The thin man moved first.
One moment he stood crouched a few meters away, blade-arms gleaming under the dim carnival lights.
The next he was already swinging.
Steel shrieked against the translucent surface of Echo Shield as the blade carved across it.
The impact rang like a struck bell.
The barrier rippled outward in a circular pulse of pale light.
[Echo Shield Experience +1]
Sol felt the kinetic force flow through the shield's system layer before dispersing. The barrier held.
The thin man tilted his head slightly, as if curious.
Then he attacked again.
CLANG.
The second strike came from a different angle, faster and heavier. His other arm had already twisted into another blade, bone reshaping under skin with a wet grinding sound.
Sol shifted his stance instead of retreating.
Footwork.
Nothing fancy—just the drills the instructors at the facility had forced him to repeat for hours. Keep your balance. Move with the strike. Never stand still.
The third blow scraped the edge of the shield.
A ripple of energy hummed across its surface.
The thin man's grin widened slowly.
"I'm going to rip you in half."
Sol said nothing.
Behind him, Luke's fight had already begun.
Rick flickered through space again—vanishing and reappearing beside Luke in a distortion of air.
A compressed shockwave erupted from his palm.
The pavement cracked as Luke blocked it with crossed arms.
The force pushed him backward several meters, shoes scraping against concrete.
Nearby, a small group of carnival workers had frozen in place.
Someone dropped a toolbox.
Metal clattered loudly across the ground.
A woman near the cotton-candy stall raised her phone with shaking hands, filming from behind the safety railing.
"Holy—what the hell is that?"
Another worker grabbed her arm.
"Get back!"
But none of them left.
The scene unfolding before them felt too impossible to turn away from.
The thin man attacked again.
His body shifted mid-motion.
Muscle swelled along his shoulders, expanding his reach. The blade-arms lengthened, edges thinning into something sharper than steel.
He struck downward.
Sol vanished.
[Spatial Shift Experience +1]
The blade slammed into empty pavement.
Concrete exploded into fragments.
Sol reappeared several meters behind him.
The thin man spun immediately.
Fast.
Too fast for a normal human body.
Sol's hand lifted.
Light gathered beside his shoulder.
A glowing Light Particle fired forward.
[Light Particle Experience +1]
The projectile slammed into the thin man's torso.
For a split second the glow burned through flesh and bone—
Then the projectile punched straight through.
A fist-sized hole opened through his shoulder.
The thin man staggered.
Blood splattered the pavement.
Someone in the distance screamed.
But the thin man didn't fall.
Instead—
He laughed.
The hole in his body began closing.
Muscle fibers crawled across the wound like living threads. Bone sealed. Skin pulled together.
Within seconds the hole was gone.
The thin man rolled his shoulder slowly.
His grin stretched wider.
Sol watched the regeneration happen in real time.
So that's how it works.
The thin man charged again.
Sol shifted.
[Spatial Shift Experience +1]
He reappeared to the side just as the blade tore through the space where he'd been standing.
Sol stepped in close.
His finger drove forward.
[Celestial Finger Experience +1]
Space warped at the point of impact.
The thin man's torso folded inward as if crushed by invisible pressure.
The sound that followed was like a hammer striking hollow metal.
The impact launched him across the pavement.
He crashed through a stack of carnival crates and skidded along the ground, leaving a trail of shattered wood and broken plastic prizes.
For a moment he lay still.
Then his body twitched.
And slowly—
He started laughing again.
The crushed section of his chest began expanding outward as bones reset themselves with dull cracking sounds.
The thin man stood.
Blood dripped from his mouth.
His body shifted again.
His shoulders broadened further, muscles swelling beneath torn clothing. Blade-arms thickened as bone grew denser.
He looked less human now.
Something in his posture had changed.
More animal.
"You're dead."
Sol remained silent.
Across the park, Luke blocked another shockwave from Rick.
Rick vanished and reappeared again behind him, attacking from a different angle.
