridley’s surprise, he hardly needed to bother with the Doctor’s coordinates. The trail of breadcrumbs the little gem was leaving were teeming in number, a trail obvious enough for even an average hunter. Forget his nose, Ridley simply needed to use his eyes.

Yet perhaps this was on purpose, for what was left for others to find left its grim warning echoing through the sands. A procession of the Ahn-qiraj’s finest. Mighty gladiators, Magic-wielding Prophets, Battleguards, Silithid Wasps like a swarm of ants… all crushed and scattered.

This was clearly a warning to intimidate the weak, and it gave Ridley some idea of how this creature hunted. Most of them had lashing across their bodies - a whip-like strike, at least for the chaff. Others seemed bloated with water, drowned from within. Yet others were simply crumpled, carapace popped and left staining the sand.

Ridley lacked any interest in autopsy, but as they flew through the canyon, it gave him some idea of the level of savagery they would encounter within.

The trail - and the doctor’s coordinates - eventually lead Ridley to his goal - a cave in the middle of the canyon. Inaccessible on foot - at least, to a human. This was a perch fitting for something with wings.

Ridley’s eyes narrowed as he dove, heedless of Lilith's desire to wrap herself tighter around his neck as he accelerated full speed into the cave.

Dust and stone was sent scattering as he erupted into his landing, the dark cave ringing with his rough approach. The silence and darkness of the cave was suffused with a dark orange as plasma fell from Ridley’s drooling maw.

The shining sparkle of an azure gem was the only warning given to Ridley, and it was woefully insufficient.

Water jetted out from all directions, crashing down on the pair in a sea of spears from all sides. Lilith gracelessly flopped out of the way with a sick smile spread across her face, while Ridley slapped the worst of it off with the unfurling of mighty wings, slapping the deadly liquid away with one sweep of the armored membrane. Ridley retorted with a snarl and a curtain of flame, engulfing everything in front of him in plasma.

The little Gem didn’t stay in front of him, however, floating up and above the giant’s head as she struck with a swarm of stinging darts of water, raining them down on the hunting pair from above, the slicing needles digging into Ridley’s flesh and slicing through a good chunk of Lilith's left arm. The giantess was not amused, unblinking at her own damage, but narrowing her eyes on seeing Ridley’s new scrapes and cuts.

“Oi! Get your watery mitts off my Ridley!”

Lilith thrust her arm forth like a spear, and the water elemental narrowly dodged a lance of blood headed for her neck. The next volley was complimented by a swarm of plasma spheres, covering the area in fire.

The Gem’s face was finally visible, and it bore the anger and terror of a cornered rat. Streaking through the air with surprising velocity, she dove for the cave entrance, but Ridley was not interested in a long chase. With a roar of challenge, he leaped in front of the cave entrance,, blocking the way with his body.

He may not have a way to pursue her in the cave itself, this way, but that was what Lilith was for. And while his dog was disobedient, crude, lustful and petty, she understood ‘Catch’ quite well.

2,223 words in post.
3,363/5,000 words for the quest.

 

[Lilith]

Lilith was ecstatic to serve as Ridley's personal weapon, salivating at the opportunity to perform in front of her master.

Acting on instinct, the feral woman prowled between the scaled titan's legs like a desperate pet begging for its owner's attention. A reptilian pupil shifted down, seeming to oblige the submissive fiend, if only out of necessity. Lilith strummed her fingers along the dragon's thigh, pallid pink lips contorting into a cruel smile drained of all life, warmth, and empathy.

“I'm gonna put on a good show, just for you Master.”

She turned to face her prey, an azure glint burning in the mantle of her scorching eyes. This wounded animal was looking for a way out, but Lilith would give them no escape from their inevitable execution.

“Come on, we're just getting started!” Swathes of blood were swirling around her like metal to a magnet, a filthy concoction collected from corpses and her flowing wounds. She dashed forth, a sickening tsunami surging at the Lapis Lazuli gem.

The lithe blue lady soared to the cave ceiling, storming the pale woman with a cascading monsoon. Her enemy's reckless assault perplexed her, yet she had no time to discern their true intent. Her main priority was ending this quickly.

Lilith strafed through the high pressure water barrage with unnatural finesse, veering in ways that shouldn't be physically possible. Though a myriad of glancing blows sliced open her limbs, she never lost her momentum. Rather, the exposed flesh amplified her lethality, every bloody rivulet writhing behind the airborne gem and weaving into a cluster of thorn-coated whips.

THWICK

The red tendrils stop short of skewering the Lapis, shuddering at the two forces competing for control.

“Hey, whadya think you're doing?! That's my blood!” clamored Lilith. Damn it! Blood is basically half water. But now that she's distracted…

“Your vulgar methods won't stain me, organic,” spat the Lapis, rapidly severing the stagnant blood whips.

