All Chapters of The Tyrant Of The Red Throne: Chapter 11
- Chapter 20
47 chapters
CHAPTER 11 The Price of Vengeance
The steam pressure building beneath Gharok's muscles reached its absolute boiling point. The eight-foot-tall monster thrashed around like a fish tossed onto dry land, right up until his main arteries could no longer withstand the temperature of the blood being boiled alive inside him.BOOM!Gharok's body exploded.It was not a fiery explosion, but a deeply sickening biological one. Bone fragments, shreds of cooked internal organs, and gallons of black blood sprayed in every direction like a storm of shrapnel.That rain of boiled flesh and thick liquid drenched the forest, soaking Roy's face, coating Henry's armor, and splashing onto Ivan and Faried. The stench of sulfur, mixed with the metallic tang of blood and cooked meat, instantly choked the air, enough to make the stomach of anyone with an ounce of sanity churn violently.The thousands of blood droplets that had been orbiting Roy suddenly lost their magical power. The crimson beads dropped simultaneously into the muddy puddles wi
CHAPTER 12: Carrying the Crippled Burden
Rain began to fall, fat drops of freezing water hitting the bloody mud of the forest floor. Ivan sat heavily against the base of a massive pine tree, his breathing jagged and shallow. He stared down at his own right leg. The skin was completely torn open, but underneath the horrific gash, thick, blackish-red veins made of Roy's blood acted like twisted iron wires. They tightly bound his shattered shinbone together, locking the bone fragments in place with a sickening rigidity. He ripped the bottom half of his dirty, rain-soaked tunic. With shaking hands, he wrapped the ragged fabric tightly around the grotesque wound to keep the dirt out. "Fuck," Ivan hissed through gritted teeth, his face turning pale from the sheer agony. "It really does feel like a rusty bear trap is permanently clamped to my bone." A few feet away, Henry was still on his knees next to Roy's unconscious body. The giant man was weeping silently, his broad shoulders shaking under the heavy downpour. "Get up, Hen
CHAPTER 13 Hiding the Remains of Humanity
The glowing green flames of the Beast Men hunting territory were a terrifying memory from two nights ago. Faried had forced them to crawl through a narrow, jagged ravine filled with freezing mud just to bypass the deadly perimeter. Now, on the fourth day of their miserable escape, they were completely trapped inside a suffocating, damp cave hidden behind a waterfall of weeping vines.The air inside the narrow crevice smelled like wet dirt, stale sweat, and rotting blood.Ivan sat propped against the jagged rock wall. He held a dead, hard-shelled forest beetle between his dirty fingers. He stared at the insect for a few seconds before tossing it straight into his mouth. He chewed loudly. The sickening crunch of the beetle's shell echoed in the cramped space."Tastes like crunchy dirt," Ivan muttered, swallowing hard and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Hey, Henry. There are plenty of these little bastards crawling near the entrance. Eat one. It is a premium Aethelgard steak
CHAPTER 14 The Bloody Cave Defense
CHAPTER 14 The Bloody Cave DefenseThe massive, thick-furred hand covered in filthy claws tore through the vines at the cave entrance. The wet green leaves shattered instantly, revealing the face of a Beastman scout with a drool-covered snout and glowing yellow eyes burning with hunger.Faried's breath caught in his throat. The rational youth tried to force himself to stand, but the brutal gash on his left thigh instantly spilled more hot blood onto the stone floor. His leg lost all strength, and he collapsed face-first back into the muddy dirt."They found us!" Ivan screamed in a panic, his shrill voice shattering the tension of the cave. The crippled young man crawled backward frantically, his hands blindly grasping at the dark dirt floor. "Faried, the knife! Give me your knife!""The knife is stuck in the neck of the corpse out there, damn it!" Faried yelled back, panting heavily. He pressed his bare hands tightly against his wound. "Use whatever is around you, Ivan!"Amidst the sh
CHAPTER 15 The Rise of the Lord from the Crimson Throne
The massive, heavily armored body of the Beastman commander slid off Ivan. The dead monster crashed against the cave floor, leaving a thick, disgusting trail of black blood smeared across the dirt.Ivan pushed himself out from under the heavy corpse, gasping violently for air. His entire body was shaking uncontrollably. He wiped the monster's blood from his eyes and looked past the dead commander, staring wide-eyed into the pitch-black depths of the cave.The glowing crimson eyes in the darkness did not blink.Footsteps echoed. Slow, deliberate, bare feet stepping onto the freezing stone.Step. Step. Step.The sound was not loud, but it carried an unnatural weight that made the air in the narrow cavern feel impossibly heavy. It was a suffocating pressure. It was the exact kind of primal, paralyzing terror a prey animal feels when a true apex predator enters the room.Roy Jecoriah walked out of the shadows.Ivan felt the breath complet
