Chapter 57: Fourth Phase Mutation

Volk's heart was pounding in his chest as the blood of pure rage surged through his veins.

Time was slipping away.

He only had minutes left in his Radioactive form, but he had no choice. He needed to press on. He needed to turn this Warlock into dust!

GROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

With a roar that reverberated off the walls, Volk leaped high into the air, with his massive legs tensing.

His movements were impossibly fast and incredibly destructive too, as if his muscles were sucking the air around and splitting them like blades that cannot even penetrate the muscles he had.

The sheer force of his anger alone can make anyone suffocate.

He spun mid-air, his legs curling up into his chest, then snapped them out with the force of a double soccer kick.

His feet slammed into Zenveil's twisted form.

KABAM!

The impact sent Zenveil flying, his half-body, three-headed monstrosity crashing into the cave wall.

The force of it was so immense that the entire cave shook violently.

WOOOOSSSHHHSDD

Cracks raced across the walls, splitting the stone like brittle glass, and debris began raining down from the ceiling.

Zenveil's beast crashed to the ground with a deafening KABOOM, the sound echoing through the underground catacombs.

Dust and debris filled the air as the cave continued to tremble under the sheer power of the attack.

Volk, however, wasn't finished. His blood was boiling, his fury not yet sated.

"VOOOOOOLLLKKKK!" he screamed, his voice shaking the earth beneath him.

"CRAAAAAASSSSSHHH!!!" He roared again, launching himself toward the crumpled figure of Zenveil.

Volk's vision was red with rage, his mind clouded with the desire to destroy.

He wasn't sure how he was doing this.

How was he still standing?

Still fighting?

He had never felt this kind of raw, unchecked power before.

As the dust settled around him, a familiar sound rang in his ears.

Ding!

The system message flashed in front of his eyes, its words glowing with an ominous light:

| The host has borrowed the power of rage, making the host twice stronger, faster, and bigger.

| Time Deduction: 1 minute.

| Current time duration: 3 minutes and 7 seconds. |

Volk blinked, the realization dawning on him. "Is this... why?" he mumbled under his breath. "But I've only mutated three times..."

His thoughts raced. His form shouldn't be this powerful.

It shouldn't be able to do this.

In the Grum-gar form, three mutations meant he should have the strength of the 11th Mag'Durotan, not this... whatever this was. But this system, this strange mutation, wasn't like the Grum-gar form.

It was different.

Before Volk could fully process what was happening, Zenveil's form began to stir.

The Warlock, battered and bruised, staggered to his feet. His body was shaking, and blood trickled from his nose and mouth.

His once confident sneer was now twisted in confusion and fear. He stared at Volk in disbelief.

"WHAT... WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Zenveil's voice trembled, cracking with a mix of rage and terror.

"YOU DIDN'T EXPLODE?! YOU AWAKENED THREE TIMES, BUT IF YOU REALLY MUTATED BY SHEER LUCK, YOUR STRENGTH SHOULD ONLY BE AT THE LEVEL OF THE 11TH MAG'DUROTAN! SO WHY? AND HOW ARE YOU... STRONGER THAN ME?!"

Volk didn't have an answer.

His own mind was racing, trying to figure out how this was possible. His eyes flicked to the system screen still hovering before him.

| The host has borrowed the power of rage, making the host twice stronger, faster, and bigger. |

"Don't tell me…" Volk muttered, piecing it together. His Radioactive form wasn't bound by the same limitations as the Grum-gar form.

In Grum-gar, he would've risen from 3rd Mag'Durotan, then slowly worked his way up to the 5th, 7th and 11th. But in this form... this was something else entirely.

Could it be that different from Grum-gar, his Radioactive form, from 3rd Mag'Durotan, became 6th, then 12th and then 22nd Mag'Durotan!?

"Is it... skipping ranks?"

Volk thought aloud, his mind reeling.

If this was true, then his strength wasn't climbing gradually. His power was leaping—doubling—exponentially—with every surge of rage.

