A Desperate Struggle

The heat wave in the deep pit still churned, undulating in the night like iron sheeting licked layer by layer by tongues of fire. The rim of the pit continued to collapse, its circular cross-section revealing varying shades of soil strata and rubble. Brownish-black streams of stone congealed at the edge like frozen waves. The wind surged upward from the bottom of the pit, laden with the stench of scorching heat and rust, driving gray dust to scatter everywhere and land on the flattened stone crust, where the heat instantly baked it white. The distant ridge echoed sluggishly, and debris rolled down the slope, plunging into the dark night where its shadow was lost forever.

Meruem stood at the center, his ankles sinking into the polished stone layer. His shoulders, back, chest, and abdomen crisscrossed with splits, his armor scales scattered in disarray, and his exposed flesh baked bright red by the heat wave. The blood in the cracks was forced out and steamed into white mist. He raised his arm, pulled back his fist, and raised it again, his muscles tightening inch by inch. Fresh blood continuously seeped from between his fingers, turning into tiny bubbles the moment it hit the ground beside his feet. He took a step forward, and the bottom of the pit sank accordingly. Circular cracks exploded outward from beneath his feet, racing across the surface to the rim of the pit, sending the outer layers of rubble crashing down in sheets as if someone had peeled off the ground and thrown it into the darkness.

Netero descended slowly from high above, his toes touching the fractured fault line at the pit's rim to steady his stance. The palms pressed together in front of his chest did not separate, yet his aura grew heavier. Gray