Chapter 141: [141] You Do Not Know What You Are
The ancient structures disgorged their dead. From the crumbling temple, a new wave of skeletal warriors poured into the market square, still clad in chainmail gone green with verdigris.
Unlike the shambling dead, these moved with purpose. They formed a cohesive line, their corroded blades held at a ready angle, their attacks coordinated. This was not a mob; it was a ghost of an army.
"Second wave incoming!" Xavier called out, his voice cutting through the chaos as he deflected a corroded blade with his dagger. The rusty metal screamed against ironwinter steel before he pivoted into a perfect riposte, driving his weapon through the gap where the guard-skeleton’s gorget had rotted away. Vertebrae exploded in a shower of bone dust as his technique found its mark.
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The plaza had become a charnel house. Steel rang on bone. Crossbow bolts whistled past. The shouts of the living were a desperate counterpoint to the hollow clatter of skeletal jaws.
The defensive circle they’d formed was holding, but barely. Each fallen enemy seemed to summon two more from the shadows, an endless tide of bone and spite.
Xavier fell into the rhythm of combat, the world narrowing to a dance of death.
Dodge, parry, strike.
Each exchange fed power into his growing meter, the pink energy building steadily as muscle memory took over.
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