Chapter 78: Claiming the Sun Spire

Gorak waded through the sea of green skin and steel, dropping his Star-Iron maul to the marble floor. Now that his strength had increased, his bare hands offered a much more intimate method of slaughter.

He grabbed a charging Blood-Orc by the tusks and violently ripped the warrior’s lower jaw clean off the skull. A geyser of dark blood sprayed across his bone-plated exoskeleton. Gorak threw the screaming, disfigured Orc into the rushing crowd and lunged at the next target.

His newly unhinged jaw snapped shut around Venom-Dryad’s neck, biting through hardened bark and collarbone to sever the head completely.

Acidic sap leaked from the stump and sizzled against his thick armor, failing to breach his evolved defenses. He spat the head into the mob and tore into the enemy lines with his elongated claws, leaving loops of intestines dragging across the pristine white marble.

Suddenly, a loud roar echoed from the rubble of the shattered banquet table. The debris exploded outward in a violent shower of splintered wood and crushed silver platters.

A massive figure stepped out of the dust cloud, casting a long shadow over the scattered corpses.

The Blood-Orc captain stood twice his original size, pulsing with thick veins of crimson energy. His previously caved-in chest cavity had knitted together into a hardened mass of black scar tissue and protruding bone spikes. He held the twisted, jagged remains of his broadsword in a massive, mutated fist.

Gorak dropped the mutilated corpse of a Dryad and wiped the dark sap from his serrated teeth. He stared directly at the newly resurrected commander.

The opportunistic god Gorvash had clearly dumped a desperate reserve of Divine Power into his fallen champion, forcing an emergency evolution to match the Vanguard.

The Orc captain took a heavy step forward, shattering the marble tiles beneath his spiked boots. He pointed his ruined blade directly at the towering Troglodyte.

Gorak cracked his thick knuckles and reached down to retrieve his Star-Iron maul from the floor.

Blood-Orcs lowered their weapons and backed away from the center courtyard. Venom-Dryads slithered up the ruined marble pillars to escape the immediate blast zone.

The sheer radiating power of the two towering behemoths forced the remaining armies into a dead silence as everyone stopped to watch the clash.

The Orc captain swung his broadsword in a wide arc, spraying dark blood across the white stone. The crimson veins pumping across his chest flared with fresh Divine Power. “My God grants me immortality,” the Orc bellowed, his voice vibrating through the cracked floorboards. “Gorvash claims this domain, and your bones will build his throne.”

Gorak rested the heavy head of his Star-Iron maul against the floor. He spat a wad of dark Orc blood onto the pristine marble and flashed a grin full of serrated teeth. “Your God wastes his power on a corpse,” Gorak growled. “Let me show you how a true deity builds a monster.”

The Orc captain charged with a thunderous war cry. He brought the broken broadsword down in an overhead strike meant to cleave the Troglodyte in half. Gorak swung his maul upward to meet the blow directly.

The impact sent a massive shockwave across the courtyard, knocking the closest spectators off their feet. Shrapnel from the Orc’s blade exploded outward and embedded deep into the surrounding walls.

Gorak absorbed the kinetic force through his newly evolved bone-plated exoskeleton. He stepped inside the captain’s guard and drove his spiked knee directly into the Orc’s mutated chest cavity. The sickening crunch of breaking bone echoed across the silent plaza.

The Orc stumbled backward, coughing up a mouthful of black blood. He swung his massive fist blindly and caught Gorak on the side of his armored jaw.

The blow possessed enough force to decapitate a normal beast.

Gorak rolled his neck to absorb the impact and immediately drove the heavy metal handle of his maul straight into the Orc’s kneecap.

The joint inverted with a loud snap. The captain dropped to one knee, roaring in agony as the crimson veins across his skin pulsed erratically.

“Stand up,” Gorak commanded, his voice dripping with absolute contempt. “Ka-Lam-Tee demands a better show for his entertainment.”

The Orc captain lunged forward like a rabid animal, discarding his ruined weapon entirely to grapple the Warlord. He dug his thick claws into the gaps of Gorak’s bone armor and tried to rip the plates away.

Gorak dropped his maul and met the grapple with his own massive hands.

The two titans locked fingers, tearing into each other’s flesh as the marble floor completely collapsed beneath their combined weight. They plummeted into the shallow subterranean crypt below the plaza, continuing their death match in the darkness among the ancient, dusty tombs of the Sun Spire.

The darkness of the subterranean crypt offered no refuge for the Orc captain. While for Gorak, it was nothing new. He was used to working in ‌underground mines. Gorak pinned the massive warrior against a cracked stone sarcophagus.

The Orc swung wildly, driving his spiked knuckles against Gorak’s hardened exoskeleton. The Troglodyte ignored the impacts entirely.

He sank his elongated claws directly into the pulsing, crimson veins webbing across the Orc’s chest. With a guttural roar, Gorak tore the mutated ribcage wide open and crushed the glowing, god-touched heart inside.

The crimson light faded instantly, and the massive Orc collapsed into the ancient dust as a lifeless mound of broken flesh.

Gorak grabbed the severed head of the captain by its tusks and hauled his massive frame up the collapsed rubble. He dragged himself back into the daylight of the plaza and tossed the gory trophy onto the pristine white marble.

The heavy thud echoed across the silent courtyard.

He wiped thick, black blood from his unhinged jaw and cracked his massive neck. He rolled his heavily armored shoulders and pointed a clawed finger at the Kobold Inquisitor.

“Lord has built me perfectly,” Gorak rumbled. “I could crush your metallic shell with my eyes closed now, Inquisitor.”

Iron-Scale stared at the towering Warlord, and completely ignored the taunt.

The sheer brutality of the execution completely broke the morale of the invading armies. The surviving Blood-Orcs dropped their weapons and scrambled toward the ruined main gates. The Venom-Dryads slithered frantically down the pillars to escape the plaza. They abandoned their looted gold and trampled each other in a desperate stampede for the exit.

Iron-Scale tapped his scythe arm against the stone floor and pointed the razor-sharp tip toward the fleeing masses.

“Leave no survivors,” he ordered. “Kill every last one of them.”

Old-Shell released a deafening roar from deep within his obsidian carapace. The mutated Shell-Kin led the charge, barreling through the courtyard like a living siege engine. The rest of the Vanguard followed immediately, surging out of the Sun Spire to hunt down the broken armies across the decaying plains.

Gorak and Iron-Scale remained standing in the center of the ruined plaza. They stood alone amidst a sea of corpses and fourteen thousand terrified human civilians. Above them, the colossal obsidian and violet crystal statue of the Red cast a long, heavy shadow over their newly conquered territory.

“Oh spiral, we are indebted to you and your favors upon us,” Iron-Scale knelt down.

Gorak knelt down beside him and said, “We are grateful to you.”

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