Boom.
An eruption of dust and stone burst into the air as Adam and the King Wolf Tiger collided. Leaves trembled along the crater's rim, swaying under the shock of the impact.
"Hmph."
Adam grunted, swinging his arm with brutal force. His fist slammed into the beast's skull, a deep vibration reverberating through his bones, but they held. He had pulled the punch.
The wolf's massive head shifted under the blow, then snapped back into place. Its eyes locked onto Adam once more, cold and calculating.
'How annoying.'
Adam's gaze narrowed. He knew exactly how much his bones could withstand, and now he knew. Even at full strength, they wouldn't be enough to break the beast's.
The beast lunged forward, jaws open wide enough to swallow him whole. Adam jumped to the side. Its fangs slammed shut at arm's length, the deafening crack of teeth against teeth shaking the air.
He threw another punch, the impact rippling through the crater. Then he leapt back, putting space between them. Soil piled beneath his feet as he slid to a halt, his gaze locked on the beast once more.
'I never expected a King to be this strong.'
His eyes narrowed. The creature's sheer size and dense hide made it almost immune to blunt force.
This was a problem.
'Guess I'll have to put in more effort then.'
Adam suddenly bent forward, clutching his abdomen. His stomach bulged as if something massive had forced its way inside. The swelling grew, pushing upward until it reached the size of a small boulder. It pressed against his chest, then his throat. His vertebrae strained under the pressure. Adam opened his mouth wide, unnaturally wide, his jaw stretching until it seemed ready to tear.
A white blob began to push its way out of his mouth. It moved slowly, wetly, with a disgusting sound. Then, with a heavy plop, it landed on the ground. Drool dripped from Adam's chin, spattering the dirt below.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked up. The white mass began to lift from the earth, rising into the air. Slowly, it began to change.
As the mass floated upward, it began to shift and ripple unnaturally. It twisted in on itself, folding and stretching as if struggling to recall its own form. For a moment, pieces tore free, only to be pulled back in and absorbed once more. Sharp angles jutted out, then smoothed as if some unseen force willed them into submission.
Then, all at once, the chaos stilled.
It solidified.
High above the crater, above Adam and the King Wolf Tiger, it had taken shape.
A single, massive eye now hovered in the air, wide and unblinking. It loomed with quiet menace, its surface pulsing faintly with light, veins of energy snaking through its surface like lightning beneath skin. The pupil contracted, then snapped into focus.
Its gaze swept over the battlefield.
Then it locked onto the King Wolf Tiger.
The creature froze for a fraction of a second under the weight of its stare. Wherever the beast moved, the eye followed silently.
Adam watched from below, saliva still smeared across his mouth. He narrowed his eyes.
'That should do it.'
The moment the giant eye locked onto the beast, Adam charged forward once again, diving back into the battle.
To a mortal, the floating eye high above might have been terrifying enough to bring them to their knees. But in a battle between Luminaires, fear was never its true purpose.
Adam had first awakened as a mind pathway Luminaire. Like most, he received a single soulbound mote that aligned with his affinity. Some were granted two, but one was far more common. And typically, when only one was given, it meant that the mote held remarkable potential. Even so, Adam had quickly realized the mind pathway was not what he wanted. He later shifted to strength pathway instead.
Still, the mote had remained.
That hovering eye, his soulbound mote, was far more dangerous than it looked. It watched over the field from high above, its gaze locked onto any who posed a threat to Adam. And with every passing second it held its focus, it drained thoughts from the target, absorbing them and feeding them directly to Adam.
That was what made it so powerful.
Though Adam had abandoned the mind pathway, the mote's ability paired perfectly with his chosen path. While the eye steadily siphoned the opponent's thoughts and stamina, the strength pathway enhanced Adam's own endurance. His stamina became relentless, while theirs dwindled with every moment.
It was a battle of attrition.
And Adam knew, if he could make the fight last long enough, he would always come out on top.
Adam twisted his body, letting the beast's jaws snap shut a hair's breadth from him. His arm pulled back, muscles coiling like a spring, before he slammed his open palm against the creature's ear.
"Gone with you."
The beast recoiled, letting out a sharp, guttural whimper as it staggered back. One of its claws scraped at the side of its head, crimson spilling from its ruptured ear. The blow had burst its eardrum.
