Like a demon clawing its way out of hell, Rheydan yanked with everything he had.
His battered body surged upward, muscles screaming in protest as he hauled himself onto the Barbarian.
Snow and shattered stone scattered outward as the two collided once more.
Rheydan mounted him.
What remained of his fists slammed down again and again onto what was left of the Barbarian’s face, each impact dull and sickening.
Bones cracked.
Blood sprayed.
Yet the Barbarian did not yield.
Instead, he roared and drove his broken limbs forward, jagged bones stabbing into Rheydan’s torn flesh, piercing muscle and grinding against bone.
They grappled like beasts, rolling through blood and ruin.
Neither cared about pain anymore.
Neither cared about survival.
Only the instinct to crush the other remained.
The struggle turned savage, brutal, and desperate, a clash where victory and death were indistinguishable.
It felt as though the fight would only end when both bodies lay still.
Then…
A presence appeared.
Without warning, a man cloaked in black, mysterious animal hide materialized in the space between heartbeats.
The strange garments seemed to devour light itself, obscuring his form, while bones of unknown beasts hung from his frame, faintly clattering in the wind.
He raised a single finger.
And flicked it.
The world froze.
Rheydan’s body was sent flying.
He crashed through the frozen ground, rolling several times before coming to a halt.
His vision darkened, pain flooding every corner of his consciousness, until at last, everything went black.
He fell unconscious.
He lay amidst the shattered earth, every breath tearing through his ruined body.
Bones grated.
Flesh barely held together.
Yet his awareness was painfully clear, sharper than it had ever been.
Rage boiled within him.
No.
Not just rage.
Confusion.
This was the first time in his life he had encountered such an obstacle.
The first time he had been pushed to the brink by someone of the same generation.
The first time he had tasted something unfamiliar.
Defeat.
The sensation was strange.
Heavy.
Unsettling.
And yet…
“New?”
A voice echoed nearby.
“Ragnar… you are injured.
The Great Jarl will not be pleased.”
The words barely registered before a rough, hoarse laugh echoed from Ragnar’s throat.
It was broken, uneven, more like the growl of a wounded beast than a man’s laughter.
Slowly, painfully, he attempted to lift his shattered body.
“Don’t bother.”
The hoarse voice echoed softly.
With a casual wave of his hand, Ragnar’s figure distorted, then vanished into his sleeve.
In the next instant, the man transformed into a streak of red light, tearing through the sky as he fled toward the Empire of Ashen Tide. This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
Deeper inside the borders of the Dawn Empire, within a grand mansion that appeared both ethereal and immortal, yet carried the stern discipline of a military stronghold, a pair of silver eyes slowly opened.
Those eyes gazed into the distant horizon, piercing through layers of space.
A faint glint flashed within them, and a small smile curved at the corner of the man’s lips.
“You can’t possibly believe,” he murmured softly, his voice calm yet absolute, “that I would allow anyone to harm my son, do you?”
With a small, almost casual gesture, the man lifted his finger and flicked it forward.
A streak of silver light tore through space itself, locking onto the mysterious cloaked figure with terrifying precision.
The moment the silver radiance descended, the cloaked man’s aura shifted violently.
Even without seeing his face, it was clear that his expression had changed.
He exploded forward, his speed tripling in an instant as chaotic fluctuations surged around his body.
The silver light pursued relentlessly, its velocity bordering on the impossible, slicing through layers of space as though distance itself had lost meaning.
Yet at that very moment, beyond the borders of the The Wolf Banner Empire, another presence stirred.
A towering figure cloaked in thick bear fur slowly opened his crimson eyes.
The blood-red glow within them carried neither haste nor panic, only weary judgment.
He let out a low sigh.
“Who truly is bloodthirsty and savage here?”
With a simple motion of punching forward, invisible gusts surged outward.
Space warped as violent winds crossed impossible distances in an instant, wrapping tightly around the cloaked man like invisible chains.
At the same time, the silver light arrived.
Both struck.
A thunderous explosion tore through the sky, silver radiance and chaotic winds colliding in a violent burst that shook the heavens.
The air screamed as energy dispersed in every direction, leaving behind nothing but fractured space and lingering echoes of overwhelming power.
After the explosion faded, the mysterious man’s figure slowly came into view.
His face was pale, and his aura, though chaotic, burned even more intensely than before.
Teeth gritted, he let out a low growl, transforming once more into a dimmer red light than before, and retreated, vanishing into the provinces under the The Wolf Banner Empire’s control.