Max and Lloyd are in their room, exhausted from training, with Dane. Max is quietly insulting their new trainer as suddenly the door bursts open and Kaia storms into the room, her phone in hand.

  "Guys, did you see the news?"

  She shows them a video on her phone ofPercy fighting a nightmare at a beach and how he kills it.

  "They also said this nightmare was a country-level threat!"

  Max and Lloyd stare at the phone's screen. Lloyd looks up at Kaia.

  "So the gap between him and us got even bigger?"

  Max stands up and walks past Kaia out of the room.

  "Looks like it."

  "Where are you going, Max?"

  "Where am I going? Back to training, Lloyd. I'm going to close the gap!"

  At the same time, Teon receives a message from Kaia about Percy's recent achievements. The two watch the video and smile for their friend.

  Back at the base Max, Kaia, and Lloyd walk on the training field.

  "Already back? It hasn't even been 30 minutes, and I thought you had enough for today."

  The voice belongs to a man sitting in the middle of the field on a massive black-furred wolf, looking at the three with a cocky grin.

  "Yeah yeah, shove your cocky smile up your ass. Our friend Percy had a huge achievement today, and we have to close the gap!"

  "Sounds like someone is jealous."

  "I AM NOT!"

  Dane jumps down from the wolf and walks closer to them.

  "Whatever... so who do you want as a sparring partner? Me or Fenrir?"

  Dane looks over his shoulder. The wolf opens one eye before growling quietly and turning his head away from them. Dane chuckles before looking at the trio again.

  "Looks like he's not in the mood for it. Means I'm your opponent."

  He cracks his knuckles.

  "Who is getting beat up first?"

  Lloyd sighs and steps forward. Before he can say a word, Dane stands in front of him, delivering a gut punch and sending him crashing into a wall, which breaks on contact. Lloyd coughs up blood before standing up. Dane looks down at his fists; they're bloody, and a few small and sharp bone splitters stick in them. He smiles, and his gaze moves back to Lloyd.

  "You finally can grow them faster."

  The wounds slowly heal.

  "Let's change the game. If each of you manages to get one clean hit on me, I'll convince Lucius to send you on a mission with your friend Percy."

  The faces of all three kids light up, and they get ready.

  A few weeks later, Teon and Kai enter a control room inside the island's estate basement.

  Lucius and Rumi stand inside, watching the big screen on the other side, surrounded by many smaller ones with a few scientists working. Kai speaks up first.

  "Why did you call us here?"

  "There appeared a talking nightmare on a mission of a small Souls-Corp team. We lost the connection to them. So we're sending you to take care of it and retrieve the missing persons."

  The two boys watch each other excitedly. Teon turns to Lucius and asks where they have to go, and Lucius points out some coordinates.

  "That's close to the Souls-Corp Base."

  "Yes. Now quick!"

  Seconds later the two are on their way.

  Lucius and Rumi remain in the control room, watching the big screen. Rumi's posture is tense.

  "Why didn't you tell them the missing Corps members were their friends?"

  She glances at Lucius and notices how tense he is as well, surprising her. She had never seen him like this.

  "I don't know..."

  The two friends race each other to their destination, laughing with each other. They arrive at a nearly completely leveled city. The laughing stops at once, and they look around.

  "I've never seen such destruction!"

  Teon thinks to himself while holding back the urge to vomit as he spots dead civilians amid all the destruction.

  "How do we find the nightmare?"

  Suddenly something jumps up from below them, grabbing Kai by the foot and throwing him into the ruin of a skyscraper, causing it to break down even further.

  "Found it."

  Teon calls out into Kai's direction. He walks out of the building's ruin, unscathed, scratching the back of his head.

  "Yeah, me too. I call dips."

  The nightmare looks confused at the two boys.

  "Why are you stronger than the one from before?"

  Kai grins while getting ready to fight.

  "You could say we're special!"

  In his hand slowly appears the lightning spear, and without wasting time, he throws it. Midair it turns into red lightning. The monster leans out of the way of it, but the lightning curves in its way and comes back. Surprised by it, the nightmare reaches out, grabs it before getting it, and launches it at Kai. Kai's eyes widen; caught off guard, he only manages to raise his arms before getting hit. The impact catapults him through the whole city.

