The moment the tails appeared in the same spot where Snowy fused itself, Darian suddenly gained back all of his strength. His eyes opened wildly, and he saw Poisudonom launching himself again toward him.
Poisudonom was rolling on the ground, and he was just a few inches away. Darian dodged that by going extremely fast; it looked like he was an illusion made by Liro. Poisudonom, confused, had never seen Darian going this fast. Because of that, he stopped rolling and tried to swing his tail toward his enemy.
Darian jumped high like he had never done before. He jumped on top of the building next to him like it was nothing. 'I didn't think I could ever do this…' thought Darian as he checked again the same spot where the two tails were coming out.
The moment he tried to touch them with his hand, his hand simply passed through them, not being able to touch them. It looked like a projection of Snowy's tails.
'Snowy… what really is this power?' Darian immediately created another shard. It went extremely fast, so much that Poisudonom was almost able to block it. The shard hit Poisudonom's stomach; still, the shard shattered the moment it crushed against his body.
"I don't know what happened… but I need to kill you faster!!" shouted Poisudonom. He jumped toward the top of the building where Darian was standing. He swung his fist as hard as he could toward the human.
"Radial freeze!" Darian could now see each of his movements without any problem. The moment the krukin swung his fist, a wall made of ice appeared in front of him. It was so strong, it felt like Darian could have prepared it for a good minute.
The moment Poisudonom punched against the wall, his hand was blocked. He couldn't get past the wall. "I guess I need to use more strength…" whispered Poisudonom. While mid-air, he changed fist. Before, he was using the left one; now, with the right one, he smashed so hard that the ice immediately opened a hole.
Darian remained blocked. He didn't think that his wall would stop the first punch; the second one took him by surprise. Some ice went all over his body, and the punch hit Darian perfectly on the face, launching him away and destroying every house on his way. The punch was so strong that he flew outside of the city.
"I'll take you!!" shouted Poisudonom. In the multiple destroyed houses, there was Liro, who was hiding inside one of them. Still, it seemed that Poisudonom, even if he saw him, decided to ignore him and just went toward Darian.
Poisudonom started to roll on the ground, going extremely fast. It was almost impossible to stop him. Liro was simply thrown away because of the wind generated by Poisudonom.
"Ice armor!" Right now, Darian didn't fall unconscious, nor did debris fall on top of him. He was right outside the city; there was nothing around him.
While he created the armor over his body, it felt like time was moving slower for him. "What?" whispered Darian, confused. It felt like he could keep creating the armor and the enemy would not get closer, as everything was going slower.
Still, Darian ended the process of creating the armor, and time moved normally again. Poisudonom was going extremely fast, and now it was impossible to react. Still, the moment Poisudonom's body entered in contact with Darian's body, the armor exploded immediately like it had never done before.
'Why is the armor this powerful…' It felt like Darian would never be able to create such a strong armor, but now it was there, covering his body. The moment Poisudonom tried to pierce into it, the shards made it impossible.
Poisudonom's body was now crying in pain; he had to stop!
'I can't stop now, this armor isn't invincible!!!' Multiple shards rushed all over his body. Multiple scratches, some even deep, appeared all over his body.
"ARGHHHH!!" shouted Poisudonom. He didn't stop; thanks to his strength, he was able to pierce into Darian's skin.
"DARIAN!!" cried out Liro as he watched the whole scene. Darian's skin was slowly being opened by Poisudonom's spikes. Darian was now the one in pain; his whole body was trembling. "I-I must… fight back," whispered him. The moment he tried to create a shard, time moved much slower.
Liro's scream was going slower, Poisudonom was moving slower, and everything around Darian, except for him, was going slower.
"It feels like the moment I use a spell, everything goes slower… let's try to wait a bit more." Darian waited more seconds before actually casting the spell. He couldn't wait much, as his body was being torn apart, and soon Poisudonom would reach vital organs.
The moment time went normally again, Darian created an extremely powerful shard that first generated extremely low temperatures. What Archie created before was nothing compared to this temperature; it even reached, for a single moment, -50°C.
But the main problem for Poisudonom wasn't the temperature. In fact, krukins could easily resist even when temperatures reached -100°C. The real problem was the shard. The moment it was created, it went extremely fast toward Poisudonom. He didn't have time to react, especially because his body was still rolling.
The shard was so fast that it pierced one of Poisudonom's spikes, making it fly away. Poisudonom didn't expect that and immediately cried in pain. "ARGHHHH!!!"
Poisudonom jumped back, scared. He was missing a spike over his body. It had been destroyed by Darian and thrown really far away, launched into the sea, which was at least 98 feet away from them.
Poisudonom landed on the ground, breathing heavily. He had only lost one spike before, when he was fighting a big creature in the sea on another planet. That creature was the only one who had ever truly scared Poisudonom. It was bigger than a skyscraper, and it weighed almost like a satellite.
