Chapter 557: Back in a Bit!

Chapter 555

BANG! BAM! BOOOM!

The Aberrant’s head was driven backward into the earth with tremendous force.

The terrain shuddered violently as cracks spread outward from the point of impact, tearing through the ground while thick clouds of dust billowed into the air, shrouding everything and everyone from view.

The air twisted and howled beneath the force of the collision. Spectators who had focused their attention entirely on the battle found themselves momentarily blinded, unable to see anything through the swirling dust.

Only for the Aberrant to lift its head high into the air.

With a fierce spin of its massive legs, the creature swung them around and sent them hurtling toward the Tribrid.

Ray reacted instantly.

He performed an acrobatic backflip, sailing through the air as the enormous legs swept beneath him and crashed into nothing but empty space. Landing on one hand, he steadied himself as the dust slowly began to settle, revealing the Three-Spined Aberrant rising to half its full height.

Despite its enormous stature, the creature remained crouched, seemingly refusing to tower over the boy standing before it.

Ray, meanwhile, was slowly rising to his own full height.

The spectators could finally see him clearly, lightning crawling up and down his hands, its brilliant arcs illuminating his silver hair and casting flickering shadows across his face.

The sounds of battle raging in the distance reached his ears. The explosions, the roars, the deafening crashes of combat were all still there.

But Ray shut them out.

He refused to let any of it reach him.

His friends could handle whatever came their way. He trusted them to do that much.

For now, there was only one opponent that mattered.

The monster standing before him.

Ray’s focus narrowed until everything else faded into the background. No distractions. No hesitation. No wasted movements.

The Aberrant twisted its face, surprise briefly flickering across its features as it examined the young man before it.

"Damn. You have really grown since the last time I saw you. The last time I saw you, you had black hair. Tell me, did you dye it or what? ’Cause I’m lost on how it became silver."

The creature tilted its head slightly, continuing to study Ray with a curious expression.

"And why do you look so much older than your age with—"

Ray was gone.

As silently as the wind, he disappeared from his position without wasting another second listening to the creature’s chatter.

He didn’t bother responding.

He simply moved.

Still crouched low, the Aberrant twisted around, its fist rocketing toward what should have been empty air.

But in that instant, its knuckles collided with another knuckle.

BOOM!

The impact sent a resounding shockwave through the battlefield, shaking the earth beneath their feet.

Ray had appeared directly before the Aberrant.

His knuckle pressed against the creature’s.

For a brief moment, the two remained locked together, neither giving an inch. Yet Ray’s gaze had already shifted past their joined fists, settling on the dress hanging around the monster’s neck.

The sight was enough to remind him exactly why he was here.

His physical strength, which had been unleashed with such devastating force moments earlier, was deliberately reined in.

"Going all out would make your death too easy," Ray said, his voice dangerously calm. "I will make you suffer. I’ll drain every last drop of blood in your body. I’ll make you beg for death before I finally end you."

The viewers watching the confrontation were left stunned.

It wasn’t simply what Ray had said.

It was how he had said it.

The fury that had previously radiated from him seemed to have settled into something far more disturbing. His voice carried no wild rage, no uncontrollable shouting, no hint of the storm that had been building inside him.

Instead, his words were delivered with a chilling calmness.

Cold as the bitterest winter in the North Pole.

And then—

They exchanged fists.

Punches crashed through the air as Ray and the Three-Spined Aberrant repeatedly slammed their knuckles against one another. Every collision erupted with a clamorous BANG, the force of their blows sending shockwaves rippling across the battlefield.

The air trembled.

The ground shuddered.

And before long, the earth could no longer withstand the punishment.

It caved inward beneath their feet, forming an expanding crater as the ground sank lower and lower with every successive impact.

Still, neither combatant stopped.

Their fists continued meeting in a relentless exchange, each collision driving them deeper into the fractured terrain. The shockwaves spread outward, sending loose stones tumbling away from the crater while dust rose around their bodies.

They kept going.

Punch after punch.

Knuckle against knuckle.

The Aberrant’s grin gradually began to thin.

At first, the creature had seemed thoroughly entertained by the confrontation. But as the exchange continued, it noticed something wrong.

Its knuckles were beginning to peel.

The rocky armour covering its hands had started to crack beneath the repeated collisions, tiny fractures spreading across the surface as lightning arcing around Ray’s fists struck it again and again.

The electricity wasn’t merely illuminating the battlefield.

It was punishing the creature with every contact, eating away at the protection covering its knuckles until pieces of the rocky armour began to break apart.

For the first time, the Aberrant’s expression shifted.

Ray noticed none of it.

Or perhaps he simply didn’t care.

The two combatants finally pulled their fists back, creating a brief separation between them.

