Vale charged, sand spraying behind him as his hand closed around the hilt of his blade mid-stride.
The Tyrant, bleeding and enraged, but far from blind to danger, noticed him instantly. Its massive head snapped toward Vale, muscles coiling as it began to turn, its intent set on crushing him before he could close the distance.
It never completed the motion.
Shade struck first.
The shadow surged in like a living weapon, slamming into the Tyrant's front and seizing two of its jagged teeth with brutal precision. With a roar of exertion, Shade drove the beast's skull down into the sand. The impact thundered across the dune, the Tyrant's immense frame buckling as its eyes shook violently within their sockets.
Snarling in fury, the Tyrant retaliated without hesitation. It twisted its neck and hurled Shade upward with monstrous force, flinging him through the air like a broken doll.
Vale's eyes widened, but he didn't slow.
In the same fluid motion, the Tyrant pivoted and lashed its tail toward him. The spiked appendage screamed through the air, the barbed stingers meant to impale him outright.
Vale reacted on instinct.
He leaned back sharply and twisted his body, ducking beneath the tail as it tore past his face. The wind of its passing stung his skin, but he was already moving again, boots digging deep as he continued his charge.
Now Eskar was close too.
The Tyrant realized it.
Surrounded by threats, it hesitated for a fraction of a second, then leapt. Its massive body rose into the air before crashing back down, sand exploding outward in a violent shockwave.
Before it could recover,
A colossal shadow crossed the battlefield.
Shade's greatsword.
Thrown with impossible force, it flew faster than any human weapon had a right to, striking the Tyrant's side before the beast could even react. The blade punched into its armor with a screech of grinding carapace, burying itself deep.
The Tyrant shrieked, twisting violently as blood seeped from the wound. It turned toward the thrower, snarling as it saw Shade already advancing again.
Shade had abandoned his weapon.
Vale understood immediately. The sword could pierce only when thrown with full force, up close, it would glance off. Shade wasn't aiming to cut anymore.
He was aiming to break it from the inside.
The Tyrant roared and spun, swinging its tail wildly as Vale and Eskar closed in from behind. Both reacted at once, splitting apart just as the spiked tail scythed through the space between them.
Eskar struck.
He drew his onyx blade and swung in a wide arc. A violent torrent of flame erupted from its edge, engulfing the Tyrant in roaring fire. The beast staggered, bellowing as flames crawled across its armor and slipped into the seams between fused plates.
From within the inferno, something moved.
A dark figure burst through the flames.
Shade leapt upward, ruby eyes igniting as he surged toward the Tyrant's head once more. The beast thrashed violently, managing to shake him loose as the flames died out and rip him away mid-motion.
It raised a claw, preparing to bring it down and crush the shadow completely.
Vale moved.
Without hesitation.
A dagger flashed from his hand.
The blade flew true, striking one of the only unprotected points on the Tyrant's body, its eye. The dagger sank deep, and the Tyrant staggered back with a scream of pure agony. It tried to open the wounded eye, but the pain overwhelmed it instantly.
Crimson blood spilled down its obsidian armor.
Shade surged in beneath its head and slammed a fist into the Tyrant's jaw.
The blow echoed like a hammer striking stone.
The Tyrant didn't move.
Instead, it erupted into a frenzy, lashing out with a claw and smashing Shade away with terrifying force. The shadow was sent flying dozens of meters, sand exploding where he crashed and skidded to a halt.
Vale's breath caught as the Tyrant turned toward him.
Then it charged.
Vale felt the moment stretch thin, but he didn't retreat.
He charged too.
The distance vanished in seconds. At the last possible instant, the Tyrant opened its jaws wide. Vale twisted sharply, forcing the beast to clamp down on his prosthetic arm instead of his torso.
Pain flared through him.
He locked eyes with the Tyrant's last remaining eye.
And screamed.
Vale drove another dagger forward, burying it deep into the socket. The Tyrant roared and released him instantly, thrashing as blood poured freely from both ruined eyes.
Blind and disoriented now.
Vale hit the sand hard, rolling away as the Tyrant staggered and shrieked. He looked up just in time to barely see Shade retrieve his greatsword.
Eskar was already moving.
Shade lowered the blade, and Eskar sprinted along it, using the flat of the massive weapon as a ramp. With a powerful shove, Shade launched him skyward.
Eskar flew.
Then landed atop the Tyrant's thrashing body.