Now Poisudonom was fighting a creature similar to that. 'It isn't similar… he's stronger!!' thought him, scared, as he immediately looked around and saw Liro, confused. 'I'll kill him!!' thought Poisudonom as he immediately jumped toward Liro and landed next to him. Liro, scared, tried to run away, but he couldn't; Poisudonom's fist was close to his head.
"Stop!" shouted Darian, almost crying. Poisudonom remained still. He first touched Liro with one of his fingers to see if he wasn't an illusion, and it was the real Liro.
"WHY? You humans deserve to die!" shouted Poisudonom as he brought his fist closer to Liro's face, his hand almost touching it.
"WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING AGAINST YOU!" shouted Darian in response. He breathed heavily and wondered if he would be fast enough to save Liro.
"WHAT?! ARE YOU EVEN SERIOUS NOW? SO WHAT ABOUT ALL THE PLANS OF 500 YEARS AGO TO DESTROY OUR PLANETS WITH THESE SO-CALLED BOMBS? You humans deserve to pay now! Phocylides has told us like this. It's all humanity's fault that the war has started!" yelled Poisudonom back. Darian looked confused.
"Always this Phocylides… who even is he? And how can he tell you about bombs?" asked Darian as his thoughts froze for a moment. 'If he knows about the bombs, he surely isn't an ordinary person… the problem is that the fact humans wanted to bomb the other planet can easily be true,' thought Darian. He knew how dangerous humanity could be with bombs. He was sure the old people wouldn't have wasted any time using them.
"It doesn't matter now… what truly matters is that you lose!" Poisudonom grabbed Liro harder. Darian immediately shot a shard.
The moment he charged it, time moved slower again. "I don't think I can load it for much time… I have to launch it now!" thought Darian. The moment he threw the shard, only three seconds passed as time moved slower, while in reality not even a second had passed.
The shard went extremely fast. Poisudonom was barely able to do anything against it. He had to release Liro and block the shard with both hands.
"GO AWAY, LIRO! I'LL TAKE CARE OF HIM!" shouted Darian. Liro nodded and immediately ran away.
'Darian… I don't know why you became this strong, but I trust you.' With that, Liro exited the battlefield and reached the city.
Poisudonom tried to block the shard with both hands. The shard was still pushing hard. Poisudonom was slowly being pushed back as the shard pressed against his hands. Suddenly, Darian fell on one knee and started to breathe heavily.
"No… I must not stop now!" whispered Darian as he slowly tried to get back on his feet. The shard was slowly entering Poisudonom's skin; his hands were becoming weaker.
"I WILL NOT DIE HERE!" shouted Poisudonom. He put all his strength into one hand and used the other to push the shard aside, grabbing it. The moment he grabbed it, both his hands started bleeding from the intense pain.
"You lost, human," said Poisudonom. Weirdly, he didn't walk toward Darian. Instead, he turned toward the huge tree in the middle of the town, the same place where Banaikuj and Leobruns were still fighting.
"Stop! I can still fight!" shouted Darian as he stood up again, his legs shaking uncontrollably.
"I know, and that is the problem," said Poisudonom. Darian looked at him with confused eyes. "You humans should not have more will… you need to suffer while fighting!!" shouted Poisudonom as he rushed toward the main square.
'Phocylides… you told us that if we break something important to them, humans will break, but are you really sure that making them suffer is the right way?' thought Poisudonom as he jumped toward the main square. After the thought crossed his mind, he shook his head.
'It's a war. Each side needs to suffer, especially like they did to us and like they were about to do…'
Suddenly, Poisudonom appeared again in the main square. During that time, Banaikuj was still fighting against everyone else, while Leobruns had just come out, unharmed, from the ruins.
"Banaikuj, we're starting!" shouted Poisudonom. He immediately smirked and stopped fighting. The moment humans heard Poisudonom's voice, they stopped fighting too. Every one of them was breathing heavily. Vane and Lily's vision blurred, and Vane's eyes turned black. He was still able to stop the poison, but now he was becoming tired, his whole body exhausted.
Leobruns looked at Poisudonom. "I'm here too," he said. Poisudonom looked at him, surprised. "Oh well, with three, the tree will fall faster…" said the krukin.
"We-well, it was nice to fight against you foolish humans… now what you've been fighting for… will finally fall!" Banaikuj, breathing heavily, jumped toward the tree. The other two Black Defenders did the same.
Banaikuj swung his long claws toward the tree, Poisudonom swung his fist, and Leobruns swung his katana. The three krukins immediately surrounded the tree, slowly destroying it.
The alterids fighting couldn't do anything to stop that. They were all breathing heavily, and luckily no one was gravely injured… except for Vane. Suddenly, the poison in his wing exploded.
His left wing appeared with a hole, and he fell unconscious. The moment he returned to human form, he was still bleeding, and his hand was wide open, blood dripping from it.
While all of this happened, the three krukins smashed the tree. It was first cut in half, then broken into multiple smaller parts, until all three krukins landed on the ground smiling, the tree behind them completely fallen.