The anti Spinat field screamed.
Not metaphorically.
The air itself produced a low, grinding vibration as Zane stepped fully into the center of the chamber. The suppression lines glowed brighter, reacting violently to his presence, trying to strip the resonance out of him.
Zane rolled his shoulders.
His glow flickered.
He smiled anyway.
"So this is what weakness feels like," he said. "It's unpleasant."
Xin stood opposite him, Raxton fully latched now across his torso, arms, and lower spine. Plates interlocked with sharp metallic clicks, forming partial armor around his body. Energy pulsed through the seams like controlled lightning.
His ribs were still cracked. His lungs still burned.
But he was standing.
Zane vanished.
Not as fast as before.
But still too fast for anything human.
Xin reacted by instinct, Raxton feeding micro adjustments into his nervous system. He twisted just enough to avoid a direct skull shatter as Zane's fist grazed his temple instead.
The impact still sent him flying.
He punched through reinforced concrete, tearing through the chamber walls and bursting out into open air above the structure.
Zane followed instantly.
The fight exploded upward.
They hit the skyline of the nearby city like falling artillery.
Xin smashed through the side of a skyscraper, glass detonating outward in a storm of shards. He bounced off steel beams and concrete floors before bursting out the opposite side and crashing into another tower across the street.
Zane appeared above him and kicked him downward.
Xin fell through twenty floors of office space, cubicles disintegrating around him, and slammed into the ground level with enough force to crater the entire block.
Dust swallowed everything.
Zane landed at the edge of the crater.
"You're better," Zane admitted. "Still fragile."
Xin coughed blood and stood again.
Raxton pulsed.
The suppression field extended outward from the underground facility, creating a weakened zone across several kilometers. Zane's movements were no longer perfect. No longer absolute.
Xin lunged first.
Phenom Force.
His fist connected with Zane's jaw, amplified through Raxton's stabilization. The impact cracked the air itself. A shockwave tore down the street, ripping parked cars into the sky.
Zane's head snapped sideways.
He bled.
Just a thin line at the corner of his mouth.
He touched it.
Stared at the blood.
Then grinned.
"That," Zane said softly, "was fun."
He retaliated instantly.
Zane grabbed Xin by the leg midair and hurled him through three skyscrapers in a straight line. Each building collapsed in sequence, steel twisting, concrete pulverizing. The destruction rippled outward for miles.
Continental scale tremors registered on Alaric's sensors.
"Field holding," Alaric muttered. "Barely."
Xin erupted from the final building, flipping midair, and forced himself back into the fight. Raxton plates adjusted, redistributing the stress across his frame.
Zane met him head on.
They collided.
The shockwave flattened everything in a kilometer radius.
Mountains in the distance cracked.
Roadways split.
The ground itself folded as the two forces clashed repeatedly, fists and knees striking faster than thunder could follow. Each hit echoed across the region like artillery fire.
Zane caught Xin by the throat again and drove him upward.
They blasted into the upper atmosphere, air igniting around them.
Zane smashed Xin downward from orbit.
Xin crashed through clouds, through the roof of another city block, through reinforced government buildings that had stood for decades.
Zane followed, descending like a meteor.
"You're surviving," Zane said as he landed, driving Xin deeper into the earth. "That makes you interesting."
Xin grabbed Zane's wrist mid strike.
Stopped it.
For the first time.
Raxton flared violently, plates locking tighter, energy screaming through Xin's veins. His eyes sharpened.
"Your turn," Xin said.
He drove his knee into Zane's abdomen, then unleashed a sequence of amplified strikes, each blow forcing Zane backward across multiple streets. Zane crashed into a skyscraper, and Xin did not stop.
Force Push.
The stored energy detonated from Xin's arms, launching Zane through the tower entirely. The building collapsed in a wave of debris.
Zane rose from the rubble.
Breathing heavier now.
His movements slightly slower.
The anti Spinat suppression was digging deeper.
Zane's eyes narrowed.
"You built a cage," he said. "I hate cages."
He lunged again, but this time Xin met him fully.
Their fists collided.
The impact flattened an entire district.
Windows shattered across the horizon. Bridges cracked. The coastline shifted slightly from the force.
For a moment, they were evenly matched.
Not because Zane was weaker.
But because for the first time in his existence, he was finite.
Xin drove him back step by step.
Blood streamed from both of them.
Zane laughed mid punch.
"You think this ends me," he said. "You think this room makes you safe."
Xin slammed him into the ground again.
"No," Xin replied. "It just makes you mortal."
Zane's grin widened even as his body began to tremble under suppression.
"Good," he said.
And the fight was far from over.