Tony POV

  Everything was unfolding exactly as he had planned. It didn’t matter if Pallavi chased after them or went looking for Naga. All paths led to her capture. His uncle’s team had been hidden among the trees near the edge of the pond, ready to strike if she ventured into the camp’s center. They should’ve received Aditi’s signal and were likely already on their way back.

  Tony held off on springing the trap, waiting until reinforcements caught up and they were further away from the camp’s gate. A skirmish in plain view threatened the rest of his scheme. Pallavi, however, threw a wrench in his plan. Catching wind of the trap, she made a desperate dash back to camp, showing zero interest in fighting or rescuing her trapped teammate.

  Tony unleashed his aura, locking both targets in place. When Rohan lashed out with a Mana Web, Tony caught his firing hand and pushed it away, sending the attack harmlessly into the distance. In one fluid motion, he swept Rohan to the ground and pinned him there.

  The biggest roadblock during their planning phase was how to hold the captured targets. Restraining Rohan’s arms and legs did nothing to block his Mana Web, and there was no telling what other hidden skills the group harbored. Ultimately, they settled on a darker tactic. While Tony suppressed the captives with his aura, the team force-fed them hallucenogic mushrooms, keeping them in a perpetually drugged state so they couldn’t fight back.

  That was until fortune favored them the day before. The blue lizard that attacked them wasn’t just one of the toughest monsters Tony had ever faced; it was the same beast that had raided the camp the day his mother died. If it hadn’t attacked back then, she might still be alive.

  Fueled by that dark realization, Tony let his urges take control. He pummeled the creature far beyond what was necessary to kill it, shattering its bones and shredding its hide. The camp’s crafters would have given him an earful for destroying prime materials. But fear kept their mouths shut. By the time the dust settled, the entire camp, his family included, looked at him differently.

  Upon its death, the lizard dropped a skill called, Paralysis Bite. It incapacitated a target for up to thirty minutes. A perfect skill to be used on hostages. But there was a catch, at least for Tony.

  Aditi had absorbed the skill, meaning she physically had to bite a target to apply the effect. The thought of his fiancée sinking her teeth into another man in front of him made Tony’s skin crawl. He had pushed hard for the mushroom plan instead, but his father and Aditi shut him down. They insisted on absolute security, arguing that the captives might possess some immunity skill or simply fake being high. They weren’t willing to take chances.

  Tony might’ve tolerated the arrangement if Aditi could just bite the target’s hands. However, their hasty tests revealed a frustrating reality. Bites closer to the head, like on the neck, prolonged the paralysis. Without time for further trials, sheer practicality won out. Aditi was going to bite Rohan and Pallavi on the neck. Much to Tony’s intense frustration.

  Tense and distracted, Tony dug his knee a little too hard into Rohan’s spine. When Tony eased the pressure upon realising the error, Rohan let out a delayed groan of agony. Tony’s oppressive aura was so powerful that it slowed his enemies’ ability to process pain. Glancing up, Tony saw Pallavi tangled in webbing, with Little Ed rushing over to bind her.

  The boy was too young to watch the upcoming confrontation with Sid. Mentally noting to send the kid away with his aunts before things turned ugly, Tony’s mind shifted to Sid. The man was a ruthless operator who wouldn’t hesitate to target Tony’s family if it gave him an advantage, and they couldn’t rely on the safety of his aura forever.

  Tony froze. All rational thought vanished. His brain simply refused to process the nightmare unfolding before his eyes. Little Ed’s head snapped back. The boy crumpled to the dirt. Then came a slight flash of light. In this twisted new world, that light was a death certificate. It extinguished every ounce of hope. Now, even Aditi’s magic was useless to save him.

  He released his hold on Rohan, launching himself at Pallavi, screaming at the top of his lungs. She was going to pay.

  Tony held nothing back, driving a devastating punch to Pallavi’s gut, fully expecting her to drop to the ground. His plan was simple. Have Aditi heal her up, just so he could beat her down all over again. Pallavi, again, had other plans. Rather than collapsing, she skidded backward, absorbing the brutal force of the strike. Eyes locked on him, she slowly drew a dagger and shifted into a combat stance.

  Tony gauged the distance between them, determined not to let her slip out of his aura’s range again. He shoved the memory of Ed’s death aside before it could trigger a blind rage. On the surface, Pallavi looked suppressed. Her movements were sluggish and her guard telegraphed. Yet, a nagging suspicion warned him she might be playing possum, just waiting for him to step close enough for a sucker punch. He closed the gap with deliberate, calculated steps, waiting for her to show her hand.

  A primal urge begged him to close the distance and tear her limb from limb. He was a tyrant now, and tyrants didn’t hesitate. They ripped and tore until nothing remained standing. No one could defy him. Kneel or die. The words echoed through his skull over and over, a relentless, violent chant.

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  Tony wrestled his emotions into submission, forcing his rational mind to take the lead. He already lost a family member because of carelessness. He wouldn’t let it claim another.

  Then, Pallavi did the unthinkable. She buried her dagger in her own thigh. The sudden self-mutilation caught Tony completely off guard, but the real shock hit a split second later: she charged at him, completely shattering the illusion that his aura held any power over her.

