The dust didn't just clear; it was blown outward by the sheer pressure of three converging, unyielding presence blocks.
DOOMTAG slowly turned her head, her pink third eye widening as she looked back at the bleeding, captains.
For the first time in her life, her manic, childish laughter disappeared.
"Still standing?" she whispered, her voice dropping into a low, raspy hiss that vibrated with genuine irritation. "You broken toys don't know when to stay in the dirt!"
"You bitch don't know when to shut up," Drakye Void said, his voice deep and gravelly as he spat a mouthful of dark blood onto the ground.
DOOMTAG didn't answer with words.
She exploded forward, her speed fracturing the ground beneath her bare feet as she covered the distance in a fraction of a millisecond.
Her target was Drakye, aiming to plunge her claws right back into his ruined chest and finish the job.
But the 1st Division Captain was already moving. Reid Gideon Swallow stepped directly into her line of trajectory. Even without his forearms, his perception was flawless.
Utilizing evoliths through his boots, Reid launched a brutal, high-speed knee strike directly aimed at her jaw. DOOMTAG snapped her head back, the tip of Reid's knee missing her chin by mere millimeters, but the sheer shockwave of his vector shift cracked the skin on her cheek.
DOOMTAG countered instantly, bringing a heavy, curved claw slash down toward Reid's neck. Because he had no arms to block, Reid twisted his torso at an impossible angle, using his absolute internal vector control to slide his entire center of gravity underneath her extended arm.
"Now, Shadow!" Reid roared, his voice echoing through the canyon.
Shadow materialized out of the absolute darkness beneath DOOMTAG's overextended stride. His eyes were entirely pitch-black, the shadow tendrils still tightly holding his chest laceration shut.
He didn't try to use a massive shadow bludgeon this time; he needed physical contact.
Shadow lunged forward, executing a rapid, lightning-fast palm strike that slammed directly into DOOMTAG's right hip.
*One.*
A faint, glowing black mark resembling a stylized eye manifested on the fabric of her clothing where his palm hit.
DOOMTAG shrieked in anger, her left elbow swinging around in a vicious back-fist that caught Shadow squarely across the temple, sending him skidding across the rocky ground.
Before she could pursue him, Drakye Void intercepted her line of sight, Drakye thrust his palm forward, hardening a dense, razor-sharp edge of compressed air directly in front of her path. DOOMTAG slammed her bare forearms against the invisible blade, the sheer density of the hardened air drawing blood from her skin before the barrier shattered like glass.
DOOMTAG lunged through the broken air, her claws aiming to decapitate the 10th Division Captain. Drakye ducked under the sweeping claws, stepping inside her guard.
He delivered a brutal, heavy elbow strike right into her sternum, followed instantly by a sweeping low kick that forced her off-balance.
As she tilted backward, Drakye used his air manipulation to blast a highly concentrated pocket of pressure upward from the dirt, launching her five feet into the air.
"Reid!" Drakye yelled.
Reid was already in position. Leaping off a nearby boulder, the 1st Division Captain spun mid-air, executing a devastating, vector-enhanced dropkick directly onto DOOMTAG's exposed stomach while she was airborne.
The force of the inversion impact sent her rocketing downward, her body crashing violently through three layers of stone floorboards before she hit the solid bedrock below.
The crater groaned under the pressure, but DOOMTAG scrambled back to her feet within a second, her face twisted in a mixture of manic rage and unholy excitement. "Damn it , I've been toying with them for to long and now I'm losing ground I have to kill the one with the air technique he's really troublesome, and I thought cutting of the arm one called Reid with stop him from using he's ability,damn it this is bad" doomtag thought to herself as she screamed, leaping out of the pit with her claws ready to tear.
Shadow was already waiting at the lip of the crater. Moving with absolute, reckless abandon, he dodged beneath her frantic, wide slashes.
His body moved like a dark liquid, slipping past her blind spots. He pivoted on his heel and drove his hand directly into her left shoulder blade.
