Chapter 702: Chapter 702 - Taming the Fifth Year - Blood Debt - 4

Recognition sparked in Ren’s eyes.

He knew who Jin was. Had probably known the moment Jin’s mana appeared in his detection range.

Probably knew why they were here.

Maybe even knew how this would end.

But Jin didn’t give him a chance to speak first. Didn’t let Patinder ’try to talk his way out’ or appeal to reason or do whatever verbal manipulation he might attempt.

First was his turn.

"Ren Patinder," Jin’s voice resonated through the tunnel. But it sounded strange to his own ears. Too loud... Too intense, as if someone else was speaking through his throat. "Finally I have you where I wanted you."

But that wouldn’t ruin the moment... He paused, savoring the moment.

Letting it stretch and letting the tension build.

Letting Patinder understand that this was different from every other conflict, every other rivalry, every other moment of danger he’d somehow survived.

This was personal.

"Do you remember your remote house? Almost four years ago? A patrol that found your family?"

He watched recognition shift to understanding in Patinder’s eyes.

The boy remembered.

’Of course he remembered, right?.’

’They say your first kill tends to stay with you. Became the moment that divided your life into "before" and "after", the point where you stopped being innocent. ’

It was maybe true... even if you’d been defending yourself, even if you’d had no choice.

Probably the kind of memory that haunted him. That woke him up at night in cold sweats. That made him wonder if he was becoming a monster.

Jin hoped it haunted him.

Hoped Patinder had suffered even a fraction of what Jin had likely endured.

"That day you claimed your first victim," Jin continued, spiritual energy beginning to dance between his fingers like captured lightning. The power felt good... Felt right, it felt like the universe was finally aligning to deliver justice. "My brother. Jean Strahlfang. Heir to our house. Leader of that patrol..."

He let the words hang for a heartbeat.

"The man you murdered."

The accusation fell into the tunnel like a stone into still water.

"I’ve waited years for this," Jin took a step forward. "Years searching for the perfect moment. The moment when I could finally deliver justice for my brother."

He shook his head, the gesture almost sad.

"But now..." Another step forward. The tiger’s energy coursing through him, making his muscles feel impossibly strong. "Here. Away from your protectors. In territory where accidents happen."

His smile widened... It wasn’t a pleasant expression. It was meant to be the last thing Ren Patinder saw before violence erased him from existence.

"Finally I can give you what you deserve."

"I can finally sleep peacefully... Knowing my brother has been avenged."

’Brother,’ Jin thought as he prepared to strike, ’today you finally rest in peace.’

"No."

The voice came from behind Jin.

♢♢♢♢

Ren’s POV seconds before

Jin Strahlfang, or what remained of him beneath layers of bestial fusion that went far beyond normal... straightened slowly.

His skin had almost completely disappeared. The spirit tiger’s marks covered every visible inch, but there was something else. Something unnatural in how they pulsed and writhed, like living things crawling beneath the surface rather than simple manifestations of spiritual energy.

The patterns moved wrong. Shifted in ways that didn’t match breathing or heartbeat or any normal biological rhythm.

Jin’s eyes glowed with a sickly blue that wasn’t the purple corruption nor completely normal. The color flickered at the edges, bleeding into darker tones that had no business existing in a human iris. And when he opened his mouth to speak, his fangs were too long, too wrong .

Not the elegant yet sharp teeth of a properly fused spirit beast.

These were jagged. Uneven... mutation rather than enhancement.

Klein stepped back instinctively.

This looked too much like...

"Corruption."

Ren’s voice cut through the silence.

The word landed like a physical blow. Ren’s group tensed immediately, hands moving to their bags and the ones in their beasts to free them, combat instincts triggered by a threat they’d adapted to recognize and fear.

Ren raised one hand, his senses extending outward in careful analysis. The mana emanating from Jin was erratic, unstable, with dark veins interweaving with his beast’s normal brilliant blue, like parasites consuming a healthy body.

The corruption wasn’t complete yet. Not like the fully transformed abyssal creatures they’d fought during the war. But it was progressing, spreading, consuming more of Jin’s natural spiritual energy with each passing moment.

How long had he been doping with whatever new mad drug they’d keep hidden until now?

"I can finally sleep peacefully... Knowing my brother has been avenged."

Jin finished his monologue. He crouched, preparing to launch his attack with the explosive power of someone who’d sacrificed stability for raw strength.

"No... That wasn’t the first. And you won’t get anything here."

Ren’s voice came from behind Jin.

Jin froze.

His brain took a full second to process the impossibility of the situation. To understand that the voice he’d heard came from the wrong place, from a position that should have been empty because Ren had been in front of him, surrounded by the ambush formation, trapped exactly where Jin wanted him.

He spun sharply, movements jerky with corruption-enhanced reflexes.

Ren Patinder stood directly behind him, less than a meter away.

He’d left his backpack somewhere. His expression was completely bored, like this entire assassination attempt was mildly inconvenient rather than life-threatening.

’When...?’

The question burned in Jin’s corrupted mind. When had Ren moved? How had he crossed that distance without Jin sensing it? The spirit tiger’s enhanced awareness should have detected any approach, should have given warning before Ren got close enough.

But there had been nothing.

No warning, no sound and no disturbance in the mana flows.

Just a sudden presence where emptiness should have been.

Jin tried to move. Tried to step back, create distance, do anything to establish defensive space.

He couldn’t.

His legs didn’t respond. His entire body felt heavy, like the air itself had solidified around him. He tried to scream an order to his group, to tell them to attack, to coordinate the ambush they’d planned so carefully.

His throat closed before he could form words.

The pressure was immense. Invisible. Suffocating without actually affecting his breathing, a purely spiritual weight that held him immobile more effectively than chains.

"I missed you," Ren said casually, as if they were chatting about weather instead of facing each other in a lethal ambush. His tone carried genuine amusement, the kind you might use greeting an old acquaintance you hadn’t seen in years. "Really. I’m glad to see that you haven’t stopped being an idiot."