Fight to the Death

"How dare you hurt the Old Gods' most beloved servant! All of you, die!" Zakajz roared as he felt the pain of his carapace being breached. Any desire he had to subjugate the allied army had vanished; now he only wanted to kill everyone.

"Feel the power of shadow!" Zakajz wreathed both his pincers in shadow and slammed them into the ground. Shadow energy mixed with stone spikes shot toward the allied army.

"Ah! Aaaah!" Several allied soldiers were injured by the sudden attack. The shadow energy clinging to the stone spikes seeped into their wounds and began draining their life energy.

The allied soldiers struck by the attack became desiccated corpses at a speed visible to the naked eye, their life energy drained completely away.

"Die, you filthy bastard!" Seeing the soldiers' horrific condition, Jarod felt a blaze of fury erupt within him.

He quickly moved to Zakajz's side, his blade flashing up and down as he attacked, using his agility and speed to his advantage.

Fueled by his anger, Jarod gripped his weapon ever tighter, and his blows against Zakajz grew heavier and heavier.

Zakajz also grew annoyed by Jarod's actions. He strengthened his defenses, making Jarod's attacks painless and nothing more than an annoyance.

Just as he was about to swat the annoying insect to death, the allied spellcasters launched an attack on Zakajz under Apophis's command.

Numerous spells struck Zakajz, and their power knocked him down. His enormous body crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up dust that got into everyone's eyes.

"Jarod, get back here! We can't confront him head-on right now!" Apophis shouted toward Jarod.

Hearing Apophis, Jarod also realized that he wasn't capable of defeating Zakajz for the time being. He took advantage of the dust cloud to retreat.

As he withdrew, Jarod retrieved the fist made of silver.

The area around the white fist hadn't been corrupted by shadow, and Jarod believed it could help them defeat Zakajz.

"Hurry, Jarod! Get over here!" Apophis had gathered the troops and was preparing to withdraw from the main burial chamber.

Jarod ran toward Apophis, but would Zakajz let them leave?

Zakajz rose to his feet and glared furiously at the insects that had thwarted him again and again.

Powerful shadow energy gathered in his hand, and finally a beam of deep purple light burst from it.

The piercing beam came straight for Jarod.

"Get out of the way, Jarod!" Apophis shouted to Jarod.

Jarod also sensed the immense danger behind him. He looked back and saw a massive energy beam shooting toward him.

Jarod quickly turned, drew his blade and held it across his body, then cast a magic shield to block the deadly beam.

The powerful beam struck the shield, driving Jarod steadily backward. The shield didn't look as though it would hold for much longer.

"Get them out of here, Apophis! I'll hold him off!" Jarod shouted to Apophis.

"Get back outside, quickly!" Apophis was directing the troops' retreat. Time was precious here.

At last, everyone had withdrawn, leaving only Jarod, Apophis, and Zakajz in the burial chamber.

"Jarod, get out of the way!" Apophis had everyone withdraw and cast a reinforcement spell on the chamber doors so they could withstand the rest of the piercing beam after Jarod got out.

At Apophis's signal, Jarod used a blink spell to flash aside. With no one blocking it, the powerful beam struck the doors directly. Even the magically reinforced doors couldn't withstand its power, and cracks spread across them.

Just as the doors were about to give way, the cracks stopped spreading.

Jarod's heart tightened as he looked at his weapon, cracked from taking the energy beam head-on. The enemy had yet to be destroyed, but his weapon was already damaged.

Seeing that his attack had failed, Zakajz, the Old Gods' warlord, felt rage burn in his heart once more.

Relying on his formidable physical strength, he charged at Jarod. He would kill this insect while he was weak.

Thud, thud, thud. Zakajz charged at Jarod, his thunderous footsteps striking the hearts of everyone present like a heavy hammer.

Jarod raised his blade, ready to counterattack. But stopping the energy beam had exhausted him, and now he could only struggle to fight back.

Though utterly exhausted, Jarod still relied on his formidable physical strength to exchange several blows with Zakajz.

With a thud, Zakajz shattered Jarod's weapon. The weapon had endured countless attacks and accompanied Jarod through campaigns far and wide, a brother in arms to him. At this moment, it met its end.

Zakajz's next blow sent Jarod flying.

Jarod struck the burial chamber wall, then fell to the ground and passed out.

Seeing that the insect had lost consciousness, Zakajz was just about to go over and kill him.

A barrage of magic struck the advancing Zakajz. Apophis led the warriors in harassing Zakajz, intending to buy time for the unconscious Jarod so that he could.

The allied troops who had left also returned to the burial chamber and began attacking Zakajz.

"Wake up, Jarod! We need you!" Apophis shouted. Apophis struggled to dodge Zakajz's attacks, while the allied army's weapons could barely leave wounds on him.

The wounds were of little use, serving only to make Zakajz angrier.

Inside Jarod's mindscape

"Ow, that really hurts," Jarod said, rubbing his chest.

"Where is this? I have to get out quickly. My brothers need my help." Enduring his injuries, Jarod began searching for a way out.

"Welcome, young outsider." A golden figure appeared before Jarod.

"Who are you? Do you know how to get out of here?" Jarod asked the figure that had suddenly appeared.

"You came to my tomb, yet you don't know who I am?" the figure said with a smile.

"You're Tyr? Weren't you dead?" Jarod was full of questions about the guardian who should have been dead but had appeared before him.

"That's a long story, and it isn't important right now. What's important is that you're close to death," Tyr said.

"I'm close to death? How sad. There are so many things I haven't done, yet my life is about to end so abruptly," Jarod said.

"There's still one thing I haven't finished. I don't want to die like this yet."

"Oh? What is it?" Tyr asked.

"I haven't killed Zakajz yet."