Lucas's laughter did not fade, did not weaken, and did not break despite the condition his body was in, instead it grew louder, deeper, more unhinged, echoing across the battlefield in a way that unsettled everyone who heard it, because it did not sound like the laughter of a man on the verge of death, it sounded like something else entirely, something that did not belong to pain or defeat, and that alone made it unbearable to listen to, especially for the one standing directly before him, because Ken, who had controlled everything up until this point, who had dictated the pace, the outcome, and the suffering of everyone involved, now found himself facing something he could not understand, something that did not fit into the image of dominance he had constructed.
The laughter got to him.
