Ravens of Eternity

333 Rematch, Pt Lucifer caught the wind under hir wings and soared upwards into the sky. Ze felt the wind buffet all around hir feathers as ze sailed gracefully in a wide sweeping curve. Then, ze angled hir head, spotted Freya far below, then turned hir body downward.

Ze flapped a few times to help gain speed, then pulled hir wings close to hir body.

Hir sleek body became like a bullet in the sky as ze dive bombed Freya. The air whistled all around as ze sped towards her with unimaginable speed. And in the last few meters before intercepting her, ze opened up hir wings, and drew hir sharp talons forward.

Ze fully expected to rake her back, but to hir chagrin, Freya gracefully rolled out of the way, quite literally. The only thing hir talons touched were the tips of Freya’s wing feathers as she playfully croaked a taunt.

Having missed, Lucifer quickly adjusted hir body, opened up hir wings all the way and slowed tremendously. With a few flaps, ze regained a little speed, rode on an air current, then swooped around to return to hir point of ambush.

As Lucifer swung around in a wide arc to continue hir attack, Freya literally flew in and closed the distance. Though falcons were fast, they couldn’t hold a candle to ravens in regards to agility. And now that they were in close quarters, she had the advantage.

Freya literally circled around Lucifer and chased after hir, even as ze attempted to shake her off hir tail.

Not that Lucifer was particularly worried.

Why isn’t she changing into a bird of prey? Lucifer thought to hirself. She can’t possibly do any damage to me as a raven... It’d be foolish for her to- OW!

.....

Hir thoughts were cut off quickly as Freya pecked at hir. Hard.

The sensation of her rigid beak as it jammed into hir back felt like ze had been hit by fire and lightning at the same time. Though ze could easily tell that ze took literally no damage, the pain of it coursed through hir like a gunshot.

Ze doubled down on hir efforts to evade Freya’s pecking, and wove up and down, left and right as quickly and as randomly as ze could. But found that no matter where ze went, or what ze did, or how ze flew, Freya toyed with hir easily.

Then came another devastating peck, which sent another wave of pain to echo out across hir body. But that wasn’t all that Freya did. She also pulled out a number of hir feathers along with the peck, and tossed them into the wind behind them.

With tears practically in hir eyes, Lucifer spun around and climbed up as fast as ze could. And despite hir best efforts, Freya was right at hir heels.

She yanked on one of hir beautiful tail feathers, and tore them right out. The pain there was equally unbelievable as well, and ze squawked loudly in protest.

Then, ze spun hir body one more time and tucked hir wings close to hir body. And dive-bombed the lake itself. Ze reasoned that only hir tremendous speed would allow hir to get away from Freya, and hir gambit worked like a charm.

Lucifer shot straight towards the lake, punched through the surface, and immersed hirself in its cool waters. As relief swept over hir, ze shifted back to hir normal form, then swum towards the lake’s edge.

With hir breaths ragged and uneven, ze pulled hirself up to hir feet the moment ze could, then shuffled towards the shore. All of the shifting ze had done was well and truly exhausting, but what was worse was that ze was completely dazed from it all – the shifting, the flying, the falling. And... from something else.

As ze caught hir breath, Freya came swooping down and headed straight towards hir aggressively.

It only dawned on hir, far too late, that Freya was still on the attack. Ze barely had time to raise hir arms to block as Freya shifted back to her normal form in mid-air. She then used her momentum and drove a powered-up left hook straight at Lucifer’s chest.

Although ze blocked most of the damage, ze was still thrown back from the force of the blow, and knocked back dozens of meters. Hir body skipped on the lake’s surface once, then landed on the shore opposite. There, ze bounced once more, rolled, then came to a stop in a heap.

The wind had been knocked completely out of hir body, and ze had incredible difficulty breathing. But Lucifer still pushed hirself up off the ground even as ze gasped for lungfuls of air.

In the corner of hir eye, ze saw Freya charging towards hir with another unrelenting attack. A wave of fear and of defeat swept through hir – not because of the ebbing power in hir fist. But because her breathing was heavy but even, while hir own was incredibly ragged and out of sorts.

The difference was staggering.

Ze couldn’t understand it – they both used similar techniques throughout, and used just about the same amount of energy and stamina. How did ze fall so much further behind?

Lucifer threw out an open hand – stop, it said.

“I yield!” ze cried out. “You win, dammit. Again.”

Freya slowed her charge as a grin grew wide on her face. She came to a half-run as she approached, and slowly eased her half-cocked fist down as her energies ebbed and faded. She then took a seat next to Lucifer and caught her breath alongside hir.

