After Jaune grabbed Nysira's arm, she pulled him onto her shoulder.
Jaune positioned his hand over her for balance. Nysira was really strong physically, so she could carry him on her back.
"I'm ready!" shouted Jaune, the enemy only a few steps behind them.
Nysira started to run extremely fast, holding Jaune with one arm so he wouldn't fall.
'We only tried this once in training… Nysira, I hope we're doing the right thing', thought Jaune, struggling with the overwhelming speed.
As the enemy ran faster, the whole cave began to shake and tremble, rocks falling from above.
Nysira managed to dodge them all, but when they hit the ground, they shattered completely. One rock even fell toward Liztawul and Garwhole, but Liztawul simply leapt up and destroyed it with his tail.
Jaune then created a small wire in front of Nysira, allowing her to move faster. When Hollowroot touched it, he slowed down a bit.
"Guess that thing's too big to really fall…" muttered Jaune, glancing around the cave. All he could see were Liztawul and Garwhole, both smiling. Especially Garwhole, he looked like he was having the time of his life.
"Lightning Track!" shouted Nysira as she kept running. A trail of lightning sparked in her path, and Hollowroot, too dull to realize, kept charging. The shocks weren't devastating, but strong enough to stop him for a moment.
As the enemy faltered, Nysira stopped a safe distance away.
"You think it'll work, Jaune?" she asked, smirking as she got into position.
"What? What are you planning, Nysira?!" Jaune shouted, panicked.
"Trust me," she said. Then, with all her strength, she threw Jaune directly on top of the enemy, who had started to run again.
The massive creature noticed Jaune flying above and hesitated. That distraction gave Nysira her chance, she dashed forward.
"Plasma Slash!"
She shot past Hollowroot. The Krukin slammed his hand down to crush her, but she slipped through and climbed onto his massive body, sprinting toward his head.
Jaune quickly understood what she was doing. While he was still mid-air, as Hollowroot's body filled with kinetic energy, he summoned countless wires across its form, tightening them like restraints.
Both Nysira and Jaune were bleeding from their bodies now, Nysira had already used about 30% of her soul, and Jaune nearly 27%.
Nysira caught Jaune as he descended, though she quickly threw him aside, the Plasma Slash only worked on her. If she carried someone, they wouldn't be ionized. They'd tested this once: she phased through a wall, but Jaune slammed headfirst into it.
Now, drained from the spell, Nysira was falling with Jaune in her arms.
"Now!" shouted Jaune, summoning wires to cushion their landing. Hollowroot was still bound by Jaune's wires, straining to break free, but he couldn't.
Nysira rose to run again, but Garwhole swooped down onto Hollowroot, using one of his claws to snap the wires apart with ease.
He looked straight at the humans. They returned his stare, only for Liztawul to suddenly leap in front of them. He swung his tail with a smirk, hurling both of them across the cavern.
Nysira and Jaune slammed into the wall. The enemy closed in again.
"Jaune! You're always the one with the plans... what do we do?!" Nysira shouted as the monster loomed. Liztawul and Garwhole stepped back near the portal, watching.
"I've got an idea, but it's really risky…" Jaune muttered as Hollowroot's massive fist came down. Nysira dodged at the very last second, the blow leaving a crater in the rock.
"I don't care!" she yelled. They ended up behind Hollowroot as it toppled backward. Almost crushed, Nysira hurled Jaune into the air, ionized her body, and landed atop the creature, grabbing Jaune again.
As she darted across Hollowroot's body, it filled with kinetic energy. Jaune tried to weave crushing wires, but they weren't strong enough.
Then he remembered, Final Impulse hurt not only enemies, but the target charged with kinetic energy.
'When Nysira uses Plasma Slash with Final Impulse, she always gets a bit hurt. But what if the explosion happened on the enemy instead?'
The only problem, their foe still didn't have enough energy built up.
"Can you still run, Nysira?" Jaune asked.
"Of course I can!" she grinned, though blood streamed down her body. She pushed on, sprinting harder.
