I am the Only Son of Nyx

Killing the Chieftain was hard work.

Had Kai been an Awakened Supernal still, the attacks he endured would’ve shattered his body without a doubt. Even now, at his current strength, the blows he ate left him in a whole world of pain.

But there was no time to dwell.

Before Kai could even breathe, before he could feel satisfied, a sound rolled across the desert.

A deep, vibrating sound that was close to an organic roar. It carried an animalistic quality that seeped into his ears and wrapped around his spine like cold fingers. A noise that told what it entailed more than what it was.

Even an animal cub would know to run at this sound—a war horn.

Kai’s head snapped to the horizon.

Somehow—the sandstorm which had raged endlessly since his arrival began to dissipate as if the war horn had commanded the winds to part. And once it was clear, he could unmistakably see what was coming through the haze.

A cloud of some.

No—dust. A stampede.

Hundreds of Grey Orcs were charging at the destroyed tribe from the right.

Despite the fact that these Grey Orcs were far away, Kai already heard their collective roars.

It was a faint sound that trembled his heart.

And then, another war horn resounded from the opposite side.

Kai spun and saw a second horde of the same size and as furious, closing in from the left.

"This is bad..." He mumbled inwardly.

Currently, the Ambrosia Pact was five to seven miles deep—from the border where the guard Angels and the portal were. Two other tribes flanked the tribe they invaded, bigger tribes, and both were closer to the border than his group.

If these hordes arrived first, they would be pincered from both sides, and their only means of escaping would be severed. That would be a deadly situation. In order to avoid that, the group needed to reach safety well before their escape route was no more.

So, they needed to retreat right now—sprinting with all their might.

He gritted his teeth and forced himself to his feet, and then saw movement on his periphery.

A Grey Orc was still alive, choking on his own blood, but alive.

And in his hand was a trinket, which immediately darkened Kai’s face.

"I underestimated your resilience," Kai mumbled—as he approached the Grey Orc. His steps were wobbling, but he managed to stand before the reason for this deadly situation. "I stabbed your heart already, and you’re still alive. Let me correct that mistake."

He stabbed his hand into the hole in the Grey Orc’s chest and carved out the heart while still making eye contact. Only then did the Grey Orc let out his final breath. "I should have known that it wasn’t enough.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Just then he heard footsteps.

A figure came sprinting towards him from the distance—it was Bree.

She seemed to also realize how dire their situation was from her wide eyes.

"We need to go. Right now." She grabbed his arm and pulled. "The others are waiting."

Kai was pulled, but he resisted when he saw the Chieftain’s corpse.

"Wait!" He said, stopping them mid-track. "The Chieftain’s head. I need it."

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious."

Bree stared at him in disbelief as she watched him carve through the Chieftain’s neck in one clean stroke with his scimitar. Matilda’s reforged weapon was impossibly sharp, and the head came free without resistance.

He grabbed it by the hair, blood dripping down to the sand, and turned.

"Let’s go."

Both of them ran.

Back to the destroyed tribe, past the shattered barracks, and past the bodies of Grey Orcs and the cratered sand. Matilda, Dorian, Bryan, and Abigail were waiting near the entrance. Despite their evident worry, they still waited for Kai.

"Go, go, go!" Kai shouted for them to run.

All of them glanced at him once, and then ran without hesitation.

Matilda took the lead, moving with purpose as she paid attention to the incoming hordes.

Directly behind her was Dorian, and then Bryan with Abigail slung over his shoulder.

He was carrying her like baggage—but it was the most comfortable position for him to exert everything he had to run. Comfort is secondary in a race for survival. All of them rushed as the war horns sounded again.

And the sandstorm, silenced by the approaching horde earlier, began to rise once more.

But this time, the wind blew directly against their path, slowing them down.

"You never said the Grey Orcs were able to control the desert like this!" Bree said, needing to raise her voice a notch due to the howling sandstorm. "At least some of them have an affinity to sand or something close to that!"

"I didn’t see any of them use this!" Kai shouted back.

Even though he had already scouted the Barbarian Hold, making sure the group wouldn’t be caught off guard—it seemed the Grey Orcs knew that they were being watched and kept their trump card hidden.

It was stated by the Guard Angels that the Grey Orcs made for excellent slaves.

Due to their disciplined nature, they could be trained to obey human commands.

And with their natural strength, they were extremely useful in many sectors across the world, making them quite valuable. Perhaps because of exactly that, the Grey Orcs kept their trump cards for when they would incite a riot.

Now, with the invaders destroying one of their tribes, they unleashed their full power.

To them, Kai and his group were the first sign of mankind wanting to wipe them out.

But then again, this was only Kai’s guess. He didn’t know for certain.

Swoosh—!