'Not good enough.'
Adam didn't hesitate. The moment his feet touched the ground, he launched forward again, closing the distance in an instant.
He'd aimed for the eye at first. But instinct and caution held him back. The beast had already displayed signs of possessing a mote related to blade pathway, there could be more buried within it. This wasn't the time for reckless risks.
Still, crippling half its hearing wasn't a bad trade.
Adam's fist was just about to connect when his eyes widened.
'Where did it go?'
His instincts screamed, a surge of alarm crashing through him.
He barely managed to raise his arms to shield his side before something immense slammed into him.
The beast's claw struck with immense force, hurling Adam across the crater. He crashed into a stone wall with a thunderous impact.
Stone shattered. Dust surged into the air like a wave, swallowing the crater in a choking haze.
For a moment, everything was a blur. Then his vision sharpened.
He pushed himself free from the fractured wall, only to collapse.
Pain shot up his leg as he looked down. His right femur had snapped clean through, the bone poking out of his thigh like a pale spike.
He lifted his arm. Mangled. Flesh and torn skin barely held it together.
"Argh…"
A guttural sound tore from his throat as he raised his left hand, jammed it into his mouth, and bit down hard.
With a savage rip, he tore another finger free.
A pale green light flared around him. The bone snapped back into place, the skin knitting over it. His mangled arm reformed as muscle and sinew crawled back into alignment.
Adam gritted his teeth as he forced himself forward, one heavy step after another. Though his entire body had healed, blood still trickled from the hand missing a finger. This was just an example of the price some powerful motes needed to activate. It healed any wound, but every activation cost thoughts… and a finger, lost forever.
"Fucking concealment motes," he muttered, spitting over his shoulder.
Then he broke into a sprint, charging toward the beast once more.
His focus locked onto the creature, but thoughts surfaced in fragments, half-formed, piecing themselves together between strikes.
'I have no sensory motes,'
He deflected a blow, absorbing the shock through his forearms.
'I'll have to rely on my own senses, and the Observing Eye.'
As the beast unleashed a barrage of strikes, Adam matched its ferocity, parrying and blocking. Amid the chaos, he issued a mental command.
In that instant, the eye floating high above narrowed its gaze, and Adam's vision shifted.
His perspective split.
One eye saw from the ground, face to face with the King Wolf Tiger. The other looked from above, the entire battlefield exposed beneath the gaze of the mote. He watched himself move through the crater. Watched the beast's every twitch, every shift in weight, every breath.
The moment he did, the fight began to shift. Adam was no longer on the defensive.
Bam. Bam. Bam.
Hit after hit crashed down on the beast. Heavy, deliberate. Like anvils falling from the sky.
It staggered under each blow, letting out sharp whimpers as its paws scraped for footing.
Even if it was a King Wolf Tiger, it was still up against a rank two Luminaire. While it could hide its presence, it couldn't fully mask its movements when it attacked. And with the eye above watching, Adam had just enough time to react.
The beast lunged again, jaws wide, ready to split Adam in half.
Boom.
Fur and blood burst into the air as Adam's fist slammed down on its skull. The impact shook the earth, enough to make a lesser fighter stumble.
"Now."
His voice was low.
He pulled his arm back. Muscles tensed and rolled beneath the skin.
Then, he struck.
His fist slammed directly into the King Wolf Tiger's eye.
With no thick hide or hard bone to withstand the punch, his hand drove deeper. The eye split with a wet, sickening sound. Fluid burst out in every direction. His fist kept going, carving through nerves and flesh until it hit something solid deep inside.
The beast let out a broken shriek, part rage, part agony, as its body thrashed wildly.
Adam ripped his hand back. Blood and pulp clung to his arm. Shreds of ruined tissue slid down his fingers.
His eyes stayed locked on the beast.
He wasn't done yet.
As the beast reeled from the blow, one eye ruined and gushing, its footing faltered. It tried to retreat, instinct taking over, but its back leg gave out, and it stumbled, crashing sideways into the crater wall. Stone cracked behind it. Its breath came in wet, ragged bursts, blood seeping from its mouth.
Adam stepped forward.
His boots crunched over shattered stone and blood-soaked earth. The air stank of iron and sweat and fur.
