The moment the rogue moved, it was already too late.

  He didn’t walk. He lurched, driven by some broken instinct. His body twitched, limbs unnaturally fluid, like a marionette with tangled strings. Vines of corrupted soul energy hung from his back and shoulders, swaying with every staggered step. His eyes were dead.

  Not possessed. Not wild.

  Just… empty.

  Like the soul had been squeezed out of him drop by drop.

  The only sound was the hiss of his breath… and the crunch of bone under his foot as he stepped past the broken stone where the MC had fallen.

  Shou landed between them like a meteor.

  His Soul Mark ignited—a jagged, gold streak flaring to life down his shoulder and across his back. The air around him rippled, his aura exploding outward in a pulse of golden light that blasted dust in all directions. Energy shimmered across the ground in waves.

  His eyes burned—not with fear, but with wrath.

  He stood, tall and wide, fists clenched, chest heaving with each breath.

  The cracked tiles beneath his feet steamed from the raw heat of his power.

  No words.

  Then he moved.

  In an instant, Shou vanished from sight.

  His Soul Mark blazed brighter, and a shockwave burst behind him as he blitzed forward with crushing speed, shoulder tucked low.

  He collided with the rogue’s chest like a cannonball.

  CRACK.

  The rogue’s body was lifted clean off the ground, soaring backward before slamming into a tree. Bark and branches erupted outward like shrapnel. The trunk cracked with a splitting noise, and the rogue dropped, limbs twitching.

  Dust swirled. Leaves rained down.

  Shou stood at the center of the chaos like the eye of a storm. His knuckles were already bloody.

  “You don’t get to touch them,” he said, voice low.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The rogue's head snapped up with a sickening twist.

  He shrieked—high-pitched and phlegmy—and from his back, four soul tendrils lashed outward, each one glowing with a sick, purple-green light.

  The first two missed.

  The third didn’t. It cracked across Shou’s forehead, slicing skin instantly. A deep gash opened above his eye, and blood spurted downward, blinding half his vision in a single heartbeat. He stumbled.

  The fourth tendril wrapped around his forearm, coiling with bone-snapping force.

  Before he could pull away—

  He was yanked.

  Shou flew forward, pulled by the tendril, straight toward the rogue’s waiting claws.

  But he twisted mid-air, using the momentum—

  —and slammed his knee into the rogue’s ribs.

  CRRRAACK.

  A dull, sickening crunch. The rogue’s entire side collapsed inward.

  There was a gasp — sharp, wet — followed by a gurgle. Blood spilled from the rogue’s mouth as he staggered back, limbs flailing, eyes rolling. He tried to scream, but only coughed—the sound of a lung filling with blood.

  Shou landed, blinking blood from his right eye.

  His expression didn’t change.

  His breath slowed.

  He reached behind him—

  —and dug his fingers across the length of his Soul Mark, as if unlocking something beneath his skin.

  Golden light burst outward as his mark flared brighter, veins glowing like molten metal. His aura surged—raw and volatile.

  “Soul Drive: Mach 1”

  The air trembled.

  He moved. Faster than before.

  Each step hit the ground like a thunderclap. He closed the distance in a blink, uppercutting the rogue clean into the air. His arm left a glowing trail in the sky like a comet.

  Mid-spin, he twisted his torso and brought both fists down on the rogue’s back.

  BOOM.

  The rogue slammed into the earth, leaving a crater two feet deep. Blood poured from his mouth in pulsing spurts.

  The rogue twitched. He screamed—not from rage, but from fear—and lashed out wildly. A burst of corrupted tendrils erupted in every direction, spearing toward Shou.

  One found its mark—

  Slicing into Shou’s side. Piercing between his ribs.

  He staggered—but he didn’t fall.

  Instead, he grabbed the tendril with both hands, screamed into the night, and—

  RIPPED IT OUT.

  A flood of blood gushed from his side, soaking his belt and the dirt below. He spat onto the ground, looked up through his matted bangs, and whispered:

  “You shouldn’t have touched my friends.”

  His body surged with golden soul light.

  His fists cracked—energy leaking from his knuckles like lightning in liquid form.

  One step.

  Two.

  Three.

  Each stomp exploded like a landmine.

  The rogue barely stood. His eyes were glassy. His soul flickered—fractured.

  Shou drove his fist forward into the center of the rogue’s chest—

  —and held it there for just one beat.

  Then—

  BOOOOOOOOM.

  A delayed detonation pulse erupted from the impact point. The rogue’s armor caved inward, and he was launched like a missile through a stone archway, trailing smoke and blood.

  His body flipped twice in the air before slamming into the far wall and dropping limp.

  He didn’t move.

  Silence. Just the wind, the hiss of fading soul light, and the soft gurgle of blood in the dirt.

  Shou staggered forward a step—

  —then dropped to one knee, hand clutching his bleeding side.

  He turned his head.

  Ren was still sitting up against the tree, head back, one hand weakly holding Aya’s. He had blood on his face, bruises on his arms, and a look of total disbelief in his eyes.

  Shou grinned through cracked lips.

  “You okay… Soulless?”

  Ren let out one ragged laugh.

  “Shut up before I pass out.”

  Then he did.