“Hell and damnation!” King Laiyun exclaimed as he fought off another five Beastmen that had come after him. Despite being a meathead with the tactical and strategic sense of a particularly dumb clump of moss, even he had realized that he had been caught in a trap. Neither he nor his soldiers had expected that the Beastmen would pose such a threat, nor had they anticipated that their rush to reclaim their stolen honor would have led them into such a dangerous position.

Then again, the reason his soldiers did not object was either/both due to being as tactically and strategically inept as their king and/or due to being too terrified of their liege’s wrath to speak up. The battle they were in was heavily in the favor of the ‘dumb and savage animals’, as each minute that passed saw the Werean pushed further and further into the dreaded Karnarous Forest. Sure, each and every Werean had the ability to navigate this place even without levels in the Ranger class or its sub-class, but none of them were at the level of even a young Beastman in terms of ability to find one’s way through the cursed woods.

“I challenge the leader of the Beastmen!” Laiyun roared, hoping that his demands would be met and that he could wipe the floor with their primitive ruler. In his eyes, if he managed to defeat their leader, he figured that it would cause the rest of the savages to break and run. At least that was how he hoped things would go. After all, he was a descendant of one of the Great Werean Kings, and therefore he was immeasurably stronger than even the leader of these monsters.

The din of battle subsided a bit, allowing his soldiers to pull back and gather on his position, but while the monsters were not attacking, he did not see their leader anywhere. Perhaps they were already about to break, and his challenge was enough to shake them to their core? Typical animals: fight them long enough and then yell at them and they turn tail like the cowards that they are!

King Laiyun’s smugness was short-lived, however, as the crunching of foliage gave away the presence of a Beastman unlike any other in terms of size. As the monster approached, Laiyun could see that its body was covered in scars that had long since healed over and had the obvious signs of being tortured with hot irons, among other things. The bulging musculature of the gigantic savage made the heavily muscled King feel slightly inadequate in comparison, which was not a feeling he was comfortable with in the slightest.

“You are the ruler of these animals?” King Laiyun asked in a haughty voice. “Are you finally ready to face me in honorable combat and decide the fate of all here in a one-on-one duel to the death? I am King Laiyun Symbah Bestiral, rightful ruler of the lands you have stolen from me and my people through unjust and cowardly actions! State your name, if your kind even has the concept of such a thing.”

The Beastman huffed, tensed itself and then loosened up before finally speaking in Racial Common.

“I have no need to give you my name, but I suppose you won’t shut up unless I do. I am Dur’kor Wildheart, chosen of the Beast Gods and leader of the ‘Mercy’ Faction of my kind. And let us not forget who it was who originally stole whose lands from whom. Now, shut up about your stupid sense of honor and prepare yourself and your warriors for oblivion. The Beast Gods will feast tonight, and they shall feast upon the souls of all those who fight against them on this field!”

“What?!” the King cried in confusion and a bit of fear.

“None of you are leaving this field alive. But as for those in my territory after this is over? I’ll be merciful, unlike my daughter. Now, fight and die as your empty and hollow sense of honor demands!” The Beastman then bellowed out his commands to the rest of his kind. “Grak thu’r malk-ah!”

This elicited roars of approval from the rest of the monsters, who rushed forwards to reenter battle with the Werean forces.

“YOU MINDLESS, SAVAGE ANIMALS!” screamed Laiyun as he rushed towards the largest Beastman, the one with all the marks on his body and the one who was obviously their leader. He would take this mongrel down, and then he would cut the rest of these monsters to ribbons! No, he wouldn’t even use his family sword to do the job, he would beat them all to a bloody mess with his bare hands!

The king swung his broadsword at the tribal leader, only for the monster to lash out at him with a thorny whip, forcing the monarch back and out of range of the weapon. Laiyun then tried to rush around the monster, hoping the creature’s larger frame meant that it could not move as quickly. However this notion was quickly put to rest as the oversized Beastman was not only able to follow Laiyun’s movements but react accordingly. This led the king to pick up a hand axe of one of his fallen soldiers and fling it at his foe. He expected the Beastman to dodge or use the whip to smack it out of the air, which would give him a window to attack.

The Beastman did neither of these things and instead caught the handle of the axe, flipped it around and threw it at one of the Werean soldiers, burying the head of it into the back of its target and allowing the Werean soldier’s original opponent to claim his life. The Beastman then gave what Laiyun thought was a smirk and asked in Common, “Got any more toys for me to use against you?”

King Laiyun was now beyond furious and piled multiple Martial Skills on top of each other.

“[Lower Speed Boost]! [Lower Strength Boost]! [Lower Perception Boost]! [Lower Exceed Limits]! [Single-Shot Pile Bunker Fist: Left]! [Single-Shot Pile Bunker Fist: Right]! [Lesser Dangerous Blade Dance]! And finally, [Lower Full-Body Overload]!”

After self-buffing himself to an absurd degree, at least for a non-monster/mob, the king ran to the flank of the Beastman Tribal Leader and tossed his broadsword like a giant throwing knife. The blade flew faster than the Beastman could fully react to and lodged itself into the creature’s left shoulder, forcing the Beastman to drop its whip that was in its left hand and draw its axe with its right.

But the king was not done yet. He continued to move around his much larger foe and with two well-placed punches caused his animal to nearly fall to its knees. Shortly after the right-left combo, the effects of two of the king’s buffs came into play, giving the giant of a Beastman another two delayed but very heavy impacts that were, unlike normal punches, far more like directed spikes of kinetic energy than a normal body blow.

This caused the Beastman to cough up some blood, and desperately swing his axe around to try and stop the king from punching him again and again, which did not work. Finally, Laiyun gave the monster an uppercut to the jaw, sending the hulking frame of his foe into the air and down to the ground. As the king stood triumphant over his foe, the Beastman who lay before him did the unthinkable.

It began to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” the king asked, his eyes filled with a mix of slight confusion and a sneaking sense of dread.

“That’s all you have.” the Beastman grumbled in Common.

“What…?” King Laiyun replied, his sense of dread growing at an alarming rate.

The Beastman then leapt to its feet and tossed its axe to the side.

“That was a nice warmup.” it grunted, causing Laiyun to unconsciously take a step back. The giant of a Beastman looked down on the king and smirked as it made its declaration. “Now, it’s my turn.”

It was at that moment that King Laiyun knew he had fucked up, because as the Beastman began to buff itself with Martial Skills that he had never even heard of the backlash from all of the buffs he had placed on his unprepared body caught up with him, sending surges of agony through the king’s body. His pain receptors screamed at him as he felt the bones in his body fracture and his muscles begin to tear, he would need weeks if not months of time to recover from this, but something told him that he would not need to worry about recovery ever again.

As the king fell to his hands and knees, trying desperately to turn off the pain that was setting his body ablaze, the Beastman that stood over him just kept buffing itself until at last the world went completely black and the last king of the Bestiral Kingdom exploded into a bloody, gory mess.