The moment Yvonne charged, the jungle held its breath.

  Rell stood his ground, jaw set, bare feet digging into the moss. The cursed pirate’s arm shimmered with cracked bone and marrow glow, a demonic graft pulsing with fury.

  Their first clash was thunder.

  Yvonne swung wide, a black arc meant to cleave. Rell ducked low, rolled through the mud, and kicked off a tree. He landed behind Yvonne and struck — a spinning elbow to the back of the head that connected with a wet crack.

  Yvonne staggered forward and laughed.

  “You’re fast,” he growled, rubbing his neck. “But you bleed just like the rest.”

  Rell didn’t respond.

  He slipped into the roots, using the terrain. This wasn’t a duel — it was a war zone.

  Yvonne launched forward, bringing his full weight down with a hammering strike. The earth cracked.

  Rell sidestepped, lured him near a rotted stump, then kicked it into Yvonne’s path. The cursed pirate barreled through it — but it slowed him just enough for Rell to leap off a branch and land a full two-footed dropkick to his chest.

  Yvonne skidded back and spat blood.

  Then roared.

  They clashed again.

  Fist against marrow-claw.

  Dodges through vines. Slams into trees. Rell fought with rhythm — baiting, moving, striking like the jungle itself.

  He used what he had: the hanging roots to swing; the mud to slide under kicks; the rocks to hurl distractions. Yvonne’s raw power tore chunks out of the terrain, but he was growing angrier — and sloppier.

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  “You think this is your second chance?” Yvonne snarled. “This jungle. These brats. You think you can protect them?”

  He charged again.

  Rell ducked a blow that would’ve snapped a normal man’s spine and jammed both fists into Yvonne’s ribs. He followed with a spinning heel to the temple.

  Yvonne reeled.

  “I am their chance,” Rell replied.

  Then planted both feet and drove his head straight into Yvonne’s chin.

  The cursed pirate stumbled back, barely keeping upright. His arm surged again, cracks glowing brighter.

  “I’ll burn this island to kill you,” Yvonne spat, one eye bleeding.

  “Then I’ll just drown it to stop you,” Rell said, stepping forward.

  From a distant ridge, Neyxa watched — blades drawn but still.

  She didn’t interfere.

  She couldn’t.

  This wasn’t her fight.

  Yvonne raised his cursed arm to the sky.

  Energy crackled at his palm. A black flare. Wild and screaming.

  He fired it like a cannon.

  Rell jumped straight into the trees, using the upper canopy as cover. The blast chased him through leaves, scorching bark. A final explosion launched him out of the branches — he landed hard, tumbling across a slope.

  Before he could rise, Yvonne grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.

  “It’s over.”

  Rell’s eyes narrowed.

  “Not yet.”

  His foot lashed upward, kicking Yvonne’s cursed elbow — the weak point.

  The arm shrieked with pressure. Rell grabbed the pirate’s shoulder, swung behind him mid-air, and wrapped his legs around Yvonne’s neck.

  He flipped the larger man into the mud with a violent slam.

  Both rose, bloodied and panting.

  Then Rell vanished.

  Yvonne blinked, only to get struck from behind.

  Again from the side.

  Then above.

  Rell had gone full jungle ghost — unpredictable, everywhere at once, movement born from instinct and terrain.

  He hit like falling stones.

  Yvonne dropped to a knee, gasping.

  Rell grabbed a thick vine, swung wide, and smashed both knees into Yvonne’s face. The cursed pirate collapsed fully this time.

  Rell didn’t stop.

  He straddled him and rained fists down — fast, brutal, without rhythm.

  Crack.

  Crack.

  Crack.

  Until Yvonne stopped moving.

  Silence.

  Rell stood, chest heaving.

  Neyxa stepped into the clearing slowly.

  “That… was personal.”

  “Had to be.”

  They walked together through the broken rocks and blood-streaked trail, finding the last group of children huddled nearby. Neyxa kneeled to comfort them. Rell lifted one into his arms.

  Up ahead, on the ridge line—

  A figure waited.

  Thessia.

  Covered in blood, leaning against the side of the cargo ship. Behind her: bodies.

  Dozens of them.

  Dead pirates sprawled across the dock.

  She looked at Rell.

  He looked back.

  And grinned.

  “Told you I’d find you.”

  The group boarded the ship — Thessia had already secured the frightened sailors.

  As the vessel pulled away from the dock, sails catching the night wind, Neyxa stood beside Rell on the deck.

  She opened a chest — gold, relics, and weapons piled inside.

  “Didn’t think the plan would work. So I took… insurance.”

  Rell smirked. His speech started to slip again.

  “Smart. We need… food. Coin. Travel.”

  Thessia walked over and kissed him before he could finish.

  Neyxa blinked, flustered.

  “Rell…”

  He looked at them both and gave a broken smile.

  “Thank… both… we… move.”

  The ship disappeared into the horizon.

  Far behind, on the shore of the ruined jungle base, Yvonne dragged himself through the mud.

  One arm broken.

  One eye swollen shut.

  His men dead. His ships gone. His base… burning.

  He limped forward until he found his old map soaked in ash.

  He looked to the sky, spit blood, and whispered:

  “Jungle boy dies.”

  Chapter End.