Chapter 223: The Last Struggle, Overcoming The Monstrous Boss!

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"GRAAAAHHHHHH!"

Even with its jaws half broken, both eyes completely missing, one arm shattered, and its body covered in hundreds of deep, bleeding wounds, the Kobold King refused to fall. It released its full Dragon Fear Skill and combined it with overwhelming Draconic Pressure. An immense surge of invisible magical force slammed into Riven and Vladimir at the same time, hurling them backward and crashing them hard against the far walls of the cavern. Both men groaned in agony as a crushing weight equal to thousands of tons began pressing down on their bodies, trying to flatten them mercilessly against the stone.

"GRRRR...! GRAAAHHH...!"

The Kobold King took a heavy, limping step forward. Its massive axe returned to its remaining hand as if called by pure will. The beast began pouring every last drop of its remaining draconic power into the weapon, even feeding the flames of its own life force into the blade. The axe responded instantly, growing larger and larger until it became a truly gigantic weapon of pure destruction.

"S-Shit...!" Vladimir coughed up blood, his body trembling under the crushing pressure. "Fuck, Riven...! This pressure...!"

"Vladimir, when it attacks, it’ll be exposed," Riven spoke calmly through the pain, surprising Vladimir, who had already assumed Riven was completely finished.

"W-Wha...?! What?!" Vladimir asked in disbelief, barely able to keep his head from being forced into the wall.

"Trust me, and wield the sword I lend to you," Riven said, his voice steady even while the pressure threatened to break every bone in his body.

Trust him?

The damn bastard who had killed him once before?

The same man who had forced him into this entire nightmare to begin with?

He actually wanted Vladimir to trust him right now?

Was he completely insane?

Of course Vladimir could not truly trust him. Of course the burning hatred in his heart had not disappeared even for a second.

But right now, what other choice did he have left? What else could he do except place his life in the hands of this son of a bitch one more time?

"FINE! JUST MAKE SURE I DON’T DIE AGAIN!"

Riven gave a short nod as the pressure intensified even further. The Kobold King’s aura exploded outward, forming a blazing mane of pure draconic fire that surged from the top of its head all the way down to the tip of its long, thrashing tail.

And then the beast swung.

It brought the massive axe around in a horizontal arc. An endless wave of fiery destruction erupted from the blade, tearing through everything in its path. The flames formed a gigantic pressure wave that warped the very ambient mana of the cavern, twisting the air itself.

TRUUUM...!

RUMBLE!

CRAAASH!

The attack landed with catastrophic force. Entire sections of the walls collapsed. A massive explosion of flames followed, and huge boulders began raining down from the ceiling in every direction, turning the cavern into a scene of pure chaos and destruction.

But when the smoke and dust began to clear, the Kobold King realized something was wrong.

They were no longer there.

"?!"

In that exact second, Vladimir appeared on the left side of the Kobold King. Because the monster was completely blind and relied only on its Mana Senses to "see" the world, it reacted a full second too late to stop him.

Vladimir was so weakened from the long battle that his body had already returned to its human form. Yet his legs and arms still retained mild werewolf traits, giving him just enough remaining strength and agility for one final, decisive attack.

In both hands he gripped a massive black sword that Riven had materialized out of pure shadows. The blade overflowed with Spiritual Power, Psychic Energy, and dense Soul Essence, all mixing together into a brilliant, all-powerful rainbow flame that burned with deadly intensity.

"DIE!!!"

The sword spun like a high-speed drill and drove straight into the Kobold King’s empty eye sockets. It pierced through the thick bone with ease and reached deep into the brain before the monster could even begin to defend itself.

"G-GRAAAAACK!!!"

The Kobold King let out an agonizing, earth-shaking scream. Its remaining claws shot out and tore Vladimir’s entire arm clean off in a single brutal motion. Blood sprayed across the cavern floor in thick arcs, yet the wounded man only smiled with pure vicious satisfaction.

"HAHAHAHA! I WON’T STOP! NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU CUT ME INTO PIECES!!!"

Vladimir laughed madly as flames, poison, and living shadows flooded into the Kobold King’s brain through the sword. The mixture melted the organ into liquid soup within seconds. The monster’s entire skull inflated grotesquely before exploding outward at the same moment its final agonizing screams echoed through the cavern one last time.

"GRYYAAAAAEERRGUUUHHHHHH...!"

BOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!

The massive explosion that followed tore away over half of the Kobold King’s torso and forced its enormous body to collapse heavily onto the ground. Guts, flames, and rivers of blood covered the entire floor while Vladimir himself collapsed beside the corpse, gasping desperately for air. He stared at the scene in pure disbelief, coughing uncontrollably, barely able to accept what he had just accomplished.

"Haaa... fuck... oh fuck..." he coughed again while looking down at the bleeding stump where his arm used to be. "Hahaha... I lost a fucking arm because of you, Riven Claymore...! You son of a bitch!"

The black sword still embedded in the Kobold King’s remains quickly returned to the faint humanoid form of Shadow Riven. The shadow construct immediately grabbed Vladimir’s severed arm and tried to press it back against the stump.

"I can use my poisons to force a faster regeneration," Riven said. "Just—"

"No. I don’t want that weak arm...!" Vladimir’s eyes locked onto the powerful, muscular arm of the fallen Kobold King that still lay nearby. "Give me that..."

"What?!" Riven stared at him in shock. "You’re insane. You’ll die if the body cannot—"

"I need power..." Vladimir howled, completely wild, showing his sharp teeth in a mixture of anger and madness. "I need to take revenge on your fucking brother. You’re not the only one who has a score to settle, RIVEN CLAYMORE! That son of a bitch brainwashed my comrades and turned them against me! I WANT HIM DEAD! GIVE IT TO ME! NOW!"

"..." Riven was silent for a long moment, then slowly shook his head and smiled. "Fine. Why the hell not?"

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