The battlefield looked like it had been drowned and struck by a thunderstorm at the same time.
Water creaked through the ruins of broken buildings, spilling from busted pipes and shattered upper floors. It streamed down exposed beams, poured over cracked concrete, and gathered in shallow pools across the street. Blue lightning crackled over the wet ground in brief flashes, crawling through puddles and broken metal before fading.
In the center of it all stood Nami.
She looked terrible.
A deep slash crossed one cheek. One of her eyes had been cut badly enough that blood ran down the side of her face. Her clothes were torn, her breathing was heavy, and her entire left arm was missing from above the elbow.
Across from her, Emelio barely remained standing.
His own condition wasn't much better. His body was covered in burns and cuts, and his clothes had been shredded in several places. One hand still gripped his Alter Blade, but the sword hung low now.
The fight was already over.
Emelio stared at Nami through exhausted eyes.
Emelio: "This really was a bad matchup."
His legs gave out.
He fell forward and hit the soaked pavement.
For a moment, Nami simply stood there breathing.
Then she spat.
Blood and a broken tooth landed in the water beside her.
Nami clicked her tongue.
Nami thought: Tch. Damn it. If this guy had any other Alter Blade, he would've killed me.
Blue electricity flickered across her body.
Her regeneration began immediately.
Flesh pushed from the stump of her missing arm, rebuilding muscle and bone until a new hand formed at the end. The cut across her cheek sealed. Her damaged eye slowly restored itself until she blinked and could see clearly again.
Nami rolled her regenerated shoulder.
She hated admitting it, even to herself.
Emelio had been dangerous.
Extremely dangerous.
The matchup had simply been in her favor.
She looked down at the unconscious Hunter.
Then flexed her fingers.
Sharp claws extended from them.
Nami: "Guess I'll finish it myself."
Lightning crackled faintly along her arm as she walked toward him.
One step.
Two.
She reached Emelio.
Then something shot into the street from her left.
Nami barely had time to turn.
A man rushed past her at full speed.
He grabbed Emelio beneath the arm, hauled him off the pavement, and kept running without stopping.
Nami blinked.
Nami: "What the?"
Marlon had no idea what was happening.
He only knew he'd arrived just in time to see a vampire walking toward an unconscious Emelio with claws out.
That was enough.
Marlon dragged Emelio against his side and sprinted through the flooded street.
Marlon: "The hell is going on?! Stay with me dude!"
Emelio's head bounced once against his shoulder.
No response.
Marlon looked down at him.
Marlon: "Seriously, don't die right now!"
Behind him, Nami's expression darkened.
Blue lightning surged over her regenerated arm.
She crouched.
Then launched.
The pavement cracked beneath her feet as she accelerated after them.
Marlon glanced over his shoulder.
His eyes widened.
Nami was closing the distance ridiculously fast.
Marlon: "Oh, come on!"
He adjusted Emelio's weight and ran harder.
Water splashed around his feet as he jumped over a collapsed piece of concrete and cut through the wreckage of a destroyed storefront.
Nami came after him.
Electricity gathered around her hand.
Marlon saw the glow reflecting in a puddle ahead.
He looked back.
Nami lunged.
Marlon: "Catch me if you can, half-dressed vampire!"
Nami's eye twitched.
Nami: "What did you call me?"
Her hand struck the wall beside him.
Blue lightning exploded through the wet concrete.
Marlon ducked as chunks of debris flew over his head.
He stumbled forward but kept his grip on Emelio.
Marlon: "Definitely shouldn't have said that!"
Nami accelerated again.
She moved through the falling water in bursts of blue light, each step accompanied by a sharp crack of electricity.
Marlon didn't have a plan.
There was no destination.
No backup that he knew of.
He had simply seen Emelio about to die and acted.
Now he was carrying an unconscious Hunter through a destroyed city while a vampire who had apparently just defeated him was trying to tear them apart.
Marlon: "Why does this stuff always happen to me?!"
A bolt of blue lightning tore past his shoulder.
It hit the flooded street ahead.
Electricity spread instantly through the water.
