The instructor glanced over her shoulder, her sharp eyes locking onto the looming shadow that was Ali—advancing step by step like the incarnation of death itself. His presence was unshakable, his pace unhurried, and yet he seemed to grow larger and closer with every passing second.
She could feel it. The weight of inevitability pressing on her shoulders like an avalanche.
'I need more time…' she thought, her eyes flicking back to the massive beast. The deep, raw gash that had carved its way along the wolf's back and across its underbelly was in the process of closing, the flesh knitting slowly as the shimmering white streaks of energy returned, flowing back to the moon-scar on it's forehead.
But it wasn't fast enough.
"Give me everything you have. Now," the instructor commanded fiercely.
The wolf halted mid-stride, obeying her voice with unwavering loyalty. It threw its massive head to the sky and released a powerful, heart-stopping howl that reverberated across the entire arena.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The arena silenced, every player in attendance stunned by the intensity of the call. It was ancient. Primal. Beautiful and terrifying all at once.
In a brilliant eruption of energy, the white streaks fled the wolf's body, vanishing all at once. The healing stopped immediately. The beast's power, that once danced elegantly across its coat, surged violently up the instructor's arm and consumed her entire frame.
She ignited.
From head to toe, the instructor's body was cloaked in ethereal white fire—wisps of magical flame licked at her skin without burning her, rippling like ocean tides in a full moon's light. Her figure shimmered as though dipped in liquid moonlight, radiant and intense.
Her hair flowed upward, caught in the current of energy now surging within her. She turned her glowing face toward Ali, who stood still, unbothered, analysing the new development.
Ali tilted his head slightly. From where he stood, the silhouette of the instructor—now lit up like a celestial being—looked as though she had been set aflame.
'Is she serious?' Ali thought, watching her leap gracefully from the wolf's back. She landed lightly on the sand in a perfect crouch, a gust of white energy erupting outward from her bare feet like a soft detonation.
She rose to her full height, regal, defiant.
"It's me and you now," she declared, her voice louder and clearer than ever as she lunged forward, body twisting at the waist, preparing to strike.
KICK
Her right leg, cloaked in blazing white energy, cut through the air with shocking speed—like a blade forged of moonlight. But to Ali, it might as well have been moving in slow motion.
He sidestepped cleanly, the strike missing him by mere inches. The energy trailing from her kick created a gust of pressure that scattered sand in a wide arc. The crowd gasped at the speed and power of the attack.
"She's a fucking imbecile," Jacob burst out laughing, his voice ringing through the air guild's section as he pointed mockingly at the arena screen.
The players around him stiffened, unsure how to respond, but the guild leader leaned forward, intrigued. "How so?"
Jacob turned and grinned up at the man in the finely pressed grey suit. "She thinks she can buy time for her summon to charge up by going into close combat with Ali… She fucked up."
Back on the screen, the instructor's limbs were a blur. White energy burst from every movement as she threw a series of rapid strikes—each punch and kick radiating power, each attack accompanied by sharp gusts that rocked the arena floor. Her control of the white flame was flawless, her martial form honed.
But it didn't matter.
Ali weaved through her strikes effortlessly, barely needing his Force Sense. His eyes, trained to read the smallest muscular twitches, easily tracked every telegraphed movement.
'Telegraphing her attack is piss easy,' he thought with cold amusement. Her shoulders lifted before every punch, her knees bent seconds before every kick, and her eyes betrayed every next move. It was like fighting someone who was announcing each strike before throwing it.
She shot out two lightning-quick jabs.
BANG. BANG.
Ali blocked both with the flat side of the inverted spear. The impact caused the white energy to erupt skyward in twin bursts, cutting through the air like twin geysers of steam.
She followed immediately with a swift diagonal kick, her heel sweeping upward toward his chest—
CATCH
His bare hand closed around her ankle, stopping the kick mid-swing. The white energy flared against his skin and burned his hand but Ali regenerated instantly that nobody even noticed.
Her eyes widened in alarm.
She tried to pull away, but his grip was unyielding, like a steel vice. Ali shifted his stance, hoisting her captured leg up violently and yanking her off balance.
She tried to recover with a roll, twisting her hips to regain footing—
KICK
UGH
Ali's right leg rocketed forward, driving into her exposed stomach like a battering ram. His foot sank deep, the impact visible to everyone watching. The sound of the blow was sickening—a sharp, dense thud that echoed across the arena.
