Chapter 34: Strike.
"Hey. Look here."
Aiden’s voice cut through the air, directed at the figure lying across the stone floor.
The jailer, who had been slowly pushing Cedric to his limit, suddenly flinched and threw a kick at the blond boy’s stomach, getting him out of his way. Immediately after, he jumped to his feet and spun around.
He hadn’t expected a sudden, freezing chill behind his back. By the time he turned toward the voice, the silver-haired boy was already in front of him.
With a rapid movement, Aiden grunted and launched a fist straight toward the center of his face. The speed of the strike was utterly unbelievable; despite the jailer’s frantic reflexes, he simply lacked the split-second window required to avoid the blow.
Feeling lethal danger for the first time in the entire engagement, the cloaked man abandoned defense. Instead, he threw a counter-punch of his own, betting everything on a collision he had easily won twice before.
Once again, two enhanced strikes rushed toward each other. This time, however, both were an unstoppable force. Who could possibly know the result of such an illogical clash?
In the blink of an eye, the air warped around their knuckles as they gained more and more speed. And although the collision reached its absolute peak in less than a second, to Aldrus, watching from the sidelines, it felt like an eternity of agonizing suspension.
Yet, somewhere deep within his failing consciousness, a spark of reassurance calmed his heart. His mind was exhausted and his ribs were on the verge of shattering, which was why it had taken him so long to notice a critical detail...
For a while now, the jailer hadn’t been fighting efficiently; he had been frantically targeting Aiden, as though he were driven by a raw, undisguised sense of urgency.
"Ahhhhghhh!" A sound tore from Aiden’s throat, sudden agony assaulting his senses. Every single wound begged for a stop, but the sobbing boy would not back down.
He was the only one there with the monstrous power needed to succeed.
He’d use it all, no matter the condition of his body.
His fist met the jailer’s in a shower of sweat and compressed air, but unlike the previous exchanges where Cedric and Alice had been pushed away like insects, Aiden’s arm did not falter at all.
The cloaked man’s eyes widened in despair, his boots slid back as he tried to maintain his footing against the boy.
Little by little, Aiden began to reclaim the ground, forcing the massive man backward.
Then, with the sudden violence of a lightning strike, the jailer’s momentum finally reversed.
Aiden’s punch shattered the man’s guard, sending his arm recoiling back as though it wanted to tear itself free. However, the oncoming assault didn’t stop there; it kept tearing through the atmosphere like a bullet aimed directly at the center of the man’s skull.
*SMASH*
A crunchy, dry noise echoed through the shadowed underground, immediately followed by an illogical burst of wind that had no business existing in such place.
*Drip.*
*Drip.*
The rhythmic sound of liquid hitting the floor broke the heavy silence that had settled over them all.
Hahh... Straining his vision through the dust, Aldrus narrowed his eyes. Not far from where he lay, a mangled, bewildered face found itself staring in astonishment at him.
The jailer’s head had been violently jerked in his direction, spun so far around by the impact that he looked like an owl whose neck had just rotated a full hundred and eighty degrees. Granted, that was merely Aldrus’s exaggerated impression, but the reality felt just as unbelievable.
N-No way... Aldrus calmed his breathing in absolute shock; he studied the face before his eyes with the hope that would be all.
The cloaked man looked speechless; dark blood poured from his nose, two of his front teeth were missing, and his left cheek was caved in like a jagged canyon.
!!! It’s now!
Realizing the impossible chance his friend had granted them, Aldrus forced himself onto his feet. He had to finish the job while the enemy was disoriented.
Damn it, hurry! he snarled at himself, desperately forcing his legs to move. The monster was severely damaged, but a Holder of his caliber would only need a handful of seconds to recover before Aiden had another chance to strike.
As he launched forward to deliver a knocking blow, the cloaked man clenched his remaining teeth. Aldrus came within mere inches of his target, but just when he was about to finish the fight, the jailer suddenly stood up, planting his back foot and making a fist.
Damn it, [Visione]!
Aldrus reacted to the surprise attack as fast as he could. He quickly glimpsed into the future as his muscles tensed, ready to dodge the upcoming blow.
I see it. I see it! I see—
*SMACK*
...Huh?
M-My hair...
Everything in the world suddenly seemed to stop. Aldrus found his mind plunged into a bizarre, detached state of confusion. The only thing remaining was a sharp pain on his solar plexus.
M-My hair is... floating up?
The moment he realized that gravity had seemingly inverted, it was already too late.
His brain couldn’t bridge the gap between the future he had foreseen and the terrifying speed of the actual strike. A man standing on the threshold to a higher rank was something he hadn’t fought against ever in his life.
He had grown confident. Not every Holder was the same, even among those in the same rank.
In the very next instant, the milky-eyed boy’s vision went completely dark. The final sensations his nerves registered were the crack of splintering wooden beams and a searing burn tearing across his back.
Below, deep within the cavernous darkness, all sound came to an end. The sudden absence of noise filled the remaining trio with an odd, terrifying feeling. For a fleeting moment, their own bloodflow was the only thing that could be heard.
*CRASH!*
Before long, Alice and Cedric came back to their senses, but the jailer had already moved again. He vaulted upward through the jagged hole Aldrus’s body had just carved into the ceiling, leaving the dark, cold dungeon behind.
A second later, another burst of wind violently whipped against their faces with such force it felt as though it meant to knock them to the ground.
"Aldrus!" Cedric screamed, swiftly snapping out of his blind rage.
Beside him, Alice didn’t waste a breath. She stepped back, hoisted Aiden onto her shoulders, and gathered the absolute last reserves of her power, using [Motion] in her legs. Then, she leaped through the rupture in the ceiling, quickly rushing toward the man.
"Shit!" Cedric grunted, rewinding his shaky, broken hand. Without missing a beat, he enhanced his own legs, picked up something from the floor, and followed behind.
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