Chapter 36: A Hand To Hold
A suffocating silence filled the battlefield. The crumbling remains of Helios lay in a shattered heap, his petrified body destroyed. Dune exhaled sharply, his muscles still tense, his grip on his sword tightening as he scanned the ruins.
"How dare you kill my brother?"
Its voice wasn't just one. It was many, layered upon each other, a chorus of fury and pain that rattled the air. The ground beneath it cracked as waves of Neba pulsed outward.
Nely instinctively gripped her scythe tighter. "Dune... this thing is nothing like Helios."
She was right. Everything about this creature was screaming dangerous.
Dune barely had time to think before the monster moved. A blur of black and green shot forward.
Dune raised his sword just in time to block the first strike, but the force behind it sent him skidding backward, boots carving into the stone. His arms screamed in pain, the sheer impact rattling through his bones.
Nely was already moving, her scythe slicing through the air in a deadly arc. The creature twisted unnaturally, dodging her scythe by mere inches before lunging forward, its claws aimed straight for her throat. She barely managed to throw herself back in time.
Her scythe then flashed, striking deep into its thick hide. A sharp, pained snarl ripped from the beast's throat. For a moment, it staggered.
Then its massive claw shot out and caught her by the arm.
Her scream cut through the chaos as the creature's grip tightened. Bone cracked like splintering wood. Her scythe slipped from her hand.