The Colos Variant lunged again—
a mass of tendon, crystal plates, and parasite sinew tearing the ground beneath it.
Kaodin didn't backpedal.
He stepped into the attack.
His heel bit into the wet concrete, Qi snarling around his calves like heated smoke.
He feinted left—
slipped right—
and brought a razor-edged palm down across a tendon cluster at the inner elbow joint.
A burst of heat flared from his hand.
Parasitic flesh sizzled.
For the first time—
the monster recoiled.
Han-Xiao's visor pinged—once, sharp, unmistakable.
"Yuri—there! Left dorsal plate—fracture line—heat spike!"
Arika snapped her fingers. "Transmit—NOW!"
Han-Xiao didn't hesitate. She routed the data straight to Kaodin's wristband.
A red marker blinked across Kaodin's peripheral display the moment he slipped beneath the Colos Variant's guard.
"Boy! Weak spot—left back plate! Beneath the crystal layer!" Han-Xiao shouted across the rubble.
Yuri reinforced the callout, voice cracking through dust and rain:
"Hit that point! Nothing else hurts it!"
Kaodin's gaze snapped to the glowing seam immediately—
no guesswork, no coincidence.
His body reacted before thought, fury and discipline snapping into a single line of motion.
His Dusk-state was thinning—
the sharp clarity beginning to fray at the edges—
but he forced his breath deeper, grinding Qi through his veins like molten grit.
Something inside him responded—
Seemingly like a second rhythm stirred within him and somehow it folded itself naturally into Kaodin's breath like a second heartbeat aligning with the first.
Thread over thread, like invisible fibers braiding themselves around his forearms
The beginning of something that behaved like Qi-woven carbon fiber — exhibiting an extreme heat wave outward, yet holding a warmth and trust-filled protection around Kaodin, becoming adaptive to enhanced, super-strength attacks infused with heat-Qi, or absorbing damage from any strike directed at him.
A protective lattice began to form — woven from Kaodin's absolute will around his knuckle and elbow, carried and amplified through Wawa.
The boy didn't realize it, but the world around him did: this was no longer merely the trait of internal Qi or any known form of Qi Gong.
Something otherworld cosmic-energy visually seen as psychedelic technicolor flash that stirred vigorously with his original Qi circulation, interpreting Kaodin's unwavering will and shaping it into a power that did not belong to this world and unique only to himself.
Abruptly, unleashing, TRUE-QI STRIKE — "Jarake-Fad-Hang" (Crocodile Whips Tail Vigorous Kick)
He planted his foot hard—
hips torquing with violent precision—
and his heel swept out in a savage, cutting arc across the parasite's rib plates.
Qi erupted across his leg like a coiling flame.
BOOM—!!
The impact shook the entire street.
The monster staggered—its massive frame skidding sideways, gouging a trench as its claws dug desperately for balance.
Shards of the crystal armor cracked loose, skittering across the pavement.
Steam hissed from Kaodin's leg where Qi backlash scorched his ankle.
The recoil nearly buckled him.
But he stayed upright.
Arika's visor lit up with thermal bloom.
"That strike carried internal heat—he's damaging the core cover!"
Han-Xiao zoomed in sharply.
"The fracture's widening—he's almost through!"
The monster stabilized, talons carving deep grooves as it regained footing.
Its parasite spine vibrated violently—
not in pain,
but agitation.
It lunged.
A tendril caught Kaodin across the ribs—
a meaty, crushing blow, strong enough to crack stone.
The boy hit the ground hard, concrete fracturing under his shoulder.
Air punched from his lungs.
His chest burned like a furnace collapsing.
But he rolled up anyway, coughing grit, eyes locked on the widening crack in the crystal plate.
And It was closing fast.
He therfore clenched his fist.
He had one chance left.
Kaodin, breath ragged, stepped back from the regenerating crack in the Colos Variant's chest.
The plate was already sealing — thin parasite filaments knitting across the wound like frantic spiders.
His right arm shook; the Qi-weave along his forearm flickered, threads loosening like frayed fabric.
Dusk was still active — but thinning, fraying — like the rhythm itself was slipping through his fingers.
Jarake-Fad-Hang had landed.
He felt the ribs give.
He heard the crack.
