[center][b][color=red]|[/color][/b] Music: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C6IdouPv3Y][b]Maximize Power![/b][/url] [b][color=red]|[/color][/b][/center]

The crack of electricity from Penny’s strike echoes down the hallway, sparks flashing as lightning is discharged into the air and the pitch-black enemy she charges to meet. The blow strikes the Void center mass, lightning rippling across its dark surface. There’s a noticeable effect in the way it sways backward, a half-stagger as a black plume of smoke rolls off its body. The soldier in its grasp is set suddenly free, crashing to the ground as the monster swings its head toward Penny. It has no eyes—just dimly pulsing lines etched across its ‘face’—but there’s little question that she has the Void’s full attention now.

Vanna, prepared and observing, is the one who notices the crack in the monster’s proverbial armor. When Penny’s attack pulses through it the dark exterior shifts and churns, revealing for just an instant a point where the geometric lines converge. A marble sized red dot on the left side of the Void’s chest, pulsing with energy. It appears for only a second before vanishing beneath the monster’s skin once again.

The fallen soldier, meanwhile, is in sore need to Dana’s help. When she scrambles to his side she finds that the Void’s claws have pierced deep into the man’s chest, the wound leaking crimson and oily black. His breath comes in pained and hissing gasps, hand making vain gestures toward his fallen weapon. 

Dana’s magic, even enhanced by the influx of Nox, is only enough to stave off the worst of the damage. Her healing light stitches the wound together into something less imminently fatal, something that will give her the opportunity to at least help move the man out of the immediate area.

Astrelle and Nicole also find that they have a clearer path to the hallway and the stairway to the control room at the end of it. They’ll have to risk passing by the Void, but their only other option is taking the opposite path up to the deck and making it to the control room form there. Judging by the cacophony of splintering glass they heard earlier it’s doubtful said route is much safer of an option.

Thankfully, the Void seems now preoccupied with Penny. The magic thrumming through her gives her the barest edge she needs to avoid the swipe of the Void’s claws, though each strike leaves only inches between herself and the end of a razor-sharp finger. 

Until she comes in for a second strike. 

She has to aim up. The Void is very tall and her arm has a long way to travel. 

Her sparking fist nearly makes it to the featureless head of the monster before one of its long hands snatches her arm abruptly from its course. Its fist closes around her forearm with enough force to fracture bone, applying inhuman force. It’d likely do far worse after-—if it not for the fact that Penny’s electrically charged hand makes her difficult to hold for long.

But it does not release her gently. Its face splits open to let loose a harrowing screech as electricity rips through its grasping limb. It jerks Penny violently to the side with easily enough force to dislocate the short girl’s shoulder, hurling her against the hallway wall. 

The Void pauses a moment as it straightens itself. Its left arm has lost some of its mass, the gaunt limb now positively skeletal. Yet the crimson lines that trace the dark figure still pulse with a steady heartbeat, thrumming in the ring of Dana’s light.