Kash Imo meditated in the carbon plain, legs crossed as he sat on the ground. It was the dead of night during a new moon. The flat field of graphite was nearly completely dark, save for the illumination coming from the Red Dragon rotating around Kash.

“Finally, solitude,” he said. “I am alone.”

“No you’re not,” said Knife Guy.

Kash jumped up, near-instantaneously converting a chunk of Hibiscan energy into lightning and flinging it at the source of the voice. Knife Guy vanished into the air. The bolt was much less powerful than usual because it wasn’t powered by his boiling water technique.

Kash’s heart was racing. He began the process of transmuting his Hibiscan essence into water, heating it up into a boiling frenzy. He slowly and carefully transmuted select smidgens of it into a variety of miniscule, invisible impurities that normal water usually contained.

Cuts appeared all across his right arm and his torso. Where had that come from? Kash whipped his head around, catching a glimpse of Knife Guy slashing the air with his knife.

The transmutation was complete, and Kash arced lightning through the water with an audible crackling.

Knife Guy appeared in front of him. “So,-”

Kash zapped him with lightning, imbuing his strike with the power of the Red Dragon. When attacking someone, a wielder of the Red Dragon could amplify the attack with one of two effects. The first was doubling its strength, and the second was doubling its speed. Kash had just used the latter.

The lightning struck, but didn’t hit Knife Guy. Rather, it made contact with a disgusting worm-like creature that hissed and writhed when struck. It was invisible until being hit with the lightning, then suddenly flashed into being. It molted off a layer of squirming, muscly flesh, which lay visible on the carbon. But its body underneath was invisible. Knife Guy again vanished.

“Ah, so you’ve discovered the secret of the meat worm,” he said.

Kash realized that when Knife Guy disappeared, he was merely re-wrapping himself in the meat worm. It was long enough for that to be a viable strategy, as Kash saw by glancing at the molted skin he had scorched. Judging from that, the meat worm had a diameter of eight or so inches at its widest point, and looked to be at least a hundred feet long.

Kash expelled a huge burst of lightning in a twenty foot radius, barely catching the meat worm. It once again hissed and molted off a layer of skin. This time, Knife Guy stood still and let himself be visible.

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“I just want to talk,” he said.

Kash threw dozens of bolts of lightning in rapid succession, each traveling absurdly fast. Knife Guy dodged a few of them but got hit by most. He flung his knife up and down, deep cuts appearing on Kash’s face before he used his lightning to arc himself up and away. It seemed that Knife Guy’s knife projected its slashes forwards, cutting anything within a “line of sight” of the knife.

His wounds closed as Kash healed them with Hibiscan energy.

“I just want to talk,” he repeated. “If you don’t attack me, I won’t attack you.”

Kash snorted. How absurd. It wouldn’t hurt to humor him for a moment. Kash wanted to learn more about his motivations before killing him.

“Fine.”

“Thank you, finally.”

“What do you want?”

“To test if you really deserve having the Red Dragon.”

“Of course I do.”

“Well, we’ll see.”

Not wasting a moment, Kash arced over to Knife Guy and hit him with a discharge of lightning just as Knife Guy wrapped the meat worm around himself. The creature shrieked, shedding another layer of meaty skin. Kash charged up a ball of lightning with his left hand and swung at Knife Guy with his right. Knife Guy darted out of the way of his fist, but Kash turned his arm and grabbed Knife Guy by the throat, slamming the ball lightning into him.

Knife Guy was catapulted into the air, creating a sonic boom from how fast he flew backwards. He tumbled several times against the graphite, cutting himself against it, until coming to a stop.

“Finally some distance between me and the bastard. I’ll be alone until-”

“No you’re not,” said Knife Guy, appearing a few feet behind Kash. He slashed his knife, its effect cutting deeply into Kash’s right wrist. Blood spurted out from the wound as his hand swung from side to side, nearly severed.

What the fuck? How had Knife Guy teleported all the way there? Kash jumped forward, grabbing the bastard, pinning his hand that he held the knife with. He began to charge up a ball of lightning. Knife Guy tried to wriggle away, but couldn’t overpower Kash. The God of Lightning grinned as the ball grew to its full size. This time, he used the Red Dragon to charge his attack with double strength. All his previous attacks had had their speed doubled, in order to catch the wiley Knife Guy. But with him crushed under the weight of Kash, there was no escape.

Knife Guy shoved the ball of lightning at Knife Guy, and he rocketed away, going at least Mach 4. He tumbled to a stop several miles away.

It was time to test Kash’s theory.

“I’m alone,” he said.

“No you’re not,” said Knife Guy, slowly standing up. The entire front of his body was scorched and nearly unrecognizable. He spat out blood.

“Weakling,” said Kash.

He slashed his knife, bisecting Kash.

Kash’s face was frozen in shock, his torso falling backwards and hitting the ground. Blood seeped out of his mouth. His legs still stood, his lower half not fallen yet.

“That’s all?” said Knife Guy. “How pitiful.”

“You were a pathetic opponent,” he declared. “I will probably forget about you quickly.”

He sheathed his knife.