[Moments Earlier]
At the center of a crater, surrounded by nothing but chaos, was a shirtless man.
He had greying hair, with a body that most Martial Artists dreamed of. Bruises were all over this body of his, and he was missing an arm. His body was scorched by intense flames, and his skin was pale from what seemed to be poison.
Despite all of this, he stood tall. A blade was tightly helf in his hand—though it was broken.
"Haa… haa…" Steam, or perhaps one could call it mist, proceeded from his tired lips as his eyes gazed into the far distance.
He could see the Kaelid Estate there. It was so close, yet felt far away.
'Damn these bastards. They dragged me far away from the Estate…' Aldred thought to himself as he made strained breaths.
The corpses of the Blood Mages lay all over the ground, and even the Skeleton Dragon had been destroyed. Its bones were scattered around the crater, with the bulk of its corpse at its very center.
