[A/N: A Special shoutout to my latest patreon member, Kurupt. Thaknks for the support dude.]
Chapter 57: Kaku Steps Up
The world had shrunk to the space between Kaku and the lion. Everything else was a peripheral nightmare of snapping teeth and dying screams, a chorus for the main event.
I hacked my sword through the neck of a wolf, the bone crunching under the steel, and risked a glance back. What I saw froze the blood in my veins more than any beast's claw ever could.
Kaku was changing.
A low, deep thrum started in the air, like a massive drum being struck in a far off cave. The massive demihuman's body, already a mountain of muscle and metal, seemed to swell. His dark fur bristled, each hair standing on end. And on the patches of skin I could see on his thick arms and neck, things began to writhe to the surface. Symbols. Angry, jagged, bloody red lines that burned like fresh brands against his skin. They pulsed with a light that matched the dark red glow now clinging to him like a shroud of embers.
The massive black lion seemed to feel the shift. It paused, its molten amber eyes narrowing, and then it lunged. Its paw, bigger than my entire torso, swept down with enough force to pulverize stone.
Kaku didn't dodge.
He braced, his feet digging into the earth, and met the blow with his own shoulder.
The impact was a sound that was less a noise and more a physical sickness in my gut. It was the sound of a castle wall being hit by a siege weapon. I expected him to be smashed into paste.
He skidded back, his boots carving trenches in the ground, but he held. A low, guttural growl rumbled from his chest, deeper and more primal than any beast's roar. The red symbols on his skin blazed.
Then he moved.
He was not fast like Sheyla. He was inevitable. He swung that absurdly large axe, the black iron head now wreathed in the same bloody glow. The lion, impossibly fast for its size, tried to recoil, but the axe bit deep into its foreleg.
It wasn't a clean cut. It was a brutal, tearing impact. Black fur and thick hide split. Something dark and viscous that might have been blood sprayed out, sizzling where it hit the red aura around Kaku. The lion screamed, a sound of genuine pain and shock that shook the very air.
The beast's own body began to burn with a faint red haze, a bloody light that clung to its obsidian fur. It was answering him. Meeting his power with its own.
The next exchange was too fast to truly follow. The lion became a blur of claws and teeth, each strike meant to kill. Kaku became an unmovable fortress, his axe a whirlwind of destruction. He would take a hit on his armored forearm, the metal screaming in protest, and answer with a swing that carved a chunk from the lion's flank. He tanked a blow to his chest that would have turned a normal man into a red smear, grunted, and slammed his axe into the beast's jaw with a crack that sounded like a falling tree.
I stood there, my sword hanging limp in my hand, my mouth agape. This wasn't fighting. This was a clash of gods. A raw, brutal contest of power where every impact was meant to end the world of the other.
My mind spun, trying to make sense of it. The symbols. The glow. It was magic, but it wasn't like Freya's circles. This was something else. Something poured directly into the flesh, turning the body itself into a weapon. I could feel the heat from their auras even from here, a dry, metallic scent like a forge mixed with the coppery tang of blood.
Kaku roared, a sound of pure, undiluted fury, and leaped. He jumped higher than any man should, bringing his axe down in a two handed arc aimed at the lion's skull. The lion twisted, the axe instead shearing off a large part of its dark mane and opening a deep gash along its shoulder blade.
The beast retaliated, its tail, thick as a tree trunk, whipping around and catching Kaku in the side. The demihuman was thrown through the air, but he twisted, landing in a crouch that cracked the ground beneath him. He was up in an instant, charging back in, his red eyes burning with a light that promised only annihilation.
I finally understood, down in my bones, what I was seeing. This was a level of power I couldn't even comprehend. I had been playing at being a warrior. They were forces of nature.
A sharp pain in my leg brought me back. A hyena thing had sunk its teeth into my calf. I yelled, more in frustration and shame than pain, and brought my sword down on its spine, cutting it in half.
I couldn't watch anymore. I had my own hell to survive. But the image of Kaku, glowing like a demon from the deepest pit, trading world ending blows with a mountain of black fury, was burned into my mind forever.
