Chapter 1032: Hear my summons and arise
In the Godforsaken Land, Orion’s coalition advanced with the unstoppable momentum of a righteous crusade. Their undead armies were relentless, a perfect weapon for this war. They felt no fear, no pain—only an infinite capacity for slaughter. Countless skeletons, little more than cannon fodder, clawed their way out of the corpse piles and charged the enemy lines like automatons. For the ferocious Gnasher Race, this emotionless, unyielding tide was a special kind of nightmare.
"The enemy’s momentum is too strong. We cannot let this continue."
This was a war of attrition where the enemy’s numbers only grew with each battle. Jynara, the matriarch of the Gnasher Race, saw the horrifying calculus of the rolling snowball and knew she had to act. She had been hesitant before, caught off guard by the sudden invasion and the lack of intelligence. But now, with the battlefield so clearly defined, a plan had formed in her mind.
"Black Guard One, Black Guard Two," she commanded, addressing her elite protectors. "Take your broods through the deep tunnels. Bypass the front lines and execute a surprise attack on their rear—target the undead tower and the main monster nest."
"Black Guard Three and Four. You will join the main battle. Your mission is to eliminate the necromancers hiding behind their front lines."
She paused, her voice hardening. "Remember: if the enemy arch lord moves to intercept you, you are to retreat immediately. When he pursues, we fall back. When he withdraws, we press the attack. If you find an opening, inflict as much damage on their armies as you can."
It was a clear shift in strategy. While the Gnasher Race hadn’t gained an advantage in a direct confrontation, this was the Death Spiral Zone. This was their home. They could not avoid the war, but they could choose how they fought it.
Jynara’s objective was simple: destroy the enemy’s lair and sever their source of reinforcements. It was a classic feint, designed to lure Orion away from the front lines where the sheer pressure of his Deathly Soul-Reaper form was causing the Gnasher forces to buckle. She also hoped to probe the invaders, to see if they had any other trump cards left to play.
"As you command!" the four guards responded in unison. They bowed low, then disappeared into the yawning underground passage before them. Four distinct, echoing shrieks summoned their broods, and a chorus of chittering screeches answered from the depths of the Nest.
Half an hour later, Arthas, commanding the coalition’s rear guard, felt the shift in the battle.
"Enemy contact imminent! Prepare for battle!" he projected, his regal voice booming in Dirtclaw’s mind. At that very moment, the ground began to tremble.
The earth buckled and swelled. Moments later, the plain in front of the undead tower collapsed inward, revealing two bottomless pits from which a tide of Gnasher beasts erupted. They charged the undead tower and the sand scorpions’ nest, their sudden appearance cutting off the flow of reinforcements to Orion’s front line.
Arooo!
Dirtclaw let out a piercing howl. Dropping low to the ground, his claws dug into the earth, ready to spring. Protecting the sand scorpions’ nest was the task his master had given him, and he would complete it, his mind a snarl of predatory fury. I don’t care who you are. I will tear you to pieces!
On the front lines, Orion immediately sensed the chaos erupting in his rear. He started to turn, but the two arch lord auras that had been approaching from the front were now closing in fast, forcing him into an impossible choice.
"Don’t worry about the rear," Arthas’s voice suddenly resonated in his mind. "I can handle them."
Orion let out a slow breath of relief. It wasn’t his brother-in-arms he was worried about; it was Soraya and Dirtclaw. This subterranean assault was clearly aimed at the broodmother and the undead tower. The two arch lord signatures rising from the tunnels were a clear indicator of the enemy’s intent. Destroying his reinforcement engine would halt the invasion in its tracks.
There’s a clever commander on their side, Orion thought grimly. With his rear secure, he could focus on the immediate threat.
He teleported forward to engage the two approaching Gnasher guards. But just as he moved, they split apart, streaking in opposite directions towards the flanks of his front-line troops.
"Son of a bitch." The classic pincer movement left Orion caught in the middle. He couldn’t be in two places at once. To save one flank was to condemn the other.
He was decisive. In the space of a single breath, he made his choice. If I can’t stop both of them, then one flank gets wiped out regardless. Fine. I’ll make the trade. My cannon fodder for one of their top-tier arch lords.
The thought solidified into pure, cold killing intent.
"Die!"
A phantom of his scythe materialized in the air, locking onto one of the guards. The creature tried to flee, but it was too late. There was no escaping Orion’s mark.
Boom!
The targeted guard, seeing no escape, sacrificed one of its own four arms, detonating it to block the initial strike. Then, with shocking ferocity, it charged forward, wrapping its remaining arms around Orion’s Deathly Soul-Reaper form in a death grip.
"Sacrificial Art: Tomb of the Crushing Earth!" it shrieked.
The guard’s body began to emit a black smoke, its flesh corroding and dissolving as it dragged Orion down, plummeting into the ground below. The earth itself seemed to fold in on them. A cage of pure energy and compressed soil formed around Orion, trapping him deep beneath the surface.
Within the prison, a bizarre gravity formation flared to life, pinning him in place, rendering him immobile. The force was so strong he couldn’t even gather the energy to teleport.
Back at the undead tower, the two Gnasher arch lords leading the assault forced Arthas’s hand. He had to abandon the summoning formation and step outside.
"Insects," he murmured, his voice laced with contempt as he strode out into the open air. "Drawn to a flame you cannot comprehend."
The full might of his arch lord peak aura washed over the battlefield. An energy of absolute frost, white and deadly, coalesced in his hands. Two massive skeletal claws, etched with black, glowing runes, appeared out of thin air and shot towards the attacking guards.
Simultaneously, a ripple of black energy expanded from his feet, an aura of pure entropy. Wherever the wave passed, the very air seemed to shudder, and life withered. This was his death domain. Within it, his power was magnified to terrifying levels.
He sensed the sudden disappearance of the Deathly Soul-Reaper’s aura from the front lines and pointed a single, skeletal finger toward the distant battle.
"Spirits of eternal silence, heroes sleeping in the dust! You who are brave, you who are fearless, you who are immortal! Hear my summons and arise!"
A beam of black light shot from his fingertip, crossing the miles in an instant and striking the main battlefield. The fresh corpses of the coalition soldiers slain by the other Gnasher guard began to decay at a hyper-accelerated rate, dissolving not into dust, but into a thick, black fog that began to swirl across the field.