Marlon's eyes widened.
He jumped.
His foot landed on the hood of an overturned car instead of the pavement.
Electricity raced underneath him.
Marlon jumped again, catching the edge of a broken balcony.
He hauled himself upward with one arm while still supporting Emelio with the other.
Nami arrived beneath them.
She looked up.
Marlon looked down.
Marlon: "You know, you could just let us go."
Nami: "No."
Marlon: "Worth a shot."
***
The forest beyond the city was darker than it should have been. Smoke drifting from Hanabi's burning districts had begun settling between the branches, turning moonlight into thin gray streaks.
Hakim looked back once toward the distant town.
The fighting had spread everywhere.
He had already sent Soru after the sniper once he realized the distant bowman was complicating everything. There was no sense keeping two experienced Hunters pinned under ranged fire when one of them could eliminate the source.
That left Aaliyah to him.
Fine.
He stepped into the forest.
Hakim: "You picked a quiet place."
No response.
His voice disappeared between the trees.
Hakim continued.
He didn't rush.
His sword remained in one hand while his eyes scanned trunks, branches, roots, and every patch of darkness wide enough to hide a person.
Aaliyah understood his ability.
Or thought she did.
Hakim had used blue flames earlier in the battle, and she'd watched carefully enough to know that fighting him around buildings gave him too much room to throw wide slashes.
So she had brought him here.
A place where fire should be dangerous.
A place where every missed attack could ignite the forest around them.
A place where a responsible Hunter would have to restrain himself.
Hakim almost admired the logic.
Almost.
Something moved behind him.
Hakim turned.
A shadow stretched unnaturally from the base of a tree.
A hand burst from it.
Hakim stepped aside as black fingers closed around empty air.
Another hand rose from his right.
Then three more.
Hakim moved through them calmly.
One grabbed for his ankle.
He cut downward.
Blue flame covered the sword.
The slash passed through the shadow hand and erased it.
The flame continued forward.
Aaliyah watched from deeper in the forest.
The blue arc crossed between dozens of trees.
She expected fire.
Expected bark to split.
Branches to ignite.
Dry leaves to catch.
Nothing happened.
The blue flame passed cleanly through the forest.
Not one leaf burned.
Not one branch blackened.
Then the slash reached her.
Aaliyah's eyes widened.
She crossed both arms.
The blue fire struck.
The impact blasted her backward through the undergrowth.
She tore through bushes, hit the ground, rolled twice, and slammed shoulder-first into a tree.
The tree remained untouched by the flame.
Aaliyah didn't.
Smoke curled from the front of her cloak.
For the first time since the fight began, her expression changed.
Hakim walked toward her.
Hakim: "You brought me here because of the fire."
Aaliyah rose slowly.
The dark cloak around her shoulders had taken most of the damage.
It was thick.
Far thicker than ordinary fabric.
Hakim studied it.
The surface looked like hide.
Not leather.
Something denser.
Something from the Alter World.
Aaliyah looked down at the damaged section.
The material had been charred deeply.
Another clean hit would've gone through.
Hakim: "Good cloak."
Aaliyah's eyes narrowed.
Aaliyah: "Do not speak casually to me, human."
Hakim stopped several meters away.
Hakim: "Then don't make assumptions about my ability."
Blue fire gathered along his sword again.
The nearest trees were bathed in azure light.
None of them burned.
Aaliyah watched carefully.
Hakim: "My fire burns what I decide it burns."
He raised the blade.
Hakim: "Nothing more."
Aaliyah's jaw tightened.
Her entire strategy had been built around limiting him.
Instead, she'd given him cover.
Hakim moved first.
A blue flame slash ripped across the forest.
Aaliyah dropped into shadow.
The attack passed through the trees without harming them and continued into the darkness beyond.
Hakim didn't wait.
He stepped forward and sent another slash low.
Then one high.
Then a third diagonally through the space where Aaliyah had disappeared.
The forest filled with blue arcs.
Each one passed harmlessly through trunks and branches.
The environment remained pristine.
The shadows didn't.
