He drew a long, ragged breath, forcing the ache down to a dull throb. The road was his own choosing. However brutal the climb, he would take each step himself.


    A faint whimper—almost a howl-snapped him back. The small fire unicorn peeked over the crater''s rim, its tiny body singed butrgely spared by the aftershock of Jared''s power. Dizzy, yet determined, it tottered down and began licking the blood from his cheek, worry brimming in its wide eyes.


    Jared''s chest warmed. He stroked the creature''s fiery-soft head. "Easy, little one. I''m all right."


    The tendernesssted only a heartbeat before the air shifted-warmth reced by a reeking gust loaded with menace.


    A guttural snarl boomed behind him, riding that fetid wind. Instinct overrode pain. Jared whirled, blood roaring in his ears.


    A ck-furred giant ape-taller than a two-story house, muscles knotted like mountain stone-bared crimson eyes and a cavernous maw.


    Itunched, talons broad enough to cleave cliffs, aiming straight for the wounded man who had barely found his feet.


    The beast''s aura hammered the ground-raw, violent-equal to a Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Three cultivator.


    The ck-furred giant ape—so immense the ground trembled beneath every step- ruled this swath of jungle as its personal kingdom. To it, Jared''s uncontrolled fall from the canopy was not merely an intrusion. It was dinner served on a silver tter. The creature''s crimson eyes locked onto the prone swordsman, gleaming with the cruel delight of a born predator.


    "Cr*p!" Jared rasped, the warning tearing from his throat a heartbeat toote to slow the beast''s charge.


    He tried to swing Dragonyer into guard, but a storm of churning blood and fractured energy rioted through his veins. The de rose only a fraction before his muscles seized, slowing him by the width of a breath.


    In that razor-thin sliver of time-where survival is decided between one heartbeat and the next-everything seemed to halt.


    A bone-deep roar ripped through the clearing, splitting the stillness like thunder rolling across ake.


    Perched on Jared''s shoulder, the small fire unicorn answered with a cry impossibly vast for its kitten-sized frame—an ancient, imperious sound brimming with wrath and sovereign pride.


    Scarlet light erupted from the creature''s scales, ring so bright it painted the undergrowth bloodred. In a single bound, the tiny guardian hurled itself from Jared''s shoulder, bing aet of living fire that streaked straight toward the looming ape.


    Its jaws parted, releasing a needle-thinnce of vermilion me. Though slender as a dagger, the breath held the pure, oppressive heat of true unicorn fire, aimed unerringly at the ape''s snarling face.


    The giant ape-stunned that this palm-sized nuisance dared bite back-reared away as singed fur curled and ckened. Howling, it diverted its massive paw from Jared and swatted at the zing speck instead.


    Boom!


    The blow struck empty air, yet the wind sheared through the clearing like a fist of storm clouds.


    Caught in that hurricane, the fire unicorn yelped, then spun away like a broken ember.


    It mmed against an ancient trunk, snapped free, and tumbled to the mossy earth. The once-luminous crimson of its scales dulled, itsbored breaths barely stirring the leaves beneath its chest.


    "Fire Unicorn!" Jared''s cry cracked, raw as torn steel.


    Rage flooded his vision, turning the world a bruised shade of red. Tears he refused to shed burned behind his eyes, sharpening instead into lethal focus.


    The little beast had taken that hit only because it had leapt between him and death.


    Righteous fury swept through Jared, scorching away the ache in his shredded muscles and the dizzy throb of emptied veins.


    Injury to hispanion roused something feral—old as blood and bone-deep within his marrow.


    "You filthy brute-die!" His roar rolled through the trees like a war drum.


    Ignoring torn flesh and screaming nerves, he forced thest threads of the Power of Immortals to ignite, flooding every meridian with molten light.


    Dragonyer felt his wrath and sang in reply, a low metallic keening. Ice-bright radiance danced down its edge, promising retribution.


    "Five-Element Sword Domain-open!" His voice thundered, part spell, part vow.


    Though the domain epassed barely a dozen paces, ribbons of five-colored sword force unfurled at once, weaving a prismatic cage around the towering ape.


    des of condensed qi shed through the air. Even weakened, each strand could slice moonlight from shadow.


    The ape froze mid-lunge, hide


    shivering where invisible steel kissed its flesh. Doubt flickered behind the ferare-quickly eclipsed by raw, murderous rage


    With a roar that rattled leaves from branches, it hammered against the rainbow-lit


    barrier, savage ws striving to shred the hated prison of light and steel.


    "Time Deceleration!" Jared roared, the word splitting the charged air like a thunderp.


    Indifferent to the razors tearing at his spirit, Jared forced the Time Law to bloom a second time.


    The ck-furred giant ape lurched as though wading through tar, even its furious roar stretching into syrupy echoes.


    Now the opening I bled for!


    "Die!" Jared thundered.


    Jared hurled himself after the de, man and weapon stitching into a single streak of silver that ripped the heavens open. The Dragonyer Sword carried his unwavering w and cial killing intent straight toward the ape''s broad, pulsing throat.


    Swoosh!


    Steel kissed flesh; crimson geysers fountained from the sundered windpipe.


    The ck-furred colossus froze


    mid-snart amber eyes widening in disbelief, Air whistled through its torn throat while the madness in its gaze washed away, reced by raw terror and dawning despair