Chương 157: Fall of the Coward

Paul and Luke stood facing one another in the middle of the ruined street, surrounded by silence and shadow. Only the moon lit the rubble, casting cold silver across fractured stone and ash. There was no one else. Just the two of them, both knowing it was a trap. One waiting for the other to make the first move. The stillness lasted a heartbeat. Then the earth trembled.

A roar tore from Paul's throat as mana-forged arms erupted from his back, dozens of them, coiling into the sky like serpents made of spectral steel. They spun outward in spirals, forming a crown of blades and fists above his head as his feet lifted from the ground.

"You're the last obstacle in my way," he muttered, eyes gleaming.

"And you'll be erased." But even before the words left his mouth, his eyes widened. Luke was gone. No sound. No warning. Just a blur across the air, like shadow cutting through smoke. Paul twisted on instinct—barely in time. A kukri sliced clean across his cheek, leaving behind a burning trail of blood. Snarling, he pushed off with a burst of energy, retreating.

"I should thank you for saving Allison for me," he spat.

"Getting angry, Luke?" But Luke said nothing. He tightened his grip, and vanished again. The arms snapped to shield Paul, forming a barrier of solid mana just in time. Luke struck. Flashes of movement. Above, behind, below. He wasn't attacking to kill. Not yet. He was testing. Watching. Calculating. Probing for openings like a surgeon circling the incision point. Paul screamed, and his spectral arms exploded outward, spears and claws lashing like hydras.

They tore chunks of stone from the street, hurling shrapnel through the night. And then, a hit. A punch struck his jaw. The arms were too slow. The blow snapped his head sideways. His footing faltered.

"You're going to die!" Paul roared, fury overtaking calculation. He dropped back to the ground and shifted into a sprint. The arms followed him in a storm of motion, dozens of them, blades whirling like a hurricane of razors. But Luke... he danced. Gliding through the attacks with inhuman precision. Each swing missed by inches. Each arm was batted aside, redirected. And with every dodge, a shadow followed behind him. A delayed echo, like a phantom stitched to his movements. Paul's eyes narrowed. Where is he?

He spun—too late. Luke dropped from above, kukri drawn in a tight spiral. Paul threw up an arm just in time to block, but the weight of the impact cracked the earth beneath him. He staggered, summoned more arms, formed a dome of defense.

"Are you going to cry over Angelica?" he shouted, venom in his voice. Luke materialized within arm's reach, no longer silent but focused. Terrifyingly still. He drove a fist into Paul's gut, and air vanished from Paul's lungs. His body flew backward like a cannonball, crashing through a wall and into the skeleton of a collapsed house. Dust fell. Rubble shifted. When Paul's eyes opened, Luke was already inside.

He tried to react, calling the arms to skewer the space, but Luke slipped through like smoke, stepped in again, and punched him clean across the jaw. Paul spun, dazed. Another blow followed. Then another. The arms tried to respond. Some shattered mid-summon, others severed at the joint. Luke didn't pause. He pressed in, relentless. A flurry of strikes followed. Bone meeting steel. Flesh meeting mana. Paul stumbled, off balance, breath ragged, unable to regain control.

"Say something!!" he screamed, his voice breaking. But Luke remained silent. His eyes were empty.

"SAY IT!" Paul bellowed, hurling weapons through his conjured arms while others flung stones, steel, anything to crush Luke beneath the weight of sheer force.

"Weak," Luke answered. Just one word. Quiet, flat, final. But it landed deep. Paul froze for half a heartbeat, something twisting behind his ribs. Rage rose to bury it. He screamed, unleashing every arm at once, a tidal barrage of spears and blades, hundreds of phantom limbs converging like a swarm. Luke moved through them like smoke through fingers. Every step, every pivot, was impossibly smooth. He ducked low, slid between two slashing blades, vaulted over another. Untouchable.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Paul's eyes widened. How the hell…? He didn't need an answer. He already knew. Perception. Reflex. Prediction. Luke blurred forward in a clean, straight dash, kukri raised, the air around him warping with momentum. Paul readied his sword to block, but the blade never came. Instead, Luke's free hand snapped forward and drove a punch straight into his nose. Bone cracked. Blood sprayed.

The arms pulled Paul back automatically, but Luke had already followed. Another blow, clean across the jaw.

"You're nothing compared to the Midnight Warden," Luke said, calm as a scalpel. Paul roared. Mana erupted. Dozens of arms burst forward like shrapnel, each holding steel. He sprinted too, turning himself into a living army. Luke didn't flinch. He met the storm head-on. The kukris spun from his hands, cutting arcs of silver-black. Each spectral arm shattered. Each summoned blade clattered to the ground. Luke threw both kukris upward, spun on his heel, and his foot connected with Paul's face. The world tilted.

