Kaito didn't hesitate.
He hurled himself straight into the writhing mass of goblins, boots skidding across broken stone as claws and rusted blades flashed toward him.
"Go fire!" he shouted, calling his magic forward.
Instead, crescent blades of wind shrieked from his palms.
They carved through the front line in a spray of green blood and splintered shields.
Kaito blinked, then laughed.
"Okay! Sure! We'll do wind!"
A dagger lunged for his spine. He twisted at the last second, the blade grazing air, and elbowed the attacker in the jaw without looking. The goblin snarled, fangs snapping as Kaito thrust his hand forward to finish it.
Nothing.
"Dang it!"
The goblin grinned. In response Kaito punched it square in the face. Sending it flying for miles.
His smile spread wide. Barriers blinked into existence in midair. With a flick of his wrist, he sent them crashing downward.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The barriers flattened clusters of goblins like falling slabs of invisible stone. Not enough to kill any, he had no need to kill them.
Across the battlefield, Cher watched with an easy smile.
"Not bad, Kaito!"
Kaito glanced over, catching the grin. The look in Cher's eyes gave a challange, and Kaito loved competition.
He channeled energy fission through his limbs, energy humming beneath his skin like a live wire. The ground cratered beneath his foot as he vanished in a blur.
Crack!
A shockwave split the air.
He reappeared behind a line of goblins, and they dropped all at once, struck before they even realized he'd moved. He blitzed through another group, then another, each burst of speed punctuated by thunderclaps that rattled the crumbling buildings around them.
Just then Cher finally decided it was his turn.
Taka, standing back with the others, tapped Dante and the rest on the shoulders.
"We need to run," he said calmly.
Dante raised an eyebrow. "Run? From these?"
"No," Taka replied. "From him."
Cher beamed.
He leapt high into the air, coat snapping in the wind. Raising one hand toward the sky, he twisted his wrist and aimed down at the writhing swarm below.
The air warped.
"Alright," Cher muttered. "Let's not embarrass myself."
BOOM.
A beam erupted from his arm, catastrophic.
It obliterated an entire section of goblins in an instant.
But it didn't stop there.
The blast tore through buildings, reduced watchtowers to dust, split the ground in a molten line that carved across the horizon, and in the far distance, a mountain simply ceased to exist, disintegrated into a cloud of incandescent debris.
Silence fell.
Kaito stopped mid-punch.
Nanami and Patty stood stunned.
Toni had no time to react, he ran off when Taka said to.
Dante's jaw hit the floor.
"What the heck was that?!" Dante shrieked. "Who is this guy?!"
Cher landed lightly.
Taka walked over and smacked him on the back of the head.
"Stop trying to show off. You could kill everybody."
Cher rubbed his head, laughing awkwardly. "My bad. Got carried away. I'll reel it in."
Kaito stared at the distant absence where a mountain used to be.
Then his face split into a grin.
"That was AWESOME!" Things just got interesting.
Without another word, the two of them turned back to the battlefield, now more rubble than town.
And the competition truly began.
Kaito ignited himself in a mantle of enhancement magic, flames licking across his arms as he dove into the remaining horde. Firestorms spiraled outward, goblins scattering as rooftops caught and collapsed.
Cher, unwilling to be outdone, cut the beams and switched tactics. Energy surged into his fists instead. Each punch detonated on impact, shockwaves blasting goblins through walls, or what remained of them.
They crossed paths mid-fight, neither acknowledging the other, both moving faster, hitting harder.
Kaito conjured spears of fire and wind in tandem.
Cher uppercut an goblin clean off its feet and into the clouds.
They were less fighting now...
More natural disasters competing for dominance.
As he fought, Kaito couldn't stop wondering. What is his magic? Is it just raw energy? Is there even a limit?
Across the ruins, Cher had similar thoughts.
How many elements can he actually use? And why does it feel like he's holding back?
Before long, the goblins broke.
Screeching and trampling over each other, they fled into the forest. Even their monstrous appetites weren't worth this.
The battlefield fell quiet except for the crackle of flames and the settling of debris.
In the center of the ruined camp, Kaito and Cher dropped down onto a cracked stone slab.
They began counting.
"…Thirty-seven squads?" Cher muttered.
"Lost track after fifty," Kaito admitted.
They both looked at the devastation.
"No use," Cher sighed. "There were too many."
Kaito nodded thoughtfully.
"We need a tiebreaker."
A low, furious rumble rolled across the ruins. Heavy footsteps shook the ground. From the smoke emerged the head ogre, twice the size of the others, muscles knotted like tree trunks, eyes burning with rage. He took in the destroyed camp, the scattered bodies of his underlings.
Then he roared.
The sound blasted dust from the rubble.
He hoisted a massive battle axe over his head, its blade chipped but enormous.
Kaito and Cher looked at each other.
Then back at the ogre.
Slow smiles stretched across both their faces.
"First to beat that guy wins," Kaito said.
Cher cracked his knuckles. "Dibs on the axe."
The ogre's charge split the earth.
Each footstep cratered the ground as he barreled toward them, axe raised high enough to blot out the smoke-choked sky. His roar wasn't just loud, it carried weight, pressure, rage so dense it felt physical.
