All Chapters of The Tyrant Of The Red Throne: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
47 chapters
CHAPTER 21 The Bait and the Butcher
The five elite Beastman hunters were supposed to be the ultimate trap. They were supposed to slaughter the four starving humans in the dark and leave their bodies to rot under the swinging corpses. Instead, they were completely wiped out in less than three minutes. The muddy grove was dead silent, save for the heavy sound of breathing. The bodies of the five hunters lay scattered across the wet dirt, torn apart by a terrifying combination of blunt force trauma and razor-sharp blood spikes. Ivan sat heavily on the chest of a dead Beastman, wiping a mixture of freezing rain and sweat from his pale face. He leaned on his wooden crutch, staring at the sheer carnage around them. "Well," Ivan panted, a dark, cynical smile creeping across his lips. "That was a highly educational three minutes. Note to self, do not try to ambush the guy with the demon arm, and definitely do not jump the guy who sweats literal magic knives."Henry st
CHAPTER 22 The Cripple's Diversion
The absolute silence that followed Ivan's insult was heavy enough to crush a man's skull. The dozens of elite Beastman warriors standing behind the spiked black iron shields completely froze. Their yellow eyes widened in pure, unadulterated shock. In all their years of raiding, slaughtering, and enslaving the lower races across Aethelgard, they had never seen a human act like this. Humans begged. Humans cried. Humans ran. Humans definitely did not stand on a rotting leg, lean on a wooden stick, and ask a Commander if his mother slept with a wild pig. Commander Boros stared down the muddy road. The massive Beastman did not roar in anger. He did not immediately charge. He simply narrowed his glowing yellow eyes, analyzing the pathetic, dripping wet creature standing in the gray fog. "A crippled rat," Boros grumbled, his voice vibrating like a localized earthquake. "This piece of garbage is what halted my entire caravan?"Kraal
CHAPTER 23 The Rational Sniper
Faried sat perfectly still high in the branches of the towering dead oak tree. The freezing fog clung to his soaked clothes, but his breathing was incredibly slow and controlled. He looked down through the gray mist. He saw Kraal sprinting blindly through the woods, only to be completely blocked by Roy. Faried knew he did not need to worry about the terrified lieutenant. Roy was the apex predator now. Roy would butcher Kraal.Faried shifted his sharp, calculating gaze away from the woods and looked straight back at the muddy main road. Commander Boros was still standing behind the massive wall of spiked black iron shields. The giant Beastman was listening to the absolute silence of the forest. Boros was a veteran. He knew what silence meant in a combat zone. It meant his men were dead."Kraal is not coming back," Boros growled, his deep voice carrying clearly through the damp air. The giant Commander raised his massive spiked war hammer, pointing it direct
CHAPTER 24 Brute Force and Shattered Bones
LThe freezing mist swirled around Henry's boots as he stepped out of the dark tree line. He walked directly onto the bloody, muddy road, planting his feet squarely between the broken slaver vanguard and his wounded friends. Commander Boros let out a deep, rumbling laugh. The sound vibrated heavily through the damp air, filled with pure, arrogant, absolute confidence. The giant Beastman looked down at the human standing in front of him. Henry was massive by human standards, standing well over six feet tall, but next to the Beastman Commander, he still looked like a child. Boros rolled his massive, heavily muscled shoulders. He dragged his giant, spiked iron war hammer through the mud, creating a deep trench. "A human," Boros mocked, his yellow eyes burning with sadistic amusement. "A giant, stupid piece of meat actually thinks he can challenge me to a duel. Did you hit your head on a rock, boy? I am going to crush every single bone in your body,
CHAPTER 25 The Price of a Memory
The heavy iron war hammer slipped from the Beastman Commander's hands. It hit the freezing mud with a dull, heavy thud, missing Henry's broken ribs by a single inch. Boros stood completely paralyzed in the dense fog. He looked down slowly. The thick, perfectly solid spike of pitch-black blood was protruding directly from the center of his massive chest. The dark spike was connected to a long, glowing crimson tether that stretched all the way back into the gray mist, anchoring firmly into Roy's left hand. The elite Beastman guards standing near the slaver wagons completely froze. Their yellow eyes widened in pure, unadulterated horror. They had just watched their invincible Commander, the apex predator of the northern sector, get skewered like a piece of cheap meat. "Get away from him," Roy Jecoriah whispered. His voice was not loud, but the chilling, hollow echo sliced through the damp forest air with terrifying clarity. For a few seconds, the only sound in the muddy clearing was
CHAPTER 26 The Brutal Execution