The instructor's eyes bulged, the air in her lungs vanishing in an instant as her body was launched backward. She skidded along the sand on her back, carving a long trail into the ground.
But she gritted her teeth and rallied, using the the white energy burning within her to flip back onto her feet. Her legs trembled, but she forced them to obey.
DASH
In the blink of an eye, Ali was already upon her. His massive frame towered over hers, casting a looming shadow. Her hands shot up in a panicked attempt to defend—
BANG
Too late.
Ali drove his fist into her stomach again, the force pulverising her midsection. She felt her internal organs shift under the sheer brutality of the blow, the heat of his strike radiating through her flesh.
UGH
The white energy raced to the wound in a desperate attempt to repair her ruptured insides, but Ali wasn't finished.
SLASH
The inverted spear of heaven came around with brutal precision. He dragged its edge down the length of her right arm—from shoulder to wrist.
SPLASH
Blood exploded into the air. Her skin unzipped from her arm like a curtain, peeling back grotesquely to reveal the blood and bone beneath. Her eyes went wide. Horror gripped her soul.
AAAAAAAAAAAH!
Her scream tore through the silence, echoing painfully across the arena. Players in the crowd winced and turned away. Others stared, stunned, unmoving.
The pain was surreal—impossibly sharp and all-consuming. Her brain tried to shut down from the overload of signals.
She staggered backward, eyes blurring with tears and blood—
SLASH
Ali repeated the exact same cut on her left arm, mirroring the first wound. The blade of his weapon tore through flesh as if it were paper.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
The sound of her voice cracked into something inhuman, somewhere between a sob and a scream, as she dropped to her knees.
Her arms now hung above her head, the flayed skin fluttering gently in the breeze like banners of meat. She stared at her own limbs with disbelief—her mind unable to register what she was seeing. It didn't feel real.
Then, through the haze of agony and humiliation, something surfaced. A phrase.
A word that could end it all.
A way to escape the torment. A single command to save herself from further pain.
She remembered.
"I—SU—"
UGH
Her trembling voice was cut short.
Ali's hand snapped forward like a serpent striking its prey. His powerful fingers clamped around her lower jaw, his grip unwavering. The warmth of her breath barely left her lips before his thumb and fingers dug deep into her flesh.
His face was unreadable—cold, controlled, but with a glint of something darker burning in those bottomless black eyes. He leaned forward slowly, deliberately, as if savouring her confusion, her terror, her defeat.
She stared into his eyes—and saw pure horror.
SHRRRRIP
With a violent jerk, he tore her lower jaw clean off her face.
RRRRRRIIIIIP
Tendons snapped. Flesh shredded. A wet, grotesque pop echoed as blood sprayed in all directions, a crimson mist splattering the golden sand beneath them. Her mangled jaw dangled from his fist like a slab of meat torn from a carcass.
The scream never left her throat.
Instead, a guttural, blood-choked gurgle escaped her open mouth, her tongue now twitching uselessly against a mangled, gory gap where her jaw once was.
OHHHHHHHHHHH—
A wave of silence rippled through the arena.
Not a whisper. Not a cheer. Not even a gasp. Just wide, stunned eyes. Open mouths. Hands slowly lowering from clapping. Players frozen in disbelief at the raw, barbaric act they had just witnessed.
They'd seen blood before. They'd seen players die. But this? This was cruelty. Surgical cruelty. To stop a player from surrendering…
And their eyes shifted in unison toward the Beast Guild's section.
A sea of players stood, fists clenched, some trembling with rage. Others turned away entirely, unable to stomach the sight of one of their own—someone they respected—brutalised in such a humiliating, horrifying manner.
They saw her—the once-proud instructor—lying in a spreading pool of her own blood, mouth gurgling and twitching as crimson gushed from her open face.
GROOOOOOWWWWWWWL
From the far side of the arena, a sound exploded like thunder.
A howl of primal anguish and fury.
The massive moon-scarred wolf—the majestic summon—reared back on its hind legs, head thrown to the sky as it released a roar that made the air itself tremble.
It had seen everything. Its master, mutilated. Its bond-mate, desecrated. Pain and wrath now clouded its thoughts, reducing the beast into a storm of pure, berserk vengeance.
