Bound To The Dead: The Deceptive Class-E Farmer-Chapter 51: Break the Crown

The air smelled like metal and fire.

Smoke clung to Isaac’s skin. Every breath scorched his lungs. His arms trembled from strain, his back still seared from shielding Aiah.

Pain was everywhere.

Across the battlefield, King Geoffrey stood tall, relaxed, unscathed, arrogant.

Not even breathing hard.

Aiah gritted her teeth and summoned a spear of flame, hurling it with everything she had.

Geoffrey swatted it aside with a casual flick of lightning, as if brushing dust from his shoulder.

Isaac stepped in. No hesitation. No skills ready. Just grit, blood, and rage.

He charged...

Geoffrey was ready, arms raised, lightning coiled around his fists like hunting serpents.

CRACK!

A bolt tore the sky and streaked toward Isaac.

He didn’t dodge. He stepped through it.

The electricity ripped across his shoulder, skin bubbling, nerves shrieking, but he was already in range. His left sickle came down in a vicious arc.

CLANG!

Geoffrey blocked with a flash of lightning-forged steel, barely catching the blow with a conjured gauntlet.

Isaac twisted, spun low, drove his heel into Geoffrey’s knee.

CRACK.

Geoffrey staggered, just for a beat.

That was all Isaac needed.

He struck again. And again.

Left sickle across the ribs, slice, a line of red opened under Geoffrey’s robe.

Right sickle thrust at the gut, blocked. Geoffrey’s arm snapped up, elbowing Isaac in the face.

CRACK!

Isaac reeled back, blood flying from his nose.

Geoffrey pressed. A storm surge erupted from his palm, raw energy blasting forward.

Isaac slid across the stone, boots carving trenches, vision rattling.

[Energy Level: 32%]

But he wasn’t down.

He roared and threw himself back into the fight.

Their weapons clashed like thunder. Isaac’s movements were brutal, no wasted motion, no grace.

Every strike was survival. Every dodge was inches from death.

Geoffrey was stronger. Faster. But he wasn’t used to being pushed.

And Isaac? Isaac was used to pain. Built for it.

They tore across the plaza. Geoffrey hurled bolts, Isaac redirected one with a sickle, letting it slam into a wall behind him.

Isaac closed the distance again, slammed a knee into Geoffrey’s ribs, followed by an elbow to the jaw.

Geoffrey reeled, then retaliated.

His palm struck Isaac’s chest.

BOOM.

Isaac flew back twenty feet, tumbling across the ground. His bones ached, and his vision blurred.

He rolled, spit blood, staggered up again.

Geoffrey approached, slower now, a thin stream of blood running down his temple.

"Persistent," Geoffrey muttered. "Suicidal, but persistent."

Isaac said nothing. Just spat, reset his grip, and charged, again...

This time, Geoffrey tried a feint. Lightning whip left. Lure right. Then a bolt to the center.

Isaac didn’t fall for it.

He ducked, lunged forward, and tackled Geoffrey mid-cast.

They crashed into the stone, Isaac’s blades pressing down against Geoffrey’s shield of crackling light.

Sparks flew.

"Die already!" Geoffrey roared, unleashing a pulse of magic at point-blank.

Isaac was thrown back again, smoking, breath ragged. But he didn’t break.

[Abyssal Overdrive: 00:10:12 Remaining]

Geoffrey panted too now. Not much. But enough.

Isaac charged again.

The rhythm was changing. Geoffrey’s lightning grew more erratic, more furious, less precise.

Isaac’s hits weren’t as clean. But they were relentless.

A sickle scraped Geoffrey’s face, left a line across his cheek.

Geoffrey blasted him with an arc that scorched his entire left side, but Isaac didn’t stop.

They grappled. Fought hand to hand. Sickle locked against lightning-forged gauntlets.

Blood mixed with static. Heat and fury blurred.

Isaac kneed Geoffrey in the ribs again. Heard something crack.

Geoffrey slammed his forehead into Isaac’s. Dazed him.

They broke apart.

Stared.

Both panting.

Both hurt.

The god and the monster.

Then, pause.

The system blinked in Isaac’s vision. His lungs heaved.

[Abyssal Overdrive: 00:09:00 remaining]

He didn’t move.

Geoffrey raised a hand.

Paused.

Studied him.

And smiled.

"You’re slowing down."

Isaac didn’t answer.

But his eyes flicked upward. The system screen shimmered faintly across his vision.

[Abyssal Bind: Cooldown 00:01:25]

[Abyssal Drill: Cooldown 00:01:40]

[Death Reel: Cooldown 00:02:05]

Almost.

—-----

Off to the side, sitting up against a broken pillar.

Peter’s jaw clenched. "This isn’t right."

Mira turned to him. "What do you mean?"

Peter’s brow furrowed. "It’s not his own strength. Not entirely."

He went quiet for a moment, then added grimly, "I once read of something called Celestial Favor... a rare divine buff. A way for the high beings to influence battle without stepping onto mortal soil."

Mira gasped. "But I thought they were forbidden from interfering..."

