"...Those two are about to have a clash." Kyle's voice was taut as he cast a glance at Na-Ri, then fixed his gaze back on the unfolding scene.
The glow gathered and took shape, a towering mass wreathed in searing fire. It surged forward, only to be halted by the Glacial Skyscander as it conjured a vast wall of ice in desperate defence.
The collision of elements flared bright enough to throw the world into stark relief, and in that burst of light they saw the second predator.
...It was an Ignivore.
The creature's body seemed less flesh than furnace, veins of molten rock pulsing across a jagged frame of obsidian. Movements cracked the air with sparks and sent ash scattering into the sky.
Where its heart should have been, a core of liquid magma churned, radiating heat so savage the air itself warped and bent around it.
And its eyes, twin vents of burning pressure, exhaled plumes of fire with every breath.
Unlike the Glacial Skyscander's battered desperation, the newcomer's gait carried the steady menace of something absolutely certain of its dominance.
The sight alone was enough to terrify both Kyle and Na-Ri, and in that instant they understood with clarity why the wounded mutant had been unable to resist such a horror.
Escape offered no safety. The dam was the only ground they could trust, and leaving it meant stepping into the wilds where other entities, perhaps far worse than this one, might be roaming.
Their only choice was to remain where they were.
Fortunately, their position on the central spine of the Stone Masonry dam offered a fragile measure of protection from stray shards of ice or blasts of fire.
To rush down in fear would have exposed them to greater danger and most likely ended in disaster.
Since the battle's outcome had already been decided long before the two creatures even clashed, all that remained was to wait in stillness.
The moment the victor had finished and departed would be the only chance they had to move with any hope of safety.
In the meantime, they had to silence every sound and movement. These beasts were not only destructive but highly sensitive to any disturbance, and the faintest misstep might draw their attention.
Should that happen, the dam, which had endured centuries of calamity, could easily be brought down in only a handful of blows.
***
The Ignivore's hide blazed with molten fissures that exhaled fierce heat into the air. Every stride it advanced towards the wounded creature seared black scars across the ground. Embers streamed from its jaws as it fixed its murderous gaze upon the faltering Skyscander.
The Glacial Skyscander heaved its bulk upright, its wings torn and useless where they dragged at its sides. In spite of its ruinous injuries, its eyes shone with a frigid light, a final declaration of the formidable being it had once been.
Without hesitation, the Ignivore unleashed its assault, hurling a torrent of fire that split the night like a volcanic eruption. The atmosphere convulsed as molten fragments rained forward.
The Skyscander recoiled, clawing through the dirt to summon a wall of ice that thrust skyward to deflect the inferno. Fire and frost collided with a savage hiss, and a deluge of steam engulfed the battlefield, spreading down to the base of the dam where Na-Ri and Kyle watched the struggle unfold.
Through the obscuring vapour, the Ignivore surged forward, its claws slashing arcs of incandescent fury. The Skyscander retaliated with a desperate sweep of its tail, the frozen spikes along it splintering against the Ignivore's blazing hide while still driving the beast back a step.
For an instant, both monsters drew away from one another. Kyle marvelled at how the wounded mutant resisted an adversary at the height of its power. He recognised, however, that the beast fought only for survival, its resolve sustained by nothing more than the inevitability of death pressing down upon it.
With unrelenting savagery, the Ignivore renewed its advance.
In a guttural snarl, it expelled a cone of white-hot flame that struck the Skyscander's chest, searing flesh and rending the frozen plating.
During the clash, no fragment reached Na-Ri or Kyle, and the two monstrosities, in their struggle, drove the conflict away from the dam and out across the desiccated seabed.
The Skyscander shrieked, lashing out with its claws and calling jagged spears of ice from the ground. They surged upward, piercing the Ignivore's flank.
Lava-like blood hissed across the frozen spines, though the fire-beast only roared in fury, wrenching itself free and crushing the ice beneath its weight.
The titans clashed once more, grappling with primeval ferocity as frost-rimmed talons carved against blazing fangs.
Each strike of the Skyscander left rime spreading across the Ignivore's molten hide, gradually impeding its movements.
Every bite and slash of the Ignivore tore away more of the Skyscander's icy armour, steam rising as frozen matter dissolved first to water and then to vapour.
The contest could not endure.
The Skyscander's earlier wounds slowed its body. It made one last attempt, summoning a storm of glacial wind that howled outward, coating the wasteland in frost.
For a heartbeat, the Ignivore faltered, its fire stifled beneath the crushing cold.
Then its body erupted in an infernal blaze, flames surging like a sunburst. The frost shattered, the gale collapsed, and the Skyscander was consumed.
Engulfed in fire, the creature's death-cry reverberated across the ruins, fading until nothing remained but charred bone and cracked ice steaming upon the scorched earth.
Kyle and Na-Ri found themselves crestfallen at the sight of the fallen horror.
Unwittingly, they had been willing the beast to triumph, despite recognising the futility, and now they felt dispirited by its end.
Within another recess of Kyle's mind, a contrary satisfaction stirred. The monster was slain, and if the Ignivore departed without consuming the essence core, he intended to seize it for himself. That prize would yield an immense surge of Spiritual Energy, for it had belonged to a Stage Three beast.
The notion, however, was swiftly extinguished. The Ignivore gave a thunderous roar before lowering its head to the carcass, tearing through bone and ice to wrench free the essence core, its surface still sheathed in frozen crust.
In an instant, the core was swallowed, which was the customary practice of beasts. Humans, by contrast, were required to shatter essence cores in order to absorb their power.
Suddenly, upon devouring the core, the Ignivore froze into a grotesque ice effigy as an explosive shockwave burst outward, striking the surroundings and nearly collapsing the stone masonry dam.
Kyle and Na-Ri struggled to maintain their footing, narrowly avoiding being cast into the depths below.
Their eyes widened in awe and disbelief.
...Never before had they witnessed what was known as a dread essence core.
"No fucking way..." Kyle muttered under his breath, while Na-Ri remained paralysed, robbed of words.