Chapter 10: The Hollow Pursuit


    ARTOU


    What would my true potential look like?


    Through all my travels, all my struggles, the only way I ever found to break past my limits—both magical and physical—was by consuming another human. Now there is a new possibility "true potential,” it could change everything.


    I stand facing Ziyong, a divine blessed who was going to push me to my limits to bring my true potential. I had to do my best to see to it.


    They said I wasn’t the one they were looking for yet they decided to make me go through this producer aswell.


    Ziyong stood in front of me as Aeon and Beri clashed in the background, their blows shaking the ground. Ziyong was different. A divine-blessed. Someone who had proven himself to a god and earned their favor. I needed to focus—not on winning, but on surviving.


    Ziyong stretched his arms above his head and grinned.


    "Alright, here are the rules. I won’t use my blessing. All you have to do is hit me. Just once."


    I narrowed my eyes. "That’s it?”


    "I just want to have fun," he shrugged. "Lanet’s plans don’t matter to me. One hit, and you can leave or do whatever you want I’ll make sure of that."


    It sounded too easy.


    I raised my gun and took aim.


    And in the blink of an eye—he vanished.


    CRACK.


    A kick smashed into my face before I could react. My head snapped back, the force sending me stumbling.


    By the time I regained focus, he was already back where he had started, watching me with a smirk.


    "What you just saw," he said, placing a hand on the ground, "was lightning speed."


    Then he disappeared again.


    This time, I tried to move.


    I barely managed to raise my arms before his next kick buried itself in my gut. The impact nearly lifted me off my feet. A sharp pain shot through my ribs as I crumpled, gasping for air.


    He stepped forward, slow and deliberate, watching me like a plaything.


    I reached for my gun.


    His smirk widened.


    I fired.


    He dodged.


    "Cute trick," he chuckled, sidestepping a shot like he was out for a stroll. "But really? You think these are going to match me?"


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    Damn it. He was right.


    There was no way I could hit him with normal shots.


    I switched to my shotgun. At least the spread would cover a wider area.


    I fired. Again. And again.


    Ziyong weaved through the blasts effortlessly, moving with an unnatural grace. The scattered pellets might as well have been moving in slow motion.


    I gritted my teeth. Fine. If he wanted me to think differently, I’d change the game.


    I reached into my coat and pulled out a grenade. But not just any grenade. This was an incendiary bomb, one I had personally designed. The moment it exploded, the air filled with burning embers.


    Ziyong’s expression shifted ever so slightly. His footwork changed—no longer pure confidence, but measured calculation. “Interesting.”


    This time, he didn’t attack carelessly. With the fire burning the arena, I was caught as well, but it was my only defense. I threw another grenade, expanding the flames and forcing him to weave between them. He was still too fast, but I wasn’t aiming to hit him directly anymore. I was forcing him into a pattern, narrowing his movements.


    Then, the moment came.


    I anticipated his next dodge and for the first time—his smirk faltered.


    As he dodged my shotgun blasts through the flames, I threw a flash grenade.


    He didn’t know what it was. He instinctively dodged, but the sudden burst of light blinded him.


    “Light is faster!” I shouted, pulling my final gamble—a concussive bomb designed not for damage, but to create a shockwave.


    I threw it beneath me.


    BOOM!


    The blast propelled me forward like a missile. My legs trembled from the force, but I kept my grip on the shotgun. In midair, I charged the next shot with my magic, overloading the mechanism to make it stronger and faster.


    I was out of the fire’s protection. No more tricks. No more defense. Just this one shot.


    Less than five meters between us.


    I pulled the trigger.


    The shotgun roared like a cannon, the force shaking the ground.


    The impact sent me crashing to the floor. My legs gave out. Pain shot through my body.


    Did I hit him?


    The smoke cleared.


    Nothing.


    Just a crater where my shot had landed.


    My stomach twisted.


    I barely registered movement before I saw him—above me.


    "Close call," he muttered.


    His foot was already descending.


    CRASH.


    The axe kick smashed into my skull like a sledgehammer.


    I fell to the ground powerless, Pain exploded through my body. My limbs refused to move. My vision darkened.


    I had thrown everything I had at him—to no avail.


    I knew this was how it would end. I knew I had no chance against a divine-blessed. But I had to try.


    My last hope was true potential.


    This was when I was supposed to awaken—when my power was supposed to surge forth.


    But nothing came.


    They said true potential revealed itself in moments of desperation, when the user needed it the most.


    I thought I needed it at that moment, but for what?  The thought consumed me Why did I even want power in the first place?


    For so long, I had chased strength, clawing my way forward, desperate to escape the fate of being prey in this brutal world. I fought, killed, and built myself up, convinced that power and wealth were the only way to survive. If I stood at the top, no one could touch me. No one could take anything from me.


    But somewhere along the way, my hunger for strength had been a hollow attempt to fill the void inside me. A goal to keep moving forward. A reason to exist.


    And then Aeon came along.


    I had hoped to just consume him, get stronger and move on. But instead I found in him something else. A friend.


    As I lay there, struggling to keep my consciousness from slipping away, my thoughts weren’t about myself. They weren’t about my own survival.


    A memory. A life before all of this.


    Before the hunger. Before the endless battles. Before the desperate, ruthless climb for power.


    A time when I had no worries.


    A time before the transition.


    A time when I wasn''t alone.


    "My family… I want to see them again."


    The words slipped past my lips, barely more than a whisper, but as they did, the weight of everything crashed down on me.