The air didn't just change; it died. In a single heartbeat, the gravity in Sector 4 multiplied twenty times. The asphalt groaned and collapsed three inches into the earth. The soldiers of the 2nd Division watching from the perimeter were slammed to their knees, their ribs creaking under the invisible weight of a thousand tons.
Drayke, Reid, and Liora gasped, their legs shaking. Even as Captains, every breath felt like inhaling liquid lead. Valkhyre's pupils dilated until his eyes were pure obsidian; every instinctual alarm in his alien biology was screaming a single word: Predator.
A shadow flickered. Zane stood in the center of the crater.
"Sir—" Drayke began, his voice strained.
"Don't talk," Zane interrupted. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried the weight of a collapsing star.
Before the Captains could blink, the space around them warped. In a flash of distorted reality, they were no longer in the kill zone. They stood blocks away, safely behind the 2nd Division lines. Zane had moved them like chess pieces on a board he owned.
Zane turned his cold gaze toward the alien. "Do you know me?"
Valkhyre tilted his head, a drop of violet sweat rolling down his temple. "Hmm. I don't think we've met... but you do look familiar.
Valkhyre didn't wait. He vanished in a streak of light, appearing instantly behind Zane with a spear-hand strike aimed at the base of the skull. But as his hand connected, there was no impact. His arm passed through Zane's torso as if the man were made of smoke.
"Fool," Zane whispered.
Zane didn't turn around. He simply pivoted his hips and threw a short, compact punch over his shoulder. Valkhyre's reflexes saved his life—he twisted mid-air, dodging the direct hit by a hair's breadth.
He wasn't fast enough. The shockwave of the punch, the mere displacement of air, hit Valkhyre like a nuclear blast. His obsidian skin tore open, his shoulder shattered, and he was sent spiraling through three large buildings.
Valkhyre stood up, his blood hissing as it hit the ground. His shoulder hummed with a sickly light as the bone knitted back together and the skin sealed. "Impressive," the alien hissed.
The exchange that followed was beyond human comprehension. Valkhyre launched a thousand-strike flurry, his fists moving so fast they created sonic booms that leveled the surroundings , the shock wave shattered glass, buildings, vehicles.
Drakye had to create a shield for everyone,
Zane didn't move his feet. He parried every strike with his forearms, his movements so minimal they looked lazy.
Valkhyre went for a low sweep; Zane stepped over it and delivered a downward palm strike that missed Valkhyre's head but sent a pressure wave into the ground, creating a fifty-foot canyon. Valkhyre countered with a double-knee strike, but Zane caught both knees mid-air with one hand, flipped the alien like a toy, and drove a fist into Valkhyre's stomach.
Valkhyre coughed violet ichor, his internal organs turning to pulp before instantly regenerating. He realized he wasn't fighting a man; he was fighting the planet itself.
"Byee, Champ! We'll dance later!" Valkhyre roared. He clapped his hands together, releasing a Blinding Nova of Light that turned the entire district white. By the time the spots cleared from the Captains' eyes, the alien was gone—a faint streak of purple light vanishing over the horizon.
Zane stood in the clearing, his suit not even wrinkled. The 2nd Division Captains approached him cautiously, their heads bowed. "Sir," Reid whispered, "The 10th... they're still lost ,we found a High-Tier underling. A man named Skull."
The Underground:
Deep below, the fight had become a meat-grinder. Elias, Jaxen, and Renji were a blur of desperation.
Elias lunged with his one remaining arm, swinging a jagged piece of rebar. Skull countered with a blast of Black Flame, which Elias barely avoided by rolling through the soot. Renji, his Third Edge flickering, called out the movements. "High! Three o'clock!"
Jaxen intercepted, his blue lightning jagged and erratic. He feinted a strike to Skull's eyes, allowing Elias to land a vibration-heavy punch to Skull's ribs. The ribs cracked, and Skull roared in pain.
But then, it happened.
Renji suddenly stopped. His body went rigid, his eyes staring into nothing as his Nervous System hit the final "Shut Down" you predicted. He stood like a statue, completely defenseless as Skull raised a massive, flaming fist to crush his skull.
"Renji! MOVE!" Elias screamed.
Jaxen saw it. With the last spark of energy in his soul, he threw himself across the room. He tackled Renji, the momentum carrying them both out of the path of the flames, but they crashed violently into the stone wall. Jaxen didn't get up. He lay there, his blue lightning finally extinguished.
Elias stood alone. His one arm was shaking, his blood loss making the room spin. He looked at his fallen team mates, then at the monster in front of him.
"Just you and me now, big guy," Elias rasped, his voice full of a dark, vibrating hum.
He didn't use a weapon. He didn't use a pipe. He just balled his one good fist, his entire body beginning to vibrate at a frequency so high the air around him began to glow. Elias and Skull lunged at each other, two dying titans throwing down in the dark for the final time.