Dungeon King: The Hidden Ruler-Chapter 91: [Three Faces of the Blade 9] We Burn, We Stand

Raven pushed himself off the scorched floor, ribs screaming. His fingers twitched, chain tightening instinctively—just enough to hide the tremble. The recoil hadn’t just rattled his stance. It had cracked something deeper.

Rookie mistake.

He wasn’t out yet. And he wasn’t alone.

He reached into his belt pouch and pulled a vial free—slim, black-glassed, the contents pulsing faintly blue. He popped the cork with his thumb and downed it in one go.

It burned. Not the comforting warmth of health, but the stinging reminder that he’d slipped.

HUD text flashed across the corner of his vision:

[Healing Potion – Tier II Consumed]

+450 HP Restored Over 3s

Minor Stability Boost: Recoil Resistance +10% for 10s

Raven lowered the bottle and exhaled sharply.

The ground shook.

Seneschal was already there—fast, rooted, immovable. The ironbark knight stepped between Raven and the advancing Arvax with shield raised, bracing for impact.

Brass collided with bark in a sharp clang as one of Arvax’s hammer limbs crashed down. The Seneschal didn’t budge.

His presence was a wall.

Raven coughed once more, steadier now. He wasn’t out yet. And he wasn’t alone. He wasn’t out yet.

But he wasn’t allowed another mistake.

The warning pulse of Code Crimson flared again.

The air rippled. A faint hum built near her—the kind that always preceded something unfair.

Raven felt it before he saw it. His pulse ticked once out of sync with the rhythm of battle.

This time, it hit Widowvine.

The glyph struck her chest like a brand—her form staggered, and her health dropped instantly to one. For a moment, she stayed standing, breathing shallow. She looked over to Raven, vines twitching defensively, eyes unreadable.

Raven saw it and started to move—

"MOVE!" he shouted—but it was too late. She was already rooted by fate.

Too slow.

Arvax’s upper right limb swung out in a brutal, fluid arc—no dramatic windup, just brutal precision. The blow landed squarely, cracking through her defenses. The recoil sent her backward into a dying patch of the Regal Bloom mist.

She tried to shadowstep out. She faltered.

She raised a hand, petals curling inward, trying to form a volley.

But nothing left her fingers. No spell. Just flickering pollen and breathless resolve.

Her silhouette flickered, vines beginning to lash wildly around her body—until they snapped inward all at once.

Like a flower closing around a seed.

She gave Raven one last look. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t even regret.

It was detachment.

"It was beautiful fight, wasn’t it?" she whispered.

Then she unraveled.

A burst of static, a swirl of shredded silk and thorns—and she was gone.

[Unsummoned Widowvine Arcanist – Cannot be summoned again until the stage clear]

"Shit!" Raven cursed under his breath.

But now was no time to mourn.

Arvax roared.

Its health bar dipped into the red—low, but not low enough for a subjugation attempt. The scream it let out wasn’t just sound. It was pressure. The kind that shattered air and rattled stone.

The arena trembled.

Raven felt it in his teeth, his bones—a raw, bone-chilling fury that drowned out every other noise.

Its chest plates split with a crack like bursting stone. Steam erupted from vents along its spine, glowing white-hot. One by one, segments of armor fell away, molten and shrieking as they hit the ground. freёweɓnovel_com

Beneath the brass exterior, a glowing skeleton emerged—its entire frame pulsating like a living furnace. Every movement now hissed and spat sparks.

The arena warped with heat. Steel seams along the floor popped like overboiled rivets. Ash pooled in corners. Decorative banners—once Velkarin standards—crumbled to soot. Even the air crackled, charged and angry.

Raven’s HUDs flickered, struggling to maintain visual integrity within the burning arena.

[Boss Status Update: Red Phase Engaged – Core Overburn Protocol Active]

All attacks now deal AoE splash damage

Burn trails persist for 8s

Environmental hazard: superheated terrain

Arvax’s voice now came fragmented, each syllable in a different pitch and tone—as if every recorded verdict it had ever made now spoke at once.

"TRIAL ESCALATION... TOTAL PURGE... ALL FAILURES—BURNED."

Seneschal slammed his shield down and stood his ground, roots cracking from his legs into the stone. Ostreva and Raven.

Even in his state, he is the tank. And an ideal knight only had one job—to serve and protect.

Raven knew what this phase meant.

Too much pressure. Too much fire.

Seneschal was plant-aligned. Every second in this state burned deeper.

"Hold, Seneschal! Don’t move yet!"

But the knight didn’t answer. He simply turned his head slightly toward Raven—and saluted.

