Chapter 136 ‒ The Vanguard’s Roar
Chapter 136 ‒ The Vanguard’s Roar
The battlefield roared and seethed like a living nightmare. Ghosts clawed at the earth in endless waves, their hollow shrieks tearing through the moonlit sky. Amidst that howling ocean, Tyler stood — blades gleaming like twin moons, breath rattling like a war drum in his chest.
[Activated Skill: Triplicate]
Three mirrored figures burst from his side in shimmers of azure light. They each drew swords and charged into the tide, slashing spectral forms with savage, precise arcs. Tyler pushed forward, his mind a cyclone of motion — Cut. Dodge. Advance.
Beside him, Kragg howled, swinging his massive axe in wild, thunderous sweeps. Each blow crushed dozens of ghosts in explosive bursts of pale mist. His mane was slick with sweat and spectral blood, his laughter echoing like a rolling avalanche.
“Come on, you gloomy cowards!” Kragg bellowed, teeth flashing under the moon. “Try me!”
A ghost slammed into his flank, claws raking against his armour. Kragg grunted, staggered, but roared back with renewed fury. He pivoted, splitting the ghost in half, then slammed his axe into the ground, sending a tremor through the earth that scattered a dozen more.
Nearby, Vitamin Ape crashed down from the sky like a falling star. His hammer crackled with electric arcs, lighting up the night in violent blue pulses. He swung in a wide circle, lightning chaining between enemies, exploding them into bright fragments.
“You call this resistance?!” Vitamin Ape roared, sparks dancing off his fur. “This is the best entertainment I’ve had in centuries!”
[Vitamin Ape Activated Skill: Lightning Strike]
He lifted the hammer high, electricity gathering like a miniature storm before he slammed it down again, blasting a swarm of ghosts back into nothingness. The ozone stung the air, each strike sending shockwaves rattling across the plateau.
Farther down the line, Nellisa stood with her cloak billowing, flames swirling around her fingers like dancing serpents.
“I have to burn it all away… my mistakes, my betrayals… I’ll repay it here, even if it scorches me to ash.”
She flicked her wrist, and a massive fireball roared forward, detonating in the heart of a ghost cluster. The explosion washed the ground in searing orange light.
“Oh? You don’t like the heat?!” she taunted, her smirk sharp as her flames. Another fireball burst into her palm — she hurled it skyward, where it split into dozens of burning meteors raining down onto the ghosts.
A group of wraiths lunged toward her from behind. Without turning, she snapped her fingers; a jet of flame spiralled backward, engulfing them in a furious blaze. “Not so fast,” she hissed.
At her side, King Wing moved with rigid, meticulous elegance. His sword flashed in straight, precise lines, each stroke a perfect execution. Ghosts fell in neat, almost silent slashes, their forms breaking apart before they even realized they’d been cut.
“Discipline!” King Wing barked, as if berating a training ground of new recruits. “Your form is disgraceful — I’ll show you what a true blade looks like!”
When a heavy group pressed him backward, he stomped forward with a shockwave burst, scattering them like brittle leaves.
In the middle ranks, Morik swung the reinforced titanium claymore Tyler had gifted him, each slash leaving deep arcs of clear sky amid the ghostly fog. He panted heavily, his arms trembling, but his eyes gleamed with grim determination.
“Keep coming! I’ll cleave every last one of you!”
Ralgar darted around him, lance piercing and sweeping in one continuous dance. Occasionally, he launched forward with a powerful kick, sending ghostly torsos flying into drifting sparks. When surrounded, he leaped high, pivoted, and dove down with a punishing spear thrust that split the ground.
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Grugmar charged ahead barehanded, fists crashing into ghosts like battering rams. Each punch rang out with bone-crushing thunder, mist exploding from his knuckles. A ghost lunged from behind — Grugmar twisted, grabbed its head, and crushed it in one brutal squeeze.
“Ha! You think claws can stop me?!” he roared, hurling the remnants aside.
Behind them, Trevor led the mercenaries in tight formation. Their swords rose and fell in unison, cutting through waves of ghosts like a living wall of blades. Sweat streaked down Trevor’s brow as he shouted above the chaos.
If I slack off now, Farnak’s gonna slash my pay in half…! Damn it, focus! Swing like your life — and your wallet — depends on it!
“Hold the line! We are the last shield — don’t falter now!”
