(Theme: Weight of Shadows)
The nightmare seized Kaito's mind like rusted iron jaws.
Rusted chains bit into his wrists. Spikes pierced his eye sockets. Blood dripped—drip... drip...—onto Akari's corpse below, her golden eyes gouged into hollow pits. Flames danced around a shadowy figure in a tattered cloak, its gold-slitted eyes glowing like embers in hellfire.
"You. Will. Break."
The voice vibrated in his bones, not his ears.
04:30 AM.
Kaito bolted upright—gasping, drenched in cold sweat.
Not real. Not real. Not real.
The mantra died as vomit surged up his throat. He barely grabbed the steel bucket before acidic bile splattered against its sides. His hands trembled. Sweat soaked the thin cot beneath him. The holographic alarm SCREAMED—BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!—casting blood-red light across the tent walls.
CRASH!
The door exploded inward. Splinters rained down as Akari filled the doorway, backlit by harsh corridor lights. Volcanic wind whipped her hair into living shadows. Her obsidian horns gleamed like polished knives.
"04:29," she snarled, boots crushing debris. "Sixty-two seconds late." She loomed over his cot, her breath frosting in the air. "Ten drills. Now."
Dawn bled across the Obsidian Wastes.
Kaito's boots pounded cracked earth, sulfur stinging his lungs. Behind him, the ground trembled.
ROOOOOAR!
The soundwave hit like a physical blow. He stumbled as the earth split open at his heels. Lava glowed in the fissure.
The True Dragon stood three stories tall—iridescent scales shifting from emerald to blood-crimson, wings of liquid water crashing like tidal waves. Its maw glowed with gathered sunlight.
"How do I kill that?!" Panic clawed up his throat.
Another roar. Another fissure.
Few hours earlier...
Pain stabbed with every breath.
Kaito limped after Akari, bandages leaking crimson onto volcanic rock.
"New training site?" he wheezed.
She didn't turn. "Speak again. Lose your tongue."
At the medic tent, she slammed him against the canvas. Her claw pricked the base of his skull—icy cold.
"Wait." Her breath fogged in the dawn air. "Twitch, and I'll peel your spine like fruit."
She returned with death made manifest: a matte-black suit pulsing with glowing dragonbone circuitry. It hummed—a vibration felt in the teeth.
"Wear it." She threw it. It hit his chest like a tombstone. "NOW."
The suit snaked around him. Plates clamped like a coffin lid.
CRUNCH!
Face met rock. The ground spiderwebbed beneath him.
1,000kg. Ribs screaming. Lungs crushed...
The tent flap whipped aside. Medic Shin stood silhouetted against the dawn, holographic diagnostics swirling around his neck tattoo like angry hornets.
"COMMANDER! His ribs are splinters! Cardiac arrest in minutes!"
Medic's eyes ignited—molten gold, inhuman. Static crackled in the air.
"NEURAL OVERRIDE: STAND. UP."
Kaito's body jerked upright—back arching at a brutal angle. Tendons snapped in his shoulders—PING! PING!—like severed cables.
Akari watched, a ghost-smile touching her lips.
"Well done, medic," she mocked. "You kill him faster than I ever could."
Medic's fingers blurred over the suit's interface. Weight dropped to 900kg. Kaito collapsed.
"For both our sakes," Medic whispered to the unconscious form, "this never happened." Akari vanished into the ash-laden wind.
The sting of glowing serum dragged Kaito back to the present.
Medic adjusted the IV, his soldier's posture rigid even in the medical tent.
"This suit doesn't simulate weight," he said, tapping the black carapace. "It is the weight. Akari's endgame?" He leaned close. "Thirty metric tons."
He snapped the injector shut. "Name's Shin. Should've said it months ago when you first bled on my cots." Weariness etched his face. "Try. Not. To Die. I'm sick of your blood on my boots." A final whisper: "Stop volunteering for suicide."
RIIIIP!
The tent flap tore away. Akari stood framed by hellish dawnlight.
"Done coddling death?" Her boot tapped ash. "Move. Final warning."
Wind howled across the Lightning Cliff. Akari shoved Kaito toward the abyss. A thousand feet below, the dragon drank from a lake of liquid sunlight, scales refracting light into blinding rainbows. Water flowed around its talons like living rivers.
"Mid-tier True Dragon," Akari stated, voice cutting through the gale. "Light-bender. Water-shaker." Her claw drew blood between his shoulders. "Bring its head."
Her whisper froze his blood:
"Fail... and I'll feed it your heart mid-beat."
She shoved.
Freefall.
Wind screamed. The suit whined under 900kg. His dragon-eye ignited, dissecting the beast:
Weakness: Third spinal ridge—hairline fracture. Water sacs under gills—2000 psi. Trajectory: 27 degrees!
The dragon's maw became a sun.
FWOOM!
A beam of concentrated sunlight lasered toward him—melting the cliff face he'd occupied into bubbling slag.
Calculations flooded his mind:
*Beam velocity: 120m/s. Refraction angle: 34 degrees. Evade left!*
ORION'S Comment: "Dragon-eye cheat codes activated! o0o..."
Kaito slammed onto the dragon's back. Jammed a dragonbone shard into its spine.
CRACK-SPLOOSH!
Pressurized water blasted out, flash-steaming in sunlight.
Spinal fracture confirmed. Core destabilization in 5... 4...
WHUMP!
The tail hammered him. SUIT INTEGRITY: 41% flashed across his vision. He cratered into basalt. Ribs cracked. Blood filled his mouth.
"ADRENALINE: CRITICAL BURN! MUSCLES TEARING!"
He vaulted onto the dragon's neck. Plunged the shard deep under its jaw.
KER-SPLAT-CHOOOM!
Liquid light erupted—a point-blank supernova. Water detonated into plasma. His suit vaporized in a storm of sparks.
Silence.
A slip of paper fluttered onto the steaming ruin:
Forgot to mention:
You live here now.
---Α
Kaito knelt in gore and molten rock. Blood dripped from his shattered nose onto the note.
Her games... HER DAMNED GAMES...
A raw, animal scream tore from his throat—rage echoing off the cliffs.
High above, the cloaked figure watched. Golden eyes burned with ancient hunger.
"The harvest begins soon," its whisper rode static-thick wind.
ORION'S COMMENT: "Hungrier than a black hole? My popcorn's ready. Bring the main course! ~O"