The beast, at first disoriented, twisted its face in anger. Reno and Rita felt it instantly and stiffened at once. It was furious, and nothing good ever came from enraging such an animal.
Rita was still in midair and had not yet landed—but it was already too late. With a monstrous roar, the creature struck her vertically toward the ground. Being too light, she crashed into the earth at such speed that she felt some of her bones break. Yet the paw kept descending. Rita could no longer dodge. For the second time, she took a defensive stance, dagger in hand, in a desperate attempt.
Fortunately for her, Reno intervened again. However, this time Rita was far from calm. Standing beneath the paw of that enraged thing together was practically suicide. She feared for Reno's life more than her own.
But she had underestimated him…
An instant later, the paw slammed down onto the couple. Reno spread his arms and tried to absorb it with his strength. A cloud of dust rose at once, swallowing them completely. Rita covered her face with her top, then thought about escaping with the brief respite her boyfriend had given her. But when she lifted her head, an expression of confusion and shock spread across her face.
Reno was matching the monstrous beast's paw in strength. He looked to be suffering terribly, teeth clenched in struggle, veins bulging all over his body, muscles contracted to their very limit—but he was not giving in. On the contrary, he seemed to be winning.
She remembered what he had said just before the fight began.
"Because I'm the strongest."
In the end, that idiot might have been right.
She quickly refocused and suddenly accelerated after getting back on her feet. She did not want to leave him like that, and she had to test something.
Was that thing's skin penetrable?
To her great surprise, it was.
She lunged with all her strength at incredible speed, slashing across the paw from one side to the other. The creature howled and pulled its paw back. The wound was not very deep, and Rita quickly realized she had needed a great deal of effort to inflict such a small injury. It was almost pointless to try to wound it while it was thrashing.
Suddenly, another paw fell from the sky at full speed. The creature was clearly not weakened. Its powerful strike swept everything in its path once more. Reno did not even try to stop that blow. Rita dodged it by leaping over with a graceful spin.
For a brief moment, their gazes met and everything seemed to slow down. Each tried to understand what the other had in mind, and in less than a second, they understood one another. A sort of plan took shape. It was simple—one would cut, the other would strike.
Reno used his muscular legs to launch himself toward the middle of his victim's body. However, though blind in one eye, the monster saw him and dodged without difficulty. That thing moved abnormally fast for its size, like a full-grown feline. On guard, it noticed Rita moving around it, searching for an opening. It halted its momentum with a back paw strike that Rita had no choice but to dodge.
"Damn."
Reno stood back up after missing his target. In truth, he did not really need to stand. The impact with the ground had been terrible, but his legs were even more so. Bending like springs and contracting violently, they propelled him upward again with power, leaving a large crater in the ground. The beast, too focused on Rita, saw him at the last moment. However, it noticed that Reno was charging straight toward its mouth. It only needed to open wide to swallow him whole.
Reno realized his failure and began to panic. The inside of the lores' mouth was truly monstrous. A row of teeth, all sharp like fangs. Not a single molar—its dentition existed only to tear and cut like thousands of knives. Behind that monstrous row was a chasm, normally pink, but Reno saw only a gaping hole filled with darkness.
It was a vision of horror unlike anything he had ever seen in his life.
"Oh shit."
However, Rita climbed the beast with such speed she looked like a fly circling it. A terribly skillful fly. In a flash, she reached Reno's height and pushed him aside, altering his trajectory. The beast saw it and immediately tried to close its mouth—but it was already too late. Rita had thrown one of her daggers into the monster's mouth. The beast roared again, terribly, and the force of the roar blew the young couple away. Fortunately, they landed near the edge of the crater that separated them from a dangerously steep slope.
"Haha. Nice one, Rita."
"You haven't seen anything yet."
Reno noticed the wide smile on his girlfriend's face, as if she had done something extraordinary. And that was putting it lightly. When he turned back toward the beast, Reno noticed that Rita's second dagger was buried in its remaining eye.
"Holy—"
Even Reno was shocked by his girlfriend's efficiency.
The creature writhed violently in every direction, creating massive gusts of air that made it difficult to remain standing. Rita understood both the brilliance and the flaw of her move. Certainly, the beast was now blind—but predicting its movements had become impossible. Its strength and speed would now be unleashed in every direction without restraint.
Reno understood that too when he looked at her.
"This isn't how we fight in Nozras."
"I know. You already told me—but it's too late now."
The lores suddenly stopped spinning in pain and slowly rose again. Its immense body straightened once more and it turned toward the couple—or rather, toward where it had heard their voices. Its face was furious, its expression dark. It seemed to be holding all its rage inside instead of letting it explode.
Rita quickly understood the trouble they were in. That kind of control over its anger meant the beast was more intelligent than expected and knew it could not afford to lose control again.
The lores calmly faced the couple with both eyes gouged out, blood flowing from the two sockets. Like a beast ready to pounce on its prey. A rabid beast—but calm.
Rita felt the immense pressure radiating from the lores, like the first time she had seen it. In fact, it was worse. Even though it had lost its eyes, she felt even more pressure than when it had been asleep. She could barely move.
Reno did not look well either. His gaze was far more focused, his face serious and cautious. It was no longer about killing the animal with reckless powerful blows. It was about surviving a battle in which one of the two sides would inevitably perish.
And it might not be the beast.
Rita felt her broken bones and wondered now if it was truly possible.
Reno had understood that his powerful, reckless blows would not kill the creature—no matter where he struck.
The beast stood there, filled with anger but keeping its composure, eyes destroyed yet senses sharpened, with hellish agility and strength.
The three of them faced each other for a long minute. A heavy silence ruled the mountain. No bird sang, no beast moved. Only the breathing of three warriors echoed at the summit, and the wind dared challenge their presence.
