The impact was dry, a metallic "thunk" echoing through the damp cell. The captain's spear had pierced Melina's slender waist, the iron cruelly emerging from her back, stained with a black, viscous fluid that wasn't exactly blood.
But Melina didn't scream. Didn't fall. Her ruby eyes widened for a split second.
— "What the hell do you think you're doing? Is this your reaction to seeing a beautiful woman?" — Melina bellowed, her once-sweet voice now a whip of fury.
The expression of pure surprise — like someone receiving an unexpected and deeply unwanted gift — was still etched on her perfect features. Her curvaceous body, shaped by the black dress like a second skin, trembled slightly from the impact, like a stone disturbing the surface of a dark lake.
With supernatural grace that defied the iron embedded in her torso, she lowered her gaze to the steel shaft. A hand with long, pale fingers rose, trembling slightly not from pain, but from contained indignation. She touched the protruding tip near her navel, almost with macabre curiosity. When she withdrew her fingers, they were stained with that dark, cold liquid.
Then, her ruby eyes rose again, fixing on the captain behind his closed visor. The initial fury gave way to glacial disapproval, tempered by a spark of dangerous disdain.
— "Oh, that wasn't courteous of you..." — she hissed. The sweet hypnotism had been swallowed by a cutting coldness. "How... unpleasant."
She paused dramatically, tilting her head slightly as if examining a rare and particularly rude insect. "And such an attitude... utterly unchivalrous, I must say."
A new smile, warmthless and lethal, appeared on her red lips, exposing two prominent, sharp canines.
— "But, darling, you were so hasty..." — she continued, "...this wasn't quite the spear I wished to be... pierced by."
Melina raised an accusatory finger, her ruby eyes glittering with fury. Her lips parted:
— "You barbarian! Attacking a poor, defenseless, and incredibly beautiful woman... like a goddess! Have you no shame?"
THUNK!
Another spear, hurled with brutal force by the captain, lodged itself with deadly precision in Melina's chest, just above the first. The impact made her sinuous body retreat half a step, an even larger stain of black fluid gushing from the double wound, staining the black dress with an obscene wetness.
— "Damn! She didn't fall!" — The captain roared, exasperated, his voice muffled by the visor.
— "Try again, Captain!" — shouted one of the soldiers crouched behind a makeshift barricade.
— "Here, take mine!" — another soldier pushed his own spear into the leader's hands.
Without hesitation, the captain grabbed the weapon, adjusted its weight in an instant, and hurled it. The projectile flew like lightning, piercing Melina's torso exactly beside the second spear, in the same chest. Three iron rods now adorned her torso like grotesque pins.
— "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!" — Melina shrieked, her visceral fury making the cell walls tremble. Her ruby eyes burned like embers in the dark, the black blood streaming in rapid rivulets. The dress was unrecognizable, soaked and torn.
The soldier who had handed over the third spear pointed at her, his voice trembling but triumphant:
— "The demon's screaming, Captain! It's definitely working!"
But another soldier, more pragmatic, scoured the dark corners, his voice laden with panic:
— *"But... we're out of spears, Captain! And we can't summon the monsters here—it's too narrow..."
The captain took a deep breath, the steel of his armor creaking. A spark of arrogance remained as he stretched his hand to the side without looking:
— "Bring more things! Arrows, daggers, stones—whatever you have! My aim is good..."
— "I'll kill you all!" — Melina screamed furiously, advancing a step.
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
Three daggers embedded in rapid succession made Melina halt. Now with spears, arrows, daggers, and protruding irons, she resembled a porcupine.
— "Captain, she's still standing!" — declared a soldier, his voice caught between dread and despair.
The captain observed the motionless creature:
— "But she's not advancing—this is certainly very effective. Come on! Help me throw things—hurl everything you've got!"
— "Captain, she's still standing!" — affirmed a soldier, his voice between terror and despair.
The captain observed the creature, motionless and pierced by dozens of weapons.
A new downpour descended upon Melina—arrows, daggers, and metal fragments. Each impact echoed like a hammer on rotten wood, but her ruby eyes remained fixed on the captain.
It was then that the squire appeared at the entrance, panting. He was short, barely over one and a half meters tall, wearing armor so battered and patched—twisted iron plates, rusted joints, and dented greaves—that he resembled a pile of walking scrap rather than a man. He pushed a cart of weapons, each step producing a metallic clank-clank. Climbing the stairs had cost him his breath; he leaned on the cart, trying to recover.
— "Quick! More weapons!" — shouted the captain, still focused on Melina.
A soldier looked at the bent squire—his silhouette indistinct in the gloom, his deformed armor reflecting fractured light—and mistook him for a loose piece of arsenal. Without hesitation, he grabbed him by the armor's collar:
— "Here, Captain!"
— "Ahhhh!" — the boy screamed as he was lifted like a piece of metal.
The captain, without question, received the "object" and hurled it with full force at Melina, unconcerned about why that small rusty armor seemed to be screaming.
Must be the adrenaline making me hear voices, he thought distractedly. The squire flew like a human projectile, his metal plates grinding in the air.
CRUNCH-SPLASH!
The impact caused a metallic sound as the armor collided with Melina. She leaned under the weight while the squire slid to the floor, unconscious, his armor now crumpled like old tin.
Melina completely ignored the small armor that had detached beside her. She was now truly furious. She'd only wanted to play, to make everything more fun, but those despicable men had ruined her beautiful dress.
Not that her original intention hadn't been to kill them—of course it had—but certainly not in the excruciating way now racing through her mind.
