The metal deck of the disabled Xenocides transport ship didn't just groan—it buckled entirely under the continuous, violent kinetic output of the two combatants. The shockwave of Liora's armored beetle slam had left a deep, warped crater in the reinforced alloy, but the battle didn't pause for a single breath.
The Beastress, still reeling from the impact that had fractured the structural plating beneath her, did not attempt to find defensive space. Instead, she used the recoil of the slam to fuel her next movement. Springing upward with raw abdominal leverage, she drove a double-palmed strike directly toward Liora's chest.
Liora shifted her stance instantaneously. Activating the rapid, defensive reflexes of a praying mantis, her forearms whipped upward in a sharp, triangular deflection. The friction of their skin meeting created a harsh, snapping sound that echoed over the distant gunfire of the primary battlefield.
Beastress's hands were redirected outward, leaving her central guard completely exposed for a micro-second.
Liora moved without hesitation. Stepping deep into the elite's space, she anchored her rear foot, channeling the hyper-dense muscular compression of a red kangaroo through her core and straight into a left body blow.
BOOM!
The fist buried itself into the Beastress's lower rib cage. The absolute deceleration of the punch forced a pocket of compressed air to burst from the point of impact, breaking beastress ribs .
The Beastress was lifted two feet off the deck from the sheer upward trajectory of the strike, her face contorting as the wind was violently forced from her lungs.
Yet, before she could be launched backward, the elite's cat-like tail snapped forward like a cable wire, wrapping tightly around Liora's neck. Using her own airborne body as a counterweight, the Beastress yanked herself back down, driving a brutal, downward heel strike straight into the center of Liora's collarbone.
Liora didn't flinch. In that exact fraction of a second, she used the power of an hippopotamus, turning her skin and bone structure into an unyielding, high-density mass that absorbed the crushing momentum. The heel strike connected with a dull, heavy THUD, but Liora's shoulder didn't drop a single millimeter.
With her arm still free, Liora reached up, gripped the tail wrapped around her throat, and activated the crushing, hydraulic bite force of a spotted hyena through her fingers. She squeezed.
The high-density muscles of Beastress's tail groaned under the pressure, forcing the elite to release her hold with a sharp gasp of pain.
As the Beastress detached and floated backward into a crouch, Liora pursued her like a relentless engine. Closing the distance with the explosive, short-burst velocity of a cheetah, Liora materialized directly in front of the retreating elite. She loaded her right shoulder, rotating her hips to execute a devastating, close-range hook.
The fist connected flush against the side of the Beastress's jaw, the sheer velocity of the kinetic transfer snapping the elite's head violently sideways and sending her rocketed away across the metal deck.
The Beastress skittered across the ruined transport ship, her boots tearing deep grooves into the iron plating before she finally halted her momentum at the very edge of the hull. She remained in a low, predatory crouch, her chest heaving as she drew air back into her bruised lungs.
Slowly, she lifted her head.
The damage from the sequence of strikes was clear. Blood was actively dripping from her head, nose, and mouth, Her left cheek was severely bruised, and swelling up
Then, the Beastress smiled.
The smile wasn't one of madness or defeat; it was a expression of pure, unadulterated ecstasy. The crimson eyes of the alien elite locked onto Liora with a terrifyingly sharp clarity, the pupils dilated to their absolute limits as her cat ears twitched with an intense, rhythmic excitement. She raised a hand, casually wiping a trail of blood from her chin with the back of her forearm.
"I finally found someone worthy," the Beastress said, her voice dropping into a low, vibrating purr that resonated despite the chaos of the millions fighting around them. "Someone who is strong enough... Human, what is your name?"
Liora stood in the center of the clearing, her breath perfectly controlled. Her arms hung loosely at her sides, She looked down at the bleeding elite, a genuine, respectful smirk pulling at the corner of her lips.
"I'm Liora. Captain of the 2nd Division," she replied,
The Beastress's smile widened, her sharp fangs catching the distant, flickering light of planetary explosions. She slowly rose from her crouch, her posture shifting from a cautious defensive stance to a loose, entirely unburdened frame.
"You have my respect, warrior. I'm gonna remember you," the Beastress said, her tail snapping sharply through the air with an erratic, thrilled momentum. "I'm enjoying it... it's too good. So this is what a true fight feels like!"
For her entire life within Malkor's vanguard, she had been an absolute entity of physical supremacy, moving through battlefields like an apex wolf through a flock of sheep. To have her strikes countered, her durability tested, and her jaw cracked by a human who matched her blow-for-blow was an experience that shattered the stagnation of her existence.
The air surrounding the elite began to distort, a thick, primal pressure radiating outward from her core that caused the debris on the ship's deck to vibrate violently. The ambient temperature around her skin spiked, the moisture in the air turning to fine vapor as her internal biology began to shift.
"Let's go, Liora," the Beastress whispered, her crimson eyes flaring with a brilliant, blinding intensity. "Me and you. No one to stop us."
Then, she began to change.
The elite unleashed the absolute baseline restriction on her physical form, triggering her true Beast Mode. The muscles along her shoulders and thighs expanded, the fibers tightening and contouring into hyper-dense configurations designed for maximum kinetic output.
Her claws grew longer, Her teeth sharpened, her incisors elongating into jagged, predatory points capable of tearing through military-grade alloy. Her cat-like ears flattened tightly against her head to reduce wind resistance, and her tail thickened, becoming a heavy, balancing rudder for extreme high-speed maneuvers.
Her entire body became stronger, sleeker, and infinitely more dangerous—a weapon perfected for the single purpose of slaughter.