WorldCrafter - Building My Underground Kingdom-Chapter 237: Craze Fate

Ben tapped his finger, his gaze barely lingering on the match. Yes, the hydra was impressive. The Nephirid prince intriguing. The hooded man unsettling.

But none of them radiated the same sense of danger as the Daemon.

His ears caught more of the prince’s conversation with his entourage, and a thought began to stir. ƒreewebɳovel.com

’could this incident be triggered by Apophis?’

The timing was too much to be coincidence. ’Is she trying to free other sealed daemons?’

Ben narrowed his eyes. If this is true, he doesn’t have the luxury to wait, he need to something to intervene. No amount of army he can create now is enough facing against Daemon.

Even the strongest golem, is nothing in front a Daemon power. While Ben were busy thinking about this the battlefield were heating up.

The hydra roared, all his heads wreathed in different elements. Fire, ice, poison, thunder, acid, and raw kinetic force. In total it have been killed four times, and each time it resurrected becoming even stronger.

It move forward, tails smashing the ground, wings flaring wide as if to mock them.

Craze ducked under a strike, his battle axe cleaving through the neck of one head.

BAM!!!

The head rolled, twitching, spewing violet blood, but it was already growing back.

"Keep pressure on it!" the Ashborn bellowed, dashing in, molten fists trailing searing arcs behind him. He struck low, a sweeping blow to the hydra’s underbelly. The flesh sizzled and peeled, yet again, the monster howled, not in pain, but in rage.

Then it turned. One of the heads, jaws glowing with inner fire, snapped forward.

CHOMP!

Craze screamed, The crowd froze. Blood sprayed across the arena as the hydra ripped his left arm clean off at the shoulder, devouring it with a single gulp.

"Dammit!" the Ashborn shouted, but it was too late.

The hydra didn’t stop. A blast of fire erupted from its central maw, catching Craze full-on and slamming him into the stone wall.

Craze slammed into the arena wall hard enough to crack the stone. The impact left a crater where he hit, rubble raining down as he dropped to one knee, panting, his remaining hand clutching his battle axe.

The severed stump at his shoulder pulsed, blood spraying in erratic bursts before clotting over unnaturally fast. He was still alive.

But the hydra wasn’t giving him a break.

All six heads snapped forward. Thunder rolled as lightning crackled from one mouth, while poison mist billowed from another. A blast of ice exploded beside the fire head’s searing breath, forming a storm mid-air.

Then it attacked.

BOOM!

A molten blur intercepted the storm.

The Ashborn warrior leapt, spinning like a comet, his charred fists glowing white-hot. He punched the thunder head first, BANG!, crushing it into the dirt, but two more heads came for him from both sides.

SLASH!

Acid splashed across his back.

CRACK!

They Hydra tail slammed him into the ground like a hammer striking iron.

The Ashborn groaned, dragging himself up, blood pouring from deep gashes on his back, but his eyes still burned with heat. He turned and roared, "I’M NOT DONE!"

Craze forced himself up again, his eyes bloodshot, one-armed, clothes half-burned off. He eyes filled with anger and bloodlust, dark red arcs of energy swirling around him, making the dust ripple. He clenched his teeth and slammed the axe’s hilt into the ground.

CRACK!!!

The stone beneath his feet cracked, mana surging from the arena floor.

"I’m still standing!" he roared.

He charged again. The Ashborn roared in sync and followed.

Together, they struck the regenerating heads, one axe to the throat, one flaming punch to the core. The hydra screamed, jerking wildly, spewing blood and breath attacks in every direction. The fire head tried to retaliate, Craze ducked under the flames and slashed upward, splitting its jaw open.

Then came the ice head, Chomp!, biting down on Craze’s leg. He didn’t even scream. He stabbed his axe straight through its eye, yanked it free, and dragged his mangled body forward with willpower.

The Ashborn met the thunder head mid-swing.

BAM!!!

He caught it with both hands and ripped it clean off, lava spraying from his arms as they cracked under the strain.

The hydra shrieked, stumbling. And still, it regenerated. Now sprouting seven heads, its body mutating with every blow.

The hydra’s seven heads now loomed like mountain peaks over a shattered battlefield. Its entire body radiated unholy power.

