Sirius didn’t bother to stop, though it did growl fiercely. The black armoured orcs came after it and the moment they met, Sirius grew to 15 feet, ate one, crushed the other under its foot and spat flames at the others.
Just like that, these fearsome orcs were gone!
No one would have thought Sirius would be crazy enough to eat a being with abyss force coursing through its veins but to their shock and horror, it did!
Clank!
Sirius spat the armour, licking his muzzle right after.
Boom!
Asher looked up, his eyes dilating at the sight of a colossal icicle, its surface glinting like a thousand knives, plummeting from the white clouds.
With the size of a two storey building, Asher was certain that the icicle would break the ice beneath their feet, plunging them into the frosty lake.
Liya wasn’t far from him but killing her won’t change anything.
‘Sirius!’
He couldn’t let his men die like this!
Sirius, in his 15 foot form thundered across the snowy expanse, his paws pounding out a drumbeat as he hurtled toward the falling icicle.
‘Liya! The lives of my men will not end in the depths of this lake, not now, not ever!’
Standing on Sirius’ back, he entered his Volibear war state. As the hide covered him, his form enlarged, pristine white fur and thick locks grew out.
Golden rings dangled at the end of the locks that cascaded down to his bulging chest like hanging vines.
In the form of a mighty humanoid bear seemingly carved by God, for the sole purpose of battle, a low reverberating growl echoed in his throat.
He leaped off Sirius back, throwing a fierce punch that collided with the colossal icicle. The icicle burst into a million glittering fragments, erupting in a blizzard of ice shards that rained down on the snowy ground.
The impact sent shockwaves through the air, rocking the ground beneath their feet as the icicle exploded in a thunderous boom of cracking ice.
His arm hung limp and useless, the bone pulled out of his flesh, rendering his flesh mangled as blood splattered on the snowy ground littered with gleaming ice shards.
Asher stumbled backwards in shock.
At the distance, Liya crackled with glee, her eyes filled with scorn as she watched the man waver like a drunkard.
“He shattered an ancient-ranked spell with a punch!” An abyss mage gasped.
Liya kept laughing until Asher snapped his head toward her direction, his eyes ghastly white.
A cyclone from nowhere circled him, the ice shards flying about burst into water, left streaks as they pierced through hundreds of orcs!
His arm rapidly healed and he pulled out Ithamar. His white hair flew upward as his feet left the snow.
In a blur, he flew toward Liya while Ithamar’s force spread through his right arm, dying part of his hair and body crimson.
The sclera of his right eye became crimson while his pupils remained gold.
While speeding through the air in the cyclone, the phantom of a crimson giant also wielding the same sword but a larger version could be seen above him!
Liya’s laughter died on her lips, and with a whispered incarnation, she raised her palm, its delicate skin etched with frosty veins. From her outstretched hand, a hail of ice shards burst forth, a shimmering form of frozen splinters that sliced through the air.
Asher clenched his fist, his knuckles popping, and it ignited with an inner fire. It built up quickly and he threw a fiery blow, unleashing a torrent of flames that collided with the ice in a fierce combat of fire and ice.
The air was filled with the acrid smell of smoke and the sound of sizzling ice as he, in a sphere of wind burst through, hovering above Liya!
His white eyes blazed with unbridled fury. In the spur of the moment, he brought Ithamar crashing down but, just then ice shards, hexagonal in shape, built a see-through barrier that blocked the sword beam.
However, it left a long, deep gully on both sides of the dome.
All five abyss mages had their hands up. A glance and Asher knew they were the source of the barrier’s strength.
“Fools…” He uttered, his voice broken. “Even in all your wickedness…” This time, his voice though many in one carried a sense of nobility that the previous tone lacked.
It seemed like it was Ithamar trying to speak then.
“…Even in all your wickedness, you have a heartbeat.”
Just as he uttered that, the heartbeats of the five abyss mages ceased, their eyes widened. They clutched their chest but it was a fruitless attempt at their sealed fate.
At this moment, Liya’s face distorted beyond belief.
Before the mages fell, the blood of the orcs killed by their clash formed javelins which pierced through the mages, keeping their corpses standing!
Liya was about to chant when a circle of flames rose up around her. While Asher slowly descended, she laughed hysterically.
“I abandoned you, Asher! I abandoned you and that is why you’re doing all these?”
A cold, pitiful smirk graces Asher’s lips.
“We are not Asher.”
His words descended on her like an unexpected blow to the abdomen.
Before she could digest the shock, Sirius pounced on her, ripping and devouring her in less than a second.
Asher raised a brow as Sirius crushed the bones.
His white eyes died and he landed gently. While caressing Sirius’ muzzle, he sighted two birds hovering in the sky.
‘Uriah.’
He voiced inwardly.
Step. Step.
He heard footsteps, making him turn to Nero, Eleazar and Levi. The head of Uhtred was in the young BloodBlade’s hand.
They had killed an ancient-ranked abyss creature, one with the power of elements!
“The head of the orc general, My Lord.” Nero dropped to one knee, his armor creaking in protest as he bent his head in a deep, reverent bow. His voice was low and gravely as he spoke.
The faint scent of leather and metal wafted up from his heart as he knelt, and the soft clink of his swords against his leg seemed to echo through the silence.
“You have done well.”