The Tyrant Of The Red Throne

CHAPTER 7 The Commander's Vengeful Ambush

CRASH!

The absolutely sickening sound of flesh, bone, and muscle being violently torn apart all at the exact same time echoed through the dark pine forest.

The barbed razor wire born from Roy's blood expanded at an incredible speed, completely enveloping the mutant hound's body right as it hung suspended in the air. In a fraction of a second, the deadly net violently contracted with absolute, crushing force, completely slicing straight through every single layer of the monster's physical defenses.

The tracker hound didn't even get the chance to let out a single whimper. Its massive body was brutally sliced into dozens of bloody chunks of meat that rained down over the pile of dry leaves. An incredibly thick, suffocating metallic stench instantly exploded into the air, violently stinging their noses.

The other two tracker hounds that had just been preparing to vault at Henry slammed on the brakes instantly. Their primal animal instincts screamed in pure, absolute terror at the sight of their packmate being completely obliterated by nothing more than a dark red net. They let out panicked yelps and practically scrambled backward, pressing themselves tight against the legs of the massive Night-Stalker, which had also completely stopped moving, now watching Roy with a deeply cautious glare.

But that tiny victory was paid for in full with an absolutely near-fatal price.

The second the remaining tracker hounds backed off, the blood net hovering in the air completely lost its physical stability. The wire instantly shattered into a pale red powder and was completely swept away by the night wind.

Roy instantly collapsed to his knees, his violently impaled hand shaking uncontrollably.

"URGH!"

He violently coughed up a thick clump of blood. But it wasn't red blood at all, it was a thick, pitch-black liquid that smelled incredibly strongly of sulfur. The filthy liquid dripped onto the dirt, letting out a faint sizzle as it literally burned the moss right beneath it. Deep within his retinas, the system interface frantically blinked with an absolute, critical damage warning.

[Critical Warning! Physical Vessel is experiencing Mana Poisoning. Internal organs are beginning to undergo necrosis (cellular death). Immediately terminate the circulation of the Martyr's Blood Art!]

"Roy! Are you alright?!" Henry yelled, his face completely pale as he threw down his rotting wooden shield and bolted toward his best friend.

"Don't, worry about me, you idiot!" Roy gasped for air, his voice sounding incredibly hoarse and ragged, like his vocal cords were literally burning from the inside out. He violently clutched his chest, which currently felt like it was being stabbed by thousands of white-hot needles. "Get Ivan's leg out! We, we have to move right now!"

Faried, who had been completely silent this whole time, instantly sprang into action. He didn't waste a single second asking about Roy's condition. The ice-cold guy's absolute logic operated a hundred times faster when placed under the crushing pressure of imminent death.

"Henry, grab that thick pine branch right next to you! Use it as a pry bar!" Faried ordered rapidly, as he simultaneously jammed the thick base of his hunting dagger right into the gap of the steel plates clamped onto Ivan's leg.

"Bite down on the pain, Ivan! This is going to feel exactly like a literal saw!" Henry aggressively wedged the thick wooden branch right up under the iron jaws. Throwing his entire body weight and his absolute giant strength into it, Henry pushed down hard on the branch like a heavy lever.

Ivan bit down incredibly hard on the sleeve of his own cloak, his eyes practically bulging out of his skull. The veins in his neck popped out so far they looked like they were going to snap.

CRAAAAAACK! CLANK!

The rusted steel teeth finally, agonizingly ground open just a couple of inches, forcefully wedged apart by Faried's dagger.

"Pull your leg out! Do it now!" Faried screamed.

Using the absolute last shred of his sanity, Ivan violently yanked his leg straight out of the iron crocodile's mouth. The very second his foot was clear, Henry's wooden lever snapped completely in half, and the heavy trap slammed violently back shut with a deafening bang, instantly snapping Faried's dagger clean in two.

Ivan collapsed flat onto his back, his chest heaving wildly. His right leg didn't even look like a leg anymore. The flesh was horrifically torn apart, and sharp, jagged splinters of his shinbone were visibly jutting out from underneath the deeply blackened skin.

