Haeren moved like
a shadow given will
.
One moment he stood still—
the next
, his arm
lanced forward
, a
purple spear of Corruption erupting from the ground
straight toward Alira’s chest.
Len
reacted on instinct
, her hands slamming together as a
wall of water surged up
between them.
It lasted
half a second
.
Haeren’s spear
pierced through like paper
, the shield
exploding into mist
as the backlash
slammed into Len
, knocking her to her knees. A
sharp gasp
escaped her—
part pain, part disbelief.
(What…?)
Her strongest defense—
gone in a breath.
Haeren didn’t pause. His fingers
twitched
, and
another spear materialized
, this one
coiling from the earth like a viper
, its tip
glistening with something darker than poison.
Alira’s eyes
widened
.
(How fast—?!)
No time to dodge.
Her hands
clapped together
, flames
roaring to life between her palms
not to throw, but to contain
. The fireball
swelled
, heat
distorting the air
as she
rammed it forward
, meeting the spear
mid-lunge.
BOOM.
The collision
sent a shockwave ripping outward
, kicking up dust and debris. For a heartbeat,
flame and Corruption warred
Then the spear
melted
, dissolving into
thick, violet sludge
that
splattered across the stones
,
hissing where it landed.
Rellie’s dagger
twitched in her grip
, her instincts
screaming
.
"Don’t touch that,"
she said, voice
unnaturally steady
.
"Just… in case."
Something about that liquid
made her skin crawl
—like it was
watching them back.
"Haha..."
Haeren's laugh was
unnerving—not triumphant, but hollow
, like the echo in an empty cathedral. His
violet-tinged eyes
gleamed with something
far from sanity
.
"Is this the strength of First-Class students?"
He spread his arms,
Corruption swirling around him like a second skin
.
"Pathetic."
Towan didn’t rise to the taunt. His gaze was
steel
, his stance
unshaken
, but his silence spoke louder than any retort.
Haeren’s grin widened.
"You’re nothing against this new power of mine."
"Are you the one behind the monsters?"
Towan’s voice was
flat
. He already knew the answer.
Haeren tilted his head,
mock-curious
.
"You’re that famous First-Year, First-Class… Towan, right?"
No reply.
"Ah. I see."
A shrug,
casual as if discussing the weather
.
"Yes, I’m the one behind this."
His fingers flexed,
Corruption dripping from his nails like tar
.
"So the Academy will
listen
—you know, about the weapon thing."
Towan’s jaw tightened.
"You know this isn’t helping, right?"
"They’ll
definitely
listen this way."
Rellie’s breath hitched.
(He’s not in his right mind…)
Her empathy
pierced through the Corruption
, revealing the
rotten core of his intentions
. Once, there had been
something pure there
—a desperate plea for fairness, for recognition.
Now?
It was
twisted. Ugly.
Like a beautiful painting
smeared with mud.
Haeren moved like a storm given form—no hesitation, no restraint. His longsword carved through the air, violet Corruption bleeding off the blade in thick, swirling tendrils, the edge humming with a sound like tearing flesh. The strike was brutal, diagonal—a executioner’s cut meant to split Towan from shoulder to hip.
Towan didn’t block.
(With that level of Corruption… he can penetrate through most defenses.)
He sidestepped, the sword’s tip missing his ribs by a hair’s breadth. Before Haeren could recover, Towan lashed out, a short, piston-driven jab cracking into Haeren’s solar plexus. The impact echoed dully, like striking wet leather.
Perfect connection.
Haeren grinned through the pain, his lips peeling back from bloodied teeth. Already, the Corruption beneath his skin pulsed, veins writhing as they knit muscle and bone back together.
Towan’s eyes narrowed.
(Healing factor… It must leave some kind of consequence.)
Nothing came without a price.
The others
could only watch
.
Len and Alira
stood at the periphery, their Essentia
flickering weakly
—Len’s water magic reduced to
dripping threads
, Alira’s flames
spitting and guttering
like dying candles. They knew—
stepping in now would only shackle Towan
.
Rellie’s fingers tightened around her dagger
, her empathy
recoiling at the sickness radiating from Haeren
. She was quick, precise—
but this?
This was a
hurricane
, and she had no way to weather it.
Ryn hadn’t moved a muscle.
His usual sharpness was
frozen
, his body locked in something between
awe and terror
.
And at the back,
Veik and Calo
wide-eyed, breath caught in their throats
. They’d seen Towan fight before, but this?
