The subway junction was a tomb of silence for exactly one heartbeat. Magals' massive, foot was inches from Mira Ice's temple, the air around his boot rippling with the pressure of a thousand tons, Zainab watched through a haze of blood, her voice trapped in her throat.
Then, the world blurred.
CLANG.
The sound wasn't flesh hitting flesh; it was the sound of a tectonic plate meeting a mountain. Elias had appeared, not through the entrance, but as if he had materialized out of the very shadows. His new black-and-blue boot was locked against the underside of Magals' heel.
"Magals... time for round 2," Elias said. His voice was no longer that of the boy who had wept in the ruins of his home. It was a cold steady voice.
"Elias!" Temi Nova gasped, her eyes widening as the rest of the 10th Division flooded the junction like a dark tide.
Sloane didn't wait for orders. She slid across the wet floor, her medical drones deployed in a defensive perimeter. "Vela, cover me! Renji, help me move the Captain!"
"On it," Vela said, though she didn't stand up. She sat on a rusted crate, casually tossing a chip into her mouth .
Magals stepped back, his eyes narrowing as he retracted his leg. He looked at the glowing blue lines on Elias's suit, then at the silver fire burning in the boy's eyes. "Hmm... you. I remember you. You were the child crying on the ground as I killed, that man..hmm what's he's name.....oh yeah Kaizen.
Magals spread his arms wide, a dark grin splitting his bruised-slate face. "I don't have time to play with all of you. Come, my children. Show them the price of interference."
From the thick, obsidian shadows of the subway tunnels, three figures stepped forward.
The Clown: A lanky, terrifying creature with a painted, unmoving porcelain face and elongated fingers that twitched like spiders.
The Armored Knight: A zethrianencased in black Zethrian armoured steel, wielding a colossal sword
And a female zethrians called carmora
"Let the show begin," Magals commanded.
Nyx didn't wait for the speech to end. She appeared right in front of magals as she was about to attack magals.
PING.
The armoured zethrians didn't even look up.
He raised his shield by an inch, and the spatial vibration coming off the metal sent Nyx spinning backward. She flipped in the air, sticking the landing with a hiss.
"Damn... looks like you don't want me to have fun with big papa," Nyx said, a predatory smile stretching across her face. "Fine. I love breaking toys that are built to last."
"I'm gonna handle the clown," Kaelen said, his blue flames erupting from his shoulders. "I hate circus acts."
"Then I'm taking the girl with the wires," Jaxen added, lightning dancing across his knuckles. "She looks like she needs a jumpstart."
Rook, Renji, Mikasa, and Elias formed a semi-circle around Magals. while Cipher stood at the back, trying to find a flaw in magals law of invoiblity
At the tunnel's edge, the 1st Division finally arrived. Kylo leaned against the entrance, his eyes scanning the chaos. He didn't jump in. He wanted to see how Elias handled the pressure. "Found ya," he smirked.
Match: Nyx vs. The Armored Knight
The Armored Knight stepped forward, his footsteps cracking the concrete. He didn't speak; he was a silent monolith of Zethrian pride.
Nyx vanished. POP. She was behind him. POP. She was to his left. She struck sixteen times in three seconds, her daggers carving glowing orange lines across the black steel of his armor. But the Knight didn't flinch. The armor wasn't just thick; it was reactive. Every time her blade touched the surface, the metal hardened , turning the strike into a harmless spark.
"Tch... weapons are gonna break at this rate," Nyx muttered, noticing the jagged notches appearing on her silver blades. She looked at the Knight, who finally raised his massive black sword—a slab of metal as wide as a human torso.
The Knight swung. The air pressure alone cracked the floor. Nyx teleported to the ceiling, but the Knight was surprisingly fast. He adjusted the arc of his swing mid-air, the tip of the blade grazing Nyx's hip as she popped away.
"You're a sturdy one, aren't you?" Nyx landed, breathing hard. She looked at her daggers, then back at the Knight. With a casual flick, she dropped her weapons. They hit the ground with a soft clink.
"Foolish human," the Knight's voice was a deep, metallic rattle. "Without your stingers, you are nothing but a fly."
"A fly?" Nyx's eyes glowed with a frantic, manic energy. "Maybe. But have you ever tried to catch a fly with your bare hands?"
Nyx didn't teleport this time. She ran.
She moved with a low, serpentine gait, her body weaving under the Knight's massive sword thrust. As she entered his "Kill Zone," she drove her palm into the joint of his elbow.
CLANG.
The armor held, but the vibration of her strike—rattled the Knight's arm. Before he could recover, Nyx used his chest plate as a springboard, launching herself into a backflip. As she went over his head, she delivered a brutal double-kick to the back of his helmet.
The Knight stumbled, his sword clattering against a subway pillar. He roared, dropping the weapon and raising his gauntleted fists.
The fight turned into a brutal symphony of impact. The Knight swung a heavy right hook that would have decapitated a normal man. Nyx didn't dodge; she flowed. She leaned back until her spine was parallel to the floor, the Knight's fist passing hair-breadths from her nose. She spun on her heel, delivering a spinning heel-kick to his kidney, then a flurry of four-point strikes to his throat.
Bam-bam-bam-bam!
The Knight grabbed her mid-strike, his massive fingers locking around her waist. He slammed her into a subway car, the metal folding around her like paper. He raised a fist to finish her, but Nyx grinned, blood staining her teeth.
"Gotcha."
She teleported—not away, but inside his guard. She reappeared with her knees locked around his neck and her thumbs pressing into the optical sensors of his helmet.
The Knight thrashed, slamming his back against the walls to shake her off, but Nyx was like a parasite. She increased her strength, making her grip as unbreakable as steel. Then she teleported to the ceiling and she stabbed he's eyes ,
As they fell, she shifted her weight, using the Knight's own massive momentum against him. They hit the floor with a bone-shattering THUD, Nyx landing on top with a knee driven directly into the Knight's reinforced neck joint.
The armour cracked. The Knight's vision went dark.
Nyx stood up, her side bruised, but her smile was wider than ever. She looked down at the unmoving mountain of steel. "Told ya. Hands are more fun."
Kaelen: Currently dodging the Clown's elongated fingers, his blue flames turning the subway into a furnace.
Jaxen: Trading lightning strikes with Vesper, the wire-master.
Elias/Rook/Renji/Mikasa: Facing down Magals, who hasn't even broken a sweat yet.
Magals watched the Knight fall, his expression unchanged. "One piece lost. No matter. The King is still on the board."
He looked at Elias. "Well, boy? Are you going to stand there an
d look pretty , or are you going to entertain me?"