At that moment I moved, reality itself seemed to lag behind.
I wasn’t just fast, I was beyond fast.
The world around me blurred into a streak of incomprehensible motion, colors twisting and bending as if the very fabric of existence struggled to keep up.
My body felt weightless, like I had transcended the laws of physics entirely.
And then, I struck.
My foot connected with the orc lord’s chest, and for a split second, there was nothing.
No impact.
No resistance.
Just silence.
Then, everything shattered.
The sheer force of my kick sent a shockwave tearing through the battlefield, splitting the ground beneath us.
The very air screamed as it ripped apart, the pressure alone enough to make the sky tremble.
A fissure split the earth, jagged and endless, like a wound carved into the world itself.
The orc lord didn’t just fly, he vanished.
One second, he was there, massive and unshakable.
The next, he was an unrecognizable blur, an afterimage left behind as he was launched at an incomprehensible speed.
The sky burned with his trajectory, a streak of red and black carving through the horizon before his body finally collided.
The impact was cataclysmic.
The ground where he crashed collapsed inward, a massive crater forming on impact.
Dust and debris exploded into the air, rising like a mushroom cloud as the very earth groaned beneath the force.
A second later, the shockwave hit, sending a violent windstorm rippling outward, tearing apart the battlefield in its wake.
I barely had time to process any of it before a sharp crack tore through my senses.
My leg.
I looked down and saw the gruesome sight of my own twisted, shattered limb.
The bone was mangled, bent in ways it shouldn’t be, yet there was no pain.
No agony.
Just a cold, detached awareness of the damage I had done to myself.
And then, just as quickly as it had broken, it healed.
The bones snapped back into place, muscle and sinew reweaving together in an instant.
My leg restored itself, as if my body had simply refused to acknowledge the injury at all.
I exhaled slowly, rolling my shoulders as I lifted my gaze.
The orc lord was down.
But I knew, this wasn’t over yet.
The ground was still trembling.
The crater where the orc lord had crashed was a gaping wound in the battlefield, dust and debris swirling in the air like a storm refusing to settle.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears, my body still humming with the aftershock of what I had just done.
Then I heard them, Edward and Beth.
"Amber!" Edward’s voice was sharp with urgency, his boots pounding against the fractured ground as he rushed toward me.
His expression was a mix of frustration and concern, his brows drawn tight as if he was barely holding himself back from grabbing me and shaking some sense into me.
Beth followed at a more casual pace, arms crossed, her face unreadable.
The moment Edward reached me, he stopped just short, eyes flickering down to my leg, then back up.
His gaze searched my face like he was expecting me to collapse at any second.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" His voice cracked with emotion, frustration laced with worry. "You could have gotten yourself seriously injured! Do you even realize—"
Beth interrupted, her tone flat, almost bored.
"Not fast enough."
Both Edward and I turned to look at her.
She stood there, unimpressed, her arms still crossed as she tilted her head slightly.
"I can do better," she added simply, as if I hadn’t just kicked an orc lord hard enough to carve a canyon into the ground.
I ignored her.
So did Edward.
I sighed, running a hand through my hair, then met Edward’s glare head-on.
"Even if you had done it, you would’ve been injured too." My voice was calm, unwavering. "And then I would have to heal you. But you’d still be in pain before I could fix it."
Edward opened his mouth briefly, but no words came out.
Then he muttered...
"Fine..."
Beth, still standing there with her unreadable expression, let out a small huff.
"Still, not fast enough," she muttered again.
Edward shot her a look, but I didn’t bother acknowledging her words.
I was still catching my breath, still processing everything.
Then a deep, guttural sound rumbled through the battlefield, low at first, almost like a growl trapped beneath layers of flesh and steel.
Then, it exploded into a monstrous roar, shaking the very air around us.
The force of it was like a shockwave, pressing against my chest, rattling my bones.
I felt the shift before I even saw him move.
The orc lord stood up, slowly, deliberately.
His massive form loomed in the dust-filled air, his armor, bent and cracked from my kick, shimmering unnaturally.
Before my eyes, it fixed itself, the metal twisting and reshaping like it had a will of its own.
And then, I saw his eyes.
A deep, searing red.
Not just glowing, but burning.
A crimson light that seemed to pulse in the dimness, casting eerie shadows across his monstrous face.
The air thickened, turning heavy, suffocating.
It felt like the battlefield itself was bending under the weight of his power.
My lungs protested, each breath more labored than the last.
This wasn’t just intimidation, this was real.
I clenched my fists, forcing myself to hold my ground.
Beside me, Edward tensed, his entire body coiled like a spring ready to snap.
Beth, despite her usual nonchalance, stopped breathing for a second.
The orc lord didn’t move.
He just stared at us.
His massive hands curled into fists, his jaw tightening as if he was holding something back.
A silence settled between us.
A silence far worse than his roar.
Then, in a voice that sounded more like a storm breaking, he spoke.
"I will kill you all."
His words weren’t loud.
They didn’t need to be.
They cut through the thick air like a blade.
I exhaled slowly, steadying myself.
My leg still tingled from the sheer force of my own attack, but I ignored it.
We had one chance.
But now, he was angry.
The ground trembled beneath me, the air still thick from the orc lord’s rising power.
His glowing red eyes locked onto mine, and for a split second, everything seemed frozen in time.
Then, he moved.