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The battle between Arne and Trevor continued in a desert somewhere in Egypt. Arne was pleasantly surprised by Trevor's new strength. It was almost as strong as theirs.
The two clashed fists, causing the ground beneath them to rumble and become uneven as parts grinded together like tectonic plates. Arne opened the fist that clashed against Trevor's to try to grip him so they could pull him in, but Trevor was quick to backstep.
"Dammit, it's still not enough? It was supposed to be more than enough," he whined from a distance. He started shooting apple-sized explosions at Arne, who didn't bother dodging. Instead, Arne chose to take them head-on even though they were damaging Arne's body, shattering their Hardshatter.
But this was what Arne sought. The pain. The rush. The thrill of battle. This was why they tried to guide and cultivate Trevor into a proper opponent. Arne needed a challenge they could relish in.
Arne began to mend their Hardshatter as they continued to be bombarded by explosions, but they noticed something: the explosions were starting to feel less and less painful. In fact, the explosions had less and less effect on their Hardshatter.
For the first time, Arne had been put in a situation where they had to reapply Hardshatter as it was constantly destroyed. Arne had no idea that it had the ability to adapt slightly with each recovery after being shattered. And how many thousands of times had they needed to recover while tanking this guy's explosions?
Confident, Arne decided to catch the next incoming orb from Trevor in their mouth, gating it in their metallic fangs. The orb exploded, but instead of blowing their head off, it only left Arne's mouth smoking as they charged forward, grinning like a maniac.
Trevor began to look worried. "Seriously?! You're even tougher than before now?! You're insane! Why'd I have to get stuck with a barbarian woman like you?"
"Just die already!" He yelled as he shot more continuous explosions at Arne, probably hoping they would at least slow Arne down. Thing is, Arne did slow down. In fact, Arne came to a stop altogether, but not from Trevor's efforts.
Hearing themselves be called a woman after so long gave Arne flashbacks of the identity they discarded long ago. Memories of an unpleasant time in their life surfaced and soured Arne's mood. When the smoke cleared, Arne stood silent, and Trevor's hopeful expression dropped.
"No more coaching," Arne declared in their monstrous voice, looking at Trevor fiercely, fists clenched. "Fight me like you want to survive. Otherwise, this'll be over before you can give me a real challenge.'
Trevor tensed.
"Wait, you're fighting to kill me now?"
"Yes." Arne released an immense aura of intimidation that would paralyze anything not a klevonian. Trevor began to sweat a little. "After all, when facing a beast, one should be prepared to die."
Arne then attacked Trevor with pure savagery, leaving Trevor with no opportunity to be on the offensive. Once he was breathing heavily and bleeding from several locations that were slashed by Arne's claws, as he held up his arms in defense, Arne chose to let up and back away.
Trevor's arms fell to his side.
"Is this how you wish to die?" Arne's animalistic voice called out.
"You're a 'god,' right? Use your power to fight!" Arne yelled, releasing more of their intimidating aura. But Trevor still stood there. Arne's patience was running out. They no longer wanted to wait for Trevor to acknowledge himself.
"I guess you are a failure," Arne muttered in disappointment as part of the ground shifted Arne further away from Trevor; walls of stone and dirt rose dozens of feet in the air, creating a narrow path and ceiling from Arne to Trevor. Arne reinforced the walls with their spirit energy, making them harder to break. Then, Arne charged forward at high speed and threw a punch packed with enough strength to cause a quake strong enough to decimate a town.
If he's lost the will to live, then so be it.
But surprisingly, Trevor protected himself at the last second by intercepting Arne's blow with a decent-sized explosion. This cushioned the strike somehow as the impact generated earthquakes through the ground and propelled him backward through one of the risen walls.
As the structure crumbled back onto the ground, Arne strolled toward Trevor, glad that he'd chosen not to give up in the end.
"...body's numb." Arne heard him mutter as he struggled to his knees, but Arne didn't let up. Next, Arne willed their spirit energy to solidify into four tendrils of stone that sought out Trevor, wrapped around him, and lifted him before impaling him at the legs and shoulders. Trevor's spirit enhancement held off one of the tendrils aimed at his legs, but the other three broke through due to his weakened spirit.
Being severely wounded, Trevor began to freak out. Arne watched as the literal tears started to roll down the brat's cheeks.
Arne lowered Hardshatter, looked at him in disgust, and said, "This is where nine centuries of arrogance and complacency get you. All the power you have and the brilliance to enhance it further, yet you cannot wield it efficiently. So much wasted potential it's sickening."
"Aghhh! Screw this!" Trevor yelled in pain, seeing he was losing ground. Next thing Arne knew, a trail of smoke shot from his fingers and went into Arne's eyes. Arne instinctively blinked rapidly and tried to wipe the smoke away, but Trevor sent off a fast, focused explosion that ignited the smoke within their eyes.
Arne released a roar of agony that shook the very earth as their eyes were seared with intensity, and they became blinded. They couldn't see anything. There was just blackness as Arne heard a thud from Trevor falling to the ground.
"Do you have no shame?! Where is the honor in fighting with such disgrace?!" Arne called out in fury.
They felt Michael's thread begin to heal their eyes and other wounds. Arne immediately applied spirit energy to their hand and ripped the thread off, breaking the connection. Arne didn't want any outside aid in their battle, especially against someone so cowardly.
Calming their mind, Arne tried to focus past the pain. They couldn't see, but their other senses, including their sixth sense, still worked. Something came toward them. Arne moved, knocking aside an incoming explosion, and was met with Trevor's disbelief. Arne continued to read his attacks by sensing his energy and feeling his movements through the ground. Arne realized that though they couldn't 'see', they were far from blind.
Trevor must have slowly begun to pick up on that as well because, without warning, Arne lost track of his movement on the ground and was hit square in the face by an explosion from above as he resorted to flying to limit what Arne could track as he released a smoke screen to somewhat mask his energy signature. Still, despite this, Trevor would need a much more powerful blast actually to do any damage.
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