CHAPTER 158: DREADS OF THE JOURNEY 2

Darius planted his boots like roots, every swing of his warhammer carved devastation. The weapon sang down as it cracked skulls, the crunch of bone and squelch of rotten flesh echoing in grotesque rhythm.

"Come on, you bastards!" he roared, slamming his hammer down with such force that three Shamblers caved inward, their glowing ribs collapsed. "You will not have him while I breathe!"

Rhoam lunged beside him with a streak of armored fury. The panther slammed into one Shambler with claws raking across its torso in a spray of ichor. Its runes pulsed blue, while channeling kinetic bursts that sent corpses flying back into their hole.

But for every Shambler that was smashed, two more staggered into the fray. They swarmed like maggots, looking clumsy yet relentless.

Darius spat blood from a cut across his lip, with hammer spinning. "Kelvin! I can’t keep this wall up forever!"

Lyra and Salaris with their Knives in the dark, Lyra darted through shadows with blades flashing like lightning. She slipped between corpses, her movements was a ruthless precision. Her daggers sank into glowing ribcages, twisted, and tore cores of green light free in showers of sparks.

"Stay down," she hissed, driving a blade through a Shambler’s skull. Salaris shrieked overhead, loosing bursts of shadow-feathers.

The projectiles were embedded into corpses, then it erupted, forming cages of writhing darkness that pinned Shamblers in place.

Lyra used those moments mercilessly, carving through pinned enemies before they could wrench free. But her face was pale, sweat streaking her cheekbones. For every corpse she felled, more spilled into the battlefield.

"They are endless," she said. "We will cut one down, and three will crawl up to replace it. Kelvin, hurry and come!" She said.

Kelvin forced his gaze to the tome. The fissure writhed out violently, runes pulling against the edges like stitches against the torn flesh. The forest howled and branches cracked overhead as though the trees themselves were screamed in pain.

Xerion’s voice vibrated through his skull, half snarl, half command. Keep your mind focused! Ignore the dead. Seal the wound, or we will drown in them.

"I am trying," Kelvin hissed, pressing harder. His hands were filled with blisters and his skin cracking from the raw energy spilling into him. The fissure pushed back, its corruption seeped into his veins. He gritted his teeth as his blood burned with a sickly green fire.

"Not...today." He slammed his will into the tome, channeling everything he had into the seal. The silver runes surged brighter, swallowing at the fissure’s glow.

But the fissure fought back and harder this time. The ground split wider, vomiting out a larger corpse. Not a mere Shambler or something worse.

It emerged slowly, dragging itself upright. Over eight feet tall, its body was a twisted lattice of fused bones with jagged ribs forming armor-like plates.

Its skull was stretched, a maw was filled with too many teeth, and its eye sockets burned with twin green fires that cut through the mist.

A Boneclad Horror, who is a corrupted commander came up. At that point Kelvin’s heart froze, these were rare, even in records. Necrotic generals, were birthed when the Hollow fused too many corpses into one vessel.

"Gods help us," Darius muttered. "They have got a Horror." The creature roared, a sound that shook the ground. Shamblers surged forward faster, thou galvanized by their commander’s presence.

"Lyra!" Kelvin shouted. "Keep it from the fissure!" "I will try!" she snapped, lunging toward it. Salaris shrieked, while loosing another volley of feathers, but the Horror swatted them aside with a single arm.

The impact sent Lyra staggering. "Its bones deflected even shadow!" Rhoam charged, slamming into the Horror’s leg with enough force to topple trees.

The creature barely stumbled, then swung its arm, back handling the panther into a tree trunk with a crack. "Rhoam!" Darius bellowed. The panther shook itself with his armor dented, but he staggered back into the fight.

Kelvin’s grip faltered on the tome. The fissure screamed louder, reacting to the Horror’s arrival. The silver stitches he had woven began tearing open, as corruption was spilling faster.

"No, no, no!" he hissed, forcing more energy through. His skin split along his arms, glowing veins where crawling beneath his flesh. The tome was writhed like a living thing.

Xerion snarled in his head. You will burn out if you push more. "If I stop, we all die!" The fissure buckled and its edges tore wide like jaws. Tendrils lashed outward as one grazed Kelvin’s shoulder, searing straight through the armor into the flesh. He screamed, as his vision exploded with light.

