"Did someone actually dare to raid my dreadnought?" Vilgax roared, lunging out of the crater with a burst of golden speed that narrowly avoided Tyler's crushing descent.
Subordinates were mere ornaments to a conqueror like him. He had initiated this war because he was certain his newly forged power could eclipse Tyler's "Error" without assistance.
Vilgax turned and sprinted toward the shoreline, his movements blurring into a singular streak of metallic lightning.
"Running? After all that talk?" Tyler stared at the retreating golden light for a heartbeat before scrambling to his feet.
Was it a genuine retreat, or a lure? Tyler didn't have the luxury of overthinking. He threw himself into the chase, his massive form tearing through the dunes as he pursued the Warlord.
On the other side of the beach, Kevin Levin watched the pursuit with a jagged, knowing smile. "The real show is starting. Finally."
BANG!
Ben's fist collided with the left side of Kevin's jaw, while a mana-infused whip from Gwen's sleeve lashed across his right. Kevin shook off the double impact, his golden-infused muscles rippling as he focused his full attention on the cousins. The stalling game was over; it was time for blood.
Tyler and Vilgax tore across the coast, one a shadow of crimson, the other a spark of gold. Tyler banked low, skimming the ground to keep pace with the flash. Suddenly, the golden light leaped.
Vilgax launched himself into the air, a massive arc that carried him over the surf and into the depths of the churning sea. The azure water swallowed him instantly, leaving only a wake of violent, rolling waves.
Tyler skidded to a halt on the surface of the water, his eyes scanning the depths. "The ocean... what are you planning, Vilgax?"
BOOM.
The seabed groaned. Beneath the surface, a majestic, terrifying silhouette began to expand. Tyler's skin crawled, a primal alarm bells ringing in his mind. An unprecedented weight of oppression crushed the air from his lungs.
CRACK-CRACK!
The Carnitrix dial on Tyler's chest began to spin with a frantic, rhythmic ticking—a warning of a Tier-0 threat.
The sea erupted. A gargantuan, deep-golden cephalopod head breached the surface, its eyes two burning pits of crimson malice fixed on Tyler.
BANG! BANG!
Massive tentacles, each shimmering with a polished golden luster and thick enough to crush a battleship, lashed out from the depths.
"Vilgax went home to the water," Tyler whispered, staring at the colossal Gilded Kraken. "He unlocked his true form."
"You are no longer the apex, Levison," Vilgax's voice emerged from the depths, a resonant, booming harmony that vibrated through Tyler's bones. "I am the ocean's wrath!"
A golden tentacle whipped through the air, striking with the force of a falling skyscraper. Tyler braced his arms, meeting the impact head-on.
WHAM!
The collision sent a shockwave through the water. Both titans swayed, their raw strength perfectly matched. But as the spray settled, Tyler felt a sharp, metallic sting in his elbows. Vilgax's golden hide was so dense, so perfectly reinforced, that Tyler was the one suffering from the recoil.
"KILL!!"
Vilgax roared, a dozen tentacles rising from the surf to entangle Tyler's massive frame from every angle.
"Fine. Let's see how you handle a meltdown!" Tyler had no room to dodge. He steeled his heart and slammed the dial.
WHOOSH!
A blinding red flash filled the bay. The heavy, lead-lined containment suit of The Nuclear-Demon (NRG) plummeted from the sky like a meteor, slamming directly into Vilgax's forehead.
Tyler didn't wait. He vented his glowing, unshielded form from the suit's furnace, sprawling across Vilgax's golden skull. His core temperature skyrocketed, the sea around them beginning to boil and hiss.
RUMBLE!
A deep red mushroom cloud erupted from the center of the bay, the nuclear detonation shattering the surface of the water and incinerating the clouds above. It was a localized apocalypse.
As the smoke and radioactive steam slowly cleared, the silence was deafening.
Vilgax's head emerged from the vapor, completely pristine. He opened his maw, exhaling a thick cloud of spent nuclear exhaust. "Is that all, boy? The smoke is actually quite pleasant. It has a robust, metallic finish. I think I like it."
He was inhaling the fallout as if it were a luxury cigar. It was a display of biological dominance that left Tyler stunned.
"His defense is absolute," Tyler thought, taking to the sky to put distance between them. "I can't break through that gold plating with heat alone."
Fortunately, the Kraken was bound to the sea. He couldn't fly.
WHOOSH!
Vilgax took a colossal breath, vacuuming in tons of seawater. He tilted his massive head back and spat. A pressurized water cannon, thick as a Redwood tree, lanced toward Tyler.
Tyler swung his hand, unleashing a concentrated beam of nuclear energy that dispersed the torrent, but the effort left him drained. He began a frantic aerial dance, dodging and parrying the constant barrage of water cannons.
ROAR!
Vilgax slammed his tentacles into the sea, creating a rhythmic seismic wave. The water rose in a hundred-foot wall, crashing down on Tyler and dragging his flight-capable form into the churning surf.
"DIE!"
Vilgax's jaws opened wide, his golden teeth glistening as he snapped at the falling Tyler.
CRACK!
The golden teeth closed around Tyler's torso, but several of the Warlord's fangs instantly shattered and chipped away.
"You want to bite me? Try biting through a world of diamond!"
The cold, crystalline voice of The Crystal-Executioner (Diamondhead) rang out. Tyler's body exploded into a forest of jagged, reinforced spikes that pierced the roof of Vilgax's mouth.
"Ugh!! AGH!!"
Vilgax, his mouth leaking dark ichor, spat Tyler out in a fit of agony. Tyler twisted in the air, his hands shifting into elongated diamond harpoons that buried themselves in the shoreline a hundred yards away. The tethers tightened, suspending him in mid-air above the reaching tentacles of the Kraken.
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