When a soldier staggered, Trevor jumped in, parrying a claw and finishing the ghost with a swift, decisive cut.
Tyler pushed forward through the tide, his clones flanking him like hunting hounds. One clone slid under a ghost’s swipe, severing its spine. Another leaped over Tyler’s shoulder, cleaving a spectral skull mid-air. The third clone spun at his back, intercepting ghosts lunging from behind.
Move! Can’t stop! I must get to Yandeon!
Another wraith tackled him. Tyler slammed it to the ground and drove both blades downward, splitting it from head to waist. Before he could breathe, two more closed in; he whirled, slicing a clean arc, their forms exploding into mist around him.
A phantom spear grazed his side, the cold burning into his ribs. Tyler hissed, staggering, but a clone moved to cover him, slicing the attacker’s head clean off.
In the shifting moonlight, he caught flashes of his allies’ struggles. Nellisa stumbled, a gash across her thigh, but she snarled and launched another inferno, blasting her assailants into molten shreds. Morik fell to one knee, only to force himself upright and swing again, roaring defiance. King Wing’s blade gleamed in desperate sweeps as his enemies pressed closer, his eyes sharp as a hawk’s.
Vitamin Ape raised his hammer once more, the air around him crackling into an electric maelstrom. He brought it down with a colossal boom — arcs of lightning spiderwebbed across the ground, tearing through entire battalions of ghosts.
“Lightning sale! Half-price beatdowns for everyone!” he bellowed, voice rumbling like an earthquake.
Kragg crashed through a ghost wall to save Trevor, axe cleaving a wide swath. “Get back in formation, featherweight!” he roared. Trevor gave a breathless nod, pushing back into the fray.
Tyler pushed forward again, his clones covering his flanks. His mind burned with only one vision: the magic circle, Yandeon’s silhouette. Every footstep echoed with the chant in his skull — Closer. Faster. Closer.
Another squad of ghosts barrelled into him. Tyler slashed right, pivoted, cut left, then launched a savage upward stab that shredded three in a single motion. A clone leaped over his head, landing in a spinning arc that scattered attackers like petals in a storm.
Tyler felt his energy draining, lungs screaming for air. Every muscle trembled as if on the edge of collapse. His heartbeat thundered, each thump a war cry and a countdown all at once.
Somewhere above the clashing steel and burning spirits, the wind shifted — a cold, reverberating hush that swallowed every other sound. Tyler’s eyes snapped upward.
From the edge of the plateau, Zephryn descended in a whirl of feathers and storm light. Her massive wings spread wide, each feather bristling with barely contained power, glimmering like shards of moonstone. Her talons curled, gleaming with lethal promise.
On the opposite side, a thick, green mist rose like a plague from the ground. From it, Myrrak slithered forward, his serpentine eyes glinting with vile delight. Poison dripped from his claws, hissing wherever it touched the ground. His tongue flickered, tasting the air as if savouring the fear.
Their eyes locked.
Zephryn’s feathers rippled, her body coiling like a drawn bow. “Myrrak,” she called, her voice carrying across the whole battlefield, low but sharp as a blade’s edge. “Your endless treachery ends here.”
Myrrak’s grin widened, his long fangs gleaming in the moonlight. “Oh, Zephryn… still playing the righteous guardian? How deliciously naive. Tonight, I will peel those wings from your back and scatter your feathers to the winds!”
A sudden gust ripped through the battlefield, stirring ash and spectral mist. The other fighters glanced upward, momentarily frozen in the tension that radiated like lightning between two storm gods.
Tyler felt the shift in the air — a primal energy that made every hair on his neck stand up. He clenched his swords, breath catching. I must keeppushing. I can’t stop now…
Above them, Zephryn rose higher, feathers gleaming under the moon’s glow, her eyes sharp with divine fury. Myrrak reared back, poison pooling at his feet like a living shadow.
Their silhouettes, mirrored against the night sky, looked like two ancient titans on the verge of crashing together and tearing the world apart.
Tyler’s gaze narrowed, pulse roaring. His feet dug into the bloodied ground. Around him, his allies staggered but did not yield — every warrior a flickering flame refusing to be snuffed out.
“No turning back now. I can’t falter… I can’t let that thing inside me crawl out again… This is my fight — mine alone!”
As the ghosts pressed closer, as steel rang and fire flared, as thunder coiled in the heavens above, Tyler surged forward once more.