Paul hit the earth hard, his breath torn away. Above, the kukris fell, and Luke caught them mid-spin, seamless, fluid. He hurled them again. Midair, they split, duplicated, each one a perfect phantom. Steel found flesh. Paul screamed. A heartbeat later, Luke struck again, fist crashing through the weakened guard. Blood and dust sprayed as Paul's body skidded across the ground, limp and twitching. Luke walked forward. No rush. No emotion.

"That's it?" he asked, voice cold and still.

"What's your class level—ten?" Paul coughed, blood dribbling from his mouth.

"Shut up!"

"You only look dangerous when you ambush people," Luke said.

"That's probably how you hurt Angelica." Paul, trembling, reached for a potion. Glass clinked. Liquid ran over his chin as he drank with shaking hands.

"I've got more," he rasped.

"Took half of Bartholomew's vault. I can do this all night." Luke smiled. It wasn't kind. It wasn't even human.

"Good," he said.

"Then I get to take my time." His eyes burned, lit from within by something ancient and furious. Paul swallowed, feeling it. The shift in the air. The cold pressure tightening around his lungs. Then Luke vanished. A blow landed against his face. Another struck his spine. A third hit his leg. Paul spun, disoriented, assaulted from every side at once. He lifted his sword, too slow. The kukri came down in a blur. White-hot pain exploded through his shoulder as his arm was severed clean. Blood arced in a red spiral.

Paul screamed, stumbling, vision blurred, but Luke didn't stop. He drove a brutal uppercut into Paul's chin. Skull cracked. Teeth snapped loose. He hit the dirt hard, the world spinning, the night pressing in.

"YOU BASTARD!" he howled. Paul reached for his storage ring. But when he looked up, Luke was already holding it.

"This is yours, right?" Luke asked, then tossed it into the rubble, far out of reach.

"Changed my mind. Watching you fall apart sounds more fun." Paul's eyes twitched.

"You... bastard!" His shoulders shook.

"I CAN GENERATE MORE ARMS!" With a scream of rage and a burst of mana, spectral limbs erupted from his back, new ones, jagged and bloodthirsty. The air shuddered under the pressure of raw power, so dense even Paul couldn't take a step forward. Then came the attack, a rush of arms like a beast loosed from its chain, and Luke rushed in to meet them. A blur of black. Impact. Paul watched in horror as his conjured limbs shattered, one after another, crumbling into nothing. Stone split. The ground buckled. It was chaos.

And then, his last real arm was severed. The scream that tore from his throat echoed down the ruined street as Luke grabbed him by the neck and drove a kukri into his eye. Paul collapsed, knees hitting stone. When he looked up, Luke was already standing over him, silent, emotionless, eyes empty. And Paul knew. He wasn't getting out alive. Shaking, he reached into his pocket and hurled down a black orb. Smoke burst outward, blanketing the ruins. He ran.

Limping, bleeding, leaping across broken rooftops, muttering to himself between ragged breaths.

"I just have to make it back... to the Haven... someone will kill him for me. Jonathan. Bastion. Anyone…" Each step was panic. Each breath, a prayer. The fortress rose in the distance. One more jump. But something sliced through the air. A kukri. It hit his leg mid-leap. Paul cried out and crashed, skidding through stone and dirt. He tried to crawl, but a boot slammed into his face and pinned him down.

"I don't remember giving you permission to leave," Luke said above him.

"We're not done yet." Paul tried to summon the mana arms, but Luke's fist arrived first. His nose broke with a sickening crack, and before he could recover, another hit followed. Then another. Each strike was precise, cold, and intentional. Punishment. Retribution. Execution.

"Running?" Luke muttered.

"Let's fix that." He stomped down on Paul's leg, the same one the kukri had already damaged. He screamed, but the scream only invited more pain. Luke stomped again. And again. Bone cracked. Muscle tore. Flesh collapsed. Paul writhed, choking on blood.

"HELP! SOMEONE, HELP ME!" Luke stared down at him, unmoving, his eyes like ice.

"No one's coming."

"Y-you'll take me back to the Haven, right?" Paul coughed, voice broken.

"I'll talk. I'll tell them everything. Please—just let me live. I swear I'll cooperate…" Luke paused, then smiled. It wasn't warm. It wasn't kind. It wasn't human.

"Take you back?" he said.

"You really think I'd fall for a cheap trick like that? You think they'd look at you and believe you're telling the truth? That I'm not forcing you?" He crouched beside him, voice low, calm.

"And if they find out the truth, that Bastion's trying to stop the tutorial from ending, do you think Bartholomew would leave anyone alive?" Paul went pale.

"Don't worry," Luke said, tilting his head.

"Tonight... it's just you and me." And then the mist came. Thick, black, creeping like a living grave. Paul screamed, but no one heard. Inside that fog, hell began.