The drums were no longer just sounds.
They were hidden beasts tapping at his soul, stripping him of his will. Each beat split his skull from the inside. Whenever he tried to focus on his opponent, the rhythm cut the thread of his thoughts, erased his patience, and planted seeds of madness in his heart.
Ashen staggered, his breath cutting like a blade at his throat. His whole body had become a network of wounds, red cracks crossing over skin that no longer looked human. The Blood Frenzy was working at its limit, the crimson aura around him like a shell of pulsing blood, but that was only a delay of collapse.
The deformed giant opposite him was regenerating before his eyes.
Every time he cut off an arm, another grew. Every wound he opened healed slowly and became thicker flesh. That monster no longer needed its stolen skills; raw power and extreme recovery were enough to swallow any opponent.
Ashen saw it and knew it… yet he did not stop.
The three blood chains launched again.
Sharp, pointed, like crimson snakes, they sank into the deformed giant's back. They sucked blood like a red river, and the savage scream filled the air. But at the same moment, Ashen's own back split with the same wounds. His blood sprayed like a black-red fountain, his back became like a field of driven nails.
He fell to his knees for a moment. The ground beneath him turned into a swamp of blood, his feet sinking into it. The Crocodile Rune aura around his body cracked like a corroded shield, but even so he tightened his grip and shouted:
— "I am not your toy!"
The Blood Bear Fist ignited again, the huge arms around his hands forming at full strength, and his fist drove into the deformed giant's chest.
Boom!
The sound was like a mountain collapsing. The giant's chest caved inward.
But at the same moment, Ashen's own chest caved inward. His breath cut off. He fell to his side, gasping, blood rising from his mouth as red steam.
The rhythm became faster… faster…
It became like the footsteps of hundreds of beasts running in his head. Each beat brought the image of death closer and placed him before his choice: surrender or drown in absolute madness.
His eyes widened.
He saw the shadows around him moving, distorted creatures beating the drums with faceless heads, bloody fangs emerging from the dark and laughing without sound. He saw himself in the center of a ring, blood up to his waist, the deformed giant before him like a nightmare that would not die.
Is this ordeal passable?
Or is it just a death sentence?
Should I let everything end now? Throw myself into the dark and be relieved of this pain?
But his inner voice — that stubborn spark that had never gone out — whispered in the dark:
You are not one to surrender.
The Blood Frenzy was still burning.
The crimson aura around him became like wings of torn blood.
The Sky Leopard Rune ignited, his feet exploded with a speed he had never known before, he moved with his torn body like a ghost, dodging a deadly strike from the deformed giant.
But he was paying for every second.
Turning his body into liquid blood tore his inner energy, his muscles were burning, his bones were screaming. When he returned to solid form, he fell to his hands and knees, blood dripping from every pore, his breaths like fire.
The deformed giant laughed savagely. Its laugh was not a human sound but a bloody caw, a sound storm shaking the place. It charged at him with a massive blow that broke the ground. Ashen barely raised his arms to block, the Blood Frenzy surged to protect him, but the drums in the background made every move slower, every decision weaker.
— "They won't leave me… I won't be able to…" he muttered, almost inaudible.
Each blow was like another chain around his body.
The deformed giant became more brutal. The creatures beating the drums increased the tempo, as if feeding the beast and draining Ashen. With every drumbeat, the giant's strength doubled, and with every beat, Ashen's energy leaked away like ash in the wind.
He began to lose control of his techniques.
The blood chains no longer moved with their previous speed.
The Bear Fist became weaker.
Even the primitive iron skin on his body began to crack, blood seeping between his black scales.
How many times can I stand after falling?
How many times can I pull myself back from death?
The world turned gray.
The blood on the ground became a sea, the drums a storm, the deformed giant a mountain of undying flesh.
Ashen stood, swaying, his whole body screams of pain, but his eyes were embers of hatred and despair. He no longer saw a way to escape. He no longer cared if killing the giant meant his own death too.
In that moment — in the middle of bloody smoke and infernal drums — he had nothing left to lose.
His hand trembled as it gripped the blood-soaked ground.
His head bowed, then rose slowly, his eyes fixed on the deformed beast:
"If this is hell… then I will burn it to ash."
The air itself trembled around him, his crimson aura beginning to turn darker and thicker. Everything inside him was screaming collapse, but in the heart of that collapse a final moment was born — the moment before he unleashed everything he had, the skill he no longer cared about the consequences of…