Ryn moved first.

The moment the dragon's stance shifted, he kicked forward, Snow flaring cold in his grip as ice bloomed beneath his boots.

The platform formed just long enough—he pushed off immediately, chaining the momentum into another leap.

Then another.

The desert answered.

Sand surged upward in violent streams, compressed into tearing torrents that ripped through the air like whips. Ryn twisted mid-flight, barely slipping past one as it carved a trench through the stone behind him.

Ice flashed.

He landed, pushed off, leapt again.

Closer.

The earth dragon did not retreat.

Sand rose around her in layered currents, coiling and folding over one another as though she wore the desert like armor. Ryn brought Snow down in a sharp arc—

The sand intercepted it instantly. It felt like swinging through hundreds of layers of water, the resistance dragging at his strike until it bled away completely.

Ryn barely wrenched his blade free before another torrent slammed into his chest.

The impact hurled him backward, sending him skidding across the desert.

[HP: 138/150]

He gritted his teeth, twisting midair to reorient himself toward the earth dragon. Snow reacted instantly, ice forming beneath his foot just long enough for him to kick off and force himself back into the fight.

Then—

The sand shifted.

Ryn's eyes snapped downward.

The ground along his flight path spiraled violently, sand surging upward as it condensed into a massive spike, forming ahead of him—aimed straight for his torso.

"Shit, Aquila!"

The Blessing answered.

His senses sharpened just enough to wrench his body sideways as the spike tore past where his chest had been a heartbeat earlier, missing him by inches.

[MP: 90/110]

"That…was too close," he huffed, trying to catch his breath.

Ryn landed in a low skid, boots carving through the sand as he caught himself with Snow.

He looked around, half expecting another attack to come from somewhere—yet none did.

Nothing happened.

The sand beneath him, which had been spiraling moments ago, lost its cohesion. The grains loosened, collapsing back into an uneven spread instead of tightening into another trap.

Ryn's eyes narrowed.

The earth dragon stood where she was, massive chest rising and falling in slow, grinding breaths. The layered currents of sand around her thinned, their movement uneven, as if the desert itself were struggling to keep pace with her will.

A weakness…her recovery time.

Ryn planted his feet, stowing Snow away for a second. He knew he couldn't reach the dragon in time, and decided on something else.

[Orion]

The Blessing answered.

Lights gathered along his arm, condensing into a narrow, focused line.

Ryn released a rapid barrage, arrows screaming across the desert in tight succession, each one aimed at a slightly different angle.

The dragon roared, conjuring a wall of hardened sand to block the attacks.

The shield twisted violently, layers of sand shearing and folding over one another as the trajectories bent mid-flight. Arrows curved away, some skimming past her scales by inches, others spiraling off into the dunes or burying themselves deep into stone.

One shot barely managed to graze her shoulder.

The dragon hissed, a grinding sound tearing from her throat as the sand surged harder, thicker, flowing back into place with frantic urgency.

Ryn felt the shift immediately.

The control wasn't clean anymore.

The shield pulsed unevenly, overcorrecting where it had been pierced, grains grinding against one another as though struggling to maintain cohesion.

He loosed another volley.

This time, the deflection was sloppier.

One arrow veered wide. Another slammed uselessly into the ground. A third punched through, then shattered against reinforced stone before reaching scale.

Ryn's breath hitched.

Light along his arm faded.

He'd already used 60 MP for that barrage, leaving him with 30 MP left. Ranged pressure had forced her to react—

But it wouldn't finish this.

He drew his blade and advanced.

The moment his boots touched down, the desert answered.

Sand surged upward in a perfect ring around him. The ground hardened as it climbed, grains compressing and fusing until a massive dome sealed shut overhead.

From the outside, it looked less like a prison and more like a tomb. Impossibly dense sand swirled angrily, reinforcing the structure until even the faintest seams vanished.

She was trying to choke Ryn out.

Jay stared.

"…That's not good," he muttered.

The ground around the dome trembled as the earth dragon approached, each step compressing the desert further.

"Ryn?" he called out, already knowing there wouldn't be an answer.

The dome didn't move.

The dragon moved closer, sort of like a predator inspecting its trap to see the prey's condition.

Jay swallowed hard.

"She thinks she's won."

From the outside, the dome didn't crack.

It bulged.

For a split second, the smooth surface warped outward, sand grinding and screaming as pressure built from within.

[Essence Burst]

Then the entire structure detonated.

Hardened sand and stone exploded outward in a violent shockwave, the dome disintegrating into a storm of debris that tore across the desert. Fragments were hurled skyward, pulverized midair as the blast carved a fresh crater into the dunes.

Jay was thrown backward, skidding across the sand as he raised an arm to shield his face.

"What the hell—?!"

The earth dragon staggered, clearly not expecting the outcome.

Ryn stood at the center of the rough ground.

Snow was driven into the sand infront of him, frost hissing violently as steam curled off his armor. The terrain around him was cracked and uneven, scorched where the dome had once stood.

For the first time since the battle began, the earth dragon did not advance immediately.

She lowered her head slightly, amber eyes fixed on the figure who had torn his way out of her prison.

Ryn took the opportunity.

Ice flashed beneath his feet as he surged forward, Snow trailing frost as he closed the distance before the sand could fully recover.

Ryn struck.

Snow bit into her foreleg, the blade carving through stone-plated scales with a sharp crack. Sand burst outward as the impact landed cleanly, sparks scattering across the battlefield.

The dragon roared, a grinding, furious sound as she twisted away.

Ryn was already there.

He pivoted, driving the blade upward into her shoulder joint, frost flaring violently as the strike connected. This time, no wall of sand intercepted it.

The blow landed true.

Stone fractured.

The dragon staggered back a step, claws digging trenches through the sand as she reeled.

Ryn pressed the advantage.

He forced it.

Snow flared again as he twisted into a third strike, frost gathering rapidly along the blade. With a clean strike to the dragon's flank, he tried invoking his technique.

The air dropped sharply in temperature.

Ice crystals began to bloom along the wound.

"Frost Bloom—"

Instead of expanding cleanly, the frost collapsed inward. Essence folded back on itself in a violent feedback loop.

A concussive blast of cold and shattered ice exploded outward, but not toward the dragon—back toward Ryn.

He was thrown clear off his feet.

Ryn slammed into the sand hard, skidding across the battlefield as fractured ice tore through the air around him. Snow ripped free from his grip, tumbling end over end before embedding itself several meters away in a plume of frost.

[HP: 96/150]

He lay sprawled in the crater left behind, breath knocked clean out of him, frost crawling unevenly across his armor before evaporating in the desert heat.

His arm twitched.

Then went still.

Shit…what was that?!

His arm burned. Essence pulsed through it in uneven bursts, refusing to settle.

So that was it.

Ryn's breath hitched as the pieces clicked together.

He'd never consciously shaped Frost Bloom. Never questioned how it worked. It was a sword technique, one where he needed to channel his Essence into the blade.

And this time…

He'd tried to force it the same way as an Essence Burst.

Through himself.

His arm twitched weakly in the sand.

That was the backlash.

Ryn slammed his fist into the ground, grit biting into his knuckles. The frustration burned hotter than the pain—anger not at the dragon, but at himself.

The ground trembled.

Ryn's breath caught as he felt it before he saw it. The sand beneath him tightened, pressure spiraling inward with lethal intent.

His head turned—

Just in time.

A spear of compressed sand erupted from the desert, tearing upward in a violent arc, its tip already aligned with his chest. The air screamed around it, heat and force warping everything in its path.

Too fast.

Snow lay meters away.

His arm still wouldn't respond.

The shadow of the spike swallowed him whole.

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