CHAPTER 962: LET’S FUCKING GO

Sever approached Orion and presented a token, the symbol of his station in the Blade Hall.

Orion took the token, examined it briefly, and handed it back.

"Rest and prepare. In three days, you march with me," Orion said, looking Sever over. He was pleased with this new assistant, an arch lord in his own right. "Do you require anything? I’ll do my best to provide it."

"Sever is ready, my lord. Awaiting your command."

Orion knew Sever’s arrival was a clear sign of Alexander’s support. He must have been delayed by other matters before, but now that the grand counter-attack was on, Alexander was dispatching his heavy hitters to help.

"Let’s fucking go!" Kraken bellowed, completely losing his shit with excitement. "This time, I’m going to devour a dragon whole! I’ll suck every last drop of blood from its body!"

Half his tentacles writhed wildly in the air while the other half thrashed the water in his tank, sending splashes everywhere.

He had been so damn cornered in that last battle. Trapped in the hurricane with no escape, nearly surrounded and killed. He had to unleash the pent-up rage, the hatred, the sheer terror of that moment.

"Get ready," Orion announced to all of them. "This war isn’t over just because the Champions Alliance says so."

Titanion Realm, the Rakala Plains.

On the vast plains, the disciplined square formations of the human army marched relentlessly toward the front. In the sky, knights in silver armor mounted on massive griffins rained javelins down upon the earth.

Their rhythm was only broken when a swarm of bat-like flying puppets rose from the ranks of the Northern Coalition.

"Enemy air power!"

"Form up! Engage!"

The well-trained griffin knights immediately adjusted their formations, charging in an orderly fashion toward the flying puppets. Higher still, dragons burst from the cloud cover, diving toward the ever-growing swarm of constructs.

The flying puppet armies were a gift from the clown Ogu to Torin. The Northern Coalition had plenty of ground troops but lacked an air force. The arrival of the puppet armies filled that gap, and it was one of the main reasons Torin and the others dared to meet the southern Five-Race Alliance head-on.

Draconic roars and bestial howls echoed across the land. Dragons soared through the sky, their wings blotting out the sun as if to devour the entire battlefield. The draconic pressure was immense; a portion of the beast-kin in the Northern Coalition’s army lost their will to fight, collapsing to the ground in terror.

The earth itself began to tremble. Fissures split open across the battlefield, and from these newly formed tunnels, a tide of countless cave spiders surged from the depths. With their greenish-black carapaces and glowing scarlet eyes, the spiders threw themselves into the fight, immediately relieving the pressure on the human kingdom’s armies.

"My children!" Lorelia’s high-pitched shriek cut through the din. "Bare your fangs! Unsheathe your claws! For our territory, for our master, for ME! Fear nothing! Tear apart every enemy before you!"

Then, turning her attention to her allies, she cried out, "Warriors of the Alliance! For freedom and glory! For the cities and families behind you! Even if you die, you will drag your enemies down with you here!"

Lorelia brandished the rapier she’d wheedled out of Delilah. Giving a grand, morale-boosting speech was something she’d wanted to try for ages. When she was very, very small, she had watched from the city walls as Orion rallied the people against the dark creatures. That electrifying moment had been burned into her memory. Now, she was finally having her own go at it. She didn’t have any wide-area buffing skills, but she felt pretty badass doing it.

Delilah let out a weary sigh and physically pulled Lorelia back before she could start another round of screeching.

"Be careful. We’re in the center of the battlefield now. An enemy lord could attack at any moment."

"Oh. Okay." Lorelia always listened to Delilah.

"Just focus on commanding your spiders. We’ll protect you."

Lorelia nodded and submerged her consciousness in the Dreamscape, unleashing a slaughter upon the Northern Coalition.

In the distance, behind the human kingdom’s main force, a line of elven archers appeared. They drew their bows in unison, and waves of bolts rained down on the northern armies. The battlefield was a merciless meat grinder, harvesting the lives of any who dared enter.

High above the bloody chaos, the lords of the opposing factions faced each other in two distinct groups.

Leading the Five-Race Alliance was King Harold of the human kingdom. Behind him stood several great nobles from his kingdom, as well as lord-level powerhouses from the dragons, the blood elves, and the stoneheart horde.

"You fiends!" one of the human nobles roared. "Your vile desecration of the bodies of our nobles must be punished!"

"We are merely recycling resources," a voice replied coolly. It came from the puppet of Grand Duke William. "You should be in awe of such a miraculous technique. This form, you see, is a representation of eternity. If you beg me, perhaps I will allow you to be preserved in this state forever... Hehehe..."

Torin stood beside the puppet Grand Duke. "Enough talk," he snarled. "Let’s just kill them all. Once they’re dead, not just the human kingdom, but the blood elf territories will be ours as well."

His eyes were locked on King Harold, burning with a fervent, murderous desire.

That’s the man, Torin thought, a flood of bitter memories rushing back. He’s the one who confiscated my entire fortune when I fled my earldom. The first man in this world to ruin me, to leave me with nothing.

His contempt for Harold’s rule was absolute. Under him, the nobles of the kingdom had become vampires, sucking the life from the common people. The entire system was rotten from the inside out.

"You, the traitor to humanity!" an earl shouted, pointing a finger at Torin. It was one of the esteemed patrons he had once tried to bribe. "What right do you have to speak to His Majesty the King?"

"No right?" Torin spat back, his voice thick with venom. "If he hadn’t stolen everything I owned, would I have been subjected to your ridicule in the capital?"

"If it weren’t for you insatiable, greedy, useless parasites, would I have been sidelined in Soaring Bird City?"

"Everything I have become is because of you! You forced my hand! All of you!"