The blue crystal giant was impossible to ignore.
It towered over the burning ruins of the Ancient War Camp like a god dragged screaming out of some forgotten age. Moonlight flashed across its translucent limbs. Green hellfire reflected through its body, making it glow like a corpse trapped inside ice.
Three skeletal riders broke from the undead formation at once.
They came fast.
Their dead horses pounded across the blood-soaked earth with terrifying speed, black iron lances lowered. Each rider aimed at a different part of the construct—throat, ribs, knees.
"Crush them, darling," Lyra Farrow called sweetly.
The Stone Colossus moved.
One moment it stood like a drunken statue.
The next, it exploded into motion.
Its massive arm shot sideways with shocking speed and speared straight through the first rider's chest. Bone shattered. The skeleton was ripped from its saddle and slammed into the ground hard enough to bury half its body in the dirt.
The construct spun.
Its elbow smashed into the second rider and horse.
Both were launched into the air like broken toys.
The third rider saw his opening and drove his black lance deep into the Colossus's side.
The weapon sank barely an inch.
Then stopped.
The skeletal rider jerked in confusion as monstrous pressure clamped around the shaft.
The Stone Colossus trapped the lance under its arm.
Then it yanked.
The skeleton was ripped off its horse and dragged screaming through dead air before the giant brought its foot down.
Crunch.
The armored skull burst like rotten fruit.
The construct grabbed the skeletal horse with both hands.
Lifted it over its head.
And tore it apart.
Bone, armor, and black flesh rained down in chunks.
The Colossus threw back its head and unleashed a deafening mechanical roar that shook the battlefield.
It sounded almost joyful.
As if it had missed war.
Kael barely had time to register it.
The crimson-armored skeletal general turned.
Cold death locked onto him.
Kael felt it before he fully saw it.
A flash of steel.
A killing intent so sharp it felt like ice dragged across his chest.
His instincts screamed.
He snapped his wrist.
The Eight-Claw Flamescourge whipped back toward him like a returning fire serpent.
CLANG.
The impact blasted sparks into the night.
Kael and the skeletal general were thrown apart.
The general crouched low on his war chariot, transferring force downward.
The three armored skeletal horses pulling it nearly collapsed sideways before regaining balance dozens of feet later.
Kael flew through the air like discarded trash.
He crashed hard, skidding through mud and bodies.
Then staggered backward several steps before stopping.
His blood churned violently.
He looked down.
His robe had been sliced open across the chest.
A long tear.
His skin remained untouched.
Barely.
Cold sweat ran down his neck.
That strike had nearly split him in half.
Inside the black sockets of the general's skull helm, red light burned hotter.
Its other hand gripped the long handle of its massive glaive, steadying the vibrating weapon.
Then it stomped.
Power surged through the chariot.
The three skeletal horses turned as one.
And charged straight at Kael.
Fast.
Too fast.
Kael grinned despite the danger.
For the first time in his life, he'd met something that made his blood sing.
"Now that's more like it."
He rushed forward.
Two skeletal cavalrymen suddenly cut across his path.
Their lances shot toward him like striking serpents.
Kael spun in midair.
The Eight-Claw Flamescourge screamed outward.
Its length became an advantage.
The flaming whip wrapped around one rider before the lance reached him.
Kael yanked.
The skeleton was ripped from its horse and sent crashing into the ground.
He twisted sideways, narrowly avoiding the second lance.
Then lashed back.
CRACK!
The second skeleton raised its shield.
Horse and rider shuddered—
but didn't fall.
Kael's eyes widened.
"Tough bastard."
He landed.
Planted his feet.
And unleashed three brutal whip strikes in a row.
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
The third strike finally smashed the rider off its mount.
But by then—
the crimson general was already on top of him.
The war chariot thundered forward like a charging avalanche.
Kael darted aside.
The giant glaive carved through empty air where his torso had been.
He used Ember Dash.
Then another.
Then another.
Midair twists.
Sudden turns.
Rapid evasions.
Still the general stayed on him.
The glaive followed like death itself.
"What in the abyss—"
Kael snarled and struck back.
The Flamescourge wrapped around the glaive's shaft.
Metal screamed.
The flaming dragon-scaled tip slithered upward like a living predator.
Straight toward the general's hands.
The crimson general swung violently.
Kael swung with it.
Refusing to let go.
The whip climbed higher.
It tore through a section of hand armor.
Then snapped toward the general's skull.
For one brief moment—
Kael saw its face.
A monstrous skeletal grin.
Burning red eyes.
