The duke's castle rested at the heart of Erbil, its stone spine rising over the city where the duke held court and the knights of Erbil lived, trained, and marched to war. In the training grounds—silent for far too long—the quiet was finally broken. Stone cracked and shuddered as small tremors rippled through the ground. Ren stood in the center of the scarred ring, chest heaving, dust clinging to his skin. Peter, who had been grinning a moment ago, now wore a serious face.
"We should stop here," Peter said, stepping out of the ring. "You've got some interesting moves, but you're still far from being able to face me."
Ren sank down to sit at the edge of the fighting ground, feeling the gap in skill and experience more sharply than the aches in his muscles. Around him, the gathered knights began to drift away. In the distance, Bjorn stood by the forge, hammer rising and falling over glowing metal while Lili sat beside the anvil, watching closely. Each time Bjorn paused his hammering, Lili stretched out a finger and released a focused tongue of flame. Bjorn turned the metal into the fire, let it drink the heat, then drew it back and struck again.
Ren stared at the ground, lost in thought, until he realized the sun had been blocked. Someone stood beside him. He looked up.
Bjorn.
The big man was holding something out to him: leather gauntlets plated with steel. Ren took them and turned them over in his hands. He slid one on and immediately felt the craftsmanship—the padding packed into the knuckles, the steel plates hammered to follow the natural curve of his fist. He glanced at his bare hand: years of fighting had carved deep, thick calluses into his knuckles and scattered scars across his fingers. He pulled on the second gauntlet and flexed. They fit as if they had grown there.
Peter, seeing the faint smile on Ren's face, called from the side. "Want to go another round?"
"Yes. I want to test them—" Ren began.
A heavy clang cut him off. Bjorn had stood in the ring, tapping his hammer down on the ground with a ringing blow that caught everyone's attention. Peter turned toward him, ready to say something, but the big man spoke first.
"Let's see if you are worthy of my work," Bjorn said, voice deep and resonant, "and if my work is worthy of your strength."
It was the first time Ren heard him speak .
Both Ren and Peter stared at him, eyes wide. Lili burst into laughter at their faces. The weight of Bjorn's voice drew the remaining knights back in around the ring. Ren stepped into it again, ready yet uncertain.
They faced each other in silence, each running through a dozen scenarios in their heads, waiting for the other to move first. Then both charged at the same time.
Their speed matched.
They threw their first punches together. Fist met fist. The impact detonated between them, a shockwave ripping through the ground with a thunderclap. They struck again. Same meeting of knuckles. Same roaring crack that shook the yard. Both men stepped back.
On sidelines, knights stared in disbelief. The newcomer—a boy compared to Bjorn—had matched the giant's strength blow for blow.
Bjorn reached for his hammer.
Red Akrion flared along his frame as he began channeling, coating his body in a shimmering aura that sharpened his movements. In one heavy step, he closed the distance, swinging the hammer in a brutal arc toward Ren's right side.
Ren saw the difference in speed too late. Dodging was impossible. He had to block.
He crossed his arms and raised them.
The hammer, uncoated , but driven by Bjorn's enhanced body, smashed into his guard. The hit tore him off his feet and hurled him across the fighting ground. Ren bounced, rolled, and forced himself up. His forearms throbbed, completely numb.
Peter stepped up beside him. "You're lucky he didn't channel Akrion into the hammer. That would've been lethal. Don't block every hit unless you want to die."
Ren barely had time to hear it. Bjorn was already on him again.
The hammer whistled past as Ren ducked and dove sideways, landing hard on his back. He blinked up—Bjorn was gone from where he had been. A shadow fell over Ren. Bjorn was already in mid‑air, dropping his hammer toward him.
If that lands, I die.
Ren rolled on his shoulder as best he could. The hammer crashed down a finger's width from his ribs. The shockwave alone caved the ground into a deep crater and flung Ren like a ragdoll out of the ring. Knights shielded their faces from the dust while their eyes tracked the boy's limp body skidding over stone.
Ren's whole body buzzed, his nerves screaming from the aftershock. He clenched his teeth, tightened his grip in the soil, and forced himself upright. Across the broken arena, Bjorn waited, hammer resting on his shoulder.
He sprinted straight at Bjorn and leapt, rising high into the air. Bjorn squinted up, sun stabbing into his eyes. For a heartbeat he was blinded—until Ren's shadow cut across the light.
Bjorn lifted his hammer to block.
Ren's gauntleted fist crashed down onto the hammer face, the impact booming through the yard. Bjorn dropped to one knee under the sheer force. Ren tried to push himself off the hammer head to follow through, but as his foot landed, Bjorn's big hand snapped shut around his ankle.
