Chapter 38: Bloody teeth

When Riven had rushed Spartacus, he had worked to put the necklace around his neck, but the warrior had shaken him off, which made the necklace get stuck in his hand.

“What’s this for? Some charm of sorcery? I will put this around the General’s head after I cut it off.”

As if the space that had been holding the battlefield off from reality finally broke, sound rushed back in. Roars and screams rent the air. The sound of metal on metal and of men dying filled the air.

Spartacus smiled, his face turning savage as the smell of the battlefield swooped down on him. He was about to walk past the clearing of dead bodies he had made earlier when he suddenly froze as a cold wind swept his surroundings.

Something in the air was wrong, and he frowned, looking around.

Suddenly, he felt heaviness in his left hand. He looked down sharply, and he was so stunned that all he could do was stare.

Right there, clinging to his hand like a monkey, was the man he had just killed. But naked! Riven gave him a dazed smile, and with his three limbs clinging to the hand, his sword was formed in his right hand.

Without waiting, he thrust his sword forward at his throat.

Spartacus had been surprised and stunned, but he had been fighting to the death for so long he couldn’t remember. His reaction speed was fast, and he raised his sword to counter.

But Riven wasn’t going to let his death be a waste. He could still remember how it felt to have his skull pressed and crushed. It was a horrible feeling.

So he jerked his body, and Spartacus was pushed forward. The sword that was meant for the throat missed. So did Spartacus’s sword.

But Riven had another target. The sword’s momentum wasn’t lost and pierced his shoulder! Spartacus grunted in pain. The sword had passed through muscle and flesh, stuck in the bones of the shoulder.

Spartacus’s hand fell limp to his side immediately!

And it wasn’t an ordinary sword. It was removing Spartacus’s strength and transferring it to Riven. His pounding headache, caused by coming back to life, was cleared as energy flooded him.

Riven tried to remove the sword and strike him in the throat, but the sword was stuck tight in the bones. “Shit!”

Spartacus realized the situation at the same time, and his left hand tightened. His right hand was useless, but his left was still working perfectly!

The right hand that Riven was clinging to tensed and then jerked upward. Riven was light, his body more bones than muscle, and he was easily lifted.

Strong fingers closed around his throat like metal chains.

“…No… no!… No!” Riven thought as his face bulged, veins popped in his head. His hand clawed at the muscular hand choking him, but it was useless. He tried to use a technique, but his head was blank, filled only with pain.

Spartacus lifted the struggling Riven close to his face. He wasn’t calm anymore. He looked pissed as he stared at Riven. The red was all that now filled his eyes. “I will kill you again and again!”

Then he brought Riven’s head close for a headbutt. But it was an opportunity that Riven wasn’t going to let go to waste. His hand snapped out, and he forced himself down as if he wanted to give Spartacus a kill.

He opened his mouth and used all the remaining strength in his body to yank himself at his throat. Riven was biting Spartacus right at his throat!

Spartacus flinched and tried to pull Riven off, but there was no way he was going to miss the opportunity. His teeth were clamped tight on the man’s throat.

This time, it wasn’t just Riven that was struggling to breathe. Spartacus was struggling as well. It became a battle of who would die first.

Spartacus was squeezing the life out of Riven, and at the same time, Riven was trying to bite his throat out. It wasn’t easy. Warm blood rushed down his mouth, but he couldn’t swallow or even breathe as his throat was crushed.

It was as if the blood was drowning him.

Spartacus was feeling much worse. He could feel his life force bleeding out and his body getting weaker. But then, in one full swoop of power, he managed to rip Riven free.

He roared in pain as blood spurted from his neck! He tried to breathe, and it just came out in bubbling blood from his ruined throat.

His angry eyes turned to Riven, who gave him a bloody smile.

Spartacus dropped Riven and stumbled forward as the blood loss and lack of air overwhelmed him. He bent over Riven, his eyes darkening rapidly, but before he fell totally unconscious, his fist came down to punch his opponent’s head into the ground, shattering jaws.

“…Ah… the pain… I don’t think I can get used to it after all…”

That was Riven’s last thought before everything went dark and he died. Just like usual, something dragged him into a dark, bitter, cold place before he woke with a gasp.

Riven hurried to his feet, stumbling as the headache hit him. He hadn’t been gone for long, but Spartacus was dead! He grinned. “Finally!”

He bent down to pick up his necklace and put it around his neck. Then he turned to his body. Bodies. It was still strange to stare at his own dead body, especially when it had been killed in such a gruesome manner.

“What is that? I saw him die just now!”

“He can come back to life! He killed Spartacus!”

“Impossible! Nobody can kill him!”

It was then that he remembered that he was still on a battlefield. Around him, there was a temporary pause in the battle as warriors watched and pointed at him.

They had watched the whole thing to the end.

Riven was at a loss as to what he should do next as he stood there with a blinding headache and without wearing anything.

Before he could do anything else, he heard something in his mind, and the image of the Death Ledger rose up.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep