The clash was instantaneous, and it was devastating.
When Martial Artist Tier 2 fighters collided, the world didn't end, but the immediate vicinity certainly suffered.
Kai and Prince Zhao Long met the Exarch Prime in the dead center of the ruined avenue. The Prince threw a massive, tectonic right hook with his black star-iron gauntlets, while Kai brought the high-frequency Sovereign's Edge down in a blinding, five-colored arc.
The Exarch Prime didn't dodge. It simply raised its left forearm to catch the Prince's gauntlet and brought its right wrist—glowing with a three-foot blade of radioactive green plasma—up to parry Kai's sword.
BOOM!
The resulting shockwave shattered the windows of every building on the block. The kinetic feedback was immediate and absolute. Kai and Zhao Long expected the alien to be pushed back. Instead, it felt like they had just sprinted full-speed into the side of a reinforced mountain.
The Exarch Prime's Tier 2 (Peak) core was perfectly, flawlessly refined. Before Kai could even pull his sword back for a second strike, the Prime's featureless black visor tracked him. The alien twisted its waist with horrifying, biomechanical efficiency and lashed out with a front kick.
The black-diamond foot buried itself perfectly into Kai's chest.
Kai's newly forged Tier 2 (Low) core flared to protect him, but the sheer, concentrated mass of the Peak-stage alien was overwhelming. Kai was launched backward like a cannonball. He slammed through the load-bearing concrete pillars of a ruined four-story commercial building, bringing the entire stone facade crashing down on top of him in a cloud of dust and debris.
"Hart!" Zhao Long roared.
The Prince didn't have time to look back. The Exarch Prime pivoted seamlessly, bringing its green plasma blade down toward Zhao Long's neck. The Prince crossed his gauntlets to block.
HISSSS!
The plasma blade bit deep into the Tier-2 star-iron of the gauntlets, superheating the metal instantly. The alien commander didn't rely on flashy martial arts; it relied on absolute, brutal efficiency. It pressed the advantage, unleashing a flurry of six consecutive strikes so fast they blurred into a continuous green light.
Zhao Long was forced backward with every blow. His Earthly Fiend magma-veins were flaring, but his footwork was a mess. Every time he tried to plant his boots to counterattack, his own newly awakened Tier 2 gravity betrayed him, causing him to sink too deeply into the asphalt and ruining his balance.
With a final, grinding strike, the Prime slapped Zhao Long's guard aside and backhanded the Prince across the jaw with its bare, diamond-scaled fist.
Zhao Long spun through the air, skipping across the ruined street like a stone across a pond, gouging a deep trench into the earth before slamming into the rusted husk of a transport carriage.
The Exarch Prime didn't wait any longer. Its biological scanners registered the shift in the humans' stances. The alien commander kicked off the ground, leaving a localized crater in the asphalt, and charged straight at Zhao Long with its plasma blade raised for a lethal decapitation.
"Now!" Kai roared.
Zhao Long didn't step forward to meet the charge. He didn't raise his gauntlets to block. Instead, he channeled every drop of his uncontrollable, newly crystallized Tier 2 (Low) Qi directly down through his legs.
"Earthly Fiend: Fault Line!"
Zhao Long stomped his heavy boot directly into the street.
He didn't aim at the alien; he aimed at the environment. The sheer, terrifying tectonic mass of his foundation violently cracked the bedrock beneath the avenue. A jagged, three-foot-wide fissure ripped through the asphalt, shooting directly under the Exarch Prime's feet just as it was mid-stride.
The ground vanished beneath the alien commander.
For the first time, the Prime's flawless, biomechanical balance was disrupted. It stumbled slightly, its plasma blade swinging just inches wide of Zhao Long's neck as it fought to keep from falling into the sudden trench.
That half-second stumble was exactly what Kai needed.
Kai didn't over-commit his Qi this time. He stopped trying to force his heavy core to move like wind. Instead, he used his [Agility: 35] combined with the Water and Metal nodes of his Primordial Cycle, allowing his body to flow naturally into the opening Zhao Long had created.
He slid perfectly under the Prime's wildly swinging plasma blade, stepping directly into the alien's guard.
"Sovereign's Breath: Absolute Shear."
Kai focused his entire Tier 2 solid core into a single, microscopic point on the very edge of his O-Katana. He didn't swing wildly. He executed a flawless, perfectly calibrated upward draw-cut, aiming directly for the seam where the alien's black-diamond chest plate met its neck carapace.
SCREEECH!
The high-frequency meteor steel met the Tier 2 (Peak) black-diamond armor.
This time, Kai wasn't knocked backward. Anchored by his synchronized Qi and perfect footing, he forced the blade through. The sword shrieked, shedding blinding sparks as it bit deep into the supposedly invulnerable armor. It didn't cleanly decapitate the beast—the physical gap between Low and Peak was still massive—but it violently sawed through the outer protective layer and bit directly into the biological tissue beneath.
A geyser of highly pressurized, glowing blue-black alien blood sprayed across Kai's face and chest.
The Exarch Prime let out a horrific, metallic shriek of genuine pain. It staggered backward, violently clutching its wounded neck with its secondary set of arms, dropping to one knee.
In Sync
Silence fell over the ruined avenue, save for the hissing of the alien's acidic blood melting the asphalt.
Under the cover of Maya's distant, heavily cracked shale shield, the rest of Squad 7 watched in absolute, breathless awe.
Kai Hart and Prince Zhao Long stood side-by-side in the center of the shattered street. They were covered in dust, their own blood, and the glowing blue gore of their enemy. They were breathing heavily, but their stances were completely relaxed. They had finally calibrated to their vessels.
The Prince looked down at his spiked gauntlets, then over at Kai's dripping blade. A massive, feral grin split Zhao Long's bruised face.
"I anchor the world," Zhao Long laughed, his magma-veins glowing with steady, controlled rhythm. "You cut it."
Kai flicked his wrist, sending a line of glowing blue blood splattering against the ruined concrete. His molten-gold eyes were locked onto the kneeling, bleeding alien commander. The unkillable monster of Sector 7 had finally been humbled.
"Your foundation makes them stumble, Long," Kai said smoothly, the Sovereign's Edge humming a lethal, steady note. "Let's put this thing in the dirt."