The Time-keepers

"Remember Kai, in battle, a single second of hesitation can completely turn the tides against you." Zayne warned, "now, let the Nexora dissolve away and prepare for battle." Kai closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He exhaled, commanding the Nexora to dissolve away. As he stood in the empty void between the worlds, he could feel his heart hammering in his chest. As he braced himself, the Leviathan appeared, tearing through the fabric of space. It roughly resembled a giant green serpent-like monster, with an elongated body and three pairs of limbs, each with huge clawed digits at the ends. It had a long pointed mouth, like that of a wolf, with three rows of long jagged teeth. It had 4 pairs of black eyes on it's head, the white pupils darted around until they finally locked onto Kai.

 The Leviathan's form began began to shift, blurring out for a few seconds, then reappearing in a different position. The beast's rapid movement began to disorient Kai, as he struggled to keep his focus on the beast. The Leviathan struck first, it's limbs fracturing into a dozen shimmering fragments, each fragment travelling in a different plane of reality, lashing out at Kai simultaneously. Kai swung his Hex wildly, slicing through the empty air as he stumbled backwards. The ground cracked beneath him as one of the claws grazed his side, sending him sprawling. "Argh....damn it" Kai hissed, as he scrambled to get on his feet, his pulse began hammering in both fear and frustration.

 "You are not just fighting an ordinary beast, Kai. You are fighting a Leviathan who can rip through the fabric of space and time," Zayne's voice cut through the chaos, calm yet commanding. "Observe it's movements. Feel the rhythm. It does not attack randomly, it has a pattern." Kai gritted his teeth, tightening his grip on his sword. "A pattern? How am I supposed to find a pattern in something like THAT?" But even has he protested, he forced himself to watch, as he took a deep breath to focus his breathing and focus the Leviathan's erratic movements. 

When the Leviathan lunged again, Kai kept his hands steady as he gripped his sword tightly with both of his hands. Instead of swinging blindly, he sidestepped, and slashed at the blurred projection as it raced past him. The strike resonated, sending a ripple through the air as the Leviathan recoiled. Kai blinked in surprise, but quickly composed himself "Okay, maybe this is possible after all." But his triumph was short-lived as another limb lashed out, catching him off guard. Kai managed to barely block the attack, as the sheer force from the hit knocked him to the ground. Kai managed to roll to his feet, his breath ragged, barely recovering as the Leviathan continued to unleash a barrage of strikes from different directions. Kai desperately tried to keep up with the beast, he managed to land a few more solid hits but every time he managed to slash down one of the blurred projections, multiple more emerged from other directions, lashing at him in blinding speeds. "Damn it, if this is something I have to deal with on a regular basis from here on out....." Kai thought to himself, as he risked a quick glanced towards Zayne, his gaze cold as always. A trickle of sweat raced down from Kai's forehead and gathered below his chin. Kai realized that he cannot keep playing defensive forever, if he doesn't attack the Leviathan, it will just continue to attack him till it wears him out, before finishing him off for good. But even through all of this, Kai made a few crucial observations: the way the Leviathan's claws glowed right before it attacked, the brief pause in it's form as it reassembled it's projections and lastly, the pattern it followed when sending out projections. He began to see the pattern Zayne spoke of, a rhythm hidden within the chaos. Kai closed his eyes and gripped the hilt of his sword tightly. The world around him seemed to slow down, his palms tingled as he reached deep within himself, reaching out to the steady pulse he had discovered moments ago. When he found it, he willed it forward, commanding it to flow through his veins and into his blade. The response was immediate, almost overwhelming. "If I am going to burn," Kai thought to himself "I might as well burn bright."

A surge of raw temporal power erupted within him, racing down his arms and pouring into his Hex. The blade responded with a brilliant flare, the azure aura springing to life as it enveloped the weapon in flames of pure energy. The aura crackled and roared, wild and untamed, as if the sword itself were hungry for battle.

Kai lunged forward, rapidly slashing away at the projections of the Leviathan. With each swing of his blade, he adjusted his swordplay, cutting through more of the creature's projections and landing strikes that glowed with bursts of temporal energy. As he destroyed the projections, closing the gap between himself and the Leviathan, he realized that Umbra was just not destroying the projections, it was absorbing the temporal energy of each projection it destroyed and returning it to Kai. The Leviathan roared, it's fragmented form twisting violently, but Kai was no longer flinching at every move. His strikes were more deliberate now, his focus locked in on the beast in front of him. His blade hummed with power as each of his strikes now connected to his target. "I see it now....I see what you are and what you are going to do" Kai said under his breath, his confidence growing with each successful slash. The fear that had gripped him was fading, replaced by a determination that burned as bright as the aura around his blade.