Aaliyah emerged from the side of a tree and immediately created two copies of herself.
Three Aaliyahs rushed Hakim from different angles.
Hakim shifted his stance.
He didn't attack immediately.
One came from the left.
Too direct.
Clone.
Another from behind.
Too quiet.
Clone.
The third hesitated for half a step before entering range.
Real.
Hakim turned.
His sword met hers.
Aaliyah blocked.
Blue flame exploded between the weapons.
She disengaged instantly.
Hakim followed.
Aaliyah's shadow stretched beneath him.
Hands burst from the ground.
Hakim stepped onto one.
The dark fingers closed.
He pushed off before they could grip his boot and brought the sword downward.
Blue fire split the ground between him and Aaliyah.
The earth itself remained unburned.
The flame passed through it like light.
Aaliyah barely escaped the line.
Her cloak caught the edge.
Blue flame ripped another strip from the beast hide.
She retreated farther.
Hakim didn't chase recklessly.
He watched.
That bothered her.
He was supposed to be angry.
Humans usually became reckless once pressed.
Especially Hunters who thought themselves strong.
Hakim remained calm.
His breathing hadn't changed.
His expression hadn't changed.
He fought like a man handling an emergency.
One problem at a time.
No wasted panic.
Aaliyah extended one hand.
The darkness beneath the trees moved.
Hakim's eyes shifted.
Shadows detached from roots.
From branches.
From stones.
More hands formed.
Dozens.
Hakim raised his sword.
Blue fire covered his body.
Not wildly.
It settled over him.
Layer by layer.
The flames tightened until they clung to his clothes and skin like armor.
Aaliyah saw the change.
Hakim stepped forward.
A shadow hand grabbed his wrist.
It ignited instantly.
Another wrapped around his leg.
Blue fire consumed it.
Three more struck his torso.
The flames covering Hakim erased them before they could close.
Aaliyah's expression hardened.
Hakim continued walking through the forest.
Bluefire armor.
A moving wall.
Aaliyah created more hands.
They came from every direction.
Hakim cut the first two apart and let the rest hit him.
The armor burned through them.
He accelerated.
Aaliyah summoned clones.
Four this time.
They spread through the trees.
Hakim turned his sword.
A wide circular slash of blue fire expanded around him.
The attack passed through every tree without touching the bark.
Three clones disappeared.
The real Aaliyah jumped.
Hakim looked up.
She descended with one leg extended.
Hakim blocked with his forearm.
Blue fire flared around the point of impact.
Aaliyah twisted away before it could spread across her body.
She landed on a branch.
Hakim looked up at her.
Aaliyah stared down.
The cloak had protected her again.
Barely.
Hakim: "That hide's saving your life."
Aaliyah: "And your flames make you arrogant."
Hakim: "No."
His tone remained level.
Hakim: "Experience does."
Aaliyah's eyes sharpened.
She vanished.
Not moved.
Vanished.
Hakim's expression changed slightly.
No sound.
No movement.
No presence.
The branch above him was simply empty.
Hakim turned slowly.
Nothing.
He could hear the battle far away.
Explosions.
Screaming metal.
Distant gunfire.
The volcano rumbling beneath all of it.
But nothing from Aaliyah.
Not breathing.
Not footsteps.
Not even the shift of clothing.
Hakim lowered his sword slightly.
That was new.
He took one step.
A blade passed inches from his neck.
Hakim turned and slashed.
Nothing.
Aaliyah was already gone.
Another attack came from the opposite side.
Hakim blocked late.
The strike scraped across his Bluefire Armor.
Aaliyah disappeared again.
Hakim's eyes narrowed.
This wasn't ordinary shadow movement.
She had removed herself completely.
Sight.
Sound.
Presence.
Even the subtle instinct experienced Hunters relied on when somebody entered killing range.
Void Cloak.
Hakim remained still.
Aaliyah attacked again.
Hakim turned toward the sound only after contact.
Too late.
A shallow cut opened along his shoulder where the blue armor had been thinner.
Blood ran down his sleeve.
Hakim looked at it.