"They are. Unless the enemy is deemed an existential threat. Unless... they’re afraid of what’s inside Isaac."

The sky crackled violently again, a divine pressure briefly pressing down on the battlefield like judgment from on high.

Peter’s eyes narrowed.

"Someone up there tipped the scales."

—----

Back to Isaac...

He clenched his jaw, ducked another strike, slid beside Aiah.

"Cover me," he muttered.

Aiah nodded instantly, fire erupting around her fists.

Together, they pushed forward... Isaac playing bait, Aiah the blade.

Geoffrey chuckled. "Asking for a teammate?"

A bolt of lightning roared down...

Isaac caught it on his sickle, skidded back five feet, boots carving lines in the stone.

He spat blood. Looked up.

the system pinged.

[Abyssal Bind: Available]

[Abyssal Drill: Cooldown 00:00:05]

[Death Reel: Cool down 00:00:15]

Isaac wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, eyes narrowing.

"You’ve got five seconds to look smug," he said flatly.

Geoffrey tilted his head. "What?"

Isaac quickly stabbed his sickles to the ground.

[Skill Activated: Abyssal Bind]

The earth cracked.

Geoffrey’s eyes widened, he knew it but it’s too late.

Chains burst from the ground.

SHING. KRING. KLANG!

Grabbing his arms and legs. The air throbbed with energy

"You think that can ho.."

[Skill Activated: Abyssal Drill]

Isaac lunged...

Both hands gripping one sickle, now spinning like a hellish vortex.

He drove it toward Geoffrey’s chest, but the king twisted at the last second. The blow tore through his left shoulder instead.

The screech of metal on bone echoed across the plaza. Flesh ripped, tendons snapped, and black blood exploded from the wound.

Geoffrey roared in pain, lightning flaring wild from his eyes.

And then, two seconds later...

[Skill Activated: Death Reel]

Isaac vanished...

Then reappeared again and again in a blink... flashing between shadows, a cyclone of blades and fury.

Sickles slashed across Geoffrey’s body, thigh, ribs, chest, cheek.

His robe shredded like paper. Deep gouges opened across his flesh. Black blood sprayed, coating the stone floor in slick arcs.

A chunk of muscle tore from his bicep. A strip of skin peeled from his side. Shreds of fabric fluttered away in ribbons.

Final strike...

Isaac’s twin sickles slammed together and hammered down onto Geoffrey’s chest.

The impact cracked like thunder.

The king’s body was hurled backward, crashing through three thick stone columns, before slamming into the marble wall of the old courthouse at the far edge of the execution plaza.

Dust and rubble exploded. The wall cracked deep.

Geoffrey’s body slumped in a crater, limbs twisted, blood dripping from torn muscles and shredded robe.

For a breathless moment, the battlefield froze.

The thunder in the air died. The lightning faded. Only silence remained.

Aiah ran to Isaac. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, barely. His body trembled from the aftermath of the assault.

Then came the screen.

[Tool Savant: Cooldown 00:24:59]

The sickles dimmed, no longer buzzing with sharp energy.

Broner groaned in the distance. Corpuz stirred. A few survivors among Isaac’s allies began to lift their heads.

Elder Peter stood at the edge of the square, frowning deeply.

Mira noticed. "What is it? Isn’t it over?"

Isaac stood in place, eyes locked on the system interface.

Still no level-up. No skill points notification.

Where’s the pop-up? Where’s the reward?

One second.

Five seconds.

Thirty.

A full minute passed.

Nothing.

Isaac’s breath caught in his throat. His arms hung loose. His gut twisted with unease.

"This doesn’t feel like victory," he whispered.

Then finally, the system blinked.

But not with what Isaac expected.

[Abyssal Overdrive: Cooldown 00:29:59]

[Corruption: 29%]

Isaac gasped. The power left like a breath held too long.

The black aura boiling off his skin vanished.

And with it, the rage, the speed, the edge.

The plaza felt too quiet.

Then...

From under the rubble, Geoffrey’s fingers twitched. Then twitched again. Slowly, they curled like he was grabbing something in the air.

A deep, rough noise came from the pile of broken rocks. It was wet and hard to listen to, like someone choking.

CRACK.

His ribs moved as he started to breathe. One by one, his bones snapped back into place with loud, messy pops. His lungs filled with air, making a sound more like drowning than breathing.

Isaac lifted his sickles.

Aiah’s voice cracked: "No. No, he can’t... he shouldn’t..."

"That’s not healing," Isaac said, stepping forward.

"That’s possession."

Geoffrey sat upright.

He didn’t move like someone hurt.

He moved like something was forcing his body to stand.

His spine straightened, one bone at a time. His neck snapped back into place. His head tilted at a weird angle, then slowly turned upright with a loud crunch.

His hair was stuck to his face, wet with blood and ash. But the rest of his body looked clean, too clean. He didn’t wobble. He didn’t limp. He didn’t even look like he was in pain.

Then something flashed.

Just for a second...

Behind him, a faint glow of gold twisted in the air like it was bending from heat. It looked bright.

Almost not real.

Gone in an instant.