Ray’s arms bulged as he drew back his fist, muscles tightening beneath his skin. Lightning coiled around his hand, its crackling arcs growing more intense as he prepared to deliver another devastating punch.

Then he swung.

His fist shot forward with blazing momentum.

The Three-Spined Aberrant met it head-on, driving its own fist toward Ray’s incoming attack.

And then—

The world went silent.

For one brief second, everything seemed to freeze as their fists collided.

The next instant, a reverberating shockwave detonated across the entire battlefield.

BOOOOOOM!

Chunks of rock erupted into the air as cracks spread through the earth, tearing across the crater and extending into the surrounding terrain.

The force of the collision battered the air itself, while the deafening impact rang through Ray’s ears.

The rocky armour covering the Aberrant’s knuckles finally gave way, crumbling into nothing beneath the relentless punishment. What remained were its cracked, battered fists, stripped of the protection that had allowed it to meet Ray’s punches head-on.

Ray cocked his fist backward.

For a brief moment, the Three-Spined Aberrant stared at him, its eyes widening in shock. Then, realizing what was coming, it swiftly straightened to its full height.

Too late.

Ray’s fist blurred forward.

The Aberrant kicked off the ground and hurled itself sideways just in time to escape the blow. Lightning erupted from the Tribrid’s fist, tearing through the air and gouging a deep trench into the ground where the creature had been crouching a second earlier.

BOOM!

Ray didn’t stop to admire the damage.

Sliding one leg across the fractured earth, he twisted his hips and immediately pounced forward, his silver hair trailing behind him as lightning crackled around his body.

The Aberrant reacted by slamming its hand into the ground. Its massive fingers dug into the earth before ripping out a gigantic slab of rock and soil, which it hurled toward the approaching boy with all its might.

Ray’s gaze never left his target.

As the enormous slab hurtled toward him, he merely tilted his leg and spun his body sideways, allowing the projectile to whistle past him without making contact.

But that was exactly what the Aberrant had been waiting for.

A massive fist descended from above, its shadow swallowing Ray as it came crashing toward him.

Ray didn’t dodge.

He didn’t retreat.

Instead, he swung both hands forward and clamped them around the incoming fist with a monstrous grip.

BOOM!

The impact sent a blast of wind rushing outward, scattering dust and loose stones across the battlefield. Ray’s feet dug into the fractured ground as he absorbed the force, his teeth gritted and a furious glint burning in his eyes.

The Aberrant tried to overpower him.

It couldn’t.

With a violent twist of his body, Ray swung the creature’s arm away and lunged forward, covering the distance between them in a blink.

Suddenly, he was right in front of the Three-Spined Aberrant.

His hand shot forward.

The creature immediately vaulted backward, desperate to escape his grasp. Yet despite its quick reaction, Ray’s fingers closed around something before it could get away.

Something came loose.

And remained in the boy’s hands.

The Aberrant landed several metres away, its movements abruptly faltering. One hand flew to its neck, feeling for what was no longer there, before its gaze snapped toward Ray.

The dress.

It was resting in the Tribrid’s grasp.

For the first time since the confrontation began, the anger radiating from Ray seemed to settle. His eyes dropped to the fabric, taking in the few dried specks of crimson that stained it.

For a moment, the battlefield ceased to matter.

The explosions in the distance, the cries of combatants, the monstrous creatures surrounding him—all of it faded into insignificance.

Ray carefully brought the dress closer to his face and placed a gentle kiss upon it.

Then, with a tenderness that seemed almost impossible for someone who had spent the last few minutes tearing apart the earth with his fists, he brushed the dust from its surface with his hand.

A gentle smile rested on his lips.

"GIVE ME BACK MY TR—!"

The Aberrant’s furious shout abruptly died in its throat.

Its gaze had shifted toward the distance.

Even Ray turned around.

A hundred One-Spined Aberrants were rushing toward them, their enormous bodies thundering across the battlefield. From the way they were charging, it was clear they intended to join the fight against the Tribrid.

A tired sigh escaped Ray’s lips.

*Seriously? More of these bastards?*

He glanced down at the dress one final time before sending it into his inventory, securing it somewhere these creatures could never reach.

Only then did he lift his gaze.

The moment the dress disappeared, the gentle expression on his face vanished with it.

The calm that had briefly settled over him evaporated, replaced by a suffocating killing intent that erupted from his body. His eyes flashed with brilliant light for a fraction of a second, and the air around him seemed to grow heavier.

"I will come back to you in a bit," Ray said over his shoulder.

He wasn’t even looking at the Three-Spined Aberrant anymore.

Then, without giving the approaching creatures a chance to react, he darted forward.

His speed was so overwhelming that the Aberrants barely had time to blink.

And when they did—

Two of them were already dropping to their knees.