Titan King: Ascension of the Giant-Chapter 357 A genuine giant-king duel V

"Hey, big guy, crush her—but don't turn her into a stain on the ground. "

"Keep her alive. I want to hand this pretty elf over to my giant friend, Orion. "

"Yeah, just knock her out with one good whack! "

"She dodged it? No big deal. Go in for the next swing! "

"…"

Blood Elf Elanor wore a dark expression. Bluehide was clearly messing with her head.

No one else seemed to notice, but Elanor could tell: every time that smaller head of Bluehide's hurled an insult, she felt a burst of mental pressure.

"Is that ogre actually using some kind of mind magic?"

"Ogres can do mind magic?"

It was a ridiculous and horrifying thought—so much so that Elanor started to feel she must be losing it.

And yet, that mental harassment and psychic assault undoubtedly existed. Even though it wasn't very strong, it still got under her skin.

A hint of doubt began to brew in Elanor's heart. And doubt often sows the seeds of fear.

The unknown is always the most terrifying thing of all.

Meanwhile, in the heart of the restricted zone, the giant-king duel raged on.

"The sacrifice has been made, but the fight doesn't end here."

Orion's tone was icy as he put away the Lord's Stone and strode out of the receding blood mist, heading straight for Giant Balor.

"Heh heh heh… I'll smash you in one shot, and that Lord's Stone will be mine!"

Balor's laughter was unbridled, arrogant. When he opened his jaws wide, four fangs ground against one another with a spine-tingling hiss.

"You handle that trident pretty well—but that's about all you've got! "

"Worms consume corpses, giants eat meat, and a mightier apex predator devours giants. "

"Keh keh keh… hrr hrr hrr…"

Balor stared at Orion, letting out a series of disturbing, mocking cackles that dripped with malice.

Roaring at the sky, Balor suddenly hurled aside the broken spiked club in his hand. Abyssal energy burst outward from every inch of his body.

In just a few heartbeats, Balor's form melded into that swirling, seething darkness. It churned and swelled before receding moments later—revealing Balor once again.

But now, he was no longer the Balor from before.

"An Abyssal Devourer!"

Orion blurted out in shock, eyes wide with disbelief.

An Abyssal Devourer is a freak occurrence in giant bloodlines, possible—though rare—in any of the four major branches of giants.

Recorded history states that these devourers feed on their own kin. Though still considered giants themselves, they prey upon giants as their primary food source.

Orion gazed at this nightmarish evolution. Balor had once been just twenty percent taller than Orion; now, as an Abyssal Devourer, he loomed at twice Orion's height.

From the crown of his head down his spine jutted backward-curving fangs. Under Orion's watchful stare, Balor's tailbone extended outward, forming a scythe-like barbed tail bristling with Abyssal energy. As it swung from side to side, illusory afterimages fanned out behind it.

"In my territory, I'm the true Giant King! "

"The giant king who feasts on giants—heh heh heh!

"Giant Orion, why don't you scream for me? Beg me for mercy—ohoho…"

High above, Blood Elf Elanor—who had intended to flee—now abandoned all thoughts of retreat the moment she saw the Abyssal Devourer. This monstrous presence surpassed even her upper Legendary power.

In a flash, the momentum reversed.

"Gustalon, Brimli—go all in! Stall them so Balor can finish off the other giant lord!"

Not so long ago, it had been the Northern Coalition's leaders tying down Elanor and her allies. Now Elanor's trio unleashed everything they had, forcing Jorik's group to hold their ground.

Jorik, Gareth, Lokiviria, Ironhoof, and Bluehide exchanged uneasy glances, unsure what to do.

Leaving Orion to his fate would play right into Blood Elf Elanor's hands, but getting involved in a duel between two giant kings was risky—Faelar's demise had proven that.

Their hesitation split the Northern Coalition(Alliance) right down the middle, tossing them into chaos. Lokiviria, in particular, hoped Orion would bite the dust—preferably getting gobbled up completely by that Abyssal Devourer.

Elanor watched them dither, secretly jubilant. She'd predicted most of their thoughts correctly. Deciding not to force their hand yet, she eased off her attack to give them time to agonize.

---

Back at the fight's epicenter, Orion exhaled a long breath. He'd have to show another card, revealing his true might to both the Northern Coalition and the Blood Elves.

"Balor, if you can transform into an Abyssal Devourer, you must've eaten plenty of giants already."

Balor's mutated form only let out a creepy laugh, giving no real answer. In the next instant, he dropped into a crouch and sprang at Orion.

"In that case, I won't let you walk away this time. You have to die!"

With a thunderous boom, Orion became a streak of lightning, shooting up into the air and forming seals with both hands.

"Behold the mightiest bloodline among giants—the power of the Titans!"

A torrent of bloodline energy and transcendent power erupted within him, swirling together lightning and blood-based magic.

High above, a mighty Titan apparition towered even larger and stronger than Balor, clutching a trident as it dove toward the Abyssal Devourer below.

This was Orion's Titan Form, bestowing a massive boost to all his stats.

"Damn it—you really possess Titan blood?!

"No! I'm the Giant King. I'll devour you!"

From the ground, the Devourer's scythe-like tailhook lashed out in a phantom arc, hurtling straight at the Titan illusion dropping from the sky. But Orion's Titan form swung the enlarged Flame of Will, flipping to slash off that hook with the trident's tip.

The Devourer roared in agony, its scythe tail shredded.

Bending its knees, the Devourer began spinning in place before driving its feet into the ground so forcefully that the earth shook. As it whirled, the tusks on its head formed a kind of spiral auger, hurtling straight for Orion.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

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One deafening explosion after another ripped through the battlefield, drowning the restricted zone in lightning and Abyssal energy. For a while, no one could see a thing.

