The midnight air screamed, vibrating under the sheer weight of the hatred between Marito and the Monster. Marito didn't give the beast a second to breathe; he drove a thunderous uppercut directly into the Monster's jaw. The sound of cracking bone echoed through the clearing as the giant's head snapped back. But Marito wasn't finished. Shrouded in a ghostly white mist, his fists became a blur of relentless violence, striking the Monster in a rapid-fire sequence that defied the laws of physics.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The Monster, however, was no longer just a beast of flesh and blood. Its massive body was now encased in a pulsating, ripened Purple Aura. This sinister energy acted as a biological armor, granting it nearly infinite durability. Gritting its teeth against the hail of Marito's blows, the Monster swung back with a fist the size of a wrecking ball. Each time their knuckles collided, the resulting shockwave caused the surrounding boulders to disintegrate into dust, while the ground beneath them splintered into a massive web of jagged fissures.
A distance away, Anne focused her gaze on the mysterious figure. With a sharp flick of her iron stick, she unleashed her Air Attack—concentrated orbs of white wind energy that streaked through the night like spectral missiles. The man was unnervingly fast. With a single hand gesture, he manipulated the surrounding ancient trees, forcing the wood to twist and grow into a colossal Wood Dragon that rose from the earth to shield him. Anne's wind orbs exploded against the dragon's scales, showering the area in splinters.
But Anne had already vanished from her original spot. Using the dragon's back as a platform, she reappeared directly behind the cloaked man. She swung her iron stick downward with every ounce of her strength.
"CRACK!"
The figure was sent tumbling into the dirt. Anne stood over him, her weapon humming with energy. "Who the hell are you?"
The man wiped a trail of blood from his lip and let out a chilling, raspy laugh. "The name is... Quake."
Without warning, Quake flicked his wrist. Dozens of shimmering, venom-tipped Mystic Needles shot toward Anne. She moved with practiced grace, her iron stick becoming a spinning shield. "CLANG! CLANG!" The needles were batted away, sparking as they hit the metal.
Back in the sky, Marito seized the Monster by its horns and spun it with terrifying velocity before hurling it toward a nearby hillside.
"CRASH!"
The hillside groaned and collapsed, but the Monster erupted from the debris almost instantly. It pushed its internal energy to the absolute peak, its body transforming into a streak of brilliant Blue Light (Blue Beam) as it charged toward Marito. Marito didn't flinch. He encased himself in a counter-streak of White Light (White Beam), and the two collided head-on in mid-air.
"JAAAMMM!"
The result was an Atmospheric Fracture. The sheer pressure from their simultaneous impact shattered the nocturnal cloud layer, obliterating the mist and smoke for miles. For one brief, haunting second, the Moon was revealed in all its silver glory amidst the chaos. Then, as the pressure normalized, the clouds rushed back to fill the void, plunging the forest back into suffocating darkness.
Marito spun, launching a flawless 360-degree Roundhouse Kick aimed at the Monster's temple. The Monster, enhanced by its Purple Aura, executed a hair-breadth dodge, moving backward just enough to let the wind of the kick pass.
But Marito's white mist had evolved. It had turned into scalding, pressurized Steam. A concentrated burst of this vapor, shaped like a spectral fist, slammed into the Monster's chest. The heat was so intense it charred the creature's skin, forcing the giant to stagger back.
"Enough of this..."
The Monster roared, raising its massive right arm toward the sky. The atmosphere grew heavy, suffocating.
"Kyai Shin 36!"
As the incantation left its throat, the Monster's arm warped and hardened, momentarily manifesting into a shimmering, terrifying Black Blade that seemed to absorb the very light around it. With a roar of triumph, the Monster swung the blade at Marito in a lethal, wide arc.
Marito's instincts screamed. He moved with lightning speed, narrowly evading the razor-sharp edge, but the air behind him whistled as the energy wave of the Black Blade continued its path of destruction...Marito moved with fluid, supernatural speed, narrowly ducking beneath the trajectory of the Monster's Black Blade. He could feel the atmospheric pressure drop as the blade sliced through reality itself. Not missing a beat, Marito channeled the surrounding air into the palm of his hand, creating a vortex of high-pressure wind. He lunged forward, burying his fist deep into the Monster's abdomen.
"THWACK!"
The impact was deafening. The Monster grunted in pain, but its counter-attack was instantaneous. It locked its gaze onto Marito, delivering a bone-shattering roundhouse kick aimed at Marito's extended arm to break his guard. As Marito staggered, the Monster unleashed a series of devastating Air Slaps—compressed waves of kinetic energy launched from its palms.
Marito threw himself into a series of mid-air flips, evading the invisible projectiles by mere inches. Behind him, the massive rock formations that took the hits disintegrated into fine white powder, unable to withstand the Monster's raw output.
Regaining his momentum, Marito streaked back toward the beast like a bolt of white lightning. He targeted the exact same spot on the Monster's gut where he had landed his previous blow, delivering a concentrated kick that sent a shockwave through the creature's internal organs.
Meanwhile, on the forest floor, the battle between Anne and Quake intensified.
Quake performed a complex series of mudras with his fingers. From the damp earth, viscous Dark Shadows erupted, coiling like serpents as they reached for Anne's throat. Anne remained undeterred. She tightened her fist, infusing it with her own spiritual essence, and began shattering the shadowy constructs one by one with brute physical force.
Suddenly, Kawsoki's voice rang out from the dense underbrush, filled with triumph.
"I found it! The twentieth candle is right here!"
Panic flared in Quake's eyes. He spun around, launching a concentrated bolt of Black Energy directly at Kawsoki's position to stop him from extinguishing the final flame. But Anne was faster. She intercepted the blast mid-flight, swinging her iron stick with such velocity that she shredded the dark mist into harmless embers.
"Your time is up, Quake," Anne smirked, her eyes glowing with newfound confidence. "The twentieth seal has been broken!"