Luke pivoted, striking back with enough force to shatter the railing beside them.
But Rick slipped away through another spatial jump.
Luke glanced across the battlefield—
Just in time to see Sol disappear again.
[Spatial Shift Experience +1]
Sol reappeared above the thin man.
Midair.
The thin man reacted instantly, blade-arms crossing upward—
But Sol's hand had already moved.
Light formed again.
Another Light Particle fired.
[Light Particle Experience +1]
The projectile struck the thin man's side.
The blast punched another hole through his torso, tearing through ribs and lung before exiting his back.
The thin man staggered.
The regeneration kicked in again.
But slower now.
His body swayed slightly.
Still standing.
Still smiling.
Luke frowned from across the battlefield.
He had expected Sol to struggle.
Instead—
The kid was controlling the fight.
Then Sol's eyes glowed.
Luke felt it before he saw it.
Energy.
Dense.
Concentrated.
A thin beam of light burst from Sol's eyes.
Laser mode.
Luke's breath caught.
The beam cut across the thin man's body in a swift arc.
Sol turned his head once.
That was all it took.
The beam passed through the thin man's torso like a blade through water.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then the thin man's upper body slid sideways.
His torso separated cleanly from his waist.
Both halves collapsed onto the pavement.
The beam vanished instantly.
Sol landed lightly a few meters away.
His breathing had grown heavier.
Laser mode drained too much energy.
The thin man lay on the ground in two pieces.
For the first time—
His regeneration hesitated.
His mouth opened.
"What the—"
Sol vanished again.
[Spatial Shift Experience +1]
He appeared above the thin man's falling upper body.
Midair.
Sol raised his hand.
A small sphere of light formed in his palm.
No bigger than an egg.
Precise.
Controlled.
The projectile fired.
The Light Particle struck the thin man's face.
[Light Particle Experience +1]
The impact punched through bone and skull in an instant.
The back of his head exploded outward as the glowing projectile exited.
The body fell.
Silent.
Still.
Sol dropped back to the ground.
The amusement park had gone completely quiet.
Phones were still raised in the distance.
A ride operator whispered hoarsely.
"…Did that kid just shoot lasers out of his eyes?"
No one answered.
Across the battlefield, Rick had stopped moving.
He stared at the thin man's body.
Then his gaze shifted slowly toward Sol.
Rick raised his pistol.
Bang.
The gunshot echoed sharply across the park.
The bullet streaked toward Sol.
And stopped.
Midair.
Just not far from his temple, where an invisible Echo Shield appeared, but it wasn't needed anymore.
Sol froze.
The bullet rotated slowly.
Then launched backward.
Rick's eyes widened as the projectile shot toward him.
He vanished through space just before it reached him.
The bullet slammed into a carousel pole behind him.
Sol turned.
Luke stood several meters away with one hand slightly raised.
The air around his fingers shimmered faintly.
Telekinesis.
Sol blinked.
Luke lowered his hand.
"Focus."
Rick reappeared farther back near the bumper-car arena, watching them both carefully now.
The battlefield had shifted.
Two against one.
For the moment.
Luke stepped beside Sol.
His eyes drifted briefly toward the thin man's body.
Then toward Sol.
"That beam," Luke said quietly.
Sol didn't answer.
Luke exhaled slowly.
He hadn't known Sol could do that.
Even the Insurgency's files hadn't mentioned anything like it, he couldn't help but shiver 'If he used that on me when we first fought, I would have been dead!'.
Across the pavement, the thin man's body lay motionless in two separate halves.
Blood spread across the concrete beneath him.
For a long moment nothing moved.
The carnival lights flickered overhead.
Somewhere in the distance a ride motor shut down with a whining hum.
Then—
One finger twitched.
Slowly.
Barely noticeable.
The severed halves of the thin man's body began shifting across the pavement.
Muscle threads stretched between the two sections like thin cords.
Bone fragments pulled together.
The regeneration had started again.
But no one was looking in that direction anymore.