Dust rumbled beneath Eiji's boots.
He exhaled slowly, twirling his massive war hammer once before slamming its butt against the concrete, cracking the earth beneath him.
Across from him, like a looming cliff-face of armored dread, stood Titan—the Kaiju of Earth.
His body was encased in moving stone plates, a walking mountain given life, and his steps made the entire district tremble.
They locked eyes.
Titan growled. "Still standing?"
Eiji grinned. "Gotta be. Can't let you keep talking like that."
Titan lunged.
Not fast—but inevitable.
His fist descended like a meteor.
Eiji side-rolled, sparks flying from his boots as he moved just out of the fist's radius. The shockwave blew out windows around them.
Eiji countered.
He spun his hammer over his shoulder and launched it upward at Titan's chin.
Clang.
Titan's head jolted, but he didn't move an inch.
"Nice," he rumbled. "Now try again."
He caught the hammer mid-fall and dragged Eiji through a wall with it still in his hand.
Crash!
The boy slammed into the side of a derailed train, denting metal.
But Eiji stood.
Bloodied? Yeah.
Shaken? Never.
"Let's test that brain of yours," Titan taunted.
Eiji narrowed his eyes.
_________________________________________________________
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:]
________________________________________________________
[ | Lucky Break: Passive Perk Activated | ]
_________________________________________________________
Titan charged again—but the pavement beneath him crumbled wrong, causing his stance to tilt.
That moment was all Eiji needed.
He vaulted up using a piece of falling debris, launched over Titan's back, spun mid-air and—
SLAMMED the hammer into the back of the Kaiju's head.
Boom.
The force cratered the ground.
Titan staggered. Groaned.
Then—grabbed Eiji's ankle and flipped him so hard the ground shook three blocks over.
"Too predictable."
Eiji smashed through a billboard and skidded across the street, leaving grooves.
"Yeah," he muttered, "but my luck's not."
Titan stomped—and a massive boulder erupted from beneath Eiji.
Eiji reacted just in time to vault up again, swinging his hammer like a comet—it collided with Titan's shoulder and sent rubble flying.
Both reeled back.
Both breathing heavy.
Titan cracked his neck. "You're not half bad."
Eiji wiped blood off his cheek. "You're worse at compliments than you are at holding back."
They stared each other down.
Then, without a word—charged again.
Both were blown backward by the shockwave.
Smoke clouded the district as they lay opposite each other in twin craters.
Neither moved for a moment.
Then both sat up. Groaned.
Titan gave a low chuckle. "Call it a draw?"
Eiji smirked. "Unless you wanna go again and find out."
The sky cracked with thunder overhead—but the two warriors, beast and boy, just lay there, staring into it.
"Damn good fight."
Elsewhere the city was still a battlefield, the air thick with dust, broken steel, and static energy. Towering wreckage loomed over Ren and Raijin as they stood, breathing heavily. But not for long.
Ren's eyes flared with purpose as he exploded forward.
Raijin matched his pace instantly.
The city around them was a fractured dream of steel and broken glass, the wind howling through collapsed towers like an audience screaming in awe.
Ren's chest heaved then he stopped.
Raijin just right behind him, stood still, blade to his side, unreadable.
*Then the storm broke again.*
Ren vanished—
—and reappeared mid-air, diving down with a flying heel strike.
Raijin stepped back, just inches.
*WHOOM!*
The heel struck concrete and cratered the ground.
Before the dust even lifted—
Ren launched a flurry:
Left roundhouse. Right spinning back kick. Low sweep. Rising Spiral Kick.
Each faster than the last.
The camera would pan in slow motion as Raijin, arms still folded, began to move only his right hand.
Block. Block. Parry. Palm deflection. Finger jab redirect.
Each of Ren's kicks hit nothing but air or Raijin's one gloved hand, which barely seemed to care.
Ren's eye twitched.
He twisted mid-air into a Storm Spiral Kick—
Lightning surged across his legs, crackling.
This time, Raijin lifted his elbow.
CLAAANG!
Shockwave.
The city trembled.
Raijin didn't budge.
