A violent clash of knees sent both fighters flying as the raging mushroom cloud stood like a monstrous monument to destruction. Lucien Graves struggled to keep his balance, explosions detonating along his path and leaving a ruined abyss in his wake. He tumbled through rubble, constantly coughing up blood.
At the far edge of that vast chasm, Ethan emerged from the devastation as if untouched, his fury still mounting.
Lucien pushed himself to his feet, a swirling storm of golden power gathering around him. The clang of metal faded, replaced by a brilliant golden armor that covered his entire form. A high‑pitched, intense battle music echoed across the blasted landscape, resonating like a tempest.
A gust of wind tore past him, and in a blink, Lucien vanished from his original position. At the same moment, Ethan spat blood from his mouth, rage contorting his face as his feet sank deep into the ground. A shockwave rippled outward, leveling entire mountain ranges into flat plains.
Suddenly, a massive green hand seized Lucien's right foot. Ethan, breathing heavily, hurled him with brutal force. Lucien tore across the ground like a living storm, leaving furrows in the earth before landing at the far end of a sprawling abyss he himself had carved.
Whoosh.
They collided again, two terrifying meteors meeting in a deafening blast. The sonic shockwave raised a tsunami of air, twisting towering canyons until they collapsed inward and formed a massive sinkhole.
In the sky above that broken chasm, the two remained locked in relentless combat.
With the boost from his battle music, Lucien gained the strength to resist — no longer would his limbs shatter or bones explode at each touch. His right hand lashed out toward Ethan's throat with lethal intent.
But Ethan was no simple brute. Though his mind simmered with rage, his instincts remained sharp. His right arm, covered in solid Armament Haki, intercepted Lucien's strike, resisting it with iron resolve. His left fist exploded toward Lucien's head.
A red flash sparked in Lucien's eyes as he blocked with his left arm and drove his knee forward.
At that moment, Ethan also thrust his knee upward. A colossal storm of force erupted, smashing everything around them and expanding the sinkhole in every direction.
Their silhouettes locked in battle filled the sky. The atmosphere trembled and warped around them, and with a loud crack Lucien felt his right arm bend unnaturally at the joint, folding over his shoulder in a grotesque twist.
Meanwhile, Ethan spat blood, black smoke curling around him, his chest a blurred mess of injuries.
They were flung backward by the impact like missiles striking the earth, wreaking havoc across the shattered terrain.
From broken ground, Lucien rose, his face pale, his right arm slowly knitting itself back together with a low crackle. With a roar that echoed like an ancient divine dragon's, he crossed the abyss in an instant and lunged at Ethan again.
Ethan met him with brute might, shattering Lucien's dragon‑like charge in a direct collision.
In a flash, Lucien appeared before Ethan once more, lightning and fire surging violently around his left hand.
Ethan launched another punch. The power of that strike alone overturned the air and swept outward with unstoppable force. A circular tsunami of energy surged forward like a living tornado.
Destructive power filled the sky.
Lucien seized Ethan's head and slammed it into the ground with bone‑shaking force. The entire archipelago quaked, land breaking and sinking around them.
Ethan roared, chest heaving with effort, his face streaked with blood as he lay in a crater of smashing rock.
Instantly, a chilling combat instinct shot through Lucien's spine — Ethan's aura spiked once more. His right foot, enveloped in terrifying power, blasted toward Lucien's head.
Lucien crossed his arms overhead to block, the pressure slamming into him with such force that his body twisted and flipped, cracks spreading outward as the giant pit beneath them deepened and widened until it became bottomless.
Roar.
Blazing light illuminated the endless abyss. The divine dragon formed from Lucien's energy collided with Ethan's fist, and the earth's crust warped and tore apart from the compression.
The very center of the battlefield vanished entirely as the surrounding landscape transformed beyond recognition.
When the dust settled, Lucien hovered three feet above the shattered ground, his chest a bloody tapestry of exposed bone and muscle, his beating heart visible beneath torn flesh. A gash split nearly his entire torso.
Yet these almost fatal injuries were healing at extraordinary speed.
Thud.
