The village was gone.
What remained was a sea of fire and shadow—a landscape of broken stone and molten scars.
The air trembled with heat, every breath searing Hunnt's throat raw.
Behind him, Alder lay several meters away, barely visible through smoke. Hunnt could still sense him—faint but steady, the heartbeat of a man who had already given everything.
Now it was his turn to finish it.
Across the field Glisarin Ignis staggered. The wound Alder had carved glowed like a forge about to burst. Each breath came as a rumble, each step splitting the ground. The light that once crowned her like a halo flickered with her pulse.
Hunnt raised his fists. His gauntlets were cracked and blackened, skin blistered beneath the metal, but he barely felt pain anymore. All that remained was rhythm—the heartbeat of survival.
No more villagers. No witnesses.
Only him, Alder, and the beast.
That meant he no longer needed to hide.
He exhaled, lowering into stance. Heat warped the air around him as his aura spread outward, subtle but immense. Even the flames hesitated, bending toward him.
Then he moved.
The first step cracked the ground—Soru.
He vanished.
In the blink of an eye he was beneath her guard, rising through the smoke. The Glisarin's eyes widened. Hunnt's fist slammed into her jaw, the impact echoing like thunder. Pulse Drive sent the shock through her skull, twisting her head; fire burst from her mouth in a wild gout.
She retaliated instantly, tail sweeping across the field. Hunnt's body bent with the wind—Kami-e—and the strike passed through the space his body had just occupied, singing his cheek. He twisted mid-air, Geppo, launching sideways off nothing, landing on a half-collapsed wall before springing forward again.
The monster roared. Wings snapped open, beating once. The shockwave tore through the ruins. Hunnt dropped low, bracing as debris screamed past him. The blast scraped along his armor, searing metal, but he didn't flinch. His eyes glowed faintly in the inferno—focused, unblinking.
He could feel it now: every surge of her energy, every shift of weight.
Observation Haki mapped the world in pressure and rhythm.
When she lunged, he was already gone.
Hunnt dashed along her flank, slipping between bursts of flame, his movements sharp and fluid. His fists hammered her ribs in a blur—each strike a percussive pulse that sent shockwaves through scale and bone. Cracks split the molten hide; embers spiraled into the sky.
Glisarin bellowed, spinning to crush him. Her claws crashed down like hammers. Hunnt met them with both arms, locking his stance—Tekkai. The impact rippled through his bones; he redirected the force down into the earth. Stone shattered outward.
He leapt—Geppo—rising through drifting sparks. From above he saw the battlefield: Alder motionless, the square half-melted, the monster's chest a single burning wound.
That was the mark. The fault line.
Hunnt dove.
She swung up to meet him, claws flashing. He rolled along her forearm, sparks cutting across his armor where scale met metal. He kicked off her elbow, using her own momentum to hurl himself downward toward the glowing wound.
The surface of his gauntlets darkened. Armament Haki spread across the metal, black and glassy, shimmering with heat.
He struck once. Twice. Then again.
Each hit landed with the force of a cannon, driving deeper. Fire gushed from the wound, spraying molten light. The beast howled, staggering backward, wings beating out of control.
Hunnt vanished again—Soru—reappearing behind her. She spun, tail lashing. He braced, Tekkai, meeting the blow head-on. The collision detonated the air; a ring of pressure rippled outward, bending the flames flat. Hunnt skidded backward, boots carving trenches, arms shaking violently but still raised.
Pain spread through every nerve. His breath rasped. His vision blurred at the edges, yet his focus never wavered.
The Glisarin faltered, wings tearing, each breath a ragged explosion of smoke. Her light flickered like a dying furnace. Still she charged, claws dragging molten lines behind her.
Hunnt dropped into stance—Anchor Step. The ground cracked beneath his heels, anchoring him against the quake. The monster's shadow swallowed him whole. He didn't blink.
Her claw came down. Hunnt stepped forward into the strike—Redirect—guiding her momentum aside with his forearm and spinning with the force. His opposite fist rose in the same motion, striking along the redirected path.
Metal split. Her shoulder collapsed inward, scales fracturing like broken glass.
She reeled.
Hunnt surged after her, Geppo, climbing the air again. Smoke blurred around him; the burning wind tore his half-melted cloak free. From above, he saw everything—the wound, the trail of fire, Alder's unmoving form.
He inhaled deeply and dropped.
He fell like a meteor. Both fists drawn back, the air shrieking around him. Observation Haki pulsed once more, timing his descent to the rhythm of her faltering heart.
He hit. Pulse Drive.
The impact cracked the world open. Fire erupted from her chest in a blinding wave. The earth cratered; shards of molten stone rained down. The Glisarin screamed, flailing wildly, her wings ripping the sky.
Hunnt rolled aside just before she crashed down. The shockwave hurled him through the air. He struck a pillar and fell, coughing blood.
Across the field, the beast staggered to her feet again. She was falling apart, her body leaking light, every motion jagged. Breath came in ragged bursts; flame sputtered at the corners of her mouth.
She should have died already. But monsters like her never understood surrender.
Hunnt pushed to his feet. His armor clung to him in molten patches. Blood trickled down his arms, hissing when it hit the ground. Still he stood.
Both of them were shadows now—too stubborn to yield, too proud to stop.
The Glisarin lowered her head, smoke curling from her jaws.
Hunnt mirrored her stance. The air between them vibrated—two dying flames refusing to go out.
Then they moved.
The world vanished in sound. Claws met fists; air combusted around them. Each collision shook the valley. Hunnt slipped between her strikes, Kami-e, his counters like thunderclaps. Every blow he landed sent ripples through her burning hide, bursts of pressure that shattered stone.
She struck back, claws grazing his side, tail hammering his shoulder. Pain flared white; Hunnt spun with it, using Redirect to turn her strength into motion. He reappeared at her flank, Soru, fists glowing black, and drove a flurry of Pulse Drives into the torn scales along her ribs. Each one hit like a drumbeat of war.
The beast roared, staggering, then slammed a wing down. The gust tore him from his footing, flinging him into the air. Hunnt twisted mid-fall, Geppo, landing hard on one knee, the ground splitting under him. Steam rose off his back in waves.
The fight had become rhythm itself—pain and breath, flame and motion. The battlefield pulsed with their hearts.
At last they broke apart, both gasping, both trembling. Hunnt's blood ran from nose and lip; his knuckles glowed red through the cracks in his gauntlets. Across from him the Glisarin swayed, wings drooping, chest flickering. The light inside her core stuttered like a dying candle.
They stared at each other through the smoke. There was nothing left to say.
Hunnt tightened his fists. "Not yet… not while he's still breathing."
He stepped forward through the fire. Heat warped around him, bending to his will. The air shivered. The monster screamed, gathering the last of her strength.
They vanished at once—one man, one beast—meeting again at the heart of the inferno.
The impact didn't sound like thunder. It sounded like the world breaking its own breath.
A column of fire rose over the ruins, swallowing both figures in light.
And in that light, two silhouettes moved—one forged of flame, one of flesh—locked together, neither giving way.
The storm of heat roared on, drowning every other sound.
Only the rhythm of fists and wings remained.
The hunt was down to its final breath.