The force of Ren's own attack bounced back, sending him tumbling across the plaza. He flipped mid-air, slid across a tilted car, and bounced off the side of a building—
—but landed on the vertical surface.
He crouched sideways on the building wall, gravity defied by raw energy.
He dashed down the wall like a comet, charging.
The camera zooms in tight on Raijin's hand.
He opens it.
Twin daggers manifest in Ren's hands mid-dash.
Raijin switches weapons—
He picks a heavy nodachi, letting it rest on his shoulder.
Ren slashes—
Raijin blocks with the blunt side.
Ren ducks, stabs low—
Raijin turns, catches the second blade between two fingers.
Ren snarls. Twists.
Lightning blast!
Raijin lets go just in time—spins—knees Ren in the ribs.
The camera circles around them—like an orbiting drone.
Ren flies back, flips, then rebounds off a water tank on the top of an high-rise, leaving behind a lightning trail.
He zips back with a blender-spin attack, blades whirling.
Raijin shifts stance. His blade vanishes.
Bare hands again.
He ducks under one blade, grabs Ren's wrist, twists, and throws him like a missile—
Straight through a parking garage wall.
A moment of silence.
BOOM—Ren bursts out of the side of the structure mid-sprint.
Camera locks to his shoulder, shaking with every footstep.
He jumps, blades reversed—slashes in an X.
Raijin dodges one, blocks the other—but Ren flips up the blades.
They flip in the air—Ren twists and heel kicks on midair—
CRACK. Direct hit.
Raijin staggers back a step.
Ren lands, catches one blade mid-fall, dashes again.
"Now we're COOKING!!" he yells.
Lightning pours off his shoulders like a cloak.
Raijin grins.
"You're learning."
And in the next breath—
Aura Slash activates again.
Raijin's body radiates with hundreds of thousands and millions of glowing blue slashes forming a now two metre circular execution zone.
Ren's expression drops,"You're kidding...
Meanwhile, a final clash erupted in a beam of fire-laced wind, tearing across the sky like a comet crashing through clouds.
Kaede stood, panting, a smirk tugging at her lips. Her sleeves were scorched, dirt smeared on her face. Mika beside her cracked her neck, fist still steaming with residual flame. The two stood side-by-side, bodies swaying slightly from exhaustion, but eyes burning with triumph.
Across the field, Infernia's eyes narrowed, a flicker of irritation mixing with admiration. Zephyr landed on a cracked rooftop, wind rustling through as she blew a low whistle, impressed despite herself.
Then — stillness.
The wind softened. The ground no longer trembled. The explosions that had painted the sky moments ago faded into the distance.
It was evening now.
The city was painted in molten orange and soft purples, buildings casting long shadows. Smoke rose in gentle pillars from shattered rooftops and split streets. The glow of the sunset reflected off shards of broken glass, giving the ruined skyline a weird kind of beauty — like the battlefield itself was catching its breath.
Flickering lights in the distant city core barely held their charge. Street signs swayed in the breeze. Birds flew in strange patterns, disturbed by the chaos yet returning as if the fight had always been part of the city's heartbeat.
Kaede leaned back, collapsing onto a cracked bench, laughing through short breaths.
Mika followed, sitting beside her, both watching the horizon where the sun dipped low behind the broken towers.
Infernia stepped forward, arms crossed. Her voice echoed slightly as flames curled around her like a warm breeze.
"You two... actually worked together decently."
Zephyr hovered down beside her, floating lazily in the air, arms behind her head.
"Maaawwwn, not bad for some humans. You almost singed my braid tho." She winked at Mika.
Kaede raised a brow. "We were just getting started."
Infernia snorted.
"Tch. Don't let it get to your head. You're improving... but you're not there yet."
Zephyr twirled mid-air, flipping upside down.
"Yeah, keep this up, and maybe one day, you'll stop being a liability~"
Mika glanced at Kaede, both exchanging that "oh we're not done yet" grin.
The bond had deepened. The rivalry had sharpened. And even as the Kaijus threw jabs, something subtle shifted — a silent acknowledgment that the humans were no longer just tagging along.
They were beginning to match pace.
