Kaito's fingers twitched at his side, electricity sparking around his body.
"Get ready…" The announcer through the drone overhead began to announce.
The two men stood nose to nose, eyes locked on one another.
"Begin!"
Kaito swung immediately with a left hook. Myzen blocked it effortlessly. His expression remained calm, almost bored even.
"Is that all, human?" He taunted in a low voice.
Kaito gritted his teeth. Myzen spun to throw a kick aimed at his head, but he ducked under it and retaliated with an uppercut.
Myzen caught his hand mid-swing, twisting his wrist painfully before slamming his fist into his liver.
The blow nearly dropped Kaito to a knee as he staggered backwards, legs feeling like noodles.
He gasped but fought through it, planting his feet firmly on the ground.
He couldn't fall… not here.
He darted forward and the fight intensified, becoming a rapid exchange of blows between the two.
In that flurry of exchanges, Kaito threw a low front kick aimed for Myzen's knee, hoping to cripple him, but Myzen swept his legs out from under him with a fluid motion, sending him crashing to the ground.
Kaito's eyes shot wide open as he looked up. He rolled to the side, barely dodging a crushing boot that slammed into the ground.
The viewers from their homes gasped as the ground shattered beneath the blow.
Finn watched with wide eyes as Kaeline sat beside him.
"He's giving everything he has… But it's like nothing's working!" He said worriedly.
"It's because Myzen's affinity makes him almost invulnerable to Kaito's attacks."
Finn glanced over at Kaeline confused.
"I–Invulnerable..? What are you talking about?" He asked
"Kaito's affinity is lightning, for example, which gives him enhanced speed and those electrical attacks you've seen. But Myzen... he's using some type of nature-based sub-affinity that's insulating him against Kaito's attacks."
Finn's eyes widened in realization.
"So that's why Kaito's hits aren't doing anything?"
"Exactly. Kaito's lightning won't do enough damage unless he pushes it to a higher level. But that kind of control takes practice… and time he doesn't have."
Back at the battlefield, Kaito dashed forward. Myzen moved to counter, but this time, Kaito feinted, dodging his blow and landing a clean left horizontal elbow to the side of his head.
But Myzen barely flinched.
"Is that all? I expected more from you after that little outburst before." He said casually with Katio's elbow still pressed against his face.
Kaito leaped back to create distance. He felt a burning sensation radiating throughout his chest with each breath he took, yet it wasn't the pain nor the effort of the battle. That sensation grew until he felt it in his entire body.
His essence changed from its usual purple to white. Not only that, it was hot... really hot.
"I can't hold back... Not now. Not ever again!" He screamed to himself in his mind.
Myzen drew his curved blade with one hand and darted ahead.
Without thinking, Kaito's hands shot forward, interlocking them and pointing both index and middle fingers towards Myzen. A white ball of glowing energy the size of a grape began forming at his fingertips.
The air warped around it due to the sheer amount of heat radiating from it.
Myzen stopped in his tracks and became stunned by the sudden shift in power. His CPI scanner came to life in his eye and grew at an astonishing rate.
Kaito: 60,000... 275,000... 450,000...
Elara's eyes widened in disbelief as the wave of heat from the ball of energy reached her distant location at the edge of the battlefield.
"Wha.. What is this heat?.. This power? Is that a fire affinity? No… this heat is different." She thought to herself.
Kaito gritted his teeth, the tiny sphere becoming more unstable and hotter with each passing second. It began to burn the skin on his fingertips where it formed.
With a primal shout, he launched it toward Myzen. The recoil from firing it off nearly knocked his shoulder out of socket. It streaked through the air like a tiny comet, glowing brighter with each passing moment.
Myzen's eyes widened with surprise when it hit.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!
The explosion shook the ground, the impact rippling outward like a shockwave. The temperature spiked and a wave of searing heat swept through the lands burning everything nearby.
Kaito stood at the edge of the blast zone, panting heavily. The attack had drained every bit of his essence, leaving his limbs heavy and sluggish.
But it had to be worth it.
It had to be enough… Or so he wanted to tell himself.
In her room far far away, watching through a private hologram, Seraphine began to chuckle.
"My my now, this is a stunning surprise. Who would've thought you'd even possess that type of affinity?" She said as a soft but spine chilling smile began to form on her face.
"You truly are… a monster. Aren't you, Kaito my love?"
The dust began to settle slowly on the battlefield.
But through the settling dust, a figure walked slowly into view.
It was Myzen.
He stepped forward, his black armor cracked and scorched, but otherwise unharmed. He dusted off his shoulders with a calm expression as he looked over to Kaito.
"Not bad… Not bad at all." He said casually.
Kaito's heart plummeted. He had thrown everything he had into that new attack, and yet... it wasn't enough. The realization hit him like no punch or kick ever could.
Myzen's red and black essence began to flare around him. His oppressive power pressed down on Kaito making it hard to breathe. His CPI scanner began to flicker in his eye.
Myzen: 175,000… 350,000… 525,000…
Elara watched in shock as she felt the shift in air to something all too familiar.
"Resonance: Volcano of Darkness!"
Kaito braced himself as a violent shockwave from Myzen tore through the battlefield.
After his essence settled, the crew watching from the ship fell silent as Myzen's transformation was completed.
His muscles bulged.
His red and black essence surged wildly around like a raging bonfire.
His body was now encased in a shimmering dark black and red armor with glowing red and orange like cracks in volcanic rock.
Kaito took a step back as he tried to process the overwhelming shift in power. This wasn't the same opponent. This was something else entirely, something beyond anything he had ever faced. His CPI scanner finally settled on a number…
Myzen: 875,000 CPI
The weight of Myzen's transformation pressed down on him like a crushing wave.
"I can't... No. I won't back down. But what… what is this power?" He thought to himself, completely bewildered
Myzen's red eyes locked onto him as he raised one of his hands.
"Come on, Kaito. Show them what you're really made of."