In the cramped earthen chamber, there was barely enough space to turn around, let alone fight. Packed soil pressed in from all sides, the low ceiling rough and uneven, the air thick with dust and the tallic tang of blood.
Inside his VR Capsule, the Mad Engineer had sohow propped himself up just enough to peer through the narrow reinforced viewport. His eyes were wide, darting back and forth as the battle unfolded, caught between shock, disbelief, and an unmistakable glimr of fascination. Strangely, fear was absent. Not for the man who had fallen from the sky, at least. That much was obvious. The newcor was not struggling. He was dismantling his opponent piece by piece.
The wolf-man tried to abandon defense entirely, throwing himself forward in a desperate exchange of blows, but it only hastened his defeat. Ethan had already layered his Iron Hide. The first layer was torn apart by a savage claw swipe that shredded his shirt and traced a thin red line across his skin. The wound was shallow, barely more than a scratch, yet it proved a critical point. The beast could hurt him.
So Ethan reinforced himself again, adding a second layer and settling into the fight with renewed focus. Bear Form flooded his body with brute strength and resilience, and in real combat he discovered sothing that Ethereal battles had never revealed. His offensive techniques in this form did not consu Rage Points. They drained stamina instead, unless he deliberately fused them with Energy. Rage built naturally as he fought, filling steadily with every exchanged blow, and was only spent when he triggered defensive abilities like Iron Hide.
It was an ideal balance. Bear Form was made for sustained violence, for overpowering an enemy through relentless force. Panther Form existed for speed and surgical precision, for killing quickly and cleanly. Owl Form, on the other hand, felt ill-suited to close combat. Spellcasting in the middle of a brawl was slow and awkward, too detached from the raw imdiacy he preferred. Ethan trusted his fists and claws.
Yet he knew better than to underestimate it. Owl Form, bound directly to the deeper forces of nature, was arguably the most terrifying of them all. The mory surfaced unbidden, the Forbidden spell he had once cast in the Sea of Death, the celestial mass he had nearly dragged into orbit. If not for the dinsional barriers there, the consequences would have been unthinkable. That power was not a weapon. It was a catastrophe waiting for permission.
Here, buried in a hole in the ground, Bear Form was more than sufficient.
The fight dragged on for a full ten minutes of bone-crushing brutality. In the beginning, Ethan’s movents were slightly rigid, his responses asured and deliberate, as though he were flipping through old manuals in his mind. He was shaking off rust. As ti passed, the stiffness bled away. Drilled sequences dissolved into instinct, his body adapting fluidly to every swing and lunge. He parried the wolf-man’s reckless attacks with minimal motion, answering each one with crushing counters that sent shockwaves through the chamber walls.
He was steel in a forge, each impact hamring impurities out of him, raw strength rging seamlessly with refined technique.
By the end of those ten minutes, sothing fundantal had changed in his opponent. The blazing crimson frenzy in the wolf-man’s eyes dimd, draining away into sothing far more human. Shock surfaced first, followed swiftly by fear.
Ethan had beaten the madness out of him.
The shift was imdiate and devastating. Without berserker rage to prop it up, the Mutant faltered. Hesitation crept into its movents. Pain asserted itself. Several ribs were clearly broken beneath the dark bruises spreading across its torso, and each breath ca harder than the last.
"Stop. Stop hitting !"
THWACK.
Ethan’s fist slamd into its jaw. The wolf-man spun helplessly before collapsing onto the dirt floor in a tangled heap.
The transformation unraveled in seconds. Bestial features receded as if pulled back by an unseen tide. The elongated snout shortened, coarse fur sinking into pale skin. Claws withdrew, leaving behind trembling fingers tipped with blunt nails. What remained was a young man, slender and fair, his delicate features almost pretty beneath the swelling and vivid bruises that painted his face.
He curled inward, arms raised in a futile shield. "Don’t hit anymore. I yield. I yield."
He did not try to stand. He simply sat there, shaking.
Ethan lood over him, fist still half-raised, conflicted. The truth was uncomfortable. This had been excellent practice, a durable and aggressive opponent who had pushed him just enough to be useful. Part of him did not want it to end. But continuing to beat soone who had surrendered, who now looked more like a battered university student than a monster, crossed a line he was not willing to step over.
He lowered his fist and took a single step back, though his posture remained guarded. With a thought, energy shimred and condensed around his hands. The Twilight Warspear shifted, tal flowing and reforming until it beca a pair of brutal, clawed gauntlets. Ursar’s Claws locked into place with a sharp tallic shink, eight wicked talons gleaming in the dim light.
The fight was finished. The man had nothing left.
’Ti to end it.’
Ethan’s voice was flat, stripped of any lingering heat from battle. "You failed to report to the Ninth Division. You attacked a civilian. You don’t get to live."
The young man recoiled at the sight of the claws, terror flashing openly in his eyes. But when he spoke, his words did not match the fear.
"Report? Ninth Division? What are you talking about?" His confusion sounded genuine, cutting cleanly through the panic.
Ethan frowned. "The Energy saturation in Magnolia Valley. Any Mutant who stays here to absorb it reports to the Ninth Division. If you don’t, you’re marked for execution." He let the sentence hang, convinced the man was pretending ignorance.
Instead, the young man scoffed, imdiately regretting it as pain rippled across his bruised face. "Energy saturation? Here?" He let out a short, humorless laugh. "This place is watered-down trash. I wouldn’t waste my ti. Why would I report for this?"
He pointed shakily toward the VR Capsule. Inside, the Mad Engineer flinched as though the finger itself were a weapon. "You’re strong. I’ll give you that. But that thief stole sothing from us. He took our Moonfrost Direwolf clan’s princess. Make him return her. Because whether you kill or not doesn’t matter. My people will co from the Extre South."
The anger in his voice sharpened as he continued, indignation spilling out with every word. Then, abruptly, his tone shifted. He straightened as much as his battered body allowed, lifting his chin despite the pain, pride blazing through his fear.
"They will sweep north like a tide. This region, this entire place, will be buried in blood and ice."
He t Ethan’s gaze without flinching, as though daring him to strike. Everything about his posture spoke the sa ssage. His death would not be an ending. It would be a signal. A declaration that would call sothing far worse down upon this land.
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