The Sovereign Chronicles novel Chapter 13

Kaelen remained perfectly still in the canopy, his expression entirely unreadable. He had never dealt with Mercenaries before, but he knew the reputation of men who made their living trading blood for coin. Fighting alongside them without a guaranteed payout was foolish; getting backstabbed by them the moment the beast fell was practically a given. He wasn't about to risk his life only to be robbed of the spoils.

The melee below devolved into pure desperation. The Saber-Tooth Fiend, driven mad by its accumulating wounds, went into an absolute frenzy. The five Mercenaries were trapped; retreating now would only mean being hunted down one by one.

Kaelen's gaze drifted past the bloodbath to a cavern entrance a short distance away. Something inside was radiating a staggeringly dense aura of Vitality. Since he cultivated The Genesis Mantra, his sensitivity to life-Aether was unparalleled.

It seemed this entire bloodbath had started over whatever was inside that cave.

"Agh!" The black-clad warrior was suddenly batted out of the air by the beast's massive paw. He crashed into the dirt, his back mangled by three deep, horrifying lacerations.

"ROAAR!" The Saber-Tooth Fiend let loose a shockwave of sound that rattled the very leaves of the canopy. A violent surge of pitch-black Aether erupted from its core, blasting the four flanking Mercenaries off their feet just as they attempted to intervene. Ignoring them, the beast locked its crimson eyes on the downed vanguard. It charged, the earth trembling under its massive paws, raising a claw to deliver the killing blow.

"No!" the four Mercenaries screamed in unison.

"You in the trees! Help us, and you'll be heavily compensated! Now!" The black-clad warrior forced himself to his feet. Ignoring the excruciating agony in his back, he burned his remaining Aether, hoisted his heavy Warblade, and roared as he charged the beast head-on.

"ROAAR!" The Saber-Tooth Fiend reared up on its hind legs, towering over the man. Swathed in a tempest of black Aether, it brought its tree-trunk-sized paws crashing down toward the warrior's skull.

"Get out of there! Move!" The other Mercenaries shrieked as they scrambled to their feet. There was no way he could parry a direct blow from that monstrosity.

"Raaagh!" The warrior's face contorted into a mask of pure defiance. He planted his boots, halting his momentum, and pivoted his entire body, channeling every ounce of his strength into a desperate, upward cyclone slash.

In that microscopic window between life and death, Kaelen struck. Dropping from the canopy like a meteor, he bypassed the crossfire and slammed directly into the Saber-Tooth Fiend. Every muscle fiber in his body was drawn tight as a bowstring; the boiling Aether in his cells surged into his right arm and shoulder.

"Titan's Vigor: Mountain-Quake!"

Kaelen roared as his shoulder collided with the beast's exposed ribcage. The physical impact was apocalyptic.

His base striking power was over a thousand pounds. Multiplied by the three-fold explosive modifier of the Titan's Vigor, the kinetic delivery was catastrophic.

BOOM! CRACK!

The Saber-Tooth Fiend convulsed as if struck by a falling meteor. Its massive frame was thrown entirely off balance mid-strike, the sickening sound of snapping ribs echoing across the clearing.

Capitalizing on the stagger, the black-clad warrior didn't hesitate. His ascending Warblade met zero resistance, cleanly severing one of the beast's massive paws.

"Don't let up!" Kaelen gritted his teeth against the concussive recoil rattling his own bones. Before the beast could even hit the ground, he stepped into its guard. The Daevan Blade snapped into his grip. With a flash of cold steel, he drove the ancient broadsword upward, aiming for a deep gash already weeping blood on the beast's throat. *Squelch.* The heavy blade sank deep. With a vicious twist and pull, Kaelen ripped the wound open, tearing a two-foot gash across its jugular.

"Beautiful!" The warrior roared in triumph. Heaving his Warblade, he brought it down in a devastating overhead cleave, burying the steel deep into the fiend's skull.

"Rooaaar!" The Saber-Tooth Fiend thrashed in its death throes, unleashing a final, apocalyptic blast of black Aether. The resulting shockwave sent both Kaelen and the warrior skidding backward through the dirt. But the beast's injuries were too severe; its rage finally gave way to a desperate instinct to flee.

"You aren't going anywhere." The black-clad warrior and his four surviving Mercenaries swarmed the dying beast, channeling the last of their adrenaline into a relentless, brutal offensive.

Moments later, with a final, pathetic whimper, the colossal beast collapsed into a pool of its own blood, dead.

The five Mercenaries stood over the carcass, drenched in gore, their chests heaving violently as they gasped for air. The lone female Mercenary couldn't even stand; she slumped against a tree trunk, her head hanging in exhaustion.

"Friend! You have our thanks!" The black-clad warrior took a moment to catch his breath before formally addressing Kaelen. Though the newcomer had only struck twice, his timing had been godly. Those two interventions had single-handedly reversed a total party wipe.

"Save the pleasantries. What's inside?" Kaelen gestured toward the cave entrance.

"Hmm?" The warrior's eyes narrowed slightly. He hadn't expected Kaelen to immediately spot the prize. He had planned to toss him a bag of silver and send him on his way.

The other four Mercenaries slowly raised their heads, their exhausted eyes hardening with sudden, guarded suspicion.

"Relax. I'm not here to rob you blind. Whatever is in there, I'm taking a twenty percent cut."

"Inside is..."

"I'll go verify it myself."

"It's Millennial Moss!" The warrior didn't know Kaelen's exact Phase or background, but based on the sheer kinetic force required to stagger a Saber-Tooth Fiend mid-lunge, the kid was undeniably lethal. Furthermore, the ancient broadsword in his hand was clearly no ordinary piece of steel.

His squad was practically walking wounded. If this escalated into a deathmatch, he couldn't guarantee they would survive.

"Enlighten me?" Kaelen had never heard of it.

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