The beast snapped blindly, sensing him, but Vale closed the distance again, leaping onto its head and ripping one dagger free. He plunged it down again and again into the ruined eye socket, stabbing with frantic fury.
Blood drenched his armor.
The Tyrant staggered.
Then it ripped him free with a agonizing roar.
Vale slammed into the sand, pain exploding through his body as the air was driven from his lungs. His vision blurred. He closed his eyes for a heartbeat,
Then something heavy crushed down on his chest.
Vale's eyes snapped open.
The Tyrant's claw pinned him in place. Above him loomed its ruined face, blood cascading freely as its jaws opened wide.
The maw descended.
And Vale realized, with terrifying clarity, that he was out of time.
Vale felt it before he truly understood it.
A talon punched through his left shoulder, tearing clean through armor that had not been breached even once since he had arrived in this world. The resistance he had come to trust, steel, enchantment, certainty, failed him in this instant. The claw drove deep, ripping flesh and pinning him to the sand beneath the Tyrant's crushing weight.
Then another talon descended.
It pierced his left arm as easily as a knife sliding through softened wax.
Vale screamed.
Warm saliva mixed with blood splattered across his mask as the Tyrant's open maw hovered inches above him. His body convulsed with pain, nerves screaming as strength fled his arm entirely. He tried to move, tried to fight, but his body betrayed him.
Then the Tyrant roared.
Not in triumph.
In pain.
Its massive head snapped back, twisting awkwardly as it focused on something behind it, something clinging to its spine with relentless determination.
Eskar.
For a single heartbeat, Eskar stared at the blade buried in the Tyrant's only true weakness. He had done it. All that remained was ignition.
The Tyrant snapped violently, sensing him.
Eskar's eyes widened, but he didn't recoil.
He grit his teeth, his muscles locking as his body flared with blinding intensity. His skin glowed bright orange, veins lighting beneath the surface like molten lines. His blade followed, blazing white-hot as heat rolled outward in suffocating waves.
The Tyrant stumbled back, claws tearing free of Vale as it reeled.
Vale collapsed onto the sand, choking as he dragged himself upright with his remaining strength. He barely registered the pain anymore, only the sight of the Tyrant thrashing, howling as fire erupted from its jaws.
Vale grinned beneath his mask.
Eskar had succeeded.
The flames came from inside.
The Tyrant burned, truly burned, fire bursting through gaps in its armor as its own body became fuel. The obsidian carapace cracked, softened, and began to melt, dripping like black wax onto the sand.
Still, it did not die.
With a furious scream, the flaming Tyrant hurled itself violently, shaking Eskar loose in a single savage motion. Eskar was flung through the air, slamming into the dunes dozens of meters away. Sand exploded around him as he hit, the impact driving the breath from his lungs.
He coughed, blood spraying from his lips.
Something was wrong, very wrong.
His chest burned. Breathing felt heavy, wet. He could feel it: at least two ribs shattered, maybe worse. Every breath scraped painfully, as though something sharp moved inside him.
But he didn't have time to think.
The Tyrant roared again.
Still burning, its armor melting, its flesh charred and exposed, it staggered toward him. It looked less like a living creature now and more like a nightmare, part demon, part corpse, flames pouring from its mouth as it dragged itself forward with blind fury.
Then it charged.
Eskar's eyes widened.
Before the beast could reach him,
Shade intervened.
The shadow appeared in a blur, his greatsword flashing as it cleaved through one of the Tyrant's legs. The blade seemed to vanish and reappear in his grasp mid-motion, striking with impossible precision.
The Tyrant collapsed.
With its armor melted away, it was finally vulnerable.
It roared and lunged at Shade anyway, desperation replacing strategy. Shade twisted aside effortlessly and brought his blade down in a brutal vertical arc, carving deep into the Tyrant's exposed side.
The beast screamed, one last, broken sound.
Shade stood over it, silent and unmoving, then raised his greatsword with both hands.
And ended it.
The blade fell.
The Tyrant's head separated cleanly from its body, rolling lifelessly across the sand as the flames guttered and died.
Silence followed.
Vale lay where he had fallen, chest heaving, blood soaking into the sand beneath him. Eskar coughed weakly, barely conscious, staring up at the darkening sky.
Both of them smiled faintly.
They were broken.
They were bleeding.
But they were alive.
And the Tyrant was dead.