Aaliyah's voice came from nowhere.
Aaliyah: "You humans always believe power makes you worthy."
Hakim didn't answer.
Aaliyah: "You build your institutions. Your rankings. Your little traditions."
A shadow hand emerged beneath him.
Hakim stepped aside.
Another attack came from his blind spot.
He blocked this time.
Aaliyah vanished before he could counter.
Her voice moved with her.
Aaliyah: "Then you pretend the world belongs to you."
Hakim turned slowly.
Hakim: "No."
Silence.
Hakim: "I don't believe the world belongs to humans."
Aaliyah appeared behind him for one instant.
Hakim spun.
She disappeared again.
Hakim continued.
Hakim: "I believe people are responsible for the lives around them."
Aaliyah's next strike came low.
Hakim caught it on his sword.
For one second, their faces were close.
Hakim: "Human or otherwise."
Aaliyah's expression became colder.
She vanished.
Hakim felt the pressure change.
Not because he could sense her.
Because the forest itself was getting darker.
He looked upward.
Moonlight between the branches began disappearing.
Not clouded.
Extinguished.
One patch after another.
The natural shadows beneath the trees deepened until they began merging together.
Hakim watched the transition.
Aaliyah's voice came from somewhere within the darkness.
Aaliyah: "Spare me your righteousness."
The last visible strip of moonlight vanished.
Blackness swallowed the forest.
Hakim could no longer see his own hand.
Then blue flame ignited across his sword.
Light returned around him.
Only a little.
A sphere of azure illumination pushed several meters into the darkness.
Beyond it, nothing.
Hakim's eyes moved.
The shadows at the edge of his light were denser now.
Alive.
Aaliyah had done more than remove the moonlight.
Her power had changed.
Hakim could feel that much even if he couldn't sense her.
A hand the size of his torso emerged from the darkness.
Hakim cut it.
Three replaced it.
He burned those.
Six more appeared.
Hakim stepped backward.
The first hint of concern entered his expression.
Aaliyah's voice surrounded him.
Aaliyah: "You wanted me to stop making assumptions."
Hakim raised his sword.
The blue flames grew brighter.
Aaliyah: "Then allow me to show you the same courtesy."
Dozens of shadow hands formed beyond the edge of the light.
More appeared between the trees.
Above him.
Below.
Behind.
And somewhere inside the darkness, copies of Aaliyah began taking shape.
Hakim tightened his grip.
He understood now.
The forest hadn't been chosen only to restrain his fire.
It had been chosen because of the shadows.
Aaliyah had simply misunderstood what kind of fire she was facing.
Now she was correcting that mistake.
Hakim raised the burning blade into a guarded stance.
Hakim: "Alright."
Blue flame rolled across his shoulders and strengthened around his body.
Hakim: "Show me."
Blackout had changed everything.
The forest no longer felt like a forest.
It had become a mass of overlapping darkness where distance was difficult to judge and direction meant almost nothing. Hakim's blue flames illuminated only a small circle around him, but the light stopped unnaturally at its edges, swallowed by Aaliyah's shadows before it could travel farther.
The first attack came from below.
Three shadow hands erupted beneath Hakim's boots.
He jumped.
Two more formed in the darkness beside him and reached for his torso. Hakim twisted in midair and cut through both with a blue-flamed slash, then landed just as another hand tried closing around his ankle.
His Bluefire Armor burned it away on contact.
Aaliyah attacked from behind.
Hakim heard nothing.
He only saw her silhouette enter the edge of his blue light.
He turned.
Too late.
Her blade scraped across his side.
The Bluefire Armor absorbed most of it, but the impact still drove him several steps forward.
Hakim retaliated with a backhand slash.
Aaliyah vanished before it reached her.
Void Cloak.
Hakim steadied himself.
He didn't chase the disappearance.
That was exactly what she wanted.
The shadows moved around him.
Aaliyah's copies emerged one by one.
One stood between two trees.
Another crouched on a branch.
A third walked slowly from behind a trunk.
A fourth appeared directly in front of him.
Hakim watched all of them.