Meanwhile, Haru crouched on one knee, katana planted in the cracked ground beside him. His chest rose and fell unevenly, each breath sharp like he was chewing on glass. Steam drifted off his soaked shoulders, water from Aqua's last strike dripping from his hair. His eyes struggled to hold her gaze.
Aqua stepped forward, her heels silent even against the jagged concrete. She looked down at him, calm and composed as always. No pity in her face—just clarity.
"You fight like you're trying to win points," she said. "But this isn't a sport."
Haru looked away, jaw clenched.
"You react too late. You think too slowly. You hold back your instincts because you're afraid they'll be wrong."
She knelt down to his level, voice lowering but hardening like ice.
"In a fight like this… hesitation is fatal. You analyze too much. Control isn't about knowing—it's about sensing. Water flows where it's needed. You try to guide it. But you should've become it."
She stood again. Her hand didn't offer help. Only her words did.
Then—
A dull thump.
It came from far off.
Then another. Heavier.
The wind shifted. A quiet vibration filled the air. Like pressure building under a sealed lid. Rocks clattering along the floor.
Suddenly, a deafening hum ripped across the skyline.
A spinning dome of light burst open near the city's northern edge. The hum that followed was sharp, unnatural. Not thunder. Not wind. It was higher-pitched—more refined. A resonance that grated against the mind. Windows shattered in buildings that hadn't already been destroyed. A low-frequency hum echoed like a dying engine tearing itself apart from the inside.
They both looked up.
Several buildings—already fractured from past battles—split completely down their frames. Their upper halves tilted, then ripped off, debris falling slow-motion like into the surrounding wreckage.
The top hovering just about as high as the building that far, a light dome spun with frightening precision. Not chaotic. Controlled.
Across the cityscape, Eiji stood atop a collapsed overpass, bloodied but upright. Titan loomed behind him, the behemoth's heavy steps causing minor quakes beneath them.
Eiji narrowed his eyes at the distant flash.
"What the hell is that?"
Titan tilted his head. The hum echoed through the wind, brushing past his massive frame.
"...shouldn't everyone be worn out by now," he muttered, low and gruff.
They turned without hesitation and began to move. Titan bulldozed through weakened walls while Eiji weaved between ruins, the chaos drawing them toward something greater than any training match.
Mika, Kaede, Zephyr and Infernia had regrouped atop a broken high-rise, the skeleton of the structure creaking beneath their weight. Mika wiped blood from her brow, jaw bruised, shoulders scorched. Kaede stood hunched, clutching her ribs, eyes scanning the horizon. Zephyr hovered just above the edge, wind swirling restlessly around her ankles. Infernia sat perched on a warped metal beam, silent flames still flickering around her back.
Then came the sound.
All four turned.
The light in the distance wasn't ordinary. The air around it was wrong—compressed, as though it bent gravity around it. That dome of energy wasn't made by training or control.
It was force. Raw, desperate, unfiltered force.
Kaede straightened, despite the pain.
"That's Aura Slash," she whispered. "But…"
Zephyr hovered higher, her eyes wide.
"It's never looked like that... Not that big"
Infernia was already moving. Her legs pushed off the beam, fire surging behind her as she bolted.
Kaede disappeared in a blink of wind. Mika ran with flames bursting at her heels. Zephyr soared after them, slicing through the haze above.
After a while, they arrived in staggered flashes, each landing on the rim of a crater that hadn't existed minutes ago. Asphalt torn like paper. Concrete melted into glassy fragments. Steel girders bent outward from a single point of impact. The earth wasn't just split—it had been reformed by the strike.
At the edge stood a lone figure. Ren.
His body leaned slightly forward, knees threatening to give in. Steam rose from his back. Dirt clung to his arms. His hair hung messily over his face, damp with sweat and blood. In both hands, he gripped his daggers—reversed, blades dripping not with blood, but with static.
He was unconscious, but he hadn't fallen.
His fingers were locked around the weapons. He looked like a broken statue caught in a final stance. Upright but not aware.
The group stopped in their tracks, Mika's breath hitched. "Ren?"
She stepped forward slowly, cautiously, Kaede said nothing, but her eyes scanned the crater.
And at the center… was Raijin, he stood motionless in the heart of the destruction, not in a battle stance. Not glowing with dominance.
