The Neanderthal leader stared at him, his gray eyes showing complete confusion at first. He couldn’t comprehend what could possibly be funny about the extinction of a species.

But slowly, as Uhtred’s laughter continued, a spark of comprehension dawned in the Neanderthal’s eyes.

The giant’s chest began to rumble, and soon, he joined in, his booming laughter mixing with Uhtred’s.

To any outside observer looking at them at that moment, they would have looked like two old comrades sharing a joke. They looked nothing like the two apex predators destined to tear each other’s civilizations apart.

After several long seconds, the laughter naturally died down, leaving a comfortable, respectful silence between them.

"Thank you," Uhtred said, standing up and extending his right hand across the table.

The Neanderthal looked down at the open palm, recognizing it as a human custom of sealing an agreement.

He reached out, his massive, scarred hand clamping onto Uhtred’s in a firm, bone-crushing handshake.

"Uhtred. That’s my name," Uhtred said. "The name of the human whose blade you and your entire race will die by."

The Neanderthal let out a low chuckle, his grip tightening in acknowledgement.

"Krijn. That is the name of the Neanderthal who will end you and your race."

The two leveled blatant promises of slaughter at one another, but they took the threats in stride, as if this was the commemoration of their true conflict.

They released their grips, and Uhtred leveled one final look at the Neanderthal before turning his back calmly, walking down the slope toward the outer boundary of the territory.

Krijn stood motionless, making no move to stop him, nor did he make any attempt to strike at Uhtred’s completely exposed back. The concept of a dishonorable ambush didn’t even cross his mind after their exchange.

However, while the Neanderthal held a strict code of martial respect, the rest of the outpost’s occupants did not share his philosophy.

Throughout the duration of their conversation on the mound, they had been noticed and heavily monitored by the rest of the outpost.

In particular, a high-ranking Homo erectus commander, an elite whose raw aura felt no weaker than Krijn’s own, had been observing the entire scene after being alerted by his scouts.

He had refrained from interrupting while Krijn was actively speaking, but the moment he saw the Neanderthal general simply allowing the top human talent to walk out of their stronghold alive, his patience broke.

Moving into the open with blinding speed, the Homo erectus commander hefted a massive iron spear, his aura violently flaring as he channeled a dense, pressurized stream of metallic cosmic essence into the spear.

With a harsh bark, he hurled the weapon.

The spear shot forward with the blistering speed of a bullet. The metal cut through the air with a deafening, sharp groan, sounding as if the air itself was tearing apart under the pressure.

In the few microseconds it took to cross the distance, the friction heated the iron tip to a blisteringly hot, glowing white state.

Krijn’s eyes widened in immediate rage. He whipped his hand out, throwing a punch to divert the projectile’s trajectory, but the spear seemed to possess a mind of its own.

It curved weirdly mid-air, as if there was some sort of special technique driving it, enabling it to bypass most of Krijn’s intervention. The Neanderthal general only managed to bleed off a fraction of its momentum. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The glowing spear maintained its deadly course, screaming straight for the back of Uhtred’s skull.

"Look out—!" Krijn roared.

Before the warning could fully leave the giant’s mouth, Uhtred spun on his heel, a mad gleam in his eyes. His high perception attribute had registered the incoming spear long before the weapon reached the mound.

Accounting for the terrifying speed, Uhtred jerked his torso by a fraction of an inch. The movement saved his life, letting the white-hot shaft miss his neck, but the sheer force of the projectile still slammed directly into his left shoulder.

At the exact same instant, Uhtred’s right hand whipped out like a striking serpent, his palm clamping onto the shaft of the flying spear.

He instantly activated his metal magic, attempting to forcefully kill the weapon’s momentum.

The iron dragged brutally across his palm. The white-hot metal hissed, instantly burning open a deep wound that spilled fresh blood and sizzled against his flesh in the same instant.

Uhtred immediately realized he couldn’t stop the momentum entirely. The throw carried the raw, unyielding force of a peak Level 24 powerhouse.

Instead of fighting the force, Uhtred leaned into the spin. He twisted his entire body, redirecting the remaining momentum into an arc.

A wild, feral grin broke across his face as he channeled every single drop of cosmic essence within his core directly into his core muscles, his legs, and his shoulders, enhancing it with a surge of metal magic on top.

Using the commander’s own momentum against him, Uhtred whipped his arm forward, launching the spear straight back across the half-mile expanse toward its sender.

The returned spear shot through the air like a streak of lightning.

The Homo erectus commander’s eyes widened in shocked disbelief as the weapon flashed past his face, the speed of its wind ripping a deep, bloody gash across his left earlobe.

The iron spear slammed into the stone building directly behind him, the immense force causing it to plow cleanly through three lower-caste Homo erectus grunts inside before embedding itself deeply into a wall several meters back.

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the entire outpost.

The large Homo erectus commander stood frozen, a thin trail of dark blood trickling down his neck from his torn ear as his eyes locked onto Uhtred across the vast distance.

Standing at the edge of the territory, Uhtred slowly wiped the blood from his burned palm, never breaking eye contact with the commander.

Beside the table, Krijn looked at Uhtred and the damage he had wreaked in that single exchange. And an excited, dangerous glint couldn’t help but flicker in his eyes.

Without uttering a single word, Uhtred turned, crossed the shimmering threshold of the barrier, and strode back into the woods of Zone 1...