The Horr’er released its grip on the axe, which embedded itself into the ground with a sizzling sound as if the earth were butter and the axe molten lava.
“Master’s axe,” Lala shrieked. ‘This brute also inherited the same stubborn foolishness as our master.’
The animated Horr’er stretched its hands to catch two cannonballs soaring at the party.
“Detonate them on impact!” Tarah commanded in fear.
———<>|*|<>———
Tetsu skidded into an undead swarm, out of Val’s sight, but the surrounding undead collapsed to the floor, spewing black goop, dead or deader than before. His path kept clearing with every step. It was as if the heavens wanted him to follow the path made by undead bodies.
“Path of the dead.” Tetsu couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of his situation. “Soon to be dead.” He referred to himself and blamed his luck for the obvious meddling. He always hoped and planned, only for his luck to intervene and mess things up.
“How is he doing that?” Val roared, commanding his army to attack.
The army soared past Val as he snatched a sword from a skeleton and led the raid. Val towered above the rest, giving him a perfect view of the human’s weird hand gestures.
Weaves, mudras, imprints, and divine seals might be foreign concepts to most initiates, but Val wasn’t like most. A Noor created and blessed him knowing that even scions of peak Orders would kill over. Yet, he witnessed a foreign gesture that he couldn’t make heads or tails of. The damned fresh-skin brat didn’t even have the courtesy to look him in the eye before unleashing unknown power. What power does that gesture hold?
A meteor crashed into the undead group, clarifying Val’s doubt while burying them in clay.
The depressed skeleton lit up at the scene and rushed to the wreckage. Only their leader’s arm was sticking out, his rusting, chipped sword still intact in his hand. The skeleton stepped closer with caution and snatched the sword away in one swift motion. It swung the sword twice, its jawbone shifting ever so slightly, the bones creaking with effort as it formed a twisted smile, and rushed toward the human.
“My lord,” Mor manipulated the clay to float, extracting Val. “The human is using runic magic.” He chugged down a potion and shredded the boulder, saving the entire group.
“I already know that since my weapon was snatched. What else can he use?” Val coughed up clay.
“He has more?”
Val’s eyes glowed with a deeper hue, turning his black eyes hollow, akin to the abyss, draining the death out of Mor. “You mean to say he can do all this with just runic magic?” He spread his arms wide as a crashing wave of clouds shrouded the undead territory.
“Death vision,” Val’s eyes glowed an ethereal black within the white mist.
Mor’s eyes followed suit, flickering into black orbs within the mist. The undead had a similar transformation, their eyes turning into black orbs to spot life. Black spots blinked within the clouds, their vision revealing life while the living were stuck, powerless to stare at the abyss that stared back first.
“Hunt him down,” Val ordered.
“Yes, my lord,” Mor gulped and turned its eyes black, almost matching the depth of Val’s.
The living were slaughtered, unable to move within the mist, some cutting down their allies by mistake in the chaos. Meanwhile, Val made a beeline to catch Tetsu off guard, but the frail human moved at greater speeds than the undead group, heading deeper into their territory.
“Runes are letting him see through this?” Val punched through an iron shield-ant and slammed into a Claytron to control the sudden increase in momentum, blasting it into pieces by sheer force before returning to stare at Mor.
“I... no, my lord,” Mor bowed while hovering.
Tetsu glanced through an eye placed on a Skylark and changed directions to avoid another ambush. Death loomed in every corner, yet Tetsu took the time to admire the beauty of the Skylark. Except for the visuals of them consuming any and every creature inside their mist down to the molecule, they were dazzling.
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Among the new arrivals and most fierce fighters in sky warfare, these majestic creatures soared, their form shifting between billowing clouds and graceful avian elegance. As it glided on the currents of the wind, its ethereal wings unfurled like wisps of mist, shimmering with iridescent hues of cerulean and pearl.
With each beat of its wings, the cloud bird dipped and swirled, leaving behind a trail of soft, wispy tendrils that seemed to dance in the sunlight. Its body is formed of delicate vapors, ever-changing and elusive, yet possessing an undeniable grace and beauty.
The bird’s beak, slender and pointed like a needle, gleamed with a silvery sheen, while its eyes sparkled like tiny droplets of dew caught in the sunlight. Its feathers, if they could be called such, were soft and feathery, like downy tufts of cotton candy, trailing behind it in a mesmerizing display of ethereal beauty.
As it transformed from cloud to bird and back again, the creature seemed to embody the very essence of the sky itself—boundless, untamed, and utterly enchanting.
