The silence that followed the Umbra Stalker's annihilation was heavy, a physical weight that pressed against the lungs of everyone present. It was not the silence of peace, but the stifling vacuum left in the wake of an apex predator. Grandmaster Echidna, usually a pillar of stoic martial discipline, found herself unable to move.
Her hands, calloused from years of commanding the Stone Rhino, were trembling. She had seen horrific creatures in the service of the Royal Guard... creatures designed for war and terror... but nothing compared to the entity standing behind Lazek Oberon.
It was a masterpiece of biological discord, a creature that seemed to offend the very concept of nature itself. Its multifaceted eyes leaked thick, toxic-green mana that sizzled against the rotting wood of the ancient root-plateau.
