[Location: Wildwoods, Midgard]
If biting more than one can chew had a face—then it was mine right now.
"Move."
My body screamed. My lungs burned. My ribs felt like splintered kindling.
But Wrath didn't care.
Wrath didn't ask.
It shoved my legs forward before my brain even decided. My heel dug into the ash, I pivoted, and the flaming pillar came crashing down where I'd been standing.
The ground erupted.
Stone shards exploded like shrapnel. Heat blasted outward in a wave that peeled the snow back in steaming sheets. The shockwave tossed me like a ragdoll, but I tucked my body mid-air and landed rough, knees grinding into scorched earth.
"...That was close." My teeth chattered—not from fear, but from the sheer vibration rattling my skull.
The troll turned, slow and deliberate, its molten eyes locking on me like a predator deciding whether its prey was worth the trouble. Then it snorted. A puff of fire and brimstone left its nostrils, dismissive.
Dismissive.
My blood boiled hotter than the pillar.
"You think I'm nothing?!" I spat blood into the dirt, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and bared my teeth. "I'll show you nothing."
The words left me like molten iron forced through cracked lips, defiance carried on blood and rage. My throat was raw, my voice broken, but my body—oh, my body was already moving.
I charged.
Not because I thought I could win.Not because I thought I was stronger.
But because Wrath refused to let me stand still.
The troll raised its weapon—an obsidian pillar twice the height of a man, jagged and crusted with glowing veins of magma. Its every swing carved the air with the weight of an avalanche. The earth beneath it cracked under its own strength, roots snapping, stone splitting.
And me? I was a flea biting the heel of a mountain.
I ducked under the downswing, the sheer force tearing past my ears like thunder. The ground erupted where it struck, snow vaporized instantly into a cloud of steam.
Faster. I need to move faster.
My fist flew into its ankle. Flesh like stone. A shock went up my arm—like I'd punched a mountain. The knuckles split, blood dripping down my fingers.
The troll grunted. Not pain. Annoyance.
Its massive leg kicked out and caught me full in the chest.
I flew.
Branches snapped like brittle bones as my back tore through a tree. Bark scraped skin, ribs screamed, lungs collapsed. I hit the ground, rolling in a heap, coughing blood and spit into the snow.
"Fuck—" My lips trembled. "—me…"
The world tilted, blurred, swayed.
Still, I pushed myself up. My body was broken glass, but my mind? My mind was fire.
"I… won't… stay down."
The troll lumbered toward me, molten cracks glowing brighter with every breath it took. The air around it shimmered with heat, every step like a drumbeat, a declaration: You cannot win.
My heart hammered. My vision tunneled. My legs wanted to buckle.
And yet…
Every insult. Every shove. Every life taken from me. The gods. The chains. The burning void that spat me here.
All of it screamed inside my skull.
No.
Wrath surged.
I lunged forward again, a beast tearing free from its cage. My fists flew, wild, relentless. The troll swatted, its pillar swinging, but I ducked under one blow, side-stepped another, slamming punches into its thigh, its knee, its side.
"Fall—damn you—fall!"
My knuckles split further. Skin shredded. Blood slickened my hands. But I didn't stop. Couldn't stop.
The troll finally snarled, planting a foot forward, and thrust its pillar downward like a stake.
It caught me on the shoulder.
The world went white.
My collarbone snapped like dry wood. The earth beneath me cratered, snow blasting outward. Pain spiderwebbed across my nerves, hot and sharp, forcing bile into my throat.
My body screamed: Stay down.
But Wrath? Wrath laughed.
I gritted my teeth, pressed my bloodied palm against the pillar, and shoved. My muscles quaked, veins bulging, but the stone wouldn't budge. My vision blackened at the edges.
Stronger. I need to be stronger.
The troll leaned more weight into the weapon, pushing me deeper into the earth, forcing bones and muscle to creak, snap, groan.
I roared.
Not a man's roar. A beast's. Something primal, burning, endless. My body convulsed as if the scream itself was trying to tear its way out of me.
And then—
Something answered.
A thrum. A hum. A rhythm inside my chest, inside my arms. Like molten lightning flooding my veins. My wrath was not leaking—it was igniting.
The troll pressed down harder, its smoldering gaze unmoving, confident.
But its confidence faltered when it saw my arms.
Flesh burned away into light. Skin peeled into gold. Metallic plates rippled across my forearms, forming like molten armor poured from within me. Fingers cracked, reshaping into gilded gauntlets of wrath incarnate.
Golden light blazed where blood once spilled.
"…What?" My voice was a growl, layered with something else. Something not human.
The pillar sank deeper—but I didn't.
I caught it.
Both hands, now plated in gleaming wrath, seized the obsidian column. My feet dug into the fractured ground. My back screamed, my ribs shifted like broken glass, but my arms—my arms held.