He replayed the impact in his mind:
the monster's weight, the elasticity of its bone-gel skeleton, the protective crystal plate absorbing shock.
He needed more than Dusk's precision.
More than a counter.
More than vibration strikes.
He needed all of it —
everything still left inside him —
before the window closed and the creature regenerated completely.
Kaodin muttered under his breath:
"Not enough… I need more Qi than I can hold.
All of it… at once."
But Dusk's mental sync with Wawa was already straining.
His vision became extremely obscured around the edges.
His pulse staggered.
Circulating more Qi now was like trying to force a river through a needle.
Kaodin inhaled sharply and made his decision.
He lifted his voice across the battlefield:
"Commander Arika!
I need the monster HELD — just for a moment!"
Readied for combat, she had already leapt forward to support the boy before he even finished his sentence.
By the time Kaodin's request reached her ears, Arika was already at his side and in motion.
Her blade-whip cracked open in a snap of steel and light as she surged ahead, boots grinding into the wet rubble.
"Yuri, with me.
Albert, right flank.
Han-Xiao, Ken — keep scanning for any secondary weak points and provide long-range support the moment you get an opening."
"Yes, Ma'am!" her subordinates answered, instantly shifting into formation.
The loyal knights of her team had worked together for years — long enough that a nod, a glance, the slightest shift of stance was all they needed to communicate.
No comms, no chatter.
They simply moved — each one instinctively supporting her the way a well-trained formation guards its commander's blind spots.
Concussive pellets detonated against the Colos Variant's joints.
Yuri's electro-axe carved into a tendon cluster.
Arika swept low herself, her whip-rapier hooking a parasite-laden limb and dragging it off balance with practiced precision.
The monster slowed.
Kaodin closed his eyes, aligning his absolute will with himself.
He focused on his breathing, slow and constant, syncing every inhale and exhale with the flow of his Qi and the singular goal pulsing in his chest.
Everything — every thread of energy — he bet on his right fist.
Qi-manifested knuckle and elbow guards along his left arm began to disperse, the plated structure dissolving back into his circulation.
As the armor receded, it left behind black tiger-like stripes across his skin — not fading, but marking the path of the Qi returning inward.
Simultaneously, the same dispersal swept through his right arm.
The plating dissolved into raw Qi leaving behind matching tiger-stripe traces winding across his shoulder and down his limb.
Except the right knuckle guard that's just beginning to shift its appearance
Those stripes ignited.
Thin, cosmic-rainbow flickers shimmered across them, flowing from his left side toward his right arm in a slow pulse.
Kaodin felt it clearly — the sensation that despite his unable to communicate his will, Wawa definitely would help him convey his will to turn it in to his power to support him.
All he could hope now was that risking the exhaustion of every last drop of Qi…
would be worth the struggle everyone was enduring.
That he could finally quell the rage burning through him — the rage of seeing Nyla injured right in front of him!
Arika planted her boots into the mud-slick rubble, jaw set as she steadied her whip-rapier.She wasn't behind the line.She was the line.
With a single, fluid step, she cut into the Variant's flank—steel whipping through rain and parasite flesh.
"Albert—left," she ordered, sharp and controlled.
Albert was already moving, matching her angle with practiced instinct. He flashed her a confident grin—I've got this, Commander—before pivoting into position.
"Han-Xiao, eyes on tendrils," Arika added.
Han-Xiao stepped behind her, visor alive with predictive arcs and strike-path calculations feeding into the squad's HUDs.
Yuri took the opposite flank, electro-axe humming as concussive pulses punched into exposed joints.Ken maintained suppression, clean precision bursts knocking aside any limb that tried to slip through.
Years of drilled formation made their movements seamless…And around Arika, her knights flowed like a living shield.
Rain traced down their visors as they dug into the ruined street, forcing the Variant back inch by inch—carving out the seconds Kaodin desperately needed.
Kaodin winced as the change settled into his body.
Volcanic red Ember-Fur flickered to life along his right arm—heat shimmering violently in the wind.Black tiger-stripes, once faint mark appeared only along his left side, now crossed his chest and entirely wrapped down to his right arm, pulsing with more piecing heat wave.
