Nameless, with his jet-black hair and sapphire eyes, shattered the remains of the door. Before him, the Abyssal Guardian raised its stone fist, threatening to crush Kaelen, Leo, Isolde, and Alaric, who were cornered against the wall.
"Watch out!" Kaelen cried, his voice fading. "It's an A-Rank!"
Nameless didn't hear him. He lunged forward, his rusted sword ablaze.
The Clash of Titans
The Boss struck—a seismic blow that split the ground. Nameless dodged with a leap, his speed surpassing anything he had ever achieved before. He struck the Guardian's stone leg with his sword, the flaming blade leaving an incandescent gash.
"Gravity Punch!" His gloved fist slammed into the monster's chest, not with physical strength, but with gravitational pressure so intense it made the Guardian's stone hide crack. The monster recoiled, howling in pain.
Alaric, eyes wide, no longer saw a student. He saw a force of nature. Isolde, regaining her senses, began casting ice spells to slow the Boss's movements. Kaelen covered the terrified students.
The fight intensified. Nameless was fast and powerful, but the Abyssal Guardian was a mountain of rage. Blows rained down. Nameless dodged and struck, his powers of fire and gravity intertwining in a ballet of destruction. But his transformation was incomplete. His strikes left gashes, but they did not break the monster's will.
Out of breath, his body bleeding from a thousand cuts, Nameless felt his strength failing. The Guardian raised its fist for the fatal blow.
"NAMELESS!"
A flash of light. Leo, his frail body illuminated by a spark of mana he had never managed to produce before, threw himself in front of Nameless, creating a mini-barrier. The Boss's strike pierced right through him. A gaping wound opened in his back, and he collapsed with a moan.
Draconic Fury
Seeing Leo, his only friend, sacrifice himself... that was the final straw. The mental barrier holding Nameless back exploded. A fragmented memory surged: a city in flames, screams, loved ones hunted down, broken bodies... And an ancestral rage, dormant deep within his being, awoke.
His body twisted. Dark scales appeared on his skin. Two jagged horns erupted from his forehead, tearing through his uniform. A massive, scaled tail burst from his back and wrapped around Leo to protect him. Webbed wings of ebony black tore through his shoulder blades. His gloves fused to his hands, becoming razor-sharp claws. And above his sapphire eyes, a third eye opened on his forehead, pulsing with a crimson light.
His mouth stretched into a monstrous grin, almost reaching his ears, revealing oversized fangs.
"The destruction and death of all things..." Alaric whispered, horrified, while Isolde recoiled, her eyes fixed on the beast.
Nameless, in his draconic form, was the personification of chaos. He lunged. The Abyssal Guardian was shredded by a flurry of claws and flames that had nothing to do with magic. A cry of agony, then silence. The A-Rank monster crumbled into dust.
The Judgment
But the beast within Nameless did not stop. His third eye turned toward the terrified students. The taste of destruction was too strong. He was going to kill them all.
Suddenly, the air tore open. Thousands of Royal Soldiers, Paladins armed with sacred magic, and Crown Mages flooded the hall. Elara was at the head, her face distorted by horror.
"Massive Petrification!" she cried, a wave of energy freezing Nameless's body.
"Deep Sleep!" yelled the Royal Mage, a psionic wave hitting the monster.
It was a titanic struggle. Nameless, even paralyzed, broke spells through sheer rage. But they were too many. Too coordinated.
Finally, Nameless collapsed. Chains made of pure mana and sacred silver bound him. He was sealed, gagged, his iron gloves tightened to the maximum, and taken unceremoniously toward the capital.
The Kingdom of Solis had just discovered its greatest threat—and its greatest mystery.
Author's Note:
This concludes the end of the first volume, but the adventure does not stop here, my dear readers! See you in Volume 2, where the journey has only just begun!