Echoes of the Abyssal Blade: Path to Free Will-Chapter 46: Last Ditch Effort

Facing the final onslaught of the Ancestors of the bestial tribe, the abomination simply grinned, "Well, everything turned out for the better, and here I thought where I would get high-quality sacrifices, aren’t you all just perfectly serving yourself to me on a platter hahaha."

Valha shrieked, "Shut up you insolent being, just because you were fortunate enough to be born as an abomination doesn’t mean you can lord over us, our descendant’s sacrifices won’t be in vain, and I will make sure of it."

Others didn’t say anything, but they agreed with her words and were ready to attack it head-on.

The abomination simply grinned and furiously charged at them, using its tail as a weapon, it attacked Valha who was attacking him from mid-air, and embraced for impact from the Thunderboar’s ancestor, grasping on its tusk. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

At the same time, Rogarn furiously attacked with its massive trunk at the abomination’s head.

Holding down the charging Thunderboar’s ancestor was being a challenge for it, as well as its tail was being used to attack Valha in the meantime, it could only use its new soul attack, with a screech, it widely opened its jaws, and roared at Rogarn.

Feeling its soul being shaken like a drum, it started to feel extreme pain, but with a gong, the pain subsided, and Rogarn gained clarity in its eyes, from the corner of its eyes, it could see the ancestor of the spectral horn tribes effort in saving him.

Regaining its composure, it attacked with its massive trunk again, feeling threatened by their continuous attacks, the abomination could only slide past the Thunderboar, and with its tail just sending enough force to make Valha retreat.

Yet Valha didn’t retreat, despite being pierced by the tail from the side, and her blood sprayed in all directions across the ground, painting broken trees and the cracked stones beneath it, in return Valha roared as her claws shone with pale moonlight, and she raked across the abomination’s scaled chest, tearing open wounds that smoked and hissed, she darted upward, retreating and heaving.

Below, Rogarn and the Thunderboar ancestor charged again, tusks and trunk crashing into the abomination’s lower body like battering rams, the abomination stumbled for a heartbeat, and for that heartbeat, the ancestors saw a sliver of hope, they kept on pressing the attack on it.

"DRIVE IT BACK!" bellowed Rogarn, his eyes were blood red, his body beginning to flicker, "NOW!"

Thunderboar grunted as he slammed into the abomination’s thigh, the Thunderboar’s tusks infused with lightning cracked the abomination’s hide, drawing thick, pitch-colored ichor that hissed as it hit the ground, he reared up, aiming to attack again until the abomination spun with impossible speed.

Right at that moment two arms lashed outward, moving independently, one wrapped around Thunderboar’s neck and piercing its neck, the other arm coiled around Rogarn’s trunk and yanked it ruthlessly.

The abomination laughed, loud and shrill, like rusted iron grinding against bone. "You come at me with the last of your strength, and still it is nothing!"

A thundering crack split the air as Rogarn was hurled sideways, crashing into a jagged obsidian spike rising from the battlefield, he coughed up a spray of spectral blood but pushed himself up, as its muscles were shaking, the earth around him cracked, answering his will.

Behind him, the ancestor of the Nightfur tribe rose from the dirt, her lower body shaking, her spirit barely holding form, still, she raised her hands and summoned vines of burning green energy, wrapping them around the abomination’s lower area to slow its movement.

Valha saw the chance and dove at it screaming, her claws glowing red-hot.

The abomination reacted too late, her talons ripped through the side of its neck, severing its dreadlock from the side, the abomination screeched and burst into black mist, its wails echoing across the terrain.

Valha landed hard, rolling to a stop, her chest heaving. "Now!" she gasped. "All at once!"

The Thunderboar’s ancestor who still stood, snorted, and with lightning speed, he attacked downward like a spear, its tusk now extended.

Rogarn returned to the front with a ground-quaking stomp, his broken arm hanging, his tusks smeared with black ichor.

All of them charged.

And all of them struck.

Valha drove her claws into the abomination’s back and tore downward.

Thunderboar lunged and tore a chunk of muscle from the creature’s serpentine tail, and with a shriek it jabbed its other tusk directly into the abomination’s eye, blinding it on one side.

Rogarn hit with the force of a landslide, its tusks driving deep into the abomination’s midsection.

And for the first time, the abomination screamed not in pleasure, but pain.

It staggered.

It bled.

It buckled.