Pure hatred.
The general raised its arm to block.
Kael smirked.
"Too slow."
He flicked his wrist.
The whip instantly loosened.
The general's vision was blocked.
Kael redirected.
The flaming tip stabbed straight into its chest.
BOOM.
Fire exploded.
The general's body shook violently.
Then...
it barely moved.
Kael landed on the war chariot.
And stared.
The chestplate had cracked.
That was all.
"That's it?"
He immediately attacked again.
Whip strikes rained down.
Flames burst across the general's armor.
The undead monster staggered left and right.
Then suddenly planted its glaive into the chariot floor.
Stopped itself.
And swung horizontally.
Kael barely ducked in time.
The blade nearly threw him off the moving chariot.
"Don't fight their armor head-on!" Lyra shouted from across the battlefield. "It's been strengthened with dark rites!"
Kael glanced over.
Lyra had already smashed through seven or eight cavalry riders with her Stone Colossus.
But the Iron Maw Legion soldiers—
God.
Over half of them were dead.
The survivors had finally clustered together in a desperate defensive circle.
Elsewhere in the camp—
the screaming had nearly stopped.
Because most of the people making those screams were already dead.
Kael adjusted instantly.
No more brute strikes.
He changed rhythm.
The Flamescourge shifted from smashing blows to dragging cuts and vicious hooks.
That worked.
Dragon scales ripped across crimson armor.
Tore.
Scraped.
Ripped again.
The skeletal general staggered.
Then—
RIIIIIP.
A huge section of red armor was torn off its left side.
Beneath it—
red skeletal bone.
Exposed.
Kael lunged.
The whip slammed into the opening.
Flames erupted across exposed bone.
The general screamed.
Then slammed its shoulder forward.
Kael had no room.
He crossed his arms.
The impact felt like a siege ram.
Something burst inside his chest.
He was launched off the chariot.
Blood filled his throat.
A skeletal rider charged him before he even hit the ground.
Black lance aimed straight for his heart.
Kael tried to counter—
but his breathing failed.
He'd taken internal damage.
His movement slowed.
And he was still airborne.
No room.
No time.
He forced fire Vitae into his chest for protection—
Then a streak of jade light flashed past his vision.
SHUNK.
The cavalry rider's skull split open.
Its body was hurled off the horse.
Kael blinked.
Then grinned.
"Sel."
Selene Voss rushed past him with the Jade-Wave Blade in hand.
"The Crystalwave Slash" had carved clean through the rider's skull.
She didn't even look at him.
She dove straight into the skeletal horde.
Kael landed hard and wiped his mouth.
His hand came away bloody.
Wonderful.
He'd been coughing blood.
He prepared to heal himself—
then warm energy suddenly flooded his body.
Pain vanished.
His breathing stabilized.
It felt like standing in spring sunlight.
He turned.
Sylva stood behind him.
Hands raised.
Green light flowed from her fingertips.
The Wood-Flower Art restored his damaged organs with terrifying efficiency.
Then more figures arrived.
Kael turned toward the camp entrance.
And froze.
His master had arrived.
Lady Magister Isara led the remaining disciples into the battlefield.
Even she looked disturbed by what she saw.
Rovan looked far worse.
When he saw his Iron Maw soldiers butchered in piles—
his face twisted with fury.
He roared and charged into battle.
"These skeletons wear armor..." Mira whispered in horror. "And they ride horses?"
Auryn's face hardened.
"They're Blood Bones. Demon-forged variants." Her voice was cold. "And they're disciplined. Be careful."
She rolled back her right sleeve.
A small golden shield appeared in her hand.
She strapped it onto her forearm.
Then vanished in a flash of golden light.
Several skeletal riders saw her appear.
They lowered lances and charged.
Golden light exploded.
A massive radiant shield materialized between them.
The lances bounced off.
Auryn stood behind it.
Calm.
Beautiful.
Deadly.
She rotated her arm.
The shield changed shape instantly.
From vertical—
to horizontal.
Its edge sharpened.
Then sliced.
Two skeletal heads flew into the air.
The remaining riders charged anyway.
Idiots.
Auryn adjusted the shield's angle again.
The glowing edge swept through horse and rider alike.
Bone split.
Armor split.
Bodies split.
The sound was sickening.
Within seconds—
five armored cavalry riders lay shattered across the dirt.
Kael stared in awe.
"Gods above…"
Then he laughed.
"No wonder Elder Soror Auryn terrifies people."
The crimson general noticed her too.
And immediately redirected its chariot toward her.
