A seemingly ordinary black branch appeared from a bizarre angle and cracked straight across Zagnior’s face.
He had never imagined he would be hit by a surprise attack there. The piece of wood cut through the air in complete silence, coming straight from his blind spot. Block it? Impossible.
*POW!*
With a sharp crack, he flew several meters backward, leaving a trail of teeth flying through the air.
The two disciples, who had already accepted their deaths, froze when they saw a figure appear out of nowhere like a ghost.
Zagnior hadn’t even touched the ground when Priam swung the branch again.
*POW!*
The impact instantly reversed Zagnior’s rotation in midair. He spat out a mouthful of blood which, thanks to the insane speed of his spin, spread out in a perfect spiral. It looked like a crimson fireworks show. A bizarre and grotesque kind of beauty.
Zagnior’s two allies stood catatonic, trying to process the scene.
Zagnior finally crashed into the ground, rolling like a piece of shit blown by the wind before staggering back to his feet.
"Priam...!"
A deathly silence fell over the place. Two enormous black marks stretched across Zagnior’s face from one side to the other, giving him a ridiculous appearance.
Priam narrowed his eyes. "Who said you could say my name?"
*Wooosh!*
Priam disappeared.
It was like teleportation; in the next second, he was already in front of Zagnior again.
*Pow! Pow!*
The branch swung in a blurred trail, repeatedly striking the man’s face and body.
*BANG! CRACK!*
"AHHHH!"
To make sure he didn’t try anything clever, Priam delivered two violent kicks. Zagnior’s knees and elbows bent at the wrong angles.
*CRACK!*
The sound of breaking bones echoed in a terrifying manner. Zagnior was a Level 9 Master Mage, but in those hands, he didn’t even have a chance to react. He was being beaten like nothing more than a punching bag.
After obtaining the Martial Arts and the Fist God’s inheritance, Priam’s close-combat ability had reached an absurd level. Combined with his Transcendental Anima, anyone of the same rank who got close to him didn’t have the slightest chance of retaliating.
Killing Zagnior right there would have been far too easy, but that would be too light a punishment. Priam had much better plans for him.
While Priam dealt with... no, while Priam *played* with Zagnior, the two disciples who had escaped death didn’t even dare to breathe. Zagnior’s other two allies were in the same situation.
If even the far-above-average Level 9 Master Mage couldn’t react, what could they possibly do?
With a light kick, Zagnior’s body flew through the air again.
From there, the spectacle became increasingly absurd. Alternating clockwise and counterclockwise swings of the branch, Priam kept the man suspended, spinning endlessly through the air like a living top.
"Hey, what are you two still doing there?" Priam’s calm voice echoed as he kept up the rhythm of the whipping strikes. "The scene is going to get pretty bloody in a bit. It won’t be very good for you to watch."
The two disciples swallowed hard and bowed deeply before him. "We’ll remember this favor!"
"What favor? Hurry up and get out of here," Priam replied indifferently.
The two looked at each other, bowed once more, and shot off in the opposite direction of the forest. Gratitude engraved Priam’s name forever in their hearts.
*Pow! Pow!*
"Guaaaaaah!"
As for Zagnior, he continued being beaten into pieces, letting out cries of agony without stopping. Terror dominated his heart; the only thing he could process was pure pain.
"Why are you screaming, idiot? Didn’t you like being arrogant?"
High above, Zagnior looked like a professional dancer, spinning gracefully through the air. However, if there hadn’t been so much blood flying around and so many ghostly wails, the scene would have actually looked rather beautiful.
It looked like Priam was striking with tremendous force, but every impact was measured with surgical precision. Since the branch itself didn’t have enough weight to kill, Priam used his absolute control over his strength to continuously strike the most sensitive nerve points, making him feel unbearable pain without being able to fight back.
At that exact moment, Zagnior’s two allies finally snapped out of it. They turned around and desperately tried to flee in opposite directions.
Priam smiled coldly and activated his Elemental Physique.
*BANG!*
*BANG!*
Like a ghost, he appeared behind them and threw two punches, almost simultaneously.
Zagnior’s two allies collapsed to the ground, never to get back up. They had taken fatal blows that destroyed their hearts from the inside out—a fist technique Priam was still learning and refining.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Before Zagnior even fell from the air, Priam had already returned to him.
And so, the man continued spinning through the air while letting out his agonized howls.
Finally, after sensing that the two weaker disciples had disappeared from the area, the world returned to calm.
Not because Priam was tired. Nor because Zagnior had gotten tired of screaming. In fact, Zagnior simply passed out because his pain had exceeded his body’s tolerance—a natural reaction meant to preserve his life and prevent his body from collapsing.
Who knows how many bones he had broken. He had been turned into a literal mass of bloody flesh.
Priam snorted in disdain. This idiot really was trash. He had never experienced pain on this level in his entire life, which only proved how pampered he had been and how he had never truly earned anything through his own merit.
A bastard like this still dared to act so arrogantly? It was almost comical; it seemed like Priam had been sent by the heavens purely to teach him a lesson in reality.
Looking at that pitiful figure, Priam snorted again.
To be honest, he didn’t like dragging things out like this. He preferred to settle everything cleanly and directly, exactly like he had done with the other two. But... he had just obtained the knowledge of an advanced Power Rune capable of reading memories. Because of that, this piece of trash could still be useful.
The thing was, for the Power Rune to work at maximum efficiency, the target’s mind and soul had to be in an extremely fragile state.
Priam pulled a bucket out of his spatial ring, crushed a medicinal pill, and dissolved it in the water. The liquid instantly turned black as ink. Without hesitation, he poured it all over Zagnior.
"AHHHH!"
An incredibly melancholic song began echoing through the air again, a shrill lament that made even the hairs on anyone’s body stand on end.
*POW!*
The branch cracked against Zagnior’s throat, crudely ’sealing’ his voice. After all, that pitiful sound was unbearable to listen to.
Zagnior was temporarily rendered mute. The pain was so overwhelming that his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He opened his mouth desperately, but no sound came out.
"Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you like this. It’ll only hurt a little, that’s all."
Priam gave a cold smile. He grabbed Zagnior by one leg and began dragging him around, looking for a suitable place inside the forest.
His entrance into the forest was completely unexpected, carrying a body that looked like ground meat.
He found himself in that beautiful azure environment and lightly breathed in the pure, humid air.
Suddenly, he spotted an interesting structure in the distance. In fact, it looked like an abandoned stone well, about three meters wide and three hundred meters deep.
The effect of the pill on the idiot’s body would take a few hours to reach its peak. In the meantime, Priam only needed to wait.
He thought for a moment and emptied all of Zagnior’s spatial rings. The thought of taking even his clothes crossed his mind, but since the outfit had already been reduced to useless rags, he ignored the idea. He left him with only a few scraps of cloth and a pair of boots, then threw him down the well.
"I advise you not to try screaming. That pill you absorbed will corrode your meridians and body even faster if you exert yourself."
With that, Priam found a gigantic rock and used it to seal the well. After examining the seal, he confirmed that the small cracks in the stone would prevent Zagnior from suffocating before the time came.
Now all he had to do was wait... maybe it would be worth taking a quick look around the forest while he waited?
Priam was about to leave when he sensed someone approaching rapidly in the distance.
He turned around and was stunned for a second. Then, his eyes immediately lit up like stars.
’My luck is really good today.’
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