Pow-Pow was still hovering in the air, right at eye level with the Vanquisher. A cocky grin rested on his face, as if he were savoring the moment, as if the fight itself were nothing more than a game that was simply waiting to begin.
Slowly, he drew back and tensed his right arm. His massive forearm tightened, as if the mass within it were being compressed and forced into itself. Muscles twitched beneath his golden fur, and a pulsing tremor ran through his arm while a warm, pressing aura emanated from his body, spreading through the air like shimmering heat.
"Pow!"
His arm shot forward.
The movement was so fast it nearly vanished to the naked eye, as if the air itself had briefly warped to clear the way for the strike.
In that very same instant, before the first blow could even land, Pow-Pow was already tensing his left arm. His forearm contracted with the same brutal force, and the sound it made resembled thick steel cables being stretched to their absolute limit. A faint electric hum vibrated through the air, as though the raw energy of the strike itself was on the verge of discharging.
"BOOM."
The two blows collided with only the slightest delay, so close together that they almost felt like a single, overwhelming impact.
But they didn't even reach their target.
The strikes slammed against an invisible barrier emanating from the Vanquisher. Before Pow-Pow's fists could reach him, they hit that silent boundary and were stopped with brutal finality, as if they had struck a wall of unyielding reality.
A violent shockwave burst outward from the barrier, racing through the surroundings at tremendous speed. Dust, loose stones, and fine particles were ripped free and hurled through the air. The current sliced through the cave like an invisible blade, hinting at the sheer force behind the blows, even though they had never reached their target.
The Vanquisher exhaled calmly.
"What a show. I really hoped you had enough strength to at least break through the barrier. What a disappointment. So much smoke for nothing."
Pow-Pow froze.
Those words struck him deeper than any blow ever could. To him, it felt worse than being buried alive. The overconfidence that had carried him just moments ago collapsed instantly. His pride crumbled as well, as if the ground had been ripped out from beneath his feet. What remained was a humiliation that settled cold and heavy in his chest.
His body began to change at once.
The golden glow of his fur faded, as if the light itself were being drained from him. The warm radiance dimmed, slowly giving way once more to its familiar red. At the same time, his form visibly shrank. The massive forearms that had been brimming with power lost their monstrous size and slowly receded, until only his smaller, familiar form remained.
There was emptiness in his gaze.
How could this happen?
Such humiliation had never even existed in his imagination. Not even in his boldest thoughts had he ever considered this outcome. The very idea had been impossible to him.
Slowly, his body began to descend.
He fell from the Vanquisher's height, powerless and without resistance. Not like a fighter being struck down, but like a lifeless stone that simply falls because nothing holds it anymore.
Motionless.
Dust swirled up as his body finally hit the ground at the Vanquisher's feet. The particles danced in the air for a brief moment before slowly settling again, and for an instant, even the cave itself seemed to fall silent.
Pow-Pow lay there.
Right in front of the Vanquisher.
His gaze remained empty as he struggled to comprehend how something like this could have happened.
In that moment, Darek was far too consumed with himself to notice what had just happened between Pow-Pow and the Vanquisher.
His body had long since become a gruesome sight.
By now, sixteen vines had pierced through him. There was barely any space left between them. The first had driven through his back from behind, leaving him hanging in the air like a skewered animal. The others had shot straight through him from the front, tearing through flesh, muscle, and bone as if his body were nothing more than soft resistance.
And five more vines were still rushing toward him.
Darek suddenly coughed violently.
A surge of warm blood spilled from his mouth, dripping down in thick, dark splashes onto the ground.
Almost there… then I'll show this damn bud who the prey really is…
But damn… this hurts…
"Fak. Fak!"
The scream tore out of him, raw and unfiltered.
Blood seeped from every single wound in his body. It ran over his skin, dripped from the vines, and gathered on the already dark red ground beneath him, staining it even deeper with every drop.
Darek gasped for air.
"No wonder the ground here is so red… damn it… this hurts like hell."
HISS.
WHOOSH.
Two more vines shot forward and pierced his body with brutal precision. His body jerked violently as the new wounds instantly filled with blood.
Darek cursed louder.
And angrier.
"AAAHGRH… fine… those should've been the last ones from this damn, cursed plant…"
His voice was rough with pain and blood.
