Supreme Magus

Chapter 3616: Beating of a Lifetime (Part 1)

"My spells seemed to have become sluggish, and my body to take forever to recover." Nalrond said. "I stood there, witnessing Dawn burning our village and butchering our people, yet all I could do was remain hidden until my wounds healed.

"The only reason I didn't lose track of time is that I watched the events as they unfolded. It pains me to admit it, Salman, but you are no coward. With your weak mana cores and deep wounds, the only thing you would've achieved by standing up and joining the fight was increasing the tally of victims."

Salman slapped Nalrond's hands away, his snout twisted with fury. He splayed his clawed fingers like he was ready to fight, but then fell to the floor, puking.

The truth about that day and his trauma were clashing in his mind with ruinous effects.

Everything Salman believed, every guilty thought he had carried for the last three years, had turned out to be a lie, yet it wasn't a burden so easily discarded. Salman's sense of self had been shattered on the day of Dawn's attack and rebuilt in the shame of his exile.

Now, everything was falling apart again, and Salman didn't know what to think or believe anymore.

'If I'm not a coward, then what am I? Who am I?' Those questions haunted his mind until he couldn't take it anymore and lost consciousness.

"Poor man." Nalrond said after kneeling down and checking on Salman's condition. "I never thought I would say it, but I was lucky that day. I stood up for myself and fought for my village. I watched that horror unfold and stared reality in the face.

"Salman, instead, has lived all this time feeling guilty of his weakness. He has been haunted by false ghosts born from his regret and shame for events he just imagined. During the past three years, I've fought my demons and found my closure, whereas Salman has been trapped in a nightmare of his own making.

"Despite everything that happened between us, I pity him."

"About that, what exactly happened between you two?" Friya asked. "Why do you despise him so much, even years after your last encounter?"

Nalrond moved his eyes from Salman to Friya, unwilling to recall a painful past that he had worked so hard to bury.

'Salman has been punished enough.' Nalrond thought. 'It's time to move on. Not for him, but for me and Friya. I don't want to carry this burden any longer. To give her the best future I can build, I need to let go of my old life.'

"Because you almost died because of him, Friya"' He replied. "Salman almost took you away from me just like he did with Ishil."

"He tried to kill her?" Friya was flabbergasted.

"In a way." Nalrond's lips curled up in disgust. "We Rezars weren't a real tribe. Slaves from all over Garlen were brought together for the Forbidden Magic experiments that gave us our powers and turned us into werepeople.

"We banded together after our escape, considering the beast half we had in common a bond stronger than blood. After living for centuries in the Desert, we all developed a bronze skin, and the most common eye and hair color was brown, like mine.

"Having red hair like Ishil was rare. Having blonde hair and blue eyes like Salman happened once every two or three generations, let alone a build like that." He conjured a hologram of Salman's human body.

"Are you telling me he was…"

"A ladies' man." Nalrond nodded. "He was the most handsome bastard we'd ever seen, and he knew it. He exploited his charm to make a lot of girls of the village fall in love with him just to dump them.

"He seemed to draw a sick pleasure from breaking established couples."

"And your tribe let him live?" Lith furrowed his brows. "If Salman defiled so many girls and broke marriage vows, the people of Lutia would have killed him without thinking twice."

"There were just so many Rezars, and he didn't sleep with any of them." Nalrond sighed. "Salman was a shameless flirt, but he valued his life. We were a tight-knit community, and he knew that the moment he crossed the line, he would have been forced into marriage.

"At that point, his carefree days would have been over. He would have been bound to his wife for life and would have had to work hard to provide for his family. If he dared cheat and touch another woman, he wouldn't have gotten a harem, but exile.

"It was the harshest sentence and a fate worse than death for the likes of us."

"Makes sense." Lith nodded. "He had nowhere to go and knew that if he went too far, all a girl had to do to chain him in marriage was spill the beans to her father."

"Bottom line, he hit on Ishil. Hard." Nalrond grunted. "I don't know if he did it because she had red hair or because he was envious of my status as Dawn's warden, nor do I care. She turned him down I don't know how many times before he stopped."

"Did he stop or did you make him stop?" Lith asked, knowing what he would have done in Nalrond's shoes.

"I didn't touch him." The Agni replied with great regret in his voice. "My father, Ishil's father, her brothers, and Salman's father, however, taught him a lesson or two about respecting a man's fiancée.

"Everyone in our tribe was a great Healer, and they made sure to leave no visible scar. After all, someone with his build, a better core, and a wiser head would have been a great addition to our forces.

"He was deemed a lost cause, but there was still hope for his future children."

"Makes sense." Lith smiled at the thought, and so did Nalrond. "Did you at least get to watch?"

"No." Nalrond replied with even greater regret. "They said they were afraid I would lose my temper and kill him. As I said, only controlled hits."

"I'm sorry for you." Lith patted the Agni's shoulder, looking at his friend with compassion.

"Thanks." Nalrond sighed. "I never forgave him, though. Had he succeeded, Ishil would've been dead to me and our relationship over. He almost destroyed my life for fun, just like Dawn."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, babe." Friya hugged him. "Ishil must have been a good woman not to be fooled by this jackass."

"She was." Nalrond replied. "Otherwise, she would have Warped to the borders of the Fringe on her own, and maybe she would still be alive."

A long silence fell into the room until Lith interrupted it by conjuring a Hush Zone over the unconscious Rezar.

"What about my tower, Faluel? What have you told him to justify how far and fast we got from Axiran's turf and how easily I killed two Council Elders?" He asked.

"Actually, I didn't have to tell him anything." The Hydra shrugged. "Salman has no notion of modern magic and artifacts aside from Light Mastery. He thinks you are an incredibly powerful mage, which is true, and that you took off the kid's gloves the moment your friend's life was in danger."