Chapter 28: Eastern District Gate Challenge (9)
"Next wave, please!" Zero exclaimed.
Suddenly the ground under his soles gave that low pulse again, just enough to make the dirt shiver around the bodies of the felled beasts.
The air ahead thickened, he felt it before he even saw it — the bigger pull in his chest, the way the Fragment almost vibrated against his palm.
When the thing stepped through, the noise it made was a soft scrape of rusted steel dragging through damp earth, like a shovel biting into gravel.
It was tall, easily half a head over the last hobgoblin, but what made Zero’s grin tick wider under the battered visor was the shape of its armor, it was indeed broken, but still layered like someone had taken the bones of a proper Death Knight and dipped it in leftover Tier 1 garbage.
Plates hung crooked over a chainmail hauberk that barely hid the hollow gaps at its ribs and shoulders. In its hand dragged a two-handed sword that looked half-welded to the bones of its gauntlet, every step leaving a clean scar in the mossy floor.
Zero tilted his head slightly, the leather of his cracked helmet creaking at the hinge, and let out a low hum that turned into a muffled laugh. ’Oh, a Death Knight, huh? Somebody’s pulling out the festival boss. Not bad, not bad at all... but, this guy doesn’t fit with the whole... forest theme so... eh, who cares, I’m just nitpicking."
He lowered the Fragment to his side, letting its edge scrape a line of sparks off a flat rock as he bounced lightly on his heels.
The air tasted stale, wet metal and the strong lingering smell of blood in the air that almost tasted like expired metal, if that’s even a thing.
He could almost feel the feed outside turning from "look at that clown" to that hush that always crawled up a crowd’s spine when they realized the underdog might actually know what the hell he’s doing.
The Death Knight didn’t waste time. It lifted its head — a skull mostly hidden under a dented helmet — and made a low, creaking noise that felt like a laugh dragged through a coffin lid.
Then it lunged forward with a burst of speed that clipped the edge of Zero’s grin right off his face.