In an abandoned village on the outskirts of Jinzhou, a righteous beatdown was underway.
The target of said beatdown, a certain Fractsidus Overseer, was running out of hope.
Folks, I think this might be it for me.
What could be more hopeless than facing a Rover as a Tacet Discord? The answer existed, and it was obvious.
Facing two of them at once.
Scar was a violent lunatic who lived for destruction. The stronger the enemy, the more his blood sang. But this... watching death close in step by certain step, powerless to resist, with nothing left but to accept the inevitable? Even a madman like him felt the ice crawling up his spine.
"Nowhere left to run!" both Rovers called in unison.
The male Rover rode astride the Lightcrusher's broad, tiger-like back. His counterpart stood atop the Impermanence Heron's feathered spine.
Two devastating Echoes struck simultaneously from sky and ground, purple hellfire and golden volleys hammering Scar's monstrous body without pause, shredding through his health at a sickening rate.
But worse than the Echoes were their riders.
Every swing from either Rover tore gaping wounds across his Tacet Discord hide. Meanwhile, no matter how wildly Scar slashed with his nightmare scimitar, he couldn't graze either of them.
No escape above. The Heron owned the sky.
No escape below. The beast prowled the earth.
And straight ahead, two Rovers.
His lip twitched. Then he laughed.
So it's true. People really do laugh when they've hit rock bottom. He had no idea how he was supposed to survive this. But survival instinct didn't care about odds. He'd claw and thrash until his last breath.
That fantasy shattered in seconds.
Both Rovers flung grappling hooks that coiled around his clawed hands, then wrenched together. Scar's massive form crashed to the ground like a felled building. Three figures surged forward.
"Wind Spirals!"
"Crimson Bloom!"
"Purification Force Field!"
Seizing the opening the Rovers had created, Yangyang, Danjin, and Jianxin unloaded everything they had, a coordinated triple burst that hammered Scar into the dirt.
"As if the likes of you could hurt me!"
He roared, snapping the grapple lines with brute force, then drove the curved blade into the earth and hauled himself upright.
Four burning eyes locked onto the three women with naked fury. The two Rovers carving him apart was one thing. But these small fry daring to pile on?
"Fine. You all die together!"
"You think you can?" Both Rovers answered as one.
Scar prepared to throw himself into overclocking, burning everything he had left for one final eruption of berserk power. Kill as many as he could. Take them with him.
"Echo, resonate with me!"
The Temporal Mandate didn't even grant him that mercy.
Time froze him in place. Every combatant, every Echo, opened fire on a living target dummy. Attacks rained down in an unbroken cascade, and as the barrage continued... the killing blow began.
"Health bar's ridiculous. And also a goat-head boss, huh."
Rover drew a second sword. Dual-wielding now.
Resonance poured into both blades. They blazed with dazzling light, and two casual swings carved luminous arcs through the air. The sight made him grin.
A ram-headed demon boss. Dual blades in hand.
And a swordsman in black.
If I don't recreate this classic, I don't deserve this setup.
"Alright! Let's send you off with style!"
Twin golden swords flashed to life.
A horizontal slash ripped across Scar's abdomen.
Left blade thrust forward, piercing deep.
Spinning pivot, both blades carving in tandem.
Cross-slash downward. Reverse cross-slash upward.
Double thrust. Heart stab. Overhead cleave.
Both grips reversed. Legs launched into rapid kicks, and the reversed blades dragged slashes across every limb on the way through.
Then the finale: the most savage, most beautiful flurry of all.
"Dual blades... Starburst Stream!"
Steel became light. Light became stars.
When the last stroke fell, every onlooker stood frozen. Yangyang, Danjin, Jianxin, none of them could move, couldn't even process what they'd witnessed. They had never seen swordsmanship so ferocious and so breathtakingly elegant at the same time.
This would stay with them forever. Golden blade-light trailing the golden-eyed Rover's every swing, painting a constellation across the battlefield, gorgeous beyond words and lethal beyond measure.
Even Scar, the one being cut apart, forgot his pain for a moment.
Losing to that... I can live with it.
The colossal body of Scar's Aberrant Nightmare form buckled at the knees and collapsed like a crumbling hillside at the feet of the swordsman in black.
"That was incredible." The female Rover's eyes shone. "Next time, I'm doing that."
Just as she'd memorized Time alter, triple accel after a single viewing, one look was all she needed. Starburst Stream was burned into her mind, every stroke, every transition, perfect and complete.
She'd find her moment. And when she did, she'd be that cool.
Then a small complication arose.
"Impressive swordwork... I'll give you that..." A ragged cough.
"Huh?!"
"You've got to be kidding me!"
The black ram demon's body dissolved, and Scar's human form emerged from the dissipating haze. Everyone stared.
Yangyang and the others couldn't believe it. After that dual-blade onslaught on top of their combined assault, Scar was still breathing?
How absurdly stubborn could one person's health bar be?!
How long IS that thing?!
Rover shared the sentiment. Anyone else would've died a dozen times over. But Scar was like those tokusatsu heroes who get beaten to a pulp in their transformed state, revert to human, roll around on the ground twice, and somehow walk it off.
That wasn't what surprised both Rovers, though.
"Dude, why'd you change back?!"
"Where's our Echo?! How do you not drop an Echo?!"
Surviving was one thing. But reverting from his Tacet Discord form to human without leaving behind a single Echo drop?
Two very expectant Rovers felt the sting of crushing disappointment.
"My Overlord Class demon ram Echo..."
Rover let out a genuine wail of mourning. His counterpart wrapped him in a sympathetic hug and patted his head in consolation.
"Forget it. Abby, dinnertime."
"Finally! Been waiting for this! Roast lamb!"
Abby shot out of the female Rover's Tacet Mark, practically vibrating with excitement, wiping drool from the corner of its tiny mouth. Those mismatched eyes, one blue, one orange, locked onto Scar's ashen face with the intensity of a food critic spotting a five-star entree.
The little gourmand took a long, deliberate sniff.
Then rendered her verdict.
"This guy? Totally edible!"
Ordinary Resonators held zero appeal for Abby's palate, but someone like Scar, who'd fused himself almost entirely with a Tacet Discord? That fell squarely within the "acceptable cuisine" category.
"Perfect. Dig in."
Scar's eyes went wide. "?!"
Without another word, Abby opened its small mouth and a vortex of golden energy spiraled to life before it.
Horror flooded Scar's face. A pull locked onto his Frequency, something targeting the very core of his being, and he felt his Forte draining away.