Enaricus flinched, arms sweeping up in a desperate cross-guard.
Boom! Impact thundered through the square, hurling him backward once more, armor denting, bones rattling—while dust spiraled skyward like applause for the young man who refused to stop advancing.
Enaricus skidded backward across the ravaged air, more than three hundred yards before frictionless void finally surrendered its grip and let him stop.
He was uninjured, yet both arms throbbed. Tremors rippled down to his fingertips, protesting Jared’s last strike.
“Those feeble tricks? You dare call yourself the Third Hall overlord?” Jared’s voice rolled out, cold and certain, each syllable a verdict. “As of today, you are stripped of that title!”
“You are nothing, nothing!” Enaricus roared, forcing power through shaking limbs. Aura ballooned around him in ragged, furious waves, too wild to disguise the panic beating behind his eyes.
Jared offered a thin, almost pitying smile. Then, he vanished.
A heartbeat later, the sky screamed, swordsong chiming from nowhere, its invisible edge twisting space, carving silver fissures through the firmament.
Enaricus bit down on fear, vaulted upward, and met the emptiness with a hammering fist aimed at Jared’s new location.
I cannot lose!
Prince Percival and Grand Elder Esorin are watching. If I fall to an Earthly Immortal upstart, the Third Hall’s alliances will unravel, and my own men will never heed me again!
Boom!
Sword intent collided with raw fist-wind. The heavens burst open, shockwaves rippling like tidal rings through shattered sky.
Spectators fumbled for hastily raised shields of spiritual energy while, at the epicenter, Jared and Enaricus were already trading the next savage volley. Flames licked along the sundered void, turning air itself into burning canvas.
Disciples of the Third Hall blanched. If even their overlord could not restrain Jared, what hope did they hold?
The young man was supposed to sit at a mere Earthly Immortal rank, nothing about that realm explained such cataclysmic force.
Across the field, Onneas watched with a blooming smile. Warmth softened her gaze, admiration mingling with something tender. Jared’s growth was astonishing, so swift it defied common sense.
Boom!
The two figures sprang apart in a spray of molten air, only to slam together again with renewed ferocity.
Jared’s intent-forged blade unfurled bursts of icy brilliance. Each sweep etched pale arcs that lingered an instant before gouging fresh wounds in space.
His excitement mounted; he could feel his sword will purifying, growing keener with every clash. Each meeting of steel and flesh felt like sculpting an incomparable statue, his sword intent the master’s chisel.
The phantom blade shimmered, its cold light slithering like living mercury. Guided by Jared’s wrist, it painted lethal, beautiful strokes, one moment a horizontal slash materializing at Enaricus’ left, the next, a needle-point thrust darting from the right with surgical cruelty.
Jared himself became a specter, flickering through fractures in reality, here, then gone, dancing just beyond the reach of any reprisal.
Enaricus fought on, but dread gnawed at him. He had dismissed Jared as a minor Earthly Immortal, yet the young man’s sword intent seemed bottomless. Every strike carried crushing power and arrived from angles no defense could anticipate.
How in the blazes can this whelp wield such terrifying power?
Enaricus felt his composure unravel. Sweat beaded across his brow, slid past the curve of his cheek, and sank dark stains into the collar of his brocade coat. His breath shortened.
Each punch now carried the dull, terrifying weight of futility, as though his arms were moving through half-frozen tar.
Across from him, Jared floated with effortless poise, a faint, almost courteous smile playing at the corner of his lips. The sight burrowed into Enaricus’ chest, blooming into a cold knot of helpless dread.
All around them, gasps rippled through the crowd. For a heartbeat, the world seemed to shrink until only two figures, predator and rising predator, existed beneath the bruised sky.