This was
something else entirely
.
Haeren's blade
arced high
, the corrupted steel gleaming under the fractured moonlight—a brutal, telegraphed slash aimed to cleave Towan's shoulder from his body.
Towan's muscles
tensed to evade—
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
(A feint..!)
His instincts
screamed
a half-second before Haeren's strike
morphed
, the blade
pivoting mid-swing
into a vicious low thrust. Corruption
surged from the edge
, elongating like a
serpent's fang
, streaking toward Towan's thigh.
He
twisted
, his torso contorting just enough that the blade
skated across his ribs
instead of impaling him. The cut was shallow—
but it burned
, the Corruption searing into his flesh like
acid-soaked wire
.
(Ugh…)
A grunt escaped him as the pain
bloomed outward
, his stomach muscles clenching against the invasive heat. But his hands
never stopped moving
.
Left hand—
clamping onto Haeren's wrist like a vice.
Right knee—
driving upward in a piston strike that
cratered into Haeren's gut
.
The impact
lifted Haeren off his feet
, a spray of spit and blood
misting the air between them
.
Yet Haeren
laughed
, his teeth painted crimson.
"You hit like a Third-Class!"
Towan
leapt back
, putting distance between them. His breath came steady, but his mind
raced
.
(His endurance doesn’t make sense…)
Two clean hits. Two strikes that
would have shattered stone
, let alone flesh.
(Anyone else would have fallen by now.)
A single drop of sweat
trailed down his temple
, the first sign of tension in his otherwise
immovable focus
.
Haeren landed in a crouch, his boots
scoring deep furrows
into the earth. He didn’t pant. Didn’t stagger. The violet aura that had once
licked faintly at his edges
now
coiled around him like a second skin
, tendrils
flickering over his shoulders
,
testing the air like serpents tasting prey.
His sword
dripped Corruption
, the edge
alive with restless energy.
"You're calculating,"
Haeren mused, his voice
thick with amusement
.
"Trying to figure out what’s broken inside me."
He rose—
slow, deliberate
, as if time itself bent to his pace.
"Let me help you out."
A
vein burst
along his forearm, blackening instantly as Corruption
flooded the rupture
. The power around him
pulsed
, rhythmic and hungry,
mimicking a heartbeat
.
"But some things?"
His grin
split wider
, teeth gleaming in the eerie light.
"Aren’t broken."
His sword lifted—
—and the
world warped
.
The ground
buckled inward
, space itself
distorting
as if Haeren’s will alone
crushed gravity into submission
.
Towan’s stance
shifted
, his muscles coiling.
(His Essentia output just… spiked.)
Then—
Haeren stopped playing.
His blade
melted
, liquefying into a
whip-like tendril
that
lashed out in three blinding strikes
First strike
– Towan
ducked
, the Corruption
searing the air where his head had been
.
Second strike
– He
parried with his forearm
, the contact
burning through his sleeve
, flesh
hissing as Corruption ate at his skin
.
Third strike
– A
near-miss
, the tendril
grazing his cheek
as he
twisted aside
.
(He’s becoming sharper.)
A cold realization settled in Towan’s gut.
(I need to end this before he keeps improving.)
Towan’s shoulders
slumped
, his guard
dropping for a split second
—a calculated show of exhaustion.
Haeren
took the bait
.
He
lunged
, his body committing to a
brutal overhead smash
, Corruption
swelling at the point of impact
Towan
pivoted
, his hand
shooting out
to
catch Haeren’s wrist
. With a
wrenching pull
, he
used Haeren’s own momentum against him
,
slamming him spine-first into the earth
.
The impact
cracked the ground
, sending up a
cloud of dust and violet embers
.
Alira watched, her fingers
unconsciously tightening around the shaft of her stolen axe
.
This wasn’t the Towan she knew.
Not the
laughing brawler
who took hits like they were nothing, who grinned through split lips and winked through swollen eyes. The boy who’d
let her land cheap shots in sparring
just to see her smirk.
The memory of that
carefree smile
always present, even when cornered
—clashed violently with what stood before her now.
Cold. Razor-edged. A blade stripped of its sheath.
Every movement was
calculated
, every strike
devoid of wasted energy
. There was no
playfulness
, no
taunting flourish
—just
lethal efficiency
.
"I… didn’t know Towan could fight like this,"
Alira murmured, her voice
unusually small
.
Len’s gaze flicked to her, lips parted.
