Blue and crimson blurred on, the cavern itself trembling with every clash. Jack’s dagger flickered like a living shard of lightning, stabbing again and again for the pulsing sigil. Khar’zek twisted aside each time, a smear of red light and fangs, countering with slashes so fast they hissed through the vacuum before his saber actually arrived.Jack feinted left, pivoted right, drove the Dragon Dagger for the heart of the sigil.Khar’zek’s gauntlet shot out, claws curling around Jack’s wrist—then his saber came down in a scything arc meant to take Jack’s hand clean off.Jack’s instincts screamed. He folded his blue-fire wings inward, yanked his arm back, rolled under the cut, and came up slashing at Khar’zek’s flank. The dagger kissed armor, carving a thin green trench but not the core. The warlord snarled, tusks glinting like daggers of ivory.“You dodge,” he spat. “Good. Dodge forever.”“I don’t plan to.” Jack’s breath steamed inside the cracked visor. NexusDragon flared hotter throug

Blue fire and red lightning hung in the air like two storms trapped in the same bottle. The cavern’s heartbeat had slowed to a terrible, waiting silence.Jack shifted his stance, the Dragon Dagger low at his side, the cracked chestplate hissing as it vented smoke. Across from him Khar’zek still stood tall, Bloodfang Saber humming, claws flexing — but his breaths had become shorter, his crimson aura flickering at the edges. Only the pulse of the sigil on his chest kept steady, like a caged star refusing to go out.Jack saw the flicker. Old Joe… he thought.A low rumble rolled through his mind. The voice of his late mentor — the one who had trained him in the alleys of Harmonfield, who had died for him in the ruins of the first war — spoke again through the NexusDragon:> “Don’t trade power for rage. Trade it for precision. Open him like a lock.”Jack’s eyes flared cobalt. Wings of blue fire burst higher. The cracks in his armor glowed like veins of light as the Nexus force coiled aroun

Blue and green light still shimmered faintly from the Dragon Dagger as the chant rolled on:“Dragon Bearer. Dragon Heir. Dragon Bearer…”Jack felt the words vibrate through his cracked armor and into his ribs. His children’s arms were still around his waist. Sarah’s gloved fingers tightened at the back of his neck. Emily, Lena, William, Ryan stood in a half-circle behind them, eyes shining with exhaustion and awe. The air inside his helmet tasted thin and metallic; every breath came ragged now.Commander Dhot stepped forward from the line of silver-skinned warriors. He raised one of their long, slender sniper rifles high over his head, the barrel glowing faintly. A cascade of light pulsed down the weapon. At his signal, every silver-skin in the cavern mirrored the gesture, rifles lifting like spears. For a heartbeat the cavern was full of still bodies and raised weapons.Then the sound came: a deep, resonant ka-thoom as all the rifles discharged harmlessly straight upward into the cav

The DragonGP skimmed the thin upper air of Mars like a hawk riding a thermal. Olympus Mons fell away behind them—an immense shadow stretching across half the horizon, its slopes scored with frozen rivers of lava. Ahead lay a high plateau streaked with crimson and charcoal where the wind carved spirals of dust into the sky.Ryan kept the nose steady, hands light on the controls. His eyes flicked between the navigation display and the view beyond the cockpit. Behind them, the four silver-skinned ships stayed in perfect formation, their hulls glowing faintly with the blue-white shimmer of their funeral burn. Every few seconds their engines pulsed, sending ripples of light across the thin atmosphere.Inside the cabin, the mood had shifted. The first breathless awe at the domes had given way to a heavy quiet. The kids had unbuckled just enough to peer through the side ports; Lena sat between them with a med-kit in her lap, still watching Jack from the corner of her eye. Emily had slipped a

Dust hissed against the hull in long, slow strokes, as if the planet itself were trying to lull them. The DragonGP kept on cutting through the dusk, its steady vibration a kind of heartbeat. Above, the four silver-skinned craft had shifted to a looser echelon, gliding a few hundred metres higher now, their hulls catching pinpricks of starlight as the sun dropped behind the horizon. Every few seconds one of them vented a faint mist, like incense curling into the thin Martian air.Inside, the cabin lights dimmed automatically as the sky darkened. For a long time no one spoke; only the soft hiss of life-support and the low groan of the engines filled the space.Sarah finally broke the silence. Her voice was almost tentative, as if she were afraid to disturb Jack’s half-sleep.“When you were out there with him… Kharzek…” she trailed off, then tried again. “I thought we’d lost you.”Matilda, still strapped in next to Jackson, raised her head. “Me too. It was like watching a story but the e