None attacked.
He understood.
She wanted him guessing.
Hakim raised his sword.
A blue flame slash tore outward.
All four moved.
One ducked.
One jumped.
One disappeared.
The last was cut in half and dissolved into shadow.
Hakim's eyes shifted immediately toward the one that had ducked.
Not because he knew it was real.
Because it had reacted first.
Hakim rushed.
The figure retreated.
Hakim threw another slash.
It avoided again.
Real.
Aaliyah's eyes widened as Hakim closed on her.
She created a wall of shadow hands between them.
Hakim didn't slow.
Bluefire Armor thickened around his shoulders and arms as he crashed through the reaching limbs. The hands ignited one after another, disappearing before they could restrain him.
Aaliyah stepped backward and vanished into Void Cloak.
Hakim stopped.
He didn't swing wildly.
Instead, he lowered the point of his sword toward the ground.
Blue flame spread from the blade.
Not outward as an attack.
Across the forest floor.
Thin threads of blue fire crawled between roots and fallen leaves, passing through everything without burning it. They divided around trees, stretched beneath bushes, and formed a loose glowing network around Hakim.
Aaliyah remained invisible.
Hakim waited.
A shadow hand rose from the ground.
The blue flames beneath it flickered.
Hakim looked left.
Aaliyah appeared on his right.
Her blade came toward his neck.
Hakim ducked.
A blue flame slash immediately followed.
Aaliyah barely avoided it.
The attack crossed through three trees and struck her cloak.
The Alter World hide blackened further.
She disappeared again.
Hakim's expression remained calm.
He had learned something.
Aaliyah could erase her presence.
Her shadows couldn't erase their effect on the environment.
Not completely.
The blue fire spread farther.
Aaliyah watched from somewhere beyond the light.
The flames did not burn the leaves.
Did not consume the grass.
Did not touch the trees.
They simply existed.
Like markers.
A shadow moved across one.
The flame bent.
Hakim slashed immediately.
A blue arc tore through the darkness.
Aaliyah emerged a dozen meters away and raised her cloak.
The slash struck her shoulder.
She was pushed backward.
Not far.
But enough.
Hakim had found her.
Aaliyah's eyes hardened.
She summoned clones.
Six this time.
They rushed from every direction.
Hakim watched their feet.
Or where their feet should have been.
The first passed over the blue flame network without disturbing it.
Clone.
The second did too.
Clone.
The third caused one of the flames to flicker.
Hakim turned toward her.
Aaliyah noticed too late.
Hakim stepped inside her attack and struck the flat of his sword against her wrist.
Her blade was knocked aside.
He followed with a short blue flame slash across the torso.
Aaliyah crossed her cloak in front of herself.
The beast hide took the brunt of it.
A deep glowing cut appeared across the material.
Hakim kicked her away.
She slid through the dirt and disappeared into shadow before he could follow.
Hakim exhaled slowly.
Hakim: "You gonna keep hiding?"
Aaliyah said nothing.
Hakim looked toward the darkness surrounding him.
Hakim: "I can do this all night."
A shadow blade flew toward him.
Hakim tilted his head.
It passed beside his face.
Aaliyah's voice came from somewhere beyond the trees.
Aaliyah: "You speak too much for prey."
Hakim: "You're the one who brought me here."
He turned his sword in one hand.
Hakim: "If I'm prey, you're taking your time."
The shadows around him surged.
That struck something.
More hands erupted from the ground.
Dozens.
Hakim moved.
He cut through the first cluster, stepped between two more, then allowed another to grab his forearm.
Aaliyah watched.
The Bluefire Armor immediately burned the hand away.
Hakim had stopped treating the shadow hands as threats unless they attacked from multiple angles.
That irritated her.
She changed tactics.
The hands stopped reaching for him.
Instead, they grabbed the environment.
Branches.
Loose stones.
Broken sections of earth.
A shadow hand ripped a fallen tree trunk from the ground and swung it toward Hakim.
He ducked.
The trunk crashed through several smaller trees.
Another hand hurled a boulder.
