Chapter 663: Utterly, Wonderfully Barbaric!

The ground beneath his bare soles began to vibrate. A deep, rhythmic thumping... heavy, slow, and utterly unhurried... approached .

THUD. THUD. THUD.

The bushes parted, and a truly monstrous beast stepped into the pale moonlight.

It was an Armored Blood-Bore, a solitary terror of the northern Orrath sitting solidly at the middle tier of Layer 3.

It stood nearly twelve feet tall at the shoulder, its massive, boar-like bulk easily exceeding four tons of pure muscle, thick fat, and dense bone.

Its entire front torso was covered in a natural carapace of overlapping, hard calcified plates, stained a dark, rusty red from decades of goring rival beasts.

From its lower jaw curved two massive, four-foot ivory tusks, serrated like saw blades and thick as tree trunks.

The Blood-Bore ignored the dead carcasses of the Stalkers and the bird. Its tiny, red-pigmented eyes were locked completely onto the glowing essence tornado down in the clearing.

The scent of Veylara’s ascending core had driven it into an absolute, single-minded frenzy.

It pawed the rocky ground with hooves the size of shields, lowering its massive, armored head, preparing to charge straight off the shelf and plow through the willow grove to crush the core before it could stabilize.

Sol stepped out from the brush, standing directly in the beast’s line of sight at the base of the slope.

"Looking for a snack, you fat bastard?" Sol smirked, his voice full of sarcasm.

The Blood-Bore’s head snapped down. Seeing a lone, naked human standing between it and the grand feast, the beast let out a deafening, ground-shaking roar that violently shook the leaves from the trees!

SKRRRR-BOOM!

The four-ton juggernaut launched into a full, unstoppable charge!

The ground and trees splintered beneath its hooves as it accelerated with terrifying momentum.

Boulders the size of barrels were kicked aside like dry pebbles. It was a living battering ram... the kind of brute force that could bring down an entire fortress gate in a single collision.

Even an elite squad of Layer 3 Veynar warriors would never dream of taking a head-on charge from an Armored Blood-Bore.

Normally, due to Veylara this bastard didn’t even dare to piss in this direction, but now sensing her in an extremely vulnerable state, this bastard came rushing down.

Behind him, by the pond, Zephyra’s voice carried through the wind, sharp and urgent: "Sol! Be careful of the tusks! Its front armor can deflect Layer 3 attacks!"

Despite hearing the warning, Sol didn’t dodge.

A wide, feral smirk spread across his blood-streaked face.

Deflect layer 3 attacks? Let’s see how it handles an immovable object.

Sol dropped his center of gravity into horse stance, his bare feet sinking two inches into the solid ground. He didn’t draw upon his Dreadwing speed; instead, he completely unlocked the dormant phantom of the Great Orrath Badger resting within his sun core!

HUMMM.

The air around Sol’s body compressed instantly. An invisible, immense gravitational aura pinned the ground beneath him, turning his flesh and bone as dense and unyielding as a mountain root.

The Blood-Bore crossed the final ten paces in a fraction of a second, its massive, serrated tusks aimed directly at Sol’s exposed chest!

At the absolute moment of impact, Sol didn’t try to strike, his neon-crimson eyes had already locked onto the trajectory, as he had realized that this bastard wasn’t truly aiming for him. It was using the charging momentum to blow straight past and reach the essence tornado... reach Veylara.

With that thick hide and no weapon in Sol’s hands, a single killing blow was impossible in the fraction of a second he had left. Trying to stop it with a punch or kick would only get him knocked aside while the beast kept going.

Having seen through his plan, Sol didn’t panic, instead he threw both hands out, palms wide!

BOOOOOOM!

The collision sounded like two mountains smashing together at full speed!

Four tons of charging muscle, bone, and armored hide slammed into Sol’s open palms with catastrophic force. A shockwave of pure displaced kinetic energy detonated outward in a visible ring. Grass was ripped from the soil in a wide circle.

Nearby trees shuddered; several thinner trunks cracked and toppled. The air itself seemed to compress and then explode outward, kicking up a storm of dirt, leaves, and residual pond water.

The sheer force drove Sol’s bare feet backward through the dirt,

His heels plowed two deep, smoking trenches nearly three yards long as the beast’s momentum tried to steamroll him. Mud and moss sprayed in every direction. His arms screamed under the pressure.

But he did not fall.

His bare hands were clamped tight around the bases of the massive ivory tusks, his fingers digging into the calcified grooves! His biceps, back, and thighs swelled, every muscle fiber screaming under the astronomical pressure, his sun core roaring like an erupting volcano as he absorbed the entirety of the beast’s momentum.

Sol’s bare feet finally dug in hard enough to stop the retreat.

His shoulders and spine absorbed the remaining force with a deep, grinding shudder.

For one suspended heartbeat he stood locked against the full charge of a Layer 3 beast, naked, blood-streaked, and unmoved, while the creature’s forward momentum finally died against his palms and brought it to a dead, shuddering halt!

The Blood-Bore’s eyes bulged in pure, uncomprehending animal horror.

Its hooves churned the mud, squealing frantically as it tried to push forward, but it was like trying to shove a mountain off its base. The small, naked creature standing before it wasn’t budging by a single millimeter.

"My turn," Sol growled through clenched teeth.

With a terrifying, guttural roar that tore from the deepest depths of his lungs, Sol twisted his hips and channeled the entirety of his Layer 3 Peak physical might!

CREEEAK-SNAP!

With a brutal, upward wrench of his arms, Sol violently snapped the beast’s left four-foot tusk clean off at the root!

The Blood-Bore shrieked in agony, black blood gushing from its shattered jaw, but before it could pull back, Sol swung the massive, jagged ivory tusk like a heavy broadsword in his right hand!

SHUCK.

Driven by the full, unbridled kinetic force of his arm, the broken tusk punched straight through the beast’s eye socket, piercing through the calcified front plate and driving deep into its brain!

The massive boar froze mid-squeal.

Its legs buckled, its remaining eye rolling white, and the four-ton behemoth collapsed forward with a thunderous crash, kicking up a cloud of dust and dead leaves before lying completely still at Sol’s bare feet.

Without even a second of delay, its soul was also pulled straight into the bottomless pit of Sol’s mind.

Silence slammed back down onto the clearing, well relative silence if you ignore the essence tornado.

Sol stood atop the dead titan, chest heaving in deep, steady pulls of cool mountain air. He tossed the bloody ivory fragment onto the corpse, wiping sweat from his brow.

His bare skin was painted with the dark, cooling blood of four apex predators, but the crimson embers in his eyes were burning with cold, unbroken triumph.

From the edge of the pond, High Shaman Zephyra slowly lowered her staff, her pale face frozen in rare, absolute astonishment.

"Barbaric," Zephyra whispered softly, though the faint smirk tugging at her lips was filled with immense, unhidden respect. "Utterly, wonderfully barbaric."