The night air tasted like salt and metal. Waves kept rolling in, slow and heavy, each one hissing as it slid back over the sand like it was scared to get too close. The moon hung low and fat, so bright it turned the wet beach into a mirror, every footprint and sword scar glowing silver.

My black coat caught the wind and snapped like a flag. Alaric's red aura licked around his shoulders, throwing off heat you could feel even from fifty yards away.

Behind us, the crowd had turned into statues.

The phones glowed pale blue in the dark, shaking in nervous hands. A girl in a pink swimsuit stood with her boyfriend, mouth open, eyes huge. An old fisherman had his cap pulled low, knuckles white on his walking stick. A couple of drunk college guys who'd been laughing an hour ago now stood dead sober, beers forgotten in the sand.

Nobody dared speak above a whisper.

"Come on, Zero… don't you dare lose," a woman breathed, clutching her boyfriend's arm so hard her nails dug through his shirt.

Her boyfriend swallowed, voice rough. "He won't. He can't."

Near the front, a teenage boy kept repeating under his breath, "This is real… this is actually real…"

Even the music from the far villas had died. The only sounds were the wind, the waves, and two swords waiting to sing.

I rolled my neck once, slow, feeling every muscle wake up. My black sword rested easy against my shoulder, the edge drinking moonlight like it was thirsty. I looked across the sand at Alaric: green-black skin, blood still dripping from the corner of his mouth, red eyes burning like twin furnaces. His jagged sword looked heavy enough to cut the moon in half.

I tilted my head, flashed him a lazy grin. "Ready when you are, big guy."

Alaric's answer was a low growl that made the sand under his boots tremble. "I'm done playing."

Five full seconds of perfect silence. You could hear hearts hammering. You could hear the waves hesitate.

Then, *Swoooosh.*

We vanished.

The sand where we'd stood exploded outward in two perfect circles, like someone dropped bombs in the exact same spot at the exact same moment. Half a heartbeat later,

*CLANG!*

The sound hit like a cannon. A visible ring of pressure blasted across the beach, kicking up a waist-high wall of sand that rolled over the front row of watchers. People stumbled back, coughing, shielding their faces.

Sparks exploded between us, white-hot, lighting up the night brighter than daylight for a split second. My black blade locked against his red one, edges grinding, sending up a shower of molten-looking flecks.

I laughed right in his face. "There we go!"

I twisted my wrist, spun low, and snapped a kick at his knee. He dropped his forearm, blocked it with a grunt, then hammered a punch straight down at my head. I slid sideways, felt the wind of it rip past my ear, and whipped my sword up in a rising slash that would've taken his arm off if he hadn't caught it dead-center on his blade.

*CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!*

We turned into a hurricane of steel and fury.

Every strike came faster than the last. Every block sent out a boom that rattled teeth. Shockwaves rolled across the beach like invisible tidal waves, flattening umbrellas, flipping tables, making the palm trees bow like they were praying.

The fight had turned into pure thunder.

*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*

Every clash sent a wall of sand and wind roaring across the beach. People threw their arms up, turning their backs, eyes squeezed shut as the gust slammed into them like a truck. Palm trees bent almost double. A cooler flipped end-over-end and exploded against a rock, spraying ice and beer cans everywhere.

"Arghhh!!" I laughed through gritted teeth, black coat whipping around me like a tornado wings. My sword was a blur of purple-black light.

"Arghh… huhh! Arghh!" Alaric snarled back, red eyes blazing, swinging that massive jagged blade like it weighed nothing. Blood dripped from his mouth, but the grin on his face said he was loving every second.

The crowd couldn't even cheer anymore; they just watched with their mouths open, hearts in their throats.

Then it happened.

Alaric feinted high, dropped low, and drove his sword forward in one brutal thrust.

The red jagged big ass sword punched straight through my chest and burst out my back with a wet, sickening sound.

Blood sprayed in a dark arc under the moonlight.

Time froze.

"OH NO! ZEROOOO!"

The scream came from a dozen throats at once. The woman in the sundress dropped to her knees. The teenage boy's phone slipped from his fingers and hit the sand. Even the old fisherman's face went white.

Alaric's lips pulled into a slow, ugly smirk. He leaned in close, twisting the sword a little, tasting victory.

Except…

*Fwoosh.*

My body flickered once, like bad TV reception, then dissolved into a swirl of black-purple smoke and shadow. The sword passed clean through empty air.

Alaric's eyes went wide.

"What—?"

*Step.*

A single boot crunched into the sand right beside him. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

I stepped out of the darkness, real me, black sword already raised high. Every drop of aura I had left was packed into that blade, glowing so bright it hurt to look at. The edge looked like it was made of midnight itself.

"Sorry, buddy," I said, grinning wide. "Wrong one."

Alaric spun, but he was half a heartbeat too late.

I brought the sword down with everything I had.

*CLLLLAAAAANNNGGGG!*

The loudest sound of the night exploded across the island. A blinding white-purple spark burst between our blades, so bright people had to look away. The shockwave flattened the sand in a perfect circle around us.

When the light faded, Alaric was still standing… but the top half of his jagged red sword was gone, snapped clean off, spinning through the air and burying itself point-first in the sand thirty feet away.