Hakim cut it in half with blue fire, choosing to burn the stone only at the point of impact.
The halves passed beside him.
Aaliyah appeared behind one.
Smart.
The rock had hidden her approach.
Hakim saw her too late.
Her blade struck his chest.
Bluefire Armor flared.
Hakim was forced backward.
Aaliyah followed this time.
No Void Cloak.
She attacked directly.
Hakim blocked.
Their weapons collided.
Aaliyah shifted low and summoned a shadow hand from beneath Hakim's sword arm.
It grabbed his wrist.
She aimed for his throat.
Hakim released the sword.
Aaliyah's eyes widened.
The weapon dropped.
Hakim caught it with his other hand.
He slashed upward.
Blue flame tore across Aaliyah's cloak and opened another deep cut.
She pulled away.
Hakim immediately changed hands again.
He drove forward.
Aaliyah blocked.
Hakim rotated the blade around her guard and struck from the opposite direction.
She ducked.
A shadow clone appeared beside him.
Hakim ignored it.
Aaliyah attacked from his left.
He blocked without looking.
Her expression tightened.
Hakim had stopped reacting to every visual threat.
He was narrowing his attention.
A clone attacked.
Hakim let it.
Its blade passed into his Bluefire Armor and dissolved.
He attacked the real Aaliyah immediately afterward.
She barely blocked.
Hakim pressed.
One slash.
Two.
Three.
Each carried controlled blue flame.
None touched the trees around them.
Aaliyah gave ground.
Hakim stepped with her.
She created another clone.
Hakim cut through it without turning his body.
A shadow hand grabbed his leg.
Blue fire destroyed it.
Aaliyah tried escaping into Void Cloak.
Hakim slashed the ground.
Blue flame spread across the forest floor in a wide circle.
Aaliyah vanished.
Hakim stood still.
The network flickered.
There.
He cut.
Aaliyah reappeared as the slash passed across her back.
The cloak absorbed most of it.
This time she grunted.
Hakim's eyes narrowed.
The cloak was close to failing.
Aaliyah knew it too.
She pulled the damaged material tighter around herself.
Her breathing remained controlled, but her posture had changed.
More defensive.
Hakim noticed.
Hakim: "That thing can't take much more."
Aaliyah: "Neither can you."
Hakim looked down at himself.
Several cuts crossed his arms and side.
Blood stained part of his uniform.
She wasn't wrong.
But he was still standing comfortably.
Hakim: "Then I suppose one of us should hurry."
Aaliyah vanished.
Hakim immediately extinguished the flame on his sword.
Darkness swallowed him.
For the first time, Aaliyah hesitated.
Hakim had willingly given up his own light.
Her advantage should have increased.
Instead, something felt wrong.
She moved silently through the forest.
Void Cloak erased everything else.
Hakim stood somewhere in the darkness.
Still.
Aaliyah approached from behind.
Closer.
Ten meters.
Five.
Three.
She raised her blade.
Blue fire exploded beneath her feet.
Aaliyah's eyes widened.
Not an attack.
A marker.
Hakim had left small patches of invisible-low flame across the ground and dimmed them until they were almost impossible to see.
Her step had disturbed one.
Hakim turned.
His sword ignited instantly.
Aaliyah blocked the first slash.
The second struck her cloak.
The third ripped through it.
The beast hide finally split open.
Aaliyah retreated.
Hakim followed.
Blue flame slashes crossed through the darkness in rapid succession.
Aaliyah used shadow hands as shields.
Hakim cut through them.
She summoned clones.
Hakim ignored the wrong ones.
She vanished.
Hakim tracked the fire network.
She moved above instead.
A branch bent slightly.
Hakim looked up.
Aaliyah dropped toward him.
Hakim raised one hand.
Blue flame gathered above the forest.
Aaliyah froze.
A tiny blue sphere appeared in the darkness.
Then grew.
Brighter.
Hotter.
The shadows around them recoiled from the sudden light.
Aaliyah landed and immediately retreated.
Hakim looked upward.
The miniature sun hovered high between the trees.
Azure Sun.