“If that's your problem, how about I slip into something more comfortable?” Lilith's skin sloughed off like viscous white paint before morphing into bituminous sludge, her vile aspect neither alive nor lifeless, but something in between.

Realizing the futility of retaliation, the Lapis cleaved through the hemokinetic projectiles, only to find another obstacle caging her in. The pool of blood beneath her sprouted into a column of razor wire webs, halting her from retreating further into the cave. Flying around wasn't an option—the blockade mirrored her movements. She desperately sliced away with a flurry of watery blades, red shrapnel scattering into the air, yet the tangled mass continued to expand.

“Leaving so soon? I haven't gotten to the best part!” The tar-bound giantess trudged forward, her body reconstructing itself like slimy black clay while she weaved her trap. Of course, the defiant gem would break through eventually, but now their only option was to confront Lilith.

“Qiraji scum, colluding with other subspecies bastards…” The Ahn'Qiraj could only defeat a gem with help from different piles of cells. The Lapis took comfort in this knowledge. Pride unwavering, her revulsion and vitriol fueled her as she blitzed the corrosive aberration, bombarding them with a torrential downpour.

However, the righteous rain couldn't cleanse Lilith's depravity. “GEHAHAHAH! HARDER, HARDER!!” The masochist reveled in her well-deserved retribution, confident she'd win this battle of attrition as her body congealed faster than it splashed apart. Though the gem's onslaught kept her at bay, she was more than content to watch her prey dance across the suffocating hole.

This couldn't go on much longer. The Lapis evaded the swarm of blood tendrils only by the narrowest of margins, while her monstrous enemy showed no signs of relenting. A gem's mineralized frame is far more durable compared to the squishy exteriors of other lifeforms, but they are slow to regenerate. The dragon's pawn must've known this, and thus planned to chip her down. Yet it was shortsighted to assume their trap had no weaknesses.

After all, their duel was causing considerable collateral damage.

“ARE YOU WATCHING ME, MASTER?!” The mere idea of Ridley analyzing Lilith's every move sent her into a feverish hysteria. The spotlight was on her; she would not disappoint. Rotten grin etched into her face, she lurched at the gem, swinging her arm wide and spraying a massive glob of acid. For a moment she was obscured, and in that second of uncertainty, she pounced like a panther in the dark.

Slash! The Lapis countered just in time, knocking the wicked woman into the stony ceiling. But the exchange left her contaminated. Blistering black blots sprinkled across her front, disgracing her solid blue complexion. “Augh!” It didn't matter. Soon she would be free of this torment.

“I CAN'T WAIT TO BREAK YOU!” Lilith excessively spilled acid everywhere she walked, and the roof of the cave was no exception as she now stood upside down. Ridley ordered her to hold back, but she embraced the gem's persistent struggle to survive. Although a living jewel wouldn't sate her appetite, the sadist would savor their emotions all the same. Master wants to see my skills, right? Bringing victims to the brink of death?

Rrrrrumble…

The sandy earth surrounding the raging battle began to tremble. Chunks of rock hailing from above heralded the imminent destabilization of the cliff side.

The Lapis fully expected this result, her ferocious deluge purposefully targeting the environment, fortunately aided by the acidic behemoth's rampant destruction. Lilith had outmaneuvered her once before, but her defense remained adamant. She had Jasper's rigorous training to thank for that. With the walls quaking and collapsing, she prepared to—

“SKREEEEEAAAAWWW!!”

A deafening screech signaled Ridley's forceful lunge into the cave, joining his head enforcer in the hunt. He rushed for the puny gem, the destructive fight leaving ample room for a dragon of his size, smashing and plasma blasting the falling debris in his way. His approach roused Lilith into action as she plunged from the crumbling roof and launched a shower of bloody needles. The two predators together were a fearsome combination, ensuring their target's demise.

Surrounded, a colossal beast closing in on either side. If the Lapis could barely hold her own against one, she had no hope of conquering both at once. Then, her only choice was to pour every ounce of her willpower into a last resort. Whatever it takes, she will return to the colony.

“HRAAGH!!”

Cerulean light bathed the gem's eyes as a pillar of scalding water enveloped her, flooding the area and spiraling into a teal tornado. The villainous pair thrashed against the enormous whirlpool, but it swept up and hurled them away. Splintering apart into thousands of fragments, the ground revealed her liberation from death—a chasm into the desert's depths. When the turbulent vortex subsided, there was no trace of her.

Neither of the WYVERN commanders wasted time tailing their quarry. Ridley took the lead, diving headfirst into the pit. As he crash landed at the bottom, he glimpsed a blue dress rounding the corner of a tunnel. The small entrance was inconsequential. Compressing his gaunt form, he wrenched his claws into the rocky passageway, clambering towards the gem's scent.