He slammed Ren into the ground with full force.
Ren's head cracked against stone. His vision swam. The world shrank to a tunnel. Through that narrowing tunnel, he saw the shadow of Bjorn's hammer rising again—then falling. He couldn't dodge. He couldn't lift his arms.
Bjorn mighty hammer , as tall as a grown man and its steel head almost as big as Ren, crashed down. Pressure crushed him between steel and stone. The ground gave way beneath him, exploding into a deep crater. His chest tightened. His ribs felt weight and were breaking. Breath fled his lungs. His last clear thought was confusion, staring at Peter's frozen silhouette.
Help Peter!, Why isn't he stopping him…?
Everything went dark.
For a moment there was nothing. Then a distant voice, familiar and soft.
"Ren… Ren, wake up," his mother called.
Her tone shifted, sharper. "Reeen, wake up!"
His eyes snapped open.
Instead of sky or a ceiling, all he saw was Bjorn's hammer facing him, his own bare fist pressed against it, holding it in place. Bjorn was on one knee, both hands locked on the haft, as if he was blocking a blow instead of delivering one.
Ren looked down. Hands gripped his arms and shoulders from behind. Peter and Shin braced against him, straining to hold him back. Another knight clutched his torso. The ground around them was unrecognizable—a field of shattered stone and rubble. Lili stood at the ring's edge, hands over her mouth, eyes wide with terror. Blood ran from a cut on Bjorn's head.
Ren slowly lowered his fist. Bjorn sagged, breathing hard.
Beyond him, Ren spotted a young knight sprawled on the ground, cradling a broken arm.
He understood, instantly, that something had gone very wrong.
Shin and Peter let go and rushed to Bjorn and the injured knight. The other knight who'd been holding Ren stepped away as if from a wild animal, fear plain in his eyes. Lili ran to Bjorn, hugged him, and started wiping the blood from his forehead. Bjorn gave her a tired, gentle smile stating that he was fine.
Ren backed away, head down, not yet knowing the details but feeling guilt settle like a stone in his chest. He slipped out of the yard and sat beneath a tree just beyond the training ground, ignoring the way every glance followed him as he left.
Time passed. The sun slid toward the horizon. Ren hunched over with his arms crossed on his knees, forehead resting on them, trying to piece together what he could. All he remembered clearly was the weight of the hammer crushing his chest—and then nothing. He touched his ribs. No pain, no break. As if the blow had never landed.
Footsteps approached.
"Is everyone okay?" Ren asked without looking up.
"Everyone's all right," Shin said. "Come on. We're having dinner."
"I don't think I can," Ren muttered. "I don't remember what happened, and I can't face how they're looking at me."
"It's all right," Shin replied, turning back toward the yard. "Like I said, no serious harm was done. Let's go."
Slowly, Ren pushed himself to his feet and followed.
Near the forge, a long table had been dragged out and laid with food. Lili was pointing at the bandage over Bjorn's forehead and shouting; Peter sat opposite her, arguing back. When Shin and Ren stepped into the circle of light, conversation faded.
Lili marched up to Ren and threw her arms around him, then grabbed his face between both hands. "It's not your fault, Ren. You did nothing wrong. If it's anyone's fault, it's Peter's."
"For the last time, what did you want me to do?" Peter protested. "Jump in front of the hammer?"
"Anything but standing there and watching like an idiot!" Lili shot back.
"It's not Peter's fault," Ren said quietly. His gaze slid toward Bjorn, anger tightening his jaw. "It's Bjorn's. He should've stopped when he saw I'd already lost. If he hadn't pushed so far, maybe none of this would've happened."
"I ordered him to," Shin said from behind Ren.
Ren turned, stunned. "Why? Were you watching?"
"I needed to figure you out, Ren," Shin said. "A man with no trace of Akrion shouldn't be like this. You're too strong for a normal human. If we're talking 'normal,' you should be weak, sickly even. Instead, you took hits that would crush knights. So I asked Bjorn to push you to your limit. Pressure reveals what we don't know is buried inside."
"I don't even remember what happened," Ren answered.
"We guessed you weren't really conscious in that form," Peter said.
"Form?" Ren echoed.
Shin put a hand on his shoulder and guided him to sit. Then he explained.
When the hammer blow landed, Ren was completely out. Bjorn turned his back and was about to leave. The knights were still watching. Peter was still frozen. Then Bjorn noticed their faces. He looked at Ren.
Ren was standing, head down, eyes open.
