Free Web NovelChapter 144: Air Explosion
The expression on Bel Selvarum’s face was one of endless frustration. He was biting his lips and his face was completely wrinkled, as if he was being tortured. His wide eyes were desperately searching for a way out. He tried to move to avoid being pulled any closer to Victor, to avoid seeing the disappointment in his master’s eyes, but the strength of the troglodyte holding him was unrelenting.
Victor noticed that Bel’s shoulders trembled slightly and remained calm, even though his heart was beating fast. Victor couldn’t rush into anything right now. Any hasty move could put Bel in even more danger. Slowly, he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, holding the knife in a non-threatening manner.
"You seem to have grasped your situation well, Victor Shieldman. Now leave the knife on the ground," the leader ordered, tightening his grip even more on Bel, who let out a groan of pain.
Reluctantly, Victor bent and placed the knife on the cold warehouse floor and stepped back. He needed an opportunity, a moment of distraction, to turn the situation in his favor, but that moment seemed to be running out as the guards and mercenaries arrived. freeweɓnovel.cøm
The scarred man smiled, pleased with Victor’s obedience, and relaxed his stance a little. "Good man," he said. "Now let’s talk. Do you remember me?"
Victor studied the man’s face for a moment, trying to associate those scarred features with some memory. Nothing in particular came to mind. He shook his head slowly, eyes still fixed on his opponent’s, and said:
"No, I don’t remember you. Should I?"
"Ah, I thought you’d erased that moment from your memory. But I remember it very well, Victor. Some thirty years ago, in a tavern in the Southlands."
The man’s smile widened, revealing yellowed, misaligned teeth.
"You humiliated me in front of everyone, made me look like a fool. I’ve never forgotten that night. Imagine my happiness when the proposal I received earlier was to protect a place from a certain Victor Shiedman. It’s clear that fate gave me the chance to take revenge, and now I have to take double revenge because you killed two of my companions," he said, pointing with his chin at the dead bodies of the archer and the hunter standing right behind Victor.
Victor took a deep breath. "If you’re here for revenge, why drag this boy into it? Let him go. This is between us."
The man laughed, a hoarse, humorless sound. "Because, Victor, I want you to feel what it’s like to have something of yours threatened. He is something of yours, isn’t he? Too different to be family, too different in age to be friends. I think it’s more like a student. Am I right?"
Victor felt a shiver run down his spine. He knew the situation was bad, but giving up wasn’t an option. He looked around and tried to calculate his chances.
"HEY, LOOK AT ME! JUST AT ME!" The leader shouted. "PAY ATTENTION! MY NAME IS FLETCHER WORTEN! AND I PROMISE YOU, VICTOR, YOU WILL NEVER FORGET THAT NAME FROM NOW ON!"
Fletcher quickly drew a dagger from his waist, and the metallic sound of the weapon seemed to cause intense terror in Bel’s eyes as he tried desperately to free himself.
"NOOO!" Victor shouted, his voice echoing through the warehouse.
Fletcher didn’t hesitate, nor did he allow time for negotiation. Suddenly, a dagger slid through Bel’s neck and a cascade of blood began to flow.
Bel let out a choked moan, but, at the same time, his eyes met Victor’s.
"Master... thank you... for everything," he whispered, his words barely audible as his life quickly ebbed away.
Victor felt an unprecedented desperation. Bel was under his command, he was the only man he had ever trained in his entire life, and they had become quite close over the last few weeks. He watched as the life quickly drained from Bel’s eyes and felt helpless in the face of the rage boiling inside him.
The fuse of chaos for Victor was when Fletcher let go of Bel’s body, dropping it to the ground with a deafening thud as if it were nothing.
"You see, Victor? Now, do you understand the pain? But don’t worry, I just wanted to make you feel terrible before I killed you too!"
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" Victor roared with a fury that made his voice echo through the warehouse.
Fletcher took a step back, maybe out of instinct, maybe because he noticed the change in Victor’s posture. But his sarcastic smile did not falter: "Then come, Victor. Show me what you can do." He said, putting his hand on the axe at his back.
Victor stepped forward, his body moving with a speed that instantly made his opponent jump.
"Impossible..." Fletcher muttered, more to himself than anyone else. With the hand that held the dagger, he swung it in a lucky attempt to cut Victor, but it hit nothing but a trail of Victor that had already exceeded a much higher speed.
And then, before Fletcher could react, Victor was in front of him, just inches away.
Victor wrapped his fist around Den, with as much Den as he could muster in a second, and the blow that followed was devastating. Victor’s fist hit Fletcher’s stomach with incredible force, lifting him off the ground and literally exploding the air around him. freёweɓnovel.com
Fletcher felt the air ripped from his lungs in a single blow and for a moment time seemed to stand still.
The pain radiating from his abdomen and spreading throughout his body was so great that it felt like Victor’s fist had gone through him, even though it hadn’t.
Fletcher was thrown two meters into the air by the blow. Victor jumped up, caught him in the air, spun him around, and threw him even higher, where Fletcher literally went through the floor of the second floor of the warehouse.
On the second floor, Fletcher hit the ceiling and came back, falling hard to the floor. After the impact, he struggled in the air for a while without moving much.
’What kind of power is that?’
Fletcher hadn’t known that the white-haired hunter was so strong. They had never fought before.
Victor then reached the second floor, sauntered up to Fletcher, grabbed him by the neck, and began to squeeze him until he had no air left.
"You know, when I was younger, I wasn’t in favor of violence between sentient species." Victor said, looking into Fletcher’s wide eyes. "It didn’t make sense to me that intelligent beings should fight. We should fight monsters, kill only monsters... But then I discovered that there are also monsters among humans, among elves, monsters like you, Fletcher... and me too. We will kill the living violence among humans."
Just when it looked like Fletcher was going to die without air, Victor hit him and threw him away, giving him a few more seconds to live, a few more seconds to storm.
