Chapter 12: Shameless Undead.
Chad gripped the center of his spear and drove it forward with all his strength. The bronze tip punched through the Eidolon’s chest and burst out from its back in a spray of blood.
The creature staggered but refused to fall immediately. With a furious roar, it swung a heavy fist at Chad’s head. Unfortunately for it, death arrived first. The strength left its arm halfway through the motion. Its punch slowed, then stopped entirely.
The Eidolon’s body went limp and slid down the length of the spear before crashing heavily onto the stone floor.
"Run," Yuri warned, but it was already too late.
More Eidolons finally forced their way through the narrow entrance, the moment one spotted Chad, it lunged forward and drove a kick into his stomach.
Chad’s eyes rolled to the back of his head.
He was launched across the chamber like a cannonball. Damien instinctively ducked, and a heartbeat later Chad crashed through a shelf at the far end of the room, splintering wood and scattering weapons across the floor.
Yuri cursed and charged forward again.
Faint electric currents surged along her skin as she met the first Eidolon head-on. Her katana flashed through the air and split its wooden club cleanly in half, but the strike only carved a shallow wound across its chest.
The second Eidolon didn’t waste the opportunity.
Its club came from an awkward angle, forcing Yuri to twist her body midair and bring her blade down to intercept.
Yuri couldn’t generate enough force behind the block. The impact travelled through her arms and nearly tore the sword from her grasp.
The Eidolons were savage on the battlefield. They had no formations, no tactics, and no sense of cooperation, yet they knew how to exploit weakness.
The moment Yuri lost momentum, another Eidolon struck.
Massive claws descended from above, aiming to tear straight through her.
Yuri’s heart sank.
She had just completed her clash with the other Eidolon and was still suspended in midair. There was nowhere to dodge, she was sure this was the end for her, except she wasn’t ready to die yet, luckily for her.
The next moment, the Eidolon’s claw exploded into a cloud of blood and shattered flesh, the force of the impact twisted the creature sideways.
The pitch-black arrow continued onward, punching through the shoulder of another Eidolon further back before finally losing momentum.
The undead Eidolon closest to Yuri swung its mace from below, the arc rising upward with brutal force.
The blow connected with precise accuracy.
The attacking Eidolon’s face was crushed and torn apart in a single impact, its body going limp as it dropped dead mid-motion.
Yuri didn’t waste the opening.
Still suspended in midair and with no strength left to properly adjust her movement, she planted a brief kick against the chest of another Eidolon, the one she had clashed with earlier.
Using that rebound, she pushed herself backward, retreating toward Damien.
"We’re being pushed back," she said, wiping the sweat off her cheek.
Her eyes flicked toward the far end of the room where Chad had been thrown.
"And I think Chad is dead."
Damien remained as calm as always. Yuri hated to admit it, but that unnatural calmness of his was giving her a reason to keep fighting.
Damien glanced back at Chad. His legs were still twitching, and Seris was already doing her best to heal him. He looked bad, but he would live.
He turned his attention back to the army of Eidolons ahead. Yuri stood on one side of him, Priesty on the other. For a brief moment, Damien had a strange realization. The so called hero of the group was currently unconscious behind them, which meant, by default, the responsibility had shifted elsewhere.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Not ideal.
Especially since that usually meant people like him ended up being labeled the creepy one who only shows up when things go wrong.
Damien immediately shook his head.
"No. No, I’m not the creepy one. That’s Chad. What kind of hero gets kicked nearly to death before the actual fight even starts?"
Yuri stood beside him, listening in silence for a moment before exhaling softly.
"His brain definitely hasn’t recovered yet."
...
Damien pulled his bow in quick succession, releasing arrow after arrow, but most of them only managed to leave shallow wounds across the Eidolons’ thick bodies.
Yuri’s legs bent slightly as she prepared to launch herself forward again, it was simply another reckless burst of speed to break the pressure line, but Damien suddenly spoke, cutting her off.
"Don’t burn yourself out. You’re barely moving as it is... If you drop dead, you won’t be useful to anyone".
Yuri’s lips pressed together tightly. She didn’t argue. The Eidolons were a cruel bunch. They had starved them before bringing them out to be used as sacrifices, and now they were forced to fight on empty bodies.
Everyone was running on fumes. Well... everyone except Damien.
He gave a short order to Priesty, and the undead Eidolon moved immediately. Together with the other two undead, they surged forward into the narrow choke point.
For a brief moment, they actually held the line, and the mounting pressure eased, but three undead couldn’t hold the line against hundreds of crazed Eidolons.
A spiked club slammed into one of the undead’s skulls with a wet crack. The creature staggered backward, its head caving in, but it still tried to stand.
It never got the chance, another club came down, then another.
Its thick bones shattered, its arm snapped and twisted backwards, its torso caved in under the repeated blows, until the undead finally collapsed into broken pieces of black gaseous mass, it lingered before dissipating into the nothingness.
The familiar whisper followed closely.
[Your undead has fallen]
Damien grunted darkly, he knew he couldn’t bring them back a second time, the moment they died, they remained that way.
He needed to take a risk, the only other option for surviving this onslaught is to make more undead to fight for them, but Damien wasn’t planning on courting death, so he smiled and briskly turned to the half dead Chad.