Ronad had just been slapped hard in the face—twice. However, his expression was one of complete confusion.
His brain was still rattling in his skull, struggling to process what was happening. But as the third cataclysmic slap landed, sending him flying once more, Ronad's mind finally registered the reality of the situation.
He, a grandmaster+ rank, was being slapped?
Ronad might have been a madman, but he was still prideful to the core. His face twisted with rage, and his eyes burned with fury. He let out a roar that echoed across the battlefield.
The air molecules came under Ronad's immediate command as he called upon his dispersed domain once more.
A palpable wave of energy erupted from Ronad. The winds whipped into a frenzy, the very atmosphere bending to his will as his domain surged outward.
But as the intense air currents expanded, they collided with the overwhelming presence of Avalon's already established domain. Ronad's domain was immediately stifled, suppressed by the searing heat that surrounded him.
Yet, Ronad's anger only grew. He focused his power, and with another furious shout, unleashed a raging hurricane from within his constrained domain.
The winds howled with deafening force as towering tornadoes manifested, their power so immense that they tore through the landscape.
The tornadoes immediately caught Avalon's flames, whipping them into fiery vortexes that spiraled out of control, causing devastation wherever they touched.
They sped out in different directions, hoping to catch Avalon off guard. However, Avalon simply… blipped.
One moment, he was a distant figure standing calmly amidst the inferno, and the next, he appeared within Ronad's small domain.
The air around him seemed to part, making way as he walked slowly and unhurriedly through Ronad's domain, his expression unreadable.
A twisted grin immediately spread across Ronad's face as he saw Avalon within his domain.
'Finally!'
Even though they were currently within Avalon's domain, this was his space. His domain might have been shrinking, but it hadn't lost yet!
He finally had Avalon within reach, and he wasted no time unleashing everything he had.
Air spikes materialized from the turbulent winds around him, sharp and deadly, each one aimed directly at Avalon. The spikes shot forward with incredible speed, converging on him from all sides.
But as the spikes closed in, Avalon took a single, calm step forward. The moment his foot touched the ground, the intense winds within Ronad's domain began to falter.
The spikes disintegrated in mid-air, the swirling tornadoes lost their momentum, and the once ferocious winds dissipated like mist before the sun.
In an instant, Ronad's domain—a symbol of the power of grandmaster ranks, a force that would cause natural disasters upon its release—was dispersed by a single step.
Ronad's gaze trembled, his mind freezing. No matter how much he tried to summon his domain, it wouldn't respond to his call. No, it was responding, but the usual range it could reach had become an impossibility. It couldn't extend beyond his own body.
"W-what is this strength?"
Ronad could only ask. Avalon was in the same rank as he was. Battles between those of the same rank were supposed to be intense, with both sides exerting significant effort. However, it was clear to Ronad that Avalon hadn't even deemed it necessary to use a weapon against him, or even his fists!
In fact, Ronad was just beginning to realize that the only reason Avalon was using his domain at all was to prevent them from escaping his grasp.
As the sound of Avalon's approaching footsteps grew closer, Ronad felt a deep, soul-crushing fear.
This was the family head of the Ravenstein family.
A monster.
That was what the man before him was.
"W-wait—"
Before Ronad could finish speaking, Avalon blipped once more, his figure vanishing and reappearing directly in front of him.
There was no time to react—Avalon's hand moved like a lightning strike, his palm connecting with Ronad's face in a titanic collision that imploded the earth beneath them.
Ronad's head snapped back as he hurtled across the battlefield, leaving a trail of blood mixed with spit in the air.
But this time, Ronad was given no time to think. Avalon blipped above him in the air, delivering another cataclysmic slap to the opposite cheek.
Ronad crashed into the molten, searing ground, the sound of sizzling flesh filling the air.
Avalon descended upon him, landing with a resounding thud that shook the earth. The impact drove Ronad further into the ground, the air exploding from his lungs as the terrain beneath him cracked and splintered under the force.
Avalon wasted no time. His palms rained down in a torrent of cataclysmic slaps, each one delivering a thunderous crack that reverberated through the battlefield.
The sound was deafening, each slap echoing as though an enormous cannon had been fired.
Ronad's head whipped from side to side, his vision blurring with every savage slap. His cheeks were battered relentlessly, the force of each blow driving his head into the ground before another slap yanked it back up.
The air around them suddenly grew hotter, the temperature spiking to unbearable levels.
Avalon's palms began to glow with a searing orange light, the heat radiating from them intensifying with each slap.
The next time his hand connected with Ronad's face, the sound of flesh sizzling filled the air.
The pain threshold of grandmasters was extraordinarily high, but the pain Ronad was currently enduring went beyond that level, breaking the scale entirely.
However, Ronad's screams of agony were drowned out by the crackling of burning flesh as Avalon's scorching palms seared his cheeks.
The skin bubbled and blackened, the once bloody mess of his face now turning into a charred, blackened mass. His flesh melted and peeled back, revealing raw, exposed muscle beneath.
But Avalon didn't stop. The relentless barrage continued, and soon the charred flesh gave way entirely, revealing the stark white of Ronad's cheekbones beneath.
The bones themselves began to blacken and crack under the unrelenting heat, the smell of scorched bone mingling with the stench of burnt flesh.
Ronad's face, once recognizable, was now a horrific, blackened mass, his features unidentifiable beneath the carnage.
Yet, Avalon remained relentless, his palms showing no signs of stopping.
Atticus gulped audibly. 'I guess I now know where I get my vengeful personality from.'
Atticus had always been vengeful, even back on Earth, but he had noticed that upon reaching Eldoralth, it had intensified manifold. He hadn't understood why before, but it was clear now.
Avalon's expression didn't change one bit during the beating; his face remained expressionless.
While Atticus was fixated on Avalon, the second grandmaster+ in the area had his mind working in overdrive.
'Shit! Shit! He's more powerful than I anticipated!' Alvis clenched his one fist and gritted his teeth hard.
He had been trying to think of a way to escape the moment he saw their domains losing, but nothing came to mind. There was no escaping a domain.
'That bastard is the fastest among us. If Ronad can't react to his movements, then I don't stand a chance. Are we going to fall here?'
Alvis was unwilling to accept it. They had been patient, biding their time for five years! Would all that hard work go down the drain?
Just as he was thinking, Alvis's eyes suddenly landed on Atticus in the distance.
'I could use him as a hostage.'
Alvis moved before he could even complete that thought, his figure cutting through the air with intense speed, leaving a trail of black in his wake.
Atticus noticed the blur approaching from the distance and simply chuckled, not making a single attempt to move.
It was true that Avalon was currently focused on Ronad, but if Alvis thought that Avalon would leave his own son unattended, then he had to be the most foolish person on the planet.
Nothing could happen inside this domain without Avalon's permission.
As Alvis closed the distance, his eyes icy, just as he was about to grab Atticus, his whole body suddenly combusted, a small breeze brushing against Atticus.
In the next second, Alvis found himself suspended in the sky, tendrils of searing fire restraining his entire body.
Intense pain rocked his being, followed by the sound of sizzling flesh.