The air was cold, and the man who stood at the center of everything emanated an aura that made Sael’s hairs stand on end.
’He’s heard about me? I haven’t heard of him. Who could he be?’ Sael searched his mind but found no answer. Still, he continued to stare at the man.
...Cautiously.
After making his last statement, Zebelon casually walked forward and picked up a dead body as he went.
"I’m curious, though." He dragged the corpse by the leg. "Just how much did Ryugan spend to hire people like you? Especially you, Arrow Sage. Do they really think that pouring resources that should be reserved for the Empire into the purchase of handymen will save them from total annihilation, or, if the Emperor is benevolent... slavery?"
With the punctuation of his last word, he hurled the corpse straight into the air. The lifeless body rolled and wheeled towards Sael, who pulled out an ordinary arrow, nocked it to the bow, and fired. The shaft caught the body mid-flight and carried it away with enough force to send it tumbling across the field.
Sael turned to the man in holy anger and descended.
"You! Have you no honor for the fallen? These are men who fought for your nation. The reason they’re dead is because your nation demanded it! These people should be the pride and backbone of your military strength. How dare you use them as mere projectiles!"
The man looked at him with an unreadable expression, and then...
"No."
Sael frowned, confused.
"You’re wrong." Zebelon’s voice carried the patience of someone correcting a child. "The only reason they died is to be useful to me, you dimwit. I’m their mander. I own them. Value of the Empire? Honor? These dimwits?" He lowered a disgusted gaze at the bodies scattered around him.
Then he returned his attention to Sael.
"Honor and value are things retained only for the strong. Shouldn’t you know best, that it is wrong to coddle the weak?" He went silent for a moment, then his voice came again. "Then again, I did hear you can be too virtuous sometimes. Preachy, too. I suppose Hozier really is a reliable person."
He pointed his index finger at Sael. "Careful there..."
In that instant, a soldier burst forward with immense speed, crossing the distance between them in less than two seconds, an arrow gripped in his fist like a dagger. But two seconds had been enough time for Raven to move. Her wings fluttered, her sword flashed, and the soldier’s head went spinning into the sky.
The headless body went still. Sael drew his bow, ready.
Then the body moved.
Sael was quick this time. He released the Tideturner strings, and the arrow punched into the body’s chest, driving it back several meters.
The body stopped for a moment, then continued forward the next. Sael drew more arrows.
The first drove it back. Then another, and another, and another again, but the corpse simply absorbed each hit and kept walking like it was nothing. It pulled one of Sael’s arrows from its own chest and gripped it in its free hand while continuing forward.
Sael’s stomach dropped.
’What in the world is this.’
Raven intercepted and cut the body cleanly in half at the waist. Both halves fell apart for a moment. The next, both rose on their own, acting as two separate beings.
"Leave it to me!" Annette shouted and exploded forward, wreathed in flame. She crashed down on both halves and from her legs a floor of fire erupted outward, radiating heat so intense that Sael had to leap back while Raven frowned.
"Instructor Annette, please be demure."
"Demure? Really? How about this for demure!"
The flames surged and rolled outward in ferocious waves that swept past Raven. Sael leaped clear while the Nightmare Wyvern met him in the air and they reunited.
Raven, who Sael had seen consumed by the inferno, was floating above the flames on her mismatched wings. Meanwhile Annette’s fire raced forward like it had been infected with madness, roaring towards Zebelon.
Zebelon stared at the approaching tide of flames with a small, playful smile.
Then the corpses between him and the fire began to rise. All of them were burning, skin blackening and peeling, but they didn’t stop. They dashed forward through the inferno. It was like watching figures charge through a furnace, and not a single one of them cared for the flames eating away at their flesh.
One finally lunged out of the fire and grabbed Annette by the face. She froze with shock, her vermillion eyes staring down at the charred hand clamped over her mouth.
"What in the..."
The corpse swung its arm overhead, but Annette simply looked at it with irritation and twisted free of its grip. The motion was so powerful that the corpse’s hand wrenched loose like wet cloth, and the whole body went spinning into the air before it could plete the punch.
More corpses were reaching her now, but she simply punched and kicked them away. They flew off in an almost cartoonish manner while Zebelon watched, the playful smile still on his face, looking quite relaxed.
Annette drove her fist into another one’s gut. Fire erupted from her knuckles and scorched through the corpse, but even burning, it continued to march forward until she sent it sailing with a second blow.
Annette dealt with the last of the approaching corpses and shouted:
"Is this it? All that aura and you’re just going to throw thralls at us?"
Zebelon’s smile slowly left his lips.
"Goodness... underestimating me is very bad for the safety of your life."
He grabbed two more soldiers and sent them flying.
Sael drew his bow and locked his aim on the two, then released a pair of arrows.
As the arrows flew, the corpses twisted on their own mid-air, fluidly dodging the shafts before catching them in their hands. Both descended on Annette, armed with Sael’s own arrows.
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