Riley exhaled once—short, sharp, almost resigned.Then he closed his eyes.
The world did not go quiet.The world stuttered.
A faint tremor ran through the air as every muscle in his body tightened, every nerve turned into a rail for raw voltage. His orange lightning deepened—warped—until it blistered into a molten gold that cracked the ground beneath him like sunfire splitting stone.
Nicole raised a hand, forming a crystalline barrier of ice.
She never got to finish it.
Riley vanished.
Not fast.Not quick.He moved with the kind of speed that erased the line between action and aftermath—a golden streak tearing across the battlefield, punching through wind, ice, sound, and sky. Every time his foot touched ground, a shockwave split the earth behind him.
He struck Nicole once—clean in the ribs.
Then twice—jaw.
Then seven times—sternum.
Then a hundred—rapid concussive taps of divine lightning hitting harder than bullets.
Then a thousand—straight through her defenses.
Nicole didn't even fall. She simply reeled, eyes wide, as her body tried to process impacts her nervous system couldn't comprehend fast enough. Even her blooming White Lily flickered under the assault, petals trembling from the pressure waves.
And Riley wasn't stopping.
He kept going—building a circuit around her, around the entire clearing, around the entire valley. He ran so far in a single heartbeat that he blurred through forests, cliffs, rivers—then snapped back into the fray before the light behind him had finished forming a trail.
Several of those laps took him right past a lonely tent.
Rudra, half-asleep, felt the air rupture.
"What the—"
Riley appeared beside him for a tenth of a second—mid-stride, mid-fist, mid-scream—golden lightning coating him like solar skin.
Rudra blinked once and saw the unmistakable silhouette:Riley using his Finisher—the one he'd been bragging he was "almost ready to show."
"Holy shit—THAT'S the Kangaroo Overclock," Rudra muttered, scrambling upright as waves of gold arced through the sky. "so this is what he was talking about—"
Riley was already gone—back into the battlefield—leaving Rudra's hair standing completely straight and his tent half-vaporized.
Back at the fight, Riley skidded into existence again—boots dragging a molten trench across the ice.
Nicole finally snapped into motion, blocking, parrying, reacting a full second behind reality.
"ENOUGH—!" she roared, unleashing a burst of frozen air.
But Riley was already circling her again, eyes still closed, lightning pulsing from his heels.
Serenkhand watched, breathless."He looks like… like a comet chasing itself," she whispered.
Riley clenched his fists, lightning spiraling into his spine.
His voice echoed through the shuddering valley.
He vanished.
The land split.
And Nicole braced for a blow she wasn't sure even Stage Two could endure.
Riley's golden lightning didn't just flare—it evolved.
The arcs sharpened, folded, and then contorted into a silhouette around him. Plates of crackling gold formed along his limbs; arcs curled like tendons; sparks condensed into muscle-lines. The lightning literally took shape.
A kangaroo.
A massive, spectral, roaring kangaroo—built of pure golden electricity—clenched around him like a warrior's armor. Its tail dragged a line of scorched earth, its fists mirroring his, its chest heaving with every breath Riley took.
Serenkhand's voice broke into a whisper."That's not just Stage Two speed…"Her breath hitched."That's Totem Lightning. Riley—Riley actually manifested it—"
Nicole's eyes widened at the sight of a hunter wearing a lightning spirit like a second skin. Even her White Lily shuddered.
Riley skidded to a stop, golden dust curling up from his boots. The ground behind him was a melted canyon from his run-up. The air hummed so violently even the trees leaned away.
He drew back his right fist.
Lightning surged into it—folding, compressing, snarling—forming a colossal kangaroo-shaped gauntlet around his hand. Its outline glowed so bright the valley lit like a second sunrise.
Riley's teeth clenched.His pupils thinned.His breath rose like steam.
All the energy from miles—miles—of run-up funneled into one point.
The kangaroo armor tensed.
Nicole braced her Stage Two dress, frost spiraling, petals of her soul-lily fanning out in defense.
Riley didn't just vanish this time—he detonated into existence.
The golden lightning that had been flickering crazily around him suddenly snapped into shape, folding inward like a living creature taking form. The arcs curved, thickened, sharpened—becoming muscle, bone, and hide made of voltage.
A Kangaroo-shaped armor exploded around his body.
Not symbolic.Not figurative.A massive spectral kangaroo made of blinding gold lightning crouched over him like a war-god's guardian, its outline rippling with heat haze and static. Its head bowed over Riley's, its paws covering his fists like colossal gauntlets, its tail dragging sparks through the ground.
The air smelled of burnt ozone and something like scorched sugar.Serenkhand's jaw dropped.Nicole's White Lily armor trembled.
