??? ??? ??? [Perspective Switch: Zest]

  "[Dizast Bolt]."

  A disastrous chain of crimson lightning struck Maelvo. Zest eyes lidded with a glare as he noticed the Warlord remained unscathed from the high powered artillery.

  "Boy. The old root bears resilience to the green ire of your lightning. Useless."

  Zest stamped a hoove, lowering his antlers. "Challenge accepted. We beasts of [Grim] do not falter in the face of despair."

  In response, Maelvo growled his harrumph. "[Grim] we are. But you are no ally to we." The Treant Lord slammed his arm down. Zest dashed to the side, lightning acceralerating his steps as he made multiple sharps turn, preventing himself from behind flattened by the beast's blunt arms. But Maelvo didn't have just a pair of arms, but dozens, crashing down with the strength to annihilate the whole forest each if he'd sought. This overwhelming physical strength bristled Zest.

  He maneuvered under the heavy blows, non-stopping and blasting his path through the weight of living, falling wood that never ceased. Splinters fragmenting all around. Not of wood. More than the growth. The jungle-forest itself. A controlled attack. All of it under the submission of Maelvo's will.

  It all rained like hailstones. Zest anticipated the fall. He counteracted with thunderbolt, then met more with a thunderstorm that swept through the forest against the debris meant to impale him.

  Impale… Maelvo's intentions were clear. He was here for the kill. Against the rules.

  "[Doom Zap]!"

  A crimson bolt of lightning struck the earth from the darkened clouds that formed above the canopy. The bolt powered to an immense magnitude that it obliterated everything in its radius. Zest had one objective: Clear the forest.

  Maelvo remained among the two trees looming in the field. Still undamaged. But his comrade Eerie Root had been left a writhing mass. Charged with arcs of electricity, leaving the creature [Paralyzed]. Zest could acknowledged he could obliterate that one. Fortunately, Kyrawl had been untouched.

  He purposefully left his comrade unharmed.

  Zest's daring maneuvers had temporarily segregated the combatants, sending Eerie Root into a stiff-frenzy as arcs of electricity continued to sizzle around it. The lesser Maelvotruth was struggling to regain composure after Kyrawl's last brutal assault.

  "Aim for the weak points." Zest said. He held his gaze on Maelvo, unleashing another bolt of crimson lightning that struck the ground near Eerie Root, creating a divining line of destruction. "We can't let either of them recover!"

  Kyrawl nodded as he eyed the disturbed ground where Eerie Root writhed. He swooped low to the earth, avoiding a flailing root that emerged from the ground, and then, using his claws, he cut through the tangling vines that sought to ensnare him.

  Maelvo walked with the charred earth then. The landslide that followed ultimately tremendous. It was a tidal wave of tendrils of quaking earth. But Zest braced himself for the seismic smash.

  "Now is our chance, Kyrawl!" Zest called out. He had positioned himself strategically, deflecting the ground-shaking blows from Maelvo while simultaneously launching strikes of his own. The old fool failed to see what would come next.

  The Maelvotruth emitted a low, keening groan as the bolts washed over him. Splinters exploded from the impact, showering the arena as the root beast relentlessly obliterated the field.

  Part one.

  A thundercloud emerged from above after Zest shot several bolts into the sky. Crimson sparks began to rain from the sky. Maelvo continued to swing as he wreaked havoc, forcing Zest and Kyrawl to fallback from the destructive assault. Darn mindless beast. He saw nothing amiss with the charge that crackled in the air and earth..

  Dangerous mistake.

  Part two.

  Kyrawl swooped down to grasp Zest with his talons. Easy now Kyrawl. The claws were hooked into the hide but didn't bite into the flesh. Needed the altitude. The higher ground had purpos.

  Kyrawl accelerated into the sky with Zest as his passenger.

  Maelvo roared from below, raising his fists.

  "To flee is impossible. Death comes inevitable!"

  Unexpected. Zest could not have predicted the convulsing mass that followed their ascent. Maelvo's roots were the fastest of his arsenal, pursuing and catching. Oh, how that brought back the memories of the battle against the Slithers at the pale creak. Slithers were always vine-like in their own devious ways to ensnare their prey. The Doom Deer were not easy to catch.