  She zig-zagged towards him, a blur of motion too erratic to follow, and was on him in a heartbeat, sending him airborne with a devastating kick to the gut. Any lingering doubts about Pallavi’s sheer physical power vanished in seconds. George’s warning suddenly made perfect sense. No one in Tony’s family stood a chance against her in close-quarters combat.

  Pallavi scrambled away, her voice cutting through the chaos: “Rohan, use Iceglass Shatter!”

  Tony’s heart plummeted. He whipped his head around, bracing for a devastating attack, only to find Aditi’s face buried deep in Rohan’s neck. The captive’s skin was already turning a sickly, paralyzed blue.

  A furious jealousy flared in Tony’s chest, which he shoved aside to focus on the task at hand. Tony launched himself after Pallavi as she slipped beyond the boundary of his aura.

  “Catch her!” He called out, desperate to jolt his stunned family into action and buy himself enough time to drag her back under his control.

  His uncle, positioned closest to the fleeing girl, fired a Mana Web that grazed her leg. As she faltered, Tony’s father, Sunny, followed up with a massive web that ensnared her entire body. Though Pallavi tore the webbing apart with terrifying ease and scrambled to keep moving, she had already lost a crucial second. That momentary delay was her undoing. It gave Tony just enough time to close the distance, dragging her right back under the crushing weight of his aura.

  Tony gave her no time to think. He closed the gap in a flash, unleashing a vicious flurry of blows that shattered her guard. Two clean punches snapped her head back before a devastating kick launched her away from the camp. Unable to block the relentless onslaught, Pallavi was sent tumbling through the air like a broken doll, with Tony right on her heels.

  She hit the ground in a controlled roll, coming to a halt on one knee. To Tony’s horror, she had plunged a second dagger deep into her planted leg to fight off his aura. Fueled by the fresh surge of pain, she tracked his incoming assault with terrifying speed—ducking beneath his heavy kick; she rolled to his exposed flank and sprang to her feet, driving an empowered punch into his jaw.

  That one Tony felt. The strike hit like an earthquake, cracking the absolute confidence he held in his overpowering trait. His brain rattled against his skull, but before he could even process the damage, a second punch blindsided him—the sheer force shuddered through his jaw, snapping one of his protruding tusks clean off.

  She ended the vicious combo with the same empowered kick that had sent him flying earlier. This time, however, the attack lacked its former devastating momentum. Tony absorbed the hit without giving an inch of ground. Chest heaving with labored breaths, Pallavi leapt backward into a low crouch, her wary eyes never leaving his face.

  Tony wiped the warm blood from his face, staring at his stained fingers. For the first time since awakening his trait, he felt vulnerable, and his power roared in absolute fury, desperate to crush the interloper who defied it. Neither Tony nor his ability tolerated weakness. This was the power of an absolute ruler, yet a mere girl had made him bleed.

  But the heavy blow to his pride actually pierced through his blind rage, forcing his rational mind to replay Pallavi’s movements. When he contrasted her fierce defiance with Rohan’s immediate collapse, the secret to her resistance suddenly became obvious.

  “How do you know so much about my powers?” Tony asked, his mind racing. These people had never witnessed him in action. Yet they had somehow devised a precise counter-strategy against an ambush they hadn’t seen coming. Tony grimaced, thinking what they’d have done if allowed time to execute their plan.

  Pallavi tore a dagger from her thigh, drove it back into her muscle to shock her system before rushing Tony. This time, he didn’t take the bait. He mirrored her movements, controlling the gap, retreating when she lunged and stepping in when she fell back, ensuring she never escaped his reach. His aura flared, pressing down on her. He knew his power still had her in its jaws, and she was just using the raw agony of her wounds to force her body to move, but the physical damage was undeniable. With three deep gashes in her legs, her once-blinding speed was faltering.

  Pallavi cast a desperate look over her shoulder. Tony’s family stood like a wall, cutting off her retreat to the camp. Tony watched her with a cold smirk, while Rohan lay motionless and blue in the dirt nearby. She drew her dagger for another self-inflicted strike, but the aura dragged her movements into a sluggish crawl. Tony stepped in. He didn’t strike her. Instead, he snatched her wrist, halting the blade, and brutally wrenched her arm until the bone snapped. A dark, feral joy flared in his mind at her scream. Suddenly, breaking her arm wasn’t enough. He craved more.

  Tony grabbed her remaining arm and swept her legs, slamming her into the dirt without releasing his grip. He kept his iron grip on her wrist, twisting the limb until it broke with a loud crack. He was a fraction of a second away from ripping it from its socket when his father’s hands clamped down on his own, fighting to hold him back. Tony stopped cold. The bizarre, deafening roar in his head finally receded, revealing the frantic shouts of his loved ones begging him to stop.

  “Stop! Stop, damn it!” Sunny’s furious roars echoed non-stop. He didn’t quiet down until Tony finally released his grip, letting Pallavi’s mangled arm drop to the dirt. Heavy with regret, Sunny turned to Aditi. “Heal her hands before we leave.”

  Tony didn’t care about the guilt. He glanced toward the camp and noticed a few silhouettes watching them from the brush. They had an audience. “Let’s go. Now!” He scooped Pallavi up, tossing her over his shoulder like dead weight as he marched away from the camp. “We’ll heal her on the move, right after Aditi paralyzes her.”