"Could I be…really… 22nd Mag'Durotan...?"

He snapped his gaze to Zenveil, his eyes widening in shock. "After all... Zenveil... Said he was only at 21st Mag'Durotan...!" seaʀᴄh thё Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Zenveil's face paled at Volk's aura. There's no mistake, even though Volk only mutated three times, he could feel that Volk was now slightly stronger.

His eyes flicked with fear, trying to process what he was hearing.

"NO!" he screamed, as if denying the truth would make it disappear.

But before he could react, he reached for the last desperate card he had.

Immediately, he exploded one of his two remaining hearts, and the surge of dark energy instantly propelled him toward Volk.

His paw slammed down on Volk's forehead again, dark magic seeping from his fingers.

"I refuse to believe that you can mutate four times! You'll lose control like all the others until you ultimately exploded into thousand pieces like others!!"

Zenveil's voice was shrill, a frantic edge to his words. He grinned, but one could see his eyes were wide and shining with desperation.

"This time, I'll make sure you don't evolve again! Now, break, into thousand PIEEEECESSSSS!!!!!"

The dark particles of magic seeped deeper into Volk's skull, clawing at his mind. Zenveil's plan was simple: overwhelm Volk's body and force his unstable form to collapse under the weight of its own mutations.

He had done it before, with other Orcs who had dared to evolve too far.

They all ended the same way—exploded into bloody pieces, unable to control the power surging within them.

But as Zenveil's dark magic coiled around Volk's brain, something unexpected happened.

| Ding!

Another system message appeared before Volk's eyes:

| The host has borrowed the power of rage, making the host twice stronger, faster, and bigger.

| Time Deduction: 2 minutes.

| Current time duration: 1 minute and 7 seconds. |

Volk felt it immediately.

His body expanded, his muscles bulging, veins pulsing with radioactive energy.

His skin stretched as his size increased, his very bones crackling under the pressure of the power coursing through him.

Zenveil's confidence shattered.

His plan—his ultimate scheme—was crumbling right before his eyes.

Volk was evolving again.

"NO!" Zenveil stumbled backward, his face twisted in terror.

"IMPOSSIBLE!!!"

His heart pounded in his chest, his breath coming in shallow gasps. He watched in horror as Volk's body grew larger, more monstrous, more unstoppable.

Volk's lips curled into a smile as the realization finally dawned on him.

He wasn't bound by the Grum-gar form's limitations. His power wasn't that of a mutated Orc. He was something different. Something more.

"It's not Grum-gar… It's Radioactive!" Volk's voice boomed through his mind, yet even it was in his mind, his deep growl shook the very ground beneath him.

Zenveil took another shaky step back, his eyes wide with fear. "No... this cannot be happening...!"

Volk raised his massive hand, his fingers curling into a fist the size of a boulder.

His body radiated with raw power, his muscles coiling with the force of a bomb ready to explode.

"VOOOOOOOOLLLLLKKKKK!!!"

His shout echoed through the cave, the ground trembling beneath the sheer volume of his voice.

Rocks began to fall from the ceiling, cracks spreading across the walls like spiderwebs.

Zenveil panicked.

He began to spam attacks, flinging every spell, every curse, every shred of dark magic he could summon.

Yet it became all not that effective.

The air around them crackled with dark energy, but Volk's body absorbed it all.

"NO! NO! NO!"

Zenveil shrieked, his voice high-pitched and frantic. His attacks were useless. They bounced off Volk's impossibly tough muscles, harmlessly dissipating like sparks against steel.

Volk's smile widened, his eyes locked on Zenveil.

"SQUUAAAASSSSHHH!" Volk roared, bringing his massive fist crashing down.

KABOOM!

The ground shattered beneath Zenveil's feet as Volk's fist collided with the earth. Zenveil screamed, but his voice was drowned immediately by Volk's destructive fists.

SPLAAAAATTTT!!