The Yandu roared like a primal beast.
Not a sound—pressure itself.
The entire cave trembled. The ground vibrated.
The bodies hanging from the ceiling swung in silence, like bells of flesh announcing the inevitable.
And then it came—leapt.
Three meters of muscle and stone. Arms like pillars.
Veins burst open, gushing Ayvu in thick vapor.
The monster's right hand came down like a crane.
Thomas spun his body, rolling to the side, letting the attack slam into the ground, cracking the platform.
But he didn't flee.
As the monster struggled to recover its stance, Thomas counterattacked — straight into its left flank.
His new ocular ability revealed the regeneration delay at that point. He could see it. Not think — see.
Thomas's fist glowed.
Ayvu concentrated in the joint.
And the punch landed with full force, cracking the creature's rough skin and pushing its body back for a full second.
Hector saw. And understood.
He leapt.
Fast as a leopard.
Spun mid-air.
And struck the creature's knee — another exposed spot.
The Yandu roared again. And attacked with blind fury.
The two men separated with near-synchronized acrobatics.
Thomas rolled to the flank. Hector pivoted on his good leg and dropped into a defensive stance.
— I know where to strike! — Thomas shouted through gritted teeth. — But the spots change quickly! I need an opening!
— Then we'll make one! — Hector replied, charging again.
The creature tried to crush him with a spinning punch. Hector ducked, took two short steps to the side, and punched the creature's elbow.
Nothing.
But it was a distraction. Thomas ran.
Using a side pillar for momentum, he leapt over the creature's shoulder and, mid-air, launched a dagger with telekinesis spinning in an arc — it passed behind the Yandu's head, seemed to miss, but spinning like a propeller, the blade made an impossible curve and stabbed straight into the point between the scapula and the spine.
The creature arched its torso. The left arm fell limp.
— That's it! — Hector shouted. — ONE MORE!
The creature screamed with its chest open, Ayvu dripping down its back — but the scream wasn't pain. It was hate.
It spun its body violently.
Bone tendrils emerged from its back — living bones, like spines from a furious carapace.
Its muscles began moving differently.
More tense. More protected.
Thomas noticed the flaws were vanishing.
His right Eye showed cracks that lasted mere milliseconds.
Before he could act, they vanished.
— It's adapting… — he growled.
— So are we. — Hector responded.
The monster charged like an avalanche.
Tendrils and arms spinning. Crossed strikes. Hammer-like impacts.
Thomas dodged by inches. Used pillars. Used corpses.
Jumped, spun, stepped on the creature's shoulders, used Ayvu in his legs to stay fast.
But one tendril hit his abdomen dead-on.
He flew back, skidding across the floor until stopping two meters from the altar.
Hector ran, furious, fists clenched.
Three quick strikes to the creature's chest.
Nothing.
The fourth came with Ayvu in his heel. A full spin. A straight right.
The creature's head twisted and a small crack appeared. Small, but visible.
— NOW! — Hector shouted.
Thomas rose, eyes burning.
He extended his hand and the dagger previously embedded in the scapula came loose and spun back to him.
He ran.
Both at once.
Hector below — punching legs.
Thomas above — using the altar for momentum, kicking the creature's neck, spinning mid-air with Ayvu propelling him.
The dagger followed, spinning around both of them like in orbit.
He grabbed it mid-air and came down with it aimed straight for the creature's neck.
The blade pierced. Not deep, but it pierced.
The creature roared and dropped to its knees, arms trembling.
But it was still alive.
The monster staggered.
The dagger still embedded in its thick neck, dark Ayvu dripping.
Thomas and Hector had done the impossible — wounded a being as hard as metal.
But the price came a second later.
The Yandu arched its torso—and screamed in fury.
A deep roar, like stone grinding from within.
The tendrils vibrated. The cave's columns trembled.
Its right arm, thick as a tree trunk, swung in an arc.
Thomas, still on the creature's shoulder, was thrown like a ragdoll against the nearest wall — a dry thud against the altar's side. Probably fracturing shoulder and ribs. His body bounced and fell sideways.
Hector was still trying to get down from the creature's back when the second arm came.
With no support, he used the monster's trapezius as a springboard and leapt backward, spinning mid-air.
But he couldn't land — the jump's force tossed him half a meter ahead, rolling among bone fragments.
The creature rose fully now — nearly four meters tall.
Its flesh vibrated. Muscles bubbled.Cracks began to open on its own body — as if the monster were sacrificing itself to activate something greater.
But the flaws Thomas saw with the right Eye disappeared before he could act.
