“Speak with the king,” Tarah instructs, connecting him to Krovath.
“Keep it concise,” Krovath commands.
The general shares the images of missing tiles around the castle and a video of Tetsu digging before he entered. “He’s proficient at digging and has left several poorly covered holes around the castle. I... I’m...”
“Out with it, General.”
“I fear he may have planted bombs inside the castle.”
“WHAT!”
“This is mere speculation, but...”
Krovath zones out, recalling Tetsu stripping his chambers clean, in the name of science, but now, with ample time in his hands, the artifact computers intricate scenarios. Krovath infuses the artifact with more mana and contemplates the absurdities.
Who collects tiles during a life-or-death situation?
The human feigned ignorance, spouting nonsense to conceal his true intentions.
'it’s all a facade,' the artifact concludes.
“Target the human. He’s allied with the undead,” Krovath asserts. “Did he really believe he could deceive me forever...? The greatest Krantz to have ever lived.” He cackles like a madman. “Strip the castle down to every tile.”
Tarah’s directives get declined and overridden. Unable to confront her king, her frustration redirected toward the General. “What in the FRECK is going on?” She curses in a foreign tongue.
“Following the king’s orders,” the General responds while saluting. “We’re facing a greater threat within the castle, one left behind by that human. We must divide our forces further if we hope to survive.” He rushes to divulge the information, leaving Tarah bewildered, before darting into the castle.
“What are the rest of you staring at? Fire!” Tarah commands.
“We’re awaiting ammunition,” the cannoneer replies.
“Get your asses down there and assist the ones hauling it up here. If you can’t see, we just split our troops thinner,” Tarah barks orders, turning her attention back to the battle map.
With each passing moment, more of her pieces vanish from the board, and amidst the overwhelming chaos, she overlooks a minor disturbance at the map’s edge—a ripple noticed by Tetsu.
“This is going to be interesting,” he murmurs between blinks.
“Quit blinking around like a fool and face me,” Val growls, his voice choked as if submerged in liquid.
Tetsu locks eyes with Val, a Rune shimmering to life on his chest.
Val plucks the Rune, crushing it into wisps of light. His aura expands, enveloping him in a thick layer of mucus formed from ethereal spores, rendering any runes useless against him.
With no other option, Tetsu moves in closer to try etched runes.
Tetsu noted how Val’s protective, viscous layer hindered his movements. Despite being an initiate like himself, Val displayed remarkable control over his aura, and to make matters worse, the repercussions of such a complex skill seemed negligible.
“What if he can still move?” The thought unsettled Tetsu, slowing his actions.
Given their disparity in levels, only Tetsu’s full power, coupled with the sneaker’s agility and axes power did he pose a threat to the monstrosity in front. And one slight error was enough to end his journey.
Tetsu assessed the situation once more, prepared to unleash another burst from his sneakers, but stopped at the last moment.
“Not yet,” he decided, furrowing his brow as he plunged an axe and his foot into the ground.
The axe’s resistance slowed his momentum, while his foot, utilizing earth affinity, altered his trajectory, causing Tetsu to zig-zag around the undead. To regain the lost speed he tapped into the alternate sneakers’ boosting attribute, propelling himself forward when the angle was right or when he needed to evade an incoming attack. The motion kicked up dirt and hurled small rocks back, clearing the undead hot on his tail.
Mor deciphered Tetsu’s technique and relayed the information to the liches. The undead foot soldiers attempted to impede Tetsu’s movements as instructed by the liches, but none could match his previous speed. Although the technique diminished his speed, its unpredictability made it all the more effective against his adversaries.
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Anticipating Tetsu’s movements, Mor attempted to predict his trajectory based on which axe he planted. If Tetsu placed the left axe, he would likely veer left, and vice versa. Just when Mor thought he understood the human, Tetsu introduced even more intricate moves. It became evident that Tetsu had practiced the fundamental steps beforehand and was now adept at integrating feints into his strategy.
With both axes resting on his shoulders and his hands poised on their hilts, Tetsu surveyed the battlefield. Rapid blinks. A quick session of scanning revealed that the undead army on the right had a wider gap, and the castle’s cannons targeted the same area.
“Left it is,” Tetsu confirmed.
But instead of dropping his left axe as expected, he propelled the right axe off his shoulder. Mor recognized the telltale shoulder throw and commanded the undead nearby to shift to their right.
Tetsu prepared the sneakers for another burst, having already identified the fastest undead—the zeeches—whose body tilted, ready to spring forward as he had anticipated.
