Stone dust clung to Vel's frame as he dragged himself from the rubble. His sockets flared, pale fire burning hotter, refusing to extinguish. Across the arena, the hulking Knight loomed in the mist of decay, dragging its jagged sword with an ear-splitting screech.
The Greater Zombie Knight's laughter echoed like a cathedral collapsing. "Still you stand… little bone. Still you cling to mockery of life."
Vel steadied his stance, raising his battered sword once more. The weapon was chipped, hairline cracks running along its edge, but it was still his lifeline, his one link to the man he once had been. He couldn't let it go—not yet.
The Knight advanced, each step a thunderclap. The corpse-throne trembled with its movement, and the cadavers that lined the stands rattled, as though clapping in skeletal mockery.
Vel moved first.
He darted sideways, low and fast, bones scraping stone. The Knight's blade carved a trench through the ground where he had been a heartbeat before. Vel struck at the exposed thigh, aiming for the joint between armor plates. Sparks showered, necrotic sinew tore, and foul ichor sprayed across the stone.
The Knight grunted, but it was not pain—it was amusement. "Sharp little insect…"
Its massive foot lashed out, catching Vel mid-step. The skeletal warrior was flung across the arena, crashing into the wall hard enough to crack stone. His bones rattled, fine fractures spiderwebbing along his ribcage.
Vel forced himself upright. No fatigue. No breathlessness. Only the pain of cracks threatening to spread further. He pressed forward again.
This was not a battle he could win by attrition. The Knight's sheer strength dwarfed his own. Precision was his only weapon. Precision and desperation.
He circled, keeping distance, forcing the giant to move, forcing it to waste energy in heavy swings. The arena shook with each strike, stalactites trembling overhead. Vel's sockets flickered upward.
He had an idea.
When the Knight swung again, Vel rolled beneath the arc of its blade, sprinting toward the arena wall. He leapt, skeletal claws digging into cracks in the stone, climbing with inhuman speed. The Knight turned its head upward, embers narrowing in amusement.
Vel reached a hanging stalactite, massive and pointed, suspended above the Knight. With all his strength, he hacked at its base. Cracks spread, stone groaned, and then—
The stalactite fell.
It plummeted with a roar, shattering against the Knight's shoulder and helm, smashing it to one knee. The arena thundered with the impact, dust choking the air.
Vel leapt down, his blade aimed for the Knight's exposed neck.
But the monster was faster.
Its gauntleted hand shot up, catching Vel mid-descent. Bone ground against metal as the Knight's grip crushed his arm. Cracks split along Vel's forearm, pain exploding through his frame.
The Knight slammed him into the ground. Once. Twice. Bones splintered, ribs fracturing further.
"Fragile," the Knight rumbled. "Always fragile."
Vel's sockets flared in defiance. From his cracked chest, mist seeped—black-green, writhing.
Zombie Toxin Release.
The cloud burst outward, engulfing the Knight's face. The giant roared, staggering, its grip loosening as necrotic fumes clawed at its remaining flesh. Vel tore himself free, his arm cracked but still functional, his sword clutched tight.
He did not hesitate. He slashed at the Knight's wrist, carving deep. The gauntlet split, tendons snapped, and the massive blade clanged against the stone floor as the Knight dropped it.
For the first time, the monster bellowed in something close to pain.
Vel pressed the advantage. He hacked at joints, at gaps, severing one tendon at a time. The Knight swung at him with fists like hammers, each impact shaking the ground, but Vel weaved between them, his skeletal agility his only salvation.
The Knight grabbed a chunk of fallen stone and hurled it. Vel was struck, ribs cracking further, fragments splintering from his frame. He faltered, sockets dimming for a heartbeat.
The Knight seized the moment, lunging with its massive bulk. It bore Vel down, pinning him to the stone. Its half-fleshed face leered close, embers burning with hunger.
"You… are nothing," it hissed. "A failure. A bone puppet."
Vel's sockets blazed. He shoved upward with every ounce of his will, bones straining, cracking under pressure. His arm bones split. His spine screamed with fractures.
But he moved.
With a desperate roarless cry, Vel drove his sword upward, straight through the visor of the Knight's helm. The blade punched through bone, brain, and helm alike, erupting from the back of the skull.
The Knight convulsed. Its massive frame spasmed, fists pounding the ground in death throes that cracked stone. Then, slowly, it stilled.
Silence.
Vel staggered to his feet, pulling his sword free. The weapon was ruined—its edge fractured, its spine warped, cracks spreading from tip to hilt. Each strike had taken its toll, and now it was no longer a blade but a ghost of one.
He leaned on it regardless, sockets dimming with the weight of exhaustion he could not feel but knew was there in spirit.
The System pulsed within him.
[Greater Zombie Knight Defeated.]+45 Evolution Points. +22 Absorption Points.Assimilation Rate: +6% (Total: 38%).
Vel's sockets flickered. The reward was immense, greater than any he had gained before. Yet the taste of triumph was bitter.
He looked at the fallen colossus. Even in death, it seemed less defeated than resting, as though mocking him still. As though whispering: You are still just another experiment.
Vel lowered his gaze to his sword. The blade that had once been his pride, his last tether to humanity, now hung in ruin. Its surface splintered, its edge shattered. It would not survive another battle.
He stood in the silence of the corpse-arena, surrounded by shattered stone and broken bones, leaning on the fractured steel.
For the first time since his rebirth, Vel wondered what he would become when his sword could no longer carry him.
The silence answered with nothing but the faint echo of his own hollow steps as he staggered forward, sockets burning with grim fire.