Isara stepped forward.
"I'll handle this one."
Then she vanished upward.
She appeared above the charging war chariot as if gravity no longer mattered.
Floating.
White hair dancing in the wind.
She looked like a divine being descending to judge the dead.
Even the skeletal general hesitated.
For the first time—
fear entered it.
It roared and swung its massive glaive upward.
Isara moved gracefully.
One sleeve swept through the air.
The Surging Tide Dance.
The strike was redirected instantly.
The glaive veered away.
She slipped inside its guard.
The general reacted fast.
Its chariot spun violently.
But not fast enough.
Its shoulder exploded.
Golden light spread across crimson armor like liquid lightning.
Isara landed lightly—
then launched herself back into the air.
Two fingers extended like a blade.
Faint gold light gathered at their tips.
The general unleashed a furious storm of attacks.
Too slow.
Isara passed through it.
One blur.
One strike.
Then she was gone.
The general swayed violently.
Nearly falling from its chariot.
Kael stared.
There was now a hole in its abdomen.
A clean puncture.
Around it—
the crimson armor was turning gold.
Spreading outward.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
"The Gilding Touch..." Kael muttered in awe. "That's absurd."
Sylva smiled softly.
"Master has only reached the third turning. It gets worse."
Kael flexed his arms.
No pain.
Fully healed.
He snapped the Flamescourge through the air.
Fire danced across the scales.
He grinned at Sylva.
"With you around, I could get disemboweled and still be fine."
Sylva laughed despite the carnage.
"There are too many of them. Move."
She pointed.
"Mira, Kael—you flank left."
She turned to Zaeli.
"You're with me on the right."
Everyone nodded.
Kael sprinted immediately toward Selene.
Of course.
Sylva pulled a massive emerald bow from her storage pouch.
It was nearly as tall as she was.
She sprinted with Zaeli toward the right flank.
Mira ran after Kael carrying a short war hammer.
Then she hesitated.
Stopped.
Looked at the hammer.
Made a face.
"No."
She shoved it back into her storage pouch.
Then pulled out her black Earth-Spirit Flute.
She tested a few notes.
Then began to play.
A low, haunting sound rolled across the battlefield.
Meanwhile—
Rovan was still trapped.
He charged repeatedly toward his surviving soldiers.
Every attempt failed.
Skeletal cavalry boxed him in.
He fought like a madman.
Sweat poured off him.
His strikes landed again and again—
but the armored skeletons refused to die.
His fear kept growing.
He wanted to activate one of his battle wards.
But the undead gave him no breathing room at all.
Rovan Ashford was certain he was about to die.
The skeletal riders had boxed him in so tightly that he could barely breathe between strikes. Black spears hammered at him from every direction. His iron staff crushed skulls, shattered ribs, broke mounted spines—
—and the damned things kept getting back up.
Their crimson bones knitted together with wet cracking sounds.
Their dead horses screamed without lungs.
Rovan ducked beneath a spear thrust and caved in a rider's ribcage with a two-handed swing.
The skeleton simply clawed at him from the dirt with broken fingers.
"Oh, come on!" Rovan roared.
Then the earth exploded beside him.
He nearly stumbled backward in shock as huge lumps of mud burst from the ground.
One.
Two.
Five.
Eight.
Massive humanoid things clawed their way from beneath the battlefield, each over ten feet tall, thick as siege towers and dripping wet dirt. Their bodies looked roughly human, but their features were crude and unfinished—faces with no eyes, jaws made of packed stone, limbs built from mud, rock, and roots.
Rovan stared.
"Oh, that's just unfair," he breathed. "As if the skeletons weren't enough."
Then one of the mud giants charged straight into a skeletal rider.
The collision sounded like a battering ram hitting castle gates.
The rider flew off its horse in a spray of red bones.
Rovan blinked.
"What?"
Black spears immediately stabbed into the mud giant from all directions. The undead cavalry swarmed it.
Chunks of dirt were ripped away.
Its torso collapsed inward.
One arm was nearly torn off—
—but the thing kept swinging.
It crushed skulls beneath fists the size of anvils.
The other seven giants joined the slaughter.
The battlefield dissolved into chaos.
"Are they... fighting each other?" Rovan muttered.
He didn't waste the opportunity.
He rushed forward and smashed apart a rider locked in combat with one of the earth monsters.
That was when he spotted Mira.
She stood roughly thirty feet away.
Completely calm.
Flute pressed to her lips.
Playing.
Rovan stared like he'd gone insane.
"We're all dying and she's playing music?"
