novelraw Chapter 124 : Chapter 124
Chapter 124 : Chapter 124
Chapter 124: The White Hawk
Not Duke Valendo, but Duke Farman stepped into the circular boundary of the dueling arena.
At that moment, all eyes focused on him.
The arena was already surrounded by the Kandahr Tribe’s elite.
Drenbalk, Morcal, the chieftains of various tribes, and countless warriors with eyes mixed with curiosity and awe encircled the arena.
Despite the numerical pressure, Duke, I, and our group refused to be intimidated.
Amid the gazes of the strong, my eyes were fixed on one man alone.
‘Bakan…’
And finally,
Bakan slowly rose from his seat.
His shadow loomed over the arena.
“Duke Farman. Heir of the White Hawk.”
Bakan’s deep voice echoed beyond the arena, resonating across the battlefield.
“I, Hardan, inheritor of the Steel Whale’s blood and ruler of the Kandahr, formally accept your duel.”
The surrounding warriors erupted in cheers.
“Waaa!!!”
To most of them, a duel with Bakan was a mere fantasy.
No one had dared challenge the current Bakan until now.
Even Drenbalk, filled with ambition, hadn’t crossed that line.
“Ha!”
Drenbalk suppressed his rising jealousy and glared at Duke.
‘It should’ve been me challenging Bakan.’
Yet, his mind flashed to the fierce bare-knuckle fight with Duke.
That powerful blow had the force of an unshakable typhoon.
‘With that strength, maybe Bakan…’
He shook his head, dismissing the thought.
‘No matter what, the opponent is Hardan. The greatest man in history. There’ll be no upset.’
Drenbalk was certain of Bakan’s victory.
Every Kandahr warrior here believed Bakan would win.
They were merely curious about how long his opponent would last.
Duke, bearing their expectations and pressure, acted as if it didn’t faze him and removed his shirt before the duel.
The white hawk tattoo on his chest gleamed vividly in the sunlight.
A Kandahr tribal symbol, perfectly detailed down to every feather.
I looked at it and said softly.
“Don’t lose, Dean. We… still have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”
Duke nodded slightly with a smile.
“Right. Don’t worry. I’ll come back alive, and we’ll talk to our hearts’ content.”
He turned, walking heavily toward the center of the arena.
―Step, step.
‘Talk…’
Duke suddenly realized he’d never spoken of his origins to anyone.
No one had asked, and he’d had no desire to share.
But if he survived, he now wanted to tell.
No, he needed to tell.
Everything about himself.
‘Clear all distractions. Focus only on the opponent before me.’
Reaching the center, he assumed a dueling stance, and on the opposite side, Bakan slowly raised his hand.
The shamans raised their hands in unison, chanting protective spells.
―Humm!
A barrier began to envelop the arena, glowing faintly.
“Waaaaa!!!”
The warriors’ cheers shook the battlefield.
At this moment, a duel that would be remembered for ages was ready to begin.
***
“Cough!”
Duke fell to one knee, spitting red blood onto the ground.
His shoulders heaved, and ragged breaths escaped between his ribs.
“Waaaaa!!!”
The Kandahr warriors surrounding the arena roared, shaking the earth.
They were excited, ecstatic, praising their ‘king’ before their collapsing foe.
Meanwhile, I and the kingdom’s forces watched the arena with grim faces.
This devastating outcome came less than a minute after the duel began.
‘Damn it… it was too much.’
Duke was already battered from days of defensive battles.
In contrast, Bakan was different.
His previous fights had been mere warm-ups.
“You three put up a decent fight together.”
In the center of the arena, Bakan stood motionless.
His massive, unblemished body was like an iron wall, and his gaze held no emotion.
Only boredom.
“Is this all you have, heir of the White Hawk? If so, I’m disappointed.”
Duke gritted his teeth at those words.
“Stop calling me White Hawk. I am Duke Valendo of the Kaien Kingdom!”
Bakan sneered.