Tetsu shifts his gaze onto more attainable targets only after witnessing the zombies, skeletons, ants, and a few Claytron disappear without a trace within the cloud bird's mist.
“If I steal their eyes, can I see through the mist too?” He coveted some undead specimens. “Research on them shouldn’t be considered cruel, right? They can’t perceive pain or be too attached to a limb or two.” Spotting the ambush group ahead, he steps away from his path, allowing him to pass.
“Why are you backing away?” Mor yells in their heads.
“Those eyes,” the zombie shudders. ‘Makes me wish I wasn’t undead.’
Tetsu maneuvers around the group to test out a few theories. As he expected, they honed in on life, and Tetsu assumed the living were like weird beacons for the undead. The pebbles and Claytron he dragged them through caught most of the undead off guard, except for the liches. They floated and soared past clay puddles, while basic shields were enough to block pebbles, which they maintained at all times.
“Mages should be weaker in close combat,” Tetsu rushes at a lich. It hides the staff before casting a spell. He had to waste an eye placed over a cloud bird to retrieve the staff. “Mine,” he declares, storing the staff and leaving the lich behind.
With the limited amount of [Eyes] and unable to make more because of the mist, Tetsu ceased his experiments and aimed to escape, having no other reason to stick around and increase the chaos. If this level wasn’t enough, no level of chaos could help him.
This sudden shift in the human’s demeanor confused the undead. They had never faced an enemy who left without killing them after winning. A lich floated in bewilderment, staring at the human’s back and ignoring orders. “We can’t approach him head-on,” the lich conveyed.
“What did you see now?” Val asked Mor.
“He bewitched one of my subordinates. She isn’t taking orders nor moving, which means—”
“—Mind class,” Val spat. “You stay back. I shall approach him on my own,” he ordered.
“But, my lord,” a glare from Val shut Mor’s complaint. “I shall assist from a distance.” He defied the order, prompting a smile from Val.
“Let’s teach that human the consequences of messing with the undead,” said Val, and the group roared.
“Boy, they are relentless,” Tetsu sighed. “One advantage of being undead, I guess... or is it a side effect?” He blinked to scan for obstacles ahead.
The surrounding zombies acted dead to avoid getting caught in Tetsu’s crosshairs and Val’s mad pursuit.
———<>|*|<>———
The castle forced the undead to retreat. The animated Horr’ers were strong but no match for a moving fortress equipped with various weapons. Lower level or not, it squashed power with sheer numbers.
“Split,” Tarah commanded, and the castle tore into two parts, circling the treasure box, the undead’s primary source of backup and retreat. “Your move,” she smiled at Lala, who smiled right back.
“Reinforcements,” the scout informed, adjusting his eyes, which were replaced by telescopes. “A huge freaking undead army.”
“King was right,” Tarah gaped at the thin black line approaching their location. “I need to shut my mouth.”
“Orders,” a general grabbed her attention by force.
“Get all the troops inside the castle. We take the box if it’s the last thing we do.”
The general smiled and conveyed the message. More troops poured out of the castle, tricking the undead into thinking of the act as an all-out war. They pushed the undead groups away from the box and held the lines for the castle to encircle it. Only after the castle settled down did the troops retreat.
“They are falling back and settling down? What is she planning?” Lala pondered.
Additional defensive walls sprang up around the castle, terraforming the terrain to suit the castle better.
“Typical Krantz,” Lala smirked. “Charge,” she commanded, and every group of undead swarmed the castle.
“Technicians to the box,” Tarah instructed. “Seize and secure. Where are the rest of our scavengers?”
“On their way. We told them to ditch their backpacks.”
“Good, detonate all of them,” Tarah smiled.
“Yes, ma’am,” the general shared her deranged smile.
“You’re mine, human,” Tarah challenged Lala.
———<>|*|<>———
"You are mine." Val declared to Tetsu.
Tetsu feigned a cough with a sly grin, followed by a dramatic tear rolling down her cheek. A taunting response to his declaration. “Everyone wants to adopt me,” he retorted, his tone laced with irony, “but no one bothers to understand me, the real me.”
“That... is not. Ah! Charge!” Val raised his fist.
Tetsu stayed still, smiling. “Do you know where your companion is?”
Val shifted his balance and plunged his fist into the ground. A fist-sized hole appeared on the ground before the fist even landed, followed by a spiderweb of cracks spreading around a five-meter radius. In a heavy sigh, Val loosened his fist, his gaze still throwing daggers at Tetsu. “Can you see through this mist?”
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