A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 5804

"Stop!" Gavin forced the word through cracked lips. The sound was ragged, a protest boiled in blood and defiance.

He managed to raise his head—and for that insolence, a Melded Beastkin trooper slammed a boot into his chest. Pain burst like shrapnel under his ribs, and a fresh ribbon of blood sprayed across the cave floor.

The goat-horned captain barked a drunken laugh. "Still have some backbone, do you? Fine. I'll finish with the pretty scout first, then take my sweet time carving you up."

Leering, he stretched a hand toward Yvette's trembling shoulder.

In that breath between reach and contact, the world seemed to hold itself taut.

Boom!

The crude seal over the cavern mouth exploded as if it were no more than wet paper, shards of rune-ash spinning out on a shockwave.

A killing intent swept in—icy, primeval, furious—like an ancient predator jolting awake after a thousand-year slumber. The air grew dense, metallic, almost wet with doom.

Every laugh, every drunken jeer from the Melded Beastkin troops died mid-throat, cut off as neatly as strings from a puppet.

They whirled. A lone figure in a plain robe now filled the entrance, framed by drifting dust.

He stood unmoving, almost calm, yet his eyes burned—glacial cores hiding a volcanic wrath that promised annihilation.

His gaze brushed the room, and even the seasoned Melded Beastkin killers felt as if they had been dunked in frozen water. Blood slowed. Breath locked.

"W-Who are you?" the goat-horned captain croaked, the bravado leaking from his voice like wine from a cracked jug.

Jared did not bother to answer.

His stare settled on Gavin and Yvette—on Gavin's caved-in chest, on the tears of relief and humiliation streaking Yvette's grime-stained cheeks.

The rage inside him flared white-hot.

"All of you deserve to die." The soft words landed with the finality of a judge's gavel.

Silence snapped.

Jared moved.

No thunderous spectacle, no ornate technique—only a single, deliberate motion.

He lifted his right hand, fingers spread, and closed them slowly around everyone in the cave, excluding Gavin and Yvette.

The cavern seemed to inhale; air, sound, even time itself recoiled inward.

A hush, one heartbeat long, swallowed the chamber.

The Melded Beastkin warriors watched, eyes wide, throats locked, unable even to scream.

Bodies, weapons, overturned wine jars, hanging soul-lamps—everything not nailed by fate itself—lurched upward as though seized by an invisible giant's grip.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Wet, muffled detonations rippled one atop another.

Flesh burst. Armor plates shattered. Wine and blood mingled into a crimson spray that painted the stone like macabre fireworks.

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