Chapter 276: Steel and Bone
The air inside the carriage didn't smell like ozone or burning mana anymore. It smelled of wet fur, stale blood, and the piercing, chemical stench of fear.
The Snow Stalker landed on the floorboards with a heavy, wet thud, its claws carving deep gouges into the expensive mahogany. It was a nightmare of pale muscle and tension, its eyeless head twitching violently as it triangulated the frantic heartbeats surrounding it.
"Leon, move!" I shouted.
The command was physical, not magical. Without the [Commander's Voice] skill to compel obedience, my words were just sound waves. But Leon, conditioned by months of hellish training, reacted on instinct.
He stepped forward, placing himself between the beast and the cowering students. He raised his greatsword—a heavy slab of enchanted mythril that usually hummed with holy light. Now, it was just a hundred pounds of dead weight.
