POV — DURA
The air died first.
Dura felt it the moment he stepped out of the ruined base. His ki sense, usually sharp and expansive, suddenly recoiled inward like a wounded animal, this was unfamiliar to him.
The world felt thinner, hollowed out, as if reality itself were starving.
Then the ground withered.
Grass curled into ash. Trees aged a hundred years in a second, bark cracking, leaves turning to dust mid-fall.
Even the stones dulled, surfaces flaking as if time itself had grown hungry.
Then a voice whispered from everywhere and nowhere.
"You burn so brightly, you are an unknown in the world.…"
A shape emerged.
Tall. Emaciated. Draped in torn, ancient armor fused directly into gray flesh. His face was stretched too tight over bone, eyes sunken voids glowing with sickly green light. Every step he took leeched warmth, color, life.
FAMINE.
Enhanced beyond Horseman norms.
High Omega.
"…I wonder how long you'll last,..... the master told me not to underestimate you, boy ."
Dura's instincts screamed to move first or suffer..
DZIP!
He vanished in a sonic crack, fist aimed directly for Famine's skull.
SWISH!!
It passed straight through.
No resistance.
No impact.
Famine's body rippled like SMOKE and then Dura screamed.
Pain unlike anything he'd felt tore through him. His ki flared violently as something latched on.
Not draining.
Consuming.
His ki forcefully decreased to 85 for a minute..
"Ah…" Famine moaned softly. "That energy… it feeds."
Dura ripped himself free, skidding back, boots carving trenches into dead earth. His aura flickered, fading.
That had never happened before.
"What the fuck are you?" Dura growled.
Famine tilted his head, bones creaking.
"I am the end of abundance, I am Famine ."
The shadows moved.
The darkness beneath Dura's feet rose up, clawed hands forming from absence itself. They grabbed his ankles, his calves, pulling.
Dura roared and detonated his ki outward deciding to increase his power as his opponent is too strange for him to relax power level 350
.
The shadows shrieked as they burned away but the blast left him breathing harder than it should have.
Famine smiled wider.
"Yes… feel it. Every strike costs you now."
Famine raised one skeletal hand.
The temperature dropped instantly.
Dura's skin cracked not from cold, but from loss. His muscles felt weaker, heavier, like they'd been fasting for weeks in seconds.
Then Famine lunged.
He was fast in a wrong way. His movement didn't displace air, didn't cause shockwaves. He simply appeared, fingers spearing into Dura's chest.
Not piercing flesh.
Piercing ki.
Dura screamed as his aura collapsed inward, compressed, torn apart from the inside. Veins blackened across his skin.
Power level 90.
His vision blurred.
Famine leaned close, breath smelling of rot and dust.
"You are not endless."
Dura's knees hit the ground.
The earth around him turned to powder.
Apocalypse had sent Famine to answer one question:
Can this thing be starved to death?
Famine raised both hands now .
The sky darkened.
Every living thing for miles began to diebirds dropping mid-flight, animals collapsing where they stood, insects turning to husks.
All of it rushed toward Famine in a tide of stolen essence.
"Let us see what happens when gods get hungry."
Dura's heartbeat slowed.
For the first time since his rebirth,
He felt fear.
Then Something pulses deep within.
Dura's eyes burned white.
"You made one mistake tissue face! ."
His ki didn't flare outward.
Famine froze.
"…What?"
Dura stood.
Slowly.
Every wound sealed with a sickening crunch. His aura returned but changed. Denser. Sharper. No waste.
"I don't rely on what ever rules and laws your powers function with ."
He vanished.
This time, when he struck...
Famine felt it.
Dura's fist smashed into his ribcage, collapsing it inward with a sound like dry branches breaking. Famine flew backward, carving a canyon through the dead land.
Dura followed.
Each blow was Predatory.
He wasn't overpowering Famine.
He was outlasting him.
Famine tried to drain again, hands digging into Dura's shoulders but found nothing to take.
"Impossible, my power can't be ignored??!!…"
Dura leaned back , "I adapted, bitch! ."
He headbutted him so hard Famine's skull cracked.
Not shattered but cracked.
That alone made Apocalypse's plan fail.
Dura grabbed Famine by the throat and lifted him.
Dura released more ki to counter Famines ability with raw ki pressure
The land began to heal around them as grass was sprouting violently, life surging back in defiance.
"Go back to your master," Dura said coldly.
"Tell him starvation doesn't work on monsters ready to adapt to anything."
He hurled Famine into the sky, in the direction he felt eyes watching him...
The Horseman vanished in a trail of screaming green light.
..
Dura stood alone, breathing steadily.
His ki stabilized.
500 BP (heavily suppressed)
But something had changed.
He looked at his hands still feeling pain from that minor conceptual attack...
"Apocalypse… now I know how you think, your tests will only help me in the long run."
High above, unseen,
Apocalypse smiled.
The test was over.
The war had truly begun.