Chapter 13- The Feeling Of Fear
Subterranean Basin Ruins – Moonfen Reach
The ground trembled.
Not from footsteps.
Not from echoes.
From will — clashing.
Rhael's coat swayed as he circled. Seren stood still, silver eyes aglow, blood trailing from his side.
Neither moved.
"Leg's failing," he hummed. "Left arm? Hanging like dead meat. Breathing's shallow, cracked rib — maybe two. I'd say we're nearing the end."
Then—
Bang.
Seren launched forward — no warning, no stance — just pure motion.
A blink.
Rhael stepped forward, palm drew behind him — echo energy coiled around his wrist like smoke ready to burst."
But Seren didn't retreat.
He planted his right foot with subtle precision — a tiny pivot, the heel twisted in hard like setting a pressure valve.
Rhael didn't notice—until the ground beneath him detonated.
Not upward. Not in a burst.
Downward — like the floor had been punched by the earth itself.
Shockspike Crucible.
The rupture caved inward beneath Rhael's position. Hidden echoes — stored beneath fractured ground during earlier movements — collapsed in sequence. Stone plates buckled, vibrating with surgical timing.
"…Now that—" Rhael stood, spine crooked, neck tilted unnaturally. He cracked it straight with a wince. "—is more like it."
He stumbled, for the first time.
"But I left something for you."
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Seren blinked.
Then—
Snap.
"Don't pass out yet. The best part's coming."
His shoulder buckled with a sudden sharp crack. His knee exploded with pressure. And his side, where Rhael had tagged him earlier, detonated with an internal thud that knocked the wind from his lungs.
Bone Choir.
Every echo Rhael had planted — every fragment of earlier trauma — triggered at once.
Seren dropped to one knee, breath torn from him.
"Oh, poor thing," Rhael cooed, sauntering forward. "You're fast. Sharp. But you're still playing checkers."
He raised a hand.
Snap.
The floor beneath Seren pulsed — just a single ripple, invisible, barely audible.
But Seren flinched.
Too late.
Malicefield had been activated.
The air shimmered.
The ground began ticking — not with sound, but motion. Phantom tremors danced over every inch of space. Each step sent off microbursts — like walking through a field of coiled traps.
"You don't walk here anymore," Rhael said. "You suffer."
He launched forward — Backstep Gut Hook.
Seren tried to pivot — but the floor detonated near his foot mid-step. He stumbled—
Hook. Slash. Sink.
Rhael's fingers dug beneath the ribs, grinning into Seren's face.
"Found your liver."
Seren screamed, driving his elbow back instinctively — but it struck nothing but air.
Rhael had already slipped behind the ripple of an echo, vanishing like a shadow through static.
For a moment, only ragged breathing and the shimmer of echo-sick air remained.
Then — Seren's voice, low and cracked:
"You're one short."
His foot shifted. Just a little. A subtle pivot of his heel, setting his weight.
Then the movement fired.
A snap of the hip. A twist of the core.
His leg lashed out — not with strength, but with stored precision — like a tendon uncoiling, like a spring finally given permission to break.
The kick struck Rhael clean in the side. Not a shove — a carve.
It folded into his ribs with a sickening, deliberate twist — not to knock him back, but to open him.
Seren still Breathing hard. One eye swollen shut. Blood matted into the side of his face. His left arm dangled uselessly, tendon possibly severed. His ribs were discolored — black and purple beneath shredded cloth. A deep gouge ran across his side, leaking steadily.
It looked like there was more blood outside his body than in—yet he moved like pain was a rumor
Rhael planted his foot — and winced.
"...Not funny anymore," he muttered.
Seren let the silence stretch.
Then said — voice sharp despite the rasp,
"You done smiling?"
Rhael's face twitched.
"You shouldn't be talking."
He snapped his fingers.
A pulse of energy surged — one of his phantom echoes.
"I don't want you dead. I want you begging for it."
But it fizzled. Not clean.
Seren shifted barely an inch — letting the shockwave glance off his shoulder, dispersing into the ruined floor.
He'd begun adapting. Reading the resonance delay timing.
Rhael's brow furrowed.
But then laughed again — but it came out harsh.
"This is a fluke," he hissed. "You're just a fracture waiting to collapse."
Seren coughed, wiped the blood from his mouth with his good hand, and gave a half-limp shrug.
"I'm still standing. You're the one leaking from the ear."
Rhael touched his face — and saw blood on his fingertips.
Something in his jaw tensed.
And in the moment that followed, both of them moved.
Rhael surged forward, snapping his fingers mid-lunge — but Seren sidestepped, dragging the force from Rhael's movement through his own shoulder — redirecting it downward into the floor again.
The ground cracked.
And Rhael, mid-charge, was dragged with it.
He tripped, hard.
A fist met him mid-stumble — but it didn't hit him directly.
It slammed into the air.
The redirected force from the previous evasion was compressed and timed.
Rhael's back arched as the wave hit his spine. His arms jerked open, mouth falling slack as he crumpled against the basin wall.
He surged in low, palm slashing up with terrifying speed — a strike meant to crush the windpipe.
But Seren didn't dodge. Didn't flinch.
He stepped in.
And slapped him.
A palm. Right against the chest.
Weak. Sloppy. Almost insulting.
Smack.
Rhael blinked.
"What—"
BOOM.
The moment Seren's palm met his chest, it felt weak — almost mocking. But in that exact instant, the stored momentum discharged.
A compressed burst of redirected force exploded point-blank into Rhael's sternum. The impact was instantaneous — no delay, no warning.
He staggered.
"What the fuck was that—?"
No answer.
Seren's left arm hung limp. His right fist bled from the knuckles. A bruise darkened his cheekbone, freshly cracked — but his eye didn't blink.
Didn't react.
Rhael snarled and lunged, arm hooking around Seren's neck.
Big mistake.
Mid-air — in the twist of the grapple — Seren pivoted.
A burst of torque fired through his core — hip snapped, spine coiled — and his elbow cracked into Rhael's throat with surgical brutality.
Rebound Elbow.
The twist redirected the throw — flipping Rhael's own momentum into the ground.
He hit flat. Windless.
Crack.
A tile split beneath his shoulder. His jaw clipped the stone hard.
He cursed.
"Son of a—ghk!"
Seren didn't follow up.
He stood over him, eyes silver, chest rising with broken rhythm. Blood rolled down his temple. His ribs bulged where the flesh had begun to cave inward — but still, he stared down.
Expressionless.
And that—that—made Rhael pause.
For the first time... he didn't know what Seren was going to do next.
So he smiled.
Faint. Unmoving. A bloodied crescent across his face.
His body relaxed. No stance. No guard.
Seren blinked once, confused.
Then—
THUUMMM.
The delayed echoes Rhael had left all triggered at once.
A wrist, a rib, the base of the spine.
BOOM. CRACK. CRACK.
Seren's body jolted violently in three directions. One echo shattered a tile beneath him. Another cracked his ankle sideways. The third burst like a hammer against the back of his neck.
He dropped to one knee.
Breathing ragged. Blood in his teeth.
And then he laughed.
Not loud. Not long.
Just a breath.
A twitch of sound through bloodied lips.
Rhael's eyes narrowed.
"You're not even feeling it, are you?"
No answer.
Just Seren rising again. One leg half-dragging. Eye swollen shut. Face gleaming red from temple to collarbone. The ribs on his left side — sunken now, warped.
And yet...
He took a step forward.
Another.
He wasn't slowing down.
Rhael stepped back instinctively. Then caught himself.
"No," he snapped. "You don't get to look at me like that."
He sliced outward, a wide arc — missing.
Seren tilted. A slip-step.
And his hand tapped Rhael's shoulder.
Another weak slap.
"Don't you—"
BOOM.
Seren's palm barely touched Rhael's back — but it didn't need to.
The real force came from before. From the spin. The step. The stored momentum riding behind his hand like a loaded spring.
It exploded through Rhael's shoulder blade in a single, brutal release.
He dropped to one hand, coughing, half-vomiting.
"You're nothing but pain held together by attitude—!"
Seren didn't speak.
He just kept walking.
Rhael's voice broke into a growl.
"Fine."
He spread his arms.
"Let's turn this place inside out."