“To deny your own blood like that. Well, I heard your story. The blood of a traitor, right?”
“That has nothing to do with me!!”
Duke mustered his remaining strength and swung his fist.
His strike was undeniably powerful.
Fast enough to barely follow with the eyes, it was a fierce attack infused with his body’s Qi.
But the aura surrounding Bakan was even stronger.
―Boom!
The moment of impact, Duke’s fist was stopped by Bakan’s thick Qi, unable to advance further.
Yet, it felt as if he’d struck a rock, his knuckles’ bones protruding.
“I had high hopes for the heir of the supposedly mighty White Hawk Tribe.”
Bakan’s gaze held no trace of respect.
He grabbed Duke’s arm and kicked his torso.
―Thud!
Duke’s body flew back helplessly, crashing into the barrier.
“Guh!”
The sensation of the world flipping upside down.
In his spinning vision, a thought crossed his mind.
Bakan kicked him again, and Duke collapsed.
‘What… am I doing…’
His muscles and bones screamed in agony.
Yet, with superhuman willpower, he lifted his head to look at Bakan.
‘Right, I’m trying to save the kingdom.’
Through his blurring vision, Duke saw Bakan’s massive form, and faintly recalled his mother, a memory from childhood.
‘Come to think of it… Mother told me to survive.’
Was this the so-called life flashing before his eyes?
Pages of his life surged through his consciousness like waves.
Duke Farman.
A boy who, at five, drifted on rough waves and barely survived, washing ashore at the continent’s edge.
The only person with him was his mother.
With no status or name, she wandered the eastern kingdoms, raising him.
Struggling to find food, working menial jobs by day, and trembling with anxiety at night.
Yet she never spoke of his lineage.
She only ever said:
―Duke, you’ll become a great person. So don’t lose heart.
She passed away when he was twelve.
And just before her death, she finally revealed the truth.
―Duke… you carry the blood of the White Hawk Tribe from Kandahr Island across the sea. Your great-grandfather was a chieftain. That blood is something to be proud of. But you must never go there.
Her final words were stained with tears.
But they left unanswered questions.
Why had she never spoken of his father?
The answer lay in an old diary she couldn’t bear to discard.
―Today, I learned that he rebelled against Bakan.
―There was no choice but to flee. There was no surviving on that island anymore.
―I had to protect this child. At least this child…
In that moment, everything became clear.
His father was a rebel on Kandahr Island.
A man who defied Bakan and paid with his life.
Duke was the son of that traitor, and his mother had risked everything to escape to the continent to hide that truth.
Even now, Duke didn’t know what that rebellion was for—
whether it was for a greater cause or personal ambition.
What mattered was himself, and following his mother’s final wish, he tried not to let the name Kandahr linger in his heart.
He wandered the continent, fought to survive, and honed himself through blood and sweat against countless foes.
Crossing the sea again, he settled in the Kaien Kingdom and devoted everything to it.
But the unbreakable bond—Kandahr.
That name remained a smoldering ember in his heart, a land he knew he’d have to return to someday.
And that small ember had now grown into a blazing inferno, bringing him to the center of this dueling arena.
“Guh!”
As Bakan’s fist slammed into his chest, Duke’s breath caught harshly.
His ribs bent inward, the shock reverberating to his spine.
Swallowing blood, he raised his head.
The end of this choice.
Whether it ended in pain or death, he was ready to accept it.
‘Even if I’d chosen another path… I was destined to face Kandahr.’
He forced his collapsing body to stand.
His legs trembled, his body was drenched in blood, but his eyes remained unbroken.
Bakan’s expression shifted subtly at the sight.
“Heir of the White Hawk. I respect you. Traitor’s blood or not, at this moment… you are a warrior.”
“An honor.”
“From now on, I’ll be serious.”
Duke gathered his strength and swung his fist.
But Bakan, without a flicker in his gaze, crouched low and swiftly closed the distance.
Grabbing Duke’s right arm, he unleashed a relentless barrage of attacks.