His entire body was covered in black like lines, like a mummy in black, a soft blue light pulsed, thin, etched lines ran across his chest, arms, and legs—seal marks, faint but active. They glowed in rhythmic intervals, holding something inside him or holding him back.
He wasn't just powerful now. He looked dangerous.
Kaede blinked. "Was this a clash?"
Infernia shook her head slowly. "No. This wasn't a fight. This was… Raijin going too far."
Zephyr hovered lower, her voice subdued. "He didn't hold back this time."
Kaede said beside her, her voice harsh. "Does he ever?"
The hum faded slowly into silence. Dust settled. Smoke lifted in threads. The residual aura slash around Raijin was now completely dead.
Ren on his knees. Still gripping his weapons. Still breathing.
Raijin turned his head slightly.
Then—he vanished. No flash. No lightning. No sound.
Only a faint arc of energy where he'd stood.
Silence and Realization, no one spoke, they looked at the crater. At Ren, not out of fear—but awe.
Not for Raijin.
But of what Ren had become to- what it looks like- stalemate Raijin... If we put it like that.
Just about thirty minutes before now, the atmosphere above the city trembled with an uneasy weight. Clouds didn't just gather—they twisted, spiraled, churned as if the sky itself recoiled from what was about to unfold. Lightning forked across a bruised horizon, not natural, but resonant—drawn by something deeper than mere weather. The looming portal above cast an iridescent hue, pulsing slowly like the breath of something massive, waiting.
Below, the streets were a maze of shattered glass and fractured asphalt. Remnants of buildings leaned like drunk titans, half-fallen and trembling. A silence wrapped the city, not peace, but the eerie pause of air before an explosion.
Amidst the chaos stood two figures.
Ren, cut and bruised, his breathing uneven, his body scarred by blows, stood with both daggers lowered at his sides. Each breath escaped his lips with the sound of broken resolve slowly reforging. His iris glowed faintly—a soft white energy pulsing through the cracks along his arms like veins of light trapped beneath his skin. His white and black-gradient hair hung in jagged clumps, soaked in sweat and blood. Yet his stance held firm. Unshaking.
Raijin, silent, unmoved, loomed in front of him. His presence alone seemed to distort the wind, coils of static energy drifting off him from a still dormant Aura slash. He didn't speak at first. His eyes, ageless and piercing, studied Ren for a long moment.
"Give up."
The words fell like thunder, calm but absolute.
Ren didn't reply.
Raijin's eyes narrowed. "You're not ready. You can't win."
Ren, breathing hard, only muttered, "No."
Raijin stepped forward once. The ground beneath his foot cracked.
"It's okay to be weak."
But Ren's voice cut through the air again. Sharper.
"I'm not weak. I'm just not done yet."
Silence. A long one.
Then came the motion. Raijin's arm lifted. High into the sky.
Lightning cracked.
Arcs of violent and blue spun around Raijin, forming a dense spiraling sphere. Inside, countless slashes spun rapidly, forming a visible array of blades made of pure energy. Aura Slash. Alive. Slowly expanding. Humming with a frequency that made bones shiver. This wasn't just a second metre radius version anymore, Raijin uncapped the range as which Aura slash normally operates.
Ren pushed off the ground.
He surged forward—his speed not elegant, but forceful. Driven. Each footfall a detonation of pressure against the cracked pavement.
Raijin remained still. And then, in one motion, he fully activated Aura Slash.
It didn't just attack. It devoured.
The slashes rapidly burst outward in every direction. The buildings around Raijin was sliced apart like paper. Rooftops shredded. Cars shredded and flipped into the air. The wind howled.
Just before the slashes touched Ren—
Ren tried to slash back, but a blinding pulse erupted.
He was sent flying, his body cartwheeling through a wall, landing in a smoking crater. Blood smeared his arm. One of the daggers tumbled out of his grip. He coughed. And still pushed himself up. Taking back the daggers into his hands
Then, breathless, he looked forward and asked:
"Do I have complete access to your Kaivor?"
Raijin turned slightly, brow furrowing.
"You always did."
"Then let me in." Ren said back.