Aaliyah stared.
The blue sphere illuminated the forest without burning a single leaf.
Then the first pillar fell.
A column of blue flame crashed down beside her.
Aaliyah jumped away.
Another struck where she landed.
Then another.
Hakim didn't blanket the entire forest.
He didn't need to.
The pillars came down strategically.
One blocked her left escape.
Another destroyed a cluster of shadow hands.
A third forced her toward an open section between the trees.
Hakim moved into that space.
He had created a route.
For her.
Aaliyah realized it at the same time.
She tried changing direction.
A pillar of blue flame descended there.
She turned again.
Another.
Hakim was herding her.
Not with sheer destruction.
With placement.
Aaliyah summoned clones to confuse him.
Azure Sun illuminated all of them.
Their shadows fell differently.
Hakim saw it immediately.
The real Aaliyah displaced light naturally.
The clones seemed attached to the darkness around them.
Hakim charged the real one.
Aaliyah blocked his first slash.
The second hit her exposed shoulder.
Blue fire tore across flesh.
She hissed and jumped away.
Hakim stopped.
He didn't chase recklessly.
He simply adjusted the position of Azure Sun.
The miniature blue star drifted overhead.
Aaliyah looked up.
That was the real problem.
Blackout had been intended to strengthen her shadows by removing light.
Hakim had brought his own sun.
She extended both arms.
Darkness surged upward.
Shadow hands formed along the tree trunks and reached toward Azure Sun.
Hakim raised his sword.
The blue sphere brightened.
Pillars of flame came down.
The hands burned away.
Aaliyah created more.
Hakim made the sun rise higher.
The shadows stretched.
That made them stronger.
But also easier to read.
Hakim's eyes moved across the ground.
Every major shadow now pointed away from Azure Sun.
Every unnatural movement stood out against the pattern.
Aaliyah had more power inside Blackout.
Hakim had more information.
And information was slowly winning.
Aaliyah emerged from Void Cloak behind him.
Hakim turned before she attacked.
Her eyes widened.
Hakim caught her wrist.
Blue fire wrapped around his hand but didn't spread beyond the exact point he wanted.
Aaliyah tried pulling free.
Hakim stepped inside her stance and drove his shoulder into her chest.
She stumbled.
Hakim's sword stopped inches from her throat.
Aaliyah twisted away.
The edge cut across her cheek.
Blood appeared.
She backed off quickly.
Hakim watched her.
For the first time since entering the forest, Aaliyah looked genuinely frustrated.
Her Blackout remained.
Her shadows were stronger than ever.
Her Void Cloak still erased her presence.
Her clones still surrounded him.
None of that was changing.
Hakim was simply learning faster than she was creating problems.
Aaliyah wiped the blood from her cheek.
Hakim lowered his sword.
Hakim: "You're disciplined."
Aaliyah glared.
Hakim: "Good instincts too."
She said nothing.
Hakim: "But you rely too much on controlling the battlefield."
Aaliyah's expression sharpened.
Hakim gestured slightly toward the forest.
Hakim: "You chose the darkness. You chose the terrain. You chose where this fight started."
Azure Sun burned above them.
Hakim: "So you got comfortable believing I'd fight inside your rules."
Aaliyah: "You humans truly cannot resist lecturing."
Hakim: "Occupational habit."
Aaliyah's shadows began gathering.
Not around Hakim.
Around herself.
The darkness thickened until even Azure Sun struggled to push through it.
Hakim's expression became more serious.
He had been getting the better of her.
Aaliyah knew it.
Which meant she was about to stop fighting the same way.
The ground beneath them darkened.
Shadow spread outward in an expanding circle.
Hakim looked down.
It was deeper than Blackout.
The darkness beneath his feet no longer looked flat.
It looked endless.
Aaliyah stood at its center.
Her cold expression had returned.
Aaliyah: "You wished for me to stop hiding."
The forest floor began sinking into shadow.
Hakim tightened his grip on his sword.
Aaliyah: "Very well."
The darkness opened beneath them.
The darkness beneath Hakim opened like a mouth.