"Kelvin!" Lyra shouted, trying to break toward him—but the Horror blocked her path, towering in her way.

Immediately, Darius roared, charging at the Horror with hammer high. His weapon came down with thunderous force, that cracked across the beast’s chest.

Bone splintered, fragments kept flying but the Horror did not fall. Instead, it grabbed the hammer’s shaft with one massive claw and wrenched, pulling Darius off balance.

The creature lifted him bodily and hurled him into the fissure’s edge. The impact shook the clearing, and Darius groaned as his armor cracked.

"Stay...down..." the Horror’s voice was croaked, not just words but a mockery of them that shaped from the Hollow’s will.

"Like hell," Darius said as he spat blood, dragging himself upright. Rhoam lunged again, with his jaws locking onto the Horror’s leg.

The armor-crushing strength met corrupted bone. The Horror shrieked and tried to shake the panther off, but Rhoam clung like a vice that was growling deep.

Lyra moved in, with both daggers flashing. She jammed them between ribs, as they are twisting, but the bone-plates were too thick. The blades barely sank an inch.

It swung at her. Salaris screeched, diving to strike its face with a burst of black fire. The Horror’s skull jerked aside, as the blow saved Lyra’s life. She rolled back, with his chest breathing fast.

Kelvin gasped, as blood dripped from his shoulder. The fissure’s energy surged through him, burning his veins like acid.

Xerion whispered fiercely. We cannot seal it with silver alone. Lend me your body and et me drink the fissure’s power.

"You will consume me too." That is possible only if you falter. Trust me, boy. Kelvin hesitated only with a heartbeat, then slammed his palm onto Xerion’s hilt and said. "Fine, Take it!"

The glaive roared to life, its edge blazed black-violet, that was drinking in the fissure’s energy like a starving predator. The tome’s silver runes flared brighter in answer, while stitching harder and faster.

The ground trembled violently as both forces clashed. The fissure screamed, the Horror bellowed, and Kelvin felt his soul stretched thin. The Horror ripped Rhoam free and slammed the panther into the ground, with its claws raised for a killing blow.

Kelvin staggered upright, the glaive blazed and he hurled himself forward. The weapon was speared straight through the Horror’s arm, slicing bone like paper. The beast shrieked, with green light erupting from the wound.

"Now!" Kelvin shouted. Darius surged up, with his war hammer smashed down on the Horror’s knee with a roar. The joint cracked, forcing the beast down. Lyra darted in, her daggers striked the glowing wounds, carving deep until the rib-plates fractured.

Salaris shrieked above, while raining black fire onto its skull. The Horror reeled, broken, yet still thrashing. Kelvin’s glaive flared brighter, Xerion screamed in his mind. Drive me into its core! End it!

Kelvin leapt, thrusting the glaive straight into the Horror’s chest. The blade pierced the bone, sinking into the glowing furnace that is inside.

The creature froze and its green eyes blazed wide. With a deafening roar, the Horror collapsed into shards of bone and ash.

The fissure shrieked as its champion died. The runes in Master Mealin’s Tome surged forward, sealing harder, faster and weaving silver light across the glowing wound.

Kelvin dropped to his knees, forcing every shred of his strength into the seal. His vision was blurred and his veins seared, but he pushed through.

"Close, damn you...close!" The fissure writhed violently, then shuddered and before the silver light snapped shut across it like a scar.

Silence crashed over the whole place. The moans were ceased. The Shamblers froze mid-step with their eyes guttering out. One by one, they collapsed into heaps of bone and rot.

Only the faint silver glow of the sealed fissure remained,as it pulsed softly like a muted heartbeat. Kelvin slumped forward, gasping, the glaive flickered dim in his hand. Xerion’s voice rasped, softer now and said. Well done, you indeed lived.

Darius staggered over, bruised and bleeding, yet grinning like a mad man. He lifted Kelvin upright with one arm. "By the gods, boy, you have got iron in you."

Lyra sheathed her daggers with trembling hands. Salaris landed on her shoulder, with feathers ruffled and eyes sharp. "That was only the first fissure. There will be more, so get ready."

Kelvin swallowed, staring at the silver scar across the ground. His entire body ached. His veins were still glowed faintly with green beneath his skin.