The troll tilted its head, confused, molten eyes narrowing.
I pushed back.
The pillar lifted.
My teeth grit, the ground cracking beneath my heels as I forced my strength upward. A guttural snarl ripped from my throat, louder, deeper, shaking snow from the trees. The golden glow spread up to my shoulders, veins of molten energy spiderwebbing across my chest.
"I—" I shoved, the troll stumbling back half a step."—AM—" My arms surged with gold as cracks of light danced off the metal."—NOT NOTHING!"
The pillar ripped from its hands.
For the first time—the troll staggered.
Wrath burned brighter. My vision swam red-gold. My arms were no longer mine—they were weapons, instruments of destruction forged from my own fury.
I lunged.
The first punch slammed into its knee—bone cracked.
The second tore into its gut—the air shuddered.
The third smashed into its jaw—snow whipped into the air in a storm.
The troll reeled, stunned.
I didn't stop. Couldn't stop. Didn't want to stop.
Punch after punch after punch. Each impact a thunderclap. Each blow driving it backward, its massive bulk faltering under the sheer barrage. Blood and magma sprayed from cracks in its rocky flesh.
"FALL!" I screamed.
One final punch—my arms glowing molten gold, wrath pouring through them—slammed into its chest.
The troll flew.
Its massive body crashed into a ridge of stone, the cliffside shattering under the impact. Rock and dust rained down as its broken body slumped against the debris.
Silence.
My chest heaved. My arms pulsed with golden light, smoke rising from them. Each breath was a razor through my ribs, each heartbeat an explosion.
But I was still standing.
Golden arms clenched into fists, trembling with rage and exhaustion.
"…Vajra…" I whispered through bloodied lips, the word tasting foreign yet familiar. "…Asura…"
My knees hit the earth.The golden light sputtered. Flickered. And then—gone.
My arms, once blazing molten gold, cracked and peeled back into flesh. Bloody, battered, trembling flesh.
I gasped, lungs convulsing, throat raw like I'd swallowed fire. The world spun in a haze of red and ash. Snow hissed against the heat still radiating from my body, turning the ground into black mud beneath me.
The silence was deafening.
No roars.No quakes.No flame.
Had I—?
I lifted my head, blood dripping down my chin. Across the clearing, the troll lay slumped in the rubble of a broken cliffside, smoke rising from cracks in its rocky hide. Molten blood oozed in thick streams, glowing against the snow. Its massive chest rose and fell—shallow, heavy.
I wanted to believe it was done. Defeated.
But the world wasn't that kind.
The rubble shifted. Stones tumbled. A low rumble grew into a snarl that made the trees tremble.
"No…" I rasped.
The troll moved.
"ARE. YOU. TOUCHED. IN. THE. HEAD."
The voice cracked across the burning Wildwoods like a whip, sharp and scolding, yet tinged with disbelief.
I blinked through the haze of blood and smoke. My ears rang, my body quaked, but my eyes—oh, my eyes locked on the figure who had stepped out of the treeline.
Faye.
Her strawberry-blonde hair was damp with frost, strands sticking to her face as she strode out from the burning treeline, boots crunching against charred snow. The Leviathan Axe gleamed in her grip—ice crawling lazily along its edge, steam hissing wherever it met the lingering heat.
And her eyes… Norns save me—her eyes.
Cold enough to freeze the marrow in my bones.
"You," she said, her voice cutting sharper than the axe she carried. "Are you touched in the head?"
"Yo!"
"Yo? Yo, my arse!" Faye's voice cracked like thunder through the clearing, her accent sharpening every syllable. "I told you to rest. Previous injuries weren't even closed yet—and here you are brawling with a bloody Fire Troll like you've lost every shred of wit left in that thick skull of yours!"
I swayed where I stood, golden cracks still fading from my arms, chest heaving like a blacksmith's bellows. Her words cut sharper than the troll's blows, but Wrath didn't let them sink in. Not fully.
Because the rubble shifted.
Because the troll wasn't finished.
BOOOOOM.
The debris exploded outward as the Fire Troll shoved itself free, bellowing a roar that rattled the forest to its bones. Its molten eyes blazed brighter than before, veins glowing like liquid magma coursed through its stone hide. The rune-carved pillar flared, fire spiraling upward until it blotted out the stars above.
My stomach dropped. My vision blurred. Every instinct screamed: You can't do this again.
But Wrath whispered back: Get up.
Faye glanced at me, her jaw tight, her hands white-knuckled around the Leviathan Axe. "You're barely standing." Her voice had that mother-bear growl—equal parts fury and fear. "You'll die if you keep pushing."
I wiped blood from my mouth, laughed hoarsely. "Already died once. Didn't stick."
"By the gods…" she muttered, but the scorn in her eyes cracked into something else. Worry. "Fool."
The troll's roar cut us short. It charged.
