Chiyo jogged up to them, her boots kicking up dirt as she waved frantically. "Hey! Mr. Bunny Kid—uh, Eleo, right?"
Eleo pointed at himself, confused. "Huh? Me?"
"Yeah, yeah, you," Chiyo said, panting. "I could really use your help. All of you."
Eleo blinked. "Uh… who are you again?"
"I'm Chiyo. A vampire. And I really need help escaping this island, because: One—Ascendants want to capture me. Two—the vampire court wants to drag me back to my father, who, by the way, is a walking apocalypse in a cape. And three—" she jabbed a finger at Nox—"your evil clone is trying to kill me."
"I'M NOT A CLONE," Nox growled, his eye twitching.
Tony clapped his hands together, eyes gleaming. "Alright then! I think we found the one."
"Huh?" Chiyo blinked.
Timmy floated off Tony's shoulder with a sigh. "Yeah… agreed. It's her."
Tony suddenly scooped Timmy up. "Timmy, buddy. Watch out for her."
"Huh—wait wha—TONY NO—!"
Without warning, Tony yeeted Timmy through the air.
"AaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH—"
Chiyo's reflexes kicked in. She caught the tiny forest guardian in her hands like a football.
Timmy flailed. "TONY, YOU JERK! HOW COULD YOU?!"
Tony shrugged with a lazy smirk. "Hey, you're okay, aren't you?"
Timmy glared at him from Chiyo's arms. "That's not the point!!"
Meanwhile, the Ascendants raised their blasters again.
"And why the hell," one of them growled, "would we just let you all walk away?"
Eleo stepped forward, cracking his knuckles, still smiling but with fire building in his eyes. "Tony, you take care of those laser-face dudes. I'll handle the guy who looks like me but keeps yelling a lot."
Nox's aura flared with dark energy. "I'M NOT YOUR DAMN CLONE!!"
Eleo pointed lazily. "Whatever you say, Clone-o."
Nox's eye twitched again, visibly holding back rage.
Tony tilted his head. "Oof. He's gonna explode."
Timmy whispered to Chiyo, "...Is it too late to run?"
The moment the standoff began, Chiyo didn't hesitate.
"Welp, I'm outta here," she muttered, clutching Timmy close like a precious plush. In one blur of motion, she took off—darting through the trees with unnatural speed, almost gliding.
"WAIT—HEY! STOP HER!" one of the Ascendants shouted, eyes wide with panic. "TARGET IS FLEEING!"
Blasters came up in unison, humming with violent energy.
But then—
SMACK.
Tony's hand came down on one of their blasters, bending it sideways effortlessly. He stood in front of them with a wide grin, hands behind his back like he wasn't just about to dismantle a strike squad solo.
"Gentlemen," he said, his voice practically purring. "You're not goin' anywhere."
"Move or die," one Ascendant growled.
Tony's eyes sparkled.
"Ooh. I like those odds."
Before anyone could pull a trigger—
SNAP—CRACK—SMACK.
Tony moved.
He pivoted in low, tight angles, hands flowing in rapid Wing Chun strikes. One Ascendant raised his gun—
**Pak sao—bong sao—**Tony trapped the arm with one hand and hammer-palmed the soldier's jaw with the other. The man spun and crumpled.
Another aimed at his back—
Tony spun, elbow crashing into the second soldier's gut, then delivered a quick double palm strike to his chest that sent him flying into a tree, bark splintering.
One screamed and charged him with a baton—
Too slow.
Tony ducked under the swing, stepped in, and launched a flurry of chain punches to the attacker's ribs, neck, and chin—ending with a brutal tiger claw strike to the face that shattered the man's visor.
Three more surrounded him, moving in formation.
"Formation BETA—"
Tony's foot slid back in a centered stance. "I don't do formations, sweetheart. I break them."
The first lunged—Tony caught the wrist, redirected the force, and flung the soldier into the second like a bowling ball.
The third leapt up, raining down a punch—
Tony sidestepped, let the blow slide past, and chopped into the attacker's armpit nerve cluster, disarming him midair. Then, with an effortless spin, he elbowed the guy unconscious.
Smoke and dust kicked up.
Tony stood alone, brushing off his sleeves.
"Seriously? That's all you got? I thought you were Ascendants, not descendants."
An explosion rocked a nearby tree, and a final, hulking enforcer fired a massive laser cannon toward him.
Tony smirked.
"Cute toy."
The blast came.
WHOOOSH—
But Tony weaved—his body shifting like water. He dashed in low, slid under the second blast, popped up, and struck the inside elbow joint, disarming the cannon from the mech-suit's arm.