A new tail, filled with sharp spikes, slammed into the stone and sent debris flying into the air. Elemental attacks surged through its mouths, ice breath froze the shattered floor, acid hissed and boiled through solid stone, and thunder clapped with every step it took.

Craze was already panting, blood soaking his right side, where his arm used to be. Still, he gritted his teeth and threw himself forward, dragging his axe behind him. He spun it upward.

CLANG!

The blade collided with one of the hydra’s necks, only for the creature’s reinforced scales to deflect it entirely. The recoil nearly shattered his remaining wrist.

"Pull back!" the Ashborn shouted, molten fists charging again with inner flame. He dove in, unleashing a flurry of punches.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Each punch create small explosion, but the hydra barely flinched. Its hide was thicker now, reinforced by necromancy and layered mana plates.

Then, CRACK!!!

One head turned. Craze was too slow to dodge.

The jaws snapped shut on his lower body. CHOMP!

Blood sprayed wide like a crimson geyser. Another leg was gone. Torn off at the thigh.

"AAARGHHH!!" Craze screamed, falling backward, trying to brace with his axe, his whole body trembling from shock and agony.

The crowd gasped. Even the Nephirid prince tensed, jaw clenched.

Ben narrowed his eyes, his voice a whisper. "That thing’s evolving faster than expected. Just where is the lmit?"

One of the hooded figures chuckled again from the shadows. "Looks like your champions aren’t enough, little prince."

The Ashborn let out a roar, heat radiating in waves. His arms cracked, molten light pouring from every fracture as he prepared his final technique. But even as he moved, the hydra make it’s move, elemental breath glowing in every throat.

Seven heads. Seven breaths.

The battlefield trembled beneath their fury. And one wrong move… would mean death.

The Ashborn roared, a sound so deep, so raw, it echoed across the arena like a beast from the molten pits. His molten flesh split further, trails of flame bursting from every crack in his skin.

"RAAAAAARGHH!!!"

The earth beneath his feet melted as he launched forward.

BOOM!

A sonic shockwave followed in his wake as he crossed the battlefield in a blur. One moment, he stood at Craze’s side. The next, CRACK!, he was already mid-air, his body spiraling with flames, slamming a burning punch into one of the hydra’s heads.

BAM!

The skull exploded in a geyser of black ichor and ash. The hydra screamed, six heads remaining, twisting like a storm of serpents as it retaliated. Acid spewed from one mouth, thunder cracked from another, flame followed next.

But the Ashborn didn’t stop. He darted between the beams, his skin blistering, his body burning away piece by piece, but he was too fast. Too furious.

SMASH!

He ducked under a jaw and struck again, this time with both fists blazing, delivering an uppercut so fierce it ripped another head clean off. The explosion lit the sky red.

"Die!" he roared, shoving the hydra backward with sheer force, ignoring the poison seeping into his open wounds. Steam hissed from his body as he charged again, bones cracking, breath heaving, muscles tearing from the overload.

But it wasn’t enough.

The hydra’s body moved. A foul glow radiated through its veins. In seconds, the two lost heads grew back, larger, reinforced with bone-like armor.

And worse… An eighth head emerged.

This one didn’t breathe fire or frost. It simply opened its mouth… and unleashed unholy energy.

The wave slammed into the Ashborn, sending him crashing back across the arena like a comet. He hit the wall with a wet crack, molten blood splattering the stone.

He fell to one knee, panting, his entire right arm gone. His body was breaking. Fast.

Yet even so, he pushed himself up, shaking, glaring at the monster.

Craze, pale and barely conscious, muttered from behind, "You… still alive…?"

The Ashborn clenched his remaining fist, flames still flickering.

"If we die…" he growled, blood dripping from his mouth, "…we take that bastard with us."

The hydra lowered its heads, eight eyes glowing.

"Can you still fight?"

"Are you kidding me?" Craze snapped. He could regenerate a limb, sure, but he wasn’t an Ashborn warrior.

"It’ll take me an hour just to stand again."

The Ashborn turned to look at him, his molten gaze burning.

"Then it seems you can’t fight."

Craze flinched under that stare. "What are you planning?"

Without answering, the Ashborn grabbed him and leapt high into the air. Below, one of the hydra’s heads lifted, its maw opening wide, glowing with unholy energy.

"Then make yourself useful!" the Ashborn shouted, and hurled Craze straight at the creature’s mouth.