Chapter 117: Chapter 117: Give Me that Hand!

[Author’s Note: The following Chapter contains scenes of extreme graphic violence and gore. Reader discretion is heavily advised.]

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Chapter 117: Give Me that Hand!

The Fire of Rage exploded. It did not just coat my armor. It became a physical and towering inferno that reached into the sky.

The sheer heat of my hatred melted the sand beneath my boots into glass.

Valerius recoiled from the heat. His psychic shields hissed as they tried to deflect my emotional radiation.

We threw ourselves at each other. The fight devolved into a brutal and breathless back and forth.

SWOOSH!

Valerius vanished from my direct line of sight. He reappeared behind me in a flash of purple light.

He swung his condensed psychic blade toward the back of my knees. I fired the thrusters built into my iron calves.

BOOM!

The sudden burst of kinetic propulsion launched me forward. His blade sliced through empty air and struck the stone floor. A deep trench was instantly carved into the arena base.

I spun around and unleashed a massive backhand strike with my Vanguard Arm. Valerius ducked completely under the brass limb.

The wind pressure from my swing shattered the magical barriers protecting the front row of spectators. The crowd screamed in terror and delight.

"You are too slow!" Valerius taunted. He pushed off the ground and launched himself at my face.

He unleashed a storm of thrusts. Purple light rained down upon me. I raised my arms to shield my glowing visor.

Sparks erupted as his blade scraped against my thick Ironclad plating. He was aiming for the tiny gaps in my defense. He wanted to sever the hydraulic lines powering my suit.

I roared and flared my crimson mana. A spherical shockwave of pure heat blasted outward.

Valerius was thrown backward through the air. He flipped gracefully and landed on his feet thirty yards away.

He did not even pause. He raised his left hand and sent three crescent arcs of psychic energy flying toward my chest.

I planted my boots firmly into the glass floor. I brought my fists together and braced for impact.

The psychic blades struck my armor with the force of a cannon volley. The sheer kinetic weight pushed me backward. My metal boots carved twin trenches into the molten glass.

"Is that all the power a fake King can muster?" Valerius laughed. His white suit was still immaculate. His confidence was soaring.

I did not waste breath on a reply. I triggered the primary thrusters on my back.

The explosion of force shattered the ground behind me. I became a crimson missile. I crossed the distance between us in a fraction of a second.

I threw a devastating right hook aimed directly at his jaw.

POW!

Valerius sidestepped at the exact moment my fist arrived. The punch connected with the arena wall behind him.

The entire Colosseum shook violently. A massive spiderweb of cracks spread across the ancient obsidian stones.

BOOM!

Before I could pull my arm back from the wall, Valerius stepped inside my guard. He drove the pommel of his glowing sword directly into my ribs.

SWISH!

The psychic impact bypassed the physical armor completely. A wave of agonizing pain echoed through my internal organs. I tasted copper in my mouth.

He followed up with a vicious upward slash aimed at my throat. I snapped my head back. The tip of his blade carved a deep groove into the chin plate of my helmet.

I retaliated by firing a point blank burst of flames from my chest vents. Valerius hissed in pain as the extreme heat singed his hair and burned his pristine collar. He retreated using a rapid series of backflips.

He was too agile. He was a master of evasion and mind magic. I was a brawler encased in a walking tank.

Every time I committed to a heavy strike, he punished my recovery window. He landed dozens of shallow cuts on my armor.

I used my sheer durability to weather his storms. I was waiting for the perfect moment to shatter his bones.

But I needed him closer. I needed him to think he was winning.

I let out a ragged and mechanical gasp. I allowed the flames around my body to flicker and dim.

I let my Vanguard Arm drop just an inch lower than it should have. I exposed the center of my chest plate. I staggered backward. I dragged my boots clumsily through the shattered glass and sand.

"You are done!" Valerius screamed. His eyes were wide with absolute manic victory.

He took the bait perfectly.

The Incubus Lord poured every single drop of his C Grade mana into his psychic blade. The purple light turned blinding white.

He crossed the distance in a heartbeat. He thrust the blade directly toward my heart.

I did not dodge. I simply twisted my torso a fraction of an inch to the left.

SHNK.

The blade pierced straight through the thick Ironclad plating. It tore through my flesh. It missed my heart by an absolute hair and exploded out of my back.

A collective gasp of horror erupted from the thousands of spectators in the stands. My pack surged forward in the royal box. Their faces were pale with terror.

Valerius smiled. His face was inches from my helmet. "I win."

I coughed up a mouthful of blood inside my visor.

"You should have gone for the head," I whispered.

Valerius lost his smile instantly.

Before he could pull the blade out of my chest, I dropped my weapons entirely.

I slammed both of my heavy armored hands down onto his shoulders. My grip was like a steel vise.

"No!" Valerius gasped. He tried to pull away.

He was completely trapped. By stabbing me, he had tethered himself directly to my absolute physical strength.

I lifted the Incubus Lord entirely off the ground. I roared loudly. I funneled all my pain and my rage and my C Grade power into my legs.

I slammed Valerius Thorne face first into the solid stone floor of the arena with catastrophic force.

KRA KOOM!

The impact cratered the colosseum floor. Valerius lost his psychic shields instantly. They shattered like cheap glass. He coughed up blood. His pristine white suit was entirely ruined.

I did not let him breathe. I immediately dropped down. I sat heavily on his chest and pinned his arms to his sides.

I was a towering armored nightmare mounted directly on top of him.

The Incubus Lord looked up at me. For the first time in his long pampered life, his eyes were filled with absolute primal terror. He was looking at the monster he had created.

"I lost my arm to you," I growled. The Fire of Rage melted the stone around us. "And so will you."

I grabbed his left arm with my heavy brass hands. I pinned the joint securely. I unlatched the heavy metal faceplate of my helmet.

I revealed my jagged monstrous Goblin teeth.

"Wait," Valerius begged. His voice was cracking violently. "Please. I yield. I yield!"

I did not care about the rules of the summit. I did not care about his surrender.

I lunged forward and sank my teeth directly into the junction of his shoulder and collarbone.

"No! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

I bit down with the absolute bite force of a Level 50 Apex predator.

My teeth tore through his fine silk suit and his skin and his muscle. They crunched directly into his bone.

I ripped my head backward. I took a massive sickening chunk of his shoulder with me.

Blood sprayed across the pristine arena floor.

"ARGHHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGGGGHHHHHHAAHHHHRH!!!!!"

Valerius Thorne screamed his heart out. It was a horrific agonizing shriek that echoed off the stone walls and pierced the heavens.

He thrashed wildly beneath me. The sheer weight of my armor and my hatred kept him pinned to the blood soaked stone.

The entire colosseum shuddered. The brutal visceral sound of flesh tearing and bone breaking silenced every single spectator.

The arrogant rulers of the continent watched in absolute paralyzed horror.

The Incubus Lord continued to scream while his blood painted my face red.