Darek's gaze lingered on Pow Pow in disbelief.
"Wh… what did you do, you goddamn idiot?" he shouted at Pow Pow in his thoughts, while a sharp pressure built behind his forehead and his throat felt as if he had actually hurled the words out loud.
"You wanted to bargain with me, and you wanted to borrow something. I'm only having my fun here. What rightfully belongs to me," Pow Pow replied in thought with a calmness that almost sounded mocking, as if he did not merely notice the turmoil inside Darek but was deliberately savoring it.
How much damage can one or two sentences really cause? Did I actually think that?
The thought struck him with unexpected force. For a fleeting moment it felt as if it wasn't only Pow Pow examining him, but as if he had exposed himself.
Time seemed to stand still, as though even the air had stopped circulating. Then the Silvaran bear broke the tense silence with its first step. Heavy and irreversible, its paw came down, and it slowly rose to its full height.
At first Darek did not dare to look it in the face. He did not have to. The creature's presence was physically tangible. It settled on his shoulders like an invisible weight, pressed against his chest, and nearly stole his breath. This aura held no mere anger, but a deep, burning hatred that filled the space and paralyzed every movement.
"How can someone be so arrogant and disrespectful? This is an outrage!"
The third leader shouted it in outrage, his voice trembling with fury. Even the audience was swept up by the emotion. From the back rows, objects were thrown in Darek's direction, accompanied by boos that echoed through the cave like a raging storm.
Darek could not utter a word. He could neither answer nor explain himself, because in that exact moment an aggressive, terrifying roar tore through the charged atmosphere.
The Silvaran bear roared so loudly that the rock above them seemed to tremble, and everyone feared the cave might collapse under the force of the sound. On its body, the bud opened, and vines pushed outward, winding across its right and left forepaws as if making its fury visible.
Then it struck.
The blow landed with a force beyond imagination. For a barely comprehensible moment, a trace of movement could still be seen.
Then Darek was gone.
Only blood remained.
It seeped into the sand at their feet, leaving behind a dark red stain as the silent trace of what had just been a human being.
Darek had been erased on the spot. Obliterated. Smashed to dust.
Yet even in his rage, the Silvaran bear did not lose control. His anger still burned, but it was not mindless. Slowly his chest lowered as he breathed in and out, heavy and deliberate, as if he were restraining the blazing fire within him.
Red dust manifested in the air and slowly began to condense, forming the outline of a silhouette that at first looked like a shimmering shadow before gradually gaining clearer contours.
Out of nothing, Darek's body began to reform, as though an invisible hand were assembling him layer by layer until flesh, bone, and breath once again became whole.
He came to, dazed, and grabbed his head in disbelief. His gaze wandered through the surroundings as if trying to comprehend what had just happened.
What just happened?
The thought weighed heavily in his mind while a dull pounding echoed through his temples.
"New second place. The Grotto Salamander moves down to third."
The voice cut through the stirred atmosphere with cold objectivity, almost clinical, as if it were merely a side remark and not the commentary on a life that had just been erased moments ago.
Before Darek had fully regained his senses, Seraphis shot toward him and placed himself protectively in front of him. His body tensed as he faced the Silvaran bear with a hiss, ready to counter any further movement.
What should I do? Fight, flee, or try to explain this mess?
The thought shot through Darek's mind while his heart hammered so violently against his chest that it felt as though it were trying to force him into a decision.
"Zero percent," Iris said dryly. "Don't even think about it. One like that could take on three forty-year-old grotto worms alone."
There was no panic in her voice, only sober calculation that crushed any hope of heroic resistance before it could even form.
Darek gave a short nod, and the next moment he and Seraphis were already moving.
They ran toward the exit.
Most of the spectators had already fled after the Silvaran bear's first bone-shaking roar, so the path was surprisingly clear. Between overturned benches and abandoned belongings, a narrow corridor had formed, almost like a thin thread of hope.
When the bear saw Darek walking upright again, his rage surged once more. For him it was not simple defiance, but an unbearable act of disrespect that knew no limits and deserved no mercy.
Darek shot Pow Pow an angry look.
"Darek!" Iris called out to him.
At that same moment the bear's paw shot forward again, larger and more massive than before, cutting through the air with devastating determination.
Darek had no time.
In a flickering instant possibilities rushed through his mind.
Iris's wings.
Vision.
Borrow Pow Pow's transformation ability.
He discarded the thought as quickly as it had appeared.
He only borrowed Iris's Vision, since moving through the cave with wings would have been difficult anyway. At the same time he gathered his energy within the compass.
An escape.
In the fraction of a second he concentrated his power.
He dodged the incoming paw by a hair's breadth, because thanks to Iris's Vision he perceived the flow of the strike a heartbeat earlier than any normal eye could have.
The air trembled where the paw had just been, and the sand-covered arena floor shattered under the force of the missed strike.
But the compass remained silent.
No line.
No impulse.
No escape revealed itself to him.
"What— not even running away?" he blurted out in disbelief.
Before he could even finish the thought, a vine shot out from the opened bud and wrapped around his body like an iron band.
The grip was merciless.
Alive.
Pulsating.
Seraphis sprang forward without hesitation. His teeth flashed as he bit into the vine.
But the plant was as solid as hardened stone.
His fangs found no purchase, no resistance that yielded.
Another, smaller vine shot forward and struck Seraphis with brutal force.
His body split in the middle.
"Seraphis!"
Darek's voice tore through the charged air.
Seraphis twitched helplessly, still conscious, his gaze clear with pain. Another vine lashed out and struck him again.
At that moment Pow Pow jumped between them in his normal form.
Even for him the situation was so overwhelming that a transformation would have given him little more than the chance for a desperate escape.
The second strike landed with less force since Seraphis was no longer the true target and already lay severely injured on the ground.
Because of that, Pow Pow managed to intercept the vine and stop its motion.
But the violence of the impact made him spit blood.
His small body was pushed backward as if the raw force were driving straight through him.
"Shit, this wasn't supposed to go like this!" Pow Pow shouted toward Darek.
And for the first time his voice did not sound superior.
It sounded shaken.
The Silvaran bear roared again.
Vines now covered his entire body, wrapping around his shoulders, chest, and paws until he looked like a living knot of fury and plant power. Even his teeth seemed longer and sharper, and in his gaze burned a brutality that had nothing human left in it.
I thought I had grown stronger… but I'm nothing more than a useless piece of trash.
The thought was not a loud confession, but a quiet fracture inside him.
The vine holding Darek tightened around him, relentless and merciless, until the pressure surpassed every limit.
In the next moment his body was torn apart and fell to the ground in two halves, as if he had been sliced through without resistance.
Red dust gathered in the air once more, first like a shimmering veil, then denser and more focused until it wrapped around the two halves of his body lying close together.
As if guided by an invisible hand, it bound flesh and bone together again, erased the wounds, and forced life back into a body that moments ago had seemed destroyed.
When the bear saw Darek regenerate yet again, he lost the last of his restraint.
Another roar ripped through the cave, so piercing that rubble and heavy chunks of stone crashed down from the ceiling. Dust swirled through the air while the vines around his body tightened further, as if physically condensing his rage.
The already enormous paw swelled even larger, until it appeared more than twice its previous size. Vines wrapped around it like taut steel cables.
The bear drew back once more.
That motion alone made the side of the arena toward which the strike was aimed tremble and crack under the forming force. Rock splintered, the ground tore open, and even the air itself seemed to vibrate under the gathered violence, as if it could not withstand the coming impact.
The strike landed.