Each breath counted like each second. Motionless, each studied the other. Focused gazes—or empty eye sockets—none of them could yield to the pressure.
Time slowed, faces froze, the wind ceased to blow…
And suddenly, when instinct told them it was time, the couple charged the beast, which did the same.
Reno reached the monster first, leaving a trail of dust behind him. He stopped its wide-open jaws with both arms—one below, the other above. His back swelled instantly, revealing muscles just as monstrous.
Though Rita appreciated the view, she reached the beast as well, which immediately sensed her presence. She was extremely surprised by its reaction speed despite its blindness.
"This monster is still very much alive."
Suddenly, she was struck on her left side by a paw. She reacted instantly, taking a defensive stance to avoid too much damage.
Reno was still holding the monster's jaws open but was suddenly lifted off the ground. Obviously, if he did not react in time, he would be thrown from the summit again. He released the monster's mouth, which snapped shut with such violence that he flinched. The shockwave made his eardrums tremble.
Rita tried to slow herself as best she could. Her hands quickly turned red, blood beginning to flow, but she stopped just in time to avoid falling. She got back on her feet and rushed toward the main fight.
She drew a third dagger from her belt—but what she saw next would shock her for life.
The beast puffed its cheeks at incredible speed. It did not take her long to understand what she was seeing. The beast spat out the dagger she had thrown into its mouth earlier. The weapon shot forward at such insane speed that Rita barely reacted in time. She raised her arm to block but leaned backward at the same moment to avoid being struck.
Her decision to lean back was the right one—the dagger missed her by a hair and continued its mad flight through the air. Never in her life had she seen a thrown dagger so terrifying.
"How did it know?"
Rita could not understand how the beast's accuracy was possible. It was literally impossible to be that precise while blind.
Reno descended from above and smashed his fist onto the King of Ouhkor's head. He expected a massive impact—but the beast did not even grimace. It had endured it. He understood quickly—but it was too late. Soon, he was struck by a paw and slammed into the ground. A fraction of a second later, his opponent's claws filled his vision. Rita rushed to save him but was struck by another paw before Reno could be hit again.
It was a trap by the king, so well executed that she began to wonder if that thing was truly an animal. Such a simple feint could not come from an ordinary cat.
Reno saw his companion struck by the monster's vicious trap and rose at full speed. He grabbed the paw hovering above him and tried to twist it violently.
However, it was impossible for a human to twist such a thing.
At least, that was what the lores believed.
Reno focused his rage to win and his determination into both arms. The massive paw slowly began to turn. The lores panicked and tried to pull it back, but Reno's grip was firm and unyielding. Impossible to move. It tried another approach and opened its mouth wide to bite him. However, just as its jaws were about to close on the small ogre, it received a dagger to the left cheek, which sank in quickly and drew blood.
The lores turned its head for a fraction of a second and saw Rita giving it the middle finger.
That fraction of a second was all Reno needed. When the beast realized in horror that Reno could truly tear its paw off, it was already too late. Reno roared in rage, veins bulging like rivers across his body, sweat pouring down, then immense pain seized the beast.
It had just lost its left paw, torn off by Reno. No—at that point, one could say it had been ripped off by an ogre.
Reno smiled with immense satisfaction. Rita, meanwhile, did not waste a second. If she had learned one important thing, it was to never let the opponent breathe. She reappeared from the slope where she had fallen and charged the beast. The lores was too busy screaming in pain to notice her. She drew a fourth dagger and stabbed with all her strength.
The lores roared even louder and tried to regain focus—but Reno struck its face violently. Once, twice, three times…
After a series of twenty blows, the King of Ouhkor had become a punching bag for the small ogre of Nozras. No—now he was no longer small. He was a true ogre. An anomaly in human evolution, just as the lores was in its own kind. Yet no one would ever have believed that one anomaly would defeat the other.
Reno might truly be the real monster of this world.
Rita continued stabbing the beast all over its body. Wherever she could, she left deep gashes, liters of blood spilling out. The king grew weaker and weaker as Rita began to see the possibility of victory.
The lores weakened. It looked as frail as a normal lores now. Its body seemed ready to give out at any moment.
But with one final roar, it shoved Reno from its face and sent Rita flying several meters away. The beast tried to stand properly, but its wounds hurt terribly. It growled in anger but screamed in pain. The gashes across its body spilled too much blood.
It was going to die.
However, in one last moment of fury, the King of Ouhkor roared.
A roar that echoed across the entire mountain. The animals stopped breathing—and so did Rita and Reno. Rita felt more broken bones, but above all, immense fear of the monster before them. The lores stood majestically on three legs while dying. Its roar was not even directed at Reno and Rita.
It was directed at the world.
Like a final bow in the greatest honor.
The King of Ouhkor roared, then calmly closed its eyes and collapsed to the ground. Blood flowed from the summit of the mountain and began streaming downward, filling the crater with an impressive red pool.
Like a lake.
Rita looked at the majestic beast. She knew she could win against Reno after an epic fight—but this monster deserved all her respect, because she did not know at all if she could have won alone against it. The lores, king of Ouhkor Mountain and thus King of Ouhkor, had fallen at the hands of Rita and Reno.
Reno was not even smiling. He, who was always playful in battle, had lost his smile when the lores fell. His face was closed, as if he had just lost a proud warrior he would regret for the rest of his life.
He simply said to Rita:
"Look, Rita. Our ticket to enter the capital."
Rita looked at him. His face was dark, and he did not seem truly happy to say it, but it was done. They had won.
They sat there at the edge of the crater where no blood reached. They rested for several hours, watching the red lake fill and spill its blood down the mountain.