*Two.*
A second black mark erupted across her shoulder. DOOMTAG howled in pure fury, grabbing Shadow by his tactical vest and slamming his body forcefully into the stone floorboards, cracking his ribs. She raised her clawed hand to drive it through his skull, but a sudden, invisible weight dropped on her entire arm.
Drakye Void was standing ten feet away, both of his hands extended.
He wasn't just building a shield; he was actively hardening the very air surrounding her raised arm, turning the ambient atmosphere into a multi-ton block of invisible concrete that locked her limb completely in place.
"Move, Shadow!" Drakye roared, a thick string of blood dripping from his lip as the cognitive strain threatened to black him out.
Shadow gritted his teeth, forcing his broken body to twist out of her grip. Sliding across the gravel beneath her locked arm, he reached upward with his remaining strength, his pitch-black hand clamping firmly around her throat.
*Three.*
The final mark was set. Shadow tumbled backward into the dirt, coughing violently as his dark aura completely faded out, leaving him utterly exhausted. "It's over... you psychotic bitch," he muttered, a dangerous, victorious smirk crossing his blood-stained face.
Instantly, DOOMTAG's own shadow beneath her feet detached itself from the stone floorboards. The black silhouette rose like an organic, living liquid, wrapping itself violently around her ankles, torso, and throat. The shadow tendrils tightened with catastrophic force, the absolute weight of her own darkness constricting her windpipe and locking her limbs in an inescapable, suffocating stranglehold.
DOOMTAG gasped, her pink third eye dilating in genuine panic as she tried to flex her muscles to break the shadow restraint.
"Damn, damn it, damn I completely misjudged them".
But the ultimate move of the 9th Division Captain used her own output against her—the harder she fought, the tighter her shadow strangled her throat.
"Drakye, now!" Reid shouted, stepping forward to flank her left side.
Drakye Void advanced, He didn't build a shield, and he didn't build a platform.
He focused his mind entirely on the localized atmosphere inside DOOMTAG's throat and chest cavity. Raising his hand, he clenched his fingers into a tight fist.
In a single, violent motion, Drakye pulled his fist backward, completely removing every single molecule of air from her lungs and airway.
The vacuum effect was instantaneous.
DOOMTAG's chest collapsed inward, her mouth opening in a silent, suffocating shriek.
She couldn't draw a breath .
"Finish it, Reid," Drakye gasped, his vision blurring to near-total darkness as he held the vacuum lock with the absolute last of his strength.
Reid Gideon Swallow closed the remaining distance, his posture straight and his eyes locked onto her trembling, suffocating form. Without his arms, he didn't need a weapon; his entire body was a conduit for his Evolith.
He stepped directly into her personal space, his boots anchoring into the broken bedrock as he unleashed he's ultimate technique
"Full Reversal: Absolute Zero," Reid muttered.
He didn't punch her. Instead, Reid leaned forward, slamming his shoulder directly into the center of her chest where his previous strike had fractured her sternum.
Every single vector of kinetic movement, atomic vibration, and flowing blood inside DOOMTAG's body instantly reversed directions simultaneously. Her blood flow tore through her major arteries in reverse, her nervous system fired backward into her brain, and the residual purple energy collapsed inward on its own core, triggering a massive, subatomic implosion inside her chest .
*CRACK.*
DOOMTAG's pink third eye shattered like cheap glass, the light inside it completely extinguishing. The shadow strangling her throat dissolved back into the dirt, and the vacuum seal released as her broken, lifeless frame collapsed forward.
She hit the gravel face-first, the dark violet residue evaporating into harmless grey ash that scattered in the cold wind. She was dead. Truly, definitively dead.
The left flank fell into an absolute, breathless silence. The 3 ¹/2 -hour countdown was still ticking silently in the distance, but the first child of Malkor had fallen.
Drakye Void dropped to both knees,He was hyperventilating, his body shaking from pure physical exhaustion, but as he looked at the empty space where DOOMTAG once stood, a tired, victorious smile broke through the blood on his face.
Reid stood beside him, his severed limbs steady, looking down at his friend. Shadow lay on his back a few feet away, star
ing at DOOMTAG body with a weak chuckle escaping his lips.