"Time for the next phase."
He struggled to breathe.
"Power for—"
SHIUSH.
Another vine pierced his body mid-sentence.
Darek's body tensed sharply.
"AAAHHG! FAK! FUCK YOU!"
His breath came in ragged bursts.
"Power Form… Transformation!"
At that exact moment, the sense of danger he had felt through the Power Form of Caution vanished.
Completely.
Because in the state he was in now, caution was no longer a part of him.
"A Power Form transformation. Emotional basis: moderate anger," Iris analyzed calmly.
The anger did not come as an explosion.
It crept into Darek slowly.
A heavy heat rose from deep within his chest, spreading through his body and tightening every fiber of his muscles, as if something inside him were preparing for an inevitable collision.
His breathing deepened.
When he exhaled, a short cloud of vapor escaped his mouth, warm and rough, like the breath of a beast just before the attack.
His shoulders dropped slightly forward while the muscles along his neck and spine visibly tensed. His body suddenly appeared more compact, denser, as if all his strength had been compressed into a single point.
Slowly, his hands closed into fists.
His knuckles jutted out sharply, almost bony, as if the skin had tightened around the hard structure beneath. A dry cracking sound ran through his fingers as his joints realigned, preparing for violence.
Then his gaze changed.
His eyes narrowed slightly, locking onto his target with a cold, unwavering calm. Everything else around him lost its meaning. Sound. Movement. Even pain.
For Darek, only the opponent in front of him still existed.
As he exhaled again, that same short cloud of vapor rose in front of his face.
In that moment, Darek no longer looked like someone deciding whether to fight.
He looked like a predator that already had.
"SHIT."
Darek's voice was little more than a hoarse growl forced through clenched teeth.
Now I owe Pow-Pow that damn deal for the second time.
The thought flickered through his mind for a brief moment, bitter and heavy.
But whatever.
His lips twisted into a crooked, blood-smeared grin.
Still killing two birds with one stone.
The Power Form through anger… and I've got this pile of vines right in front of me.
His breathing came in bursts as blood continued to run from the countless wounds across his body.
The last three of the five projectiles were still racing toward him.
Only half a meter away.
All three aimed directly at his head this time.
For a split second, Darek's body hung motionless in the air, impaled by the vines, drenched in blood and seemingly completely helpless.
Then he moved.
He tilted his head just a few centimeters.
With a short, precise motion, he grabbed the first vine and tore it apart before it could reach him.
The second followed immediately after, but it too was ripped apart by sheer force.
The third passed so close to his temple that he could feel the cold rush of air against his skin.
And yet it didn't hit.
Not a single one.
Then Darek moved.
Slowly, his left hand reached behind him, feeling across his blood-soaked back until his fingers finally found the vine that had pierced through him from behind and had kept him suspended like a skewered piece of meat the entire time.
His fingers closed around the pulsing, living tissue.
Then he pulled.
With a single brutal jerk, he tore the vine out of his own back. Flesh ripped, blood burst out in a dark surge, and at the same time his hand crushed the plant tissue where he gripped it. The vine split under his grasp, torn clean into two pieces.
The support vanished.
His body dropped.
But before he could fully hit the ground, he moved again.
In one large motion, he reached forward. His hands closed around the vines that had pierced him from the front. Several at once. His fingers gripped them while they were still buried deep inside his flesh.
Blood ran over his hands.
He squeezed the vines together.
Then he pulled.
A scream tore from Darek's throat, raw, hoarse, and filled with savage strain as his muscles tightened and his body fought against the living restraints that held him impaled.
"AAAHHHRGH!"
His arms trembled.
The vines tightened.
Then came the first sound.
Crack.
A single strand of plant tissue snapped under the immense tension.
Then another.
Crack.
Crack.
More and more fibers began to give way as Darek's grip tightened further. The vines trembled in his hands, as if they themselves understood that their strength was no longer enough.
Darek felt it.
Beneath him.
Deep in the ground.
The bud was slowly losing its hold.
Its roots began to loosen as his raw strength tore it piece by piece from its hiding place.
More vines snapped.
Some tore completely.
Others still held.
Not because they were strong enough.
But because Darek wanted them to.