— Hector… — Thomas coughed blood and rose slowly. — He's… burning Ayvu to hide the weak spots.
— Son of a bitch. — Hector clenched his fists, blood dripping from both sides of his jaw.
— I don't know how long I can keep up.
— But if you distract him…
Hector nodded. It wasn't time to argue.
— Give me thirty seconds.
And then… Hector ran.
The ground trembled under his feet, but his body was already on autopilot — Every step, every push, every shoulder turn came from years of training.
He weaved along the creature's flanks, leaping between broken columns, using bone fragments as springboards.
He leapt to the creature's side, spinning mid-air, and dropped a vertical punch onto its left trapezius — the joint between shoulder and neck.
The sound was sharp, the skin cracked. But the monster didn't roar.
Instead, it spun with absurd strength, its left arm turning into a hammer.
Hector had no time.
He was hit in the ribs and thrown sideways, crashing into an arc of fused bones.
He hit the ground spitting blood, one arm limp.
— Damn it… — he tried to stand with his working hand. — Just one more… just one more opening…
But he had achieved something.
The monster, for a second, turned its entire body to chase Hector.
And that was enough.
Thomas was on his feet.
His right Eye burned. Pupils sharp like claws.
He walked forward, coldly, waiting for the perfect moment.
While the creature was still turned, Thomas moved his hands, twitching two fingers on each.
The two daggers spun back through the air — like metallic boomerangs guided by the telekinesis inherited from Calil.
They fixed into orbit around him, spinning around Thomas and themselves, like satellites.
— I just need one opening.
— Just one…
Both eyes now expelled Ayvu, the vision truly overwhelming — they glowed as if the ocean had been imprisoned within them.
And there, on the creature's left flank —
In the space between the rear scapula and the curve of the spine —
There was a collapse in the flow, a crack, maybe a real weak point.
But reaching it from the front would be impossible.
— Hector… — Thomas thought, hoping Hector would hear.
— Give me three more seconds. — Hector answered, even without knowing.
And then he started running too.
Hector forced his body upright.
One arm barely moved, but the other was enough.
He leapt. Twisted his torso.
Activated Ayvu in his legs and launched the final kick — a lateral blow to the creature's knee hard enough to unbalance it for half a second.
That was all Thomas needed.
He bent his body like a sprinter and exhaled for half a second, just half — then ran — really fast — with his daggers orbiting.
The creature tried to strike. One arm descended in a crushing blow.
Thomas slid underneath, on his knees.
Felt the ground tear his skin, the heat of the impact soaring above, climbed a low pillar, and leapt onto the Yandu's chest, planting a dagger into its own flesh as a foothold.
He pulled himself upward using the daggers as bars, climbed over the monster's chest, planted his feet, and jumped behind the Yandu.
The creature tried to grab him.
Too late.
Thomas was already behind its shoulder.
Hector shouted:
— NOW!
The monster turned, reacting to the sound.
Thomas jumped backward — in the air, he spun — and the two daggers left his telekinesis, thrown with full force, aimed at the crack revealed by the right Eye.
One… two…
The blades struck the exact weak spot.
Gravity pulled him down, widening the opening of the wound.
The creature let out a muffled roar.
Hector rose from below — a vertical punch, enveloped in raw Ayvu, straight into the monster's chin.
The impact turned the Yandu's head, widening the fissures opened by the daggers.
The neck cracked. The body toppled sideways like a tree cut down.
Thomas fell to his knees, gasping. Hector dropped too, on the other side.
The monster still moved. Tried to rise.
Thomas gathered every bit of Ayvu he had left — and with telekinesis, pushed the blades deeper, spinning them inside the creature's innards.
Just when Thomas thought he'd fail —
Hector appeared, his body blazing like fire.
With speed never seen before, he did exactly three aerial spins and turned the motion into a kick — slamming down on one of the daggers.
The blade drove in deep, with brutal penetration.
The core shattered.
The sound was different — hollow, but thunderous.
The creature's body shuddered.
And then… went still.
Silence.
The Ayvu in the cave still pulsed, but it was a cave's breath now — no longer a scream.
Thomas braced himself on his arms, almost collapsing.
Hector swallowed hard, approaching with one hand on his ruined shoulder.
— What the hell was that?
— How did you see the weak spot?
Thomas, eyes half-open, answered:
— I learned… after I absorbed the Ayvu from the heart on the altar.
Hector nodded slowly, in disbelief.
And for the first time, since they stepped into that place…
He smiled.