This Unc's Pretty Strong, GNG

The Depths were quiet. Too quiet.

Reinhart stood humming faintly, the tune vibrating the rocks beneath his feet.

Subaru was crouched in front of a terrified Level 1 freshie, arms wide like a bodyguard.

"I got you, man. Just breathe," Subaru said seriously. "Don't move. Don't blink. Don't even think about combat logging. I swear, we're gonna get you outta here."

The freshie's knees knocked together. "I-I was farming bandits... how did I get here?!"

From the mist emerged a mutated deep owl, its head twitching violently. It shrieked.

Subaru immediately shot forward, parrying the owl's claws with a clean wind step, then tossed the freshie into the air to dodge a second attack. He caught the kid like a loaf of bread.

"See?" Subaru said with a smirk. "I got instincts, bro."

Reinhart blinked. "You threw him at a wall."

"He bounced!" Subaru argued.

But then... the freshie sniffled. "I think I pooped a little."

Suddenly, from behind, a corrupted golem emerged, eyes glowing blue. It swung.

Subaru parried, wind dashed, kicked. Reinhart sang a note and crushed its head with a single hum. The golem fell.

The freshie looked at Subaru, tears in his eyes. "You guys are my heroes…"

Then he tripped on a piece of stone and fell face-first into Julius's expired Megurger, which had been fermenting for three days. He took one breath.

"FATAL DAMAGE: TOXICITY INHALED.""FRESHIE WIPED."

Subaru stood frozen. Reinhart stared. Julius peeked out from a rock. "Was that mine?"

Subaru slowly knelt down, eyes wide. "I... I tried."

All that was left was the freshie's shirt, drifting in the wind like a flag of shame.

20 Minutes Later...

Reinhart and Subaru were lying back near a cliff, relaxing, shirtless.

"Depths breeze hits different," Subaru mumbled, eyes closed.

"Yeah," Reinhart said. "Even better when you're not getting eaten."

Then...

ZAAAAAP.

The sky cracked with thunder.

Floating down like an angry god came a man cloaked in golden robes, his hair sparking wildly. In his hand was a Thundercall Hero Blade, coursing with lightning. Behind him were three floating guards—each branded with the symbol of the Freshie Protection Guild.

At the front stood the freshie's father—a high-ranking noble cultivator with glowing tattoos, and wrath in his voice.

"I tracked my son's soul imprint to this place," he growled. "Where is he?"

The guards pointed at the ground. "We saw it all, sir. The wind guy wiped him."

Subaru stood up. "WAIT, DON'T—"

"HE THREW HIM INTO AN EXPIRED MEGURGER AND HE DIED INSTANTLY," one guard added helpfully.

"Subtle," Reinhart muttered.

The father's eyes glowed. "You... murdered my son... with lunch?"

Subaru raised his hands. "I swear I tried everything—"

The air exploded with lightning.

The Thundercaller descended, blade sparking like a second sun. "Then I'll wipe you like you wiped him."

THE FIGHT BEGINS

Reinhart clapped his hands, his hum distorting gravity. Subaru leapt forward, dodging bolts and wind-stepping through a thunderclap.

The Thundercaller moved like a storm—swinging his blade with the force of a collapsing sky. Lightning arced everywhere. The ground shattered.

Subaru narrowly avoided a downward swing, skidding back and yelling, "This unc is pretty strong, gng!"

Reinhart dashed in, singing a note that burst the rocks underfoot and launched him upward. He clashed with the Hero Blade mid-air, his voice absorbing a shockwave as sparks scattered.

Subaru was panting. "We're not beating this guy with words."

"Nope," Reinhart said. "Time to fight like Depths demons."

They charged. The Thundercaller spun, bringing down his blade in an arc of pure thunder. Reinhart blocked with a resonant hum, Subaru dashed through the storm and kicked the blade's hilt. For a second, it seemed they had the upper hand—

BOOM.

A massive, round shadow flew out from the mist—

"KING OF CALORIES, INCOMING!"

It was Julius, sweat flying from his forehead, breathing heavily mid-sprint.

The Thundercaller turned—too slow.

300 pounds of Megurger-fueled fury crashed into him like a freight train.

The Thundercaller flew off the edge of the cliff, tumbling toward Layer 2.

The trio stared over the ledge.

"Did he just..." Subaru panted. "Get wiped by exercise?"

Julius grinned. "I burned 8,000 calories today."

Then...

A spark flashed.

"SPARK SWAP!"

A blinding pulse of Thundercall energy erupted.

"WAIT, NO—!" Subaru yelled—

FLASH.

In an instant, Subaru was where the Thundercaller had been—

—and plummeting into Layer 2.

Reinhart ran to the edge. "SUBARU!"

Subaru looked up mid-fall, eyes wide.

"It was a good run gng..."

And then he was gone.

Reinhart stood frozen. Julius came over, sweat dripping, blinking. "Wait... did Subaru just... get swapped into Layer 2?"

Reinhart slowly turned.

"Oh no. That's gonna be a whole thing'' .

Reinhart stood over the trembling Thundercaller, eyes cold.

"He spark swapped Subaru," he muttered. "I'm ending this."

The Thundercaller grinned through the static on his skin, Hero Blade crackling. "You can try."

He lunged forward, lightning arcing through the air—But Reinhart's voice met the blade.

Clang.It wasn't just a parry. It was an echo of something deeper.

The moment their auras clashed, the Thundercaller flinched—eyes wide.

The world around him shifted.

The sky warped. Julius appeared twelve feet tall. The ground beneath him started folding in impossible ways.

"W-What… what is this!?"

Reinhart didn't blink. "Dirge of Disbelief."

He remembered unlocking it—when he parried the King Thresher's aura near Horror, the lying freshie who said he was fifteen "or older."

Now the Thundercaller stumbled, screaming at shadows. "GET BACK! Y-You're all fake!"

Julius walked up, arms out like he was about to shove a shopping cart.

"Time to send him down with the Megurgers."

He rushed to push, but Reinhart grabbed his wrist.

"No. Don't."

"Huh!?"

"If you knock him in now, it'll reset his mind. He might try to swap with one of us aswell"

Julius pouted. "But—he swapped Subaru to layer 2!"

"I know," Reinhart said, voice flat. "But he's already drowning in his own hallucinations. Let that sink in first, we can't do much about it right now."

The Thundercaller whimpered, curled up, mumbling about enemies that weren't there.

Reinhart turned. "Let's go. Before he snaps back."

Julius sighed. "Alright… but next time I'm body-slamming someone."

They left the mad Thundercaller behind, lost in a nightmare of his own perception.

The thundercaller, still in effect of Reinhart's ability was still confused, it worked like a charm on him.

"Whispers… they're everywhere…" he muttered, twitching.

Two Castle Light guards cautiously approached, hands raised.

"Sir? You alright? The intruders are gone."

But to him—they weren't guards. They were demons in armor, voices laced with deceit.

"YOU THINK I DON'T SEE THROUGH YOU!?" he roared.

In a flash, he surged forward, slicing clean through one guard's shoulder with a bolt-infused swing. The other screamed and scrambled back, but a stray arc of thunder dropped him.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!" the Thundercaller shrieked, eyes bloodshot.

He stood amidst the smoke and bodies, breathing heavy, twitching violently as more hallucinations clawed at the edges of his senses.

Dirge of Disbelief still echoed in his skull.

He couldn't tell up from down. Friend from foe. Truth from nightmare.

And as more guards approached from the distance, the madness wasn't done with him yet.