Chapter 102: Cornered.
Chapter 102: Cornered.
At the center of the devastated city, a lone man leaned heavily against the remains of a crumbling stone wall.
His breathing was uneven.
His once-pristine armor had been reduced to little more than scraps of battered metal, countless deep gashes running across its surface. Blood seeped from numerous wounds covering his body, staining the cracked ground beneath his feet.
His condition was miserable.
Anyone else would have collapsed long ago.
Yet the green-eyed man remained standing.
His disheveled brown hair swayed gently in the evening breeze as a pair of striking emerald eyes stared forward without the slightest hint of surrender.
He resembled a beast that had been cornered.
Wounded.
Exhausted.
But still baring its fangs.
Standing opposite him were four figures.
They advanced slowly through the ruined street, each step calm and unhurried.
None of them bothered concealing their presence.
There was no need.
The pressure radiating from their bodies distorted the surrounding air, causing fragments of broken stone to tremble beneath their feet.
Cold smiles spread across several of their faces.
To them...
The hunt was already over.
"Well, well..."
One of the women stepped forward, lazily twirling a whip formed entirely from writhing barbed vines.
"If it isn’t our little traitor."
Her mocking voice echoed across the abandoned city.
Beside her stood another woman.
Long ice-blue hair flowed behind her like frozen silk, while a razor-edged ice disc hovered beside her hand, icy mist continuously rolling from its surface.
She looked at the wounded man as though he were already a corpse.
"You really thought you could escape?"
"You actually believed we wouldn’t find you?"
The green-eyed man slowly straightened himself away from the broken wall.
Despite the blood dripping from his wounds. Despite the exhaustion weighing upon every movement...
His gaze never wavered.
"Please..."
His hoarse voice carried surprising strength.
"You know I won’t go down without a fight."
The instant the words left his mouth...
Boom.
A violent pulse erupted from within his body.
The surrounding air trembled violently.
An invisible force spread across the ruined city before crimson flames suddenly burst into existence around him.
The fire wasn’t ordinary.
Each flame carried an overwhelming aura that caused the surrounding temperature to rise at an alarming rate.
The ground beneath his feet blackened.
Nearby rubble began melting.
The flames spiraled around him like countless crimson dragons protecting their king.
The Law of Raging Inferno.
Its very presence seemed determined to reduce everything before it to ash.
One of the men among the eight stepped forward.
Dark, corrupted energy coiled around his body like living serpents, carrying with it a suffocating aura of decay.
He merely smiled.
"You think those flames can stop us?"
He slowly raised one hand toward the injured man.
"Activating your Law in your current condition will only drain what little strength you have left."
"It’ll only make killing you easier."
The green-eyed man answered without the slightest hesitation.
"I’d like to see you try."
Even now...
A fearless smile appeared on his bloodstained face.
"If I’m dying today..."
"I’m dragging a few of you to hell with me."
The man wrapped in cursed energy clicked his tongue.
His expression darkened slightly.
He knew that wasn’t an empty threat.
The man before them was one of the strongest beings alive.
Even gravely wounded. Even standing at death’s doorstep...
A monster was still a monster.
The cursed man slowly extended his palm.
At once, waves of dark energy rippled outward.
The corrupted aura swept across the battlefield before crashing into the injured man.
Almost instantly...
The wounds covering his body worsened.
Fresh blood burst from reopened cuts.
His muscles trembled as the curse invaded his flesh, relentlessly aggravating every injury he carried.
Yet...
The flames surrounding him burned even brighter.
The pain only seemed to fuel the inferno raging within his eyes.
Seeing this, the cursed man frowned before raising his voice.
"Get ready!"
His command echoed across the ruined city.
The other three moved immediately.
Their killing intent exploded without restraint.
The first to move was a man surrounded by arcs of crackling lightning.
Electricity danced wildly across his body, illuminating the ruined streets in flashes of blue-white light.
The next instant...
He vanished.
No.
He moved so quickly that he became nothing more than a streak of lightning tearing across the battlefield.
The wind exploded behind him.
Within the blink of an eye, he had already appeared behind the wounded man.
Lightning gathered around his outstretched arm.
With a vicious thrust...
He unleashed a bolt of crackling lightning aimed directly at the green-eyed man’s back.
The lightning attack tore through the air with terrifying speed.
Yet just as it looked as though the attack was about to strike him...
The injured man finally moved.
With a swift pivot, he thrust out his palm.
The raging inferno surrounding him answered instantly.
Boom!
A towering wall of crimson flames erupted before him.
The bolt of lightning slammed head-on into the blazing barrier.
An explosion erupted.
Fire and lightning collided violently, releasing a deafening blast that shook the ruined streets as waves of scorching heat and crackling electricity rippled across the battlefield, blasting dust, rubble, and broken stone high into the air.
The injured man narrowed his eyes before a faint smile appeared on his bloodstained face.
"Not bad."
"Too bad your opponent is me."
Despite his confident words, his breathing had noticeably quickened.
Maintaining the Law of Raging Inferno was consuming an enormous amount of energy.
At the same time...
The curse eating away at his body continued to worsen.
The aura of decay wrapped around his wounds like invisible parasites, constantly reopening injuries that had barely begun to clot.
Blood continued dripping onto the cracked ground beneath his feet.
Seeing his condition deteriorate, the woman wielding the barbed vine whip wasted no time.
"Let’s wrap this up!"
Crack!
Her whip lashed forward.
Except it was no ordinary whip.
The countless barbed vines suddenly stretched and twisted through the air like a gigantic venomous serpent lunging toward its prey.
Dark green energy flowed across every thorn.
The vines multiplied as they advanced, weaving together into a massive net determined to bind him completely.
But before they could reach him—
Whoosh!
A blazing wave of inferno erupted from his body.
The vines plunged directly into the flames.
Immediately...
The living vines shriveled.
Their vitality was burned away almost instantly as they curled into black ash before falling harmlessly to the ground.
The woman clenched her teeth.
"Why are you making this useless attempt?"
"Why don’t you just stay still and die!"
She hissed through gritted teeth.
Yet the injured man didn’t even spare her a glance.
While her attack occupied his attention...
The ice-haired woman finally moved.
A cold smile appeared across her face.
She flicked her wrist.
The icy disc disappeared.
A split second later...
It reappeared directly before the man.
The spinning weapon sliced through space with terrifying momentum, its razor-sharp edges distorting the surrounding air.
As it spun...
Hundreds of razor-like ice shards burst away from its surface like a deadly storm, covering every possible angle of escape.