The massive sword descended like judgment itself.
Alex barely had time to react. He raised his scythe and met the blade head-on, steel screaming as the impact detonated through the hall. The force was overwhelming. His feet were driven into the floor, cracks spiderwebbing outward as the stone gave way beneath him. His legs sank deeper with every second.
Then—
Velkar moved.
Twisting midair with terrifying control, Velkar arched his body and lashed out with his leg. The kick struck Alex square in the ribs. The sound was wet, hollow. Alex's body was hurled across the hall like debris, smashing through shattered pillars and broken stone.
He tumbled violently, bones grinding, until instinct took over. Alex slammed his scythe into the ground, the blade carving a glowing trench through the floor as it slowed him to a stop. A low, pained growl escaped his throat as Nebula Healingignited—flesh knitting together, ribs snapping back into place, pain dulled but not erased.
Without hesitation, Alex activated the Ring of Speed.
The world blurred.
He shot forward in an instant, shadow trailing behind him like a comet. When he closed the distance, he unleashed Half Moon Slash, a crescent of dark energy tearing through the air toward Velkar.
Velkar didn't dodge.
Instead, chains burst from the void, wrapping around his broadsword. The metal pulsed with a ghastly aura as he swung. The slash was obliterated on contact, shattered into fragments of fading shadow.
But that attack was never meant to land.
Alex had already moved—slipping into Velkar's blind spot. He raised his scythe and brought it down toward Velkar's neck in a clean, killing arc.
The ground screamed.
Chains erupted from beneath the floor, snapping upward like serpents. They collided with the scythe mid-swing, stopping it dead. Before Alex could react, more chains surged from the stone behind him, racing toward his spine.
He felt it.
Alex twisted away just in time. The chains grazed his face, tearing skin and drawing blood. Pain flared—but there was no time to breathe.
Velkar was already there.
A massive horizontal swing tore through the space Alex had occupied moments earlier. Alex ducked beneath it, the blade missing him by inches—
—and obliterating a palace pillar instead.
The structure exploded. Stone collapsed in thunderous ruin, dust and debris raining down as the ceiling groaned in protest.
Alex looked up, breath caught in his throat.
If that had hit me… I would be dead.