Chapter 265: The Lord of Beasts Against the Phantom

Chapter 265: Chapter 265: The Lord of Beasts Against the Phantom

Varkhazan’s golden eyes remained fixed on the man standing before him, his instincts continuing to issue a warning that his pride refused to acknowledge. The evolution he had undergone had transformed him into something far greater than the Beast Tyrant he had once been, elevating his physical strength, mana, and authority to an entirely different level. He could feel the immense power coursing through his body, each movement accompanied by an overwhelming pressure that would have forced even the most formidable S-Rank Awakeners to their knees.

Yet the human before him appeared utterly unimpressed.

The shattered throne room trembled beneath the weight of Varkhazan’s presence, golden mana drifting through the air like burning particles of sunlight, but the man standing several paces away showed no inclination to retreat. His posture remained relaxed, his breathing steady, and his expression devoid of the slightest apprehension, as though the monster who had just completed a terrifying evolution posed no greater threat than an ordinary opponent.

Varkhazan narrowed his eyes.

"Who exactly are you? I have encountered countless humans throughout my existence, and every one of them has displayed the same instinctive awareness of the difference between a predator and its prey. Yet you stand before me without fear, without hesitation, and without even the courtesy of acknowledging the power I now possess."

The man regarded him silently for a moment before answering.

"Ares."

The name fell between them without ceremony, delivered in a calm, almost indifferent voice that seemed entirely out of place amid the destruction surrounding them.

Varkhazan’s expression shifted.

"Ares," he repeated, committing the unfamiliar name to memory before allowing a cold smile to spread across his face. "Very well, Ares. I shall make certain that the name you have given me is the last thing remembered of you when your existence ends in this chamber."

Ares regarded him with mild curiosity.

"You’re welcome to try."

The casual response extinguished what little restraint remained in Varkhazan’s expression.

Golden mana exploded from his body, spreading through the throne room in a violent shock wave that tore fragments from the already-damaged pillars and sent loose stones skidding across the floor. The Lord of Beasts lowered his center of gravity, his muscles contracting beneath his golden armor as he gathered his strength into a single forward movement.

Then he vanished.

The floor beneath his feet collapsed under the force of his acceleration, and his enormous figure crossed the distance between them with astonishing speed. His right fist, wrapped in compressed golden mana, came hurtling toward Ares’s head with enough destructive force to shatter a fortress wall, the pressure of its passage twisting the air into a deafening roar.

Ares merely tilted his head.

The fist swept past his cheek, missing by a margin so narrow that Varkhazan could see the faint reflection of his own golden aura in the other man’s eyes. Before the Lord of Beasts could retract his arm, Ares stepped inside his reach and drove a compact punch into the center of his abdomen.

BOOOOOOM!

The impact erupted through the chamber like a thunderclap.

Varkhazan’s torso folded around the strike, and the compressed mana protecting his body rippled violently as the force penetrated his defenses. His feet left the ground for an instant, but his combat instincts reacted before the pain could fully register; twisting his waist, he swung his left elbow toward Ares’s temple while simultaneously driving his knee upward in an attempt to catch his opponent during the recovery.

Ares was already moving.

He slipped beneath the elbow, turned his shoulder past the rising knee, and struck Varkhazan’s ribs with a short, devastating blow. The Lord of Beasts barely managed to twist away before a second punch landed against his jaw, snapping his head sideways and sending a spray of blood across the golden light surrounding them.

Varkhazan staggered half a step.

It was the first time since his evolution that anyone had forced him to surrender even a fraction of his balance.

Before he could recover, Ares seized his wrist, redirected the force of his attempted counterattack, and pulled him forward. A sharp turn of the hips brought Varkhazan’s massive body off balance, allowing Ares to drive a knee into his abdomen before releasing him with a throw that sent him crashing across the throne room.

The Lord of Beasts struck the floor hard enough to split the stone beneath him, then tore through the remains of a pillar before finally coming to a halt near the far wall.

For several seconds, the chamber fell silent.

Beyond the transparent violet barrier, the Hunters stared at the destruction with expressions that ranged from disbelief to outright shock. They had witnessed Varkhazan’s evolution and felt the terrifying pressure that accompanied his transformation, yet the battle unfolding before them had little resemblance to the desperate confrontation they had anticipated.

Tae-hyun stared at the crater where the monster had landed, struggling to reconcile what he had just seen with the enormous difference in power he had felt moments earlier.

"That was supposed to be five times stronger than before, wasn’t it? Because if that really is the result of his evolution, then I honestly don’t know what we’re supposed to make of the man fighting him."

Min-jae swallowed, his eyes following Ares as he calmly lowered his hand.

"He didn’t even give Varkhazan enough time to complete a proper combination. Every time that monster tried to change the angle of his attack, Tae-ho had already moved into the opening and struck him before he could recover."

"That wasn’t merely a difference in speed," Ha-eun observed, her expression unusually grave as she studied the movements inside the chamber. "Varkhazan was adjusting his attacks as the exchange progressed, changing his timing and using his momentum to conceal his follow-up strikes, but Tae-ho anticipated every transition as though he had already understood the entire sequence before it began."

Ji-hoon remained silent for a moment, his gaze fixed on the man standing alone in the center of the ruined throne room.

As an S-Rank Awakener and the only officially designated National Awakener in South Korea, he had faced monsters whose physical abilities far exceeded those of ordinary Awakeners, and he understood better than most how difficult it was to maintain control against an opponent possessing overwhelming strength and speed. Yet Ares had displayed neither the tension nor the caution that such a battle ordinarily demanded.

He had not needed to establish distance, reinforce his defenses, or even pause to assess the damage his attacks had inflicted.

He had simply entered Varkhazan’s range and dismantled the monster’s offense through superior timing, precision, and physical dominance.

"He’s controlling the entire exchange," Ji-hoon finally said, his voice low but firm. "Varkhazan may possess greater power than he did before, but Tae-ho is deciding when they engage, where the attacks land, and how each exchange ends. The monster is fighting to overcome him, while Tae-ho is choosing exactly how much of that fight he intends to allow."

Soo-jin looked toward him.

"Then the question is how much stronger Tae-ho actually is than the rest of us."

Ji-hoon did not answer immediately, because the truth was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Whatever the true limits of Yoon Tae-ho’s strength might be, the battle unfolding before them had already demonstrated that their understanding of those limits was woefully inadequate.

Inside the throne room, Varkhazan slowly rose from the rubble.

The golden armor covering his abdomen had fractured in several places, while a thin stream of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He touched the blood with two fingers and stared at the crimson stain, his expression growing darker with every passing second.

For an existence that had spent countless years establishing itself as the absolute ruler of this domain, the sight was an intolerable humiliation.

A human had injured him.

Worse, that human had done so without invoking an elaborate spell, summoning a weapon, or displaying any visible sign of exertion.

"You arrogant bastard."

Golden mana surged violently around Varkhazan, and the remaining pillars trembled as his killing intent flooded the chamber. His eyes burned with a ferocity that would have made weaker creatures collapse before him, while the energy surrounding his body grew denser and more destructive with every passing moment.

"You believe that a few successful strikes are enough to establish your superiority? Do not mistake my restraint for weakness, Ares. I have only just begun to demonstrate what the Lord of Beasts is capable of destroying."

Ares glanced at the blood on Varkhazan’s fingers, then returned his gaze to the monster’s face.

"Is that what you call restraint? From where I’m standing, you’ve been attacking with everything you have, and all you’ve accomplished is getting yourself thrown across the room."

The insult struck deeper than the injuries.

Varkhazan’s roar shook the chamber.

"THEN I SHALL CRUSH THAT SMUG EXPRESSION FROM YOUR FACE!"

He launched himself forward again, abandoning the measured rhythm of his previous attacks in favor of an overwhelming assault. His right fist descended toward Ares’s head, followed by a left hook aimed at his ribs, while a vicious knee strike surged upward to prevent him from retreating. The moment Ares shifted away from the knee, Varkhazan twisted through the movement and brought his elbow down in a crushing arc, using the momentum of his entire body to turn the attack into a devastating blow.

The sequence was faster, more forceful, and far more aggressive than anything he had displayed before.

Ares met it without changing his expression.

He redirected the descending fist with a slight turn of his forearm, slipped beyond the hook, and caught Varkhazan’s elbow before it could complete its arc. A sharp movement of his shoulder broke the monster’s balance, and Ares drove a punch into his ribs with such precision that the golden mana protecting the impact point collapsed inward.

CRACK!

Varkhazan’s armor fractured further.

Before he could retreat, Ares followed with a sweeping kick that struck his supporting leg, forcing his enormous frame to tilt sideways. Ares stepped into the opening and drove his fist upward beneath the monster’s jaw, lifting him from the floor before turning through his hips and delivering a second strike directly into his chest.

The consecutive impacts rang through the chamber like a series of explosive detonations.

Varkhazan flew backward, smashed through two pillars, and struck the ground hard enough to send a wave of broken stone across the floor. He immediately rolled to one side as Ares advanced, narrowly avoiding the next strike when the stone where his head had rested burst apart beneath the force of the blow.

He sprang to his feet and unleashed a sweeping kick aimed at Ares’s head.

