Crushed

Gazing up at the dragon hovering high in the air and staring into those contemptuous golden vertical slits, Koman felt an uncontrollable fury erupt in his heart. "You dare ignore me!" "I am Koman, son of Kasa Everfrost, the last heir of the Everfrost Tribe, an avenger from the Abyss, and the giant who will bury you!" His eyes nearly tearing at the corners with fury, the fallen giant roared toward the sky. More and more cracks split across his massive, twisted body, leaking a dim, yellowish abyssal glow from within. "Wrath of the Abyss!" With a roar that shook the clouds, Koman hurled his black spear with all his might. An endless torrent of abyssal power surged upward against gravity, driving straight toward the red dragon aloft in the sky. The turbulent surge carried boiling chaotic energy along with the wails of countless aggrieved souls, severed limbs writhing faintly amid the churning black mist. Cassius sneered. "So it's a leftover remnant of the frost giants." "It seems I wasn't thorough enough back then, failing to pull you up by the roots." Even as he spoke, Cassius banked his wings, executing a sharp turn at mind-boggling speed to streak across the high altitude. Yet the black spear clung closely behind, tracing an elegant arc across the sky as it rounded the bend, barely keeping pace with the red dragon's flight. "Oh? It even homes in?" Cassius was mildly surprised. Folding his wings slightly, he instantly opened a gap of a hundred meters. Down on the ground, Koman strained with all his power, his face twisted into a hideous grimace as he continuously fed abyssal energy into the black spear. The fallen giant glared intently at the red dragon cutting through the sky. Seeing the black afterimage hot on the beast's tail, he couldn't help bursting into wild, arrogant laughter. "Cassius! You scurrying reptile!" "The Spear of Vengeance will pursue you relentlessly until—until it pierces your heart!" A demon's low voice echoed in Koman's mind, exhilarating him even further. *That's it. Come, suckle from Mother Abyss's teat and pin your enemy to the earth.* Cassius offered no reply, only gradually decelerating to let the black spear catch up. Just as the spear, laden with abyssal energy, was about to strike, Cassius abruptly vented bursts of flame and cast a spell through sheer will. *Firestride Exhalation.* The next instant, his colossal body dissolved into a roaring sea of fire, forming an ever-burning curtain high in the sky. The black spear swept through carrying abyssal power, piercing nothing but empty air. Yet the terrifying momentum generated by its sheer velocity kept it hurtling forward, even as its speed rapidly decayed. By the time the spear slowed to a crawl, its momentum nearly reversed, the flames behind it condensed back into solid form, and the red dragon reappeared in the sky. Cassius probed the abyssal torrents with force magic, discovering that wherever the surges passed, the Weave fell into complete disarray, as though plunging into deep chaos, inscrutable and chaotic. "A rather amusing little toy." "However... the experiment ends here." Cassius bared his teeth in a sinister grin and lightly pointed a claw forward. A slender ray of antimagic burst forth in an instant. The moment that unassuming ray made contact with the black spear, the ancient runes covering the shaft dimmed, and the surrounding abyssal torrents dissolved into thin air. *Crack!* With a sharp snap, dense networks of fractures spread across the spear, and it shattered completely into scattered fragments. "No—!" Koman let out an agonizing wail from the ground. That Spear of Vengeance had taken him three years of continuous brooding and infusions of abyssal energy to forge, imbued with the power to home in on an enemy's heart. Yet with a mere eighth-ring disjunction spell from Cassius, the spear that had cost him so much blood and sweat was reduced to ruin in an instant. "If this is all you have to rely on, it's dreadfully boring." Cassius reached out with both claws, tearing through space as effortlessly as ripping paper. A rift in space, burning with flames along its edges, manifested in the air. *Rrrrip...* With that crisp sound, sharp claw tips materialized behind the fallen giant. Tearing open the fragile fabric of space, a hideous four-horned draconic head emerged from the rift, followed by a long, thick neck, a mighty torso, and expansive wings. Supporting himself on his powerful hind limbs, Cassius reared up on two legs. His outstretched wings cast an enormous shadow that practically engulfed the giant. Koman whirled around, unable to keep from looking up. Before a dragon nearly thirty meters in length, even Koman, who stood ten meters tall and had exceeded the racial limits of frost giants, looked as small as a dwarf by comparison. Cassius split his jaws into a savage grin. "Caught you." The next instant, the red dragon slammed his colossal body downward. Like a crimson mountain, he crushed the fallen giant to the ground, veins bulging along his thick, scale-armored forelimbs as his monstrous, razor-sharp claws pinned the giant flat against the earth. *Boom!* With a thunderous crash, the ground splintered like a spiderweb. The giant was crushed so violently that half his body caved inward; black-red blood splattered everywhere, and unidentifiable internal organs were vomited from his mouth. Such was the strength of the red dragon after his deep slumber, already surpassing mortal limits. "You aren't even equal to your father. You fall far short." "At least he managed to put some decent pressure on me, while you... you are nothing more than a deformed runt forcibly stuffed with abyssal filth. If the backer you found had been Kostchtchie, the Wrathful Lord of the frost giants, perhaps I would have taken you a bit more seriously." Cassius ground his weight down into the fallen giant, relishing the tactile sensation of flesh and bone fracturing and tearing beneath his claws. He then parted his lower jaw slightly, extreme, searing energy churning deep in his throat. "So, farewell—so-called avenger." "No!" "Revenge... I need more power...!" At the same time, the fallen giant wailed in despair. Gathering his last ounce of strength, he reached a trembling arm toward the sky. "Lord Jezralslak, I beg of you...!" Viscous blood and chunks of minced flesh kept spilling from his mouth, yet he never ceased his pleading. *This is the last time. I will demand payment.* A demon's cold response finally drifted from the void. The moment Cassius unleashed a burst of blazing white flame, the fallen giant turned translucent. A spatial vortex formed around him at blinding speed, and he vanished in a burst of electrical discharge, leaving his grotesque afterimage scorched onto the nearby walls. Immediately afterward, pervasive abyssal energy coalesced, and the giant's body reformed in the distance. Cassius's breath weapon hit nothing but empty ground, incinerating the earth and carving out a blackened crater several feet deep. "Oh?" "Now that's a bit more interesting." The red dragon slowly closed his maw, wisps of white smoke curling from his lips, as a flicker of surprise shone in his pale golden pupils.