Its right foot shifted a fraction of an inch
The movement was clean.
Controlled.
This wasn't a beast.
It was a soldier.
It crossed the ground in a blur.
Lex stepped up to block, bone-thread reinforcing his arms until his skin hardened into pale plates.
The soldier thrust low.
A textbook spear-thrust.
Lex twisted late.
The bone-lance scraped across his ribs and tore a line of skin.
Before he could counter
the soldier pivoted and kicked.
A sharp, snapping heel-strike.
Calculated. Efficient.
It smashed into Lex's sternum, blasting him backward several meters.
He hit the slope hard, rolling through wet soil.
The soldier lunged straight for me next.
Chains erupted from my arms, wrapping around its shoulder
but the creature twisted as if its bones weren't fully connected.
It slipped the pull like smoke.
The bone-lance came down.
I rolled, mud splashing across my face
the lance stabbing into stone behind me with a crack.
Phoebe slid into the flank, frost coating her boots.
She flicked her wrist
six icicles shot toward the soldier's eye.
It didn't dodge like a monster.
A tiny angle shift of the spine, a pivot of the heel
the skill of someone who had drilled footwork a hundred thousand times.
Phoebe's jaw tensed.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me"
The soldier's head snapped toward the rear.
Toward Nolan's mother.
It sprinted
Nolan dropped everything.
His shield didn't form around others this time.
It wrapped his whole body, coating him in a translucent golden armor, a second skin.
He slammed into the soldier like a battering ram.
The impact reverberated across the slope.
But the Hollow warrior redirected smoothly, sliding one foot back in a stance no beast would use.
It drew its bone-lance across Nolan's barrier, sparks flying as the point dragged up the golden surface.
Nolan groaned under the pressure.
The soldier pivoted for a follow-up strike
Straight at Vivi.
The bone-lance descended
Lex crashed into the soldier first.
His entire body hardened into bone-plated armor.
The collision flung the soldier sideways.
Before it regained footing
Nolan drove into its other side.
The Hollow soldier was crushed between them.
BOOM.
The hit tore dust from the cliff.
The creature's ribs buckled.
Its stance broke.
Lex seized the opening.
He slammed his fist into its gut
then again
and again
crack—crack—crack—
Stone chips burst from each impact.
But the soldier's precision remained terrifying.
It twisted under Lex's arm and swept his legs with a low, clean kick.
Lex hit the ground hard, breath punched out of him.
The bone-lance snapped toward Nolan's exposed side
Nolan braced and blocked, but his shield flickered violently.
His legs nearly buckled.
The Hollow warrior didn't hesitate.
It moved with the rhythm of a trained killer.
It darted around Nolan
Straight at Lily.
She raised her katana instinctively
but her poisoned arm trembled.
The soldier's bone-lance pierced her shoulder and pinned her to the ground.
Her scream was choked by the impact.
Poison surged immediately, veins in her neck darkening.
"LILY!" Vivi cried out.
But Vivi couldn't move
she had Nolan's mother in her arms.
Phoebe sprinted in and slashed at the soldier's flank.
The creature caught her blade with its bare hand.
Blood dripped from its fingers.
It didn't care.
It yanked her forward
smashed its forehead into hers.
Phoebe staggered, nearly collapsing.
Chains flashed.
Veyra slammed into the soldier, driving all her weight into its chest.
The two crashed into the rock wall.
But she wasn't at full strength.
Poison had eaten into her side.
Her breath came ragged.
The soldier recovered instantly.
It lunged
Veyra barely twisted aside, but the lance carved across her ribs.
Blood sprayed.
She gritted her teeth and whipped her chain.
The soldier ducked, swept her legs, and Veyra crashed to the ground.
It raised its lance to stab her through the throat
Solace sprinted in.
His chain wrapped around the soldier's neck, tightening with a metallic screech.
He planted his feet and pulled with everything he had.
The soldier jerked backward
struggling against the restraint.
Nolan slammed its flank.
Phoebe stabbed its leg joint with a frost blade.
Lex bloody and furious grabbed its shoulder plates and ripped at them with reinforced arms.
Together, they dragged it down.
The Hollow soldier resisted violently
its armor glowed faintly with Sunmetal residue, muscles spasming in Discipline Pulse bursts.
But its movements faltered.
Its corrupted body couldn't keep up.
Solace tightened his chain around its throat
and snapped the corrupted vertebrae.
Phoebe's blade plunged through its spine.
Lex smashed its skull against the stone twice-
three times
until bone gave way and the body went limp.
The Hollow soldier collapsed.