The Lapis heard the gargantuan creature's pursuit growing louder behind her. A glance over her shoulder, she witnessed its awful head and an effulgent orange glare radiating from its maw. Nowhere to hide, but she suppressed the plasma blasts by filling the cramped corridor with water barricades. The dragon, however, didn't slow its savage charge. It steadily gained distance on her, closing the gap a little more with every explosive sphere. The tunnel she sought refuge in was swiftly coming to a dead end.

Up to this point she had maintained her composure. Now, terror pervaded her.

Sand and sediment bursted out as Ridley chased the elusive gem into a wide cavern. The rhythmic flares of the dragon's plasma breath shimmered against the stalactites and stalagmites lining the bleak chamber. His prior passivity gave him the insight to predict the gem's tactics and a thorough list of vulnerabilities to exploit. The hedonist's impetuous techniques yielded results, and ultimately that's what counted.

Lilith's mind wandered off in a different direction as she caught up to her boss. Wow, Master is great at fitting into tight spaces! She could've joined in on the fun immediately, but she decided to stay on the sidelines and spectate first. Hunting together with her scaly lover, she had no need to conjure up a fantasy—she was experiencing it firsthand. Instead, she reminisced about the day they first met. Aahhhh~…

Her attention snapped back to the present as she became fully enraptured by the pirate king. Even covered in scars, the dragon's physique remained impressive as ever. The focus was off her currently, but how could she use that to her advantage? Lilith racked her brain for a solution. Something she wouldn't anticipate…

She devised a satisfyingly sinister plot. Hmhm. You believe you're above everyone else? I'll drag you down to my level.

As Ridley bolted through the air, a salvo of water bullets tore into his hide, talons meant for the gem grinding into a column of gravel. The boiling blood dripping out didn't go to waste, however. Lilith harvested the precious liquid, marveling at it like she would an exquisite piece of meat. Pushing her carnal urges aside, the searing lava seethed with latent strength. All it needed was a stroke of the fire. The profaned woman's cursed essence served as kindling for the blazing energy, the unholy coalescence sizzling scarlet as she harnessed it.

“Hey water bitch, let's mix fluids!”

The coruscating eruption of blood lashed out at the Lapis, striking its mark. Her once reliable wings betrayed her, tainted by the corrupt substance. Transforming into a pair of spikes, they stabbed into and incinerated her shoulder blades, sending her spiraling into the floor.

THUD

There was no room for hesitation. Like a hawk to a rodent, Ridley swooped in to snatch the crippled gem, ready to crush them in his grip. Though robbed of elegant flight, their pathetic scrambling proved enough to avoid the killing blow. No matter. A bird with clipped wings was as good as dead. His tail swept their legs and knocked them over, before priming a thrust at their neck.

KLSSHHH

3,734/5,000
Used 1/3 Focus to superheat Ridley's blood

 

[Ridley]

The gemstone. A power source. A person. A fully realized AI with as much sentience as a regular, common human, affixed with all the complexity of a real, breathing creature.

It amazed the Dragon to witness all of that useless detritus built around a wonderfully built, self-sustaining power source, and a perfect hard light generation system. A robot built to feel fear and pain and outrage. A disobedient android which lacked respect, efficiency, hierarchy or purpose.

Ridley’s tail speared through the air, missing the lapis’s neck by a small margin, before coiling, catching the little gem in the process, and crushing her waist.

“Y-you… beast. Let… let go of me-!”

A grin came across the beast’s features. The mix of fear and anger, of disgust and disbelief on her features.

She looked nothing like Samus. Nothing like Miyamoto Musashi. But the thoughts of both of their faces screwed up into the same miserable expression, crushed in his grip… yes, this little pebble made for an acceptable substitute. For now.

The dragon’s normal expression of hatred transfigured into a horrific expression - far more wicked, far more ravenous. Ridley smashed the helpless gem against the nearby cavern wall with all of his considerable might, coiling his tail tighter.

The gem was durable, but the drake’s strikes were manic, Claws cutting a lightning-fast trail of scratches and cuts across the hard light surface. His talons felt like they were cutting against stone with each strike - but they were making headway, covering the gem’s body in unbleeding wounds as she was systematically stripped of her fake flesh.

The Lapis struggled in his grasp, blue light shining in her robotic eyes, and Ridley idly wondered if this was how she showed pain.

Magma spilled from his maw as he decided to test that theory with a charged burst of plasma.

But the Lapis had other plans.

“Let! Go!”

Blue light shone outwards from the gem’s body like a star, an azure explosion of icy light blasting out from the gem, catching Ridley off-guard and smothering his fire with an explosion of water.