She then waved her right hand. As if obeying an absolute command, all items embedded in her body detached at once and clattered to the floor.
KLANK-KLANK-KLUNK!
— "You first" — she hissed to a soldier to the captain's right.
As if sensing primal terror from death's very face, the man tried to flee. Liquid shadows emerged from the floor, shackling his ankles like tar manacles.
— "No—!"
His cry was cut off as black needles sprouted from Melina's palms. With a fluid gesture, she wove the air. Threads of gloom linked to the needles, sewing the soldier's mouth shut with thick stitches of darkness. He choked, blood gushing between sealed lips, while the needles plunged down his throat, shredding everything in their path to his abdomen, swelling until they tore him open in an explosion of entrails.
Melina blinked, surprised:
— "Ew... I think I overdid it a little."
The captain shouted:
— "Kill that thing!"
Two soldiers charged. Melina advanced toward the men. Her fingers snapped. Shadows swallowed the men's legs and began chewing their shins with wet cracks. They fell, screaming, while serpents of darkness coiled around their necks, twisting until bones snapped like twigs.
— "Captain!"* — a younger soldier wept, retreating against the wall.
Melina floated to him, shreds of her torn dress dancing like black serpents.
— "You... praised his aim, didn't you?" — **her fingers, now ebony claws, caressed the boy's face. — "I have good aim too. See how I don't miss at this distance."
The spear lying on the floor rose. Like lightning, it shot forth, piercing the soldier's armor and pinning him to the stone wall.
It lasted no more than seconds. She'd already turned to another stunned soldier trying to flee. A nearby piece of iron levitated from the floor.
The weight crushed him like paper, accompanied by a wet CRUNCH. Brain and bone fragments splattered the walls.
The last soldiers tried to flee up the stairs. Melina raised her hand:
— "Not so fast..."
Darkness solidified into a giant loom at the top of the steps. Tendrils of human tendons yanked them back, sewing them alive into a tapestry of flesh SCHIIIP-SCHIIIP! echoed the sharp sound of stitching). Bodies bent into impossible knots, forming a grotesque "X" over the doorway.
Melina ran her hand over her new dress— a fluid mantle of pure night, embroidered with crimson threads pulsing like veins.
The crimson hue underwent a metamorphosis, turning black, like common fabric transforming into an impeccable gown.
— "Much better" — she murmured,locking eyes with the captain, who stared wide-eyed.
— "I have something special for you" — she approached the man brandishing his sword.
As if dissolving into darkness, she reappeared behind him in a blink. She seized his neck, bending it backward, and sank sharp fangs into his jugular. Blood gushed like wine.
She covered his mouth; only muffled noises escaped as his life force drained. The captain tried to cast an invocation seal, but Melina shattered it with a wave of her hand.
His body grew pale, visibly withering. When his last breath escaped, he was tossed into a dark corner.
**Melina raised her bloodied hand:
— "Rise."
The captain's corpse shuddered. Bones realigned with dry snaps, flesh regenerated in cadaverous tones, and his eyes opened—now two lifeless azure orbs.
Melina observed the reanimated captain—icy blue eyes, necrotic flesh beneath dented armor—and pointed to the stairs where the last living soldiers were retreating:
— *"Deal with that scum. I'll visit the fortress lord."
The undead tilted his head at a broken angle, neck bones grinding like crushed glass. Before he could move, desperate footsteps echoed from the upper corridor.
Coincidentally, a second squad of soldiers appeared at the stairway entrance leading to the cell, armor gleaming and crossbows loaded. Their leader, a man with lieutenant's insignia, froze upon seeing the captain:
— "Captain?! What happened?"
Then he noticed the ashen skin, lifeless eyes, and black blood clotted around the pierced throat.
— *"What the hell is this?"
The undead captain advanced.
His clenched fist shattered the lieutenant's chest, tearing out ribs and lung in a gush of hot viscera. The body flew against the wall with a resounding SPLAT!
Twisting at an unnatural angle, he wrenched a soldier's arm off with a wrenching motion. The limb, still clutching a sword, was used as a mace to crush another man's skull – CRACK! – like a smashed nut.
The survivors recoiled in panic:
— *"Summon the monsters! NOW!"*
**Invocation seals flared on the floor.**
two humanoid creatures with stone skin and obsidian claws, bear-sized. And a quadrupedal beast with mouth tentacles and curved horns, nearly brushing the three-meter ceiling.
But the corridor was narrow:
The half-bear monsters had to crouch, losing mobility. One cracked its head on the stone lintel while advancing, disoriented and The quadrupedal beast got stuck in the corridor. Its tentacles writhed like trapped snakes, unable to attack effectively.
The undead captain didn't hesitate.
He leaped onto the first crouching monster and drove necrotic fingers into its eyes. The monster howled, blinded, and accidentally crushed its summoner as it recoiled. The soldier turned to bone paste under stone paws.
Against the quadrupedal beast:
Exploiting its immobility, he ripped off a horn with brutal leverage – SNAP! Used it as a dagger to pierce the second summoner's skull—the blade plunging through the eye into the brain.
The last man was cornered between the bear-beast:
— "Kill the damn thing!"
The enraged beast charged recklessly at the undead, who simply ignored it, dodged, and went straight for the summoner. His hands plunged into the soldier's mouth, wrenching it open until his face detached from his jaw, then crushed his skull against the floor.
The beast, already mid-lunge to attack again, dissolved into luminous dust after an invocation seal flashed and shattered mid-air.
More and more heavy footsteps, mingled with soldiers' shouts, surged in an approaching wave.