The army attacked.
Forty creatures.
All at once.
---
The first problem was space.
There was none.
Desert Wyrms erged from the ground on the left. Frost Serpents descended from the rocks on the right. Mountain Bears charged from the front. Cave Trolls closed in from the rear.
And above it all—
Two shadows blocked out the sun.
Ice Wyverns.
Alex looked at the chaos for exactly one second.
Then he made a decision.
"Grim."
"Yes."
"The creatures are yours."
A pause.
"Matthias is mine."
"Understood. Master."
No more words.
Grim launched upward.
[Shadow Scythe – RELEASED]
The scythe shot out like a projectile, crimson bright against the gray sky.
It struck the Ice Wyvern Alpha in the side of the neck.
[Ice Wyvern Alpha HP: 85,000 → 82,400/85,000]
Minimal damage.
But enough to get its attention.
The Wyvern turned, its bright green eyes fixed on Grim.
It screeched.
A sound that split the air.
And Grim—
Grim smiled.
Or at least it seed that way. Bones couldn’t smile. But sothing in the tilt of his skull, the way he tightened his grip on the scythe—
Communicated exactly that.
"Co."
---
Alex didn’t see what happened next.
He was already running toward Matthias.
[Shadow Step]
Five ters. Ten. He appeared on the exorcist’s right flank, sword wrapped in black energy—
Matthias blocked without looking.
CLANG.
"Predictable," he said.
He counterattacked with his left elbow. Alex dodged by centiters, felt the wind of the strike graze his ear.
Close.
Too close.
[Matthias HP: 16,500/32,000]
Still healing.
Matthias’s passive regeneration was the real problem. Every second that passed without dealing aningful damage was a second the exorcist regained HP.
Alex needed constant pressure.
No pauses. No breathing room.
[Blood Weapon]
Three crimson daggers materialized around his arms.
He threw them.
Matthias deflected two with an open palm—green energy forming a montary shield. The third grazed his left side.
[Matthias HP: 16,500 → 16,200/32,000]
Three hundred damage.
Not enough.
"Interesting tactic," Matthias said, unhurried. "But you have a fundantal problem."
He raised his right hand.
Green energy concentrated in his palm.
"I have thirty‑two thousand hit points."
The energy exploded toward Alex.
[CORRUPTED SMITE – DIRECT]
Alex activated [Shadow Step] to the left—
Appeared three ters away.
The Smite struck the ground where he had been.
BOOM.
A crater two ters deep.
"And you," Matthias continued, turning toward him calmly, "have one thousand seven hundred twenty."
Alex spat on the ground.
"How useful. Thanks for the reminder."
---
The Ice Wyvern Alpha was fast.
For sothing its size, it was obscenely fast.
Thirty‑ter wingspan. Scales blue‑white like compressed ice. A tail with a crystal tip that could pierce solid rock.
Grim was three and a half ters tall.
The size difference was absurd.
The Wyvern didn’t care.
It dove, jaws open, frost breath gathering in its throat—
[Ice Wyvern Alpha – ICE BREATH CHARGING]
Grim didn’t dodge.
He launched himself toward it.
[Reaper’s Wrath – ACTIVE]
[Grim HP: 620/3,360 → 585/3,360] (cost per second)
His form expanded to four ters. The scythe glowed crimson like molten tal.
He latched onto the Wyvern’s neck with his free hand.
The Wyvern released its frost breath.
Point‑blank.
[ICE BREATH – DIRECT IMPACT]
The cold was absolute.
Temperature dropping two hundred degrees in one second.
Grim’s bone armor frosted over instantly. Cracks appeared in his ribs. His left arm—the one holding the Wyvern—creaked.
[Grim HP: 585 → 490/3,360]
But his hand didn’t let go.
"Hurts."
The scythe swung.
Cut horizontally through the Wyvern’s left wing.
[Ice Wyvern Alpha HP: 82,400 → 74,800/85,000]
The Wyvern howled—a sound like shattering glass amplified a thousand tis.
Its left wing hung limp, mbrane sliced in half.
It could no longer fly properly.
Grim forced it to the ground.
---
anwhile, the second Wyvern dove toward where Grim had been.
