Edward’s knees nearly buckled as the orc lord’s club pressed down on him, gravity amplifying its weight beyond anything mortal should bear.
His fingers dug into the weapon’s thick, obsidian-like wood, muscles straining as his arms trembled under the sheer force threatening to crush him.
Every breath he took was ragged, forced, the veins on his neck bulging as his entire body fought against the inevitable.
He was losing.
I could see it, feel it.
The pressure in the air was suffocating, the ground beneath him cracking as his boots dug deeper into the earth.
The orc lord loomed over him, red eyes glowing with a cruel amusement, as if reveling in Edward’s struggle.
No.
Edward wasn’t someone who lost.
I watched, my heart hammering, knowing he wouldn’t call for help.
He wouldn’t ask.
He wouldn’t let himself.
Then, I felt it.
A shift.
A sudden, raw heat radiated from him, rising like an unseen wave.
The very air around him distorted, warping like a mirage in the desert.
The ground beneath him cracked even further, spiderweb fractures racing outward as the pressure, his rage, began to surge.
Then, all at once---
BOOM!
An explosion of raw energy erupted from Edward, a shockwave that rattled the very earth.
The impact sent dust and debris spiraling outward, the force nearly knocking me off balance.
My ears rang as the sheer magnitude of his unleashed power vibrated through my bones.
The orc lord’s grip on the club faltered for just a moment, just enough to show that he felt it too.
Edward’s head snapped up, his eyes ablaze with fury.
His teeth were clenched, his breathing deep and ragged, but there was something different now.
Not just struggle.
Not just defiance.
Rage.
Pure, unfiltered rage.
The kind that burns hotter than fire.
The kind that refuses to break.
His arms, which had been trembling under the pressure just moments ago, steadied.
His grip tightened, fingers digging so deep into the club’s surface that the wood beneath his hands.
And yet—
He was still struggling.
Even with his fury ignited, even as the air trembled around him, the orc lord wasn’t budging.
The gravity was still bearing down.
The monstrous strength behind the club remained unrelenting.
Edward had reached his limit—
And it still wasn’t enough.
I gritted my teeth, fists clenched.
He needed more.
The weight pressing down on Edward was immense, like the entire world was trying to crush him beneath its force.
His arms trembled, his muscles screamed, but his grip on the orc lord’s club never wavered.
He had been fighting against it for what felt like an eternity, his knees digging into the fractured ground, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
The orc lord’s eyes glowed with cold amusement, as if entertained by the mere thought that Edward believed he could resist.
But then, something changed again.
The air around Edward vibrated, thick with something raw and untamed.
His fingers, which had been straining to hold the club in place, tightened.
The ground beneath him trembled, not from the weight of the orc lord’s gravity, but from something inside Edward.
I could feel it.
The rage.
It wasn’t the kind of anger that burned hot and wild, the kind that blinded judgment and made a person reckless.
No, this was something deeper, something that had been boiling beneath the surface, suppressed, restrained for far too long.
It was the fury of someone who had fought, who had bled, who had been pushed to the brink one too many times—
And now, he refused to break.
And that is Edward skill.
Rage growth.
The more his rage increase, the more stronger, faster, durable, better he becomes.
A low, guttural growl tore from Edward’s throat, his entire body tensing like a drawn bowstring.
The pressure in the air thickened, crackling with unseen energy, and then—
He moved.
The orc lord’s expression faltered, just slightly, as the impossible happened.
The club, an immovable force, something that had pinned Edward down with the strength of an entire world, shifted.
It was subtle.
Just a fraction of an inch.
But it happened.
Edward’s boots dug into the fractured earth, his legs straining as he pushed harder.
A pulse of raw energy surged from him, the kind that sent shockwaves through the air, distorting the space around him.
His arms, once trembling, now felt like unbreakable steel as he fought against the overwhelming force pressing down on him.
The orc lord’s grin widened.
He felt it.
He knew.
This was no longer a battle of brute strength.
It was a battle of will—
And Edward’s will was unbreakable.
The air was thick with tension, the battlefield still reverberating from the sheer force of Edward’s defiance.
The ground beneath us groaned, cracks splintering outward like veins of raw energy pulsing through the earth.
The orc lord, still towering, still seemingly unshaken, locked eyes with Edward, his amusement long gone.
Then, the ground moved.
It wasn’t subtle.
A deep, guttural rumble tore through the land beneath the orc lord’s feet.
The earth convulsed, shifting unnaturally, like something beneath the surface had come alive.
In an instant, the very ground he stood on erupted, a jagged mass of stone and force propelling him skyward.
The orc lord’s massive body launched into the air, his red eyes widening, not in fear, but in the realization that he had been caught off guard.
Before he could regain control, before he could summon his gravity to anchor himself the earth retaliated.
Shards of rock, massive chunks of stone ripped straight from the battlefield, shot up with him, moving as if guided by an unseen force.
They twisted and spun, colliding with his barrier with deafening crashes.
Each impact sent shockwaves rippling through the air, the sheer force behind them undeniable.
His body twisted midair, his monstrous strength struggling against the relentless barrage, but the rocks didn’t stop.
They came from all angles, hammering into him, slowing his movements.
Then, the final strike.
As gravity pulled him back down, the broken battlefield below him stirred once more.
The jagged terrain warped and shifted, pulling together with an almost unnatural fluidity.
By the time he reached the ground, it was too late.
The earth swallowed him whole.
The moment his body made impact, the very ground beneath him collapsed inward, folding over itself like a living thing, trapping him beneath tons of rock and debris.
A deep, resonating boom echoed across the battlefield as the orc lord vanished beneath the shifting terrain.
Silence followed.
Only the slow settling of dust, the last echoes of destruction, remained.
For a moment, no one moved.
No one breathed.
Then, I exhaled, my hands trembling slightly from the sheer force of what had just happened.
But I knew better than to assume it was over.
Because if there was one thing I had learned about that monster—
It was that he never stayed down for long.