The beast tried to rise again.
Too late.
Adam planted his foot on the side of its neck, forcing it down with raw, unrelenting weight. He reached both arms back, every muscle tight like pulled wire, then drove his fists together into the top of the beast's skull.
Crack.
The bones beneath caved.
The beast convulsed.
Adam's lip curled. He gripped its fur, yanked its head up, and twisted. Forcing the exposed, bleeding eye to face him again. One last breath wheezed out of the Wolf Tiger's chest.
He raised his fist once more.
This time, he struck for the center of its skull, just behind the eyes. With a Nauseating crunch, his knuckles sank through fractured bone, deep into brain.
The beast spasmed. Then went still.
Adam pulled his blood-soaked hand free, chest rising and falling in heavy pace. He stood there for a moment, breath steaming in the cooling air, his pulse slowly returning to normal.
The eye above him still hovered, watching.
But there was nothing left to watch.
The King was dead.
Adam let his hand fall loosely at his sides, tilting his head back to stare at the sky above. "Finally..." His breaths were uneven and ragged, his body still recovering from the exertion.
'It definitely got sloppy after I used the Observing Eye mote.'
The King Wolf Tiger had likely possessed enough thoughts to endure a prolonged fight, but even it had sensed something was off. Beasts, unlike humans, had instincts that bordered on supernatural. It must have felt its mind slowly unraveling, thread by thread, drained by the eye hovering above.
Adam was just about to dismiss the Observing Eye when something caught his attention through its elevated gaze. A yellow streak cut through the air at terrifying speed, heading straight for him.
He didn't even have time to widen his eyes.
His body moved on reflex, jerking his head violently to the side.
Too late.
The yellow streak tore into his neck. It missed the vertebrae but ripped straight through an artery and his windpipe, then continued its path, embedding itself deep into the corpse of the King Wolf Tiger.
Blood erupted from Adam's throat in a torrential spray.
He stumbled, a wet, choking sound escaping him as blood flooded his windpipe. He tried to curse, but only a gurgling hiss made it past his lips.
He didn't hesitate.
His hand shot up to his mouth. No time to choose. He sank his teeth into his thumb and tore it off with a desperate jerk. Blood streamed from the stump as he forced the severed digit past his lips. His free hand pressed against the gaping wound in his throat, while the other pushed the thumb down his throat and into his gut.
He had no time to waste.
He collapsed forward, gasping for air, his fingers clawing at the dirt as if the earth itself could keep him tethered to life. His face had gone pale, bloodless. He had never come this close to death.
Seconds stretched. The world narrowed to soundless static, to the ragged melody of air struggling to fill his lungs.
Then, breath.
Huff. Huff.
He remained on all fours, head bowed, eyes locked on the ground beneath him.
'What… was that?'
His thoughts scattered like ash in the wind. Panic clawed at the edges of his mind, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Slowly, unsteadily, he pushed himself to his feet, one trembling hand pressed to his chest.
He turned.
And everything fell still.
The confusion evaporated in an instant, replaced by a cold, settling clarity.
At the center of the crater, a lone figure stood.
He did not speak. He did not move. The wind toyed with the shredded edges of his coat, making it rise and fall like a silent banner. His long black hair drifted with it, curling in the same invisible current, as if mimicking the motion of the coat itself.
And then there were the eyes. Emerald. Cold. Indifferent. They met his without hesitation, without recognition, like one might look at something already forgotten.
Two fingers rested lightly on a golden rod that hovered beside him, motionless in the air.
The wind howled.
Nothing else dared speak.
Adam's jaw clenched, so tight it felt as if his teeth might shatter beneath the pressure. His breath came hard through his nose, chest rising and falling in slow, heavy bursts as the realization settled in like a stone dropped into deep water.
It hadn't been the King.
Not the beast's claws, not its fangs, not even its motes.
Rielle. Sylas.
They hadn't fallen to a monster.
They were killed by him.
Something inside him shifted. The rage he'd fed to every punch until now… turned cold.
Adam's eyes lifted once more to the figure standing calmly across the crater.
The storm above the forest groaned like a warning, but neither man moved.
Adam's voice was a low whisper, more breath than words.
"You bastard…"