2025-09-24 02:10:48Morning came too quickly.
Kael woke with a start, jerking upright in his cot. His breath came fast, ragged, like he had been running. He blinked at the stone ceiling, heart pounding, then realized it was only a dream—or maybe not even that, just the memory of the duel clawing at his mind.His mouth was dry. He reached for the pitcher on the table, nearly knocked it over with clumsy fingers, and drank too quickly. The water dribbled down his chin. He wiped it with the back of his hand, irritated at the slip.Pull yourself together.But even as he thought it, he caught himself glancing at the shuttered window. The feeling from last night hadn’t gone. That prickle at the edge of his senses. The sense of being watched.When he stepped out into the academy courtyard, the air was cooler than expected, tinged with dew and the faint aroma of wet earth. Students gathered in knots, some laughing too loudly, others whispering behind palms. Their eye
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CHAPTER 55 - PREDATOR’S ASCENT
The arena rumbled with every breath Kael took. His aura did not merely radiate, it invaded. It crashed against the barriers protecting the spectators, distorted the air, bent sound. It crawled under the skin of every witness, clawing at their instincts until even the most seasoned warriors found themselves trembling. For the first time in the duel, Kael stood taller than his opponent, not in stature, but in sheer presence. Across from him, Dorian’s lips tightened into a thin, bloodstained line. He steadied Voidfang, its black edge glowing faintly as if resisting Kael’s oppressive waves. “…Tch.” Dorian’s jaw flexed. “So this is what had been shackled within you. No wonder Father warned me…” His voice trailed into a growl. “But raw strength without refinement is nothing but a wild beast.” Kael’s gaze burned like twin embers. His voice came out low, every syllable thrumming with the power of his a
CHAPTER 54 - THE SHATTERED LIMIT
The air warped.Voidfang hummed with killing intent, Dorian’s aura condensing into a blade so sharp that even space itself seemed ready to tear. He raised it high, movements elegant, precise, the culmination of technique and bloodline power.“This ends here,” he said, voice cold as steel.Kael swayed on unsteady feet. His arms hung heavy, his chest heaved. Blood trickled down his cheek and side, dripping steadily onto the stone floor. Every nerve screamed at him to stay down, to surrender.But surrender had never been in him.Move.His mind whispered, cracked, desperate.Move!He forced one foot forward. It scraped stone, weak but defiant. Then another.The pressure of Dorian’s killing intent bore down like a mountain. His knees trembled. His vision flickered black.But inside, something stirred.Something deeper.Kael’s thoughts stuttered. If I fall now, I die. If I die, they
CHAPTER 53 - THE DESPERATE COUNTER
The blade came down like falling night.Voidfang shimmered with that strange, bending light, half-real, half-phantom as it cut straight for Kael’s throat.The crowd held its breath.Selene’s nails bit her palms, eyes wide and unblinking. Arwyn leaned forward ever so slightly, the staff in his hand humming with restrained power. Even the other students-friends, rivals, enemies alike felt their hearts clench.Kael’s knees buckled. His vision swam. His body screamed at him to move but there was nothing left to give.Nothing… except instinct.His heel scraped stone as he stumbled backward, head tilting away at the last possible second.The blade hissed past, grazing his cheek instead of severing his throat. The sting of cut skin burned down his face. Blood ran warm, slipping across his jaw.Too close. Way too close.Before Dorian could recover the blade, Kael lashed out not with elegance, not with precision
CHAPTER 52 - THE EDGE OF COLLAPSE
The air had grown thinner. Every breath Kael drew scraped down his throat like sand, hot and ragged. Sweat trickled from his temple, stinging his eyes. His ribs throbbed, every shallow cut left by Dorian’s blade humming like a curse beneath his skin. His fists trembled—not from fear, but from the weight of keeping his aura compressed, condensed tighter than ever. Dorian’s grin, infuriatingly calm, had only widened. The faint shimmer of Voidfang still wavered along his sword, an edge both unreal and undeniable. “You’re slowing, Kael,” Dorian said, almost gently. “Your body can’t keep up with your fury.” Kael’s jaw clenched. He blinked sweat from his lashes. “Keep talking. It won’t make your cuts deeper.” But his voice—low, strained—betrayed the truth. Dorian moved again, too fast, too clean. A blur of moonlit steel carved across Kael’s vision. Kael twisted late. The
CHAPTER 51 - THE HIDDEN FANG
The arena still quivered from the last clash. Dust drifted down like ash, glowing faintly under the light of the wards.Kael’s chest rose and fell, steady but deeper now, the heat of battle carving lines of strain across his skin. His fist pulsed with pain where it had smashed against Dorian’s blade, knuckles raw and bloodied.He flexed them once, slow. The sting bit deep, but it grounded him.Across the platform, Dorian stood hunched, one knee bent, sword angled toward the ground. His chest heaved faster, but his grin hadn’t faded. If anything, it looked sharper.“Impressive,” he murmured. His voice carried strangely, laced with aura that threaded into the air. “You’ve pushed further than I thought. But Kael…” His lips parted wider, teeth catching the light. “…you still don’t know what I truly fight with.”Kael’s brow furrowed. His aura stayed coiled, wary. “Then show it.”The air shifted.Dorian straightened, rolling h
CHAPTER 50 - BLADES AGAINST A STORM
The platform quaked as aura clashed again, harder, sharper. Sparks spat from the runes, scattering across stone like fireflies.Kael drove forward, his aura pressing outward in waves. Every step was a drumbeat, the pressure swelling until students near the warded circle instinctively flinched, clutching at their chests.Dorian didn’t falter. His blade slashed upward, cutting a crescent through Kael’s pressure. His aura condensed sharp as glass, focused into a single edge. Where Kael’s dominance pushed, Dorian’s control sliced.Steel kissed fist. The shock snapped through Kael’s arm, rattling his bones. He swallowed the sting in his knuckles, his eyes narrowing.Fast. Too fast to swat down like before.Dorian’s grin tightened. “You’re slower than I thought.”Kael snorted once, a low exhale through his nose. “And you’re lighter than you pretend.”He surged forward again.The duel became a storm of rhythm: sword cu
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