Raijin's tone turned grim. "Two things. One, you'll blow your core and fall unconscious again. And two, even with it, you can't stop Aura Slash."
Ren didn't care. He concentrated hard, then held hard the handle of his remaining daggers. His body lit up, a shimmer of blue lining his limbs. A sharp pulse emitted from his chest.
The system activated.
Not cleanly.
_________________________________________________________
[ SYSTEM WARNING: KAIVOR OVERLOAD DETECTED]
_________________________________________________________
HOST SYNC RATIO EXCEEDING SAFE THRESHOLD
_________________________________________________________
[ CORE INSTABILITY IMMINENT. RECOMMENDATION:]
_________________________________________________________
IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OF FORCED ACCESS
_________________________________________________________
Ren's expression didn't change. He dug deeper. Gritted his teeth.
Then—
_________________________________________________________
[ TEMPORARY CONDITION MET ]
_________________________________________________________
[ SYNC LEVEL: ]
≥100%
_________________________________________________________
[ STAMINA LEVEL: ]
<50%
_________________________________________________________
[ FULL SYNC MODE: GRANTED ]
_________________________________________________________
His body ignited.
Not with fire, but with presence. The space around him bent. His feet lifted slightly off the ground. Both daggers reformed in his grip, pulsing with the storm sigils inherited from Raijin himself.
He dashed forward.
His form split the air—a line of pressure rippling behind him. No flash step. Just raw speed. Instinctive. Untaught.
The Aura Slash moved in again, arcs rotating in deadly geometric patterns.
Ren met them.
One slash. Then another.
He countered. Not blocked. Matched.
His arms blurred. His daggers struck each incoming arc with precision, creating afterimages of their own. A dome began forming around him—each slash he intercepted became a new layer of barrier. An organic, growing wall of storm.
Raijin stared, stunned.
"He's... He's holding them."
In that moment, Raijin's system pulsed internally.
_________________________________________________________
[| SYSTEM NOTIFICATION |] _________________________________________________________
[ ANOMALY DETECTED IN HOST-KAIJU LINK ]
[ HOST SYNCHRONIZATION PASSED 100% ]
[ DEFENSIVE OVERRIDE INITIATED ]
[ SEAL MARKS ENGAGED ]
_________________________________________________________
Lines of glowing symbols erupted across Raijin's body—seal marks drawn from ancient protocols, forcing his energy back inward, caging the excess-- No everything Raijin was letting out.
He took a knee.
His eyes never left Ren.
Ren, shaking, bleeding, kept swinging. His clothes were torn, energy flickering wildly around his form, but his arms never stopped. Each movement slowed the Aura Slash by another fraction.
It had only moved forward one inch since the initial clash.
But the other arcs... the other primary arc of Aura Slash? They had moved. They cut through the city in all other directions. Entire buildings sheared cleanly from their foundations. The humming grew louder—high-pitched, grating. Felt in the teeth. A dome of vibrating pressure wrapped the entire city block.
And then...
The last clash.
An explosion of power.
A burst of light so dense it flattened cars. It scattered crows from miles away. It silenced everything.
Then came the crater.
And now—
Ren stands, barely upright, knees wobbling, arms limp at his sides. The daggers reversed in his grip. Unconscious, but still refusing to fall.
Across the impact zone, the earth is torn open, seal marks glowing faintly, etched into the walls of the crater, spiraling outward from where Raijin stands there at its core. His body—cover totally in black lines, but glowing with soft pulses of blue. Restrained. Not by another's hand.
But by the result of Ren's will.
And as the dust begins to settle, far away, several figures arrive.
And here we are, at present.
The skyline was blackened but alive—the portal loomed like an unblinking god above the city, casting long, purple-white pulses of light that swept across the broken glass and shattered concrete like a slow strobe.
Ren hung between Mika and Kaede, his feet dragging just enough to leave scuffed trails in the dust-caked road. His daggers still clung to his fingers in reverse grip, blood-slicked palms refusing to let go. Unconscious, but locked in even now.
Mika bore his weight with her left shoulder, her jaw clenched tight. Her other hand steadied his ribs, careful but firm, like she had done this a hundred times. Kaede mirrored her on the opposite side, silent, eyes narrowed, ponytails swaying with each step.
