Behind Zorin Lyx, Lady Ness knelt in the pulverized dirt, her face completely pale as she clutched her left arm against her torso. The sheer, meteoric force of Zer0RUIN's previous reverse roundhouse kick hadn't just shattered her defensive cross-block; it had completely broken the radius and ulna bones in her forearm.
The fractured bone ends pressed aggressively against her skin, as she forced herself to breathe through the white-hot agony.
"Ness, stay down!" Tessa Sol said as she used her threads to try to keep the arm straight "ok this is gonna hurt, just hold it" Tessa said as she continued " ouchhh," Ness yelled through clenched teeth, her vision tunneling as a thick bead of cold sweat rolled down her jaw line.
But before she could even blink, the linear eye battery behind Zer0RUIN fired.
*BOOM—!!!*
A massive, continuous beam of concentrated crimson destruction power erupted forward, vaporizing the atmospheric moisture instantly and ripping a ten-foot-deep trench into the valley's bedrock floorboards.
The absolute devastation swept directly toward the xenocides, threatening to leave nothing but ash in its wake.
*FRAME EXPLOSION.*
Zorin Lyx didn't just drop a single frame this time; he pushed his evoliths past its absolute safety thresholds, forcing the digital corruption inside his evolutionary code to fracture outward. In a fraction of a millisecond, Zorin's form glitched violently, splitting into five identical, flickering holographic copies of himself scattered across the stone floorboards.
Two of the glitch copies grabbed Lady Ness and Tessa Sol, throwing them entirely out of the linear beam's trajectory a mere microsecond before the crimson light erased the earth beneath them.
The other three copies materialized directly in front of Zer0RUIN, sprinting through the lingering superheated plasma with absolute, reckless speed.
"Damn that glitcher!" Zer0RUIN hissed, his central eye widening in annoyance as his floating cannon array shifted slightly to track the multiple signatures.
He swung his left hand in a brutal, horizontal sweep, the kinetic pressure of his palm instantly popping two of the Zorin copies into harmless bursts of static data.
But the real Zorin was already right beneath his chin.
Utilizing an advanced application of his evoliths, Zorin didn't just shift his own position—he forced his vibrating hand directly into Zer0RUIN's physical body.
As his fist connected with the side of the zer0ruin neck, Zorin triggered a *Structural Frame Glitch*.
*BUZZZZZZ!*
Zer0RUIN's physical form suddenly flickered violently, his dense, regenerated skin stuttering in and out of the physical plane like a corrupted video file.
Zer0ruin body was forced into a state of localized digital lag. His linear eye battery misfired, the remaining crimson lasers scattering harmlessly into the sky above.
"What... did you?!" Zer0RUIN gasped, his voice glitching into a dual, distorted frequency as he struggled to swing his arm through the spatial interference.
Zorin didn't answer. His nose was bleeding profusely from the extreme cognitive strain of glitching an external entity's body, his evo-energy burning down to dangerous reserves.
Yet, he pushed forward into a brutal, high-speed hand-to-hand sequence. Sliding underneath Zer0RUIN's glitched, lagging arm, Zorin delivered a rapid-fire combination of high-frequency palm strikes directly into he's sternum, hip, and throat. Every single blow landed with a heavy, digital crackle, further disrupting Zer0RUIN's internal energy flow and forcing him back into the loose gravel.
Ten yards away, Zarek Solis watched the staggering display, his white-knuckled grip tightening around the hilt of his massive greatsword until his leather gloves began to tear. His heart hammered against his ribs, a mixture of profound pride and burning frustration tearing through his chest.
*Damn it, if not for Lyx, we would all be dead right now,* Zarek thought to himself, his teeth grinding together as he watched his vice-captain put his entire life on the line. *Damn, that kid is truly something else. Nothing but pure, unadulterated talent. He's carrying this entire team on his back.*
Zarek's eyes narrowed, a fierce, golden fire igniting within his pupils as his internal pressure blocks locked into place.
*But as a captain... I can't decide to fall back either. I am the shield of this division. I am the one who bears the mantle.*
"Damn you, bitch! I'm the captain of the 4th Division, and I'm going to kill you!" Zarek roared, his voice echoing through the canyon like a thunderclap.
Zarek lunged forward, his heavy combat boots shattering the stone floorboards beneath his feet as he covered the distance with pure, unyielding physical leverage. As he raised his massive weapon over his head , he's evoliths activated , Multiple shimmering, translucent **"X"** marks began to manifest across Zer0RUIN's glitched, vibrating torso—the perfect, absolute structural weak points left behind by the combined assault of his squad.
Zer0RUIN, sensing the dsnger, violently broke through Zorin's structural lag with a burst of crimson destruction energy, launching the vice-captain backward into the dirt. "Die, you fool!" Zer0ruin screamed, swinging his massive, right fist in a straight, world-ending punch aimed directly at Zarek's descending form.
Zarek didn't dodge.
He adjusted his martial alignment mid-air, utilizing the immense weight of his big blade to deflect the trajectory of Zer0RUIN's fist by a mere millimeter. Zer0ruin knuckles scraped past his uniform, tearing the fabric and drawing a line of crimson across Zarek's shoulder, but the captain's downward momentum remained completely unbroken.
With a final, guttural scream of pure fury, Zarek brought the massive greatsword down in a devastating, diagonal cleaving motion, tracing the exact lines of the shimmering **X** marks scattered across Zer0RUIN's chest.
*SHIIIING—!!!*
The heavy steel edge tore through zer0ruin body, biting deeply into the he's collarbone and shearing straight down through his chest plate.
Blood exploded outward from the wound, showering the broken bedrock as the sheer physical force of Zarek's unyielding strike drove the second child of Malkor hard onto both knees, fracturing the stone floorboards beneath his joint
s into a massive, groaning crater.