Ren's black hair, shot through with a few white strands, began to change. Slowly, the white spread, washing the black away until his hair turned completely white. The air itself seemed to tighten. The atmosphere changed.
Bjorn stopped. He lifted his hammer, expecting an attack.
He blinked.
Ren was gone.
In the next instant, he was beside Bjorn, fist already swinging. Bjorn had pulled his Akrion back, thinking the fight was over. He was wide open.Ren's punch hit his abdomen before he could brace.
That 'small' fist sent a man like Bjorn flying across the training yard.
As he hit the ground, Ren was already airborne again, spinning into a kick. Bjorn rolled, shoved off with his hammer, and flooded his body with Akrion just in time to block with his forearms. Ren's foot crashed into his guard and the shockwave split the arena floor.
Bjorn saw his face.
Ren was smiling. Eyes wide open, but unfocused.
Ren followed with a left kick while his right foot was still blocked. It slammed into Bjorn's head and knocked him to the ground. He lifted his face from the stone and rolled aside as Ren's downward kick carved a hole where his head had been.
He realized there was no holding back.
He increased his Akrion flow, then channeled it into his hammer. Peter saw the change and yelled, "Bjorn, no!" Shin sprinted toward the ring.
Bjorn swung. Akrion coated the hammer in red.
Ren walked straight into the blow and raised both arms to block.
Bjorn realized, in the split second of impact, that the hammer wasn't actually touching Ren's forearms. Something unseen was between them—an invisible force, a barrier that stopped the metal short. The shockwave threw both of them back. The ring's ground began to tear itself apart under the pressure.
Bjorn saw it and forced even more Akrion into the weapon. The hammer head darkened, turning a deep, bloody crimson. As Akrion coating it faded into the weapon.
"Bjorn, enough! Are you mad?" Shin shouted.
Bjorn heard him and adjusted his flow. The crimson receded, its intensity drawing back. He exhaled once.
"You are indeed worthy," he said under his breath. "So don't die."
He redirected the Akrion, drawing it all into a tight sphere at the hammer's face.
In the dust, Ren were still walking forward—same dead smile, same empty eyes.
Both charged.
Ren's fist met his swing.
"Forge Titan," Bjorn roared.
A fist on one side, a hammer on the other. The two forces collided, but did not quite meet. The Akrion sphere pressed against the invisible field shielding Ren's hand. his gauntlet shredded due to pressure. The ground disintegrated under their feet. Rubble rose around them both. Shin unsheathed his sword and sent cutting winds across the yard to deflect the larger stones from the watching knights.
Bjorn pushed harder, screaming with the effort. The Akrion sphere began to eat into the invisible force bit by bit.
Then, for an instant, something changed.
The Akrion and the unseen power started to fuse. A razor‑high sound split the air, followed by a flash of light—and all lasted for a heartbeat, it looked as if a hand had punched into a hammer before everything exploded.
The shockwave annihilated what remained of the ring, spreading across the entire training grounds.
Shin drove his Akrion‑charged wind forward to shield the onlookers as dust swallowed everything.
Inside that choking cloud, Rer walked.
Smiling.
he saw a shadow and attacked. His fist shattered the knight's hasty guard, his blow breaking his arm and hurling him across the ruin. He hit stone and began to crawl away on his knees.
He charged to finish him.
Bjorn appeared, hammer swinging in from the side. Ren hit the hammer face. Then hit it again. And again. A barrage of punches rained down. Bjorn blocked as best he could, but the force drove him to one knee.
Shin cut the dust aside with a gust. The scene came into view.
Ren, smiling with dead eyes, pounding on the hammer. Bjorn straining to hold him off. The knight clawing away with a broken arm. Shin and Peter rushed in, grabbed him from behind, and still felt themselves dragged forward by his strength. Another knight joined, arms locked around his torso. Shin shouted your name, over and over.
"Ren. Ren. Wake up. Wake up!"
"Then you opened your eyes," Shin finished. "Really opened them."
He leaned back. "And that's what happened."
Ren stared at his hands, more confused than before. "I don't understand how any of that is possible…"
Lili placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll figure it out together," she said, smiling.
Some of the tension left Ren's face. He glanced toward Bjorn, who sat with his head bowed.
"Bjorn, I'm sorry about what happened," Ren said. "I ruined the gauntlets you gave me."
Bjorn smiled faintly. "It's all right. I'll make you another pair. You've earned them."
Ren returned the smile—then paused, blinking. "Wait. Bjorn…it's weird you talking,i thought you couldn't speak."
Everyone at the table burst into laughter. Ren flushed, then laughed along with them, the sound light against the weight of what they had just learned.