Kaito grinned. Cher rolled his shoulders.
"Three…" Kaito muttered.
"Two…" Cher replied.
The ogre brought the axe down.
"One."
They vanished in opposite directions.
The axe struck the ground with apocalyptic force. Stone liquefied under the impact. A shockwave ripped outward, flipping debris and blasting what little remained of the goblin camp into the air.
Kaito reappeared to the ogre's left, wind magic spiraling around his arm. He drove his dagger into the creature's ribs... and it shattered.
Not against bone.
Against skin.
Kaito's eyes widened. "You've gotta be kidding me?!" He groaned. "That was my favorite weapon!"
The ogre's elbow whipped sideways like a battering ram. Kaito barely raised a barrier in time. The translucent shield cracked instantly and sent him skidding across the battlefield.
Cher dropped from above, fist glowing white-hot with condensed energy.
"Hey! Ugly!"
He slammed his punch into the ogre's skull.
BOOM.
The explosion bent the ogre's neck sideways, but didn't drop him. The shockwave flattened the surrounding ruins instead.
The ogre snarled and backhanded Cher out of the air.
Cher hit the ground hard, carving a trench before flipping back to his feet.
"…Okay," he admitted, flexing his hand. "That one hurt."
The ogre ripped his axe free and spun with terrifying speed for something that size. The blade howled through the air.
Kaito dashed in, enhancement magic igniting across his body. He blurred upward along the axe's handle, sprinting along the weapon itself. Flames gathered in his palm.
"Let's see you tank this!"
He drove a point-blank blast of fire into the ogre's face.
The explosion engulfed its head.
For a moment, nothing moved.
Then a massive hand reached through the smoke and grabbed Kaito midair.
"Ah."
The ogre squeezed.
Kaito felt the pressure spike instantly. Barriers flickered into existence around him, but they spider-cracked under the crushing force.
"Cher!" he barked.
"I got you!"
Cher launched forward in a streak of light, slamming shoulder-first into the ogre's arm. The impact detonated like artillery. Bone audibly cracked. The ogre roared and released Kaito.
Kaito flipped free, gasping.
"Okay," he coughed. "He's different."
The ogre's body began to glow faintly, veins pulsing a deep crimson. The ground beneath him blackened as raw energy radiated outward.
Nanami's voice echoed from the distant treeline where the others had retreated.
"He can use magic! Finish it quickly!"
The ogre charged again, faster.
Too fast.
He crossed the distance in a blink and kicked.
The impact caught both Kaito and Cher mid-movement and launched them through the remains of a stone tower. Rubble collapsed over them in a thunderous crash.
Silence.
Then the rubble exploded outward.
Kaito emerged first, blood trickling from his brow, eyes blazing with focus rather than excitement now.
Cher rose beside him, brushing dust from his sleeve.
"No more holding back?" Cher asked.
Kaito smirked. "No more holding back."
The ogre roared and lifted his axe for a final, all-or-nothing strike. The weapon pulsed with the same crimson glow, veins of energy racing along the blade.
Kaito inhaled deeply.
Wind spiraled.
Fire ignited.
Barriers formed and shattered, reforming tighter, denser, layering around his arm like a cannon's chamber.
Across from him, Cher raised both hands this time. Energy didn't flare wildly like before, it compressed. Condensed. Focused into something frighteningly small and impossibly bright between his palms.
The ogre leapt.
A descending execution.
"Now!" Kaito shouted.
Kaito moved first, blitzing straight up the falling axe, every step cracking the air beneath him. He drove his condensed elemental charge directly into the ogre's chest.
At the same instant, Cher thrust his hands forward.
The beam that erupted wasn't wide.
It was precise.
It punched through Kaito's blast at the exact center point and drilled clean through the ogre's core.
For half a heartbeat, everything froze. Then... light swallowed the battlefield.
The explosion expanded upward instead of outward, a pillar of energy tearing into the sky and parting the clouds above. The shockwave flattened what little remained of the ruins, but stopped short of the forest where the others waited.
When the light faded, the ogre stood motionless.
A glowing hole burned clean through his chest.
The axe slipped from his fingers.
His massive body toppled backward, shaking the earth one final time.
Silence returned.
Kaito dropped to the ground, breathing hard.
Cher landed beside him.
They stared at the fallen boss.
"…So," Cher said after a moment. "Who hit harder?"
Kaito blinked. "You literally shot through my attack!"
"Teamwork," Cher replied innocently.
Kaito narrowed his eyes. "That wasn't teamwork. That was theft."
Cher grinned. "Scoreboard says shared victory."
From the treeline, Dante yelled, "ARE YOU TWO DONE ERASING THE MAP?!"
Taka sighed in relief.
Toni stormed forwards, playing a heroric melody. "That was amazing, friends!"
Kaito looked at the destroyed camp, then at Cher.
A slow grin returned.
"Next time," Kaito said, cracking his neck, "no combining attacks."
Cher laughed. "Next time, try not to need saving."
They both burst out laughing.
Standing in the smoking crater where an ogre, and an entire goblin stronghold, used to be.