The cavern quaked beneath their charge. Emerald and crimson streaks collided mid-air, a shockwave cracking a fresh fissure through the crystal floor. Dust geysered upward, momentarily swallowing them in a sandstorm of red grit and shards.Out of the haze, Khar’zek’s Bloodfang Saber slashed downward, a blazing comet-stroke. Jack pivoted, the tip grazing his helmet and carving a molten groove across his visor. Alarm lights danced across his HUD: VISOR DAMAGE – VISIBILITY COMPROMISED. His next breath tasted of metal and frost.“Close your eyes,” Old Joe’s voice urged inside his skull. “Feel the rhythm, not the light.”Jack obeyed—sliding sideways blind, dagger sweeping in a green crescent that carved a shallow line across Khar’zek’s chest. Blue acid spattered, hissing where it hit stone. The warlord snarled, twisting his saber in a reverse grip and driving forward with bone-crushing speed. Jack dropped to one knee, let the blade scream past his ear, and sprang upward with an elbow that c

The light faded, revealing the two titans still standing—battered, bleeding, but unbowed. Emerald aura flared around Jack’s battered frame, whipping dust into spirals. Khar’zek’s crimson saber burned hotter, his armored chest heaving.Jack’s cracked visor let Martian frost curl around his face. His breath was shallow, almost nonexistent. The oxygen gauge flickered zeroes—but he moved anyway, every fiber alive with Old Joe’s fire.Inside the DragonGP, alarms screeched. Emily steadied the controls against the quakes. Sarah clutched the console. “He’s out of air. He should already be—”“Dead?” Lena’s voice was sharp. “He isn’t. You’re watching a god in motion.”Jackson pressed his forehead to the viewport. “Come on, Dad… show him.”On the cavern floor, Khar’zek tilted his head, golden eyes narrowing. “You walk beyond the limits of flesh. What are you?”Jack wiped blood from his lip with the back of his glove. “Just a stubborn dad with promises to keep.”He lunged. The Dragon Dagger sang,

Emerald light still burned like a miniature sun, casting Jack Parker and Khar’zek into stark silhouettes against the collapsing cavern. The Dragon Dagger trembled in Jack’s hands, its power surging like a heartbeat that wasn’t his own. Dust clouds billowed, choking the air, while the shattered pillars glowed from the heat of their clash.Khar’zek staggered, acid blood dripping in sizzling rivulets down the spire where he’d braced himself. Yet the alien warlord’s grin was savage, golden eyes alight with battle-fever. “Do you feel it, Parker? The world itself cracking beneath us. Even victory is death.”Jack’s breath steamed in the frigid air as he advanced, emerald aura flaring brighter. “Then I’ll die standing. But you’re coming with me.”From the DragonGP above, Jackson’s small voice shook. “He’s still going…”Matilda pulled him close but couldn’t look away. Emily’s knuckles whitened on the yoke. “Stabilizers are at twenty-five percent. If that ceiling goes—”Sarah cut her off, eyes

The boom from above reverberated again—louder, closer—shaking loose a cascade of glowing shards from the cavern’s ceiling. The DragonGP’s shields flared as debris struck, its energy field rippling like water. Inside, Jackson whimpered but didn’t look away.Jack darted in low, sliding beneath Khar’zek’s sweeping tail. He came up in a flash of emerald light, the Dragon Dagger cutting a searing line across the alien warlord’s abdomen. Acid blood sprayed, sizzling holes into the floor. Khar’zek howled, staggering but refusing to yield.“You can’t hold them all off!” the warlord barked, saber spinning in a furious arc. “Your strength is wasted.”Jack blocked, their blades sparking violently. “Then let’s see whose strength runs out first!”They locked again, pushing, straining. The cavern trembled beneath their boots. The silver-skins’ harmonic chant rose higher, desperately stabilizing the walls with their energy beams. Still, fractures spiderwebbed across the support pillars.Emily’s voic

Two silver-skins attempted a coordinated assault, leaping toward Khar’zek in a crossing pattern. Their mirrored blades sang through the acrid air, two streaks of quicksilver aiming for the warlord’s flanks. For a heartbeat, hope sparked in their alien eyes—then Khar’zek twisted in a blur of crimson energy, parried both strikes with contemptuous precision, and released a shockwave from his saber. The energy blast detonated outward, a sonic thunderclap that rattled the fractured cavern walls and flung the silver-skins like ragdolls across the battlefield. One slammed against a broken pillar and slid down, unmoving. The other groaned but dragged himself upright, clutching a cracked blade.Jack’s vision blurred from the concussion. Dust stung his eyes and filled his lungs. Each breath was an empty gasp, but the Dragon Dagger’s pulse—hot and insistent against his palm—kept him moving. Emerald light coiled around him like wildfire. He broke into a charge, boots skidding across shattered sto