Dungeon of Niflheim

With Pyro taking the temperature up to an absurd degree Terra readied himself. Releasing a deep breath, his heart, beat like the shaking of the planet, harder and faster until the very ground beneath his feet started to tremble.

He then opened his eyes and stared upwards at the miniature sun that was Pyro, his fists clenched tight as earthen chakra congregated around his body, growing denser and denser with every passing second. Next, a heavy and powerful aura billowed out from his heart, adding to his already impressive presence.

Then with a smooth movement of his hands and feet Terra took on the image of a gilded monk, a peak practitioner in utilising the strength of his own body.

"[Earthen fury!]" A deep, resonant voice escaped his lips as he burst forth with vigorous internal energy. His body grew even larger, even heavier as his hands stretched outwards as if to tear apart the very earth that he stood upon from the ground. Alas there was no ground to tear up, so his internal energy, chakra and aura replaced the physical with something just as solid.

Concrete forms of earthen slabs formed above his hands, easily weighing upwards of tens of tons. This was Terra's most powerful skill and what he chose to contest against the raging hot meteor that was now swiftly crashing down upon him.

This brief moment before the meteor struck the earth seemed to drag on for an eternity. Frost and his many siblings sat on the edge of their seats with bated breaths, their eyes glued to the largest of the six screens up above in anticipation. Even Dark couldn't help but clench his fists as the excitement bubbled up within him.

'Show him what you can do Terra! Show him the power of earth.' Geb was all smiles as he watched with keen eyes.

Suddenly the moment was over.

Boooooooooommmmm!!!!!

Space quaked, cracked and twisted at the origin of their contact. Such an immense force was used that even Dark's personally generated space trembled, struggling to contain the destructive aftershocks that were being unleashed.

Red hot magma crashed against the launched slabs of earth, blowing apart massive chunks as its heat swiftly bore down towards Terra. The heat penetrated deep, liquify vast quantities of earth as it travelled towards its prime target yet even with this level of devastation the meteor was still quite aways from reaching him.

Several brief moments later when the meteor finally bore all the way through the giant slabs of earth that Terra conjured there was very little momentum remainining. The solid sphere of liquefying magma was all but gone revealing the fire borne form of Pyro and his deadly great axe.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!" Pyro roared out at the top of his lungs as Terra's giant form appeared before his eyes. With a fierce glint in his gaze Pyro primed his axe and swung down with a brutal vengeance.

Rock encrusted arms met with the weapon, barely managing to chip away at its power before a set of large brown hands swiftly slammed into either side of the axe head.

Don!

The destructive force behind the axe was brought to a sudden stop.

Plumes of dust, fragments of earth and raging flames obscured the area for a moment before eventually revealing the result of the momentous clash.

Terra stood with his knees bent, sweat dripping down his forehead and significant burns marring the palms of his hands and upper forearms but held between those palms was Pyro's axe, unable to budge even a single inch while in his grip.

"Cough!" Pyro who was fiercely gripping the shaft of his axe with trembling arms coughed up blood. The rebounding force had shook up his internal organs to the point that his entire throat tasted like iron.
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Following his opponent's blood filled cough Terra relinquished the vice grip he held and fell to a single knee, his body drained of strength and his hands in no small amount of pain. Their clash appeared to be a draw with both ending up injured to some extent.

As if reaching a silent accord both Pyro and Terra moved away from one another and started to recuperate, aiming to heal up as much as possible before continuing their duel.

Outside the duelling space where the remaining Dungeon cores were, silence was abound. Everyone was blown away by both the destructive power held by Pyro and the defensive ability of Terra. Frost and Indra both imagined themselves facing off against either [earthen fury] or [meteoric crash] finding themselves lacking in some way or another even after taking out the poor elemental match up.

"I'd have to find some way to dodge Pyro's [meteoric crash], I've got nothing that could block something that destructive." Said Indra with both a frown on his face and a growing smile.

"Same here, my defence based skills would fracture instantly upon contact but we're different from Terra. We have the speed and flexibility to dodge." Unlike Terra, Frost and Indra held a great amount of agility and made for much smaller targets.