As the axe blade bit into the ground, carving a path, Tetsu advanced. At an angle, he swung the axe above the ground, using the weight of the second axe to shift his weight. The floor’s resistance increased as he shifted the right axe onto its side, the blade no longer slicing through the surface effortlessly. Tetsu’s movement slowed by half as the earth contoured to the right, his sneakers surging with power and propelling him forward, veering to the left.
Tetsu’s arm strained, unable to keep his grip on the axe, yet he held on until the next step.
The sudden release of power from the sneakers left a foot-deep crater and spiderweb cracks around the launch area, while the axe’s proximity to the blast zone expelled it out of the floor. Tetsu only had to hold on for a fleeting movement, then strain to swing it slightly forward—letting science handle the rest.
As the axe launched, it seemed to expect Tetsu’s intentions. Its handle contracted while the blade extended into a massive, rotating curved blade. The weapon sliced through anything foolish enough to obstruct its path. Simultaneously, cannon fire reached the undead on Tetsu’s right, obliterating them.
“Those damn Krantz are working for him.” Mor hissed in frustration.
———<>|*|<>———
“Are we working for him?” The cannonier asks.
“Are we?” The General asks Tarah.
Tarah assessed the situation, noting the subtle shifts and the deceptive shoulder raise executed by the human, who had cunningly turned their own cannons to aid his advance.
“Our task isn’t finished yet,” she declared, her competitive spirit ignited by the challenge of facing such an astute adversary.
“We are?” the General’s response sounded more like a question.
“We are.” The cannonier affirms.
———<>|*|<>———
“It matters not,” Val declares, radiating power. “We hunt him down, even if the world turns against us or assists in his escape. The living cannot escape death. Cannot escape us.”
Mor and Tarah scrutinize the battlefield on their respective battle maps. Each piece possesses a distinct range of movement, and based on its current position, the surrounding circumstances, and the strategist controlling it, both Tarah and Mor could anticipate and outmaneuver each other. But facing a Defyer was unlike any challenge they had encountered before. Similar to a one-on-one duel between strategists, Tetsu introduced unconventional tactics they needed to adapt to, pitting their strategies against chance, as a single stumbling zombie could, and did disrupt the tide of undead meant to impede the human’s path ahead.
“That’s peculiar,” Tetsu remarks as he drops the left axe, causing the wave of undead before him to part ways. Half veer right, the other half left, clearing a path ahead. “I am a disciple of Moses or what,” he chuckles, halting as he submerges both feet into the group, raising a cloud of dust.
With the sneakers’ burst absent to dislodge the axe, they serve as anchors, halting his frenzied dash—precisely as he intended.
Tetsu twirls around the axe twice to gather momentum, then reverses course, executing his first one-eighty and hurtling straight toward the castle.
The clear path behind him creates an unsettling sensation that nagged at him. Tetsu throws an axe forward, which vanishes twenty meters away, and after a resounding ‘Thud,’ the cloak of invisibility dissipates to reveal an army of undead blocking his path.
As the axe embeds itself in Lala’s chest, confirming his suspicions, Tetsu realizes a small elite force following him from behind, while two animated Horr’ers try to corner him from either side, awaiting the showdown with Val. But with Lala incapacitated, and the liches focused on healing her, their third in command, the route back to the castle was wide open for him to flee.
Despite the apparent opportunities, Tetsu’s actions were enigmatic. He acted on the slightest shifts in the battlefield, seizing the minute opportunity to slip by their ranks and carry his unpredictable plot. By how he moved and the stunts he pulled thus far, no one knew the human’s true goals. And they stopped trying to figure him out long ago.
For now, they considered Tetsu to act on vague signs, and there was no way in hell he would let such a huge opening go, or so the strategists thought. Tarah commanded the cannonier to aim and fire at Lala, while Mor commanded the undead to converge on Lala. Any normal human or a dumb zombie would pounce on such openings.
While the strategists expect him to seize the opening, Tetsu, as abnormal as ever, refrains. “Normal is overrated,” Kile forced him, shoving Tetsu to embrace the weird impulses. “Be different. Be tagged a weirdo amongst the weirdest. That is the only path to greatness.”
Tetsu marks and disregards the tempting opening. Though he desires to exploit it, he refuses to gamble on the slim chance of survival. Instead, he bulldozes toward one of the animated Horr’ers, aiming to improve his escape routes.
The liches concentrated their efforts on healing Lala, aware of the curses, afflictions, and formidable power imbued within Val's axe. They had no option but to act if they wished to preserve her life or rather the death holding her soul in this realm. Even the calm claculative persona of Mor faltered under the sudden loss, directing the liches to prioritize her recovery.
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