The soldier tried to punch—
Tony caught the fist mid-swing, twisted the arm with shocking precision, and launched him overhead into a ice crystal.
Silence.
Ascendants down.
Tony stretched his neck casually, flexing his fingers. "Man… I needed that."
He turned to see Chiyo was long gone. "Huh. She made it. Timmy too. You're welcome, short stack!"
Now only two remained in the clearing.
Eleo and Nox.
The jungle fell silent except for the breeze.
Eleo stared across the field at his dark doppelgänger. The air between them shimmered slightly—pure tension. The kind that makes your heart pound before the first move.
"…You done pretending you're not my clone yet?" Eleo teased,scratching his head.
Nox's fingers twitched. "…I will carve that stupid smile off your face."
Tony backed away slowly. "Welp. That's my cue. Time for the main event…"
Snow crunched under Eleo's sandals as he rushed straight at Nox, fist pulled back with reckless confidence.
But the moment Eleo got close—
Shff!
Nox vanished, leaving behind only a wisp of shadow.
"Huh? What the—" Eleo blinked.
A sharp presence flared behind him.
"Shadow BLAST!" Nox roared, his palm glowing with condensed shadow energy.
A beam of jet-black energy tore through the air.
"WAH!" Eleo yelped, panic kicking in as he jumped up and latched onto a nearby tree branch, barely avoiding the blast. The beam ripped across the snow, carving a massive crater into the earth.
Hanging upside down, Eleo stuck out his tongue. "Ha-haaa! You missed, shadow-head!"
CRACK.
Nox teleported again—this time appearing right in front of him, suspended in the air like a demon. His left arm had transformed into a jagged shadow blade, pulsing with darkness.
"MISS THIS." Nox slashed.
Eleo let go, dropping just in time. The tree above was cleaved clean in half, the blade's edge leaving a shadowy scar in the trunk. Snow and bark exploded outward.
Eleo flipped, landed in a crouch, and slid back.
Nox dropped too, slamming the blade into the ground. Shadow tendrils erupted from the cracked snow, writhing up like snakes from the underworld.
Eleo grinned, wiped snow off his cheek. "My turn!"
He dashed forward, fast—faster than before—his feet skimming the snow like he was surfing it.
"INK BARRAGE!" he shouted, arms moving in a blur as he unleashed a hailstorm of punches.
Nox weaved around them with terrifying grace. He leaned, ducked, tilted—his movements were sharp, efficient, almost surgical. Every missed punch left a splash of black ink in the air.
After dodging, Nox landed in a backstep, eyes narrowed. "Ink Barrage."
"Yeah!" Eleo smirked proudly. "I made that move!"
Nox didn't even blink. "That's not what I meant. You—" He stepped forward, voice low. "You have an S-Orb that given you ink powers...?"
Eleo threw a thumb over his shoulder. "Thank Master Kuma. He gave me my S-orb. Now…"
He clapped his hands together—clack!—and his arms morphed into ink cannons.
"No more talking!" he shouted. "INK CANNON!"
BOOM!
A huge black sphere of ink fired downward, hitting the ground and releasing a swirling mist of darkness. The fog spread, thick and murky, covering the field in swirling shadowy ink-smoke.
Nox's eyes darted around. "What the hell are you—"
BAM!
A fist burst from the fog. Eleo's arm was already planted in Nox's face, his knuckles smeared in black. His expression?
Wild grin. Tongue out. "Gotcha."
"INK FIST!!"
BOOOOOM!!
A massive blast of compressed ink pressure exploded from Eleo's fist, sending Nox flying back like a ragdoll through trees and snow. His boots dug trenches in the ground as he slid back, finally stopping with a grunt.
Eleo dropped from the mist, arms flexing.
"That little trick? I used it on a plant monster once. Shot ink on the ground to make a fog and then BAM! Right in the face!"
Nox,dazed, just stared. Internally: "What the hell is he even talking about…"
From afar Tony leaned on a branch, arms folded.
He watched Eleo with narrowed eyes, a glint of something unreadable dancing in them.
"Huh…" he muttered, lips curling into a smirk. "Eleo grown sharper since Silvan Island. Way sharper. Weird thing is… he hasn't trained a day. Not really. Not on paper, anyway…"
He chuckled.
"Maybe chaos just loves him."
Back in the clearing…
Nox rose, cracks of shadow pulsing under his skin. He rubbed his jaw, eyes fixed on Eleo.
"…You really are pushing me," he muttered.
Around him, a faint blue aura began to glow—rising like cold steam. His eyes shimmered like burning frost.
Eleo pointed at him, giggling. "Hahaha! I knew I could make you mad! You always got that grumpy face, but now you're all lit up!"