Drayke still stood after taking the impact, a short distance away from the team.
He wasn't attacking. He wasn't even guarding.
He was thinking.
Do I really need to beat them one by one?
His gaze drifted to the faint glow around their faces.
They're alive because of the masks.
A slow realization settled in.
Break those… and this ends.
Behind him, the team struggled back to their feet together—heavy breaths, shaky balance under the low gravity of Marsh, bruises already blooming.
No one spoke, but they instinctively regrouped, forming a loose arc without even looking at each other.
That was when Bear moved.
He appeared behind Drayke and slipped an arm around his neck, locking in a tight gi choke, forearm digging in as Bear muttered,
"Guess I learnt a bit or two from chik—"
The thought hit him mid-sentence.
Chiki isn't here.
The hesitation cost him everything.
Drayke bent forward, twisted his shoulder, and the air itself folded, snapping outward like a whip.
Bear was ripped off him and hurled across the ground, skidding hard before crashing into a rock formation, the impact echoing through the thin atmosphere.
"Tch," Drayke clicked his tongue, finally turning around.
Tuka charged first, boots digging into the soil as he pushed through the low gravity with sheer force, muscles screaming but refusing to slow.
Drayke shifted aside, but Tuka adjusted mid-stride and swung anyway, the punch grazing Drayke's jaw just enough to snap his head.
Water Beauty followed instantly, arms flowing in smooth arcs as compressed streams of water twisted through the air, trying to bind Drayke's limbs.
He sliced through them with warped air, but the resistance slowed him for half a second.
That half-second mattered.
Bandri flicked her wrist, the dagger Chitki had gifted her spinning end over end, its trajectory unnaturally precise.
Drayke deflected it—but Clementess's voice cut through the chaos.
"Stop!."
The word hit like a weight.
The air trembled, Drayke's movement stuttering as if the world itself resisted him.
Blood trickled from Clementess's nose, her knees buckling as Peppy caught her before she fell.
Drayke exhaled slowly, forcing the effect off him, boots grinding into the dirt. "Dangerous," he muttered, eyes narrowing at her.
Bandy roared and surged forward, power flaring wildly, fists shaking as he swung with everything he had left.
Drayke met him head-on this time, their fists colliding with a shockwave that rippled outward, knocking everyone else back a step.
Then Tuka was there again.
With just resolve.
He drove his fist forward with everything his body could give, knuckles slamming brutally into Drayke's face.
The sound was ugly—raw, heavy, real—and Drayke was finally sent flying, skidding across the surface of Marsh before carving a long trench into the ground.
Silence followed, broken only by ragged breathing.
Drayke pushed himself up slowly, blood at the corner of his mouth, eyes burning with anger—and interest.
"…AGAIN!," he shouted.
And for the first time since the fight began, the team realized something chilling.
He hadn't been serious yet....