The others followed at a slower pace—Zephyr flying low to the ground like a glider on standby, Infernia flicking ash from her arms as her flames cooled, gaze sweeping the streets with predatory calm. Eiji somewhat a bit of a curious geologist and Haru, a nerd both stayed back studying how the floors and building were carved through so smoothly, one a moment getting zapped by residual energy, especially Haru.
Their steps were heading home. Where else could they go?
Rika was still underground. Civilians were sealed in shelters. No noncombatant allowed on the surface—not with the portal still flashing overhead like it was breathing. No one said it, but the question started lingering between them.
Where would Ren stay?
Just before the conversation could even begin—shouts cracked through the ruined air.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"
A harsh voice. Not startled. Not confused. Furious.
They all stopped.
From behind the broken hull of a collapsed armored bus, flanked by debris and blinking barricade lights, the Hunter Commander emerged. Flanked by two other agents, his long coat still dusted with ash, one arm bandaged, the other held tight across his chest like a leash barely keeping his temper in check.
His eyes swept across the group. Then up to the wrecked skyline behind them. Then—
"You don't expect to just walk away after all that... EXTRA—EXTRA DAMAGE... do you!?"
"You wrecked more than the Shadow Monarch might've even intended himself!"
His voice echoed through the half-dead city, bouncing off hollowed-out buildings and fragmented roads. Streetlamps flickered weakly, some shorting out entirely from lingering energy pulses.
The kaiju present said nothing. Ren hung limp. Raijin was nowhere to be seen— obviously inactive inside Ren.
Kaede and Mika exchanged a brief glance, but neither spoke.
That's when two figures phased between the groups.
Haru, katana still holstered but his eyes sharpened, stepped forward without hesitation. Beside him, Eiji cracked his neck, warhammer slung over one shoulder like it was weightless.
Haru looked the Commander dead in the face, then shrugged.
"Look. The place was already thrashed."
Eiji gave a tired half-smirk, lifting a hand toward the broken high-rise looming above.
"And let's be real, we kinda need to get stronger. Y'know… portal in the sky and all that."
Above them, Titan stood atop a damaged building like a silent sentinel—arms crossed, a massive shadow in the portal's glow. His voice rumbled down without moving his lips.
"Training escalated. Mission successful."
Haru turned back slightly to the others, then pointed at Ren's limp form.
"And besides. Look, one of our own trained to this state, it's obvious we're serious about relieving this world from distress."
The Commander stared. Jaw clenched. A blood vessel pulsed at his temple.
One of his agents leaned in, muttering something—maybe reminding him that there were still no civilian deaths. Maybe pointing out the bigger priority glowing like the eye of a god in the sky above them.
He exhaled sharply through his nose, fingers twitching.
"Next time you're about to tear through three blocks of reinforced city grid, you call it in."
"Next time—you don't start a kaiju-level cage match in the middle of a tactical buffer zone."
Haru held up his hands. "Noted."
Eiji nodded like a child being scolded. "Yes sir."
"Ugh… just go. Get off the grid before someone higher than me decides to take MY job."
The Commander turned and stalked off, muttering under his breath, his officers trailing behind.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then the group began walking again, slower this time. More tension. More exhaustion.
Just at the outskirts – Broken Avenue to the Hoshino street, the portal's glow was stronger now, bleeding light across rooftops and washing the streets in purple light.
As they turned the final corner, Mika finally broke the silence.
"He's staying with me."
Kaede looked over, one eyebrow raised. "Your place?"
Mika nodded. "No one's there. And I'm not leaving him alone."
Zephyr floated above, grinning faintly. "Rich girl pulls the hero card."
Infernia smirked. "Let her. Mansion probably has better beds than any of our places."
Kaede smiled but didn't argue. "Good. He deserves that much after tonight."
Haru walked ahead slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Tomorrow's not going to slow down."
Eiji glanced back at the distant crater. "And neither will that portal."
Above them, Titan's silhouette faded into the night, stepping from rooftop to rooftop like a moving monolith.
"Then rest tonight. Because it begins again tomorrow."