CHAPTER 16 The Dark End of the Food Chain
One full week had passed since they stumbled out of the bloody cave.The grand declaration of becoming apex predators had violently crashed into the harsh, unforgiving reality of Aethelgard. They were not hunting anyone. They were simply trying not to die from starvation.The agonizing sound of chattering teeth echoed under the massive, rotting roots of an ancient pine tree.Light rain was falling from the dark canopy above, but it was not normal water. It was a mild acid rain, a very common and deadly weather anomaly in the cursed forest. The toxic droplets stung their pale skin and slowly ate away at the edges of their dirty leather cloaks. They were forced to huddle tightly together in the freezing mud, hiding beneath the giant wooden roots just to survive the downpour.Henry was trembling the hardest.The giant youth had miraculously survived a rusted spear to the shoulder, but his massive physical frame came with a dea
CHAPTER 17 Maggot Soup and the Cripple's Laughter
Henry dropped heavily to his hands and knees. He vomited violently into the freezing mud. There was absolutely nothing left in his stomach to throw up, so the giant youth just gagged on thick, bitter yellow bile. He coughed, his massive chest heaving as tears of pure physical revulsion streamed down his pale face. The stench radiating from the mutant deer carcass was like a physical blow to the head. It smelled of rotting eggs, wet decay, and stagnant swamp water."I cannot do it," Henry choked out, wiping his mouth with a trembling, dirty hand. "Faried, look at it. The meat is literally gray. It is crawling with white maggots. That is not food. That is pure poison."Faried did not flinch. The rational youth knelt in the mud right next to the rotting carcass. His blistered, acid-burned skin made him look like a walking corpse himself, but his eyes remained entirely cold and calculating."Maggots are pure protein, Henry," Faried stated flatly. He used his dull hu
CHAPTER 18 The Curse of the Torn Blood Vessels
The massive shadows rolling through the freezing acid rain were completely terrifying.Peering through the narrow gaps of the rotting tree roots, Faried watched the horrifying procession move through the dense fog. It was not a simple hunting patrol. It was a massive, heavily armored slaver caravan.Giant wooden wagons reinforced with spiked black iron were being pulled by mutated, four-legged beasts that looked like a grotesque mixture of bears and rhinos. Walking alongside the wagons were dozens of Beastman warriors holding blazing green torches and thick leather whips.But the most sickening part was the sound.Beneath the heavy clanking of iron chains, a low, collective whimper echoed through the damp forest. Hundreds of human prisoners, stripped down to filthy rags and chained together by their necks, were being forced to march through the freezing toxic mud."Slavers," Ivan whispered from the back of the root cavern. His hands were gripping h
CHAPTER 19 Symphony of the Wind and Swinging Corpses
The heavy acid rain finally ceased. It left behind a thick, freezing fog that clung to the damp forest floor like a ghostly blanket. The four survivors walked slowly through the deep, muddy trenches left by the massive wooden wheels of the slaver caravan. Henry was supporting Ivan. Faried kept his dull knife ready. Roy walked at the very front. His right arm was tightly wrapped in a dirty, blood-soaked rag, completely useless and throbbing with a dull, burning ache. But his glowing crimson eyes were locked straight ahead. He was no longer following the physical tracks in the mud. He was following the violent, magnetic pull echoing deep inside his own heart. "How far ahead do you think they are?" Ivan asked, leaning heavily on his wooden crutch. His breathing was terribly ragged. "At least an hour," Faried answered quietly. "But we are not trying to catch them, Ivan. We are just using the path they cleared. Stay alert. Slaver caravans usually leave rearguards to trap anyone stupid e
CHAPTER 20 The View of the Tax Collector
The heavy wooden wheels of the massive slaver wagon groaned violently against the muddy earth. Boros sat at the very front of the iron-reinforced carriage, his massive body draped in thick, gray fur and heavy steel plates. He was a Beastman Commander of the northern sector, a veteran of countless brutal raids. His face was a crisscross of jagged, ugly scars, proving his absolute dominance over the lower predators of Aethelgard. But right now, the mighty Commander did not feel like a predator. He felt like a desperate, trapped animal. Boros held a small, perfectly smooth, pristine white crystal in the palm of his giant claw. It was an Elven artifact. The magical stone glowed with an arrogant, holy light that completely contrasted with the filthy, rotting swamp around him. Deep inside the glowing crystal, a magical numerical tally hovered in the air. Four hundred and eighty-six.Boros ground his razor-sharp fangs together so hard his jaw popped. He needed five hundred. "Commander