**Unknown location near Pardem**
Star's green eyes glowed as the shadows of the stage found her face. The sounds of the roaring crowd muffled as she heard only her slow, deep breathing.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale…
And then at the forefront of her mind, a man with black hair lay in the snow. He was older. Mid-thirties, perhaps. Pale skin. And the most noticeable feature—the gray horns on his head that resembled…
"A crown…" Star muttered as her breath left like steam.
A spotlight shone down. Harsh. Revealing every detail about her. Her clear skin. Pink hair. And much like that man—the horns on her head, glinting a pristine dark gray.
She then heard the muffled voice of a man from above tearing space and time just to reach her ears.
"What? Did that name strike a chord?" he asked with a scornful tone. A white fanged smile grew from his shadowed features and darkness above.
Star still did not respond. However, her breathing became lighter, and the noise of the place rose to normalcy.
When she became more aware, she noticed the two Zonrogues prowling on opposite sides of her in a circular path, feet away, sparking electricity that cindered the dirt before them.
At last, she responded. "Sorry. I have no idea what you're talking about, sheep."
The man above twitched a brow, but he kept his composure from the slight as he said, "Shame. And here I thought I'd get to witness the power of the Demon Blight's daughter."
"Shut the fuck up," Star pronounced sternly. "I'm no one's daughter, and if this 'Demon Blight' is some king, I am not his damn princess"—she pressed the toe of one of her shoes to the other's heel and began taking them off, as she reached down and pulled off her socks—"but I am the Queen of Mayhem."
The man above snarled and snapped his fingers, and the two Zonrogues began to charge at her.
She hopped barefoot in place as they came, then with one slide of her foot, she unleashed a wave of bone spikes from the ground to the first one, skewering it unforgivingly, then dragged her foot across the dirt—bone spikes trailing over to the next and did the same to it.
The sounds of piercing rang like a drawn out clang of a blade, and the crowd watched in awe at it all the while as the two Zonrogues began to fade.
In less than five seconds, Star, a mere member of the Black Wolves, had taken out two Grade 2 beasts singlehandedly.
That wicked smile grew across the male's face from above once more. And the crowd cheered.
"Bravo!" he said as he leaped down at last with a graceful burst of dust when he arrived.
He wisped his blue cloak to the side, revealing his features more prominently. He wore a blue and white tunic, dress pants, and sabatons. His hair was gray, with two curved horns like a goat, and a silver pentagram chimed from his neck upon his landing.
"I see!" He observed the withering bone spikes that protruded from the ground, and trailed their origins back to her feet. "You are awakened."
Star said nothing. She only smirked as she fixed her stance to stand and bask in the spotlight.
"You've earned my introduction. I am Velm, and the crowd around us are my cronies, the Silverthorns."
"Hold on," Star said as she checked her tube top, the inners of her jacket, pockets… "Seems I've no fucks to give."
Velm chuckled. "I made the right choice, choosing you as my opponent. How about a dance?" he said.
"Gross. If this is your way of hitting on girls, I'd much sooner fuck a pole."
The man laughed joyously as the crowd began to now chant his name.
"Sir Velm! Sir Velm! Sir Velm!"
He stopped himself to gaze upon her with a deviant smile, saying, "Feisty."
They stared for a good moment as the crowd of Silverthorns cheers began to wane.
Then without second thought, they bolted toward each other, clashing like blades upon impact. Star with bone swords forged from her forearms. And this man, Velm, with silver blades made from his.
Their collision sparked as they pushed into each other—Velm with another wicked smile to her face.
"Keeper, you're a doll! You get prettier the closer I get!"
"And your breath smells like piss!" Star snarled.
They released ever slightly and engaged in a series of close combat. Silver and bone clashing again and again like a cacophonic song.
The Silverthorns roared, but Star tuned it out, focusing solely on her opponent.
She landed a foot on his chest and pushed, sending herself in the air in a diagonal fashion, making Velm recoil as he twirled his silver arms back into a readying position.
As Star rotated mid-air, she poised her palms in his direction, and two bone poles shot out at him. Velm alternated his arms to block, sparking against them when they passed. And it wasn't until after their passing that he had realized it was not a direct attack.
The two bone poles pierced into the ground behind him, and he reacted just as quickly as it had become a spiked bone sea.
He dashed forward, still under Star's shadow from above. She bounced on the poles once and then sent herself flying down into his direction.
Velm dodged to the side, but upon Star's crashlanding, another sea of bone spikes streamed vehemently toward him—now in two separate directions.
He leaped backward endlessly, avoiding the traps until he was at the edge of the stage, backflipping onto a beam, and then pushing off it with is legs, sending him high into the air.
He reached upward where he once stood, and grabbed the assortment of invisible webbed strings, dangling himself there for a moment.
When he witnessed below, the entire stage arena was engulfed in a bottomless bone spiked abyss, organically swollen as if the ground itself at become alive; the large bone spikes moved like waves in the sea as Star stood atop a spiked flange, looking upward like the Queen of Mayhem she had declared herself to be.
But there seemed to be a limit to how far up they could reach.
"Your ability is truly a nuisance, you can even use silent spell casts… but I'm afraid you'll have to do better than that if you want to defeat—" Before he could finish his sentence, he felt an endless bulging from under his skin.
And before he knew it, a scatter of bone spikes had erupted from every inch of his body.
He gasped as his eyes began to push out from their sockets, choking on his words as the bone spikes continued to grow out of him.
From below, Star then disengaged her bone sea.
"Come again? I can't hear you over all your gagging," she said as Velm released his grip from the silver webs and fell to his doom.
As the bone she stood upon reunited with the ground, she walked over casually, coalescing a bone hammer from her palm so large until it dragged behind her.
When Velm had fallen just feet away, Star was there, with a swing already on a course directly at him.
It slammed against his mangled body as she spun him to the ground, shattering the bone spikes along with himself.
She grew a vicious grin from ear to ear. "Pathetic weakling," she muttered ominously.
And for a time, the Silverthorns were silent. So silent that she began to hear endless ringing in her ears.
She broke the bone that connected from her palm to the hammer, and rose slowly, lights above flickering as the shadows over her eyes allowed them to glow their haunting green hue.
"Your leader is dead. Unless you want to end up like him, I suggest you provide me with your finest Choco Bars." She brewed in the emptiness as she preached, "And if you don't, I'll give you a similar end."
She paused for a moment before ending, "But… judging by the Mountain's inability to provide me my snack of choosing, I guess"—her smile was sardonic as her face hid in the shadows once again, eyes and fanged teeth gleaming like she was their natural predator—"you'll all have to die."
The silence rang louder as there continued to be no response, and she eventually felt odd about it all…
What… Did my words ring true?
At last, they responded. But it wasn't what she had anticipated.
"Sir Velm! Sir Velm! Sir Velm! Sir Velm!"
Star looked at them all incredulously. "Huh? Are you all imbeciles?"
She felt an uneasy presence then, and her eyes darted back to where she had squashed Velm.
From under the bone hammer, a silver liquid oozed out and began to morph into something… something humanoid.
His silhouette formed, followed by the pigmentation of his skin, his robes, hair, horns…
"As I was saying…" Velm spoke from the silver ooze as he became whole once again. "You'll have to do better than that if you want to defeat me, halfbreed."
It was then that Star felt a surge on her leg. The same leg she used to push off of Velm's chest from earlier. A method she used to alter his bone anatomy. But it seemed he had done the same thing. With his magic…
Her eyes widened as she heard the sound of a splat and felt the sprays of crimson ichor on her face. And from the reflection of those eyes, she had found her leg eradicated right before her.