Leon activated a shell twist—rolling into the blow, absorbing some of the shock with Shell Reverb. He redirected the force into a backstep, but Velkhar was already upon him.
A knee strike to the ribs—crack.
Leon coughed blood but didn't fall. He grabbed the arm and countered with a point-blank pulse of kinetic feedback—his Shell Reverb spitting out the magma-blast's echo into Velkhar's chest.
Boom!
The explosion sent both of them flying, but Velkhar landed first, flames licking across his armored limbs. "Good," he muttered. "Fight like a beast."
The temperature on the bridge skyrocketed. Molten vents burst, and the obsidian under their feet became glasslike and slippery. Leon's boots smoked.
He charged in, using Tripart Echo for the first time this battle—three layers of stored impact detonated in a single motion. His punch shattered a chunk of Velkhar's shoulder-plate—but not without cost.
