Drake stood firm despite his injuries. Blood on his lips. Chest heaving. But his fingers twitched with barely contained power.
"I don't know how this keeps getting worse," he muttered as shadow mana began surging around him like living darkness.
"But I'm still standing."
The villains advanced, weapons crackling with lethal energy.
Drake sank into his combat stance. Shadow power roared to life, wreathing him in tendrils of pure darkness. His battered face split into a dangerous grin—not of fear, but of a predator finally pushed to his limits.
"Come on then..."
His eyes blazed with dark fire that promised annihilation.
"Let's dance."
Bronn charged like a raging bull, veins bulging with Echoform power.
"Time to paint these walls red, pretty boy!"
WHOOOM!
His axe carved through air with deadly precision—
Drake flowed aside like liquid shadow, caught Bronn's massive arm mid-swing, and delivered a bone-crushing counter.
CRACK!
Blood sprayed from Bronn's nose.
"Sorry, big guy. I don't do ugly." Drake dusted off his knuckles. "Maybe try a spa day?"
"OUT OF MY WAY!" Havoc's cannon roared to life. "Time for some real fireworks!"
Bronn ducked with surprising speed. "That's my cue to avoid Swiss cheese status!"
SWOOOOOSH!
Wind spiraled upward, gathering force like nature's own hurricane.
Drake's eyes widened. "Well... this is gonna hurt."
Havoc's grin turned psychotic. "EAT THIS—BLACK SERPENT SHOT!"
KA-THUUUUUMMMP!
The cannonball exploded in a symphony of destruction—wind howled, debris became deadly shrapnel, and the floor received a violent renovation.
Drake braced for impact. "No dodging this freight train..."
Suddenly—
"ICE WALL!"
KRRRR-DOOOOOM!
A crystalline fortress erupted from nowhere, turning the air arctic in seconds.
Drake spun around. "Elsa! Perfect timing!"
"Tch. Interfering brat." Havoc spat with venom.
"Well, well," Bronn cracked his neck like breaking timber. "The gang's all here. Winter came early this year."
Elsa emerged from the changing room, fully dressed and spinning her staff like a conductor's baton of frozen death. "Sorry to crash your little party, boys, but I've got unfinished business with tall, dark, and psychotic over there."
"How touching." Havoc's smirk could sour milk. "Bronn, keep the boyfriend busy. I'll give our little snowflake a proper welcome."
Bronn spun his axe like a helicopter blade. "My pleasure. Ready to dance, punk?"
Drake glanced at Elsa. "You sure about going solo against him?"
Her eyes blazed with the fury of a thousand blizzards. "I have to face him. Time I stopped running from my past."
Drake nodded with genuine respect. "One-on-one it is. Divide and conquer."
"Just don't die on me, shadow boy." She winked, ice crystals dancing around her fingertips.
"I should be telling you that, ice princess." Drake's grin was razor-sharp.
"HEY!" Bronn's voice cracked like a whip. "EYES ON ME, LOVERBOY!"
Drake turned with theatrical slowness. "Oh right... you're still here. Thought you'd wandered off to find a personality."
"WHERE ELSE WOULD I BE?!"
"Therapy? Anger management? A barber?"
"SHUT UP AND FIGHT!"
---
Bronn's axe came down like divine judgment.
CLAAAAAANG!
Drake backflipped with movie-star grace. "Easy there, big guy. Ever heard of warming up first?"
"Warm-ups are for corpses!" Bronn snarled, foam gathering at his mouth.
"Wow. And I thought I had issues."
WHOOOOSH!
Bronn's next swing cratered the ground, sending stone shrapnel flying like angry hornets.
CRASH! RUMBLE!
Drake danced between the debris, shadow afterimages trailing his movements.
---
Havoc's cannon vibrated with barely contained chaos. "Ready to play, Elsa dear?"
Elsa's eye twitched dangerously. "Don't. Call. Me. That."
"Such hostility. After all our... quality time together?"
"You destroyed those girls' lives." Her voice dropped to arctic temperatures. "Time for justice."
"Revenge fantasy? How adorable." Havoc's laugh was pure malice. "Let's see what you've learned."
Elsa raised her staff like a conductor preparing a frozen symphony.
"GLACIEM ICICLES!"
The air shimmered—dozens of crystal spears materialized, humming with lethal intent.
CRACK! CRACK! SWOOOOOM!
They shot forward like frozen bullets seeking flesh.
Havoc moved with predatory grace.
WHAM!—First icicle shattered into glittering dust.
SWOOSH!—He tilted his head, dodging the second by millimeters.
The rest rained down like the world's deadliest hailstorm.
"Time to wake up my baby." His cannon pulsed with malevolent energy. "ECHOFORM AWAKENING—THORK, THE CYCLONE REAPER!"
WHIIIIRRRRRRRR!
The wind itself began to scream.
---
Drake spin-kicked Bronn's jaw with freight train force.
CRACK!
Blood and spit flew in a crimson arc.
