Ethan’s body vanished into the electric glare.

Transparent lightning tightened around the willow-covered man, contracting again and again. It snagged his legs first, then climbed up his waist, abdomen, shoulders, and back.

Every arc carried power that could tear space open. Wherever it passed, the air snapped with fine, rapid detonations. Metal fragments on the deck were yanked up—then ground into dust midair.

But the willow man just stood there.

The transparent lightning struck him and still couldn’t split his body apart. It couldn’t even shatter the drooping willow strands.

Electric light burst across his shoulders and chest, spitting a few short-lived sparks before being blocked by that bizarre energy coating his skin.

The willow branches swayed gently, barely even singed.

Ethan’s brow sank.

He didn’t keep wasting power the same way. Riding the recoil of his own lightning, he pulled back a few steps.

When his foot hit the deck, it stamped a fresh crack into the metal. Violent energy poured from his palm, first forming a narrow line of light—then expanding hard to both sides, becoming a heavy saber.

The blade was pure energy, and along its edge white lightning kept flashing.

In front of the cabin, the willow man raised an arm. The branches hanging off him swayed with the motion, sliding through the air like living things.

He stared at Ethan, and the contempt in his eyes slowly reeled itself in.

"You’re the lord of Emerald Castle," he said, voice low enough to drown out the alarms wailing inside the ship. "I really did underestimate you. I thought there was nothing in this world worth calling strong. Didn’t expect you to be this capable."

He stepped forward.

The deck cracked outward under his foot. Fire spewing from the fissures twisted and deformed, pressed down by the energy around him.

"Since that’s the case," he said, "don’t blame me for not holding back."

The instant the words fell, the power inside him detonated.

Domineering energy surged out from between his chest and both arms, gathering upward. In midair it condensed into a massive Crystal Orb.

It hovered above the warship, its surface rotating endlessly. Inside, countless streams of energy looked like they were crushing and grinding against each other.

Every time the orb trembled, the surrounding air was shoved outward in a visible ring. Even the ship’s ruined hull groaned in response, metal complaining under the pressure.

A few enemy soldiers who hadn’t made it far enough looked up once—and their faces changed on the spot.

They’d seen that power before.

And because they’d seen it, they backed away instinctively. They’d rather trip over shattered plating and smash their knees than stay anywhere near the space between these two.

Ethan stared at the Crystal Orb, his expression turning heavier by the second.

This willow man was worse than he’d expected. Transparent lightning couldn’t crack his defense, and now he was gathering energy on this scale. If that orb fully came down, the entire warship would get swallowed with it.

But Ethan couldn’t retreat.

He gripped the saber with both hands. Lightning exploded under his feet, and he shot forward along the deck’s broken seams.

The blade dragged behind him. Transparent lightning and white light kept feeding into it, and as he closed the distance, it sliced the battlefield’s scattered energies aside, carving a clear path straight at the man.

The willow man didn’t move back.

He lifted his arm. Willow strands wrapped around his wrist, condensing into a heavy, crushing force as he met Ethan head-on.

Ethan’s saber chopped down from above, the edge aimed straight at the man’s shoulder.

The willow man raised his arm to block.

The moment arm met blade, the deck sank a full notch beneath them.

Boom!

This time there wasn’t a wide-area spell collision, no long-range bombardment grinding against another.

They slammed into each other up close.

Ethan’s saber came down and was stopped cold by the man’s forearm.

The willow man’s other hand clenched into a fist and hammered toward Ethan’s chest. The punch hadn’t even landed yet—its pressure hit first—so Ethan twisted his blade and pressed down, redirecting that force to the side. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The fist crashed into the deck instead.

Metal caved in instantly. Shards blasted outward in a spray, skittering across the ruined plating as the warship shuddered under the impact.

Ethan drove his knee up, aiming straight for the man’s gut.

The willow man sank his weight. The branches hanging from his chest dropped like a curtain and took the hit for him.

A muffled thud sounded. The shock of it burst between them, tilting the nearby flames outward like a gust had slapped the ship.

Ethan rolled his saber in his hands and snapped the hilt toward the man’s cheek.

The willow man tilted his head aside and slipped it—then slammed an elbow into Ethan’s shoulder.

Bang!

Ethan’s shoulder jolted. His boots skidded half a step across the deck.

He caught himself instantly, and the blade swept sideways, forcing the willow man to raise an arm and block hard.

Their pace kept climbing.

No flashy tricks. No wasted motion—just raw strength, speed, and reaction.

A fist hammering into a chest. A blade spine grinding into a shoulder. An elbow smashing an arm off-line. A knee driving for the abdomen.

Every impact carved another crack into the deck.

In a blink of time, they’d traded hundreds of blows.

The remaining enemy soldiers on the warship couldn’t track the movements at all. They only saw two figures constantly crossing on the shattered deck.

Every time they crossed, a ring of pressure blasted outward, shoving collapsed gun mounts, broken railings, and loose metal fragments even farther away.

Time blurred.

Then both bodies broke apart at the same moment.

Ethan slid back dozens of feet, the saber’s edge dragging against the deck and carving a deep, burning line.

The willow man retreated to near the cabin entrance. Several branches on his shoulder had been severed, and strange energy-light still leaked from the cuts.

Both of them were breathing hard now.

Neither one pulled their power back. If anything, their energy spread with every breath.

Transparent lightning prowled around Ethan’s feet. The willow man’s bizarre force kept pressing outward, bending space in faint, ugly warps.

He stared at Ethan, and for the first time his expression turned truly sour.

"I really did underestimate you." He pressed a hand to his chest, his voice colder than before. "Didn’t think you’d be able to put out this kind of force in a straight brawl."

His fingers closed around two willow branches drooping from his chest.

"Since that’s how it is," he said, "I’ll let you see my real power."

The next instant, he ripped those two branches out of his own chest.

The moment they came free, a brutal aura exploded from the torn opening.

In his hands, the two willow branches twisted like living things. The energy surging through them was thicker than before—like he’d dragged the deepest strength out of his own body and turned it into a weapon.

The light above the warship dimmed under that pressure, and the surrounding sky seemed to get swallowed along with it.

Ethan took one step back.

He didn’t wait for the man to strike first.

Power surged forward inside him. Transparent lightning, white light, and his own violent force compressed in front of his palm into a domineering sphere of energy.

Its surface trembled nonstop. Inside, layers of power stacked tighter and tighter until the surrounding air couldn’t take it anymore—popping with dense, continuous crackles.

Ethan hurled the sphere.

It roared forward just above the deck, driving straight at the two willow branches in the man’s hands.

The willow man crossed his arms and swung the branches forward. Bizarre energy condensed into a thick, heavy barrier and met Ethan’s attack head-on.

The two forces collided in midair.

BOOM!

The energy sphere and the willow-born power detonated at the same time. A shockwave ripped outward from the impact point, sweeping across the ship.

Space split into a web of fine cracks. Those cracks crawled through the air—then widened as the next surge of power hit.

The entire warship lurched violently. From beneath the deck came a nonstop series of snapping, tearing breaks, like the ship’s bones were finally giving up.