Beyond the Apocalypse
Chapter 461: A new Leviathan Lord

Chapter 461: A new Leviathan Lord

Ouroborus’ eyes narrowed with predatory focus as he evaded the Manticore Leviathan Lord’s lethal tail strike, twisting his massive, lupine body in a blur of dark scales and crimson flame. The stinger, dripping with venomous fluid, swept through empty air just centimeters from his flank.

Not wasting an instant, Ouroborus lunged forward, sinking his razor-sharp fangs into the Manticore’s armored side. He channeled his demonic flames through his jaws, causing fire to surge into the Leviathan Lord’s flesh.

"SHRIIIIEEKKK!" Steam and smoke erupted from the wound as if molten metal had met frozen steel, and the creature’s shriek of agony tore through the sky. The monstrous foe thrashed wildly, its massive pincers pushing with desperate might, prying at Ouroborus to force him away before the internal scorching could spread too far.

As the two titans collided in midair, their battle resembled a violent storm of flesh, claws, and fiery breath. The Manticore Leviathan Lord lashed out with its claws. Each slash sparked off Ouroborus’ draconic scales, sending flakes of hardened plate drifting away. For his part, Ouroborus battered his foe with huge, clawed paws, raking poisonous fire along its flanks. Toxic fumes trickled from his maw, and every bite he landed injected that scorching venom deeper into the Manticore’s body. Yet his enemy was no stranger to pain.

With a roar, the Manticore slammed a pincer into Ouroborus’ shoulder, cracking scales, and the massive wolf responded by tearing the monster’s flesh with his massive claws.

The Sky Seed Depravita and the Leviathan Lord fought with reckless ferocity, each refusing to yield. When the Manticore Lord tried to gain altitude, flapping its wings, Ouroborus leaped higher. His jaws snapped around the Leviathan’s forearm, crunching through chitin and muscle.

The Manticore bellowed, wrenching its limb free with a shower of sparks and blood. In retaliation, its tail lashed again, this time carving a gash along Ouroborus’ left flank. The Depravita of Gluttony snarled and retaliated with a swipe of his claws, carving furrows into the Manticore’s chest. Neither could dominate. They soared upward, then descended in deadly spirals, each passing second leaving them more wounded and enraged.

The heavens themselves seemed to warp under the pressure of their struggle. Sonic booms erupted as their massive bodies collided again and again. At times, Ouroborus felt his bones trembling from the force of a blow. At others, the Manticore Leviathan Lord recoiled, one pincer hanging limp, shattered by the wolf’s crushing bite.

Severe wounds appeared in the wolf and the manticore, their bodies profusely bleeding from dozens of gashes, their scales and plates cracked or broken. Yet their eyes burned with unwavering fury. The Manticore Leviathan Lord’s stinger dripped black venom onto the battlefield far below while Ouroborus exhaled plumes of poison flame that singed the edges of the Leviathan’s membrane-like wings.

As the battle reached its zenith, Ouroborus’ eyes burned with determination as he attempted to tear out the creature’s throat, but the Manticore used its pincers to force him back, sacrificing a limb to save its life.

"ROOOAAARRR!" Ouroborous roared in fury, seeing that the enemy resisted the attack with even more ferocity, willing to receive wounds as long as it could harm the Leviathan Lord.

Their blood rained onto the lands below, and their roars shook the clouds, but still, they fought on. Neither would retreat, neither would submit. Their fight was a brutal test of endurance and will,

Far away from their aerial clash, an equally intense struggle unfolded on devastated ground. Jormungandr, in his World Snake form, and the Kraken Leviathan Lord were locked in a colossal battle that shook the very landscape. To spare the human forces from their crushing bulk, Jormungandr had deliberately drawn the Kraken Leviathan Lord away. Now, they wrestled amid shattered earth and torn terrain, their gargantuan coils and tentacles gouging deep trenches into the soil.

Jormungandr’s World Snake’s scales blazed with lightning and fire so intense that it scorched the ground to glass. The Kraken Leviathan Lord’s body burst with a seemingly endless vitality and incredibly raw power.