Bronn staggered like a drunk giant.
"Elsa might need—" Drake glanced toward her battle—
"GRAAAAAHHH!"
Bronn tackled him through a reinforced wall.
KA-RRRRAAAASSSHHH!
Dust exploded outward, debris rained like concrete snow.
---
Elsa watched Havoc's cannon charge like a doomsday device gathering power.
*That blast... I can't block it head-on. Need to be smarter.*
"BLACK SERPENT SHOT FULL CAPACITY: BLACK VOID!"
TWO-WHOOOOOOOMMMM!
The blast tore through her icicles like tissue paper—wind, energy, and debris became a hurricane of pure destruction.
"Now!"
"GLACIEM: ICE COCOON!"
KRRRRR-SSSSHHHH!
A crystal shell encased her just as the blast arrived.
BAAA-BOOOOOOOOMMMMM!
The explosion shook the building's foundations.
---
"ELSAAAA!" Drake's scream could shatter glass.
Raw fury ignited in his eyes like wildfire. "GET! OFF!"
Elbow to skull—THUD!
Bronn roared, slamming him down—Drake planted his feet and spring-loaded upward with an elbow that could crack mountains.
CRACK!
Bronn reeled like a broken puppet.
Drake's straight punch landed with the force of divine wrath.
BAM!
"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!"
Bronn raised his axe high, green mana spiraling around the blade. "WIND CUTTER X-SLICE!"
FWHHHHHHSSSSHHH!
Twin air-blades screamed forward like guillotines from hell.
"SHADOW STEP."
VOOP!
Drake vanished into smoke and darkness.
SLAAAAAAASH!
The wind carved a perfect X into solid stone where he'd been standing.
"What the—?!"
"Up here, lumberjack."
Bronn looked up—Drake hung in midair, knee cocked like a loaded weapon.
"Say cheese!"
WHAM!
Bronn's head snapped sideways like a broken bobblehead.
Another punch landed—Bronn spun wild, swinging blindly—
Drake ducked, leaped onto the axe handle like an acrobat, and drove his fist into Bronn's gut with surgical precision.
BOOM!
A machine-gun barrage of punches followed—
BAM! BAM! CRACK! CRACK!
Blood sprayed like abstract art across the walls.
"Wh-What's happening... can't... keep... up..."
Drake crouched low, shadow mana swirling around his fist like liquid darkness.
"Goodnight, tree stump."
"SHORYUKEN!"
The uppercut launched Bronn into orbit.
"Round and round we go!"
Drake grabbed the airborne leg, spun like an Olympic discus thrower—
SWOOOOOSSSSHHH!
He hurled Bronn across the battlefield like a human projectile.
"SHADOW STEP!"
VOOM!
Drake vanished and reappeared above the flying Bronn, foot glowing with concentrated shadow mana.
"HEAVEN AND EARTH KICK!"
CRAAAAAAACK!
Bronn cratered the pavement with meteor-like force.
His Echoform power flickered and died—the emerald aura vanishing like a snuffed candle as his eyes rolled back into unconsciousness.
The massive axe clattered to the ground and began to transform—
Into a small, black-furred creature with tiny tusks and red racing stripes. It lay unconscious, twitching pitifully.
Drake walked over, genuinely surprised. "Huh. So that axe was really your Echoform this whole time..." He bowed slightly to the creature. "No hard feelings, little guy. Your master's the one with anger issues."
He turned toward the settling dust cloud. "Now let's check on—"
---
The smoke cleared like morning mist.
Havoc chuckled, savoring what he thought was victory. "Just like I expected... pathetically weak."
A shadow stirred in the haze.
"You might want to reconsider that assessment."
Elsa's voice cut through the smoke like a blade forged from winter itself.
The air cleared, revealing her standing before the shattered remains of her ice barrier. Ethereal light danced around her form like she'd been touched by winter gods themselves.
Her clothes were torn but she stood tall. Ice crystals adorned her hair like a crown of diamonds, and her eyes...
Her eyes blazed with the concentrated fury of an eternal blizzard.
"I'm not finished." Her staff glowed with power that made the very air tremble. "And I'm not backing down. Not today. Not ever."
The temperature plummeted twenty degrees in a heartbeat.
Frost began spreading across the floor in intricate patterns, creeping toward Havoc like fingers of winter death.
Havoc's confident smirk faltered for the first time.
"Impossible... that blast should have—"
"Should have what?" Elsa's voice carried the promise of avalanches. "Broken me? Made me helpless again?"
She took one step forward. The frost followed.
"I spent three years preparing for this moment. Three years becoming strong enough to face you without trembling."
Another step. The air itself began to crystallize.
"You made one critical mistake, Havoc."
Her staff pulsed with blinding white light.
"You assumed I was still that terrified girl from the alley."
The frost reached his feet, and for the first time in years, Havoc felt the cold touch of genuine fear.
Elsa's smile was beautiful and terrible.
"Time to show you what winter can really do."
—TO BE CONTINUED—