Chapter 319: The Four Blows of the Circle

The attempts were no longer counted. Kellar had been hitting trees that split on the second blow for a while now, arms heavy and air short, when the window appeared on its own.

[Chain Club Critical Strike]

[Increases the power of every chained blow. Each subsequent blow gains 50% damage.]

A simple description with a lot of weight behind it. Kellar read it, straightened up and smiled.

"Let us try."

He left the forest and walked toward a mountain rock, taller than a man and wider than three. He took a long breath until the noise of the village left him.

The first blow only left a mark. The second made the rock rumble and the rumble went through the ground. The third splintered it, and on the fourth Kellar was no longer thinking about the circle. His focus had closed on the stone and the mace, and the momentum carried him by itself. At the moment of impact a thunder rolled through the valley.

The whole rock came apart.

Julian took a step back without being able to help it. The improvement had been too fast. With that mace, Kellar could destroy a small hill now.

Kellar began to laugh hard, and the laugh cut itself off when the hill began to run liquid.

It was a dark, thick purple, and it poured down the sides as if someone had opened a wineskin. The ground stained. Then the hill trembled, moved, and the cracks opened, throwing dirt over the boots of those nearby.

The hill was not a hill. It was a coiled serpent.

Kellar lowered the mace and watched it rise. Its head climbed above the trees and its flank was open, bleeding in torrents.

The roar was brutal and it vibrated in everyone’s chest.

"Who the fuck dares attack me!?"

The recruits fell back in disorder. The villagers shouted with excitement, knelt in the purple mud and began to beg with their hands raised, vengeance, justice, and their voices were lost under the roar.

The serpent lowered its head toward them, confused, and in that gap Little Green came down in a dive.

Its claws turned to emerald and sank in to the hilt. Dozens of Garnis fired at once and the impacts tore its hide, which looked like rock and was not. The screams of the two beasts mixed.

Kellar did not miss the chance. He launched himself at it while the eagle held it in the air, not letting it touch the ground.

[Bear’s Fury.]

His body turned red and he shot off. One blow, two, three, and on the fourth he shouted.

[Overlord Strike.]

His strength doubled at once, and on top of that the fifty percent of the fury. It went from four hundred to fourteen hundred.

The cannon shot struck it full in the head. The head flew off to the side, and even so it barely made it bleed.

The serpent roared angrier and coiled suddenly, so fast that Little Green did not manage to close its wings. The eagle fell to the ground and the serpent began to coil over it.

"Shit." Kellar looked for a way in. "This thing is really strong! Bombard it!"

The Garnis roared and fired again, and the impacts hit Little Green too.

"You," said the serpent, its voice coming from very low, without letting up the pressure. "Little eagle chick. How dare you conspire with these damn humans to fight the chosen of the great lord of the forest?"

Little Green screamed in pain. The serpent had it fully coiled, against the ground, and was subduing it.

Little Green screamed again, and this time the scream had words in it.

"Master. It is splitting me."

Kellar planted himself and opened his hand toward it.

[Tribal Blessing: Bear’s Fury]

[Tribal Blessing: Bear’s Endurance]

[Tribal Blessing: Bear’s Vitality]

The eagle’s body shone again, now with that dark color, and its eyes filled with purple bolts. Its wings pushed against the ground and the serpent lost just enough grip. The claw came free and sank into one of its eyes.

The serpent thrashed, desperate, and let it go.

"Damn you! How dare you!?" Its head whipped in the air, searching. "I will kill them! I will kill them all!"

Little Green rose and slammed its head against the ground.

The wind from the blow reached Kellar and made him stagger. He held his place.

"Hold it, Little Green! I need to kill it!"

Karkadann moved.

Its leg came down over the trees and planted on the body, the size of a mountain. The serpent was pinned into the purple mud.

"You too, Karkadann!" it screamed, its voice breaking with rage. "You did not submit to the lord of the forests, but you did to these simple, miserable humans! You are a disgrace to your species! You are a damn traitor! The lord of this forest will make you pay!"

Karkadann pressed down and made it scream louder.

Little Green drove its other claw into the base of the head and cut. The link to the spine went.

The serpent was left convulsing, its single eye wide open.

Kellar came up to it, pushing the air aside with his arm, and stopped in front of the eye.

"Little serpent," said he, smiling. "I would tell you to join us, but it is too late. You serve me better dead than alive."

The serpent looked at him with a pleading eye.

Kellar said nothing. He raised the mace and hit it on the forehead.

The first blow was a test. The second already carried half the strength, and the third followed without pause, and the fourth closed the circle on the same point. The scales flew.

Then he started again. One, two, three, four. The circle closed on its own and his wrist answered, but on the fifth the weight always escaped him and he had to start over.

One, two, three, four.

The forehead split open. Blood ran down the animal’s face and clouded its good eye.

One, two, three, four.

The split became a crack, and the crack became a hole, and through the hole the white of the bone showed. The serpent no longer moved. Only the eye, which stayed on Kellar.

"Again," said Kellar, to himself.

One, two, three, four.

The skull gave. The whole head opened outward and burst under the last blow, and the body stayed stretched out and still in the purple mud.

Kellar lowered the mace and stood looking at what he had done, his breath high.

"Four," said he. "Always four."