A colossal beam of raw energy erupted from my palms, blinding, furious, and absolute.
The mont it connected with the ground beneath the orc lord, the earth split apart, the very foundation of the battlefield tearing itself asunder.
The shockwave that followed was deafening, a violent roar that drowned out all else.
Jagged fissures spread like lightning, stone and debris erupting into the air.
A wave of force tore through the battlefield, sending dust and rubble hurtling in every direction.
For the first ti, the orc lord’s expression changed.
Not mockery.
Not amusent.
But genuine surprise.
I clenched my fists, breathing heavily as I watched him falter.
The ground beneath him wasn’t just unstable, it was collapsing entirely.
And now, for the first ti since this battle began...
He was the one forced to react.
The battlefield lay in ruins.
Cracks split the earth like veins of destruction, jagged and deep, swallowing debris into their endless depths.
Smoke and dust choked the air, swirling in chaotic patterns as the remnants of my attack settled.
The force of the blast had sent everything into upheaval... everything except him.
The orc lord hovered above the devastation, his massive fra completely untouched, his enormous club resting casually against his shoulder.
The jagged scars of destruction beneath him might as well have been an inconvenience, a aningless tremor beneath his feet.
He was grinning.
That sa wicked, taunting grin that sent a shiver crawling down my spine.
I tightened my fists, breathing heavily as the last traces of energy crackled around .
That attack had drained a lot, more than I wanted to admit.
And yet, after all of it... after all the power I’d poured into that strike... he was still standing.
Or rather, floating.
Edward staggered beside , coughing against the dust.
"Are you kidding ? He can levitate too?"
Beth, who had been watching from a distance, muttered under her breath.
"Of course he can. Why wouldn’t he?" Her tone was sharp, edged with frustration, but her eyes remained locked on the orc lord, calculating.
The orc lord let out a deep, rumbling chuckle.
His crimson eyes glead as he slowly spread his arms, as if welcoming the destruction beneath him.
"You are persistent, I’ll give you that."
I swallowed hard.
He can talk...
And all he thought about us was...
Persistent?
My entire body burned from the energy I had expelled.
Every muscle scread at to stop, to retreat, to accept that this fight was beyond us.
But I refused.
I couldn’t let him win.
I couldn’t let this monster stand above us, untouched, unchallenged.
Leaving him would put the city at risk.
He was powerful.
Too powerful.
But that didn’t an we had lost.
I took a slow breath, forcing my exhaustion to the back of my mind.
"Edward," I muttered, barely above a whisper. "I think we need a new plan."
He wiped the blood from his lip and let out a dry chuckle.
"No kidding."
In front of us, the orc lord’s grin only widened.
Suddenly orc lord’s grin faltered.
It was slight, so small it might have gone unnoticed.
But I saw it.
That flicker of realization in his crimson eyes, the mont where amusent gave way to sothing else, calculation.
Sothing was wrong.
His gaze swept across the battlefield, scanning through the wreckage, through the broken remains of the ground I had obliterated.
His lips curled slightly, but his amusent had dulled.
Is he looking for...
Beth.
She had been here a mont ago, standing with us, her gun still smoking from the last barrage of bullets that had done nothing.
But now gone.
The orc lord’s fingers twitched.
His club shifted slightly in his grip, but I saw it, the tension building in his posture.
He didn’t like this.
Then, out of nowhere...
A gunshot.
A sharp crack split through the air, sudden and precise.
The orc lord’s instincts took over imdiately, he turned, his massive club swinging up, ready to deflect the bullet.
But his expression changed the mont he realized sothing...
The bullet wasn’t aid at him.
His crimson eyes widened in that fraction of a second, just as the shot struck sothing unseen, the very force of gravity itself that he had been manipulating all along.
The air around him wavered, distorting like heat rippling off pavent.
His body jerked slightly, his levitation flickering.
It wasn’t much, just a brief stutter in his balance, but I saw it.
And so did Beth.
A low, dangerous growl rumbled from the orc lord’s throat as he snapped his head in the direction of the shot, his grin completely gone.
For the first ti since this battle began, he looked, genuinely irritated.
The orc lord dropped.
His levitation stuttered, failed, and in the next mont, his massive body plumted toward the ruined battlefield below.
The earth trembled beneath the force of his descent, dust and debris erupting into the air like a crashing teor.
But even as he fell, his crimson eyes were locked onto one person.
Beth.
I barely saw her.
She was a blur, moving between the shattered remains of the battlefield, her gun already raised, her stance unshaken.
The orc lord snarled, his muscles tensing as he threw out his hand.
Gravity pulsed.
The air thickened, the weight of the world bending to his will.
The broken rocks beneath him groaned as they were crushed into the dirt, the pressure threatening to swallow everything, Beth included.
But then, another shot.
A sharp crack split through the air.
The bullet tore through the unseen force, and just like before, his gravity shattered.
The orc lord’s eyes narrowed.
Annoyance.
I saw it in the way his jaw clenched, the way his nostrils flared.
He hated this.
But he wasn’t done.
Again, his hand twitched, and another pulse of gravity surged outward.
The pressure returned in full force, the weight increasing as if the battlefield itself was being dragged into the depths.
Beth didn’t hesitate.
Another shot.
This ti, the orc lord was ready.
His massive club swung through the air, intercepting the bullet mid-flight with a deafening clang.
Sparks flew, the force of the impact sending the bullet ricocheting into the rubble.
But sothing happened that even he hadn’t anticipated.
His gravity, was still negated.
I saw the flicker of realization in his eyes, that brief second of confusion before it hardened into sothing much sharper.
Beth had fired, not at him, but at the force itself.
And sohow, soway, she was canceling out his power.
The orc lord exhaled slowly, his grip tightening around his weapon.
The battle had changed.
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