ShadowBound: The Need For Power

Chapter 769: It’s Over

Gabby lowered her stance. Her right hand drew back toward her side while her left foot slid forward. The flames around her arm compressed into a dense coil, and the air twisting around it began feeding the fire rather than simply propelling her body.

The heat sharpened quickly, becoming more dangerous than any of her previous strikes. It was still rough. Still immature. Still unstable in places. But if she released it properly, it would not be a simple punch, kick, or flame burst. It would be a focused explosive strike driven by pressure and combustion at once.

Dylan’s teasing expression faded a little.

Anna felt the shift and stiffened. "Gabby..."

Sasha’s excitement faltered into worry. "Is she supposed to use that indoors?"

Liam sensed the danger before Gabby completed the technique.

His body gave him the answer immediately.

He could not handle that cleanly without using an affinity.

Not in his current state.

Not while staying within the limits of the spar.

A faint irritation moved through him, but it vanished quickly beneath decision. He had already let the spar continue long enough. Gabby had shown him enough. And if he allowed her to release that attack, he would either have to counter more harshly than necessary or risk damaging the hall.

So Liam used fire.

It was brief.

Controlled.

Almost invisible compared to the way Gabby wore her flames openly.

A thin burst ignited beneath his foot and behind his heel, not exploding outward but compressing along his movement line. His body shot forward with a speed Gabby had not yet seen from him, not his true speed, not the speed he used in life-or-death combat, but far beyond the raw movement he had shown so far.

Gabby’s eyes widened as Liam entered the edge of her forming attack before her arm could release.

The first kill came from her right side.

Liam’s left hand caught the outside of her wrist, not with a full grip but with enough contact to break the alignment of her compressed fire-air coil. His shoulder slipped past the danger line, and his right hand stopped directly beneath her ribs, angled upward where a real strike would have driven into her diaphragm and robbed her lungs of air before she could defend.

The technique around her arm destabilized, the spinning air scattering slightly as her fire flickered.

"Three," Liam said.

Gabby barely had time to process the word before he moved again.

The second kill came from behind.

Liam stepped through the space beside her hip, his flame-boosted footwork turning him around her body faster than her eyes could track. One moment he was in front of her, the next his hand was at the back of her neck, two fingers stopping just short of the point where a blade, palm strike, or focused burst could have ended the fight.

His other foot pinned the line of her retreat, and she realized with a cold jolt that even if she had tried to launch herself away with air, he had already placed himself where her own movement would have exposed her further.

"Four."

Her breath caught.

She tried to turn.

The third kill came from below.

Liam dropped his weight, swept one hand across her lead arm to raise it just enough to open her center, and stepped inside with his knee stopping a fraction from her stomach while his other hand hovered at her throat again. It was not the same throat strike as before. This time, his angle was lower, his posture tighter, and his body positioned so that if he had followed through, he could have driven her backward, broken her balance, and struck before she hit the floor.

"Five."

Gabby froze completely.

The remnants of her blended technique collapsed around her arm in a faint wash of heat and disturbed air. The fire faded first, then the wind loosened, leaving only the sound of her breathing in the sudden stillness between them. Her eyes remained wide, not from fear exactly, but from the sheer inability to understand how quickly the spar had ended.

She had been forcing him back. She had seen it. She had felt it. She had been about to make him respond properly, and then, in less time than it took her to release one attack, he had marked three deaths from three different angles.

She had not reacted to even one of them.

Not properly.

Not even close.

Sasha and Anna stood frozen at the side of the hall.

Sasha’s mouth was slightly open, her earlier admiration now swallowed by stunned silence. Anna’s arms had fallen from their crossed position without her realizing it, her green eyes fixed on the platform as if she were still trying to replay what had happened.

To both of them, Liam had simply blurred. Not vanished, not truly, but moved fast enough and precisely enough that their minds had failed to separate the sequence. One instant, Gabby had been preparing something powerful. The next, Liam had already ended the spar.

Dylan, however, smiled.

He had caught it.

Not perfectly, perhaps, but enough.

His eyes were sharper than most people gave him credit for, and his ability to trace motion, especially fast motion, had always been one of the qualities that made his archery so dangerous. freewebnσvel.cѳm

Normally, even he struggled to follow Liam when Liam moved at the speed he used against serious opponents. But this time, Liam had not used that level of speed. He had used just enough flame to bridge the gap, just enough precision to interrupt Gabby before her attack formed, and just enough control to end the spar without harming her.

"Beautiful," Dylan said under his breath, genuinely impressed. "Mean, but beautiful."

Sasha finally snapped her head toward him. "You saw that?"

Dylan’s grin widened. "Most of it."

"What happened?"

"He stopped being nice."

Anna looked back at the platform, her expression more serious now. "That was him being not nice?"

Dylan chuckled. "No. That was him being himself."

On the platform, Liam released Gabby’s wrist and stepped back.

He did not shove her, did not lecture her immediately, and did not make the end of the spar dramatic. He simply gave her space. Then, with another small burst of flame beneath his foot, he moved several meters away and landed near the opposite side of the platform, his posture settling into the same calm stillness he had carried before the fight began.

Gabby remained where she was for several seconds, staring at him.

Her right hand slowly lowered to her side.

Her pride stung, but beneath that sting was something far stronger than simple embarrassment. She had lost, yes. Badly. But she had also forced him to use his affinity.

For a few moments, she had made Liam Hunter decide that defending without magic was no longer worth the risk. That thought flickered inside her like a stubborn ember, not enough to erase the defeat, but enough to keep it from crushing her completely.

Liam looked at her from across the platform.

"This spar is over."