With that, THE KNIGHT dashed forward.

He held no swords, no chakrams, no… nothing!

He dashed with no weapons at all.

Just his fists and willpower.

He wanted to face this creature with nothing but raw power and tactical precision.

The soldiers watched, their faces a mixture of respect, shock, and something close to awe. They knew the stories. Everyone did by now. The fall. The fight with Commander Cherak high above the city. The brutal landing that should have killed him. And then, impossibly, walking out of the medical room just six hours later fully healed, moving like nothing had happened.

Battle Commander Tatehan!

The man who'd destroyed a sky fortress. The man who'd survived a fall that would have turned anyone else into paste. The man who'd killed an enemy commander in the air with nothing but his fists and a pistol.

A god among men.

And now, seeing him charge headlong at a Boulder-back Behemoth, one of the most dangerous creatures in the wastelands, they didn't feel fear for him.

They felt pity for the monster.

If it had been anyone else shouting "Fear me if you dare!" before sprinting at a creature three times their size, they would have called that person insane. A madman. Someone who belonged in a psychiatric ward.

But this was Battle Commander Tatehan.

And they had every reason to believe he'd win.

Tatehan was unfazed.

His mind was clear, focused and calculating.

He had dashed at this creature with no exact plan in his mind. But now he was slowly coming up with one.

He knew exactly what he was capable of. More importantly, he knew exactly what his armor was capable of.

The Kinetic Absorption Armor had one simple but devastatingly effective function: it absorbed impact force and stored it as energy. The harder he got hit, the more power he accumulated. And when he released that stored energy...

Well. The results spoke for themselves.

But there was a limit. The armor could only store so much before it needed to discharge. And right now, Tatehan's energy reserves were nearly empty. He'd used most of it during the fight with Cherak, and his armor had been on cooldown since the fall.

Which meant he needed to charge it.

Fast.

Tatehan sprinted toward the Behemoth, his boots pounding against the cracked pavement. The creature saw him coming and let out a guttural roar, its massive spiked tail swinging around wildly.

Perfect.

At the last second, Tatehan jumped, not away from the tail, but toward it.

The soldiers watching gasped in shock.

The tail slammed into Tatehan with the force of a freight train.

CRACK!

The impact sent him flying backward, his body spinning through the air like a ragdoll. He crashed into the side of a parked car, the metal crumpling under the force. The vehicle flipped over, skidding several meters before coming to a stop.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then Tatehan stood.

He spat blood onto the ground, rolled his shoulders, and cracked his neck. He didn't feel too much pain due to the armor absorbing most of the impact.

The armor's display flickered inside his helmet:

[70% absorbed]

[30% impacted]

[Kinetic Energy Absorbed: 23%]

Not enough.

Tatehan grinned beneath his helmet and started walking toward the Behemoth again.

The creature roared, confused. Why wasn't this human running? Why wasn't he dead?

It swung its tail again.

Tatehan didn't dodge.

WHAM!

The tail caught him square in the chest, lifting him off his feet and sending him skidding across the ground. He tumbled backward, his armored body grinding against the pavement, sparks flying as metal scraped stone.

He slid to a stop just before hitting a building.

[70% absorbed]

[30% impacted]

[Kinetic Energy Absorbed: 51%]

Better.

The soldiers who had been cheering moments ago now looked genuinely concerned.

"What the hell is he doing?" one of them muttered.

"Is he... letting it hit him?" another asked, disbelief in his voice.

Tatehan stood again, slower this time, as if the impacts were finally taking their toll.

But inside his helmet, his grin widened.

Almost there.

He broke into a run, charging the Behemoth for the third time.

The creature, now confident it could kill this stubborn human, reared back and swung its tail with even more force than before.

Tatehan jumped.

And this time, he activated his Gravitational Shield.

The spherical field of distorted gravity materialized around him just as the tail made contact.

BOOM!

The sound was like a thunderclap.

But Tatehan didn't move. He didn't flinch either.

The tail struck the shield and stopped, the kinetic energy dispersing harmlessly across the gravitational barrier. And then, in a stunning reversal, the force rebounded, slamming back into the Behemoth with equal intensity.

The creature stumbled backward, confusion and pain flashing in its eyes.

[Kinetic Energy Absorbed: 78%]

Tatehan was still airborne, suspended for a moment by the gravitational distortion.

He dismissed the shield.

And then, focusing every ounce of stored kinetic energy into his right fist, he drove it downward into the creature's exposed belly.

THOOM!

The impact was cataclysmic.

The force of the punch didn't just hurt the Behemoth, it…it…it LAUNCHED it! The creature's massive body was lifted off the ground and hurled backward like a missile, crashing through the side of a nearby building. Concrete and steel exploded outward, debris raining down as the structure partially collapsed.

The Behemoth lay in the rubble, dazed, blood dripping from its mouth.

Tatehan landed in a crouch, one knee on the ground, one fist pressed against the pavement, his head bowed.

The classic superhero landing.

He looked up slowly, his helmet's visor glowing faintly.

The Behemoth was still alive. Barely. But it was weak now.

Vulnerable!

Tatehan stood, summoning his dual chakrams into his hands.

The Tri-Edge Shadow Chakram materialized in his left hand: light and balanced.

The Serrated Heavy Chakram appeared in his right: heavier, more aggressive and designed for maximum damage.

He spun them both once, testing the weight.

Then he started walking toward the fallen creature.

Time to finish this.

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