Kraghul rose from the shattered boulder like a mountain shrugging off an avalanche. Blood poured from his ruined jaw, one of his tusk broken to jagged stump, yet his eyes burned hotter than ever. The venom slowed him, but it did not kill the centuries of battle instinct carved into his bones. He spat a mouthful of green blood and rolled his neck once. Vertebrae cracked like snapping timber.

Byung stepped forward, empty-handed but he noticed the impact also affected his body as his entire arm recoiled in pain.

Maui was already at Naz's side, arms scooping her up to carry her away from this place while Kraghul was occupied, but her gaze flicked back to the goblin who was putting his life on the line for them. She came to the same realization: this fight would decide everything.

Kraghul cracked his knuckles.

"Come, little goblin king. Let's see if your legend survives a real orc," Kraghul had a smile on his face.

Byung answered by attacking. He wasn't going to hold back whatsoever because he knew he couldn't fall until Maui had taken him

He shot forward in a green blur, shoulder lowered, driving straight into Kraghul's mid-section. The impact sounded like a battering ram hitting an iron gate. Kraghul grunted, boots carving furrows in the stone as he was shoved back three full paces. Before he could lock his arms around the goblin, Byung twisted inside the reach and hammered two short, vicious hooks into the orc's floating ribs. Venom or no venom, the blows landed with the force of sledgehammers. Kraghul's breath exploded out in a wet cough.

But the orc had fought giants, this blow wasn't enough to take him down.

He absorbed the punches, wrapped one massive arm around Byung's torso, and lifted. Byung's feet left the ground; for a heartbeat he was airborne, squeezed against seven hundred pounds of orc muscle. Then Kraghul slammed him downward. The goblin hit the stone back-first with a boom that rattled stalactites. Dust billowed. Pain flared white-hot along Byung's spine, but he bridged his hips instantly, bucking like a wild thing, and slipped the hold before Kraghul could mount him.

They rolled apart and came up facing each other, circling.

Kraghul's left arm hung slightly lower; the venom had spread fully. Byung's ribs screamed with every breath, but his eyes never left the orc's.

Kraghul lunged first this time, slower than usual but still terrifying. His right hand speared for Byung's throat. Byung ducked under it, came up inside, and drove his forehead into Kraghul's already bloodied nose. Cartilage pulped. Blood sprayed. The orc roared and swung a backhand that could have taken a horse's head off. Byung leaned back; the knuckles grazed his cheek, splitting skin, but he stayed on his feet and answered with a palm-heel strike under the chin that snapped Kraghul's head backward.

They crashed together again, chest to chest, a brutal clinch. Kraghul tried to rag-doll the smaller fighter, shaking him like a terrier with a rat. Byung jammed his forearm under the orc's jaw, forcing the head back, and pistoned short, vicious knees into the area that had taken Vrognut's bite. Each impact drew a grunt. The venom made every blow feel like it landed in slow motion, but it landed.

Kraghul suddenly dropped his weight, trying to drive Byung to the ground. Byung sprawled, hips heavy, refusing to go down. They hit the stone together in a tangle, Kraghul on top, but Byung's legs were already scissoring, trapping one of the orc's massive arms. He torqued hard, trying for the elbow. Kraghul bellowed, rolled his weight, and broke the hold with raw power, rising to his knees.

Byung surged up with him, forehead smashing into the same broken nose again. Blood exploded across both their faces. Kraghul's left fist came around in a hook that caught Byung flush on the temple. The world flashed white. Byung staggered, ears ringing, but stayed upright through sheer spite.

They separated again, Byung's breath was labored, he couldn't believe he was in a life-or-death situation but why wasn't he scared? He should be scared out of his mind.

Kraghul's movements were visibly heavier now; the venom had reached his hips. Byung's left eye was swelling shut, ribs grinding with every breath, but the cold clarity burned behind the pain: this was the serpent's head, and he would not let it slither away.

Kraghul charged one last time, arms wide for a crushing bear hug. Byung met him head-on.

At the last instant he dropped low, shoulder driving into Kraghul's stomach, legs pumping. He lifted. The orc's feet left the ground for the first time in his life. Byung roared, veins bulging, Level 3 strength screaming in every fiber, and suplexed the warlord over his hip.

Kraghul hit the cavern floor on the back of his skull with a sound like splitting oak. The impact drove the air from his lungs in a hollow whoosh. For one stunned heartbeat he lay there, eyes blinking at the sky.

Byung rolled, straddled the orc's chest, and rained down punches: left, right, left, right, hammer-fists that cracked against cheekbones, brow, jaw. Each blow landed with the force of a falling anvil. Blood and sweat flew. Kraghul's guard faltered. One massive hand tried to seize Byung's throat and missed, fingers sluggish.

Byung caught the wrist, pinned it, and drove his elbow into the orc's temple. Once. Twice. The third time Kraghul's eyes rolled white.

