"PK... Freeze."
The lion’s roar choked into a wet, hissing gurgle. Frost spiderwebbed across his fangs, his tongue, the roof of his scorching maw. Steam exploded from his nostrils. He staggered back, clawing at his face, his mane flickering and sputtering. For the first time, the Prince of Fire looked afraid.
The smell of grilled geckos and ozone hung heavy over the sweltering marsh. Ness took a shaky breath, the end of his cracked baseball bat digging a nervous trench in the black mud. Across the smoldering clearing, a creature of living flame and raw, screaming savagery gnashed its teeth. rivals of aether ness
The clearing was silent but for the hiss of Zetterburn's cooling fur and the drip of melting frost. The lion glared at him, a thousand-year hatred burning behind his eyes. But he was also, for the first time, truly seeing the boy in the striped shirt. Not a curiosity. Not prey.
Zetterburn laughed, a sound like a landslide of hot coals. "Home? This is your home now. Ash and bone." Steam exploded from his nostrils
"You—!" he rasped, ice crystals falling from his singed whiskers.
He was right. The PSI Magnet was cracking. Ness felt the psychic feedback lancing behind his eyes. He couldn’t hold. He dropped the shield. The smell of grilled geckos and ozone hung
The psychic cryo-blast erupted from his forehead, a needle-thin lance of absolute zero. It wasn't the wide, powerful blizzard he used on Starmen. It was a surgical strike, honed by desperation.
Not wood on bone. Wood on superheated, rock-hard claw. The bat shattered. But the impact was perfectly placed. It drove Zetterburn’s weight onto his haunches, stopping his forward momentum cold. The lion snarled in surprise.
"You're wrong," Ness said, his voice steadier than he felt. He lowered the bat, pointing its splintered tip at the prince. "I’m not bullying anyone. I’m just trying to get home."