Then understanding hit him.
His jaw dropped.
The giants.
"Those are yours?!"
Mira smiled sweetly while continuing to play.
She gave him a tiny nod.
Rovan nearly laughed in disbelief.
"By all the black gods... you summoned eight?"
Another nod.
Rovan looked back at the battlefield.
The earth constructs were weaker than Lyra's towering blue crystal colossus—but against mounted skeletons, they were devastating.
And there were eight of them.
That changed everything.
Two eventually got torn apart under concentrated attacks, collapsing into piles of mud and shattered stone—
—but the skeletal cavalry paid dearly for it.
More than a dozen riders were dragged from their mounts and pulverized.
The trade was absurdly favorable.
Rovan noticed white mist rising from Mira's head.
Aether drain.
She was burning through power fast.
Without hesitation, he rushed to her side and planted himself between her and the battlefield.
"I'll guard you!"
Mira glanced at him.
Her smile widened.
Then she resumed playing.
Two more giants burst from the earth to replace the fallen ones.
The undead line began collapsing.
For the first time that night—
victory looked possible.
---
Kael tore through a skeletal rider with the Eight-Claw Flamescourge.
The weapon screamed as it moved.
Its scaled body wrapped around the rider's throat before igniting.
The skeleton and horse exploded into fire.
Kael grinned.
Then he slid beside Selene.
"Thanks for saving me, Sel."
Selene sliced through another rider with the Crystalwave Slash.
Blue light flashed.
The armored skeleton split apart.
"I wasn't saving you," she snapped. "I just enjoy killing monsters."
Kael beamed.
"I enjoy killing monsters too. We have so much in common."
"Go kill monsters somewhere else."
Her blade flashed again.
Elegant.
Precise.
Deadly.
But Kael quickly noticed something troubling.
Her attacks lacked stopping power.
The skeletal riders wore heavy armor.
She often needed multiple strikes to bring one down unless she used the Crystalwave Slash—
and that technique consumed enormous amounts of Vitae.
Kael moved closer and began covering her blind spots.
Together, they became devastating.
His raw destructive force complemented her precision perfectly.
"We fight well together," Kael said.
"We do not."
"We absolutely do."
"We absolutely don't."
A rider charged them.
Kael reduced it to burning fragments.
Selene's face somehow became even colder.
Then, abruptly—
she sheathed her Jade-Wave Blade.
Kael stared.
"What are you doing?"
A skeletal rider immediately seized the opening.
Its horse thundered forward.
Spear aimed directly at Selene's chest.
Kael's blood ran cold.
"Selene!"
He exploded forward with Ember Dash.
His Flamescourge lashed out.
"HEAVENLY DRAGON—"
The whip struck.
Fire erupted.
Horse and rider detonated into a rolling sphere of flame.
Kael landed hard, breathing heavily.
That burst had cost him dearly.
He looked at her.
"What was that?"
Selene ignored him.
She reached into her robes.
Pulled out something hanging beneath her clothes.
Kael's eyes widened.
The ice-blue pendant.
The same one he'd seen last night while very naked and very distracted.
Cold sweat rolled down his spine.
Oh no.
Selene clasped the pendant in both hands.
Closed her eyes.
Started chanting.
Blue streams of energy spiraled around her.
The air temperature plummeted.
Kael shivered.
"What are you summoning?"
The swirling blue mist thickened.
Denser.
Sharper.
Then he saw a face forming inside the storm.
A beast.
Scaled.
Horned.
Eyes closed.
Kael nearly got skewered because he stared too long.
"What in the hells—"
Selene opened her eyes.
"Wake."
She thrust both hands forward.
The blue storm exploded outward.
A creature appeared.
It was the size of a bull.
Its body resembled carved ice.
Translucent blue scales covered powerful muscles.
A horn curved from its brow.
It looked beautiful.
Until it opened its eyes.
Then it looked like murder.
Kael whispered, "That thing sleeps prettier than I do."
Selene smacked the beast's head.
"Go."
The Frost Griffin moved like lightning.
It crossed thirty feet in a blink and slammed into a skeletal rider.
Horse and rider hit the ground.
The beast ripped them apart with savage bites.
Red bones flew everywhere.
Nearby riders thrust black spears at it.
The Frost Griffin vanished in a blur.
Reappeared atop another rider.
Then bit straight through the skeleton's helmeted skull.
Crunch.
The skeletal horse collapsed beneath the creature's weight as its bones snapped.
Kael stared.
His mouth hung open.
"What is that?"
Selene looked offended.