"Dammit," Ivan hissed, his breaths shaking violently. A thick layer of cold sweat completely soaked his entire face. But, completely true to his insane nature, the curly-haired guy actually forced himself to let out a weak, agonizing chuckle. "Congratulations, Faried, you've officially turned me into a damn pirate tonight. If you guys end up having to amputate my leg later, make sure you actually burn the stump. I refuse to let my leg get chewed on by some broke-ass dog."

"Shut your damn mouth and save whatever energy you have left, you absolute idiot," Faried literally ripped the bottom edge right off his own cloak, quickly wrapping the horrific wound incredibly tight to stop the heavy bleeding. "You are going to have a permanent limp. But you are still breathing. Henry, get him up on your back!"

"Come on, buddy. Grab onto my neck tight," Henry dropped to one knee, grabbing Ivan's arm and hauling the poor guy directly onto his broad back. Henry himself was already completely exhausted, his left arm was deeply torn, but he aggressively forced his muscles to push way past human biological limits.

"We, we can circle around using the waterfall path," Roy desperately tried to stand up, heavily leaning himself against a thick tree trunk. His vision was starting to heavily blur around the edges.

But, right before he could even take a single step, the massive Night-Stalker directly in front of them suddenly let out a high-pitched whimper of pure terror. The mutant hound, easily the size of a bear, instantly lowered its body flat to the ground, its ears violently pinning back, and it actively scrambled backward with its tail tucked tightly between its hind legs.

It wasn't backing away because it was suddenly afraid of Roy. The monster retreated because its primal instincts felt the absolute presence of something sitting much, much higher on the food chain tonight.

Instantly, the entire forest went totally dead silent. The crickets completely stopped chirping. The night wind completely stopped blowing.

BOOOOOM!

A massive, incredibly heavy shadow dropped straight down from a pine branch fifty feet in the air, violently smashing into the earth right exactly between Roy's group and their only escape route. The crushing impact of the landing carved out a small crater in the dirt, aggressively launching dust and sharp gravel in absolutely every direction.

The dust cloud slowly settled, completely revealing the silhouette of a massive, pitch-black Beast Man, easily standing eight feet tall. Thick steel armor heavily plated his chest and massive shoulders, coldly reflecting the pale light of the crescent moon. Tightly gripped in his right hand was a massive, double-bladed warhammer completely soaked in fresh blood.

Gharok. The Commander.

"It turns out these clever little rats really did bring a surprise," Gharok's raspy voice heavily rumbled, sounding incredibly casual yet violently radiating an absolute, suffocating aura of pure killing intent. His golden-yellow eyes locked dead onto the bloody pile of mutant hound meat. "Anomalous magic. And you're actually using it by completely sacrificing your own physical body? Fascinating."

Pure, absolute terror instantly gripped the small group of boys. The overwhelming aura radiating off Gharok was completely, entirely different from the low-level Beast Men they had run into earlier. This was a true, absolute apex predator.

"Run, Faried! Get Roy out of here!" Henry roared. Without stopping to think for even a single second, he gently lowered Ivan right behind a thick tree, then snatched up the heavy remaining half of his broken pine branch and charged completely blind straight at Gharok.

"Henry! NO!" Roy screamed, desperately trying to reach out and grab his best friend, but his legs were just too incredibly weak.

"Die, you monster bastard!" Henry swung the massive wooden branch with every ounce of his giant strength straight toward the side of Gharok's head.

Gharok didn't even bother trying to dodge. He simply let out a highly dismissive snort, and casually swung the back of his left hand out, swatting the incoming attack completely away with the back of his steel-plated gauntlet.

BAAAAM!

The heavy pine branch instantly shattered into a million splinters. Gharok's steel-plated backhand carried its momentum completely through, violently smashing directly into Henry's chest and shoulder with the absolute stopping power of a runaway freight train.

CRAAAAAACK!

The sickening crunch of breaking bones was incredibly loud and sharp. Henry's massive body was literally launched backward through the air for fifteen solid feet, violently slamming into the thick trunk of an oak tree before crashing face-first into the dirt, completely motionless. His left arm was now bent at an absolutely horrifying, highly unnatural angle.

"HENRY!" Ivan screamed from right behind his tree.

One single, entirely casual attack. Zero weapons used. Just a lazy backhand swing, and the absolute strongest shield in their entire group was completely broken in a matter of seconds.