Water that immediately froze into solid spikes, A solid sphere of ice forming around the gem - and, as pain filled him like a thunderbolt running through his entire body, he could just barely hear the gem’s snarl.

“You were warned!”

Pain flooded his body, as ice flooded into every pore, the scream in his throat dying as it too, was submerged. From within his frozen hell he could still see - couldn’t blink - and watched as even the rock gave way to ice, the light of day striking his coffin as he struggled. The world was hazy as the shock to his organs ran through his body.


But then he heard her.

“Ridley!” Lilith snapped from somewhere, and the world started to turn again. “I’ll get you out of this, and then we can go after that bitch!”

The fire in Ridley’s stomach re-ignited just as his mind whirred with hate. The pain reasserted itself twice as badly as he forced muscles to move, but it meant nothing compared to his hatred. That little parasitic rock had managed to trap him. And now, his subordinate was trying to rescue him.

From that little samurai bitch.

The Icy prison melted as Ridley’s heat filled the chamber, and Ridley Screeched as plasma spewed from his body, leaving a trail of boiling water as the frost turned to a wave of boiling water - one even Lilith was careful not to catch herself in.

“Help with something like this?!” Ridley spat, slamming one talon down on the cavern floor hard enough to cause the Cavern to quake. “Don’t make me retch!”

“Ooooh! Why don't you get this hot and heavy with me? I love seeing you like that!” Lilith cooed.

Ridley’s tail sawed through a nearby boulder, flicking through the rock like a whip through butter. The two stones struck the nearby wall with a resounding crash.

“Where! Is! She!”

---

Minutes later, outside of the canyon walls, Lapis Lazuli took a deep breath for the first time in what felt like forever as her wings sputtered into puddles, gasping on the Cliff she’d flown up to.

It took a few seconds to register that she’d managed to get away, had finally rid herself of those two living nightmares, and it was only a few seconds longer that she could give a panicked, jubilant laugh at the thought.

She was free of their grasp, and soon, the moment Jasper found her, she’d be able to return to the fold! She’d get her gem fixed, so the pain would stop reverberating through her being, and she’d finally be around gems again. Protective comrades that actually had a depth of character, a level of reserve.

Not like these filthy organics.

The Lapis inspected the top of the cliff face with a cautious smile on her face, her blue dress billowing amidst the sea of sand. A beautiful planet that she now saw was tainted by organic scum.

It had only been a week ago that her patrol had first headed out, and only a week since she’d told off Citrine for being harsh on the organics. She’d learned much of Karim from reading, from studying, from talking with others, and everything she’d learned…

Well, it certainly hadn’t aligned with Jasper’s ethics. That was for certain. They seemed to be able to build themselves up culturally. They were much weaker, much harder to keep alive than a gem, but they were so innovative with how they got around that! And, foolishly, Lapis Lazuli had suggested to Citrine that maybe they should be looking at making some treaties - not wasting gems in a foolish crusade, but pushing their civilization forward in new directions!

That was before the bugs.

Lapis placed her head in her hands.

Citrine, the Rubies, and Lapis herself. The frail things they sent after them, the Silithid, she dimly remembered being briefed on by Citrine, were almost without limit. They easily killed dozens, and watched them be replaced by hundreds more without missing a beat.

Citrine had dug herself into the thick of the fighting, with the Rubies ready to watch Lapis’s back, and for a while she’d felt - invincible. The exhaustion was getting to them, but the Silithid’s number thinned.

The gem put a hand to her milky eyes.

That had been her first mistake, and on her first mission. Citrine had told her before the mission to watch out, that the Silithid were a tool for the Qiraji to control the position of their enemies and single out targets.

Citrine was the one who had seen the trap coming, and when it was sprung, that big, stupid, wonderful quartz had thrown herself in the way of the incoming dark magic - magic that had ripped her gem apart at it’s core!

She’d almost broken then, if not for the Rubies, standing by her side despite her weakness. Still protecting her, despite what she’d caused. Insisting Citrine wouldn’t have wanted her to break down and lose it all here. They’d killed the beetle-like ‘prophet’ that the Qiraji had sent, but Lapis had missed the insectoid warrior women they called battleguards swooping in for a surprise attack, and her companions had been ripped to shreds in seconds.

It had only been after she’d recovered from the shock, after a Titanic prophet had been ready to deal her the deathblow, that she’d realized she’d been holding back, and laid into the tide of insects.

The Big one had lashed at her with some insane spell given to him by his evil master, but Lapis took his army in exchange.

Since then, she’d been hounded endlessly by pockets of Qiraji, killing each and every one of the suicidal beasts, and a realization had started to set in. These were not the actions of rational, intelligent, reasonable creatures. These life-forms, these organics were arrogant, stubborn, petty, and willing to kill themselves by the dozens just to spite the gems for… what, existing? Defending themselves?

