On the far side of the beach, Kevin moved with a cold, practiced patience. He held his ground, his golden-hued palms absorbing the impact of Ben's heavy strikes with a metallic thud.
A jagged sneer played on his lips as he watched the green glow of the watch flicker. "The second that timer hits zero, Tennyson, you're just a kid in a t-shirt. And that's when I take what's mine."
He was playing the long game. This was the strategy Vilgax and Kevin had forged in the cold vacuum of space: a war of attrition. By leveraging their superior physical durability, they would simply outlast the transformations of the two cousins, ending the conflict without risking a decisive blow.
Minutes bled into a tense stalemate. Ten minutes passed in a blur of motion.
WHOOSH!
A brilliant green flash enveloped Ben. He let out a sharp cry of panic. "No! Not now!!"
"Finally! You're done!" Kevin roared, his eyes wide with triumphant greed. He lunged forward, his fingers clawing for Ben's throat through the fading light.
CRACK!!
A forest of jagged crystalline spikes erupted from the sand, lancing upward and piercing Kevin's palms. The boy recoiled with a howl of agony, stumbling back as hot blood dripped into the sand.
"Looks like the timer didn't run out," Ben's voice emerged, echoing with a resonant, stony timbre. "The glitch just gave me a fresh start. And I'm feeling a bit... sharp."
From the light stepped Diamondhead. His crystalline form caught the sun, casting long, sharp shadows across the shore. He didn't wait for Kevin to recover. He slammed both palms into the ground.
BOOM!!
The earth rippled like water. Two massive pillars of organic diamond burst from the sand beneath Kevin's feet, launching him into the air like a ragdoll.
"Fine. If that's how it is..." Kevin hissed, wiping the blood from his hands. He slowly raised his left arm, his muscles bulging with unnatural effort.
CLANG!!
A layer of dense, jagged crystal coated his entire left arm, forming a reinforced gauntlet. He used the improvised shield to deflect Ben's follow-up barrage of diamond shards.
"How is that possible?" Ben's eyes widened behind his crystalline mask. "You still have my DNA? From that long ago?"
Kevin's smile was a jagged ruin. "I have everything, Tennyson. Every form you've ever touched is etched into my blood. You're fighting a better version of yourself!"
"Don't let him get in your head, Ben!"
A sharp voice cut through the air. Gwen descended from the dunes, her staves humming with violet energy, her mana-soaked robes billowing in the wind. "He's paying a price for every trick he pulls! If he could use those powers freely, he wouldn't have waited ten minutes to start. He's burning himself out!"
Kevin's face darkened, his crystalline gauntlet shifting into a set of brass knuckles. "Even if I have to go through a girl, I'm getting that watch!"
The three figures blurred together, a chaotic symphony of magic, crystal, and raw power.
At the center of the battlefield, Tyler maintained a relentless offensive rhythm. Vilgax, shimmering in his golden armor, continued to maneuver with the grace of a veteran fencer. They were two masters of combat, each waiting for the other to blink, for a single heartbeat of hesitation.
Tyler's mind, tempered by his transmigration and the cold logic of the watch, remained perfectly taut. His hardware was superior, and his margin for error was massive. He had nothing to fear from a long fight.
Max stood at the edge of the dunes, his eyes tracking the two primary battles. He clenched a fist, his knuckles white. He knew his limits. Intervening in Tyler's duel with Vilgax would only give the Warlord a hostage to exploit.
WHOOSH.
A small, spherical combat drone drifted over the dunes, its laser cannon tracking the heat signature of Max's head.
PFFT.
A beam of concentrated red light sliced through the air. Max moved before the beam even touched the sand, rolling with a speed that belied his age. In one fluid motion, he drew his Plumber-issue laser pistol and fired.
The shot was perfect. The drone's primary sensor shattered into a thousand pieces, the machine spiraling into the surf.
"I might not be a match for Vilgax," Max muttered, his eyes cold as he tracked a dozen more drones descending from the clouds. "But I can take out the trash all day long!"
The battle had become a total war.
High above the clouds, a massive dreadnought—Vilgax's command ship—began its descent. It loomed like a colossal, iron beast, its shadow swallowing the sun. Inside the bridge, the Mechanical Freaks worked with feverish intensity.
"Target the Tennyson bloodline! Charge the orbital cannons!" the lead Freak commanded. "Vilgax has them pinned. Kevin has the brat. Now we erase the city!"
"This is the moment!" another shrieked. "Victory is within our grasp!"
BOOM!!
The bridge's reinforced viewport shattered inward as a figure lanced through the glass. The Freaks scrambled in a panic.
"The watch was screaming for a reason," Tetrax Shard said, stepping off his hoverboard as shards of glass crunched under his crystalline boots. "I didn't expect to find the entire fleet in a low-orbit ambush. It's a rare sight to see Vilgax commit this much to a single planet."
"You dare interfere?!" a Freak roared, reaching for the emergency protocols.
SHINK.
A crystalline blade whistled through the air, severing the machine's arm before it could touch the console. Tetrax's voice remained calm, lethal, and absolute.
"Vilgax went all in," Tetrax said, his eyes glowing with a cold resolve. "So did I. If I take this ship, I end his empire today."
Back on the beach, the intensity of the fight reached its boiling point.
WHAM!!
Tyler seized a split-second opening, his palm connecting with Vilgax's chest in a thunderous slap. The Warlord was sent skipped across the surface of the ocean like a stone before crashing into the distant rocks.
"Distracted by your own ship? You're getting sloppy!" Tyler roared, taking to the sky to finish the hunt.
Vilgax clawed his way out of the rubble, his golden armor scarred but intact. He looked up at the shadow of his dreadnought, his eyes burning with fury. There was no orbital fire. No support.
The plan had changed. Tyler was closing in, and for the first time in his long life, Vilgax felt the cold touch of true vulnerability.
30+ chapters are available now and daily updates! @patreon.com/Authorzero