Chapter 264: The Eternal Guardian Angel

Usagi collapsed onto the ground, her entire body drained of strength. Her breathing was weak and intermittent, tears and blood trickling down her cheeks. Her eyes were filled with helplessness and despair. She had once believed that the members of Aka were her pillars of support, a family she could rely on. But reality had mercilessly shattered all her illusions. The warm memories of the past broke apart like fragile bubbles. She clenched her hands tightly, nails digging into her flesh as tears dripped onto the ground. In a choked whisper, she murmured:

"Where are you all... Why haven't you come to save me, not even once through all these crises... Or have you already stopped caring? Does my life and death... not even warrant a final goodbye...?"

The surrounding air was piercingly cold. Rinro's shadow loomed over her, his dragon-infused vertical pupils gleaming with bloodlust and mockery. Slowly, he raised his claws, the blade-like edges reflecting a chilling light. In a deep, ruthless voice, he declared:

"Usagi, cry, beg all you want. Your life... ends here!"

Usagi was too weak to struggle. Seeing the fatal attack closing in, she shut her eyes, her heart already dead inside.

"BANG!!!"

A deafening crash erupted in the air. Usagi's eyes snapped open. Against the blood-red sky, a figure emerged, radiating a fury she had never seen before—Hayato! The very person she had once feared, yet longed for, the one who now stood before her, the only one who had saved her again and again from the brink of death.

"Hayato..." Usagi's heart pounded violently, and tears suddenly burst forth like a breached dam. Her throat tightened as though strangled, her voice hoarse and weak, yet she still mustered all her strength to cry out those two syllables:

"HAYATO!!!!!"

That one call was filled with endless pain and yearning, an unspoken reliance and emotional outpouring. She poured every ounce of her strength and emotion into this moment.

Hearing her cry, Hayato seemed to feel her pain and desperation, and his response was even more primal—a thunderous roar that tore through the air:

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH————!!!!!!!!!"

He landed in front of her, his presence surging like a raging storm. His eyes turned wild, veins bulging at his temples, fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. His gaze swept over Usagi's blood-covered body, and something inside him snapped. Turning his burning eyes to Rinro, his voice came out hoarse, trembling with frenzied fury:

"You've hurt Usagi again and again... You dared to lay a hand on my precious one... You. Deserve. To. DIE!!!!!!!"

With a single step forward, the ground beneath him cracked apart. The killing intent emanating from him was almost tangible, shaking the very air around them. He raised his arm slightly, pointing at Rinro, his voice cold as death's verdict:

"You're not leaving here alive."

Rinro froze for a moment, then sneered, baring his partially dragonized, grotesque face. He let out a low, mocking laugh: "Hahahaha! Just you? A powerless fool dares to challenge me?"

"Powerless?" Hayato's lips curled into a deranged grin. A scorching light erupted from his hands. Step by step, he advanced toward Rinro, his gaze as sharp as a blade. In a low voice, he whispered, "Then try me. Tonight's moon will be the last thing you ever see."

A blood-soaked battle was about to erupt!

Rinro narrowed his eyes, his expression growing colder. A sinister smile played on his lips:

"You always get in my way. Don't think this will be like before. Tonight, you will witness the true power of the Dragon Clan!"

The moment he finished speaking, a surge of bone-chilling energy burst from his body, as if an ice age had descended upon the battlefield. The surrounding air froze into frost, the wind itself slowing as though it had been encased in ice. The frigid aura was like an invisible dagger, slicing through Hayato's skin.

Hayato gripped his twin blades, licking his lips, his eyes ablaze with madness. With a roar, he charged at Rinro. However, the spreading frost was already numbing his nerves, his movements sluggish, his strikes growing heavier. Before he could close in, Rinro suddenly teleported in front of him and struck with a dragonized claw!

"BOOM!"

Hayato was sent flying, his body bouncing across the ground like a skipping stone before crashing into a massive boulder. The impact sent cracks spiderwebbing through the rock, dust and debris billowing into the air.

Usagi watched in horror as Hayato was flung away, tears streaming uncontrollably. She sobbed, screaming:

"Hayato! Run! He's a dragon! You're just human, you can't possibly beat him... Don't risk your life for me..."

Before she could finish, a thunderous explosion shattered the air. From the wreckage of the boulder, Hayato's figure surged forth once more. He was covered in blood, his clothes torn to shreds.

Shaking his head to clear the dizziness, his vision swam, his skull pounded as if a thousand hammers were striking it. Yet his eyes blazed with an even fiercer fury. The twin blades in his hands ignited with a scorching light as he bellowed:

"I WON'T STOP UNTIL HE'S DEAD!!!"

Rinro sneered, raising his arm as countless shimmering ice shards materialized behind him, forming a storm of frozen daggers. They rained down like a meteor shower, shooting toward Hayato with lethal precision.

"COME ON!!!" Hayato roared, charging straight into the oncoming frost and death.

He exhaled sharply, then suddenly, in a shocking move, he stabbed his own body at multiple key points.

"SHK!" Blood gushed from the wounds, yet he showed no hesitation.

Usagi's eyes widened in sheer terror. Something about this felt eerily familiar, a memory buried deep within her mind stirring to life. But she couldn't find her voice to speak.

Rinro frowned, a flicker of wariness in his eyes. He didn't understand Hayato's self-destructive actions, but a moment later, his confusion turned to shock—right as the ice storm was about to engulf him, Hayato vanished from sight!

"Impossible?!"

Rinro's expression froze. He was certain his frost energy had completely locked down the space around them, the air itself stilled in ice. But Hayato... had vanished like a ghost!

A shadow flickered.

Hayato weaved through the ice storm, an afterimage amidst the deadly barrage. His twin blades danced through the gaps between the shards, dodging every lethal strike with inhuman precision. His movements were utterly unreadable, like a phantom slipping through reality.

Rinro's pupils shrank. He clenched his teeth, trying to suppress the unease creeping into his heart. This was not normal. The frozen air should have completely numbed Hayato's nerves. Instead, he was moving even faster than before!

"No... This isn't possible! How?!" Rinro snarled, voice tinged with disbelief.

In that instant, Hayato leaped high, his twin blades raised above his head, then slashed down with explosive force!

"BOOM—!"

Stone shattered, ice shards scattered. Amidst the chaotic clash, Rinro finally realized—the true terror of the man before him.

Hayato licked the blood from his lips, his grin sharp as a blade.

"What's wrong? Scared now?" His voice was a whisper of madness.

Rinro's eye twitched. His pride burned with rage, but deep inside, an unfamiliar emotion gripped his heart—fear.

"INSOLENT FOOL!!!" Rinro roared, summoning a towering blizzard to consume his opponent.

The battlefield trembled. The frost thickened. Hayato took a single step back, crossed his twin blades before his chest, and smirked.

"Let's see who dies first!"