The Leviathan lashed out with all of it's might, it's form splitting into countless projections. But Kai was ready. He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second as he felt the flow of time around him to slow down. Umbra glowed brighter, pulsing in harmony with his own heartbeat. When his eyes snapped open, he moved with deadly precision. He realized that Umbra was helping him, guiding his hand to his targets while simultaneously blocking and parrying the attacks of the beast. Kai unleashed a rapid onslaught of slashes, dissolving away the projections until he had a clear shot the the core of the Leviathan, a jagged uneven crystal that was the size of a football. In one last powerful thrust of his sword, Kai pierced his blade into the core, shattering it's remaining projections, and destroying it's physical form. A deafening roar filled the air as the creature's physical form began to grow unstable and dissolve away into nothing.

Kai stood over the dissolving fragments of the Leviathan's shattered form, as he fell to one knee. The aura he manifested around his sword began to dissolve away, as waves of exhaustion crashed over him. "What....is.....happening?" Kai thought to himself, "whatever....it...is, at least .....it is over." But then the air grew thick and cold. A guttural , enraged howl pierced the silence, freezing Kai in place. "KAI WATCH OUT! THE BEAST IS STILL ALIVE" Zayne's voice yelled out. Before he could react, the Leviathan's remnants surged together, reforming into a jagged, desperate shape. A single monstrous limb lashed out, faster than Kai could react. Pain exploded through his side as the claws tore into him, sending him sprawling. Umbra clattered out of his grip and dissolved away. Kai gasped as blood seeped from the wound on the side of his chest, he struggled to rise as his vision began to blur.

The Leviathan loomed over him, it's form unstable, writhing like a storm contained within a fragile shell. It roared, as it prepared to deal the finishing blow. Kai gritted his teeth, desperately trying to manifest his Hex, but the pain and exhaustion prevented him to be able to focus his energy. "Is this.....it?" he thought, a pang of frustration and despair piercing his chest.

Then it happened. a slash ripped open a rift above him and the Leviathan, a jagged tear in the fabric of space itself. Blinding light poured through, as Kai saw a silhouette race out of the rift and land in front of him, standing between him and the Leviathan. As the silhouette moved towards the Leviathan, it's movements impossibly graceful and it's presence commanding, the Leviathan froze, it's monstrous form seemed to shudder in terror as the figure in front of it raised an arm. A brilliant, almost melodic hum filled the air as bright particles of light began to condense at her palm, forming the shape of a radiant single-edged spear. As the light dissolved away, Kai saw that the silhouette was now holding a spear, it had a long white handle, with a bright golden blade at the one end and a bright red tassel strung at the neck of the spear. The silhouette moved in a blur, faster than Kai could comprehend. 

The radiant blade of the spear slashed away at the remnants of the Leviathan at the speed of light. Within a fraction of a second, the figure managed to completely dissolve away the last few remaining pieces of the Leviathan. The rift from where the figure emerged from began to mend itself, but the figure remained. Slowly it turned and walked towards Kai. His breath hitched as the figure came into focus, the light surrounding it softening just enough to reveal her form. She looked undeniably human, or so it seemed, her features strikingly beautiful yet unearthly. Her long black hair glowed with a faint otherworldly hue, flowing as if caught in an invisible breeze. Her amber eyes had a strange glow to them, shimmering like molten gold. Her presence was overwhelming, a strange blend of power and gentleness that made Kai's chest tighten.

The woman knelt beside him, her gaze meeting his. There was something in her eyes: a sadness, an understanding, that felt as though it pierced through him. She reached out, her fingers brushing lightly against his forehead. Her touch felt warm and comforting, like a memory of sunlight. Kai tried to speak, to ask her who she was, but his exhaustion got the better of him. As his vision blurred, the last thing he saw was her faint smile, serene yet filled with sorrow. Her voice, soft and melodic, echoed faintly in his mind, though he failed to grasp the words. Then, the world tilted, the light faded as Kai slipped into the dark void of unconsciousness.