Ares leaned backward just enough to let it pass above him, then stepped forward as Varkhazan’s leg descended and struck the monster’s abdomen with a straight punch. The Lord of Beasts doubled over, but Ares seized the opportunity without hesitation, driving an elbow into his back before following with a heel strike that sent him skidding across the shattered floor.

Every exchange ended the same way.

Varkhazan attacked with the full force of his evolved body, layering his strikes with golden mana and altering his angles in an effort to catch Ares off guard, only for Ares to read the movement, dismantle the combination, and answer with a counterattack that inflicted greater damage than the attack that had preceded it.

The Lord of Beasts was neither slow nor inexperienced. His movements carried the accumulated instincts of countless battles, and his newly evolved body possessed enough power to turn a single clean strike into a catastrophe for almost any opponent.

Against Ares, however, those advantages were insufficient.

The difference was not simply that Ares moved faster or struck harder. He possessed such complete command over the exchange that Varkhazan could not force him into an unfavorable position, could not disrupt his rhythm, and could not create an opening that Ares had failed to anticipate.

Ares was not struggling to survive the monster’s assault.

He was demonstrating, with every effortless counter, just how thoroughly Varkhazan had misjudged the distance between their abilities.

’His physical capabilities have increased considerably since the evolution, and his instincts are more refined than those of the average high-ranking monster,’ Ares observed, watching Varkhazan recover from another punishing strike. ’Unfortunately for him, an increase in power does not automatically grant him the experience or precision required to use it effectively against an opponent of my caliber.’

Varkhazan wiped the blood from his mouth and forced himself upright, his chest rising and falling beneath the fractured armor. The golden aura surrounding him flickered for a fraction of a second before expanding once more, and his gaze shifted toward the man approaching him at an unhurried pace.

For the first time since his evolution, the Lord of Beasts understood that his opponent’s composure was not a bluff.

Ares had not been holding back because he feared the consequences of unleashing his full strength.

He had been holding back because Varkhazan had not yet given him a reason to do otherwise.

The realization filled the monster with a fury so profound that it momentarily eclipsed even his instinct for self-preservation.

"Enough!"

Varkhazan spread his arms, and the golden mana filling the throne room abruptly changed in nature. Rather than flowing freely around his body, the energy compressed into countless narrow points of concentrated force, each one sharpening into a spearhead that glimmered with destructive brilliance. The air above the ruined floor trembled as hundreds became thousands, until a vast formation of golden spears filled the chamber from wall to wall.

Ares paused and glanced upward.

Varkhazan’s voice thundered through the room.

"THRONE OF A THOUSAND FANGS!"

The golden spears descended.

They fell from every direction, converging upon Ares with such overwhelming speed that the entire throne room disappeared beneath a storm of brilliant light. Each spear carried enough concentrated mana to pierce the defenses of a high-ranking Awakener, and the combined assault transformed the surrounding space into a continuous chain of explosions.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOOOM!

The impacts tore through the floor, pulverized the remaining pillars, and sent immense clouds of dust rolling toward the violet barrier. Golden light flooded the chamber until the distinction between the ground and the air became almost impossible to discern, while the force of the bombardment shook the castle’s foundations.

Beyond the barrier, the Hunters instinctively braced themselves against the shock waves.

"That kind of attack would obliterate an entire formation of A-Rank Awakeners!" Tae-hyun exclaimed, his eyes widening as another explosion swallowed the center of the chamber. "How is anyone supposed to withstand a barrage like that without a defensive skill powerful enough to counter every single spear?"

Ha-eun did not respond immediately, her attention fixed on the dense cloud of dust obscuring the battlefield.

"Varkhazan is no longer trying to win through close combat," she said at last. "He’s covering the entire area, eliminating every possible escape route and forcing his opponent to withstand the full power of his authority. If Tae-ho were an ordinary Awakener, there would be nowhere left for him to move."

Min-jae clenched his fists.

"Then he just has to make sure Tae-ho doesn’t get caught in it."

Ji-hoon shook his head slowly.

"Look more carefully. Tae-ho hasn’t shown any indication that he intends to evade the attack."

As the last golden spears struck the ground, a final explosion erupted at the center of the formation, sending a towering column of dust and shattered stone toward the ceiling. The remaining spears dissolved into fading particles of mana, and the golden radiance gradually receded, revealing the devastation Varkhazan had wrought upon his own throne room.

The floor had been reduced to a vast field of craters, the pillars had collapsed into rubble, and deep fissures extended through the stone in every direction.

Yet at the center of the destruction, Ares remained standing.

His clothes were untouched.

There was no blood on his body, no visible injury, and not even a trace of dust clinging to his shoulders. He stood with one hand resting casually at his side, regarding the ruined chamber with the same calm expression he had worn before the battle began.

Varkhazan stared at him.