Dahlia bent her back to the sky and raised her head to its limit. Her scales all fell off with a click, some clattering to the ground while others plummeted into the river. Her nude body was visible for a second before moss-like fur bloomed from her skin. Meanwhile, her body grew leaner, a tail sprouting from her backside while her face became lupine and cruel. Exhaling deeply, Dahlia gazed down and then leapt from the overlook, diving into the river. It rushed in the opposite direction, but Lavanya had no doubt the Abomination could swim against the flow even as she disappeared under its foamy surface.

Lavanya held her sword at an angle by her chest, her eyes trained on the river. Her other senses would warn her if Oakley tried to make a sneak attack - not that she thought it would with how much of a coward it was. Breath slowing, she tensed until she froze in place, muscles braced to the point they threatened to burst. The second the foam broke, a hint of black claws peeking through the seething white, Lavanya’s arm snapped forward, swinging low.

Dahlia pounced out of the froth, catching the blow with her claws and sweeping it aside. At least it looked like she meant to do this, but instead the blade chopped cleanly through her claws. Nevertheless, her jump pulled her closer and closer to the Lavanya, her jaws stretching wide to reveal fangs dripping green acid. Just as they loomed over Lavanya’s shoulder, the Monster Bane flicked her free hand up and released a large burst of mana, throwing Dahlia back with a resounding boom.

Dahlia bounced off the ground and rolled to her feet, immediately on the move before Lavanya could target her. The Monster Bane grinned and cast Terrifying Sight, and the effect was dramatic as the blurrily speedy Dahlia became petrified mid-sprint, causing her to fly forward and crash face-first into the riverbed.

Without waiting, Lavanya dashed forward, activating Critical Cuts on her sword. It made sure her attacks were significant, regardless of monster size or defence. For this reason, she didn’t think it would have much of an effect on Dahlia, who had a mostly humanoid body, but it never hurt to use the ability, anyway. Shockingly, it appeared the effects of Terrifying Sight was already running thin on Dahlia as she was squirming about now, meaning it wouldn’t be long before she took her body back, but it was irrelevant as Lavanya swung down for her neck.

Dahlia jerked to the side, and the blow hit her in the lower corner of her neck instead of decapitating her. The cut spread past the blade’s length to slice through the upper ribcage too. Lavanya pulled her sword up and attacked again, this time going for an easy decapitation when the Abomination somehow shattered through the remnants of Terrifying Sight, using her hands to push off the ground and out of harm’s way.

Lavanya gazed up with a grimace which tightened as a hideous blur exploded forwards towards her. Something green shot from its mouth, blasting her face with acid which melted through her flesh. As she screamed and raised her arms to defend herself, she felt claws close around them a millisecond before her chest descended into agony, the pain cutting searing trails into her brain.

The last thing that she heard and could make sense of was a greedy sucking noise and sickening chomps. Then her senses failed her, and it was a good thing they did.

****

Taking one last chomp to heal completely, Dahlia flung the body away with her teeth, throwing it aside like a rag doll. She drooled a mixture of acid and blood, making her grin all the more charming as she turned towards Oakley. “I’m going to have to wash all that down with some vegetables. Don’t want any digestion problems,” she told it.

It did not reply.

“Oh, I know your tactic,” she said, stretching her limbs, making no attempt to cross the river. “But you should know that I’m not fooled.” She waited for effect, before grinning once more. “I ate one of your kind before, you know.”

Oakley’s trunk rotated as if turning around to look, only there was still no face visible on its bark.

“You can doubt it if you want, but I…”

“I do not doubt,” said Oakley in a voice not too different from rough bark being rubbed together. “I have been meaning to avenge Timber.” It disappeared from its position, and Dahlia immediately bent her back to the sky, just as she felt wooden spears pierce her back, puncturing right through her stomach.

Simultaneously, her body exploded in height while she gave a tortured scream, her skewered body losing its shape as flesh started to bubble and run. Flesh poured off her body onto the wooden spears, consuming them. She spun around in agony and faced Oakley, who flanked her, displaying her faceless, monstrous form.

The wooden spears were in fact roots which pounced from the soil like frenzied snakes. There were enough of them to fill her vision with only rare glimpses of the sky visible past them. As one, they streaked towards her, stabbing through her melting profile. Just as she began to consume them too, they fired sap from their ends, destroying her flesh from inside.

Struggling helplessly, Dahlia felt her body shrink with every second as Oakley fired in new roots for every one she consumed, their sap ravaging her body quicker than she could regenerate. In a desperate venture, she flailed her arms and hoped the flung flesh would land on Oakley. She felt it land on soil and stone, bark and water, leaves and… Oakley.

She immediately teleported onto Oakley, smashing her body against the perlor tree, hoping it would mean she could consume it quicker. Dahlia regretted this decision within seconds as she realised Oakley’s whole body was filled with sap. Her flesh boiled off the bark, even as it tried to devour it. Burning here, digesting there, vanishing here, growing there. Dahlia’s split body cried and fought for its life, meanwhile Oakley stood still, clearly waiting for its sap to finish the job.

Seeing her death flash before her eyes, Dahlia found her largest well of remaining flesh and condensed it into a point, shooting it into Oakley’s trunk. The sap attacked it at once, but her flesh continued its path inwards, losing mass by the second, almost disappearing when finally it found the heartwood. The sap boiled away the last of her goop, but all the same, she had touched and splattered the heartwood already. She knew it had no natural defences.

No doubt panicking, Oakley sprayed its inner chamber with sap, which hissed on the heartwood but it was too late as Dahlia’s flesh ruined it from inside out, consuming the core of Oakley’s mind until finally its roots stopped and its mind faded. Just in time too as Dahlia ran out of mana and returned to her default form outside, only that the sap followed her through the transformation. It coated her and burned her, draining her of strength and killing her as surely as she had killed Oakley.

Gasping, Dahlia dragged herself to Lavanya’s body, the sap melting sections of her body off. Reaching it, she greedily munched down, only then finding that the regeneration from the Monster Bane’s corpse wasn’t enough to stop the sap which continued to siege her body. Losing her mind and with no remaining strength to move, she clawed at the ground, shovelling soil and stones into her maw, gulping with great difficulty.

There was hardly any energy in them, but as long as she ate enough, she could survive. In her sorry state, Dahlia continued to walk the thread of life, gagging and choking even as she fed herself. Dahlia Howe refused to die, not now, not ever.

Dahlia Howe (human), the Abomination, has killed Lavanya Sanghvi (human), the Monster Bane.

Dahlia Howe (human), the Abomination, has killed Oakley (perlor tree), the Space Treader.

35 Sovereigns remaining.