THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 376: 376. ZAKA ASAKAN VS SAGIRI III

The words struck Zaka hard, and his lips twitched in anger.

For a heartbeat, the Grand Chief simply stared, his enormous chest rising and falling as fury wrestled with reason. Then reason lost. A roar tore from his throat, so violent that the trees themselves seemed to recoil.

”A man rather die than fight a dishonourable fight!” he bellowed.

The sound had barely faded when two shadows burst from the northern ranks.

The great black cats that had remained patiently at their master’s side exploded into motion, their massive forms gliding across the battlefield with terrifying speed.

Their paws barely seemed to touch the earth as they circled wide, instinctively cutting off every avenue of escape. Sagiri’s crimson eyes shifted from one beast to the other before returning to Zaka.

”Finally,” he murmured. ”Now the real fight begins. I was wondering when you were gonna let your pets join the fight.” 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

Zaka didn’t answer.

He charged again, and the two beasts moved with him as though they shared a single mind.

One came low through the trees, silent as death, while the other leapt high into the canopy, disappearing among the branches.

At the same instant, Zaka’s fist descended like a falling mountain. Sagiri sidestepped, but instead of retreating, the first cat was already there. Claws larger than swords ripped through the space where his ribs had been a heartbeat earlier, forcing him to twist backwards just as Zaka’s elbow crashed through three ancient trees behind him.

Before Sagiri’s feet could touch the ground, the second beast descended from above.

Its jaws snapped shut with a sound like two boulders colliding.

Sagiri vanished between its fangs by the width of a finger, reappearing several paces away, only to find Zaka already waiting.

The Grand Chief’s knee drove into his guard with enough force to launch Sagiri across the forest. He crashed through one tree, then another, before flipping onto his feet and sliding across the earth, boots carving deep trenches before he finally stopped.

A murmur spread through both armies.

It was the first clean blow Zaka had landed.

Blood dripped from the corner of Sagiri’s mouth. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and looked at the crimson stain for a moment before smiling faintly.

”Better,” he admitted. Across the battlefield, Zaka rolled his shoulders, his breathing heavy but triumphant.

”You bleed after all.” Zaka taunted

Sagiri lifted Nokai properly this time, the black blade humming softly as it caught the fading sunlight.

”I always did.” Then he lowered into a stance unlike anything the watching warriors had ever seen. ”I wanted to give you the honour of landing one punch as a gift for losing to me.

”He’s finally taking this seriously,” Lotaga muttered/

”No,” Salka corrected quietly, unable to look away. ”He’s still holding back.” Before another word could be spoken, the forest exploded into motion once again.

Zaka attacked from the front while both great cats struck from opposite sides, turning the sacred Outer Nonagon into a storm of claws, fists, shattered earth, and collapsing trees. Entire sections of woodland vanished beneath the relentless assault.

Ancient trunks toppled like blades of grass, and shockwaves rolled endlessly beneath the canopy. Yet at the center of that chaos, Sagiri moved with almost unnatural composure.

Nokai flashed only to deflect claws that would have torn mountains apart or redirect fists capable of pulverizing stone. He still refused to strike a killing blow.

Every opening he created... he abandoned. Every weakness he exposed... he ignored. It was as though he was waiting for something. Watching. Learning.

Zaka noticed it too, and with every passing exchange, his rage deepened. For the first time in decades, the strongest man in the North had begun to understand what true helplessness felt like.

The battle had long since left the clearing where it began. It tore through the Outer Nonagon like a living storm, carving a path of destruction through forests that had stood untouched for generations.

Ancient trees crashed one after another beneath Zaka Asakana’s relentless assault, each impact echoing across the academy grounds like distant thunder. From the walls of the Inner Nonagon, instructors and cadets could only watch in stunned silence as the sacred woodland slowly disappeared beneath clouds of dust and splintered timber.

At the center of it all, Sagiri continued to retreat with calculated precision. Every step was measured. Every movement wasted nothing. Nokai danced through the air in flashes of black steel, not to wound, but to divert. One swipe redirected the claws of the first great cat into the trunk of an ancient oak, splitting it clean down the middle.

A twist of his wrist turned the second beast’s pounce into empty air before Zaka’s monstrous fist descended where Sagiri had stood only an instant earlier, blasting a crater deep enough to swallow a house.

”Stand still!” Zaka roared, spinning with frightening speed as he hurled another devastating strike.

Sagiri flowed around it like water around stone, his cloak fluttering through the violent winds created by the blow. The watching warriors slowly began to notice something that chilled them more than the destruction itself. Sagiri was no longer merely defending. He was... studying.

His crimson eyes followed every movement Zaka made.

It was the gaze of a hunter patiently learning the rhythm of dangerous prey. Zaka felt it too. Every time he committed to an attack, Sagiri was already gone. Every feint was read before it was completed. Every combination dissolved into empty air.

The Grand Chief’s breathing grew heavier, not from exhaustion alone, but from mounting frustration.

”Fight me!” he thundered once more, his voice cracking through the ruined forest.

”Fight me like you fought the southern garrison! Fight me like you destroyed my warriors!” Sagiri finally stopped. The sudden stillness caught everyone by surprise. He stood atop the broken trunk of a fallen giant, Nokai resting loosely at his side as the evening wind stirred his crimson hair. For the first time since the duel began, he looked directly into Zaka’s eyes.

”You truly don’t understand.” His voice was calm enough to silence the battlefield.

”Understand what?” Zaka growled. Sagiri’s expression remained unreadable.

”If I fought you the way I fought them...” He glanced briefly at Nokai before returning his gaze to the Grand Chief. ”...you would already be dead.”

Rage exploded across Zaka’s face.

”Liar!” he roared, launching himself upward with enough force to split the earth beneath him. Both great cats attacked simultaneously, one leaping from the shattered canopy while the other came low through the smoke and debris.

Three attacks.

Three different angles that left him no room to escape.

Even Salka instinctively took a step forward.

”Now...” he whispered. ”...he’ll have to strike.” But Sagiri did something none of them expected. Instead of meeting the assault, he closed his eyes. For a single heartbeat, everything slowed. The roar of the beasts faded. The crashing trees disappeared. The battlefield itself seemed to fall away. Then his crimson eyes opened again. He moved once. A single step. The first cat’s claws passed harmlessly through empty air. The second collided headfirst with Zaka’s shoulder after losing sight of its target.

The Grand Chief staggered just enough for Sagiri to slip between them, brushing past all three attackers without delivering a single blow. He came to a stop several paces behind them, untouched.

Complete silence followed.

Even the beasts seemed confused.

Zaka slowly turned, his chest heaving as realization began creeping across his features. Sagiri had not escaped because he was faster. He had escaped because he had seen everything before it happened.

”You’re toying with me” Zaka said at last, his voice lower now.

Sagiri gave a small nod. ”You owe me a debt I have been wiling to make you pay” He lifted Nokai onto his shoulder once more.

”You’re strong, Grand Zorath.” His eyes hardened. ”But your anger makes you predictable and unfit to rule. A mna who kills his own children is worse than an animal to me. Not even your cats there kill their cabs.

Zaka Askana paused for a moment as more silence stretched before his mouth fell open and he barked a laugh. The laugh grew and rose higher as it tore tore through the place.