The two titans crashed together again and again. Every impact created shockwaves that flattened distant forests and fractured the bedrock. When Jormungandr coiled around the Kraken, his flaming body seared chitin and flesh, leaving charcoal-black scars on the Leviathan’s massive body. The Kraken responded by tightening its tentacles around the World Snake, stifling his movements and attempting to crush him. The sound of their struggle carried cracking chitin, roaring flame, and the tortured groan of the earth splitting apart.

Jormungandr spewed lightning and fire into the Kraken’s face, each blast shattering plates of chitin and burning away layers of flesh. The Kraken Leviathan Lord retaliated, using its horns to stab into Jormungandr’s coils and tear open scorching wounds. Rivers of glowing energy bled from the World Snake’s wounds, splattering onto the ravaged earth below and igniting wildfires in a thousand different places.

Locked in a deadly embrace, they slammed into a colossal rock formation. The impact pulverized the stone into gravel and dust, sending a plume of debris high into the sky. Jormungandr hissed through crackling energy, twisting his muscular coils to break free of the tentacles pinning him down. His lightning-laced body surged with power as he concentrated his fury into one devastating discharge, blasting straight into the Kraken’s gaping maw. The Leviathan Lord choked on flame and sparks, but even so, it refused to yield, slashing with horns and whipping tentacles to inflict more wounds.

Everywhere around them, the terrain bore scars of their might. The ground was torn and uneven, riddled with deep gouges and smoking fissures. Streams of molten rock bled from fractures in the crust, set off by the unimaginable forces of their battle. The Depravita of Gluttony and the Kraken Leviathan Lord were grievously wounded, each wearing the other down blow by crushing blow. Yet neither would submit, Jormungandr carrying the responsibility of protecting the human force, while the Leviathan Lord responding to the command of the hive mind to fight to the end.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the battlefield where humans fought the Leviathan swarm, Freya’s mace burst a Leviathan warrior into fragments of chitin and gore. She swept her shield out to one side, releasing a wave of force that cleared a circle of drones attempting to overwhelm her. Around her, human forces cut down foe after foe, systematically butchering the swarm. Yet Freya’s keen eyes strayed now and then to the distant cataclysms unfolding above and afar. Ouroborus was battling the Manticore Lord in the sky, and Jormungandr and the Kraken Lord were in the distance.

Freya understood how crucial it was that the human army continue its work. If they could annihilate enough of the swarm, they could eventually send reinforcements to help the Depravitas. The Leviathan Lords were unimaginably powerful. Even if Ouroborus and Jormungandr won, they would be left with severe wounds that might slow the army’s advance into Wendy Country. The hive mind would exploit any delay, concocting new abominations or laying traps that could undo all their progress.

For a moment, a thought flitted through her mind: "If he were here, things would be easier." She pictured a young man, imposing and determined, someone whose presence would tip the scales of every battlefield he took part on.

Yet, Freya banished that notion as quickly as it came. She was not a damsel awaiting rescue. She was a Viking princess, a leader, a warrior. She would not wait for another to save her. "Trust your comrades, but depend on yourself!" she reminded herself silently, her resolve as firm as the steel in her hands.

With renewed determination, Freya channeled her energy into another devastating charge. She could sense the pattern of the battle: the human forces were systematically shredding the Leviathan swarm’s cohesion. If they could just hold on, if they could just keep pushing, soon they would thin the enemy’s ranks enough to send crucial aid to the Depravitas. Then, the Leviathan Lords would be outnumbered, outflanked, and hopefully defeated before the hive mind could enact some new strategy.

Unfortunately, wars are fluid, and no advantage is ever guaranteed. Freya had barely begun to execute her renewed push when a thunderous explosion echoed in the distance. The ground shook as if struck by a colossal hammer. Her heart tightened with sudden dread, instincts screaming danger. She searched the horizon for the source of this new threat, and soon, her eyes fell upon a towering figure emerging from the haze of battle.

What stepped into view was a nightmarish entity, a towering humanoid form at least eight meters tall. Its head was crowned with twisted, jagged horns that curved ominously like some infernal crown. Glowing red eyes burned in its skull, radiating malice and cunning. Its body pulsed with exaggerated muscles that rippled beneath dark, chitinous plating, armor-like, and unyielding. Deep grooves and jagged ridges scarred its form as though carved from living stone. Multiple massive arms extended from its body in a chaotic array, each limb ending in sharp, clawed appendages capable of shredding steel or crushing bone.