  Zest and Kyrawl were swallowed. The storm clouds soon became the ultimate darkness that concealed them. But darkness did not prevent Zest's vision. He saw through the mass and barked his commands to Kyrawl to evade being zapped by the chain of Zest's own current. The roots of Maelvo never faltered in its chase as it was the towering veins that coalesced into a pillar that choose to choke and become ever growing.

  Plan three… has been reached once he and Kyrawl broke through the ceiling of the dark.

  "Drop me."

  That was the final part of Zest's plan as his coat and antlers became the conductor to all his lightining. He had one target in mind as he absorbed the entirety of the [Storm Cloud]. An ancient ritual technique of the Volt Doom Deer clan. His power must've been amplified fivefold as he pierced headfirst through the root that wanted to kill him.

  But it shattered and collapsed as he continued his descent. His sight filled with the hateful defiance to erase the cruelty that was Maelvotruth from the world.

  Maelvotruth roared, a dark-orange shroud of aura, basking before Zest as he clashed with the titan of accursed bark. Their energies were near equal as the crimson pushed against the twisted tendrils of Maelvo. The impact sent shockwaves through the ground, reverberating against the very roots that held the beast to the earth. The arena trembled with the force of their dreaded collision, crackling with the raw energy unleashed from their combined might.

  Zest could sense the sheer weight of the creature's malevolent energy, but beneath it, he also detected a flicker of weakness: an unyielding will that could be shattered with the right strike.

  "Kyrawl!" Zest yelled as he locked eyes with his partner, who was circling back above. "Now! Unleash your might!"

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  As Kyrawl dove toward the ground, his wings flared out, creating an unstoppable gale that swept across the battlefield, battering the Maelvotruth with a deafening roar. The beast staggered under the relentless onslaught, and Zest felt the moment crystallize—this was their chance.

  "[Volt Torrent]!" He concentrated every ounce of his energy into a final strike, shouting. Columns of searing lightning erupted from him, aimed directly at the heart of Maelvo. The power a merciless wave of destruction that would not be denied.

  Kyrawl, sensing the culmination of their plan, angled his body into a spiraling dive, joining his fury with Zest's attack. "[Draconic Fury]!" he roared, unleashing a torrent of fire and wind that merged with the electric storm, creating a cataclysmic force of nature. The combined assaults struck Maelvo with an intensity that could shatter mountains.

  For a heartbeat, time seemed to slow. Zest watched as the beams of energy collided with Maelvo, lighting up the colosseum in a dazzling display of crimson and gold. The ground cracked and splintered, and the roar of the crowd turned into a collective gasp as they witnessed the chaos of elemental power.

  Zest saw Maelvo's single eye widened in shock. The Treant grinned as both he and Kyrawl were skewered by Maelvo's [Arm of Death]. Their end… not now. But Maelvo's sudden change in demeanor and dark aura that burst in a flaming black meant nothing less than corruption. Damn the old roots. He devoured a dark crystal, meaning he'd stoop to anything to win at all costs.

  Zest shot one glance at Kyrawl who bleed heavily with particles. His comrade didn't look like he'd survive the next seconds to come. Zest scorned the thought of using their trump card now. But if Maelvo would fight less than a monster of honor. It meant some pathways for survival were a means to an end.

  Fusion. Zest thoughts prodded the core deep in his chest.

  "We must merge, Kyrawl!"

  "Tsk. You ask for my power? Fine. Dying anyways! Let's shred this punk apart!"

  KiAera's mark that she had left on their essence was precisely this emergency. Again. Zest hated it. But it was now or never…!

  The fusion commenced. Maelvo's impaling bark shattered, and the beast that remained before him was now a winged, draconic deer.

  Zyrawl was their rebirth, and their combined might would consume the foul, wretched bastard who cheated them of a fair fight. His thoughts were filled with rage—ragged and rough. But everything led to the joy of battle. The [Omen Roar] that erupted from Zyrawl's throat sent Maelvo's corrupted aura spiraling backward.

  [Omen Roar] was a countdown that marked the foe for elimination. Zyrawl visualized the death match that would take place between them in an instant.

  This brought forth many perceptions in his vision. Not only that, he sensed the impending danger of the thousands of roots breaking through the earth long before it happened. Only made possible from the heightened instincts of two predators.