The limb did not grow larger—still the arm of a ten-year-old boy—but the Qi packed inside made the skin feel stretched, alive, too full for the body it inhabited.
The old Qi-knuckle guard dissolved inward, melting through tendon and bone until the limb reshaped itself into something primal—fingers thickening subtly, joints reinforcing like the paws of a young tiger.
A pressure rippled up his spine.
Ready.
He felt it—an internal click of instinct and certainty.
Kaodin lifted his voice, sharp and clear through the storm:
"Wawa… with me!"
A pulse stirred deep inside his consciousness—silent but unmistakable.
A wave of heat blasted across the field, slicing through the rain like a furnace door slammed open.
Yuri reacted first.
"Commander—heat spike!"
A burst of scorching wind swept over the squad, harsh enough that none could pinpoint the source through the downpour.
Then Kaodin appeared—right beside Arika.
Already settled in a clean Muay Thai stance.
"Commander, everyone—thank you for holding the fort. Now let me return the favor. Fall back first."
Han-Xiao asked softly, "Commander—your order?"Because no one moved unless Arika confirmed it.
Arika nodded once.
"Wanderer boy… let's finish this quickly. Then you and I will have a proper talk back at SAI."
Kaodin flashed a fierce grin.
"He hurt my friend. I'll end him."
Arika returned the smile, then signaled her squad to withdraw into a perimeter around Nyla's stretcher.
Kaodin swept the ruined street: a collapsed skytrain pillar jutting like a broken spine, a burnt-out police car nosed into the steps of an old bank, an empty minimart with its sign half hanging by a single bolt. Shattered balconies. Tilted facades. Plenty of broken angles.
I need height. Match his reach. And a way to reach it…
There. I see it.
Kaodin quickly dashed towards the clashed car which is just across the two-way-road distance from where Arika and her party were stationing, while still take a quick glance to find that the monster did notice him and as it continued give chase began full-throttle sprint charging towards Kaodin.
He quickly hopped onto the truck's back trunk and parkoured over the top part above the car roof, then across to the abandoned building's terrace next to the brown, rustic, century-old AC compressor—standing at the same height as the Colos Variant.
Kaodin taunted the monster, which had been running toward the boy from earlier. It now roared, finding its target appearing right where it could conveniently land a direct hit. The monster trembled with joyous rage as it charged, both arms crossed in front, and several of its tendrils flared up, furiously launching into a frenzied attack.
Ping… ping…
Han-Xiao's visor burst into a cascade of red warnings.
"Kaodin's reading just blew past calibration—he's beyond our sensors!"
Arika's visor echoed the alert.
A bead of rain struck her cheek.
Arika snapped her whip-rapier back into its sheath as she and her team maneuvered into a defensive line not far from Nyla, who still lay unconscious on an emergency anti-gravity field stretcher—standard equipment that two members of every platoon were required to carry at all times.
Meanwhile, Kaodin, in Dusk Mode, stood with heat shimmering around him like a furnace wrapped in rainfall. Steam curled upward from the soaked ground. Even the raging Variant, while trying to chase after the boy's whereabouts, released a guttural vibration from deep in its chest—instinctively wary of the impossible heat flare building before it.
Kaodin glared confidently at the raging monster, keeping his breath steady. His movements were sharper now. A ferocious heat flared up—no longer like the earlier, the regular Dusk state Qi seems frail in comparison.
And then, just as ready as he was, the monster closed in—barreling to within meters of him, its tendrils flailing in anticipation. In a blink, Kaodin pivoted, his foot planting against the sheer vertical wall of the derelict terrace. With a fluid motion, he launched himself up along the edge of a weathered cement slab beneath the wrought-iron balcony—its decorative filigree casting fractured shadows in the dusk light. Behind him, the monster lunged, too late to correct its momentum. Its weight slammed into the building's façade, shattering old brickwork and iron rail as it roared in frustration.
And in that split second—just after the monster crashed in, still dazed from the impact—Kaodin had already launched himself from the vertical wall with explosive force. Twisting midair, he drove both legs forward in a twin frontal kick, each limb wreathed in a raging, flame-wrapped Qi aura.
"Twin Pistons Kick!" he shouted—Kaodin's original Second Breath strike: a devastating, Qi-imbued double-kick technique.