Faried, even though his face was as pale as a literal corpse, actively refused to panic. He quietly slipped to the side, preparing to launch an absolute suicide attack straight into the blind spot of Gharok's armor. But Gharok was absolutely not a stupid, instinct-driven monster.

"I can hear your heartbeat slowing down, little human," Gharok mocked casually, not even bothering to turn his head. He forcefully stomped his heavy boot into the dirt. A violent shockwave literally ripped through the top layer of soil, instantly knocking Faried completely off balance. In the very next second, the cold steel of Gharok's massive axe was already pressed tight directly against Faried's throat. "Don't move a single muscle."

Now, Roy was the absolute only one left standing, his legs shaking violently. Thick black blood continued to drip steadily from his lips. He stared in pure horror at his completely broken best friends. The suffocating feeling of absolute, total helplessness wrapped tightly around his throat all over again.

'System, give me the power, do it again,' Roy whispered in total desperation.[Access Denied. The Physical Vessel is on the absolute verge of complete collapse.]

Gharok threw his head back and laughed loudly. He took a few slow, incredibly heavy steps right up to Roy. That massive, furry hand casually grabbed Roy directly by the throat, completely lifting the skinny boy high up into the air. Roy thrashed wildly, his legs kicking violently at completely empty space.

"You really are a pathetic little anomaly," Gharok whispered right into Roy's face. "Are you angry because I completely burned your village down? Do you hate the absolute fact that your entire race is nothing more than incredibly low-level prey?"

Gharok slowly tightened his crushing grip. "Your magic trick is definitely surprising, kid. But your rage isn't anywhere near ripe enough yet. You need much, much more, pure suffering."

The Commander let out a sharp, incredibly loud whistle. From the absolute darkness of the dense brush, two heavily armored Lycan soldiers stepped out. They were violently dragging a tiny, fragile figure whose neck was tightly chained to a heavy spiked collar.

Roy's eyes, which had been practically fluttering shut, suddenly snapped completely wide open. His heart literally stopped beating for a solid second. It was Elara. His little sister. She was actually still alive.

"R, Roy," Elara whimpered incredibly weakly.

Roy started thrashing even more insanely, his completely bloodshot eyes flashing with a deeply confusing mix of absolute relief and indescribable, pure horror. 'But, I heard the sound, the wet crunch of her bones snapping.'

Seeing the violently conflicted expression on Roy's face, Gharok burst out into genuine, incredibly loud laughter. A laugh absolutely overflowing with pure victory and incredibly pure cruelty.

"Oh, just look at that totally confused face of yours, little rat," Gharok whispered with a deeply mocking tone. "Did you really think that loud bone-snapping sound you heard back in your little cabin was me ripping her head completely off? You absolute idiot. That was just the sound of me purposefully crushing her shoulder."

Gharok violently tightened his grip, forcefully making Roy stare directly at Elara, who was currently whimpering in absolute agony because her tiny shoulder was completely shattered.

"Fresh young female meat is way too highly valuable to just be killed off so quickly," Gharok continued smoothly. "And that warm blood dripping right onto your face from the ruins? That was just a very small, personal gift from me. A little bit of bait, specifically designed to make sure your absolute despair ripened just enough to forcefully awaken whatever freakish magic is hiding inside your veins. Do you completely understand now? I didn't kill her. I simply borrowed her immense suffering to completely drag you out into the open."

That absolutely brutal reality slammed into Roy infinitely harder than Gharok's heavy axe ever could.

He hadn't misheard absolutely anything back in Chapter 1. He had just totally misinterpreted his own personal hell. Gharok had explicitly and purposefully tortured Elara, completely fabricating an absolutely fake death scene solely to aggressively manipulate his emotions.

The absolutely crushing relief that his sister was actually still alive was instantly, violently shattered by the horrifying reality that he now had to watch her go through a much slower, incredibly more agonizing torture.

"Now then," Gharok lifted Roy even higher into the air, his massive, terrifying smirk practically stretching all the way to his pointed ears. "Let's finally start the absolute main event. Let's see if your little magic trick can actually come out again, if I slowly, truly snap her little neck, right here, right in front of your very eyes.”