Only I Am The Strongest

In A Flash

The Razorback charged .

The beast lowered its head and aimed its serrated tusks directly at Kieran's chest. Kieran pushed the power of his sealed bloodline into his legs, launching himself backward just as the monster obliterated the damp earth where he had stood. The resulting impact splintered a towering oak tree into jagged wooden shrapnel.

Kieran landed on his feet a dozen yards away. His heart hammered a frantic rhythm against his ribs. He needed to find a vulnerability.

The Razorback did not pause to recover. It spun its bulk around with surprising agility and kicked up a cloud of wet soil. The demonic boar squealed, a deafening sound that rattled the bones in Kieran's jaw. It charged again.

Kieran planted his boots in the mud, twisting his torso to dodge the horns. As the beast barreled past him, he drove his bare fist directly into its flank. He expected the strike to cave the ribs inward. Instead, his knuckles slammed against thick iron plating hidden beneath the coarse fur.

A violent shockwave traveled up Kieran's arm. The impact fractured the bones in his hand. He gritted his teeth as a sharp pain flared up to his elbow. The monster barely reacted to the blow. It whipped its skull to the side, catching Kieran in the chest with the flat of a venomous tusk.

The blunt force lifted Kieran off the ground. He flew through the air and crashed hard into the base of a boulder. All the oxygen left his lungs in a violent rush.

He slumped against the cold stone, gasping for breath. The taste of blood flooded his mouth. He looked up, his vision swimming in a dizzying haze. The demonic boar stood a few paces away, pawing the ground, preparing for a final execution charge.

Deep inside his mind, the dormant emperors roared.

The heat in his chest spiked into a searing inferno. The ancient ghosts battered against their invisible cage, demanding release. They wanted to flood his veins with draconic fire. They whispered promises of absolute destruction.

‘Let us out.’ The chaotic voices echoed in the hollow space of his skull. ‘Burn the beast. Incinerate the forest. We will give you the strength to break the world.’

Kieran squeezed his eyes shut and fought the mental intrusion. He could not afford to reveal the golden fire. He clamped his hands over his chest, forcing the supernatural heat down, relying only on his battered human limits to survive.

He struggled to push himself off the damp earth. His fractured hand throbbed with every heartbeat. The Razorback lowered its head, aiming its sharp tusks for the kill.

"Look at the street rat bleed." A voice drifted over the churning noises of the forest.

Kieran turned his head.

Alaric stepped into the clearing. The young noble stood on a raised ridge of limestone a safe distance away from the mud and the monster. Knight Aldren and three seasoned mercenaries flanked the highborn lord. They looked down at the scene with smug amusement.

The Razorback snorted but did not charge the newcomers. Aldren held a glowing purple warding stone in his palm, keeping the beast entirely focused on Kieran.

"Are you struggling to hunt, peasant?" Alaric laughed. "I thought you were recruit worthy. You look like a piece of chewed meat."

Kieran pressed his back against the boulder. He wiped a streak of blood from his chin and glared up at the ridge. "Call off your dog, Alaric."

"It is not my dog." Alaric rested his clean leather boots near the edge of the limestone drop. "It belongs to the forest. I am just a spectator enjoying the natural cycle of life. The strong devour the weak. It is the way the world works."

"You orchestrated this." Kieran coughed, clutching his bruised ribs.

"Of course I did." Alaric spread his arms in a mock gesture of innocence. "I paid a fortune to lace your entry path with a monster. That monster has been tracking your since you stepped past the armory pavilion. I wanted to watch you get trampled into a bloody paste."

The boy leaned closer to the edge, his eyes filled with venomous hatred.

Alaric spat the words. "I wanted you to know exactly who bought your death. I want you to look at my face while that beast rips your throat out."

Kieran stared up at the noble. A profound sense of injustice washed over him. He had spent his entire life scraping by in the slums, adhering to the brutal rules of survival. He had paid the entry f*e with his own blood. Yet, the highborn lords could simply purchase his execution with a bag of gold and call it a fair trial.

