Raizen twisted aside.

Teeth scraped along the edge of the platform where his shoulder had been. He felt the heat of the breath and the sharp chill of how close it had been.

"Lovely dodge!" Atman called. "Do that again, but with less almost dying."

Raizen gritted his teeth.

"Helpful" he muttered.

He side stepped onto the next platform, feeling the pattern of the area in his mind. Small squares. Drops between them. Roots like half-walls, offering cover but also trip hazards.

The lizard followed without rushing.

It climbed up onto the same platform he had just left, claws curling over the edges, weight bending the wood. It didn't bother to try to jump directly at him across the gap.

It matched his pace instead.

Step. Step. Chest rising, throat glowing. Watching. Testing.

Something felt wrong, Raizen thought.

Nyxes went for the shortest path to the kill. They pressed until something broke, either their bodies or yours. They didn't hold back. They didn't think like this.

At least… Not the Nyxes Raizen faced.

This thing was thinking.

Not like a person. But enough to choose not to waste its strength.

It wanted something. But maybe not his death.

"So you aren't just angry" he murmured. "You're curious, huh?"

The beast's head tilted again, almost the same way Atman did when something interested him.

The next rush came with claws.

It moved suddenly, front half lunging across a wider gap. One leg slammed down in front of him. The clawed foot was bigger than his torso.

Raizen dashed forward, under the neck, sword flashing.

He went for the joint where the plate met softer skin.

Metal met scale with a harsh ring. The impact shook his arm. He felt the edge bite, just a little. A thin line of pale light leaked out, not blood but something close - Eon, seeping.

Of course. It was a summoned beast, after all.

The lizard hissed, head snapping down, trying to catch him on the return. Raizen was already out from under it, running, using the momentum of his own cut to throw himself toward another platform.

The platform he landed on tilted under his weight - one of the movable ones that could rise and fall for drills. He almost fell, but quickly adjusted and rode the shift, using it to slide him out of the beast's immediate reach.

"Little too thick at the joints" he said under, breath catching. "Alright."

The beast looked down at the cut on its leg.

The line he had made glowed a bit brighter. Eon steamed from it like heat, curling in the air. The beast flexed the limb once, testing.

It didn't limp.

If anything, its eyes burned brighter when they found him again.

Another burst of flame filled the space between them.

Raizen dropped into a dash, cutting across the platform. Heat chased him, threatening at his back. He felt it stinging his neck, but he pushed harder.

He hit the side of a higher platform and used it like a wall, planting one foot and kicking off at an angle.

For one heartbeat, he was above the lizard's eye line.

He saw the full spread of its wings from above - the glowing lines running through the membranes, the small tears from where it had scraped the vines.

He also saw the base of the neck.

The plates there overlapped like armor, but there was a thinner gap right where they met the chest.

Raizen snapped his hips and brought the sword down in a diagonal cut while he fell.

The blade flashed, catching the light from the training lights. He felt it bite deeper this time, cutting between plates, scraping along something inside.

The lizard roared.

Real sound, full and raw.

The lizard's tail hit Raizen in the chest, making him fall. He landed badly, rolling across another platform. Wood slammed into his shoulder hard enough to make his teeth click.

"Balanced landing!" Atman called cheerfully. "Work on the dismount."

Raizen pushed himself back to his feet.

His shoulder burned, but nothing felt broken. He adjusted his grip on the sword, fingers tightening, breathing steady.

He looked back at the beast.

The wound at its neck was deeper than the one on the leg. Plates around it had cracked, the glow there was almost white, too bright.

For a second, it looked like a real injury.

The beast staggered.

Its head lowered. Wings tucked closer to its body, as if to guard the hurt place. Its front legs braced, claws scoring deep lines in the wood.

Raizen drew in a breath, chest rising.

"Got you" he said quietly.

He shifted his stance, ready to move in and finish it while it was off balance. If he could get one more clean cut at that gap, he might sever something important enough to finish it.

The beast looked up.

Its eyes found him again, and something in that gaze made him stop.

Not rage.

Not fear.

Something else. Raizen couldn't tell what it was, either. But it was terrifying in its own way.

The glow around the neck wound flared.

Raizen watched, swords still raised.

The bright light didn't leak out and vanish the way Eon usually did when constructs were hurt.

It turned inward.

The glow along the crack thickened, threads of light pulling across the gap like stitches. The broken edges of the plates shivered, then began to shift.

"What the…" Raizen whispered.

The jagged shards of armor moved.

They slid back together slowly, grinding in tiny, awful sounds, then sealed. The line of the cut narrowed, then thinned, until only a faint mark remained where he had opened it.

Below the surface, something pulsed.

The beast straightened.

The leg wound he had made earlier was closing too. The thin cut he had carved along the joint drew shut, Eon knitting the edges until there was only smooth, unbroken scale.

In a few heartbeats, there was no crack. No wound. No weakness.

Only a faint scar where his blades have been.

The lizard exhaled, a gust of hot air that carried a little blue flame.

Behind Raizen, Atman let out a low whistle.

"Oh" he said. "Regeneration. That's fun."

Raizen stared at the healed plates.

The beast took another step toward him.

"So" he muttered, throat dry. "You can fix yourself too."

He tightened his grip on the sword.

"Of course you can."

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