Fierce Battle

“Don’t tell me… you only chose to become gay as a second-best option because you couldn’t get a girlfriend, did you, Ryan?”

The words struck like a bolt of lightning, shattering a great tree.

Like an arrow, loosed from its string, hitting the bullseye.

In that moment, Ewan clearly heard a sound like a heart breaking.

“You bastard!”

Ryan’s eyes turned red again.

Nonsense! How dare you defile my pure love!

I’m going to chop you to pieces!

And in the instant that anger filled his brain, Ewan’s long-awaited attack arrived.

Shadow Step!

Under the cover of the dim light, Ewan even hid the dagger, which was the only thing that could reflect the cold light, on the inside of his arm. He was like a beast, lying in wait in the bushes, and before the fatal blow, he would not make a single sound.

Ryan would never let his guard down against a frontal attack, but anger would temporarily destroy his reason. So when he came to his senses, Ewan had already silently crossed the not-so-far distance between them and had sprung his hidden dagger, like a claw, stabbing unerringly at Ryan’s throat.

The real premonition of death washed over him, and Ryan’s pupils shrank.

But.

After their last encounter, he had replayed the scene of fighting an enemy like Ewan in his mind countless times. So even though the dagger was just a hair’s breadth from his throat, it was still… no, it was far from a desperate situation!

“ARGH!”

Ryan roared.

His strong body let out a series of explosive cracks, like bones grinding together. His muscles swelled, his body grew, and in less than a breath, he had actually grown a head taller!

And so, the dagger that should have pierced his throat only struck his chest. And his chest, which now glinted with a metallic luster, was so tough that even a dagger imbued with battle aura only left a faint, bloody scratch.

Ewan was slightly taken aback by this scene.

What the hell?

The Hulk?

Are you an Avenger too?

“Ewan Campbell!”

This little transformation didn’t give Ryan the same powerful boost as the Hulk, but it still increased his strength by more than thirty percent.

But strength was not the decisive factor when facing a nimble assassin.

At such a close distance and in such a narrow space, he knew that his horse-chopping saber would be difficult to use. So he abandoned it and grabbed Ewan with his bare hands.

Ewan nimbly retreated.

But the retreat position he had calculated, because of Ryan’s suddenly increased arm span, was still within the reach of his hands.

Although he tried his best to dodge, one of his arms was still caught by Ryan.

Ewan’s expression changed slightly.

Ryan, however, laughed heartily.

“I’ve got you, Ewan Campbell!”

A squishy assassin caught by a strength-based warrior… you didn’t need to be a genius to know what would happen next!

You dare to expose my shortcomings?

You dare to stab me in the heart?

Let’s see if I don’t break all four of your limbs, one by one!

Ryan grabbed Ewan’s arm and pulled him in.

He opened his arms, as if he were welcoming a non-existent girlfriend he had practiced with countless times in his room.

But that embrace was not gentle at all for Ewan.

It was an embrace filled with hatred and anger, an embrace that could crush a person to pieces!

With Ewan’s body, if he were to enter that embrace, he would have at least a hundred bones crushed in an instant.

But in the instant before he was pulled into that embrace, Ewan’s shoulder trembled, and there was a crisp sound of bone grinding against bone. Then he suddenly kicked off the wall beside him, and his body spun a hundred and eighty degrees in a strange posture, dodging Ryan’s “embrace of a maiden” and then flipping back another ninety degrees, his legs bent, and he landed heavily on Ryan’s shoulders.

Seeing this, Ryan’s eyes almost popped out.

Acrobatics?

But your arm is still in my hand, you bastard.

But he didn’t have time to think too much, because at that moment, Ewan had already raised the dagger in his other hand and was stabbing at Ryan’s vulnerable eyes!

Pinned by Ewan’s legs and unable to dodge, Ryan had no choice but to throw himself sideways, crashing through the wall of the room and shaking Ewan off, temporarily creating some distance.

But he still couldn’t help but let out a cry of pain.

Because of the sudden tilt of his body, Ewan’s dagger had not pierced his eye, but the sharp blade had still slid across his cheek, cutting off one of his ears!

Blood sprayed, staining the white wall red.

Ryan clutched his wound and looked at the slowly rising Ewan in horror. “What… what in the world are you?”

“What am I? That’s a rude question.”

Ewan stood up and smiled, popping his dislocated arm back into place. “Compared to you, Ryan, a guy who’s been corrupted by an Evil God, I think I’m a little more human.”

“Nonsense!”

Ryan roared, but in this situation, his roar only showed his bravado.

“Human? Is that a move a human can make? To dislocate your own arm without changing your expression, and then pop it back in without changing your expression… you’re telling me that’s something a pampered duke’s son can do?”

“It can’t be helped.”

Ewan moved his just-dislocated left arm, and after confirming that it wouldn’t affect his movements, he nodded in satisfaction. “If you were like me, fighting a life-and-death battle every day with an enemy who is ten times stronger than you and is also very good at close combat, and you were killed by him hundreds of times, the first thing you would learn would definitely be to take apart and reassemble every one of your own joints. Because even if you don’t learn it, he will help you do it.”

“What are you talking about?”

Ryan felt like he was looking at a madman. “This is the academy. Where would you find someone to fight a life-and-death battle with every day?”

“Well, that’s a little secret of mine. I can’t tell you, Ryan.”

Ewan winked playfully and continued, “But there is one thing I can complain to you about.”

“Actually,”

Ewan lowered his body, like a tensed bowstring.

“The last time we fought, Ryan…”

Ewan’s lips curved into a smile as he looked at Ryan. But in that smile, there was a… ferocity that even Ewan himself hadn’t noticed.

“…I didn’t get to have my fill either!”

In an instant, a violent aura, as if from countless life-and-death battles, erupted from the handsome, golden-haired young man.

In a daze, Ryan seemed to see a pile of countless corpses under the golden-haired young man’s feet.

Countless… of his own corpses.

“Let’s start the second round, Ryan!”

Ewan charged in again.

Before the distance between them had completely closed, Ryan hooked the horse-chopping saber on the ground with his foot, grabbed it, and swung it horizontally.

The wind was like a wave.

A thick battle aura was wrapped around it, and the blade of the horse-chopping saber instantly grew, its cutting range expanding to cover almost the entire room.

Do you think I’m going to fight you head-on, you madman?

Go to hell!

But in the instant the blade was about to make contact with Ewan, he once again saw Ewan raise a hand, his fingers curled like the claws of a wild beast.

Huh?

Strange.

Isn’t that move specifically for interrupting martial arts?

But I’m not using a martial art.

Why is he using that move?

In the instant the question popped into his mind, Ryan heard a loud bang, like thunder.

And then, a violent tremor.

A shockwave.

In that instant, as if being trampled by a stampede of rhinos, Ryan felt his internal organs, his body, and even his brain groan in protest.

His consciousness blurred for a moment.

And so.

The moment his vision refocused on the space before him, all Ryan could see was a brilliant flash of a blade, bursting from the darkness.