A massive, blood‑stained green hand shot out of the abyss and gripped its jagged edge.
Ethan spat a bloody tooth free from between his lips. Like Lucien, his terrifying wounds knit themselves together at incredible pace, though slower. Neither showed any sign of pain, nor did a single frown cross their faces.
Whoosh.
The battlefield of invisible forces expanded across the sky. Both warriors hung upside down, every part of their bodies weaponized, their movements vicious and relentless.
Falling rocks shot into the air, while countless crumbling mountains stood like tombstones in the devastated sea.
A new sinkhole branched outward like spiderweb cracks across the ground. Deep underground, Ethan grabbed Lucien by the head with one hand and slammed him violently into the cavern wall.
In response, Lucien punched Ethan in the stomach with thunderous force. Both spat blood as they rebounded, neither yielding an inch.
At the same time, both kicked outward with brutal precision. With another crack, their chests caved inward from the impact.
Ethan was sent crashing against the abyss wall, blood covering his face. Though the sight was terrifying, his aura did not weaken. On the contrary, every impact seemed only to fuel him, his strength rising steadily, ferocious and unbound.
Boom… rumbled.
The underground battle continued in its chaos while the world above lay in ruin.
In a daze, two motionless forms slowly rose from the abyss floor.
During their brutal clash, the earth all around them seemed to tilt, crack, and tear apart, thunder roaring endlessly in the backdrop.
A remnant wind brushed past as the two left behind afterimages and vanished into the mid‑air.
The next moment, a ruin ten thousand meters away leveled as Lucien and Ethan flashed through space, their feet colliding once again with the sound of meteors smashing into stone. A world‑overturning air pressure wave tore downward into the earth.
Whoosh.
A rainbow of green energy plunged down, fracturing the island in half. One side of the land tilted and buckled, while dust and debris choked the sky.
Lucien, half‑regenerated and breathing raggedly, raised his wounded right hand toward the heavens. A ball of crackling lightning and fire began to form, swelling violently as Armament Haki and Ki poured into it. At once it became as large as a small island, and the devastated atmosphere began to revolve around that blazing sphere.
"Sun."
Lucien drove the lightning‑fire sun downward with immense will. Before it even touched the ground, the earth beneath it began to melt, and the surrounding sea evaporated into steam.
In the deep crater on the surface, Ethan looked up, veins bulging across his enraged face.
Boom‑buzz‑buzz.
The lightning‑fire sun fell like judgment itself. Ethan braced beneath it with both hands, bending downward under the crushing weight, then straightened with a roar that defied death itself, pushing the sun upward.
The sight was shocking beyond belief.
"Die for me!" Lucien growled, blood pouring from his nose and mouth, face twisted with fierce disbelief. Straining every ounce of strength, he bore down with both hands, using every last drop of power in his body.
Below the sun, Ethan hovered on the air, the island beneath him molten magma, exploding and sinking in endless eruptions.
"Get up for me."
Veins spread across his neck. This was the first time Ethan spoke since his mind had teetered at the edge of sanity. His rage surged once more, and his strength climbed still higher. At a visible pace, the immovable lightning‑fire sun began to rise again.
"You cheater," Lucien shouted, his pupils tightening sharply. Even the battle music struggled to sustain itself in the face of such absolute force.
Ethan was legendary — when enraged, he could support a planet with his bare strength.
"I curse your mother!"
"Kamehameha."
Lucien ascended, hands forming a petal shape together. A blue energy orb with a blazing tail slammed into the lightning‑fire sun, pounding it downward and causing the sun to expand even further.
The sun that had been rising collapsed once more. Ethan knelt on one knee in the air, the atmosphere rupturing and exploding with a destructive bang.
Veins crawled across his forehead as he slowly looked up, hatred swelling another level. His strength surged, and once more he stood upright.
"You bastard…" Lucien spat blood and cursed through clenched teeth. If he continued to endure, he knew he would eventually be crushed.
The opponent before him was tyrannical beyond measure; whether he admitted it or not, in this one‑on‑one fight, he was outmatched.
____
Bro is hella weak....