The moment Altopereh plunged into the battlefield, everything erupted. There was no hesitation and no build-up, only impact.
Altopereh hit the ground like a falling star, and the force of its landing alone shattered the already fractured terrain and sent shockwaves tearing across both domains. Spires of ice collapsed instantly, and rivers of magma burst outward and crashed into the frozen plains, hissing into clouds of steam that blanketed the battlefield. Before the dust could even settle, it moved — a blur, a streak of dark motion — and the plasma blade on its right arm ignited fully, a jagged arc of unstable energy roaring to life as it cut straight toward Tikadello.
Tikadello reacted instantly, raising a wall of absolute ice — too slow. Altopereh cleaved through it in one motion. The blade didn't merely cut the ice, it erased it, slicing clean through the barrier and carrying on without losing momentum, until it carved across Tikadello's chest and blew shards of frozen armor outward in every direction. The impact drove the massive creature backward, its enormous frame crashing through layer after layer of its own domain, and before Tikadello could even steady itself, Altopereh was already gone.
Albatros came in from the side like a comet, and a torrent of fire — dense, concentrated and blinding — burst from its body and swallowed the space where Altopereh had been. For a split second it looked like a direct hit. Then a beam of crimson light tore through the flames, and Altopereh came out of the inferno with its frame glowing faintly but unharmed. Its shoulder cannons flared to life and unleashed a barrage of focused laser fire straight into Albatros's core. Every beam struck with surgical precision — one, two, five, ten. The impacts staggered Albatros in midflight and broke the flow of its attack as chunks of burning armor were blasted away. It roared and threw out a counterwave of heat, but Altopereh was already above it.
The Orbiton twisted in the air, and both its arms shifted from blades to cannons. A low hum filled the battlefield, and then it fired micro-singularity rounds — tiny spheres of compressed energy, barely visible for a fraction of a second before they detonated. The explosions weren't loud. They were violent. Each impact crushed space inward, imploding everything inside its radius before releasing it again in a savage outward burst. Albatros took two direct hits. The first ripped into its shoulder, collapsing part of its upper frame inward before tearing it violently back out; the second struck near its spine and drove it downward with overwhelming force. It crashed hard into the ground as the earth caved in beneath it.
A roar echoed across the battlefield as Tikadello returned — faster now, and sharper, because the damage from the first strike hadn't slowed it; it had enraged it. Massive pillars of ice burst upward in rapid succession and formed a jagged forest of frozen spikes aimed straight at Altopereh. This time they came from every direction. Altopereh didn't retreat. It advanced. Its plasma blade extended and split into twin edges as it moved. Every swing was precise and efficient — left, right, an upward slash, a downward carve — cutting the incoming spikes apart without ever slowing its advance. The ice never reached it. It was dismantled in the middle of its own attack.
Then Tikadello itself came out of the storm, a massive arm swinging down with enough force to crush mountains. Altopereh raised its blade and met it head-on. The collision shook everything. Ice fractured, energy flared. For a moment the two forces held against each other. Then Tikadello's arm split open. The plasma blade carved straight through it, cleanly from wrist to elbow, and frozen fragments scattered as the limb was severed in mid-swing. Tikadello staggered. For the first time, it was losing ground.
A surge of heat exploded from behind. Albatros had recovered — faster than expected. Its whole body ignited as its flames condensed into a single spear of fire, and it launched itself straight at Altopereh. This time it didn't miss. The blow struck Altopereh full in the side and sent the Orbiton skidding across the battlefield, carving a deep trench through ice and stone alike. For a moment there was stillness. Smoke rose from Altopereh's frame, and its glow dimmed. Then it stood up — slowly, and unshaken.
Inside the cockpit Youri's eyes didn't move. He didn't blink and didn't react. Everything around him was silent except for the steady hum of the machine. "Too slow," he muttered.
Altopereh moved again — faster this time. It vanished from sight and reappeared behind Albatros. Its blade came down in a clean, brutal arc that tore across Albatros's back, splitting layer after layer of burning armor and scattering a wave of fire outward. Before Albatros could turn, a laser burst hit it point-blank in the chest, then another, and another, each one driving it backward until its stance broke completely.
Tikadello charged in again — desperate now — in a full-body attack, ice gathering around it into a massive, crushing wave aimed straight at Altopereh. Altopereh didn't dodge. It fired three micro-singularity rounds. The wave collapsed before it ever arrived, and Tikadello was caught in the blast and slammed into the ground by its implosive force.
The fight had shifted completely. It was no longer an even clash. Altopereh stood at the center of the battlefield, unchallenged, and every movement it made was faster, sharper, more decisive than the last. Tikadello struggled to rise and Albatros staggered with its flames flickering unevenly across its body. And in the middle of it all, Altopereh advanced — step by step, blade in hand, weapons ready, unstoppable. It gave them no time to recover. It never did. A barrage of lasers rained down on both of them and drove them apart, denying them any chance to fight together. Then it closed the distance — first on Tikadello, in a rapid series of strikes, one, two, five, ten, each slash carving deeper than the last until it broke through the frozen armor and laid bare the core beneath. Tikadello roared, but it was already too late.
Then Altopereh turned toward Albatros. Albatros gathered everything it had left, its flames surging violently into a massive eruption that engulfed the whole battlefield in one last attempt to overwhelm the Orbiton, and for a moment everything burned. Then a single beam cut through the inferno — straight and unbroken. Altopereh emerged from the flames untouched. It raised its arm one final time. Energy gathered, condensed, focused. It fired, and the battlefield shook as the blast struck home and swallowed Albatros in a wave of overwhelming force.
When the light faded, everything was still. Tikadello was down. Albatros was barely standing. And Altopereh still stood tall — unmatched, and unchallenged.