Dungeon King: The Hidden Ruler-Chapter 93: [Three Faces of the Blade 11] Hellfire and the Hammer

Emberforge Titan met Arvax in the center of the scorched pit like a meteor crashing into a volcano. Their limbs tangled—one coated in furnace flame, the other in molten brass—and the impact shattered the ground beneath them.

They roared in unison, each bellow deeper than thunder. Emberforge’s cry was a guttural furnace scream, while Arvax’s voice came fractured and digital—like a thousand failing verdicts.

"YOU—SHOULD—NOT—EXIST," Arvax snarled in broken syllables.

"Then prove it," Emberforge spat, and hurled a blazing uppercut into Arvax’s chest.

The blow rang out like an iron bell. Arvax reeled, but countered with a piston-driven knee that caught Emberforge in the side. Steel screeched. Sparks erupted. Neither titan slowed.

Emberforge twisted with the momentum and slammed his elbow into Arvax’s shoulder joint.

"BURN," he growled.

Arvax’s response was to shove both hands forward, releasing a point-blank shockwave. "JUDGMENT—DELIVERED."

They collided again, fists meeting fists, shoulders crashing into shoulders. The impact cracked the center of the arena, sending molten rock and flame arcing into the air like geysers.

Their curses overlapped—mechanical rage versus elemental fury—each strike less a technique and more a declaration of hatred.

Their fists collided again and again, each blow echoing through the arena like a cannonade. The ground cracked with every hit. Pillars crumbled. Sigils flickered beneath their feet and failed under the sheer force.

Each punch that landed was a declaration—not just of power, but of intent. Flame and killing intent, colliding with fury.

The air shook. The ceiling moaned. The entire dungeon felt like it might collapse under the weight of their clash.

Every strike Arvax landed now triggered an area-wide shockwave. The moment its fist struck the arena floor, a burning pulse expanded outward in a ten-foot ring. The terrain hissed, glowed, then detonated. Emberforge staggered only slightly, then answered with a roar that shook the dome.

[Skill Recast – Firestorm]

Effect: Explosive burst with every impact

AoE Burn applied to all contact points

Duration: 12s

When Emberforge retaliated, the ground exploded at the point of contact. His fists carried weight—not just in force but in temperature. Every punch that hit Arvax left a burning brand on its skeletal plating.

Arvax struck low with a sweeping arm. Emberforge responded with a rising knee, catching the blow mid-swing and twisting into a shoulder slam that lifted the trial engine a half-foot off the ground.

Sparks, steam, poison, fire—all layered in overlapping chaos.

Raven ran the margins.

While the titans collided at the core, Raven became motion. He dashed between arcs of steam and puddles of poison, chained through pillars of fire and broken walkways.

He grappled diagonally across collapsed scaffolds, swung horizontally from molten arches, and dropped vertically from observation decks that hadn’t crumbled yet.

With each pass, he found a seam—an opening between the armor plates or a flicker of exposed rune—and struck.

Chain wrapped Arvax’s ankle. Dagger sank into the wiring behind its thigh joint.

He didn’t slow down. If he stayed still for more than three seconds, he’d be dead.

He blinked left. Grappled right. Slid low and vaulted over flame bursts like a dancer made of smoke.

Around him, the gods burned without pause..

The arena was no longer stone and sigils. It had become a caldera of chaos—crimson haze, molten fractures, poison steam, and ash storms swirling like cyclones. Broken banners flapped uselessly from the rafters, their fabric catching flame and curling to smoke.

Flame vents burst along the outer walls as residual energy leaked from the dueling titans. Statues crumbled. Arches cracked. The dungeon strained against its own unraveling.

Above, a long-forgotten bell in the trial’s chamber began to swing—not from purpose, but from pressure—its echo lost under the roars of gods.

Every step they took sent tremors racing through the scorched arena floor. Each time their fists met, the air detonated with the sound of steel-on-steel—sharp, thunderous, and world-shaking. Sparks burst outward in sprays of gold and white-hot embers, cascading like fireworks off their clashing limbs.

Stone buckled beneath their weight. Entire slabs of the arena trembled and cracked. Dust fell from the ceiling in clouds as if the dungeon itself feared collapse.

Each punch wasn’t just power—it was tectonic.

Raven twisted mid-sprint, narrowly avoiding a chunk of debris hurled free from a shattered support beam. The titans didn’t just fight—they tore the world around them apart. Every missed punch cratered the floor. Every redirected strike sent stone teeth flying.

He ducked beneath a spiraling arch of stone, ricocheted off a half-buried brazier, and used the tilt to launch himself onto a nearby ledge.

From there, he had a clean angle—just for a second.

He flung his chain, latched onto Arvax’s side plating, and drove the dagger home. Sparks flared. The titan didn’t even notice. But Raven did.

He used the recoil to propel himself away, just as a slab from the ceiling broke loose behind him and shattered where he’d been.

