A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6048

Jared acted as though the threats were wind; the Dragonslayer Sword blurred into a silver-gray storm, each rotation faster than the last.

His eyes glowed crimson, chaotic force nearly bled dry, and fresh cuts mapped his arms and shoulders, yet the blade never paused.

Jared pulled his gaze from the blazing wreck of the nearest sky-skiff.

Lucky hovered beside him, wings beating unevenly. Cracked crimson scales dulled the unicorn's natural luster, and every breath sent out only a handful of weak sparks.

Heat that once rolled off the beast like a furnace now felt no warmer than late-autumn air. The change pinched Jared’s chest tighter than the corded bruises wrapping his ribs.

A raw roar rose over the clang of steel and the hiss of shattered spells.

It came from the direction of Skyfiend Gorge—dozens, maybe hundreds, of throats driving one word ahead of them like a boulder: a pledge to kill.

The sound bucked through the smoky air and slammed straight into Jared’s eardrums, jarring him out of the daze of exhaustion.

Through the drifting ash, a familiar voice carried above the rest. "Jared, we’re here!"

The shout rang bright, reckless, and utterly certain, as if the speaker had never doubted they would find him alive in this hurricane of light and gore.

King Ironhide burst from the canyon mouth at a full charge. The battered remnants of the Beastfolk Resistance poured in after him, weapons lifted high.

Even after all their losses, the very thump of their boots hit the ground like a war drum that refused to die.

Less than twenty thousand fighters remained, and nearly every armor plate they wore had a crack or a bloodstain.

Yet the force of their arrival felt like a mountainside breaking loose, momentum hungry to bury anything in its path.

"Beastfolk, today we avenge every river of blood they ever spilled!"

King Ironhide’s roar shook dust from the shattered cliff face. He bulged outward, bones snapping into place as fur exploded across his frame. Then the black bear the size of a two-story hall thundered forward.

The ten-feet bear’s first swipe tore a trench through the celestials’ front rank. Dozens of armored bodies whirled into the air; more were smashed into the ground so hard their breastplates folded like tin.

Jared felt the shock wave rumble through his boots.

Elder Hartcrest answered the charge, antlers gleaming. The white stag grew until his hooves hovered a man’s height above the dirt.

Soft white radiance welled from the tines of his rack, spilling over nearby fighters. Torn flesh knit, broken bones slid back into place, and the wounded straightened with new breath on their tongues.

Luther became a streak of living night. Each time the shadow clarified into a figure, a celestial officer clutched at a suddenly empty chest cavity before crumpling.

Jared tracked the motion only by the brief glints of steel sliding free of blackness.

A gasp slipped from a knot of celestials. They had not expected anyone else to throw themselves into this slaughter on Jared’s side.

A hot pulse of gratitude flickered behind Jared’s sternum, but it broke apart just as fast.

He cupped both hands around his mouth and roared, "Who told you to be here? Get back, now!" The command cracked his raw throat.

King Ironhide laughed, a deep, rolling sound that carried over clanging metal. "Jared, the beast race never abandons the one who saved us. If we die, we die together!"

"Together!" The word blasted from two thousand throats at once.

The declaration pounded against the ruined sky like a second heartbeat, daring any listener to doubt it.

Their arrival shoved the enemy tide back two steps. Blades stopped brushing Jared’s cloak for the first time in minutes.

His chest expanded with a single, precious breath that did not taste of panic.

But the relief lasted a heartbeat and no more.

Enemy banners still clogged the horizon, and every standard bristled with fresh spears marching toward them.

Yet the battlefield remained dire.

Finger bones rattled as he flew through a rapid sequence of seals. Overhead, more than a hundred war barges flared to life, their hull runes spitting jagged golden light into the clouds.

"All vessels," the Venerable hissed, "unleash judgment!"

Gold engines howled. The air pressure dropped so sharply Jared’s ears popped, and sparks rained from the sky in wide arcs.

Each barge fired a beam as thick as an ancient cedar. The hundred streams merged almost instantly, braiding into one colossal pillar of annihilation that plowed toward the patch of sky Jared and the beastfolk held.

A hundred blazing beams fused into a single 100-foot column of destruction that thundered toward Jared and the beastfolk ranks.

The blood drained from Jared’s face. He knew his battered body would never hold against that strike—and the fighters behind him had even less hope.

"Chaos, guard the heavens."

The words left his teeth as a snarl. He dragged the last threads of chaotic force out of his core and rammed them upward, shaping a titanic gray shield above the army.

Lucky sensed the peril before the shout finished. Gold fire flared across every plate still clinging to the unicorn's hide, then funneled into the forming barrier.

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