"Then don't stop," said Jaune calmly, even as blood poured from his own wounds. He created more and more wires, boosting Nysira's speed beyond anything she'd reached before.
But this time, as Hollowroot passed through the wires, instead of slowing, he sped up. He was going so fast now he nearly caught them.
Jaune's eyes bled, his vision going black, but he forced more wires into existence. Hollowroot reached for them with jagged claws, but Nysira dodged narrowly.
From afar, the two Krukins spoke in their tongue.
"Looks like they've chosen death, or what?" Liztawul asked, frowning as Hollowroot accelerated.
"They've got a plan… whatever it is, they'll be too exhausted afterward" Garwhole smirked.
"Jaune!!!" screamed Nysira. They were almost at the cavern wall. The enemy thundered behind them, bursting with kinetic energy from the chase.
"Now!!" shouted Jaune. He created wires on the wall, propelling Nysira up it. Jaune clung desperately to stay on.
Jaune's voice tore through the chaos.
"Final Impulse!!"
Blood streamed from his mouth and eyes, his body almost translucent from overuse.
The world seemed to freeze for a heartbeat then reality snapped.
Hollowroot, overloaded with impossible amounts of kinetic energy, ignited from within. His entire body became a furnace of motion and force, the wires amplifying the detonation instead of containing it.
A blinding flash erupted, swallowing the cavern in white light.
The explosion roared like thunder made solid, a shockwave tearing through stone and air alike. The cavern walls buckled and cracked, entire slabs of rock breaking loose and crashing down. The ground itself quaked as if the mountain would collapse.
The blast struck Nysira and Jaune first, hurling them against the wall with bone-shaking force. The air was stripped from their lungs, their blood misting into the shockwave.
Even Garwhole and Liztawul were forced to defend themselves. Garwhole snapped his wings around his body like a fortress, teeth gritted as the gale tore at him. Liztawul dug his claws into the stone, but the power was too great, he was flung back, slamming into the cavern with a snarl.
"Tch…" Garwhole hissed, shielding his eyes as fragments of molten rock rained around them.
The sound carried like the roar of a collapsing world. Every fighter in the cave, whether human or Krukin, stilled for a moment as the deafening boom reverberated, echoing into the depths.
When the light finally dimmed, Hollowroot's body was no longer a beast of flesh, but a charred husk, burnt, cracked, and crumbling. Smoke curled from the remains, and the smell of scorched earth and ash filled the cavern.
The great monster toppled in silence, nothing left of its once-unstoppable momentum but ruin.
'And he wanted to take those two alone' Garwhole thought, watching the humans lying motionless.
He swooped down onto Liztawul's shoulder.
"I think we should take the female one," he said. Liztawul nodded.
They strode toward the two collapsed humans. Nysira was unconscious, Jaune's body almost see-through, drained after using nearly 90% of his soul.
Garwhole hopped down, lifting Nysira's limp form.
"Little human? Can you hear me?" he sneered, pulling faces. Jaune weakly opened his eyes.
"We're taking the woman. If you want her back, come find us on the Black Planet. Bring your friends," Garwhole taunted. Jaune could barely hear him.
"Well, they'll figure it out somehow," Garwhole shrugged, flying back onto Liztawul's shoulder, this time the left one, since the right was occupied by Nysira's body.
"Tch, I wanted the right shoulder," he complained.
"Stop whining," Liztawul replied as they stepped back through the portal, which closed behind them.
Meanwhile, as Nysira and Jaune fought Hollowroot, Darian, Liro, and Eros had just entered another chamber, where Sappho waited.
From the shadows, countless Krukins emerged. Their bodies were pitch-black, their forms cloaked in shifting darkness, like a massive living blur.
They swarmed the group. The few remaining soldiers tried to help, but were slaughtered instantly.
"There are too many! What do we do?!" Darian shouted, blasting with his magic to hold them back.
"Keep fighting! We won't fall!" Eros roared.
Sappho stood by, smiling as she watched the three men struggle.