  His wings caught the [Grim Wind] he summoned, slicing through those same roots like fangs snapping bone. The fused body then seethed with crimson lightning and draconic breath.

  Horns crowned with firelight and lightning, wings stretched like banners of doom.

  Zyrawl maneuvered, half-wrath and half-command, yet one will. Zest's measured cunning bound the frenzy of Kyrawl's beast soul. Still, the wyvern's voice thundered inside, always urging: Rip. Rend. Crush until bark splinters like bone.

  From beneath the mountain of wreckage, the Treant Warlord heaved himself upright. His bark was charred and broken, sap like tar spilling down his frame. Yet the corrupted crystal's corruption still clung to his carapace. He roared not with breath but with the quake of roots tearing through the earth.

  The forest floor rose once again, an ocean of tendrils lashing toward Zyrawl.

  The [Omen Roar] continued to ring in the ruin of the battlefield. Roots that lunged from the earth met feathers sharpened into blades and antlers blazing with volts. The fusion carved through them as if fangs through flesh. Maelvotruth howled, derelict bark splitting under the combined storm. His corrupted aura sputtered. His body shook like a dying mountain, but he would not yet fall.

  Foul root. Old sap. Pretender lord. He still breathes, Kyrawl's thoughts growled.

  Then we strip the last of his breath, Zest answered within, guiding the storm into another torrent.

  They drove forward. Zyrawl's claws tore the ground, launching them skyward as lightning speared down from the heavens. Their descent cracked the canopy of storm and struck directly upon Maelvo's core, that glaring single eye.

  For an ominous moment the Treant's chest ignited, the dark crystal within fracturing with a groan of splitting stone.

  The blast left silence. Silence filled with ash, crackling arcs, and the smell of burnt sap. The crowd roared. The colosseum shook. Zyrawl's wings sagged. The fusion was tearing at its own seams, two souls refusing to let go but knowing they must. They landed heavily amid the wreckage. Bark fragments fell like rain.

  Then movement sensed beneath the wasteland.

  The rubble quivered. Maelvotruth's husk clawed free, his frame shattered yet not erased. The corrupted glow still burned like a furnace in the hollow of his chest. His single eye seared with hatred, and his broken arms lifted, massive as ever, to crush all before him.

  Zyrawl staggered, pain flooding from Kyrawl's body. The wyvern half had bled too much. Inside the fusion, Kyrawl's will shook raggedly. Body… breaks. Bones cry. Yet still we bite. Soldier does not yield.

  Zest anchored their stance. He placed their body between the treant's final swing and the failing consciousness of his comrade. Already the fusion was unraveling, scales flaking to hide, lightning crackling into sparks that could no longer bind. Zest's own thought was clear: If one must fall, let it be me.

  Maelvotruth roared, his arm crashing downward with all the weight of a collapsing world.

  Then the sky ruptured.

  A beam descended, brighter than lightning, sharper than judgment. The strike was neither plant nor beast, neither treant nor chimera.

  It was Sovereign's wrath.

  The lord of the colosseum had moved, and her power was beyond comparison. The blast erased Maelvotruth mid-swing, reducing the corrupted titan into cinders and drifting ash. His roar ended in silence, his arm never finding its target.

  Zyrawl's eyes lifted to the source. The Sovereign's silhouette loomed high above the colosseum walls, cloaked in flame and grandeur.

  The arena shook not with battle now but with the weight of dominion. The message was clear: the contest was theirs, but it was the Sovereign's will that set the end.

  The fusion unraveled.

  Zest fell to his knees, breathing in storm-ridden gasps. Kyrawl crumpled beside him, blood particles seeping from his scales, wings bent and feathers torn. The wyvern's eyes still burned with soldier's pride. He hissed faintly, voice a rasp.

  "Did we… shred him enough?"

  Zest laid a hoof upon his comrade's snout. His voice, solemn and raw, whispered, "We fought as one. We shattered the blight. That is enough."

  The crowd's roar washed over them, deafening, praising, condemning. But within Zest and Kyrawl's bond, only one truth remained: the Chimera Crew endured. Even battered, even broken, their will did not bow.

  Above, the Sovereign's presence lingered, silent but absolute. A reminder. Victory was theirs, but their lives remained at her mercy.