―Thud! Thud! Thud!!!
The sound was like a boulder smashing a human body, a horrific rupture.
With a crack of joints, Duke’s right arm dislocated completely, dangling limply, twisted and useless.
“Guh!”
Bakan seized the dangling arm, and without hesitation, drove a straight punch into Duke’s solar plexus.
―Thud!
With that single blow, Duke’s body lifted into the air, his ribs shattering.
Blood spurted from his eyes, nose, and mouth as his body slid across the dirt.
Flesh tore, and his breath faltered in agony.
To anyone watching, he was clearly incapacitated.
Yet, even then, Duke didn’t lose consciousness.
No, he couldn’t.
‘I can’t fall like this… Even once, just once, I need to land a blow on Bakan… So the others can hold onto hope.’
It was a near-impossible wish.
Could he, in this state, pierce Bakan’s Qi?
Was it even possible?
At the edge of despair, a figure came to mind.
Mikhail Reverk.
Among countless warriors, the one man Duke could never surpass.
‘That’s right… I forgot. The advice I swore never to use, buried deep in my memory.’
Duke staggered to his feet.
His right arm hung uselessly, blood still dripping from his lips.
His ribs screamed with every breath, but he stood on his two legs.
“Hoo…”
A long, deep breath.
Like a flame igniting in silent darkness, heat radiated from Duke’s entire body.
A technique he’d never used, no, one he’d vowed never to use.
A single, fatal strike that wagered his life.
Outside the arena, I sensed the aura and pounded on the barrier, shouting.
“No, you can’t!”
It was a technique I’d taught him myself.
A move to be used only against an unbeatable foe, when ready to die, or when an enemy absolutely had to be killed.
‘Why… Why use it now? Just run…’
I remembered who Duke was.
Burning his flesh, bones, muscles, and nerves, he channeled all that power into a single fist.
“Hoo…”
Duke’s skin glowed red, steam rising from his body.
Each breath raised the temperature inside the arena.
Bakan sensed the shift in the air.
“Oh… You still had a card to play?”
He didn’t falter.
As a man, as a warrior, he eagerly anticipated the final strike of a fighter prepared for death.
“Then show me. I’ll receive it!”
“Hup!”
His entire arm glowed red, radiating searing heat.
His blood boiled, his nerves burned in agony.
Overcoming it all, Duke charged with a single fist raised.
―Tad!
At that moment, an explosive surge of heat and force erupted like lava, shaking the entire arena.
Bakan instinctively sensed the threat and moved to retreat.
‘This is dangerous!’
But it was too late.
Having chosen to receive it rather than dodge, he was too close, and Duke’s fist was already about to strike his body.
―BOOM!
With a thunderous roar, Duke’s fist pierced through Bakan’s thick Qi, sinking deep into his torso.
Simultaneously, the bones in his arm shattered, and his muscles melted away.
A single strike that burned all his life force.
Its name was the Fist of the Raging Storm.
“Guh!!!”
The excruciating pain of burning his body.
Channeling that pain into his fist, he delivered the ultimate, strongest punch.
The shockwave shattered the arena’s barrier, and a storm of heat engulfed the warriors.
“Ugh!”
As everyone closed their eyes and turned away, when they opened them again, Duke’s left arm was already dissolving into ash like a burning flame.
And there stood Bakan, still in place.
…
A silence where even breathing seemed forbidden.
Duke broke it first.
“Pfft!”
Dark red blood, clotted, burst from his mouth.
From his ashen left arm, blood poured like a torrential rain.
Seeing this, the Kandahr warriors sighed in relief.
But then.
“Gah!!!”
Bakan’s sturdy body twisted.
Blood gushed violently from his throat, and his knees buckled, his massive frame collapsing to the ground.
“Grrr…”
A pain like his insides were tearing apart.
A pain he’d never felt in his life.
“Ugh…”
In that pain, Bakan Hardan, for the first time, knelt.
The White Hawk had dragged down the shadow of Bakan, who had ruled the skies.