The battlefield was scorched, the ground littered with craters, and the stench of burnt stone thick in the air. Every breath Dune took felt like swallowing fire. His chest heaved, sweat and blood dripping down his battered body.
Another explosion ripped through the ground.
He barely reacted in time. A Neba platform burst beneath his foot, hurling him sideways just as the blast swallowed the spot where he had been standing. The shockwave still caught his back, sending him tumbling through the air.
Nate was already there. Wreathed in emerald green Neba, his twin axes glowed with eerie light. His grin was sharp, his eyes filled with the thrill of the hunt.
"Tired already?" he taunted, twirling one of his axes.
Dune didn't answer. He couldn't afford to. Nate wasn't just strong, he was relentless. Every explosion sent shockwaves through the air, making it harder for Dune to find stable footing. Even using Nebastep, he was barely keeping up.
Nate lunged, his axe tearing through the air in a brutal arc. Dune dodged, barely. A Neba platform erupted beneath him, detonating to blast him sideways. His foot barely touched the ground before another explosion struck, the force ripping through his body and sending him crashing to the dirt. He skidded violently, rolling over sharp rocks before slamming into jagged stone. Pain shot through his ribs, his bones rattling from the impact.
A boot slammed into his ribs, lifting him off the ground before sending him tumbling again.
Dune coughed, blood dripping from his lips. His vision blurred, *how? How was Nate still alive? How the hell did he survive back then?*
Nate didn't stop. He closed the distance, his axe raised high. "Wolves won't save you now," he growled. Dune's pulse pounded as suddenly the message echoed in his mind.
[ There are only a hundred Zetens left. ]
[ You will be transported to the Black Island. ]
The ground beneath them shattered.
A heartbeat later, the battlefield was gone. The smoke, the heat, the burning craters, vanished.
Dune's body was weightless, cold air rushing past his skin as he fell. He was falling in the sky. The world twisted, and below them, a vast black island stretched out over an endless sea of inky water. The sky was a colorless void, pressing down like a suffocating abyss.
Nate was beside him, he couldn't control his fall, Nate didn't have a movement ability like Dune's to protect himself in mid air.
A Neba platform exploded beneath Dune's foot, blasting him sideways as he twisted midair, flipping past Nate's struggling form. His blade was already in his hand by the time Nate saw it.
The blade plunged through Nate's hand, splitting flesh and bone apart in a gruesome spray of blood.
Nate let out a furious snarl, trying to pull away, but Dune twisted the knife deeper, forcing the wound wider. His fingers spasmed as the steel carved through Nate's hand and fingers, rendering his grip useless.
Before Dune could press the attack, green flames burst from Nate's body, engulfing them both in an inferno of Neba. The heat tore through Dune, burning his flesh, nerves screaming in agony, but he refused to let go. His body wanted to collapse, but he had felt worse, it didn't matter.
Nate lunged, his ruined hand still twitching, still trying to wrap around an axe. Dune didn't give him the chance. He used nebastep to dodge and shoved his sword toward Nate's mouth, aiming to end it in one brutal strike.
But Nate bit down the sword. Teeth scraped against steel, blood spilling as the blade tore into his gums, but he didn't let go. His jaw clenched tighter, the muscles in his neck bulging with unnatural strength.
Dune pushed harder, forcing the sword deeper, the edge carving into the roof of Nate's mouth. Blood dripped down his chin in thick, red trails, but he only grinned through the agony.
"Just die already!"
With a violent wrench, Dune ripped the blade upward, splitting Nate's skull apart. His head cleaved in two, bone cracking and brain matter spilling into the abyss below.
It should have been over.
But Nate's hands shot up, grabbing both sides of his ruined face. And then, he pushed.
"What… the hell are you doing" Dune's breath caught.
The bone, the flesh, everything melted back together, sealing the wound like it had never happened. It was impossible. No one should have been able to regenerate from something like that.
*So that's how he survived the wolves.*
Before Dune could react, Nate grabbed him, arms locking around his charred body in a crushing embrace. The flames around him surged, burning hotter than ever, the green fire swallowing them both in a furnace of pure agony. Dune's skin blackened, his muscles cooked under the sheer heat, but Nate only tightened his grip, letting the fire consume them both.
The scent of burning meat filled the air, skin peeling, muscles cooking under the relentless heat, but Dune didn't scream. He didn't even flinch.
Instead, through the searing agony, he grinned.
Nate's rage boiled over. "How the hell are you still—?!"
Dune's voice cut through the flames, cold and steady.
"It's not that painful."
Dune gritted his teeth. If Nate wanted to burn him alive, he would make sure they both died.
His jaw clenched, and with the last of his strength, he sank his teeth into Nate's shoulder. Flesh tore, blood spurted, and Nate let out a furious howl. But before he could retaliate, Dune activated Nebastep, not on the air, but on himself.
The explosion launched them downward like a meteor crashing toward the island below.
The ground rushed up to meet them at terrifying speed. And then they hit.
The impact sent a shockwave through the earth, shaking the very air around them. Dust and blood sprayed in all directions as they slammed into the cratered ground.
Dune landed on top. And he didn't waste a second.
His fist smashed into Nate's face, the force of the blow snapping his head back. The second punch caved in his nose. The third shattered his cheekbone, sending teeth flying. Dune didn't stop. He punched again, again, again, each impact turning Nate's skull into a pulpy mess of broken bone and gore.
"Die, Die, Die…" Blood splattered across the dirt, thick and dark, as what remained of Nate's head barely resembled anything human.
Even as his body twitched, even as he struggled weakly, Nate's trembling hand reached for a jagged piece of metal and drove it into Dune's stomach.
Pain exploded through his gut, but Dune didn't stop. He drove his glowing Hand down one last time, crushing what was left of Nate's skull, splitting it open completely until his brain spilled onto the dirt.
For a long moment, nothing moved.
"I need to heal, i need to… heal…" Dune staggered, his vision swimming, the world tilting beneath him as exhaustion finally set in. Blood dripped from his wounds, soaking into the scorched earth beneath his feet.
He took a few unsteady steps forward, the ground beneath him uneven and shifting. His lungs burned, his body screaming for rest. Then, his legs buckled.
He crashed to the ground, his battered body finally giving out. The pain was unbearable. But it didn't matter. Because it was finally over.
He had won.