The cavern shuddered again as the lancer advanced, dragging its colossal weapon through the rubble it had carved. Sparks spat from steel against stone, a trail of light in the dim abyss. Its crimson gaze locked to me, unwavering, hateful, alive despite death.
I spat blood and steadied my stance, cloak torn, helm cracked at the edge. My chest burned with every breath. Still, I gripped the spear until my knuckles ached.
The silence broke.
It came.
The lance darted with serpentine speed, gouging the floor where I had stood. Stone erupted upward like shrapnel, shards slicing my cheek. I dove sideways, cloak whipping, rolling over uneven ground. My spear bit into the rock as a brace, halting my skid.
The next strike came instantly,an overhead cleave. The blackened steel shrieked down.
"—!"
I vaulted backward, the lance slamming into the floor just shy of my feet. The impact birthed a crater, fissures spidering outward. A row of crystals shattered above, raining shards like falling stars.
The lancer moved unnaturally, too fast for its mass. Its long, decayed limbs bent at angles no living knight could endure. Each motion carried a shriek of rusted plates scraping bone.
And then, the whispers came.
At first, faint. Like echoes of voices pressed into the stone.
"…warrior… curse… oath…"
The cavern itself seemed to speak, every shattered crystal a tongue. The corpses dissolved earlier lingered as haze, twisting into faint silhouettes of armor and blades. The air crawled with their memory.
I shook it off and spun my spear, drawing sparks against the stone. "Your oath won't hold me in silence."
It lunged.
The lance shot low, sweeping to bisect me. I leapt, boot striking the haft mid-swing, using its momentum to vault high. My spear lashed downward, a streak of blue flame aimed for its helm.
CLANG!
The creature twisted unnaturally, long arm snapping upward to catch my strike mid-air. The impact threw me back like a ragdoll. I slammed shoulder-first into a jagged wall, stone biting through my armor. Pain flared white-hot, but I forced air into my lungs and dropped down before the next strike caved the wall behind me.
The lance stabbed again, puncturing where my skull had just been. The wall split, dust flooding the air.
I spun low, sliding on rubble, spear scraping for balance. With a sharp thrust, I drove for its knee.
The blow struck, only to rebound. The armor bent but did not break. The lancer's helm snapped down toward me, crimson eyes flaring.
A massive backhand swept its lance sideways.
I barely crossed my spear to block.
The force launched me across the cavern. My body ricocheted off a crystal pillar, shattering it in a burst of silver shards, then skidded hard along the riverbank. Water sprayed as I crashed, blood splattering into the current.
"Gh—!" I coughed,my ribs screamed. My armor dented in at the side, metal biting skin.
The lancer stepped closer, unrelenting. The ground quaked beneath its stride. It raised its weapon for another crushing descent.
The water beside me pulsed with mana. A faint song. Desperate, I dipped my fingers, pulling its strength into my veins. The bluish flame along my spear rekindled, brighter, searing.
The strike fell.
I rolled aside as the lance pierced the river, sending a fountain of luminous water bursting skyward. Crystals refracted the spray, scattering colors across the cavern like bleeding rainbows. For an instant, the scene looked holy—then the undead horror tore free its weapon, and the beauty shattered.
I charged.
Spear and lance collided again, sparks skittering across the water's surface. Each blow rattled my bones. I struck for its chest, its helm and its joints, but each time the lancer twisted impossibly, its reach longer than any man's. It battered me with strikes meant to break mountains.
My body screamed. My knees buckled.
The whispers grew louder.
"…give… in… warrior… bones… return…"
I gritted my teeth. "No. I am not bone. I bleed."
The lancer thrust again, faster than thought. I ducked, sprinted low, boots pounding against uneven stone. I ran straight for the wall.
It followed, lance chasing.
At the last second, I planted a foot against the rock face and leapt, rebounding upward. The lance struck stone, blowing it apart in a rain of rubble. Using the burst, I flipped high, twisting mid-air.
I came down with all my strength. My spear was ablaze, it screamed downward for its arm.
The lancer raised its lance to block. Our weapons collided in a burst of flame and sparks. The impact jarred my arms to near-breaking.
Our weapons met again.
Each impact shook the cavern, light and sound folding together until even the echoes bled.
The force of our clash made me grit my teeth and I could barely hold on.
"Kerghh...!!" The lancer held his weapon high and with blinding speed he brought it down on me. I dodged by only a hair's length.
My shoulder surged with pain as blood escaped from a wound.
The area he had struck the weapon on had cratered inward.
It leveled the lance at me, point gleaming like a guillotine's edge.
"GRRRAAAAGHHHHH!"
The cavern howled with its charge, every step shattering stone. The lance came like a thunderbolt—straight, merciless, unstoppable.
I moved.
A breath's width. A hair's width. The jagged tip hissed past my face, close enough to shear a single strand of hair loose, drifting weightless in the torrent.
I dropped low, boots grinding sparks as I twisted beneath the rushing weapon. My body coiled like a spring—then snapped.
I rose in a spinning surge, spear blazing.
It tried to recoil, to pull back its inhuman reach, but momentum was mine.
"Hrrraahhhhhh!"
The strike fell, a burning crescent cutting through the dark.
Steel shrieked. Bone cracked.
SCHKRAAAAAASH!
The lancer's elongated arm burst apart at the elbow, severed clean. Black ichor sprayed in a vile arc, sizzling where it struck stone and crystal.
The monster reeled, dragging its maimed limb back, crimson eyes wide with something resembling shock.
Then it unleashed a sound not of pain but cataclysm. A groan like collapsing cathedrals, like tomb doors slamming shut.
"Kerghhhahh!"
I landed hard, knees buckling, spear braced against the ground. Its flame licked upward, feeding on my will.
"…One arm," I rasped, breath steaming in the cold. "You're not unyielding after all."
The undead knight straightened, helm lowering toward me. Fury radiated like heat. Shadows deepened, the cavern bowing to its wrath.
The whispers screamed as one:
"....Wraathhhh…"
It hefted its weapon with its remaining arm, stone cracking underfoot, the air thick as iron.
The battle wasn't finished. It was only sharpening.