  "KAI!!!"

  Chuckling, the nightmare turns around, looking at Teon, who is still standing in the sky above him.

  "Your turn?"

  Teon glares at it before using a flash step. He appears behind the thing and swings. His fist connects with its back, and less than microseconds later, three additional impacts occur. But the nightmare doesn't move a single bit. The boy's expression turns from anger to terror.

  "I put all my strength into this punch!"

  In one smooth motion the nightmare turns around and hits him in the face with his forearm, sending him sliding over the ground while breaking it.

  "Stronger than the ones earlier, but not strong enough."

  The nightmare turns in the direction Kai flew as it hears words being yelled. The next thing it sees is a massive blue energy beam hitting it point-blank. Growling, the nightmare shields himself with only one arm. Right as the beam stops, Kai shoots at the monster first. It connects with the nightmare's cheek, but the attack only manages to make the monster's head turn slightly. His eyes widen in fear. Just as it is about to hit him, five bloodstreams shoot in their direction. Kai uses the moment to gather distance from the nightmare.

  "Thank god, I don't think I could've taken that hit right now."

  Teon shoots up, slamming against the nightmare, before following up with an uppercut with 5 additional impacts. The nightmare stumbles in the area and growls and focuses his attention on Teon. Before he can do anything, he gets attacked by Kai again. Together the two start to push the nightmare slowly back.

  "You are way more annoying than the others."

  It grabs the two by the heads and slams them together. Both cry out and stumble back.

  "These others were only able to do a single thing; why can you do more?!"

  It kicks Teon in the gut while at the same time grabbing Kai by the leg and using him to slap Teon around.

  "The others were fighting with small things, biological blades and human weapons. Fighting them was much nicer!"

  As he hears these words, Teon's blood freezes. He jumps out of the nightmare's distance.

  "Where are they?"

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  He asks quietly.

  While still holding on to Kai's leg, the nightmare chuckles.

  "Don't really know, somewhere around here."

  "Kai, can you hold him here for a few moments?"

  Kai, trying to open the monster's grip on his leg, nods.

  "I guess. But make it quick!"

  Teon flies off, and after searching for a few moments, he sees two bodies in Souls-Corp armor. After he closes a bit more distance, he is able to see who it is.

  "No... no no no! It can't be!"

  He stares down at the unconscious bodies of Max and Kaia a few meters away, pierced by a piece of metal coming out of the concrete wall. Sits Lloyd, and under a big hill of rubble looks out a hand, barely holding on to a trident. Teon lands next to it and gets rid of the rubble, revealing Percy beneath it.

  They are barely hanging on to life. Why didn't Lucius or Rumi interfere?"

  After carefully laying them next to each other, Teon looks in the direction where Kai and the nightmare are fighting, just to see his best friend being held by the throat before the monster punches a hole right into Kai's gut and throws him all the way to Teon.

  "Nooo!"

  Teon dashes towards Kai, just in time to catch his body before it hits the ground. He lays him down carefully before looking at the nightmare, which slams down near them; the grin on its face disappears suddenly.

  "Why is the pressure coming from this one rising so much?"

  A halo appears above Teon's head before cracking. Blood drips down from it into his hair, which grows longer and turns black. Wings of black, bloody, and burned feathers appear, floating behind his back. Gaze empty, Teon points at the nightmare. He near instantly closes the distance and grabs it by the face. Holding it, Teon drags it over the ground through the city before slamming it down. The nightmare stands up and attacks Teon, but each attack gets effortlessly blocked by the wings. Each hit spreads more and more blood on its hands. Teon snaps his fingers, and the blood bursts into black flames. The nightmare screams out before ripping its own hands off. Seconds later he grows new ones.

  "Not fun; I need to kill this one quickly."

  He starts attacking Teon with even faster strikes. After each one gets blocked by the wings, the nightmare grabs one. Teon snaps, and the whole wings burst out in black flames. The nightmare screams out but doesn't let go. It grabs the boy by the shoulder with the overhand and starts tearing at the wing. Teon's face contorts in pain. He uses a flash step to get out of the nightmare's grip.

