Chapter 1078: You don’t have the chance
“Pathetic.”
A new voice, harsh and unfamiliar, echoed across the Killing Floor.
It was followed by another. “Let me have this one. Just my type of meal.”
Two imposing figures appeared in the arena. Orion’s senses, sharp as they were, detected no ripple of spatial energy. They hadn’t teleported in. They had been here the entire time, hidden somewhere he couldn’t perceive.
At their arrival, the knight, the leader, the Tailed Demon, and the Firelord all took a subtle step back, ceding control of the engagement to the newcomers.
“You look delicious,” one of the new monsters snarled. It took a step forward, swinging a massive, chained flail that whistled ominously through the air. Its smile was pure malice. “Tell you what. I’ll even let you pick the seasoning I use when I eat you.”
It looked Orion up and down, its eyes lingering on his form. “Ooh, look what we have here. I can see the murder in his eyes. It runs bone-deep. I’m so scared.” The monster feigned a shudder. “So cold! Should I be trembling?”
The hulking creature’s gaze was that of a butcher contemplating a cut of meat, deciding where to take the first bite.
“That’s a mean glare you’ve got,” it chuckled, a low, grating sound. “Maybe I should run back to the Abyss?”
“No,” Orion said, his voice dangerously calm. “You don’t have the chance. I’m going to kill you.”
His emotions had just whiplashed. The sudden calm was a mask for a cold, deep-seated rage. The monster taunting him, the one so certain of its victory, was an Abyssal Devourer.
A perversion of the giant race. A sin made flesh.
Abyssal Devourers were monsters from the Abyss that fed on the giant tribe. Orion had seen their kind before. Balor, the former King of the Giants, had been one. But Balor had been different. He had devoured his own kind in secret, burdened by the responsibilities of his crown. He was only half-lost to his depravity.
This one, however, was a peak arch lord. To reach this level of power, the number of giants it must have consumed was beyond imagination. This was a creature utterly lost to its nature. A kill-on-sight target for any giant.
Orion had a sinking feeling this was no coincidence. The Cult of Four had sent this specific monster to the front lines just for him.
“Hahaha…” The Abyssal Devourer’s laughter grew stranger, more maniacal. “Come on, then! I really want to see how you’re going to kill me. Hehehe…”
With a final, sickly cackle, it charged.
Orion’s form blurred. He reappeared on the far side of the arena, a scroll already in his hand. “Don’t worry,” he said, his voice flat. “You’re next on the menu.”
He tore the scroll. Five figures emerged from the released energy, standing silently behind him: Sever, Bone White, Bone Red, Bone Green, and Bone Blue.
Sever, from the Blade Hall, was one of Alexander’s own subordinates. Orion had last seen him on the battlefield of Dragonflame Island.
As for the four Bone brothers, he’d first encountered them in the Valkorath Realm fighting the slime molds. They had only been at the Legendary level back then. He hadn’t expected that in the time it took Arthas to ascend to demigod, they would have already reached the rank of arch lord.
These five were the trump card Alexander had prepared for him—the key to ambushing and annihilating the Cult of Four’s elite forces.
“The five of you will hold back their five. Any problems?” Orion asked.
Sever and the Bone brothers remained silent, their faces impassive.
“Good.”
The word had barely left his lips before the five swordsmen shot forward. Whether it was intentional or not, Orion noted that every one of the reinforcements Alexander had sent him was a swordsman.
With his allies in motion, Orion’s gaze locked onto the Abyssal Devourer. The message was clear: You’re mine. Don’t even think about moving.
“Mmm… I can already smell the pure demonic blood,” the Abyssal Devourer murmured, sniffing the air. It paid no mind to the five figures charging its allies.
Sever was the fastest. With a single slash, he created four illusory duplicates that were indistinguishable from the real thing, each one peeling off to engage the knight, the leader, the Tailed Demon, and the Firelord. Sever’s true form, meanwhile, streaked toward the second newcomer who had appeared alongside the Devourer—an Infernal, a massive demon wreathed in hellfire.
The four Bone brothers took a different approach. Instead of engaging directly, they split off, each racing to a different corner of the arena and plunging their long, white bone-forged swords into the ground.
Instantly, a mysterious undead incantation filled the air. Countless wraiths and vengeful spirits clawed their way out of the ground from the four embedded swords. The spirits swirled, forming a vortex that trapped the five enemy arch lords inside an undead barrier, with the four Bone brothers acting as the formation’s anchors. Sever, who was already inside their perimeter, was sealed in with them.
Once the barrier was active, the Bone brothers drew their bone-forged swords from the ground and vanished, reappearing inside the swirling vortex of souls.
Immediately, the barrier erupted with flashes of sword light, ghostly wails, bursts of fire, and plunging shadows. The newly formed enclosure, stable only a moment ago, began to tremble violently from the sheer power being unleashed within.
Looks like they didn’t buy me much time, Orion thought, pulling his focus back to the Abyssal Devourer.
“In the Abyss, every giant knows to steer clear of me. You’re no exception,” the monster sneered. “They were fools to leave you behind to die. Looks like you’ve been abandoned. Gak-gak-gak…”
Orion shook his head. “It’s the opposite. They trust me to kill you quickly and come back them up.”
“Oh, hahaha! When I crack open that skull of yours, I’m going to scoop out your brain and see what makes you think such ridiculous things!” the Abyssal Devourer howled with laughter.
ROAR!
ROAR!
With two furious bellows, Orion and the Abyssal Devourer charged each other.
Their weapons met with a deafening crash. The chained flail and the trident clashed, and both combatants were thrown back by the sheer force of the impact. But neither’s momentum slowed. They instantly adjusted, and their weapons slid past each other as their bodies collided, the handles of the flail and the trident slamming together between their chests.
A dull thud echoed in the arena. Orion and the Abyssal Devourer stood locked together, motionless. In a contest of pure, brute strength, neither one could overpower the other.