Inside the palace's cavernous hall, Erabis sat at a massive stone table. He tore into the raw meat, his long, sharp teeth sinking deep into the flesh. Bone crunched beneath his powerful jaws. Blood dripped from his chin, staining his fur.
Erabis, a towering Rakshasha Puaka, was a sight to behold—his skin a deep, blood-red, contrasting against the green-skinned minions that served him. His massive tusks, sharp as swords, jutted from the sides of his face, curving menacingly. His piercing eyes glowed with a cold, savage intelligence, while the scar across his lips made him look even more terrifying. Chains wrapped tightly around his wrists and legs, clinking with every movement, as if they had once bound him but now served only as trophies of his power.
His meal was interrupted.
Without warning, one of his Orc guards smashed through the castle's main door, propelled directly at him. With an effortless, brutal swing of his spiked iron club, Erabis batted the body aside, sending it crashing into the unforgiving stone walls.
He rose, a hulking mass of pure, raw power. Nearly twice the height of his Orc soldiers, he towered, casting a long, dark shadow that swept across the cavernous room. His long, black hair trailed behind him, restless and alive, like a predator's tail poised to strike. Erabis's gaze narrowed, fixing on the silhouette framed by the doorway.
"CELESTION!!" His voice boomed through the hall, shaking its foundations as he hurled the meat bone to the floor with a deafening crash.
Purnama felt the raw cold of the storm settle around him as the towering shape of Zirko, the ice moose, formed nearly as tall as Erabis. As Erabis barked orders, his Orc soldiers surged forward with brutal coordination.
Purnama kept his eyes locked on the oncoming horde. With a single, fluid motion, he shrugged off his cloak and leapt onto Zirko's back. The giant moose spun on a hoof, unleashing a storm of icy wind. The sudden blast froze the Orcs mid-charge, encasing them instantly and pinning their bodies against the stone palace walls. Erabis's eyes burned with fury as he watched his forces immobilized in their frozen prison.
Shards of ice burst from Zirko's body, instantly shattering the frozen Orcs into a fine, crystalline dust. From that cloud of fragments, dozens of immature dark orbs materialized. Like moths to a flame, they accelerated, hurtling towards Erabis. Each orb vanished the moment it touched his skin. With every one consumed, his aura of dominance swelled, expanding like a suffocating shroud across the hall.
Purnama watched, his grip tightening on the hilt of his kris. He tried to draw the blade, but the sheath remained stubbornly sealed.
"My kris won't budge, Zirko," Purnama muttered, frustration evident. "Looks like it's going to be a bare-knuckle brawl. Who knows how much power this disgusting creature has hoarded?"
"We need to be cautious, Purnama," Zirko warned, his voice filled with urgency.
With a savage roar, Erabis charged forward. His spiked iron club was raised high, and he brought it down in a crushing, furious arc.
Zirko, swift and agile, dashed along the wall to dodge the strike. The club crashed into the ground, fracturing the stone floor and embedding itself deeply, forming a web of cracks around it.
Before Erabis could pull the club away, a cloud of icy mist burst from Zirko's muzzle. With a quick and powerful breath, he sent a razor-sharp ice shard flying. The icy projectile struck the club, freezing it solid, and Erabis was forced to release his grip.
With a savage growl, Erabis tensed his massive muscles, veins bulging beneath his red skin, and charged at Zirko with terrifying speed. His sharp tusks, now aimed like deadly spears, gleamed as he barreled toward the moose. Purnama leaped off Zirko just in time, narrowly avoiding the devastating impact. Zirko's ice form shattered, along with part of the palace wall.
Tiny icicles gathered at Purnama's side, allowing Zirko to reform into a smaller size.
"We must close the distance," Zirko suggested, "to enable you to engage in hand-to-hand combat."
With a synchronized nod, Purnama and Zirko sprang into action, their movements fluid and coordinated as they circled Erabis from opposite sides of the ruined hall.
"GARRRRR!! Stupid Celestion!" Erabis bellowed, watching them with seething rage.
Purnama tightened his grip, channeling energy into his left fist as he focused his Shakti. Zirko moved in first for distraction. Erabis, swinging wildly with a crushing blow, shattered the ice moose into countless pieces.
Confident in his strike, he turned to face the other side, unaware that Purnama had slipped beneath him. With unwavering precision, Purnama pulled back his fist and unleashed a powerful punch at Erabis' chin, the impact so intense it lifted the Rakshasha off the ground. Purnama instantly leaped after him. Zirko enveloped Purnama's clasped fists in ice elemental mid-air.
"King Fist Technique, KSUMAT!" Purnama yelled as he slammed his joined fists down with tremendous power, driving Erabis through the floor.
They plummeted into the level below—a resting chamber.
Purnama didn't give Erabis a moment to recover; he landed on Erabis's back and unleashed a flurry of quick punches to the back of his head, each strike causing the floor beneath them to crack. The continuous assault collapsed the chamber into the next level, a storage room filled with valuable artifacts.
Purnama continued to pound his fists against Erabis, trying to penetrate the thick iron shield on his head. Once more, the floor beneath them collapsed, causing them to tumble into a reading room, where ancient scrolls were sent flying from the impact.