The fight was a brutal dance I was no longer a part of. I was just a spectator, hacking down the occasional beast that got too close, my eyes glued to the two titans. Kaku's axe slammed into the lion's ribs with a wet crack, and the beast answered by slamming its head into his chest, sending the demihuman stumbling back. For a single, fleeting second, Kaku's burning red eyes flicked away from the lion, up and over its head. He gave a sharp, almost imperceptible nod.
I followed his gaze. Kail, balanced on a jutting rock, had an arrow of solid silver light nocked and drawn. He wasn't aiming at the lion. He was aiming for its back. For Moti.
The arrow sang. It was a streak of pure, silent speed. It didn't go for a killing blow. It was a surgeon's strike. It pierced straight through Moti's outstretched hand, the one he was using to grip the lion's mane. There was a spray of dark blood and a sharp, reedy scream of agony that cut through the battle's roar. Moti's grip failed. He tumbled from his perch, landing in a heap of black robes on the churned earth, clutching his ruined hand.
The black lion froze. Its massive head turned from Kaku to where its master had fallen. Then it turned back to Kaku. Its face, a mask of bestial fury, seemed to twist into something even more vicious, a pure, undiluted promise of death. Its body tensed, the bloody aura around it intensifying until it looked like it was wreathed in a shroud of fresh blood.
It opened its maw, and the world held its breath.
The roar that came out was not just sound. It was a physical wave of pressure that hit me in the chest, forcing me back a step. And from that abyss of a throat came not just fire, but a concussive flurry of it, a solid river of orange and white hell aimed directly at Kaku. It was an avalanche of flame, wide enough to swallow a house, and it moved with the force of a tidal wave.
Kaku didn't try to run. He was engulfed. The fire consumed him, a roaring inferno of incineration that turned the night into day. I felt the heat blister my skin from twenty yards away.
And then I heard his voice, a guttural shout that rose from the heart of the inferno, completely untouched by the flames.
"Earth Magic: Earth Wall!!!"
The ground in front of him erupted. A slab of solid earth and stone, five feet thick and twice as tall as he was, shot upward, slamming into place like a giant's shield. The river of flame hit it and split, cascading around the sides in a futile, roaring torrent. The earth blackened and cracked, but it held.
I looked at Freya, my mind reeling. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly open. It wasn't her. She hadn't moved. There was no circle. How?
From behind the wall, Kaku's voice came again, calm and clear. "Trent, do it now."
My head whipped around to the quiet man. Trent had lowered his heavy crossbow, placing it on the ground with a strange, deliberate care. He moved so slowly it was maddening, like he had all the time in the world. Then, in the blink of an eye, his hands shot out.
A magic circle burst to life in the air before him. It was a complex, fiery mandala of orange and red lines, already spinning. And then it began to pull. The flames still raging against Kaku's earth wall, the flames licking the ground, the very heat in the air, it all twisted and funneled into the circle like water down a drain. In seconds, the area was cleared of fire, the air cool and strangely empty. Kaku stood unharmed behind his blackened wall.
But Trent wasn't done. His hands moved through the air, tracing patterns. The circle responded. New layers snapped into place around the original, each one adding more symbols, more geometric shapes of blinding complexity. It was roughly the same size as the one Freya had used to launch us, but I could feel the difference. This wasn't just power. This was an entirely different language of destruction. This was precision on a scale I couldn't fathom.
His voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, a stark contrast to the cataclysm he was about to unleash.
"Fire Magic: Fire Dragon Roar."
The world turned white.
From the center of the circle, a beam of pure, concussive fire ten meters wide screamed into existence. It wasn't a spray of flames. It was a solid, concentrated pillar of annihilation. It hit the massive black lion and kept going, vaporizing everything in its path for a hundred meters. Beasts, earth, rock, everything simply ceased to be.
The sound was the loudest thing I had ever heard, a continuous, deafening shriek that felt like it was tearing my soul apart.
And then it was over.
The circle vanished. The silence that followed was heavier than any noise. Where the beam had traveled, a smooth, glassy trench now cut through the battlefield, a canyon of fused earth and vaporized matter that glowed with a faint red heat in the darkness. It extended so far into the distance I couldn't see its end.
The massive black lion was gone. Obliterated.
Beside me, Freya was staring at the devastation, her face pale. Her voice was a bare whisper, filled with a confusion that mirrored my own.
"Fourth tier magic?"
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