She’d hated the realization, but after seeing into the darkness within her two latest assassins, she finally understood what Jasper was talking about. The danger she’d been protecting them from, within her empire.

The disease that was organic life.

The Gem hugged onto herself, thinking about that fact. The fact she’d rejected Jasper’s words so often. The fact that Citrine and the rubies might have been alive if she’d just committed herself to battle more fully. It hurt down to her core, but…

But she’d avenged them. And with the loss of those two monsters, surely, even the Qiraji wouldn’t be so bull-headed as to keep throwing soldiers after her, right?

“Skreeeeeeeeeawwwww!

Her thoughts were answered by a resounding shrill that echoed through the canyons, reverberating across the desert for what felt like eternity as the gem’s expression froze.

The beast from before, the one she’d frozen! She was sure of it! Organics were far more fragile than any gem was - she’d learned that early. They didn’t come back from being frozen solid, at least none of the Qiraji had, and that thing was a fire creature! Surely it had to have been hurt worse by that attack. And if he was alive, the acid beast must have been as well.

Her bravery left her in an instant. She’d barely escaped that encounter, and she turned, her water wings condensing back into being as she felt the instinct to run rebound throughout her being.

She ran like a woman possessed, determined to get some distance, to fly, to run and never look back - but a rush of air burst behind her, and she did look back, despite her fear.

The air screamed as a purple beast skyrocketed up and above the cliff, his cackling bioweapon on his shoulder the whole time. He looked ragged, like an old Baseball mitt, scarred and torn from her assaults, but he only seemed more enraged if anything, as he glared one hateful, golden eye at her.

Lapis tried to find her courage, to call out something to intimidate them, to call them out on their violence, to feed her rage enough to overcome her sudden bout of fear.

Instead, she turned back around and flew as fast as she could, tears streaming from her face as she cringed at her own cowardice.

5,115/5000 words

 

[Lilith]

Sweltering winds rushed past Lilith, hair rippling wildly as she was standing on Ridley's back. Despite the sheer speed, she remained affixed to the dragon's frayed scales and howled in exhilaration. If only Master was on top… Maybe after this hunt is over, he'll give me a real thrill ride.

“Running won't save ya!” The sadist assailed the cowardly gem with a gale of sharpened blood, combined with a tempest of fierce claws and scathing breath from the pirate king.

Was all hope truly lost? No, the Lapis couldn't accept that. She had to believe otherwise, even with no path to salvation in sight. Weeping rivers clung to her cheeks as she flitted around the torrid terrain, weathered stone towers providing scarce - yet crucial - cover from the predatory pair. If the dragon didn't follow her flight, it cratered through the brittle obstacles or knocked them over like dominos, but those invaluable moments where she evaded line of sight were enough for her to cross the barren dunes, inching ever closer to sanctuary.

Lilith felt Ridley brimming with a passionate fury to rival her own. She adored seeing the tyrant go totally animalistic. Together, their intense emotions were as one, intimately in sync. Now that we're connected like this, it won't be long before we go physical! Her yearning was justified, as she sensed their auras shared more than she expected. For the first time, Ridley reciprocated her arousal. Well, it wasn't directed at anyone specific, but it still counted in her mind.

Carnal hunger was a natural reaction. Ridley abandoned coherent words, fixated solely on eviscerating his prey. In one eye, he watched the vulnerable gem flee from her merciless hunter, slowly exhausting every last resource to delay her impending dissolution. In the other, he perceived the equally tantalizing image of two bright-haired, defenseless women - Samus and Miyamoto Musashi. Seeing triple, as it were. The dragon was blissfully unaware of his enforcer's discernment, and was likely happier for it. This is what turns Master on. Very useful to know~

Both agreed this wasn't a job anymore. They would make the gem suffer.

CRASH! The beast's talons collided with a jagged outcrop behind the Lapis, and as the dust cleared, she had risen high above to search frantically across the desolate environment. Having discovered something, she plummeted before the barreling purple mass could impact, unsteady wings straining to keep her balance. At this rate, she'd never reach the world's edge. Home was universes away. Her body was on the verge of fracturing. But she endured. She briefly envisioned Jasper, standing confident and rallying the clan. What would her leader think if she gave up now? The warrior refused to succumb to shame, her limbs starting to shake less, gradually eased by her renewed resolve. With all her heart, she promised to either fall with honor or exact vengeance upon her harassers.

