"Grrrrr..."
The raw beastial growls slithered their way out of Damon's mouth. His lips stretched apart as his teeth violently gritted against each other.
Unable to control his strength, Damon clenched his jaw so tightly that his teeth began to pierce through his muscles, while tiny cracks formed over the surface.
Blood formed all around the muscles of his mouth, converged into each other, and trifled down his lips—forming uneven patterns that traced down his beard.
His body wasn't in any great shape either.
At first, his clothes—loose and unkempt—even if slightly, waved in the air as he moved. But now?
Now, it seemed as if his body had ballooned. Even before, no doubt, his physique looked like every beginner's dream.
But now, it had suddenly buffed to the point where the fabrics of the clothes barely held on, as each muscle of his body could be seen clearly.
Veins bulged all around his neck as his growls only seemed to be getting worse.
For several moments, Kai struggled under the pressure inflicted by Damon's Sword.
"God... Fucking... Dammiiiittttt!" Kai shouted at the top of his lungs; a wet, guttural sound mixed within.
His whole body trembled as his hands struggled to bear the direct pressure of his strength.
'Out of all three of them! For this brute to be the first to fall!' Thoughts began to pile up in his mind as he tried to find a way out of this situation.
After living as a loner for years and then later surviving in the world as a Scavenger, Kai had come to a conclusion of his own as he recounted his experiences.
The mind is always greater than the body.
It wasn't just a thought, but it had become a part of himself. A part of his life that his mind and soul naturally accepted.
No matter how tough the circumstances may be.
No matter how strong the opponent may be.
Kai had believed he could overpower the strength with mindful tactics.
And surprisingly, he succeeded with his methods. Not once, Not twice, But hundreds of times.
Let it be in his life as a Scavenger or the latest fight with the goblins in the first Trial, he succeeded all the times—becoming the fire that quenched his belief into existence.
However, as his shield came into contact with Damon's blade—just like the shield itself—his belief seemed to waver as doubts began to appear all over its surface in the form of cracks.
The impact was so strong that the bones in his hands immediately cracked up. Although the cracks weren't deep, they were enough to render Kai's hands useless sooner or later.
His knees seemed to be crying as they shook against such pressure, clashing against such weight, they threatened to fall any moment.
And if that wasn't enough, his physical body had already fallen into turmoil as blood began to invade his organs.
It was a rather familiar feeling that he felt surging through him. Broken hands, numb legs, and a sharp pain that pierced through different parts of his body all at once.
Kai had experienced something similar not too long ago, although, that situation was nothing comparable to this one.
Damon's sword persistently tried to completely break off the half-broken shield and reach Kai's head.
With time, the pressure was only growing more and more unbearable for Kai as his hands began to go numb, losing sensation while the cracks on the shield slowly spread.
'if this goes on any further... I'll die!'
His mind fell into turmoil as all kinds of thoughts began to pop up in his head.
Surrender.
Run.
Counterattack.
In that moment of crisis, his mind desperately created all sorts of plans to help him survive—although, it was a fact that his body wasn't capable of doing anything as such.
He could try to resist his blade for as long as the shield remained in a single piece while praying to the gods that the other two don't end up like him, and that too, at such a time.
Frustrated with his body's condition, he clicked his tongue, "This isn't... Gonna work out like this..."
His words felt like a mix of various muffled sounds that barely made any sense, his eyes darting towards the sides, trying to look for any escapes.
But suddenly, almost as if Damon had realized what Kai was trying to do, his power increased and the pressure of his sword almost doubled.
Blood surged into Kai's throat, bursting from his nose and mouth in a ragged, choking cough.
Damon's expression worsened as he heard the creaking noises of the shield's last struggles. Kai narrowed his eyes as he realized that this was his last chance to escape.
Without a second thought in his mind, he decided to torture his body a bit more. With all the remaining strength in his body, he decided to abandon the shield, grab the spear, and run away in the opposite direction.
With a single swift movement, he let go of his shield and uprooted the spear from the ground with his right hand. As he turned around to his right, he felt a sharp pain jolt through his left arm, pulsing from his shoulder all the way to the back of his palm.
"Urgh.."
He turned his head around in an instant and saw the remnants of his shield flying around in the air alongside small lumps of dirt, almost as if time itself had slowed down.
His eyes rolled down towards his hand only to widen in shock as he saw Damon's blade dug inside the ground, its edge covered in a crimson hue.
As his gaze reached further downward, he saw tatters of what seemed like his jacket's remains waving in the air. He had completely lost any kind of sensation in his hand, but he could feel it all.
His left arm dangled uselessly. Flesh and tendons hung in shreds, white bone gleaming beneath the torrent of blood pouring from his severed veins.
His eyes trembled and his pupils diluted as a question struck his mind like a calamitous thunder.
'Is this...going to be my end?'
"How pitiful,"the mysterious voice sneered. "And you thought you were different."