Chapter 313: Everything

For a moment, nobody moved.

The battlefield had gone strangely quiet. Hundreds of Vrethka’s warriors stared at what stood before them. Three hundred and ninety undead. Two hundred and fifty undead knights stood in formation, their weapons ready.

Behind them were Yuimons, wolves, Rops, bats, and other undead animals. And among their feet, barely noticeable in the chaos, several undead snakes shifted through the grass and dirt.

It was an army. Not a handful of undead. Not the small force Vrethka had expected. An actual army. One that had appeared in seconds.

A single thought seemed to pass through the minds of the warriors.

No... No... This... This can’t be...

Just moments ago, they had been confident. They had believed their preparations were enough. They had spent days preparing for a Necromancer.

They had trained their warriors. Stockpiled weapons. Prepared their defenses. Made plans to target Darion directly. They had even gone searching for the Kulidii. They had believed that if they could kill the Necromancer, his army would collapse.

But now they were staring at something they had never imagined. Three hundred and ninety undead. And the man commanding them was standing right in front of them.

Darion raised his sword. The golden light reflected off his face. The warriors finally understood. They weren’t prepared for this. They weren’t prepared for him.

The first warrior took a step backward. Then another. Nobody noticed. Everyone was too busy staring.

But fear had already entered the battlefield. And fear was faster than any blade. It didn’t need to physically injure someone. It simply needed to make them hesitate.

A warrior who was afraid would grip his sword too tightly. His movements became stiff. His breathing became uneven. His eyes stopped focusing on the enemy in front of him and started searching for an escape. A warrior who should have blocked an incoming strike might hesitate for half a second. That half-second was enough.

A warrior who should have charged might look around and realize that everyone around him was afraid too. And suddenly, he wasn’t thinking about victory anymore. He was thinking about survival.

Can I get away? Can I survive this? What if that thing reaches me?

Fear spread through the formation. One warrior dropped his shield. Another stumbled backward. Someone shouted for everyone to regroup. Nobody listened. Their formation was beginning to break before the battle had even properly begun.

Darion saw it. He understood immediately. They’re already losing.

He raised his sword. Then charged.

"CHARGE!"

Darion’s voice cut across the battlefield. The undead moved. Hundreds of bodies surged forward. The ground shook beneath their feet.

Vrethka’s warriors finally reacted. "Hold the line!"

"Don’t let them through!"

"FORM UP!"

They tried. But the undead hit them before the formation could stabilize.

Darion reached the first warrior. The man raised his sword. His hands were shaking. Darion’s golden blade flashed. CLANG! The enemy’s sword was knocked aside. SLASH! Darion’s blade cut across his chest. The warrior collapsed.

Another rushed from the side. Darion turned. WHOOSH! His sword carved through the man’s defense. He stepped forward again. Another warrior attacked. Darion ducked beneath the blade and drove his shoulder into the man’s chest. The warrior stumbled. Darion’s sword came down. THUD! He fell.

Darion didn’t stop. He kept moving. Every step took him deeper into Vrethka.

Behind him, Seren had found her position. The undead Darion had summoned around her formed a protective ring. She stood inside it, bow raised. An enemy warrior tried to push through. An undead knight intercepted him.

Seren drew. Pulled. Released. THWIP! The arrow struck his throat. He dropped.

Another warrior tried to attack from the opposite side. Seren turned. THWIP! The arrow pierced his eye. He collapsed.

She didn’t hesitate. Another. Another. Another. Her expression had become cold. Focused. She didn’t waste arrows. Every shot had a purpose. Every time a warrior exposed an opening, she punished it. And the undead around her made sure nobody could reach her.

Seren glanced toward Darion. He was already dozens of meters ahead. Still fighting. Still advancing. She smiled faintly. Then she drew another arrow.

The Yuimons reached the warriors. And everything became worse.

One Yuimon crashed into a group of soldiers. Three warriors attacked it simultaneously. Their swords struck its body. The Yuimon barely reacted. It swung. BOOM! One warrior was thrown aside. Another stabbed at it. The Yuimon grabbed his weapon and pulled. The warrior lost his balance. The creature struck him. He hit the ground hard.

Two more warriors rushed in. The Yuimon turned toward them. They hesitated. That hesitation killed them. The creature attacked. One. Two. Then another.

A single Yuimon could fight multiple warriors at once without slowing down. The Yuimon was really powerful and was a very much valuable addition to Darion’s inventory.

The warriors quickly realized they couldn’t simply overwhelm these creatures with numbers. There were too many undead. And every time they managed to push one back, another was already coming.

Nobody noticed the snakes at first. That was the problem. They moved beneath the chaos. Between boots. Under shields. Through gaps in the formations.

One warrior suddenly screamed. "AAAH!" He looked down. Something had bitten his ankle. He swung his sword wildly. Nothing.

Then another warrior felt something crawl beneath his trousers. He froze. "What the—" A snake struck. He screamed and dropped his weapon.

Another snake moved through the legs of the warriors nearby. The sight of it caused panic. "SNAKES!"

The warriors started looking down. That made everything worse. They were already fighting undead knights and Yuimons. Now they were terrified of what might be crawling beneath their feet. One warrior kicked wildly. Another stumbled. A third looked down at the wrong moment. An undead knight’s sword came down. SLASH! The battlefield swallowed him.

The snakes didn’t need to kill everyone. They simply needed to create openings. And they did. Again. And again.

The undead wolves were even faster. They didn’t attack the strongest warriors. They went for openings.