The rational part of his brain shattered.

The dead emperors sensed the shift in his resolve. The chaotic whispers in his mind condensed into a single, unified roar of ancient fury.

‘Accept us.’ The ghosts demanded. ‘Take our wrath. Slaughter them all.’

"Fine." Kieran whispered to the empty air.

He stopped fighting the internal cage. He relinquished his restraint and let the royal bloodline consume his humanity.

The stone in his chest detonated. A wave of heat flooded his body. The pain in his hand vanished.

Kieran pushed himself off the boulder. His body began to warp under the pressure of the ancient aura.

His muscles expanded, tearing the seams of his dirty tunic. The bones in his hands let out a sickening series of pops and cracks. His fingers elongated. His human fingernails split open and fell away, replaced by thick, jagged obsidian claws that erupted directly from his nail beds. The dark talons curved inward, gleaming with a lethal sharpness.

He tilted his head back. The dull brown of his eyes shifted. A radiant gold consumed his irises, and then the color darkened into a violent, blood red.

He let out a roar that vibrated the leaves on the towering oak trees. The sound carried a dual resonance, echoing with the voices of a dozen dead kings.

Alaric lost his cruel smile. The noble took a staggering step backward on the ridge.

The Razorback charged.

Kieran did not dodge. He dropped his stance, planting his boots deep into the churning mud. He waited until the beast closed the distance. When the monstrous boar threw its head upward to impale him, Kieran reached out with his altered hands.

He caught the serrated, venomous tusks in mid air.

The collision created a shockwave that flattened the tall grass around them. The Razorback pushed forward with all its weight, churning the earth beneath its hooves. Kieran held his ground. His boots dug deep trenches in the mud, but he did not yield a single inch.

The draconic strength flowing through his veins vastly overpowered the demonic beast.

Kieran twisted his arms violently to the side. The thick bone of the tusks fractured. The beast let out a deafening squeal of agony as its neck snapped under the impossible torque.

Kieran did not stop. He released the broken tusks and lunged forward. He moved with the fluid, predatory grace of a true dragon. He plunged his claws directly into the beast's thick iron plating. The metal shrieked and gave way like wet parchment. He tore the armor apart, sinking his talons deep into the monster's chest cavity.

With one brutal upward pull, Kieran gutted the beast.

Silence descended upon the clearing. The only sound remaining was the rhythmic dripping of blood falling from Kieran's dark claws.

Kieran stood over the ruined carcass. He took a ragged breath. Steam rose from his overheated skin, mixing with the cold air of the twilight woods.

Up on the limestone ridge, Knight Aldren lowered the glowing warding stone. The veteran soldier stared at the gutted monster in profound disbelief.

"Impossible." Aldren whispered. The seasoned fighter gripped the hilt of his broadsword, his knuckles turning white. "No human can break iron plating with bare hands."

Alaric trembled. The young noble looked at the shredded beast, and then he looked at the blood red eyes staring back at him from the mud. Pure terror seized his throat.

The dead emperors in Kieran's mind did not settle down. They had tasted violence, and they demanded a higher toll.

‘The boy.’ The ancient voices commanded. ‘Take his head.’

Kieran turned his gaze away from the dead beast. He locked his burning eyes on Alaric.

He dropped to all fours. He scrambled up the steep incline of the limestone ridge, moving with terrifying speed. His claws dug into the solid rock, pulling his body upward like a scaled predator scaling a cliff face.

"Kill him." Alaric shrieked, scrambling backward behind his mercenaries. "Kill him right now."

The three cronies raised their enchanted spears, their hands shaking in fear.

Kieran crested the top of the ridge. He launched himself through the air, aiming his talons directly at Alaric's throat.

Aldren stepped into the path of the incoming strike. The veteran knight threw his broadsword aside and raised both of his armored hands. He shouted a complex, high tier incantation. The air between them warped and crackled with elemental energy.

A blinding blue light erupted from the knight's palms.

The magical blast struck Kieran squarely in the chest, illuminating the dark forest in a brilliant, violent flash.