"He’s held back more than I thought."
A beat of silence.
Then—
Haeren rose.
His spine
knit itself back together with a sickening crunch
, Corruption
swirling like a living thing
to mend shattered bone and torn muscle. He rolled his shoulders,
as if shaking off a mild inconvenience
, and grinned.
"That all?"
Towan’s eyes
sharpened
, his focus
narrowing to a single point
—Haeren’s smirking face, the Corruption writhing beneath his skin like
a nest of serpents
.
(This bastard… is just getting stronger.)
His arms
rose
, muscles coiling, but his mind
raced faster than his body
.
(What can I do to put him down for good?)
Then—
a memory.
Leon’s training.
The
crushing weight of the waterfall
slamming into his back, driving him to his knees, the
relentless force
that had
hammered his body into something unyielding
.
(Skybreaker…)
The kick he’d been
grinding himself raw
to perfect. The one technique that still
eluded him
, no matter how many boulders he shattered, no matter how many trees he splintered.
It wasn’t ready.
But Haeren wouldn’t
give him time to practice
.
(I’ll have to.)
Towan
expanded his awareness
, letting his senses
bleed outward
—the
tremor of the earth beneath his feet
, the
hitch in Haeren’s breath
before he moved, the
distant crackle of Alira’s dying flames
.
He
breathed in.
Out.
Haeren
lunged
—and Towan
moved
.
Haeren erupted forward, his body wreathed in seething Corruption, the violet energy coiling around him like a second skin. His sword elongated into a jagged spear, its tip humming with lethal intent—aimed straight for Towan’s heart.
A killing blow.
Towan’s eyes widened.
(There it is!)
A flicker of clarity—a single, fleeting path carved through the chaos.
His leg needed to move
here
—his body twisted
just so
—but it meant taking the hit.
No hesitation.
He embraced the strike.
Haeren’s blade pierced through Towan’s right shoulder, the Corruption sizzling as it burrowed into flesh. Towan’s face twitched, a grunt escaping his teeth—but his motion never faltered.
His leg lifted, the air around it distorting, rippling like water under a falling boulder.
Haeren’s eyes widened.
(This one—this one’s different—!)
Rellie’s mouth dropped open, her empathic Essentia flaring violently.
She felt it—the crushing weight of a waterfall, the roar of a river crashing down, the unrelenting force of nature itself.
It wasn’t visible—but it might as well have been.
Towan’s heel connected with Haeren’s neck.
"SKYBREAKER… ULTIMATE!"
The impact detonated like a collapsing cliffside, the force hurling Haeren backward, his body cartwheeling through the air before slamming into a tree trunk. Wood splintered, bark exploding outward as the oak cracked in half from the sheer momentum.
Haeren crumpled to the ground.
He did not rise.
Towan
collapsed to one knee
, his breath ragged as he
clutched his shoulder
, fingers pressing against the
searing wound
. Blood seeped between his knuckles, dark and glistening. His voice was
low, rough
, but carried the weight of absolute finality.
"Don’t get up."
Alira was the first to reach him, her usual bravado
shattered into wide-eyed disbelief
.
"WHAT WAS
THAT
?!"
she demanded, hands gesturing wildly toward the
shattered tree
where Haeren lay motionless.
Towan
smirked
, though it was strained.
"Everything I had. Haha."
The laugh was more of a
pained exhale
than genuine amusement.
Len
smiled too
, her usual calm giving way to something
brighter, fiercer
.
"That was
amazing
."
Ryn stood slightly apart, his sharp eyes
flickering between Towan and the fallen Haeren
.
(So this is the level of a First-Class genius…)
The same thought
echoed in Calo and Veik’s minds
, their expressions caught between
awe and something quieter—something like realization
.
"Ugh."
Towan
groaned
as the pain in his shoulder
sharpened
, a
deep, throbbing ache
that radiated down his arm. It wasn’t a fatal wound—but it was
heavy
.
(Had it hit my chest…)
He
discarded the thought
. No point dwelling on
almosts
.
Len
ripped the sleeve off her t-shirt
, the fabric tearing with a
sharp sound
.
"Don’t move,"
she ordered, pressing the makeshift bandage against the wound.
Alira
scanned the treeline
, her usual fire dimmed by unease.
"We should go back…"
But Rellie
didn’t relax
.
The wolves were still. Haeren was down.
Yet—
Her fingers
twitched
, her empathic senses
prickling with warning
.
(Something else is here.)