The ground began to tremble slightly.
Dust trickled from the walls of the cave as the massive plant was slowly ripped from its foundation by the brutal force of his pull.
Just a little more.
Darek was only a moment away from tearing the bud completely out of its hiding place.
"Don't break anything, I said."
The words hit Darek's ears at the exact moment he saw the movement.
The spear tip came straight at him.
Too fast.
Too close.
There was no time left to react.
WHASH.
The spearhead struck him with brutal force before his body could even process what was happening. It slammed directly into his chest.
The head of the spear was larger than Darek himself.
It took only a fraction of that monstrous tip to completely pierce him.
The sharp wooden point tore through his body, ripping through flesh and bone while effortlessly cutting through the vines still embedded within him. One after another, they were severed as if they were nothing more than thin threads.
In the next instant, they were replaced by cold, sharpened wood.
The tip jutted deep out of his chest, while the rest of the spear stood behind him like a massive pillar of living wood.
What is he doing here? Not even Iris' vision helped… and now it's gone too.
Where is Pow-Pow?
The thought flashed through Darek's mind for only a brief moment, raw and incomplete, as his body was still overwhelmed by pain, blood, and raging anger.
But it barely seemed to matter to him.
In that same instant, his body tensed again.
His arms tightened as his fingers clenched even harder around the vines still caught in his grasp. The plant strands twisted between his blood-smeared hands, but Darek's grip was relentless.
Then he tore them apart.
With raw force.
A sickening sound filled the cave as the living strands gave way under the brutal force of his pull. Fibers snapped, tissue burst open, and the vines tore apart in his hands as if he were ripping through wet flesh.
Blood dripped from his arms.
Shredded pieces of the plants fell to the ground.
And in that moment, Darek felt something.
The satisfaction of revenge.
It spread through him like a brief, dark spark of gratification. For a moment, it burned hot in his chest.
And as unwanted as it was, it caused a small part of his raging anger to simply burn out.
Fuck… these Power Forms are way too unpredictable.
The thought burned through Darek's mind as his body continued to tremble. The moment a part of his raging anger faded, he could already feel something inside him weakening. The tension in his muscles lost strength, his form visibly weakened, and the raw force that had been surging through his veins began to dissolve, as if someone had smothered the fire inside him.
The moment part of my anger fades… I lose strength and form.
"I said, don't break anything."
The Vanquisher's voice echoed through the arena, calm yet filled with an authority that left no doubt he did not intend to repeat himself again.
With an almost casual motion, he pulled the massive spearhead out of Darek's body. The wood slid back through flesh and bone as dark blood immediately followed, pouring over Darek's chest.
Then the Vanquisher slightly turned the spear in his hand and struck the ground with the back end.
The sound echoed through the arena like a final verdict.
At that very moment, the entire ground trembled, as if the world itself had held its breath for a brief second before giving in. A heavy shockwave spread out from the point of impact, racing through the space, tearing dust and loose stones with it and hurling everything aside that stood in its path.
Pow-Pow, still dazed, was caught by the force.
Darek as well.
Their bodies were hurled across the arena and slammed hard against the stone wall. The air was forced out of Darek's lungs, his body convulsed uncontrollably, and a moment later he choked out a surge of dark blood that spilled across the already red-stained ground.
That wasn't even an attack…
The thought crept slowly through his dazed mind as his blurred gaze wandered across the arena.
He's not even trying.
Slowly, red dust began to flow from Darek's body, but after only a few seconds it became clear that something was wrong. The dust moved sluggishly, as if struggling against an invisible resistance, and only hesitantly gathered at the edges of the wound.
Shit…
The dust…
The wound is barely closing.
Normally, his body would have already begun regenerating at brutal speed, but now the gaping injury remained open while the red dust worked weakly and far too slowly.
Why? What the hell is going on…
My power is barely healing at all…
Slowly, Darek's gaze lifted toward the Vanquisher, who still stood there as if nothing of importance had just happened in the arena.
What kind of monster is this guy…
A heavy realization settled into his mind.
The Order of Vanquishers is truly terrifying. No wonder they're the last ones to step in when no one else can continue.
Even now, this man wasn't even serious.
And there wasn't even a trace of his silvaric bear yet.