The ground quaked, snow blasted into the air as its massive legs pounded forward, each step a drumbeat of doom. The flaming pillar came down like a meteor, trailing fire and ash.
Faye moved. A blur of red hair and steel.
The Leviathan Axe met fire.
CRAAAAACK!
Frost exploded across the air, ice clashing against flame. Steam erupted in violent hisses, rolling outward in a wave that swallowed the clearing. The troll staggered, surprised, as its weapon froze mid-swing, frost racing across its length like veins of lightning.
And me?
I should've been relieved. Should've been glad someone stronger, saner, had stepped in.
But Wrath wouldn't allow relief.
No. Relief was surrender.
My fists clenched, trembling, as golden cracks flickered weakly along my forearms. My body screamed with every heartbeat, but my soul—the furnace—roared for more.
This is my fight.
The troll tore its weapon free, shattering the frost with sheer force, and swiped sideways at Faye. She ducked low, axe biting into its thigh. Magma blood sprayed, hissing as it hit the snow.
I staggered forward. One step. Another. Every joint in my body felt like splintered wood, but Wrath dragged me on.
"Stay down!" Faye barked without even looking at me, her axe whirling as she dodged another blow. "You'll just get yourself killed!"
My laugh was broken glass. "What's… one more death?"
She snarled something unprintable, but I didn't hear. The troll's molten eyes locked on me again, and I felt it—the heat, the fury, the dismissal. That same dismissal that set my veins boiling before.
Not again.
Never again.
The golden cracks along my arms reignited, brighter this time, flaring like a forge at full blaze. My flesh seared, muscles tore, but the wrath poured through anyway. Metallic sheen spread once more, plating my forearms in molten gold, gauntlets of pure rage locking into place.
The Vajra Asura had returned.
The troll raised its weapon. Fire blazed hotter, runes searing the night.
I didn't dodge. Couldn't dodge.
I charged.
Our clash split the Wildwoods.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The pillar slammed down, fire screaming across the clearing. I caught it. Golden arms clamped onto black stone, metal grinding against obsidian. Heat licked my skin, fire burned my hair, but I held.
The troll bellowed, pressing down with the weight of a mountain. My knees buckled. My spine curved. My ribs shifted like shattered glass in my chest.
But my arms… my arms didn't yield.
"COME ON!" I roared, voice shaking the trees. "YOU WON'T BREAK ME!"
The golden glow surged brighter, veins across my chest lighting like molten rivers. Steam burst off my skin, hiss after hiss, as the ground beneath me cracked and cratered.
And then—
I shoved.
The pillar rose. The troll stumbled, massive bulk reeling backward.
My chance.
I roared, golden gauntlets blazing, and swung.
Fist met stone hide.
CRACK!
The troll reeled.
Second punch.
CRASH!
Its jaw split, magma blood spraying like a fountain.
Third punch.
BOOM!
Its chest caved, ribs snapping, molten cracks spiderwebbing across its body.
"FALL!" I screamed again, Wrath eating my throat raw.
Faye's eyes widened from the sidelines. For a heartbeat, I saw something flicker across her face—not scorn. Not fury. But awe.
The troll staggered. Its weapon dropped, flames sputtering. It tried to roar, but the sound came out broken, wheezing, choked with blood and fire.
I didn't stop. Couldn't.
Punch after punch after punch. My golden fists were thunder, my wrath the storm. Each blow shattered more of its body, each strike pushing it back, forcing the giant to kneel.
The Fire Troll—this towering titan of flame and stone—collapsed to its knees before me.
My chest heaved. My arms burned. My vision blurred red and gold.
One more.
One final strike.
I drew my fist back, molten gold blazing brighter than ever, Wrath screaming inside me for the kill.
And then—
A hand caught my wrist.
Cold. Firm. Unyielding.
Faye.
Her grip was iron. Her eyes, colder than the axe she wielded, cut into me.
"Enough."
The word wasn't loud. It didn't need to be. It cut deeper than the troll's blows.
I trembled, every nerve screaming to finish it. To end it. To prove I wasn't nothing.
But her eyes held mine. And in them, I saw… not dismissal. Not pity. But recognition.
"You've done enough," she said again, softer this time, though no less commanding.
Behind her, the troll collapsed fully, its body cracking, glowing, then exploding in a final shower of ash and molten embers.
The Fire Troll was dead.
I collapsed with it.
The golden light peeled from my arms, fading into smoke. My fists, once weapons of wrath, were just bloody, broken flesh again. My body convulsed, every breath a battle, every heartbeat a war.
Faye crouched beside me, her face close, her voice low. "You're touched in the head. Absolutely touched. But…"
Her lips tightened. Her eyes softened.
"You. Good."
***
Join my Patreon to support me and read over 5 chapters advanced.
p*treon.com/SuryaPutra_Karna01
Put 'a' instead of '*'