And then it roared.

The abomination’s form twisted further, its serpentine lower body elongated with a piercing tail, wrapping around broken stones and corpses alike, its arms scaled over completely, and its mouth split at the cheeks, revealing triple-jointed jaws full of spiraling fangs.

"You thought that was enough?" it growled at them, its voice was now multi-toned like that of man, beast, and a serpent at the same time, "You will all suffer."

With a shriek, it unleashed a soul attack more vicious than any prior.

The sky cracked.

The trees burst into black flame.

Time itself seemed to hesitate.

The energy rippled out like a sonic hurricane, and the ancestors staggered as if struck by thunder, their spirits flickered with weakness, a sign that their strong state, which was reached by using a forbidden method was going to take its toll on them too.

Rogarn’s legs gave out, it crumpled.

The Thunderboar’s ancestor crashed, convulsing as spectral lightning crawled across its body, it fell to his knees, its tusks dragging in the dirt.

Valha limped forward, her claws worn out, with blood dripping from her mouth.

"Pathetic," it murmured.

Then it lunged.

Its massive, scaled fist struck Valha full in the chest, the blow audible like a mountain collapsing, she flew backward, slamming into the shattered trunk of a great tree, coughing blood.

The abomination turned on Rogarn.

Who was old, bleeding, and half-broken.

The abomination paused for a breath.

Then it smiled.

And struck.

Rogarn met the blow with its trunk against the abomination’s claw, their clash ruptured the ground in every direction.

The abomination lifted Rogarn into the air, impaled him on its scaled tail, and then slammed him down with such force that the ground beneath him crumbled into a crater.

Rogarn’s spirit cracked, light bled from his eyes, his limbs twitched once, and then he turned still.

The abomination stood tall, covered in blood, and radiant with terrible power.

Thunderboar lay on his side, one eye open, dull with exhaustion and sorrow.

Only Valha, broken and crawling, dragged herself forward.

She lifted her gaze, through one blood-caked eye.

"We were never meant to survive this," she whispered.

"But we at least made you bleed."

The abomination looked down at her, its eyes glowing like the void.

"You made it entertaining."

It raised its soul blade, now ten feet long, pulsing with twisted energy.

Valha spat blood at its feet.

"Then entertain this," she snarled and her body exploded in a final wave of defiance.

The blast engulfed the abomination, and for a second, the battlefield vanished in red.

When it cleared, the ground was glassed.

Valha was gone.

But the abomination still stood.

Its scales were scorched, Its face was marked, and Its body was bruised and cracked.

But its eyes burned brighter than ever.

One by one, the spirits of the ancestors flickered, their forms unraveling, their essence which was once vibrant, faded into motes and drifted skyward.

Only the abomination remained.

It looked to the sky.

Then, slowly, deliberately, it turned toward the distance—where the living yet watched from shadow.

The ritual was nearly complete.

And it was ready.

Ready to slay again.

Its scales were scorched, its face marked, its body bruised and cracked.

But its eyes burned brighter than ever.

One by one, the spirits flickered, their forms unraveling, their essence, once vibrant, faded into motes and drifted skyward.

It looked to the sky.

Then, slowly, deliberately, it turned toward the distance where the living yet watched from shadow.

The ritual was nearly complete.

And it was ready.

Ready to slay again.

But one more voice rang out, not defiance, but sorrow.

Thunderboar’s eye still shimmered with life. His broken frame trembled as he rose, barely, onto three limbs. His breath came as fog, heavy with soul and pain.

"Monster," he rasped. "You will... choke on us. On every drop you’ve taken. You will drown... in what you made us become."

The abomination stepped closer, its scaled tail slithering through bone and ash. "You should be honored. Yours was the blood that sang loudest."

Thunderboar bared what remained of his teeth. "Then let it scream one last time."

He bit into the ground.

A rumble answered.

The earth cracked.

The spirit of the Thunderboars, was faint, as it was fading, and yet they surged into him, into his tusk, into his voice.

With a final bellow that cracked the air like thunder, Thunderboar lunged.

The abomination didn’t flinch.

It caught the tusks mid-charge.

And snapped them.

The sound echoed like the fall of a mountain.

Then it plunged both the tusks into the Thunderboar’s chest and lifted him high, the massive beast kicked once, twice.

Then he was still.

The abomination tossed the body aside like garbage.

Now, only silence remained in the battleground.