Ember's tails slammed directly into the Haunter-morph's chest with a sickening thud. Ember jumped back and twirled around to whack him across the head with all nine of her tails.
"Take that you disgusting bloated purple freak!" Ember hissed.
The Haunter-morph shook his body loose, seemingly having taken little damage, and stared at her with a curious expression. Ember growled and jumped forward again, scraping her claws from the top of his scalp down his cheek before jumping a safe distance away. He looked up at her with a dark smile as purple gas steadily tricked out of the slashes in his skin.
He doesn't bleed, Ember watched with horror as the gas continued to drip out of the cuts.
But look, Pyra said. The human part of this morph is weak and the Haunter is unstable. The human body is the only thing holding it together.
So if tear his body apart, Ember realized with a smile. The Ghost part of him will fall apart, too.
Ember's smile faded as the Haunter-morph's claw descended down on her. She lunged to the side, but the razor-sharp claws clipped her arm, instantly drawing blood. Ember looked at her arm in shock. She hadn't seen the morph come at her.
"It will be an honor to kill you," the Haunter's deep echoing voice announced. He continued to smile and look her over in amusement.
His hands began to glow deep purple and he came at her again.
Poison! Pyra warned, but Ember was already struggling to dodge the deadly claws.
Ember spun to the side and tried to knock him over with her tails again, but she missed and jumped back before she could be struck. Sweat dripped down the back of her neck. She couldn't allow herself to be poisoned now. She would be out of commission for the rest of the battle and most likely wouldn't live through it. Or worse. One of the team members would stop battling to try and protect her. Though she didn't see that happening, thank goodness.
The Haunter-morph's smile grew, spreading across his purple-tinged face like a tear in fabric. He lashed out at her with increased intensity and speed, forcing her to retreat backwards. Ember felt her Ninetails instinct slowly take over and she mimicked his smile with one of her own. She felt her body's speed grow and she began to dodge in a fluid natural movement, feeling the steady beat of the morph's attacks become increasingly easy to predict. Suddenly the Haunter-morph's fist slammed her in the side, throwing her several yards before she rolled to a halt on the pavement.
Pyra swore, utterly shocking Ember. Pyra had never once before swore. Shadow Punch, Pyra growled. It hits without fail. We're lucky he didn't poison us as well.
Yeah, Ember pushed herself up with a groan. Because we're just so lucky.
"I'm glad you came to me," the Haunter-morph said in his hollow voice as he took his time walking over. "It saved me the trouble of hunting you down and making you pay for abandoning the Gyms."
"Hmm, so you were a part of the group that tried to hunt me down?" Ember taunted. She rolled her eyes and added sarcastically. "You did a great job of it, by the way."
"I oversaw the searches for you," he said coldly. "But I had better things to do than chase after a second-rate traitor."
"Yeah, because being a flunky is a much better gig," Ember said sarcastically.
His expression grew even darker and he lunged at her again, his claws glowing with poison once more. Ember stood her ground as she felt fire flare up inside of her and held it, feeling it build. When the Haunter-morph was about to scratch her, Ember released the attack in a single fiery blast. He was blown backwards and he spun through the air before landing near the building from which they had emerged.
Ember swiftly walked over to him and grabbed his head, pricking his face with her claws. His purple spikes had been reduced to ash while his hands were dissipating and more Ghost smoke than ever was draining from his form, leaving his human body thin and limp. He was struggling to remain conscious, his ordinarily narrow eyes wide with fear.
Enough, Pyra hissed. Let us kill him quickly.
Pyra slowly took over Ember's body and drew on all the dark thoughts she had gathered over 150 years. Pyra had never allowed Ember to direct the attack herself because it would drive her insane. Ember didn't complain. Pyra lifted Ember's hand and placed it onto the forehead of the morph, releasing the dark power directly into him. He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to fight off the attack, but then he went limp. Ember released him and he fell to the pavement. Dead.
Let's go and help the others, Pyra said, urging Ember to move forward, but Ember's eyes were glued to the morph.
The Ghost smoke was slowly drifting back into his body, which expanded at an alarming rate. Ember stumbled backwards and saw with horror that he was filling back up. A smile once again cracked across his grotesque face.
It's Explosion! Ember realized.
Run!
Ember turned and dropped to all fours, running faster than she could ever remember before. Ember heard the Haunter-morph Explode behind her and was immediately struck by a force so powerful that it lifted her off her feet and pushed her forward. Then debris struck her, slicing her skin as it rammed into her body. Ember curled up into a ball as she was tossed like a rag-doll for what seemed a lifetime as she was struck repeatedly with projectiles. She finally landed on the ground, bleeding from an unknown number of wounds. Her breath wheezed as it struggled to enter her lungs under the beam that crushing her chest.
Just so lucky.