When the dust finally settled and the swirling magic dispersed, a gigantic crater now marred the heart of the restricted area. Lying spread-eagle in the pit, the Abyssal Devourer howled in pain. Standing at the rim of that crater was Orion in his Titan form, peering down at the Abyssal Devourer.

"Get up. If this is all the fight a mutant giant can offer, I'm going to be seriously disappointed."

Orion's voice echoed with a chilling calm. He refused to believe the Abyssal Devourer had perished under his previous devastating blow.

"Orion, I'll kill you. Then I'll swallow you whole!"

"Praise the Titan God, Forbidden Bite! I'm going to devour you!"

Down in the massive pit, the Abyssal Devourer's body began dissolving like ice under a scorching sun, turning into pools of Abyssal energy. At its center, something writhed and churned, as though generating a nightmarish spell.

Sensing imminent danger, Orion raised his trident. Above him, a colossal trident forged from his blood-based transcendent power took shape, crackling with electricity.

"Go to hell!"

With a sharp hiss, the enormous trident plummeted from the sky, aimed squarely at the roiling Abyssal energy deep in the pit.

Boom!

A deafening blast tore through the air, threaded with low, furious roars.

Orion was poised to strike again when a mammoth head suddenly burst out of the crater, jaws open wide. It snapped him up in a single gulp.

Darkness.

Wherever Orion found himself, it was pitch-black. The space around him was closing in, bringing such a crushing pressure that Orion felt it instantly. Worse, he realized he couldn't move.

Sensing his life on the line, Orion channeled all of his transcendent power, letting it surge through him in an attempt to relieve that suffocating pressure. It helped a little, but still, he remained immobilized in the void.

"What is this place? I can't see anything. Can't hear anything. I can't even move."

While Orion's mind raced to figure out a way out, Balor's raspy voice echoed in the darkness.

"Don't bother resisting, Titan Orion.

This is the Forbidden Bite. You're inside my stomach now. And I've inherited the power of some great Abyssal Devourer from ancient times.

Sure, this place is only a projection, but you still can't fight your way out.

Even though you have transformed into the form of a titan, I am still the true Giant King!

Ha ha…"

Surprisingly, Balor's words helped Orion center himself. If this truly was the belly-projection of some Abyssal Devourer, that being probably at least demigod-level.

"How do I break free?"

Even as Orion pushed back the crushing pressure with his transcendent power, his thoughts kept spinning.

"Balor's not here, which means maybe he can't step into this projection himself. If this is indeed the Devourer's stomach projection, it should have some kind of limit. Is the limit in the pressure or in this void itself?"

He had plenty of guesses, but his only immediate option was to summon the Eightfold Spear Barrage and probe this black space for any weakness.

Moments later, the Eightfold Spear Barrage coalesced around Orion, but the pressure battering him from all directions did not let up. Clearly, the presence of the barrage did nothing to lessen its grip.

Hissing softly, Orion poured more of his transcendent power into resisting the crushing force, all while launching the spider spears of his barrage in multiple directions. Unfortunately, when he lost all sensation of the spears, nothing in the darkness had changed.

A trickle of panic flickered in Orion's mind.

"Am I really going to have to use Blood Sacrifice again?"

He hesitated. Wasting half his life energy just to kill a Legendary-level giant seemed more than a little extravagant.

Suddenly, Orion felt his flesh compress and heard the crackle of bones.

"Damn… Summoning that barrage ate up too much power. Now I can't even stay in Titan form."

Gritting his teeth, Orion resigned himself to using Blood Sacrifice—dying here was not an option.

But right as he was about to activate the skill, his body was crushed even further, and the Titan projection around him collapsed. Blood surged into his mouth, and he couldn't hold it back any longer, spitting it out.

"Raor…Roar…"

But the moment Orion's blood left his lips, a giant, thunder-like bellow shook the void.

He felt some invisible lock inside him shatter. In that roar, the darkness—once so impenetrable—began to break apart at a speed he could actually see.

"Titan's Roar!"

"No… That's impossible! How could you awaken the Titan's Roar? Only the ancestor Titans could do that!"

Balor's voice, echoing in the crumbling blackness, was filled with disbelief. And behind his fury, there was a trace of bitter despair.

Titan's Roar?

Catching that phrase, Orion refocused on his own stats, mentally checking his data panel. Just as he thought, a new awakened skill had popped up under Titan Form.

[Titan's Roar, a supernatural-level sonic attack skill. It's locked to Titan Form, only usable when transformed.]

The titans' strength didn't lie in mere physical might—it also arose from their thunderous roars.

To be honest, Orion was stunned to have awakened this skill right now, of all times. How had he triggered it?

At least now he finally understood: the Titan Form he'd been using wasn't just a simple stats boost. If he could truly shift into Titan form, that meant all sorts of Titan abilities were theoretically within his reach—he just needed to awaken them first. Before, he'd only been tapping into part of the power.

There was no time to ponder it further. The void around him was collapsing by the second, finally releasing Orion from its crushing grasp.

––––––––

Outside Starveil City, at the center of the battlefield's forbidden zone, Orion and Balor's presences flared up again.

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This time, one was mighty and the other was feeble.

Orion had canceled his transformation and stood there looking somewhat unsatisfied, as if he'd been forced to end it too soon. Down in the bottom of the massive pit, Giant Balor still clung to life, just barely.

Orion became lightning once again, diving into the crater until he was standing beside his fallen adversary.

"I never expected you to have Titan Form," Balor rasped, voice weak.

"And I sure as hell didn't see that Titan's Roar coming, not in a situation like that."