Ridley's prey eluded his view again, abruptly descending a steep dropoff in the earth. This was no gulch, however. As the dragon dug into the precipice, he examined the pit of unfathomable magnitude and the vaguely dome-shaped maze of rocks within. His speculation lasted only a second before he sprang from the ledge and rammed into the labyrinthine lair, sweeping through like a wildfire to a forest. The gem's smaller size worked in their favor, as they effortlessly traversed the complex, perforated landforms, leaving innumerable obstructions in their wake. Pillars toppled over and tunnels caved in, but the hailing debris posed hardly any hindrance to Ridley, who bulldozed straight through. It amused him to see prey use any means to extend their dwindling life, resisting the reality of their nonexistent chance of survival. Though severely beaten and battered, the gem retained immense strength, affirming the value of the treasure encased in their husk.

The horrifying game of cat and mouse was interrupted as Ridley slammed into a monolithic stone arch, sending Lilith soaring like a cyclist in oncoming traffic. The woman skidded across and tumbled over the steely surface, coming to a sudden stop when her skull snapped forward and splattered on it. Her face was a slurry of red and black mire as she peeled it from a spiky ridge, giving a disfigured thumbs up while she rose to her feet. “Heeh heghh… I'm okay.”

Ridley gave a slow blink before continuing the chase on his own, having no time to spare for deliberation or listening to Lilith's dramatics. The woman would've made a mournful scene - something along the lines of 'Oh Master, don't worry, we'll be back together soon!' - but all sound was buried by an earsplitting clangor. The bulk beneath her stirred, groaning like tectonic plates grating against each other. “Geez, what is this thing?!” Incredibly pissed off, she guessed. And provoking the alpha was a surefire way to get the whole hive in an uproar. Seismic shockwaves and cacophonous screeches rattled the gloomy surroundings all at once, as thousands of serpentine invertebrates slithered out of their burrows to defend their territory.

Well, looks like reuniting with her master wouldn't be a problem. Her solution was right in front of her! After liquefying herself, she broke off into a sprint along the sinuous freight train, racing to the front. Her plan ran into an unexpected complication, however. The preeminent worm's smaller kin harried her, nearly dogpiling her with dozens of slavering, teeth-laden mouths. Luckily, being ambushed from all sides was Lilith's area of expertise. She vaulted over and slipped through the horde of wriggling lengths, walloping any circular jaws that got too close.

But that would only take her so far. She misplaced her foot in a worm's greedy gullet, tripping and leaving herself vulnerable. The voracious brood all simultaneously attempted to devour her whole, fighting over her like a chew toy, before she wound up lodged in one of their stomachs. A slight inconvenience. She melted the worm's flesh from the inside and bursted out of its body, drenched in guts and bile. “I got places to be, damn it!” The creature flailed erratically at the acidic fissure she had left, its agony appealing to the indiscriminate appetites of the carnivorous flock. They ravaged the dying member of their pack, picking it apart into unrecognizable lumps of flesh with a feral delight. It seemed they had lost interest in the acid woman, and she didn't stick around for the rest of the show.

Convulsing corpses trailed behind Lilith as she leaped towards the alpha worm's head. These carrion eaters were single-minded in their gluttony - a meal was a meal no matter the species - so she had no issue warding them off. Can't blame them honestly. Sometimes her cravings got out of control, and she couldn't help consuming the nearest thing. Though lately she had kept that in check. Ridley satisfied her plenty. Speaking of which, she spotted the dragon flying past the tremendous ring of mandibles.

“Oohh Maaaster, I'm baaack!” Lilith hollered, barely above the pandemonium of the nest. She brushed off her corrosive coating, bouncing and waving and oblivious to the present situation.

Ridley grunted, acknowledging the woman's presence. His second-in-command would travel to the ends of the galaxy to locate him. He appreciated their dedication, disturbing as it was.

“I'm coming in!” the fanatic announced. With a running start, she scampered across the alpha worm's metallic pincer - an insect crawling to the end of a hook - then left everything up to fate as she propelled herself.

Carried by nothing more than her absolute conviction, Lilith glided through the air into Ridley's open arms— or rather, his corrugated tail, which wrapped around and returned her to where she belonged. “WOOOOOOHOO!! I'm back on top!”

The unruly passenger's landing jostled the space pirate, almost taking him off-course.

“Er, you're the top– You know what I mean.”

He wished not to.

“Anyways…” Forgoing an unwanted explanation, Lilith swiveled to stare directly into the insatiable vacuity of the goliath worm's maw. She contemplated throwing herself in, just to see what it'd feel like. Probably similar to a giant industrial shredder. But she could fool around later. Eyes on the prize.

Droves of worms flung themselves at Ridley while he advanced on the gem, yet he need not divert his aim. Lilith violently wringed out their blood, entwining it into various sharpened implements that further vivisected their hole-riddled segments, the plentiful bodies ceaselessly supplying her arsenal. Each annoying pest who dared to harm her master received her fatal flourish, reduced to a chopped up carcass. Geez, everyone wants a piece of Master.

