High above the battlefield, the nine Legendary-level fighters all held their breath when they heard the fight was about to move into its third phase. This phase also marked their own cue to act—at any mont, all-out war could erupt.
Truth be told, Orion had relished both the first phase of barehanded combat and the second phase of weapons. Ever since advancing to Legendary level, he'd never felt so thrilled by a fight. Giant King Balor was like a fierce sparring partner of equal rank, soone who could really take a beating.
"I'm the strongest one here. I'm the true Giant King!"
"My patience with you is shot—I'm going to kill you," Balor growled, fixing Orion with open malice in his gaze.
The murderous intent in Balor's eyes was unfiltered, growing stronger by the second.
Dark, swirling Abyssal energy began pouring off Balor's body; countless strange runes materialized across his skin. In the blink of an eye, a suit of black armor ford around him, leaving only his blood-flecked eyes glaring out with lethal intensity.
"This is… Abyssal energy?"
Abyssal energy was another form of the Titan God's power, and its appearance made Orion's brow crease. His instincts kicked into high gear.
Tzz-rah!
Acting fast, Orion hurled a spear to test Balor's newfound defenses.
Boom!
Balor raised the half-broken spiked club and smashed the airborne spear to pieces in one brutal sweep.
"Orion, your life is mine!"
Balor stayed rooted to the spot. For so reason, his voice carried a certain echo when he spoke. Then he launched himself with a burst of black energy, a swirling mass of shadow chasing him as he rushed Orion.
Orion answered by shifting into living lightning, charging straight back at Balor with equal force.
When they collided amid a thunderous crash, not only did they blow apart the original no-man's-land they'd carved out, the shock wave slamd into Starveil City itself. Countless bloodline warriors were knocked clean off their feet, and the horde outside the walls was blasted away in wide swaths. The duel zone expanded once more.
Inside that zone, lightning flashed and Abyssal energy rose in sweeping arcs. Orion and Balor kept crashing together, again and again.
This ti they were both channeling transcendent power, spawning an even more colossal force that seed to freeze the battlefield in place.
Even the forces besieging Starveil halted their assault, and the city's defenders—giants, Blood Elves, Gnos, and the rest—couldn't tear their eyes away from the duel below.
A fresh exchange of blows forced Orion to pull back. He was starting to look grim. That black armor covering Balor had clearly increased Balor's stats, making him more agile. Orion's constant attacks didn't faze him much anymore—ordinary moves just wouldn't cut it.
Seizing the mont after being knocked away, Orion opened a gap between them and raised his trident. Transcendent power surged inside him with frenetic intensity.
In the span of a single breath, his Eightfold Spear Barrage took shape, enveloping Balor completely. Orion concentrated, channeling all his focus into controlling the barrage to kill Balor on the spot.
Boom!
From within the Eightfold Spear Barrage, Giant King Balor swung that half-spiked club in wild arcs, sending Abyssal energy surging off him. Spear after spear rained down on him, keeping him locked in a desperate struggle.
"Ms. Elanor, that 'spear magic array' is nasty. If no one helps him, Giant King Balor could really end up dead," Boarfolk Boarion said quietly from their vantage point in midair, where nine lords were all but glaring at each other.
He'd been trapped in Orion's Eightfold Spear Barrage once before—had Elanor not attacked Orion so decisively back then, Boarion would likely have been done for. Now he was sending Elanor a pointed reminder.
Elanor's eyes never left the duel zone, though she kept the northern alliance lords in her peripheral vision. Jorik, Gareth, Ironhoof, Lokiviria, and Bluehide all watched her group in return. With the slightest provocation, a larger clash seed sure to explode.
In the restricted zone, Orion appeared close to sealing the victory. Driven by his will, the endless array of spears began morphing into tridents, boosting the attack's power yet again.
Several of those tridents had already landed on Balor, and the black protective plating wrapped around him started to fracture, exposing the armor underneath. Soon enough, Balor began to bleed, rivulets of red running from deep wounds. Clearly, he was taking real damage now.
"Attack!" Blood Elf Elanor cried. She no longer cared about rules or the two-king duel. Without hesitation, she sounded the signal for battle.
In a flash, Elanor loosed her bow, firing nine consecutive arrows in one rapid shot.
"Not so fast!"
Crang! Crang! Crang!
Nine tallic clangs rang out as Ironhoof shot down Elanor's arrows. He was ard with a bow himself, and since he'd been ready for her, she couldn't repeat her earlier success.
"Pin 'em down—don't give them a chance to stop Orion from killing that giant king!" Jorik bellowed as he morphed into his Glacial Dragon form and unleashed a cone of frigid breath, hindering Elanor's group before they could make another move.
anwhile, Bluehide and Lokiviria charged in, trapsing Elanor between them. They struck out in turns, battering her and giving her precious little breathing room.
"Damn you! You'd even break a giant taboo?" Jorik shot Gno Brimli a scornful look, all the while breathing ice in a wide arc to keep him from slipping away. "You won't be butting in here!"
Ironhoof's deep voice bood. He kept nocking arrows of fla, blocking Blood Elf Faelar at every step. Discover exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire
"And what's a one-ard warrior like you gonna do?!" Boarfolk Boarion tried to charge, but was intercepted by Gareth. With a ghostly dragon shimring behind her, Gareth drove him back.
In the blink of an eye, all nine Legendary-level fighters in the sky were tangled in a chaotic free-for-all.
Blood Elf Elanor was every bit as formidable as they said; that upper-Legendary-level aura ca from real substance.
She unleashed her full power, blanketing herself with a haze of blood-red energy—a transcendent power of the blood elent.
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