He slammed both palms to the stone.
And the entire basin began to hum.
Tiles lifted, some shattered in place. Air warped like glass behind heat.
Reverberant Malice: Full Domain — MALICE FIELD ACTIVATED.
Everything — floor, air, walls — was now laced with stored echoes.
Invisible traps of time-delayed trauma.
Breathing would set them off.
Moving would detonate them.
A trap layered in the folds of reality itself.
Rhael rose slowly.
Grinning.
But his eyes betrayed it. Bloodshot. Uneven. Trembling.
"You move," he whispered, "and you'll shatter."
The humming deepened.
The entire basin was now a crucible of suspended violence.
Resonant traps floated invisibly in the air — under stone, above stone, inside stone. Every surface hummed with latent force, just waiting for a misstep, a heartbeat, a breath out of place.
Rhael stood at the center like a conductor before a twisted orchestra.
His hands trembled, but the grin held.
"I warned you," he said softly, "don't move."
He extended his hand toward Seren—
"Unless you want to be ripped apart."
Seren moved.
One step forward.
A sharp crack exploded near his ankle — an echo burst laced into the floor. His leg buckled slightly.
Blood streamed down the side of his thigh.
He didn't stop.
He took another step.
A delayed echo shattered the air beside his shoulder, scorching through fabric and flesh alike. Skin peeled in a flare of pink and red.
He still didn't stop.
His breath came in choked bursts, but his gaze never wavered.
That silver glow — still, steady — like the moon over a war-torn field.
Rhael's lips parted.
"…What?"
Another step.
BOOM.
The blast this time tore open Seren's coat. His ribs were fully visible now — bruised, exposed, one visibly cracked inward like a caved drum.
Still.
No scream.
No stagger.
Only forward.
"Why won't you stop?"
Each echo that went off — he absorbed it. No technique. No clever trick. He just took it, bones shuddering with every hit, like his body was a machine that refused to shut down.
He wasn't dodging anymore.
He was inviting it.
"Why?" Rhael whispered.
Seren said nothing. His silver eye never blinked.
Another trap detonated near his hip — a burst of sonic rupture meant to cripple.
Seren flinched. Once.
Then stepped forward again.
Rhael actually stepped back.
His voice cracked.
"What the fuck are you doing—?! You can't walk through this—!"
Seren bled with every movement. His mouth was streaked crimson. His fingers twitching. His left eye swollen shut.
But he kept walking.
Not fast. Not with anger.
Just inevitable.
Rhael's fingers flicked—
Another crucible spike detonated beneath Seren's feet, launching stone shards into the air like shrapnel.
Seren stumbled. His leg gave out—one knee thudded against the blood-slicked stone.
His breath was shallow. His ribs were pulsing in and out, each expansion sharper than the last. His coat had been shredded down to tatters. His right hand dangled uselessly at his side, fingers twitching with nerve damage.
Rhael stood tall, one hand shimmering with echo-glow, the other twitching as if conducting invisible strings.
Resonance swirled around his fingers — unseen, but waiting to strike.
"Still breathing?" he asked, his voice uneven now, almost… uncertain.
"I'd call you tenacious, but this is bordering on idiotic."
He stepped forward, blade humming with another wave of delayed dissonance.
"Come on, then. Crawl if you have to. Let's get it over with—"
Seren stood.
But not how Rhael expected.
Rhael's throat twitched.
The air around him warped with his resonance—six layered echo traps pulsing like venomous spores.
But his feet refused to move.
Why?
He'd broken Seren's bones. He'd ruptured his shoulder. Spiked his spine with harmonic backlash. And yet—
That walk.
Not a sprint. Not a lunge.
A walk.
A ghost's approach.
"No… no, no, no—STAY DOWN!"
Rhael snapped his fingers.
Two echo fields detonated.
Crack-boom!
One again burst beside Seren's leg — but he didn't flinch.
The second one — aimed behind him — misfired, the delayed feedback recoiling in a stutter.
What?!
Rhael blinked, adjusting his stance—
Seren's feet suddenly slid apart.
A stance.
Low. Measured. Poised with impossible calm.
His left arm, the broken one, began to pull back — slowly, like a bowstring being drawn by gods.
