A pained scream tore from Kameron’s throat, the agony hitting him like a hammer, searing through his entire body. His bones were shattered, pulverized into fragments-he could actually hear the cracking sound of his own hand breaking.
“You’re right. You don’t know the first thing about real power!” The words crept into Kameron’s ears like a dark echo. In the next instant, a massive wave of force slammed into him, like a mountain crashing down, sending his body hurtling backward with no control left at all.
With a sickening crunch, he hit the ground hard, and blood spilled from his mouth. The pain was bone-deep, consuming him entirely.
Defeated. He had been defeated! Staring at his bloodied, swollen hand, his shock went beyond anything words could describe. How? How could this happen?
One hit! That guy took him down with a single blow! Impossible. This had to be some kind of nightmare. Kameron tentatively moved his hand again, disbelief mixed with raw pain coursing through him.
Kameron looked up at Kayden Scott, who now stood high above him, and words failed him.
How could he accept this, this humiliating defeat at the hands of someone he hadn’t even considered a threat? It was as if…as if Kayden hadn’t even tried.
He was Kameron! A nightmare to his enemies, the head of the infamous Five Ghosts! He was the legend who had once sent shockwaves through the whole of Seclela! Back then, he was the name on everyone’s lips-before this guy was even born!
At first sight, he had sized Kayden up cautiously, sure he had this guy pegged. He’d barely been paying attention to Kayden, his focus on killing Enoch Bernard, and thought Kayden’s move was a cheap sneak attack, an opportunistic jab. But no, this young guy had just rolled right over him, crushed his decades of power like it was nothing.
He had nearly ninety years behind him, started training at fifteen, and had honed his strength for seventy-five years to command the very air around him.
And yet, Kayden, in his twenties, had taken him down like a rookie. That extra sixty years should have made him untouchable, right?
But no, his seventy-five years of energy mastery was torn apart by this young guy. Defeated. Completely steamrolled, with zero chance to even struggle.
“No!” Kameron shouted in disbelief, shaking his head wildly. “No, no way! How could you just knock me down so easily? Not possible!”
Kayden hadn’t just beaten him; he’d shattered his pride, his very confidence. Losing to someone after a hundred rounds-that he could take.
But a single blow, a crushing defeat from a guy sixty-five years his junior? The humiliation was beyond words.
Watching this unfold, Enoch Bernard stood, slack-jawed, in utter shock. His mouth was open wide enough to fit an egg. He had thought Kameron was unbeatable, someone who could dominate any battlefield.
But one strike from Kayden had put Kameron down for the count, leaving him helpless on the ground. Just who was Kayden Scott?
Looking at Kayden’s back, Enoch felt his whole worldview start to break.
His mind flashed back to one title-War God, the Ultimate Warlord, the Supreme Warrior!
This wasn’t some exaggeration. It was the truth, carved into every one of Kayden’s actions. This was the real deal, the one they called Protector of the Nation. A single, worn blade that could make the fiercest enemies back down for three years-that wasn’t just a story.
For Enoch, everything made sense now. He finally understood why Fletcher Atkinson looked up to this man. Kayden had earned that loyalty through sheer strength.
With a look of pure disdain, Kayden glanced down at Kameron, still writhing in pain, before walking up to him. His cold, sharp voice cut through the air: “You have one last chance. Answer my three questions. First, did Hellblazer send you to kill Firefist? Second, why does Hellblazer have it out for me? And third, who’s the leader of Hellblazer?”
Kayden’s tone wasn’t friendly this time; he sounded completely fed up.
He stepped in close, towering over Kameron, his gaze filled with contempt. Kameron was nothing more than a lamb waiting for the slaughter, his fate hanging on Kayden’s mercy.
Not just Kameron-even the strongest fighters who crossed paths with him were only waiting to be crushed.
Even with just a third of his power right now, he could easily overpower someone like Kameron.
This was his pride.
The pride of a king.