But the white energy that connected them—the very magic keeping the instructor alive—continued to pulse through her veins, keeping her conscious, making her feel everything.
The wolf's massive paws pounded into the arena floor, cracking the sand beneath with sheer force. Its silvery coat bristled. Its glowing scar bled light—and blood. The pressure within its soul bond overloaded, refusing her commands.
'Cancel summon—'
Her mind screamed it again and again, but the command bounced off the beast's blind fury.
'CANCEL SUMMON. CANCEL SUMMON!'
The soul-link trembled violently.
The strain from the beast's refusal was beginning to unravel the connection—blood now streaming from the glowing half-moon scar on its head as the bond strained against itself like a rope fraying under tension.
"Stop… you STUBBORN BASTARD!"
The leader of the Beast Guild slammed his cane into the floor of his section, his old voice filled with wrath and urgency. His knuckles were white as he clenched the wood. 'If it dies like this, it won't come back the same.'
They all knew the truth.
A summon slain while active didn't simply vanish—it returned to its origin world where it would resurrect. The beast wouldn't revive the same, it would weaken and some even devolved into lesser beasts.
Down in the arena, Ali calmly turned to face the incoming wolf. He flipped the inverted spear in his hand, chain trailing behind like a shadow, and without glancing back at the broken instructor bleeding behind him, he spoke in a voice that sent a chill through everyone watching.
"Watch this."
His smirk twisted into something darker. Something cruel.
The instructor's blood-covered eyes widened in horror as she mentally screamed again—
'Cancel the summon! Please, just cancel—!'
But the beast was too far gone. Its instincts drowned out the soul-link. It charged Ali, fangs bared, claws extended like sabers. It was a tidal wave of muscle and rage, paws slamming into the earth, shaking the ground with every bound.
Ali's eyes narrowed.
'Only done this once before… and it was a horse.'
He rotated his body slightly, building the centrifugal force in his arms, and flung the chain upward with bone-snapping velocity. The chain coiled midair like a serpent, spinning in a blur before it slammed around the wolf's massive throat—
THWIP—WHIRRR—SNAP
The chain wrapped tight, like a constrictor tightening around its prey.
SQUEEEEEZE
CRRRRRRRRRACK
Ali funnelled two full points of Spirit into the Force—his power surging through the chain.
The chain didn't just tighten.
It contracted. The massive beast's body halted mid-swipe and crumpled to the ground, gasping desperately. Its hind legs buckled. Its claws scraped at the sand. Its massive chest heaved violently as it choked on itself, the chain buried deep beneath its thick silver coat.
But Ali wasn't finished.
The beast writhed. Clawed. Tried to roll, kick, breathe.
It couldn't.
Ali gripped the chain in his left hand—spear in his right—and began walking slowly toward the dying beast, his footfalls measured, deliberate, and terrifying.
He reached its midsection. With calm precision, he pushed aside a section of thick fur with one hand and stabbed the inverted spear deep into the flesh beneath.
SKKRRT
The beast convulsed violently, howling, but its voice was a garbled croak, no longer regal—just desperate and broken.
The instructor watched helplessly from the ground, blood pouring from her face as she saw Ali bend down and roll up his sleeve.
He pulled the spear from the wound and replaced it with his arm.
He slid his bare hand into the wound.
Then he turned to her—his face stoic, almost indifferent—as he raised his free hand and slowly, clearly mouthed the words:
"Force… Push."
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The entire wolf ballooned in a split second. Its stomach swelled grotesquely, skin stretching to the brink, and then—
CRACK.
RIP.
SPLURT.
Blood exploded out of its nostrils. From its eyes. From its ears. Its limbs spasmed uncontrollably as the pressure inside its body grew unbearable.
"Force… Push."
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The wolf's massive frame detonated—its torso and flanks bursting into chunks of flesh and bone. A tsunami of gore exploded in every direction, coating the arena in thick crimson rain. Blood rained down from the sky. Organs splattered across the sand. A tooth the size of a dagger landed near the arena wall.
All that remained was the chain, dangling like a serpent through a cloud of red mist.
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Should I go see a therapist? How did I even think of fucked up shit like this…DAMN
Please donate some of your power stones, it would help my ff massively.
Five chapters ahead of webnovel on patreon.com/Rondo312