Chapter 26: FRIH - 26
Frieren frowned, incredulous. The burning could be explained by magic, but teleportation?
She stood there, her lips slightly parted as her eyes darted toward the trail of dust Ronan left in his wake. The subtle hum of residual mana still lingered in the air, vibrating through the stones beneath her feet. She had seen many spells in her life, complex incantations and runes drawn with millimeter precision. But this—this was something else entirely.
No chant. No circle. Just boom—and he was gone. Her brows furrowed as she struggled to rationalize it. Even high-speed movement spells required buildup. Was it acceleration magic combined with spatial manipulation? Or some unknown technique? The afterimage that remained of Ronan shimmered faintly, like heat rising off scorched earth, as if the world hadn't caught up with his motion.
She watched, puzzled and surprised, as Ronan punched the pugilist into a wall, creating a human-shaped dent in less than a second.
The impact was thunderous, a low, crushing sound like boulders colliding. Dust and debris exploded outward in a wide plume as the wall cracked and groaned, chunks of stone falling in slow motion to those watching. The pugilist, previously fleeing in desperation, now lay embedded in the stone, arms slack, head tilted at an unnatural angle. The shape he left behind was grotesquely accurate—his limbs splayed like a flattened insect. Yet somehow, unbelievably, he still clung to life.
Frieren's eyes traced the faint shimmer of Ronan's afterimage—an echo of his motion imprinted upon her vision. She blinked rapidly, but it didn't vanish right away.
...
...
Some time later...