As Lilith twirled and conducted the bloody weapons, she felt a broiling fluid trickle down her leg. It was so warm, so tingly, so… burning? She looked down.

Glistening orange blood. On her skin. Ridley's blood. If it's this hot, then it wouldn't be difficult to imagine…

Wait, these pathetic grubs must've taken a bite of him! Lilith's indignation swelled, in addition to other things. “Hey! Only I'm allowed to taste Master!”

Disregarding his enforcer's disruptiveness, Ridley steered through the den and swatted away the malformed snakes like they were little more than flies. His nostrils flared as he scoured for his prey, relying on his nose to track the flickering blue speck. Their scent grew fainter, their visibility more intermittent, but he recognized a greater threat to his mission congregating around the pitiful pebble.

Organic or not, the corpulent worms hungered to swallow every intruder. In any other circumstance, Ridley would consider this a triviality. But the gem was his kill. Some overgrown maggots, to upstage him? His ego wouldn't allow the possibility.

Wrath permeated Ridley, coursing through his smoldering veins, the injuries inflicted by an inferior organism exacerbating his resentment. A deep growl voiced his fuming disdain - the calm preceding a rancorous squall. With a piercing shriek and a single beat of his proud wings, he became the eye of a devastating windstorm, shattering stone and rending the nest into a dazzling disarray. Swarms of worms careened into the rocky architecture as they whirled around the sandy cyclone, the chaotic upheaval akin to the demolition of a hundred skyscrapers.

While the calamity unfolded, Lilith was grilled alive by the dragon's heated blood gleaming through his scales, basking in the fiery sensation. Master makes such riveting music.

5,445/5,000
Ridley used 1/5 Focus on Violet Wings

 

[Ridley]

The world was painted in a deluge of sand, as the Lapis’s quail was swallowed up in the gust of the swirling wind, deafened even to her own ears. Lapis had been here only a few decades, but there was never a sandstorm of this size to contend with! There was no way this was a natural storm, so what…

The wind engulfed her wings, the water turning to mud and dissolving as she tried to fly ahead, but to no avail, as her body was flung tumbling through the wind, slammed into and against stones trapped within the whirlwind itself and sent tumbling.

Her confusion only continued as the storm started to die down, before her answer came in the form of a vicious screech…

“He can’t possibly… those monsters!” Lapis swore, looking back to see some trace of the dragon or his mate beneath the whirlwind.

Cutting above the swirl of sand, distorted laughter echoed. The same laughter Lapis had heard so many times today. The hedonistic guffawing began behind her and then streaked past, as she caught a glimpse of her other curse flying through the wind. She turned with a shriek of fright as Lilith’s shaded form stepped forward beneath the curtain of wind, before color returned to it. The sadistic bitch pulled a shard of rock free from her stomach with an insane grin, and Lapis realized she’d just let herself be thrown through the storm until she struck something solid enough to withstand her weight.

That was the sort of insanity she had tailing her. The sort of threat that was tailing other gems. The end of their civilization…

“Sup, bitch?!” the liquid demon called, easily heard even above the din even if the storm hadn’t begun to subside. Frustration, terror, panic whirled in the gem’s head as she ran.

The Gem tried to fly, but as the dust persisted, she was left without even a drop of moisture amidst the sludge, and the world was left a miserable cloud of dust and dirt. Running was still an option though, and Lapis’s legs were no mere organics, but a gem of elite stature and strength, so she pushed through the desert with a preternatural speed.

Still, for all her haste she could hear the titanic woman behind her gaining - She might be faster than any gem was…

But just a little farther. Just a little farther, and she’d be home-free, in range for the other gems to see her, to save her. These freaks were powerful, but while she may not have been a match alone, she’d also seen the injuries she’d put on them - the dragon-thing in particular. There was no way they’d be a match for a serious attack from Jasper’s army.

Hope filled her eyes, as she kept running, only for a searing whip to twist around and Pull her back. The Blood-using freak - But Lapis was ready, and as the acidic witch pulled her back, Lapis spit right in her face - Water that she’d saved for an effort like this. The Oversized droplet flew from her mouth and into Lilith’s face before erupting into an icy caltrop - this time, she saw pain race through Lilith’s body as her face erupted in spikes.

Pain, followed by a disgusting smile she wished she could erase from her memory. All the same, her grip weakened and she fell backwards, laughing a chilling laugh, and Lapis took the time to turn and run. The dust from before was gone, thank god, so she focused her energies, bringing every scrap of water she could find in the atmosphere together, and wings of water Zipped together and threw her back up to the horizon.