The freezing mist clung to the bloody mud, completely still. Commander Boros knelt on the ruined road, his massive body crucified from the inside out by jagged, pitch-black branches of crystallized blood. He stared up at Roy Jecoriah. The giant Beastman tried to speak, tried to force one last arrogant curse from his lungs, but the blood filling his throat completely drowned his words. Roy stood perfectly still. His pale hand was aimed directly at the Commander's broad forehead. "Your debt is due," Roy whispered, his voice completely devoid of any natural human emotion. Roy slowly closed his fingers into a tight fist. The dark, crystallized blood buried deep inside Boros's chest violently surged upward. It did not expand outward this time. It shot straight up through the Commander's thick neck, brutally shredding his vocal cords into useless ribbons of meat. Boros did not even have the time to scream. The solid black spikes erupted directly out of the monster's glowing yellow ey
CHAPTER 27 The Caravan of the Damned
Faried left Roy standing in the freezing rain. The rational youth grabbed the back of Ivan's dirty tunic, physically dragging the crippled boy away from the pleading voices of the chained slaves. "Keep your eyes forward, Ivan," Faried ordered sharply, pulling him toward the massive, iron-reinforced supply wagon parked at the very front of the convoy. "Do not look at them. Do not listen to them. We have a dying giant bleeding out in the mud, and he is our only priority right now."Ivan limped heavily on his wooden crutch, but he could not stop looking over his shoulder. The hundreds of human prisoners locked inside the rolling iron cages were a horrific sight. They were completely stripped of their dignity, their bodies covered in dark purple bruises and deep, infected whip marks. They were packed together so tightly that the sick and the dying simply laid on top of one another. The stench of human waste and rotting flesh coming from the cages was almost worse than the dead mutant de
CHAPTER 28 The Moral Dilemma
The freezing rain poured relentlessly over the muddy road, washing the thick black blood from Roy Jecoriah's bare feet. Roy stood perfectly still, his pale left hand resting gently against the massive, rusted iron padlock that secured the main slaver cage. Inside the dark, rolling prison, hundreds of starving, beaten human beings held their breath. Their hollow, desperate eyes were completely locked onto the young Tyrant. "Do not do it, Roy!" Faried screamed from the mud just a few yards away. Faried was still using his entire body weight to pin Ivan to the ground, but his rational eyes were glaring fiercely at Roy. Faried ignored the burning pain in his torn leg, desperately trying to force his cold logic through the heavy, emotional tension. "Look at the math, Roy!" Faried yelled, his voice cracking over the sound of the storm. "We have one medical chest. We have two crates of dried meat. We have exactly enough clean water to keep four people alive for two weeks. If you open tha
CHAPTER 29 The Giant's Moral Compass
The pristine white crystal cracked violently in Roy Jecoriah's pale hand. The elegant, arrogant Elven voice on the other end barely had time to register the absolute threat before Roy completely crushed the magical artifact. The blinding holy light died instantly in the damp air, leaving only a handful of useless white dust slipping through Roy's cold fingers. "Drive," Roy commanded, his glowing crimson eyes locking onto Faried. Faried did not need to be told twice. The rational youth snapped the thick leather reins aggressively. The giant, mutated rhino-bear beast snorted loudly, leaning its massive weight forward. The heavy wooden wheels of the supply wagon groaned against the mud, and the iron carriage slowly rolled forward, plunging deep into the dark, freezing fog of the southern route. Inside the dry, enclosed cabin of the wagon, the atmosphere was incredibly heavy. A single green magical lantern swayed from the wooden ceiling, casting long, eerie shadows across the stacked
CHAPTER 30 The Foundation of the Dead
Faried pulled the thick leather reins hard to the left.The massive, mutated rhino-bear snorted aggressively, protesting the suddenchange in direction. The heavy beast dug its thick claws into the freezing mudand slowly turned its massive body toward the dark, jagged peaks of the easternmountain range. The giant wooden wheels of the supply wagon groaned loudly asthey left the soft mud of the main road, crunching violently over sharp, jaggedrocks.Inside the dry cabin, Ivan gripped the wooden crates tightly just to keephimself from bouncing across the floorboards."Building a kingdom, Roy?" Ivan asked, laughing a dry, hacking laugh that echoedover the rattling of the wagon. "I am permanently missing a leg. Henry ismissing half his ribcage. Faried is missing a human soul. And your right armlooks like a burst sausage. We are not exactly prime construction material."Roy Jecoriah sat perfectly still in the swaying shadows. The glowing crimsonrings in his eyes had dimmed to a fai