Kalanka's roar shattered the stillness like thunder crashing through a storm.
"What have you done to my child!? Why is he crying?!"
Her fury was primal—raw and blinding.
I didn't flinch. I stood there, bloodied and half-healed, and smirked.
"What you need to do," I said slowly, with venom in each word, "is listen. Unless you want to die… you and your lovely family."
She didn't even answer. Her form blurred—a flash of motion faster than thought.
Boom!
Her punch came like a cannon blast, aimed straight at my face. But I met her knuckles with my own. Flesh and bone collided, a concussive wave rippling out from the clash. The earth beneath us cratered. Trees splintered. Leaves exploded into the air like ash from a volcano.
I was flung back thirty paces, tumbling through shattered bamboo, dirt spraying up in my wake. My shoulder was dislocated. My ribs collapsed inward. I spat blood.
She didn't move an inch.
Kalanka stood there, her chest rising, a flicker of a grin on her lips. She was enjoying this. She was hungry for more.
I rose slowly, my arm hanging uselessly. Then it began to shift back into place, the bones twisting with sickening cracks as they reset and healed. The skin sealed up. My spine straightened.
Her eyes narrowed. "Regeneration?"
"Yeah," I said, cracking my neck. "It's rude to die before the fun starts."
She was on me again.
This time her leg swept forward in a crescent kick, aiming to take my head off. I ducked—barely—and countered with a palm strike to her midsection. It landed. Felt like hitting a boulder.
She responded with an elbow to my jaw, spinning with impossible speed for her size. My vision flickered. I stumbled back, but a thread of mana lashed from my fingers, binding her ankle—buying me one heartbeat.
That heartbeat was enough.
I unleashed a blast of concentrated mana, palm-channeled, point-blank into her chest. The shockwave sent her skidding back a dozen paces, gouging a trench in the dirt. Smoke rose from her torso.
But she didn't stagger. She smiled wider.
"That tickled."
Then she unleashed her true power.
With a roar, Kalanka's body began to glow faintly blue—the mana she stored surging to the surface. Her aura erupted, wild and uncontrolled, saturating the entire forest in a dome of killing intent. The ground around her hardened, like stone compressing from sheer pressure.
She vanished.
A blur. A ghost.
I felt the punch in my stomach before I saw her.
I flew. Crashed into a tree. Broke through it. Slammed into a rock face hard enough to split it in two.
She didn't wait.
She landed behind me, bringing down her fists like hammers. I rolled aside, barely escaping the crater her strike left. I countered with a burst of mana threads, slicing through the air like steel wire.
She batted them aside with her forearms, drawing blood but not slowing.
"Still grinning?" she asked, blood trickling from her brow.
"Hurts like hell," I replied, breathless, "but I haven't felt this alive in years."
My mana flared. I drew power inward, compressing it to the core of my chest, then released it in a violent mana eruption. The explosion formed a barrier dome that blasted her backward.
I shot toward her, mid-air, my fist burning white-hot with condensed energy. She responded in kind—her right fist wrapped in a blue-glowing gauntlet of physical force formed by her inner strength.
We collided again—fist to fist.
This time, the forest screamed.
An explosion of light. Trees flattened in a ring around us. Birds fell dead from the sky. The air was sucked inward, then expelled in a massive shockwave that could be seen for miles.
When the dust settled, I was on one knee, blood leaking from my nose and mouth. My arm was hanging by threads of sinew, twitching.
Kalanka was standing, her chest heaving, bruises blooming across her arms.
"Halfway to the coffin, huh?" I muttered, coughing.
"You are," she growled. "But now you're dragging my son into this?"
I wiped my lip and smirked. "His life depends on me. Whether you like it… or not."
That did it.
She screamed in fury, and her aura turned red-hot—literally. The air caught fire around her. Steam hissed from her skin as her body pushed past normal limits. Her strikes came faster. Harder. Wild. Uncontrolled.
I barely dodged. My body kept crumbling under the blows.
Shatter. Heal. Shatter. Heal.
She was rage incarnate.
And then the boy cried out again. Loud. Pained. His tiny voice cut through the madness.
"MAMA!!"
She froze for a fraction of a second, her burning fist inches from my face. Her chest rose and fell. Eyes wide with a sudden, shattering awareness.
That's when the voice echoed.
"That's enough."
We both turned.
There, standing calm amid the destruction, was Sarbel the Hatcher—the quiet storm. No aura. No stance. No weapons. Just presence.
Kalanka's eyes widened.
I knew that man.
Sarbel the Hatcher. The two-faced strategist. A legend of the war of revgards. Husband to Kalanka—the only one she listens to.
Kalanka turned, her eyes softening.
Sarbel stepped forward, gaze fixed on me. "What do you want?"
I dusted blood off my coat. "It's not what I want. It's what you need."
He scoffed. "We live here in peace. We don't need the help of nobles or tyrants."
"You don't have to serve me," I said calmly. "Just share your knowledge. I'll give you protection."
"From whom?" Sarbel asked, voice still calm. "You think we require your protection?"
"If not—why are you hiding here?" I gestured around. "Why bury yourselves in this cursed forest? You know how many will come for your child… for your wife? Not out of hatred—but for what she is."
Silence.
I stepped closer. "I knew you wouldn't agree easily. So, how about a little chat? Just the two of us."
Sarbel stared at me. Then glanced at Kalanka, who growled low in her throat.
"Don't go," she said. "You saw what kind of man he is."
Sarbel touched her hand gently. "Don't worry. I've got my artifact. I'll be fine."
He walked with me to the edge of the ruins.
I snapped my fingers, casting a sound-blocking veil, ensuring our conversation remained hidden. Even Kalanka wouldn't hear from this distance.
"Let's be honest," I said. "I can offer your child treatment. A real one. A safe future. You can't."
"We are managing just fine."
"Managing?" I raised an eyebrow. "You're surviving. Not living."
He didn't respond.
"You love her," I said softly. "You love Kalanka."
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"And she loves you. Enough to abandon everything, to live in this hell with you."
He nodded slightly.
"But we both know… you're the brain, she's the brawn. She listens to you because you're the strategist. But what if I told her… that you chose her not out of love, but because she has what you lack?"
His face hardened.
"What if I told her you used her strength as a tool to survive? What would that do to her trust in you?"
Sarbel said nothing, but the faint twitch in his eye gave away the pressure he was under.
"You know she'd believe it. because she has only muscle not brain And even if she dont believe once that seed of doubt is planted… well, what happens to your 'peaceful' life then?"
He stared into my eyes.
I smiled coldly. "So… what's your decision? Come with me, share your knowledge, or… I tear apart everything you've built. Slowly."
His fingers clenched.
Then he sighed.
"...You really are a bastard."