A small smile fell across Lapis’s face, a quirk of the lips that turned into a smile as she flew upwards and saw the caverns on the horizon. She was nearly home-free, and now all she had to do was continue onto the City.

As she looked through the sands to the canyons Jaspers army called home, however, the Desert sand beneath her was blackened with one all-encompassing shape, and a shiver went up her spine as she turned in the air, a blast of water already dangling at her fingertips.

Lapis shot up a blast of icy spikes, like a tower of hedgehogs through the air, high enough to reach halfway to the clouds, and the Dragon above her was forced to spin to not be impaled. SPikes jutted from the side of the tower, and the dragon was left impaled by half a dozen massive holes in his body, as he smashed through every spike between him and lapis without even slowing down.

The Reptile crashed into Lapis, slamming her into the desert sands with all the force of a small bomb, leaving sand billowing in every direction around her, but Lapis lacked the fear she once had. She wasn’t sure why, but in this moment, all she found herself thinking to do was smashing the beak in front of her with one surprisingly powerful fist, and retaliating with a whip of water, cutting a thick line through Ridley’s shoulder.

“Monster!” Lapis yelled.

Ridley caught her eyes, as the gem went down, and she saw something she didn’t like there.

His eyes had went wide, then narrowed, yet a sadistic grin went across his features as he squeezed.

“Why… are you hunting us?”

Ridley’s response was a disgusting noise, a gurgling growl that seemed to be his form of a taunt.

“Because you have no value.” Ridley responded, “Not alive.”

Lapis’s face screwed up with rage. She realized now why she lacked fear. She knew she wasn’t going home. She was never meant to - and some part of her finally accepted that. This was all building up to one purpose - one destiny - and she could see it now.

She didn’t know if any organic could be trusted - she didn’t know if the gems could ever eradicate beasts so powerful and vile like this if the whole of the crossroads was filled with them. She didn’t know if she truly understood what her allies wanted, or what they needed.

But she did understand something she hadn’t before. She understood evil - pure, unfiltered malice - and she understood the sacrifice needed to defeat it.

Lapis began to hum, as azure energy spiralled from without, covering Lapis, as water formed around her and the tyrant, forming spikes that then stabbed into Ridley’s body. She knew she was not able to keep functioning after this - but she would give everything she had left in her depleted gem to defeat him, here and now!

With a confident smile, every bit of her energy was forced down into her palm, as water turned to ice and then froze further. The Beam of blue, freezing frost lanced from her palm and engulfed the dragon, cuts ripping across his body as the Space Dragon screamed out, Cuts trailing across his body like the stripes on a tiger.

The air cleared, as Lapis fell backwards, her gem fizzling, the blue fading closer to a dull gray, as she watched the dragon fall forward, gasping for air as orange blood covered the desert sand with boiling heat.

And all it had taken was her life.

Lapis looked over to the Dragon’s corpse, a weak smile over her face as she placed a hand around her fading Gemstone. Though it was going to run out of what made Lapis, Lapis, in a moment, she still knew it couldn’t fall into someone like Lilith’s hands - and she knew that bitch was coming to finish her off.

But she’d go back without the ability to use the gems technology against them, and without a leader to guide her. She’d die knowing she destroyed one menace to her people.

Her hand clutched tightly around the gemstone in her palm, as she prepared to squeeze it out - along with her existence.

“My friends… goodbye.” She called out, a frown criss-crossing her face…

She closed her eyes, she went to squeeze… and then nothing. she couldn’t feel herself vanishing. Didn’t even feel like she’d pressed on her own gemstone. She opened them again, now confused. She’d just resolved to die, and now… was she saved?

Opened blue eyes saw nothing - no hand on the gem, and nothing at the end of her arm, and with the blessing of seeing the image of her hardlight limb utterly severed, pain returned to her mind as the Lapis screamed. A hooked tail slunk back across her body as the Dragon returned, stomping through the desert, and placing one claw protectively over the gemstone’s synthetic heart - and leered into the Lapis’s determined stare, meeting it with his own.

Lapis didn’t have words, didn’t even have the energy to cry anymore. She couldn’t move under his weight, couldn’t speak, couldn’t even muster up the energy to slap him.

She allowed her frustration to bubble up as Ridley’s tail positioned itself like a scorpion.

“I hope whoever kills you makes it hurt.” Lapis replied, spitting a harmless bit of energy across the Xenomorph’s chest.

The creature’s Response seemed to come along with gritty… laughter? She couldn’t tell.

“I will remember you, Rival.” The beast replied, before it’s tail came down on Lapis’s head, and for all of her defiance, the last emotion on her tired face was relief that the nightmare was finally over.

Post: 1582 words
Total words: 6,697 words
Ridley used 1 focus to live through life-threatening injuries