Chapter 1077: A Berserker’s Ecstasy
On the perimeter of the vast arena stood four colossal statues, their features blurred and indistinct. Every time Orion’s gaze swept over them, he felt a crushing pressure, a strange sensation as if his very sight was being devoured.
The Four Gods? he thought. The statues had to be representations of the Cult of Four’s deities. They were powerful, mighty. Even as inert stone, they radiated an oppressive aura that weighed on him.
“Welcome to the Killing Floor of our Cult of Four,” the cloaked figure’s voice echoed. “Consider it an honor to die here.”
The leader finally threw back his hood. Orion saw him clearly now—a human. One by one, the other four arch lords on the arena floor revealed their faces. Aside from the female knight, the group included a hulking Moon Giant carrying a bizarre wooden club, a Demon with a long, barbed tail, and a Firelord with crimson hair and a ghastly, contorted face.
Orion’s eyes locked onto the Moon Giant. So that’s who shattered my afterimage.
“The Killing Floor. Catchy.” Orion leveled his trident, a relaxed smile on his face. He showed no trace of fear, no awareness that he was trapped and outnumbered. “So, what’s the plan? Are we doing this one at a time? Taking turns? Or is this just a five-on-one clusterfuck?”
No one answered him. The five arch lords simply tightened their circle, their intentions brutally clear.
The Moon Giant was the first to move. The club in its hands seemed to hum with a strange power. As it swung the weapon in a devastating arc, the very air whistled and tore, leaving faint, dark fissures in the void itself.
“WAAAGH!”
In that instant, Orion’s smile vanished, replaced by a mask of bestial fury as he activated his Titan Form. His figure flickered, sidestepping the massive blow. He didn’t try to block or parry.
It wasn’t that he was afraid. In his Titan Form, his strength wouldn’t be outmatched in the slightest. He simply saw no point in a direct confrontation. A block was a wasted move. For Orion, every action had one purpose: not to negate an enemy’s attack, but to take an enemy’s life.
He reappeared behind the Moon Giant, his trident already lunging for the kill.
But the trap was sprung. The human leader materialized directly behind Orion, a one-handed sword with a cruel, hooked tip aimed at his skull. Simultaneously, the female knight and the long-tailed Demon closed in from his flanks. The knight’s lance and the Demon’s venomous, spear-like tail shot forward. Life and death hung on a razor’s edge.
“KILL!” Orion bellowed, a primal roar that vibrated in the soul. The feeling—the raw, exhilarating danger that made every cell in his body scream—sent him into a berserker’s ecstasy. He felt wild, unstoppable.
ROAR!
The roar of his Titan Form was the Titan’s Roar, a sonic attack that blasted outwards. At the same time, a blood-red aura, the defensive state of his Battle Will Surge, erupted around his body.
He didn’t stop his attack. He didn’t pull back to defend. He drove the trident forward with even greater force.
SQUELCH!
The trident punched clean through the upper arch lord Moon Giant’s chest. The electricity and fire coiled around the weapon’s tines erupted inside the giant’s torso, incinerating its organs. The Moon Giant was dead before its body began to fall.
Of course, the price was paid instantly. The leader’s sword, the knight’s lance, and the Demon’s tail all found their mark. The Battle Will Surge held for a fraction of a second—and then shattered.
That single moment was all Orion needed. He ducked and bowed his head, shoving the giant’s massive corpse forward. The hooked sword tore through the leather binding his hair but missed a fatal blow. The attacks from the sides, however, were unavoidable. The lance and the tail impaled him, churning his abdominal organs into a ruin and shredding a small part of his heart.
“Hahaha… what a rush!”
Blasting out of the encirclement, Orion laughed maniacally as he leaped into the air, narrowly avoiding a series of miniature volcanoes that erupted from the arena floor. Dragons of molten rock, Magma Drakes, surged from the craters, hounding him relentlessly.
Gritting his teeth against the searing pain, Orion activated Instant Impact again, teleporting to the far side of the arena. The Magma Drakes, their target vanished, crashed into each other in a shower of sparks. The attack, clearly, had come from the Firelord who had yet to engage him directly.
Orion raised his trident, ignoring the three enemies that were already closing in on him again. His attention was fixed on the dying Moon Giant, whose eyes were beginning to dim.
“I heard the Hydraea Plains were the territory of you Moon Giants,” Orion said, his voice laced with venom, twisting the knife. “I was wondering why I didn’t see a single one of your kind on my way south. Turns out you abandoned your faith.” He let out a cold chuckle. “Too bad the Cult of Four couldn’t protect you either.”
The giant opened its mouth to speak, but Orion didn’t let him.
“I bet you don’t dare summon your body of faith, do you?” he taunted. “Hehehe…”
As Orion laughed, the last spark of light in the Moon Giant’s eyes extinguished. His entire body was consumed by the residual flames from the trident, burning to a pile of ash in seconds.
“Alright,” Orion said, shaking the gore from his weapon. He fixed his wild gaze on the knight, the leader, and the Demon. “Let’s continue.”
The three of them said nothing, their expressions grim. They watched as the gaping wounds in Orion’s abdomen were already scabbing over. His chest and stomach pulsed and writhed as if alive. It was obvious that his shredded organs, in just a few short moments, had already mostly regenerated.
This terrifying regeneration sent a chill down their spines.
It was his siren regeneration. As long as his head and heart were not completely destroyed, any wound would heal, any severed limb or ruined organ would regrow in a short amount of time.
His recovery was unnervingly fast. That, combined with his suicidally aggressive fighting style and the corpse of the Moon Giant at his feet, gave the remaining three arch lords pause. None of them wanted to be the next target of his all-or-nothing charge.
The atmosphere grew thick with a tense silence.
This was a development Orion was more than happy to see. As powerful as his siren regeneration was, it still needed time.
“Honestly,” Orion said, his voice dangerously cheerful. “It’s been a while since I’ve had this much fun. That was the best rush I’ve had in ages.” He gave them a bloody, predatory grin, using his own battle ecstasy as a weapon to stall and intimidate.
“So really… thank you.”