  Back in the estate's basement, Rumi and Lucius are watching the fight on the big screen.

  "We should step in, Lucius!"

  "Not now. It's too early."

  "Too early?! You fool, they might all die!"

  The two watch as Teon starts to spit blood. After wiping it from his mouth, he appears behind the nightmare. He draws an upside-down cross in the air with his whole hand. A hole of the same size appears in the nightmare's torso.

  Rumi swallows hard.

  "He can make them even bigger?!"

  The nightmare screams out while the hole quickly closes again. Teon spits blood again and goes down to one knee. The nightmare slowly walks towards him and grabs the whole before ripping a chunk off. Blood starts to flow out of it into Teon's hair and down his face. The boy screams, and the left wing swings at the nightmare but misses.

  The monster chuckles before grabbing the boy by the throat and throwing him away. Teon slams down near his friend before spitting out even more blood. He tries to crawl in his friend's direction as the nightmare lands next to him. It chuckles while looking down at Teon.

  Rumi looks angry and in panic over at Lucius.

  "We have to interfere, or they die for sure!"

  In this moment the strange device Lucius used before starts ringing inside his pockets. Lucius pulls it out and picks up the incoming call.

  "Yeah?"

  "You wonder why kids are losing."

  "H...how do you know that?"

  "Please, you know me. I can feel their energy decreasing."

  Lucius swallows hard while Rumi just stares at the device in his hand.

  "You two don't interfere, Lucius."

  "What, why?!"

  "Because I want to show off in front of the new ones, of course."

  "But you're too far..."

  Before Lucius can finish his sentence, the man on the other end hangs up. Lucius's hand sinks from his ear.

  "What did he say?"

  Rumi asks quietly.

  "He told me to not interfere, because he wants to show off."

  "Isn't he in outer space?!"

  Lucius nods at her question.

  "Approximately a few galaxies away."

  Back on the battleground, the nightmare stands over Teon, who is struggling to stay on both feet.

  "Am I really going to die here? Damn Lucius... where are you?!"

  The nightmare takes a step closer to Teon, and suddenly both of them start shaking, and blood runs out of Teon's nose.

  "This pressure... it's so immense... but it's not Lucius or Rumi."

  Teon thinks to himself.

  The nightmare, sensing where the energy comes from, looks up in the sky. Teon follows the nightmare's gaze.

  "What are you two looking at?"

  Both of their eyes shoot to the source of the voice. Right next to Teon crouches a man.

  "Hey there."

  He grins at Teon before patting his head and standing up straight.

  "Let me take it from here."

  "Who are you?"

  "My name is Ragnar; Lucius will explain the rest once I get you out of here."

  While Ragnar's attention is on Teon, the nightmare steps closer to Ragnar.

  "Why are you so strong? Strong ones are no fun."

  "Don't you see I'm talking to someone? It's rude to interrupt a conversation."

  Ragnar turns around and steps right in front of the nightmare. The next thing Teon witnesses is the nightmare flying through the city and even further beyond.

  "What just happened?"

  "It's not dead."

  The two see the nightmare walking back towards them.

  "See, there he is. Enough playing now; time to end it."

  The nightmare stops in front of Ragnar, panting and growling, before it starts to grow.

  "I agree!"

  It hisses before swinging for Ragnar's head. The massive fist connects with Ragnar's face, but nothing happens—no shockwave caused by the impact, not even a sound. The nightmare looks confused at his fist and Ragnar. Ragnar grins up at the monster.

  "Do you bleed?"

  The nightmare just growls at him.

  "You have blood, good!"

  Suddenly the arm of the nightmare explodes. It screams in pain before the arm slowly regrows again.

  "Regeneration... so what do I need to destroy so he stays dead?"

  Ragnar thinks before shrugging with his shoulders and picking up a pebble. He throws it against the nightmare's head; right on impact, its head gets completely destroyed, and the nightmare dissolves into black sand.

  "That was... underwhelming."

  Ragnar turns around to Teon, smiling. Teon can't believe what just happened. His vision slowly begins to fade, and he falls unconscious.