Out of nowhere, the sandstorm blew harder—causing Bree to stagger back before Kai caught her wrist and stopped her from being carried away. She anchored herself again. "I think you’ll have to carry me."

"Carry you?" Kai raised a brow. "Are you hurt?"

"One of them has an ability, and it forced me to use too much mana to block it earlier."

"Then there’s no—wait!"

Kai remembered something, placed two fingers into his mouth, and whistled.

He whistled as loud as he could.

"Feeny! Come get me right now!!"

Since the portal leading to the Barbarian Hold was farther away compared to the Dead Range and Fire Swamp, he and the others naturally needed to ride their mounts. And today—the six of them rode the raven to get here.

"Your raven’s name is Feeny?"

"It was Layr—Ekhm, I mean, it’s the best I could think of. Is it bad?"

"Bad? Not really. But it’s too girly, no? Is she a female?"

"I assumed that she was. Never really checked."

Soon enough, the beautiful black avian answered Kai’s call with a thunderous, heavy croak.

A shadow emerged in the sky, massive and dark against the swirling sand. Feeny. The raven had felt Kai’s presence even through the storm, the same way Kai could feel it coming—it was all thanks to their bond.

She descended toward him, wings spread wide.

But then something shot through the air.

Swoosh—!

A ball of hardened sand, almost as hard as a rock but seething hot, compressed and launched at near-bullet speed, slammed into Feeny mid-flight. The raven croaked in pain; her big body staggered sideways as she fought to maintain balance.

And then another followed.

Seeing that it was coming, she maneuvered over it, beating her wings hard to rise.

But more came.

A storm of hardened sand—each one aimed with deadly precision.

"By the Gods, how can these beasts do that?" Bree said aloud. "Is it the Noble Star Beast? But for it to have so much strength to hurl—that big of a rock that fast, that’s ridiculous. That kind of strength is insane."

"Unless it’s not thrown using pure strength," Kai replied whisperingly.

He nudged his chin to the other side.

Bree turned to look in that direction—and saw something among the horde. An odd Grey Orc that stood apart from the rest. Smaller than the others, less bulky, and also wearing a robe that was adorned with trinkets.

It was standing on a sacred palanquin carried by four massive Grey Orcs.

And it held a glowing staff in one hand, while its free hand directed the sand balls.

A shaman.

Only then did Kai realize what the Grey Orcs’ trump card was—they had several shamans.

Even severed from the Blue Void, they could still draw on its energy—twisting and shaping it just as they had when the connection was whole. The only price of that severed link was the loss of their corruption aura and the Blue Void’s influence over the mind.

Feeny tried to reach them.

She even feinted—leaving a shadow behind, and then blinked back to it in a desperate attempt to confuse the shaman. But the Shaman could tell what it was doing. Smarter than the rest. It fired at the shadow, and the ball landed as a direct hit, forcing Feeny to retreat higher.

Kai clicked his tongue; there was no time.

He can’t stand around and wait for Feeny to get past the shamans’ attacks as the hordes were closing in with each passing second. It seemed they would need to continue going on foot. He shoved the severed head of the Chieftain into Bree’s arms, then scooped her up in a princess carry.

A groan escaped his mouth, still reeling from the pain of his battle earlier.

But it seemed Bree liked the situation.

"You know we’ll be in trouble if we’re blocked off, right?"

"I know you’ll find a way. Come on, then. Start running!"

Kai clicked his tongue and ran, carrying Bree with him.

At the very front, Matilda glanced left, then right.

Her eyes narrowed as the hordes had strayed from their initial directions. They weren’t simply chasing after the group anymore, but focused on intercepting the group’s path. They realized the group was running for the border, and now they were charging to cut the group off.

Their formations shifted, and their long strides ate the distance.

"We need to slow them down!" Matilda shouted. "Or we won’t make it!"

Bryan had no long-range Imprint.

Dorian’s Blood-fire required blood he didn’t have while running.

So that left Abigail.

She didn’t hesitate. She channeled everything she had into her staff, pouring her mana into a single, desperate imprint. A giant sphere of water materialized overhead, swelling, trembling, and then she hurled it forward.

It exploded far ahead, thick water splattering across the sand, creating a sticky border.

One that would catch the front ranks of the horde.

As soon as the hordes neared, water tentacles erupted from the sticky water, catching them.

It was working.

Just then, an overbearing growl tore through the air. A massive Grey Orc leaped high, slapped the water tentacles aside like they were nothing, and landed past the border. It kept running like an unstoppable machine.

Naturally, the others followed his lead.

On the opposite side, the same thing happened—the horde broke through.

Abigail wanted to do more, but she had already spent all her mana.

And it was then that Matilda realized one dire fact. ’We won’t make it...’