But what happened next sent shivers down Byung's spine as the orc muttered under his breath.

"My turn,"

Byung's knuckles throbbed from the last punch he'd landed square on Kraghul's jaw. The orc had reeled, blood spraying, yet that smile, wide, feral, almost proud, never left his face. Something cold coiled in Byung's gut.

"Why is he smiling?" Byung wondered.

The answer hit like a hammer. The poison was fading with the blood he was losing from Byung's onslaught and the goblin realized too late.

Byung felt it in the way Kraghul's shoulders squared, in the way the sluggish drag in his movements vanished. The orc's eyes sharpened, pupils dilating with sudden, savage clarity.

Byung tried to back-step, to create distance, but Kraghul was already moving.

The punch came from nowhere and the speed, Byung couldn't keep up.

A straight, brutal right hand that caught Byung dead-center in the face. His head snapped back so hard his neck cracked. The world inverted. He was airborne, weightless, a rag doll tossed by a giant. There was no time to brace, no time to twist. He simply flew.

The first boulder exploded against his spine, stone shattering into dust and shards that sliced his back open. The second boulder took him in the ribs, a sickening crunch as something inside him gave way. The third boulder finally stopped him, his body crumpling against it like a broken puppet. He slid down the rock face, coughing blood, vision tunneling to a pinprick.

Internal bleeding. Definitely. Maybe a punctured lung. His legs wouldn't answer.

Kraghul's voice drifted over, almost apologetic.

"My apologies, little one. Didn't realize the venom had worn off so quickly. I'd have pulled that punch if I'd known." He sounded genuinely sorry, like a sparring partner who'd accidentally shattered a rib.

"I was having too much fun," Kraghul said with a bloodied smile.

Byung forced his eyes open. Through the haze he saw Maui, silent, swift, had already carried Naz. The two orcs were gone, vanished into thin air while Kraghul was distracted.

Kraghul noticed a heartbeat later. His head tilted, nostrils flaring, but the smile only widened.

"Ah. The females slipped away." He shrugged, massive shoulders rolling.

"No matter. The two I came for are right here," Kraghul muttered under his breath.

Byung pushed off the boulder, legs trembling, blood pouring from his nose and mouth. He stood.

Kraghul actually clapped once, slow and deliberate.

"Still on your feet? Good bones, goblin. Good bones," Kraghul praised him.

Byung spat a clot of blood. He realized that some of this damage was caused by the attacks he had unleashed, he could match the strength of an orc, but his body was still that of a goblin. No mass, no frame to absorb the recoil. Every blow he gave, he felt twice over in his own bones. Kraghul's punch had been a mirror of his own power, yet it had shattered him like glass.

He couldn't take what he dished out.

Byung scooped a knife from the dust with his left hand, his right wrist hung at a wrong angle. Kraghul hefted his massive double-headed axe, spinning it once, lazily, the twin blades whistling through the air.

They collided.

Byung fought through the pain, a green blur of motion. He darted inside the axe's reach, knife stabbing for joints, tendons, eyes. Kraghul parried with the haft, each block precise.

So Byung fought dirty.

He feinted high, then dropped low and kicked a handful of dust and blood into Kraghul's eyes. The orc snarled, blinking hard. Byung spun inside the guard, shoulder driving into Kraghul's gut, and slashed upward with everything he had left.

The knife bit deep.

Six inches of steel carved across Kraghul's torso, parting muscle and fat in a wet green smile. A few inches lower, a little more force, and the orc's intestines would have spilled onto the stone like wet rope.

Kraghul looked down at the wound, blood pouring between his fingers, and laughed.

"Beautiful," Kraghul commented.

Then he moved. The axe haft cracked across Byung's already-broken wrist. Bone shattered completely; the knife spun away into the dark. Before Byung could react, Kraghul's hand clamped around his throat and slammed him to the ground. The orc mounted his chest, knees pinning Byung's arms, full weight pressing the air from his lungs.

Then the fists came.

The first punch split Byung's brow, blood cascading into his eyes. The second caved the left side of his face, cheekbone collapsing inward. The third cracked his orbital socket. Each blow landed heavier than the last, knuckles driving deeper into softening flesh. Byung felt his skull flex, then fracture, then begin to give. Vision tunneled to black pinpricks. His jaw hung loose, teeth scattered across the stone.

He couldn't scream. Couldn't breathe. Could only feel the wet, rhythmic thud of Kraghul's fists turning his head into pulp.

Kraghul leaned in, voice soft, almost tender.

"Shh. Almost over," Kraghul had gotten carried away once again, giving into violence and living up to the myth that surrounded him.

Byung's world narrowed to the wet sound of his own skull slowly splitting open.

He wasn't going to survive this.

[Ding!]

[Calculating combat points!]

[Combat points calculated!]

[Combat points: ???]

"Fuck, am I going to die again?" Byung knew for the system to not be able to read it, it must be a power way out of his league.

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