Arvax drove both fists down. Emberforge caught them with crossed arms. Fire rippled outward in all directions.

[Hellfire Triggered – Full Overload]

Core Pulse: 320% Base Damage

Area Status: Superheated

The blast lifted Raven midair. He twisted, mid-flight, and caught a low beam with his chain—swinging around it to reduce momentum. He dropped with a roll and kept moving.

Arvax roared—raw and jagged—and surged forward with a new barrage. Its arm pistons fired in sync as it launched a vicious three-hit combo.

The first strike landed squarely in Emberforge’s chest, sending the fire titan skidding back with a thunderous quake that cracked the arena wall behind him. Emberforge grunted, steam bursting from his side vents as he staggered—then rebounded.

"NOT YET," he snarled, stepping back in and delivering a crushing fist into Arvax’s side. The impact caved in a section of the brass plating, and fire licked out of the exposed mechanisms like a spray of magma.

But Arvax wasn’t done.

It spun, arms twisting unnaturally, and brought a full-force blow down into Emberforge’s shoulder. Emberforge dropped to one knee, crushed under the weight—but held.

That was when Raven saw the opening.

He launched a Phantom Bind, appearing behind Arvax’s exposed spine. His chain caught on the edge of a loose gear joint and yanked tight.

Arvax jerked, staggering mid-swing.

It was enough.

Emberforge rose again, drove his gauntlet straight into Arvax’s gut, and shoved the judgment engine backward across the cratered floor.

Before Arvax could counter, Raven grappled again—this time hooking a jutting pipe on the far wall and swinging wide to escape the resulting blast.

Stone rained down around him. A cracked arch finally collapsed behind him, and he didn’t stop moving.

He was the only thing on the ground that wasn’t falling apart.

The arena was collapsing in layers now—ceiling tiles raining like stone hail, vents bursting with fire. Raven moved through it like smoke with purpose.

He didn’t run straight. He pivoted. Grappled. Let go mid-air and redirected. He wasn’t just moving to hit—he was surviving an evolving battlefield, one where the terrain itself wanted him dead as much as the boss.

Arvax staggered back. Its core blinked erratically, pulse sputtering. freeweɓnovel-cøm

But then the glyphs turned red.

It lifted its branded hammer. Slowly. Methodically.

Target: Emberforge Titan.

[Red Phase Triggered Skill – Oathbreaker Engaged]

Target: Emberforge Titan

Effect: Branded Execution Hammer

If hit, reduces HP to 1

Raven spotted it. "Oh no you don’t!" he hissed.

He grappled to Arvax’s side, then hurled a Phantom Bind—teleporting directly to the boss’s raised arm. Before it could finish the swing, Raven drove his dagger straight into the wrist joint.

The hammer dropped.

Emberforge didn’t wait. He activated another pulse of Hellfire, pulled both fists together, and drove them into Arvax’s exposed chest.

The explosion lit the chamber like a second sunrise.

Raven barely escaped—grappling to the ceiling and rolling onto a crumbled ledge just as the wave hit.

When the smoke cleared—

Arvax was on its knees.

Sparks burst from its core, its remaining limbs dragging, scraping the floor. The glyphs across its body flickered from red... to orange... to black.

Raven landed with a heavy breath, feet sinking slightly into ash.

Arvax was deep in the red—only 5% HP remaining. Emberforge still held strong at 40%. Raven took a breath, recognizing that his strategy had held.

If Emberforge had been summoned earlier, the red-phase enrage would have forced it into cooldown, leaving Raven alone with Ostreva, Seneschal, or one of his earlier summons.

And any one of them—exposed during that phase—would have fallen without question.

And now was the time.

He swung his chain once—twice—three times. Then he hurled it forward.

It wrapped around Arvax’s neck.

[Subjugation Attempt – Initiated]

Target: Ashlord Arvax Condition: Red Phase, HP < 10%, Stabilized Core Lock

The sigils on Raven’s chain glowed. The chain tightened.

Arvax’s head jerked violently, resisting. Its limbs clawed at the stone, dragging gouges across the floor. A low, furious roar bubbled up from its chest as its core flared bright red one last time.

[Warning: Target Integrity Holding – Subjugation at Risk]

Sparks burst from the chain. The floor cracked beneath Arvax’s dragging limbs. For a moment, it looked as though it might break free.

Raven gritted his teeth and braced both hands against the chain. Sparks flew where Arvax’s feet dug in. For a moment, it looked as though the machine would break free.

But then the glow in its eyes dimmed.

The core flickered.

And the judgment engine collapsed forward onto one arm—kneeling once more.

A breathless silence fell over the arena.

[Success: Dungeon Boss Subjugated]

[Ashlord Arvax – Bound to Sovereign Raven]

The battle was over.

The trial answered.

And Raven now held judgment bound in chain and flame.

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om