Riley raised his right arm.
Everything he'd built—the run-up, the velocity, the kinetic overcharge, the god-tier stupidity of sprinting fifty miles in half a blink—condensed into that single limb. His wrist crackled. His elbow hummed. His knuckles shone white-hot beneath the kangaroo's enveloping claws.
The kangaroo armor mimicked him—its own massive right fist rearing back, lightning cascading off it like solar wind.
Nicole tried to form a barrier.It froze halfway through shaping.
Reality didn't give her the time.
Riley spoke through clenched teeth, voice crackling like a power station mid-meltdown.
"ALL—THAT—ENERGY—IN—ONE—PUNCH!"
He thrust forward.
The kangaroo armor punched with him, the force erupting outward like a collapsing star. The ground in front of Riley didn't crack—it peeled back, rolled upward, screamed as layers of earth were blown apart in concentric rings. The shockwave didn't travel across the land—it carved through it, pulling the valley into a new shape.
An entire valley formed in an instant, as if a meteor had kissed the earth.
Nicole's body was launched backward, her Stage Two dress shredding at the edges, her ice mantra collapsing under the pressure. She hit the newly carved rock-wall with a thunderclap so loud it kicked dust into the troposphere.
The punch didn't end with the impact.It echoed.It kept echoing.The kangaroo armor flickered, roared once—then dissolved into drifting golden embers.
Riley staggered forward, panting, steam rising from his skin.
He cracked his neck. "That," he wheezed, "is how a Handpump hunter says hi."
Somewhere miles away, Rudra—still watching through Divya Dhristi—just said one thing. "…that's so fucking fire." he said as he suddenly felt smething
The world didn't fall silent.It collapsed into a pressure so heavy that even breathing became an act of violence.
Riley's knees hit the ground so hard the grass beneath him flattened into a perfect circle. His lungs seized. His spine locked. His heartbeat forgot how to keep rhythm.
Serenkhand managed half a step toward him before her body buckled, her palms hitting the ice-slick earth. She wasn't even screaming—her throat couldn't vibrate under the weight of that presence.
Nicole stood rigid as a statue, pupils blown wide in primal terror, like she had just remembered she was mortal.
The woman drifting from the air wasn't walking, nor floating.She was arriving, the way a storm arrives—inevitable, impersonal, divine.
Her skin was the color of eclipses, pure void-black yet reflecting the world around her like polished obsidian. Her silver hair moved as though underwater; her bright blue eyes glowed with the serene cold of a star that had watched civilizations crumble.
The golden halo above her didn't shine—it hummed with a frequency that made Riley's teeth ache.
Her gown fluttered though no wind existed, and from the waist down—nothing. Only a tapering pillar of blurred white radiance, as if she were sketched into reality by a lazy god.
Riley forced one word out of his throat, each syllable costing him oxygen his lungs couldn't spare.
"Who… the fuck…"
Her gaze lowered to him.Not cruel. Not kind. Simply aware.
"RILEY—!!!" his mental voice boomed, cracking with static."DO NOT FIGHT THAT—THAT'S AN AEON!!!"
Riley screamed back, "WHAT??!!! AN AEON?!"
The battlefield vibrated when she spoke.
"Well, well, well," the Aeon murmured, voice soft, chiming, almost playful—but carrying undertones of collapsing star cores.
Riley couldn't even move his fingers.Nicole's ice magic shattered uselessly around her.Serenkhand crawled one inch before collapsing completely.
A shadow fell over Riley's face.
Her hand—black, luminous at the fingertips—touched his chin, lifting his gaze with impossible gentleness. She leaned closer, studying his eyes like a teacher examining a child's handwriting.
"I know you are watching."
Riley's pupils constricted.He didn't need to look anywhere.He knew—she meant Rudra.
"Peeking tom," she whispered, sweetness dipped in annihilation.
Rudra didn't even have time to swear.
His right eye burst.
A wet pop, like a grape crushed between fingers.Blood streamed instantly down his cheek.Then more liquid followed—warm, thick, terrifyingly pale-red.
Not just blood.
Brain.
Rudra choked on nothing, collapsing to his knees inside his tent, hands flying to his face as the world spun in a screaming spiral of pain.
On the battlefield, Riley saw it through the psychic link's last flicker.
"RUDRA!!!" he screamed, voice cracking.
The Aeon tilted her head, halo brightening as if his panic entertained her.
"Don't worry," she murmured, brushing a finger along Riley's cheek. "He will live"
Her glowing eyes narrowed with the faintest smile—one that promised both mercy and doom.
"after all he have a huge mess to deal with."