“Can’t believe you tapped out already,” she said after a moment.

But Lucifer didn’t reply to her. Ze was still trying to suss out how ze had lost. The fight was even all throughout – and there wasn’t ever a point that tipped one way or the other.

“Was it the pecking?” Freya continued. “I mean, it was probably pretty demoralizing, huh?”

Luficer nodded slightly, but the pecking was only a part of it. There was something else.

Ze focused in on hirself and looked at how hir body’s energy flowed through and around hir. Everything seemed normal. Everything except the part where hir mind seemed cloudier than normal. Like ze started the fight nearly-dazed. Hir reactions were slightly slower, and hir judgment was slightly off.

Hir eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion – it almost seemed like ze was under some kind of chemical attack. But ze knew Freya would never do such a thing. Poison wasn’t really her style.

Ze inhaled sharply, and analyzed all that ze breathed. The iron in hir blood ran the hottest, of course. Its metallic scent almost overpowered hir nose.

But there was something else, too. A layer of it hung in the air like a fine mist, barely detectable. Worse, it was condensing further, even as they sat.

And no, it wasn’t poison.

Ze turned hir head towards Freya, who was smiling happily in victory. Her pheromones literally filled the air around her, and swept over hir body. They invaded hir, coursed through hir systems, and numbed hir.

Bit by bit, moment by moment.

When ze looked back through hir memories and traced back her scent, realized that she had let them loose all the way from the beginning of the fight. Left a trail for hir to absorb, even as she ran up and down the forest itself.

And, over the course of the fight itself, weakened hir from the inside. Worse, ze had absolutely no counter against it.

Lucifer internally slapped hirself on hir forehead. This was, of course, a result of hir own tactical error. Ze wanted to use Freya’s sexuality against her. By turning hirself into an object of subtle lust, ze imagined that her frustration would get the better of her.

Ze believed that ze could’ve thrown Freya a curveball, which would give hir an opening ze could use at some point in the fight.

But instead, she threw it right back. Real hard. What a brilliant counter.

Lucifer imagined that ze deserved to have hir strategy fail that much – Freya’s hormones were far more willful and powerful than ze gave credit for.

“Yeah, the pecking definitely had a bit to do with it,” Lucifer finally answered. “I mean, that really hurt. I can’t believe how much it hurt.”

“Oh, quit crying,” Freya laughed. “You’re not even damaged. You might be a little bruised, maybe.”

“They still hurt like hell! I still feel them on my back! Plus you tore out feathers. That’s just rude. And unnecessary.”

“What? I was just paying you back a bit for scratching the hell outta me with your crazy sharp tiger claws – look!”

She pointed down to her abdomen and her right arm, both of which had a few vicious cuts in her skin. Not that they stayed there, as she began to heal them shut with a bit of her Ascendant Form.

“I coulda beaten you easily,” Lucifer began. “I mean, I was pretty sure that I had at least a 12% larger stamina pool than you. I know I can sustain a Wild Form way longer than you can.”

“Sure, you could’ve beaten me,” she replied. “If I stayed in a single form. But I didn’t. While you practiced holding one form for a long time, I practiced shifting fast, over and over. Kinda got used to it, and refined how much energy I use.

“So if you wanna know how I beat you – it was because I knew you couldn’t keep up if I shifted rapidly. You’re brilliant and methodical, but not always practical. I told you from the beginning what I was planning. You should’ve taken me more seriously.”

She nudged Lucifer with a shoulder, whose mouth had hung open in surprise. Freya outmaneuvered hir completely.

Then ze tsk’d in annoyance.

“You oughta stop being such a sore loser,” Freya said with a chuckle. “Just look around you.”

The two of them looked up from the lake’s banks, at the trees surrounding them, at the steep cliffside, at the raging waterfall. The site of their terrific battle was all around them, as beautiful as when they started.

“Look at what we were able to do,” she continued. “How we fought, how we soared, how we played together. Only you and I could do anything like this, and you oughta enjoy it, win or lose.”

Lucifer exhaled at length, then fell backwards with a sigh. After a moment, ze began to laugh at it all.

Ze realized just how seriously ze had been taking it all, and just how much Freya was right. They were the only two who could share this kind of moment, this kind of peace, this kind of power. Ze was so caught up in it that ze forgot to simply have fun and enjoy hir life.

Just as a smile filled with contentedness spread across hir face, Freya edged a little bit closer.

“Now,” she said, “let’s start round two...”