Chapter 163 - Primal Amorak's End
Thokk heard Kandak's deep, booming voice ward him away, and he stood there helplessly, the blood vessels on his two hands bulging as he clenched the handle of his lightblade longsword.
Why was he so useless? Why could he not attack?
Kandak continued to roar as he wrestled with the Primal Amorak. He was not utilizing Goromir's swift and agile Gobeira movements, and at first glance, it would seem like he was simply using brute force, but in reality, there was a massive host of technical applications involved in his wrestling that made it just as competent and deep as Gobeira.
By placing his hands at the back of the Primal Amorak's waist, Kandak could exert force directly on the Amorak's center of balance. Kandak's stance was wide, with his two feet apart and deeply rooted into the ground of the dungeon that now cracked and split apart under force.
With the center of balance controlled, Kandak could sense, roughly, how the Amorak was going to move based on shifts in its balance. Thus, whenever the Amorak went for a swipe with its one remaining left arm, Kandak knew to push to the right against it or push into the Amorak, making the swipe miss or cut half as deeply as it should have.
Whenever the Amorak reached down to snap at Kandak's head, he could sense this too, and ducked his head and lowered his center of gravity, bending at the knees while he surged forwards, attempting a takedown to the ground.
The Primal Amorak, however, though it had no martial techniques, was incredibly fast, incredibly strong, and incredibly reflexive, and no takedown attempts worked on it before it righted its balance. However, though Kandak's spiked armor was not sharp enough to easily cut into the thick, shaggy fur of the Primal Amorak, but it did prevent the beast from attacking too deeply.
If this was solely a war of attrition, Kandak likely would have won, for his stamina was infinitely refreshed by the Sovnar's magic, but the Primal Amorak was simply stronger than Kandak, ever so slowly pushing Kandak back, etching out deeper and deeper cuts into his carapace armor, and jaws reaching dangerous close to the goblin elite's neck on more than one occasion.
Seeing this, Thokk had nothing but praise for Kandak. Gobeira avoided pain and unleashed it. It was fast and elegant.
This…this was brutal. This was might against might over an excruciatingly long period of time.
The willpower it took to engage in this kind of fight was truly astounding.
But that made Thokk all the more aware of how useless he felt. He was here only for a finishing blow, because he was weak and inexperienced enough that he was a liability if anything went wrong.
Still, he had to wait. Wait for the plan Goromir had etched out at the beginning of the fight.
"Loktal!" shouted Kandak as he finally made some ground. He had seen an opening when the Primal Amorak had reared back his hand, balling it into a fist to try and apply crushing force. The fist went down, but the moment it did, Kandak had broken his grapple and grabbed the fist and twisted and locked it in two of his own arms, hyper-extending it to the joint's limit of motion range.
This movement also brought the Primal Amorak down to his knees from the sudden pull at his arm as his power was used against him.
Loktal was circling around the two on all fours, his crystal blue eyes gleaming bright as his lips curled up to bare a snarl. His fur was now tinted red as his heartbeat explosively boomed through the air, matching in harmony with the Primal Amorak's deeper, louder heartbeats.
Upon hearing Kandak's signal, Loktal leaped on the Primal Amorak's back and bit its neck before pulling backwards, preventing the Primal Amorak from reaching forwards and biting Kandak's arm or head off.
At this moment, now that the Primal Amorak was immobilized from both ends, Goromir's six back spines emerged from the ground, piercing into the Primal Amorak's legs and chest. However, not deep enough. The Primal Amorak's thick fur and incredibly durable muscles made any penetrating force difficult, but this was enough to wound it and bare its flesh.
"Thokk!" came Kandak's cry.
Thokk surged forwards with all his speed and might, unleashing a battle cry that rung throughout the cavern as he slammed his gleaming golden longsword into one of the shallow cuts that Goromir's spines had etched out.
The longsword sunk only a few inches into the Primal Amorak's chest as it realized what was happening and tensed up the muscles of the impact area with mana in the form of a [Guard]. However, even just a few inches was enough.
The purifying lightblade unleashed its devastating effects upon those with highly charged primal energies in quick course. The flesh around the Primal Amorak's chest lit up a bright, molten orange before starting to swell up like a balloon.
"Away! Away!" Kandak broke his hold on the Amorak's arm and leaped away, as did Loktal and Thokk.
The Primal Amorak was left clutching at his chest and snarling in confusing. The engorged, highly visible and bright red blood vessels that spread mana and blood all across his body at massively enhanced rates worked against him, circulating the purifying light within him, lighting up every vessel in gold.
The Primal Amorak turned off his enhanced heartbeat, but far too late. His entire body started to grow molten orange, swell and distend, and then multiple explosions blew out from various points in his body. The beast went down to his knees with one final snarl before his body exploded from within, scattering chunks of charred flesh in every direction.
Goromir unburrowed from the ground, popping up in the air and landing on his two feet. He left a neat, circular, Goromir-sized hole where he had been.
"Good job, everyone," said Goromir. "That was executed flawlessly."