"True but standing still and taking such a blow looks pretty damn cool." Indra's eyes sparkled when he saw Pyro's axe stuck between Terra's palms.

'Terra's got some balls.'

"What about his [earthen fury]?"

"A frontal assault would be the last thing I'd do. The move has a lot of power and covers a large area but there's still a lot of blind spots especially for someone like me." Though Indra's lightning fared poorly against earth it didn't stop his insane speed.

"Oh I know you're fast Indra my personal experience can attest to that but even if you are, if you can't pierce that durable shell of his it's pointless."

"Haaaaaa you got me there." Indra shrugged his shoulders in defeat, the only option he really had was to slowly grind away at the shell, but his fighting style wasn't exactly designed for attrition.

"Not bad." As Frost and Indra were intimately discussing how they'd deal with both Pyro and Terra, two simple words of compliment were uttered by Yami who surprisingly had a small smile on his lips.

"Terra's just full of surprises, I really didn't expect such strength from him but…." Of course Aqua was the only one capable of holding a casual conversation with this eldest brother of theirs.

"Pyro's stronger."

"Yes….his arrogance is warranted." While all the other Dungeon cores felt that the match was still very much undecided Yami, Aqua and the guardians all knew the truth.

'Terra.' None were more heartbroken than Geb, he truly believed that Terra was strong enough to beat Pyro into submission, he trained so damn hard after all.

"Hmph you all think Pyro's arrogance and pride is all for show, that he's simply taking advantage of the fact that he was born 3rd out of 100." Suddenly a tall, beautiful woman with bright red hair, pearl white skin, the occasional pink scales and a set of mighty draconic wings and matching tail spoke up with a prideful tone causing the remaining 33 guardians to grimace.

"Fafnir." Geb uttered with a pronounced frown. This woman, Fafnir was Pyro's guardian and one of the most powerful species across all of Nova, an ancient flare dragon. Even he one of the primordial earth king's children was a little lacking in comparison.

Among the entirety of the younger generation Fafnir truly stood head and shoulders above the rest of her colleagues. A fact that no one could dispute and because of this her personality was rather….dominating.

"Hmph!" With a loud hmph and a powerful crack of her tail Fafnir glared at her colleagues with her head held high. "You all seem to view Pyro as an annoyance, a person full of himself, who disdains and is critical of everyone around him and to a degree you're not wrong. He is brash, rough, cruel and has no filter, but he is also determined, ambitious and dedicated.

You think that your charges train hard, that they don't know the meaning of slacking off pshua how laughable." As Fafnir spoke she gazed upwards, staring at Pyro's distant form.

"Pyro truly doesn't know the meaning of giving up. Every training session only ends after I've ripped his body and mind to shreds. He is strong because he has made himself so." She bore an expression of exuberating pride as she watched him stand up and redon his armour of flames.

"He may be critical of others, harsh and highly demanding of their conduct and capabilities but that's nothing compared to what he expects of himself….Pyro will become the strongest of them all not because of his 3rd ranking or because he was born with additional advantages but because of the efforts he puts in everyday to reach his goals." Fafnir's words subtlety attacked both Yami and Aqua, the only two cores who ranked above Pyro.

She strongly believed that the only reason they surpassed him was due to these additional advantages that they were granted at birth.

This dig was of course noticed by the two of them, but they were powerless to retort. Fafnir was still much, much stronger than the two of them plus her accusations weren't completely unfounded. Both Yami and Aqua were born slightly more powerful than the rest of their siblings including Pyro, but this was because of their Dungeon's location and the roles that Dark wished for them to take up.

However it was rather arrogant of Fafnir to credit the difference solely on this small starting advantage.

"Fafnir watch your tongue!" Aqua's guardian Leviathan took to her defence. He was one of the very few guardians that could actually hold their own against Fafnir.

"Hmph, so defensive, did I strike a nerve."

"You!"

"Enough! Stop bickering like children and watch the battle unfold, you're embarrassing yourselves." Suddenly when it seemed like a fight was about to kick off a man draped in shadow spoke out in a chilling voice. Both Fafnir and Leviathan trembled upon hearing him speak.

"Diablos."