"What do you mean what is that? It's a Frost Griffin."
"That's a griffin?"
"It was once a living spirit beast. Now it's a phantom bound to the pendant."
The creature tore apart two more riders.
Kael swallowed hard.
"That's incredible."
Selene looked smug.
For once, she actually seemed pleased.
Kael immediately exploited this.
"Find me one."
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Absolutely not."
Kael grinned.
Then his smile slowly died.
He looked at the pendant resting against her chest.
Then at the Frost Griffin.
Then remembered last night.
He had pinned her down.
Sealed her channels.
Teased her mercilessly.
If she had summoned that thing then—
Kael visibly paled.
"Oh."
Selene narrowed her eyes.
"Oh what?"
"Nothing."
He fought harder.
Very much harder.
Because survival suddenly felt like an apology.
---
A rider burst from darkness.
Too fast.
Too close.
Selene was mid-cast.
Distracted.
Kael moved to intercept—
too late.
The horse smashed through his guard.
Its hooves rose.
Straight toward his chest.
Kael planted his feet.
Fire exploded across his body as he reinforced himself with the Sundering Flame Art.
The impact was coming.
Three steps away.
Two—
The Frost Griffin roared.
Selene shouted a single command.
"Freeze!"
The beast's jaws opened.
Blue-white light erupted outward.
It wasn't ordinary ice.
It was freezing flame.
A wave of azure fire swallowed horse and rider.
They froze instantly.
Perfect sculptures of ice.
Kael blinked.
"That's cheating."
He shattered both statues with a single whip strike.
Frozen bone exploded into glittering shards.
The battlefield briefly looked beautiful.
Then Selene nearly collapsed.
Her face had gone pale.
White vapor rose from her skin.
She quickly formed another seal.
The Frost Griffin lowered itself.
Its body dissolved into blue mist and flowed back into the pendant.
Selene stuffed the artifact back inside her robes.
Her knees buckled.
Kael caught her.
She recoiled instantly.
"Don't touch me."
Kael froze.
"...I was stopping you from falling."
"I can fall by myself."
"That's impressive."
She glared murder at him.
"Shut up."
"You should rest."
"I don't take orders from—"
She swayed again.
Her legs trembled.
Kael raised an eyebrow.
Selene glared at him for several long seconds.
Then, furious at reality itself, she sat cross-legged on the ground and began recovering her Vitae.
Kael stood guard beside her.
He didn't move an inch.
Not even when nearby fighting intensified.
Not even when blood splashed across his face.
He simply stayed there.
Protecting her.
Watching.
Waiting.
And killing anything stupid enough to come close.
Then he looked toward the center of the battlefield—
and saw monsters.
Real monsters.
---
Lady Magister Isara and the crimson-armored general tore across the battlefield like gods at war.
Their clashes shook the earth.
The general's war chariot had already been mangled.
Its crimson armor was shattered in multiple places.
One shoulder guard was gone.
Its chest plate hung loose.
Isara floated through the air in white robes stained with blood.
Her silver hair whipped like banners of moonlight.
Her voice cut through the battlefield.
"Kneel."
Golden symbols ignited around her fingers.
Ancient runes spiraled through the air.
The Demon-Forging Seal.
Kael had seen it once before.
It terrified him then.
It terrified him now.
The crimson general finally looked afraid.
It abandoned the fight.
Its skeletal warhorses screamed as it turned and fled.
"Coward!" Kael shouted.
Isara descended like divine judgment.
Her glowing strike carved through the back half of the war chariot.
The rear section exploded.
The front half plowed into the earth.
The general clung to the remaining frame and kept fleeing.
Then golden light erupted from the right flank.
Auryn.
She intercepted it.
Her small shield expanded into a massive spinning disk of golden light.
The glowing barrier screamed through the darkness like a divine saw blade.
The general tried to dodge.
Too slow.
The shield carved into its shoulder.
Its armor exploded apart.
Red bone powder sprayed into the night.
The thing shrieked.
Auryn rushed in for the kill.
Her arm snapped forward.
Another massive shield formed—
Then the crimson general screamed something in a dead language.
And dropped flat against the ruined chariot.
Kael frowned.
"What is it doing?"
Then he saw them.
Tiny green lights in the darkness.
Hundreds of them.
Floating.
Moving.
His face drained of color.
"No…"
The lights stretched into streaks.
Then erupted forward like a storm of emerald meteors.
Hellfire.
Hundreds of emerald bolts screamed toward Auryn.
Kael roared and sprinted toward her.
"MOVE!"