Chapter 99: Owe me a father
The moment the light of teleportation faded, he was already sprinting.
Heat still surging through his veins, not just from the elixirs, but from <Sanctified Wrath> burning through every cell in his body like wildfire. His limbs felt weightless, faster, stronger, more alive than they had ever been.
The wind screamed in his ears as he shot through the ravaged forest. What used to be towering trees and dense canopy was now a battlefield of shattered trunks, splintered roots, and gouged earth. The very ground trembled with distant booms, like the sky itself was falling.
He wasn’t even breathing hard. He couldn’t feel fatigue.
But his heart pounded for a different reason.
"Dad... please hold on."
He could hear the distant sound of blades and claws clashing into one another and for a moment everything turned silent. And this was not good news at all. His heart raced like never before, his blood pump even harder, and the next instant he disappeared.
The avian-headed monster towered over the battlefield like a statue of death. Its feathers glistened with blood, but not its own. The once-shining chains lay broken and scattered at its feet, twisted like vines. Smoke curled around its legs. Its four arms still spun, blocking and parrying in a deadly rhythm.
And Derek was still standing.
But barely.
He was bleeding from his shoulder, his ribs, his temple. His shadow-wrapped armor was cracked. One arm hung limp. His blade was gone again. He was down to pure grit now, dodging blow after blow, body moving on instinct alone.
Right at this moment Kaelen saw it.