Under the choking atmosphere within the fractured heart of the forest, both the lead Rhinoceros and Vacuros stared each other down, their blood boiling with untamed fury. The air itself seemed to ripple under the weight of their tension, energy bursting in waves from their bodies like invisible flames. "Mooorrrrrr," the lead Rhinoceros bellowed-a war cry that echoed like thunder through the forest, signaling its nineteen remaining kin to attack.
They charged without a second thought, the hooves pounding the ground like an oncoming tempest. Vacuros still planted on his left foot and right knee, immediately scanned his surroundings. His bright gaze locked onto a gigantic, jagged stump of a fallen tree-its sheer size a monument to nature's wrath. "Hum," he exhaled under his breath, determination bright in his eyes. With a sudden, raw rush of power, he embraced the tree's trunk, his arms coiling in tight, iron bands around its girth.
Five Rhinoceroses charged forward, their enormous bodies arcing through the air with the impossible flight of monsters, their horns shining grimly as they plunged towards him. As they descended, Vacuros rose with bulging veins, wild energy crackling across his bursting body. He grunted loudly, the sound tearing through the clearing as he swung the colossal stump with the ferocity of some unyielding titan wielding a god's weapon.
The massive trunk cut through the air with a deafening howl, sweeping the charging beasts mid-flight like insects caught in the path of a hurricane. Their bodies flailed helplessly, smashing into trees and crashing into the ground with sickening force, leaving splintered wood and dust clouds in their wake.
The other Rhinoceroses did not waiver, jumping once more at their unfazed opponent. "Titanic Void Fist: Triple Impact!" Vacuros screamed, slamming his fist into the ground with earthquake force. A massive shockwave erupted outward, arcing like a tsunami-tossed the beasts into the air as if they were weightless leaves caught in a storm.
The lead Rhinoceros, unflinching from the carnage, screeched its hooves against the soil with an ear-piercing grind, its rage crystallizing into deadly intent. Its horn began to glow, turning into a translucent crystal pulsating with a sharp, shimmering light. The crystal grew into a solid, see-through barrier, wedge-like at the front, resembling the razor edge of an arrowhead.
Seeing this, Vacuros steadied himself. He planted his feet, gripping the tree stump like a titan wielding a weapon of the earth. He pointed it toward the charging beast, his left hand bracing the underside while his right steadied the rear. The stump groaned in protest against his strength as he roared and hurled it forward like a cannonball shot from the mouth of a warship.
The projectile met the Rhinoceros's barrier with explosive force, splintering instantly into a rain of shattered wood. Fragments of bark and dust filled the air like a smokescreen, but the Rhinoceros remained unstoppable, its charge unbroken. The earth trembled beneath its furious pace.
Vacuros narrowed his eyes to realize this. There was no time for hesitation, so he plunged forward-clearly in a blur of motions as spiraling energy coiled around his clenched right fist in stormy torments around its epicentre. While closing the inch that lay between them, his voice boomed: "Titanic Void Fist: Triple Impact!" with the power to crack even through the deafening roar from their collision.
His fist connected with the solid barrier of void, a titanic collision that shook shockwaves through the forest and beyond. The force of it rippled outwards, almost like a tidal wave of air and energy, sending both dead and living Rhinoceroses tumbling around it, flung like ragdolls in all directions. "Mooorrrrrr!" The lead Rhinoceros bellowed loudly, its cry merging with the thunderous explosion of energy.
Neither fighter gave up. Vacuros pressed his fist deeper, veins bursting as flows of energy exploded from his body, each beat of the pulse cracking the air like thunder. The lead Rhinoceros leaned forward as the crystal-void barrier shattered with each passing second, spiderweb-like fissures spreading across its surface.
Finally, with a deafening crack, the barrier shattered. The explosive release sent both Vacuros and the lead Rhinoceros hurtling backward like fallen stars, spinning and twisting uncontrollably through the air. Trees splintered and shattered beneath their weight, trunks reduced to splinters in their wake.
The lead Rhinoceros crashed to the earth with the force of a comet, its massive body carving a trench through the forest floor. It landed hard on its neck, the weight of its own momentum snapping it with a sickening crunch. Silence followed, the beast's life extinguished before it could even cry out.
Meanwhile, Vacuros was spun around wildly, his body careening off trees with his hands grasping desperately to grab onto anything that could help steady him. The branches and trunks that eventually met his hands broke and slipped from his grasp and he was at the whim of his momentum. Just about to crash into the oblivion, a living, purple liquid substance stretched out of the depth of a fen nearby, moving with some uncanny intelligence, elastic-like as a shield in an interception of Vacuros mid-air.
The liquid wrapped itself around him, like a cocoon, pulling him from his chaotic tumble and landing with a dull thud, bouncing him off the thick soil as the liquid pulsed and began to flow across his form. Slowly, it encased him-a living armor molding itself into a seamless, shimmering purple battlesuit. Only his head and massive hands were left exposed; the suit radiated an aura of primal power.
Inside of him, the purple matter invaded his veins, coating them like molten metal flowing through channels of copper alloy. It absorbed the surging energy of Essentia inside him and amplified its intensity until Vacuros's body shook. The overwhelming force pushed him over the threshold, breaking through the limits of his power.
Reaching the Ascendant realm.
The unconscious warrior lay there on the broken earth, his once-exposed body now a vessel clad in brilliant, living armor. The purple suit gleamed with warrior energy, pulsing faintly like the rhythm of a sleeping giant. The forest stood still, witness to a transformation that would leave echoes across time itself.