Then he turned back to Arvax.

Braced.

And burning.

With his final act, Ironbark Seneschal cast his skill—Rite of the Root.

A glowing lattice of healing energy unfolded beneath Raven and Ostreva, roots pulsing with warm light. They both felt the surge: ten seconds of reprieve. Ten seconds before Seneschal would be gone.

Raven knew the window.

He triggered Phantom Bind, vanishing and reappearing behind Arvax in a blink. His chain coiled tightly around the construct’s neck-joint as he yanked it taut and drove his dagger down into the exposed plates.

[7 seconds remaining] The heat surged around him, burning into his skin. But the healing held. His HP bar locked in place—stable, unmoving.

[6 seconds remaining] Seneschal shifted, interposing himself between Ostreva and Arvax’s line of fire. The roots beneath his feet flared in response, locking him in place like a bulwark of bark and will.

Ostreva’s gaze hardened. "Oh fine, you barbaric tincan." she murmured under her breath. "Then take this."

She flung out her arm—Regal Bloom surged to life beneath Arvax’s frame in a spray of thorned petals and toxic mist. As the fog coiled upward, she followed with a sharp incantation and a whip-crack motion—Crimson Thornlash tore through the haze and buried into Arvax’s molten frame.

[5 seconds remaining] "Ostreva, hide!" Raven shouted.

She turned and ran—swift and silent—ascending the nearby stairs.

Seneschal didn’t follow. He stood his ground.

His bark-like frame blackened, flaking away in burning chunks.

He burned... slowly... but without a sound.

[Unsummoned Ironbark Seneschal – Cannot be summoned again until the stage clear]

The healing was gone. Raven pushed himself up and landed lightly on the scorched stone. His instincts screamed—Move now.

Arvax slammed its fist into the spot Raven had just vacated, and the impact detonated a shockwave of searing flame. The floor hissed, scorched red with a lingering burn zone. But Raven was already gone.

Two of his team were down. Only Ostreva remained.

And she couldn’t safely cast unless Arvax’s aggro was locked elsewhere.

Raven sprinted, zigzagging across the arena. Another of Arvax’s arms smashed into the ground near his path, sending up a new bloom of flame—a hazard zone crackling for eight full seconds. He narrowly slid past the edge, cloak singed.

[Status: Resonant State Active]

+30% Stealth Effectiveness

+25% Critical Chance from behind or while unseen

Next attack from stealth deals bonus shadow damage

Duration: 10s remaining

His HUD pulsed. He kept moving.

No time to hesitate. Not now.

He will gamble everything on the +30% effectiveness for the next 10 seconds window.

High above the chaos, Ostreva looked down from the stairs, clutching the railing. [Out of Cast Range].

She grimaced. "Damn it. If I stay here, I might as well asked to be unsummoned, and lose all this fun."

Her high heels clanked against the steps as she descended cautiously, eyes scanning for clear ground. The arena below was a shifting maze of scorched stone and blooming poison. One wrong step would be fatal.

The poisoned fog parted only slightly as she moved, clinging to her like static. Poison hung heavy in the air, and under it, Arvax’s burn trails still simmered. She could feel the difference in air pressure—the sharp rise in temperature, the bitter edge of active corruption. Her boots hissed when they hit the stone.

She leapt down between two overlapping burn zones, sliding behind a half-melted siege rack. The moment her feet hit solid ground, her casting reticule lit up.

"Back in range," she muttered.

Raven circled Arvax from the opposite end, drawing its attention with chain feints and near-miss Phantom Binds. The construct’s focus flickered—just long enough.

Ostreva cast Regal Bloom, blanketing Arvax’s predicted path in poisonous mist. She followed immediately with Crimson Thornlash, the vines slicing forward and digging into the superheated frame.

[Status Effect: Thornwrap Corrosion Reapplied]

Duration: 12s

Effect: -3% HP per tick

Additional: Movement latency – moderate

Raven dodged another sweeping arm and grappled to a high ledge to regain footing.

A fresh burst of flame detonated behind him—too close. He felt the heat ghost across his back.

Without pause, he swung his chain diagonally across the arena, latching onto a support beam warped from heat. The momentum pulled him into a wide arc—flashing past a wall of steam and ash.

At the apex of the swing, he released.

Raven twisted midair and came down in a clean, horizontal slash across Arvax’s upper chest plating. Sparks flew. The boss staggered.

He landed, rolled, and reset.

Still alive. Still burning.

"Ostreva, keep that poison tight!" he called.

She didn’t answer—just narrowed her eyes and prepared the next cast.

The final clash had begun.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