The iron helm on Erabis' head eventually fractured, and with one last blow, Purnama unleashed a punch infused with a whirlwind, breaking through the remaining defense. The impact of the strike sent them tumbling into the bottom level—the prison hall.
The building trembled as Erabis' massive body crashed to the ground.
The prisoners, their chains rattling, watched in terror as a deafening BOOM echoed through the hall. Dust rained down from the shattered ceiling, obscuring their vision. When the dust settled, they saw Erabis, the fearsome tyrant, lying motionless on the prison ground. A wave of jubilant cheers erupted from the depths of the prison.
Purnama remained focused. He noticed Erabis' hands twitching, a telltale sign of the beast's fury. Erabis ripped the tusks from his face and hurled them with terrifying speed. Purnama leaped back just in time to avoid the sudden thrust. The tusks spun wildly like boomerangs, smashing through the palace ceiling before crashing back down, embedding themselves deep into the prison floor.
Then, Erabis broke his second tusk and hurled it viciously toward the prisoners' cell. The tusk spun violently, slicing through the air like a razor-sharp cyclone. Without hesitation, Purnama bolted forward. His grip tightened around the tusk mid-flight, muscles straining as he halted its deadly momentum, diverting it from the helpless prisoners. The sharp end of the tusk grazed Purnama's hands, a painful reminder of how close he had come to failure.
"FOOLLL!! When you fight, stop thinking about others!" Erabis' voice thundered through the palace, shaking the very walls.
In a blur of ferocious motion, he was suddenly upon Purnama, his massive fist, covered in rattling metal chains, descending like a hammer. Purnama narrowly escaped Erabis' cataclysmic attack by leaping into the air. Yet, the relentless beast unleashed a torrent of dark energy, erupting from its maw.
The prisoners gasped, their chains rattling in terror as thick black smoke enveloped the area. The shockwave slammed into the iron bars of their cages.
"Warghahahar!! You, Celestion, are so predictable—sacrificing yourself for these weaklings!"
Erabis threw his head back and cackled, his malicious laughter echoing in the cavernous space. He reached for the tusk that Purnama had intercepted.
"Where's your hope now, pathetic humans?! I'll kill you all and feast on your life orbs!"
Erabis swung the tusk high over his head, ready to deliver a killing blow to the terrified prisoners. But as he brought it down savagely, the tusk froze in mid-swing, ice crawling over its surface, freezing it solid and building a cold mist. Erabis roared in fury, muscles bulging as he struggled against the ice's grasp. Purnama's silhouette emerged through the cold mist, moving with lethal grace. He struck with a burst of energy, fists flying in a rapid blur.
Erabis countered with wild swipes, but Purnama's movements were too precise, each strike landing with deadly accuracy. The battle raged brutally until Erabis unleashed another blast of dark breath, dispersing the mist and lunging toward Purnama.
He wrapped his enormous hands around Purnama's waist. With a roar rattling the earth, Erabis slammed Purnama into the ground, sending shockwaves through the palace. But when he looked down, it was not Purnama but an illusion created by Zirko's elemental power, dissipating into thin air.
"COWARDDDDD!! Face me, Celestion!" Erabis bellowed, his fury escalating, muscles trembling with rage.
Erabis felt the pressure build above him, and when he looked up, Purnama was suspended in mid-air, his fingers outstretched and glowing with a brilliant bluish aura. With surgical precision, Purnama launched his strike, aiming directly at Erabis's unprotected head. The Puaka brute barely had time to raise both hands, catching the freezing blast, but his fingers were instantly encased in ice.
Erabis roared in defiance. His monstrous muscles rippled, and with a savage spasm, he shattered the ice casing his hands.
With blinding speed, Purnama delivered a crushing King's Punch to Erabis' exposed right arm, which had weakened from the cold, causing Erabis to lose balance.
"ZIRKO! NOW!"
Sensing the moment, Zirko amplified his ice Shakti. Cold energy surged from the ground, the temperature plummeted, and quickly froze Erabis from his feet upward, encasing his entire body in layers of ice.
Silence enveloped the chamber.
Purnama advanced toward the embedded tusk, his movements measured and slow. With a quick, powerful flick of his wrist, he levered the massive tusk free and turned, the sharp weapon now resting easily in his grip, to confront the still-immobilized Erabis.
"It's the end of you." Purnama declared, his voice steady. Then, he leaped.
A sliver of pure disappointment flickered in Erabis's eyes. He had underestimated his opponent, and that mistake put everything at risk. Frustration surged within him as he watched Purnama somersault through the air, the stolen tusk rotating like a grinder and gleaming ominously.
The impact was absolute. The entire form of the Rakshasha Puaka shattered from head to toe into a cataract of crystalline fragments. The prisoners stood frozen in disbelief, their eyes wide not with terror, but surprise.
Sunlight began to pour through the fissure in the castle ceiling high above, illuminating Purnama with a golden glow from the broken roof. He exhaled slowly, chest heaving with relief. The loud cheers of the prisoners echoed through the prison hall, a triumphant symphony to his ears.
The malevolence that tormented Renok for years had finally come to an end.