Behind him, the air fractured.
White vapor trails curled along the ground. Dust reversed midair. Pebbles lifted gently, then rattled like insects fleeing the blast radius.
Rhael's mouth opened.
He didn't know why he was breathing faster.
The stone beneath Seren's feet cracked in spiderwebs as he slid into position.
One stance.
One breath.
His left hand, limp and bloodied, slowly pulled back.
The tremors around his body weren't just pressure.
They were pre-impact echoes — time itself bracing.
His silver eye lifted. Focused directly into Rhael's.
"…You were wrong."
"You wanted me conscious for the ending. So watch closely."
Rhael reacted instinctively.
He lunged—blade-first, echo-charged, swinging wide from the right with full force. A resonance mine triggered behind him, meant to collapse the basin in one instant.
"Why aren't you passing out?"
But he was too slow.
Seren exhaled, not from exhaustion — but to empty himself of mercy.
"Don't blink."
Seren was already gone.
One step.
Just one.
And he disappeared.
A sonic detonation echoed across the chamber.
The stone beneath his step caved inward, leaving a crater where he'd been.
By the time Rhael turned—
Seren had already passed him.
Appeared behind him. Left leg pivoted. Torso twisted.
Left arm reeled back.
Rhael tried to pivot, to activate a new pulse —
But nothing came.
time didn't wait for him.
Not this time.
Rhael turned his head—
"Wai—"
Even Seren didn't know.
It just was.
The moment it aligned — the entire ruin shifted.
A low hum, like stone remembering how to collapse.
The strike came from behind.
A burst of redirected pressure — compressed into the narrowest space between shoulder and fist — unfolded into Rhael's lower back like an execution.
The blow didn't just connect.
It collapsed.
BOOOOOM.
It wasn't just impact — it was stored vengeance, detonating all at once.
The impact didn't stop at Rhael.
It passed through his ribs, spine, and sternum — into the stone wall behind him, blasting it open like a siege weapon. The entire structure folded.
Cracks rippled outward in white streaks.
Dust vanished on impact.
Rhael saw Seren's back turn as the world blurred—
and in that heartbeat, Rhael felt something he hadn't in years,
Fear.
The kind that didn't shout.
Rhael's entire body was lifted off the ground, slammed mid-air like a sack of meat and launched like a javelin.
He crashed — limbs flailing, ribs caved in — and bounced twice before hitting the far basin wall with a dull, final thud.
Silence.
Then, distant, the creak of collapsed scaffolding as stones dropped from above.
Seren stood in the crater.
Chest heaving. Blood running from his lip, down his neck.
His left hand — the one that struck — was shattered. Fingers bent the wrong way. Skin split. Bone protruding slightly from the wrist.
And yet...
He lowered it slowly, like setting a weapon back in its sheath.
"I told you not to smile."
.Seren dragged his steps to the edge of the basin, blood dripping with each motion.
He didn't even glance back.
"Smile now," he muttered.
"Let them see your pathetic self crumpled like trash."
"Let them watch."
Seren didn't look back.
He just walked away — leaving Rhael's broken form for everyone to see.
༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓༓
[⚠ SYSTEM ALERT: COMBAT STATUS – TERMINATED ⚠]
╭────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ BODY STATUS │
╰────────────────────────────────────────╯
— Shattered Left Hand (Compound Fracture)
— Dislocated Shoulder
— Two Cracked Ribs (Visible Deformation)
— Fractured Ankle
— Multiple Deep Lacerations
— Severe Internal Bruising
— Partial Vision Loss (Left Eye)
⯈ MOBILITY FUNCTION: 14%
⯈ NEURAL RESPONSIVENESS: STABLE
⯈ VITAL SIGNS: DIMINISHED, HOLDING
╭────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ MENTAL STATUS │
╰────────────────────────────────────────╯
— UNYIELDING
⚠ Warning: Candidate remains conscious
⚠ Warning: Candidate remains upright
⚠ Warning: Candidate is **still advancing**
╭────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ VICTORY │
╰────────────────────────────────────────╯
❌ OPPONENT: Rhael Moren — *Incapacitated*
✅ **VICTOR: SEREN VAEL**