For a time, they held the line, barely. Blades clashed and war cries echoed, steel and bone colliding in a brutal rhythm. The captains fought with grit, their cultivated bodies enduring what would've broken lesser warriors.
But slowly, inevitably, they were being pushed back.
They weren't killing, only crippling or knocking out their foes, preserving the bodies so Lumberling could land the final blow and absorb the essence. It was tactically sound, but in practice, unsustainable.
"Change tactics. Prepare to engage!" Lumberling finally shouted, voice sharp and decisive.
"I've been waiting for that," Grokk bellowed, his grin savage. He yanked the twin axes from his back and charged forward like a battering ram, cleaving through lizardmen with reckless force.
It was a loss in essence, but their lives mattered more. They could no longer afford to stay on the defensive, and Lumberling simply couldn't kill fast enough to keep up.
The battlefield ignited.