It found empty air.
Grim had already repositioned.
[Shadow Step – activated by Grim]
He appeared on the second Wyvern’s back.
Drove his scythe into its spine.
[Ice Wyvern Mate HP: 82,000 → 71,600/82,000]
The Wyvern roared in pain and thrashed.
Tried to shake him off. Spin. Throw Grim from its back.
Grim twisted the scythe.
[Ice Wyvern Mate HP: 71,600 → 68,200/82,000]
"Still."
---
[BATTLEFIELD – CENTER]
The Sand Scorpions were the real problem.
Not individually.
But in coordination.
Matthias commanded them in a triangle—one pressing from the front, two closing the flanks. Every ti Alex tried to move toward Matthias, one of the scorpions blocked the path.
They didn’t attack him directly.
They just... obstructed.
He’s using the creatures as walls, Alex realized. Not to kill . To control my movent.
[Sand Scorpion Elder – Level 120]
[HP: 95,000/95,000]
The front scorpion was the size of a two‑story house. Its sand‑colored exoskeleton was nearly invisible in this terrain. Claws the size of trees.
It stepped between Alex and Matthias.
Alex assessed.
I can’t go through it. I don’t have the damage for that. If I try to Shadow Step around, the other two will close in on .
He needed another route.
He looked up.
The Wyvern Alpha was still alive, its left wing damaged but still standing, charging toward Grim.
If he could use it...
An idea.
A bad idea, probably.
But it was the one he had.
[Blood Weapon – Chain]
Not daggers this ti.
A long chain of crimson energy materialized in his right hand. Ten ters. Fifteen.
He threw it toward the Wyvern Alpha.
The chain wrapped around its left hind leg.
The Wyvern turned—confused, enraged, Matthias’s green eyes flickering as it tried to process the new variable—
Alex pulled.
With everything.
[Battle Flow – Accumulated Strength: 18%]
The Wyvern didn’t move.
Of course it didn’t. It was a level 105 monster.
But Alex did.
Launched upward by his own montum, using the chain as leverage, sailing over the Sand Scorpion Elder like a human projectile—
Over the scorpion.
Over Matthias’s shield.
Straight toward the exorcist from above.
[Shadow Step] in the last ter.
He appeared with his knee aid at Matthias’s jaw.
CRACK.
[Matthias HP: 16,200 → 15,100/32,000]
Matthias staggered.
First ti I’ve staggered him.
Alex didn’t give him ti to recover.
[Necrotic Burst] —channeled into an open palm, straight to the chest.
BOOM.
[Matthias HP: 15,100 → 14,200/32,000]
The exorcist flew back ten ters. His back struck a rock.
Silence for two seconds.
Then he got up.
Slow.
His robe torn. A rib probably fractured—the way he held his right side said so.
But smiling.
"That hurt."
"Good," said Alex.
"Genuinely good." Matthias wiped blood from his lip. "You know how long it’s been since I felt real pain? The controlled can’t hurt . The adventurers who co to ’rescue’ their people die before they touch ." A pause. "You’re different."
"Glad to be entertaining."
"It’s not entertainnt." The smile vanished. "It’s evaluation."
[Holy Regeneration – Active]
[Matthias HP: 14,200 → 14,800/32,000]
Still healing. Six hundred HP per interval.
Alex did the math quickly.
If he didn’t kill him continuously, he healed faster than Alex could damage him.
---
[BATTLEFIELD – GRIM]
Grim had a problem.
The problem was called "two Wyverns, three Scorpions, and a dozen lesser creatures all attacking simultaneously."
The Wyvern Alpha—wing damaged, enraged—charged from the left.
The Wyvern Mate—spine wounded but functional—closed in from the right.
And the scorpions flanking.
Under normal conditions, this would have been impossible.
[Reaper’s Wrath] cost HP per second. His HP was dropping.
[Grim HP: 490 → 455 → 420/3,360]
But in Core Resonance, with Death’s Synergy active—
"I. Am. Not. Normal."
The Wyvern Alpha reached him first.
Grim didn’t dodge.
He planted. Scythe raised in a block.
The Wyvern’s entire body slamd into the blade.
BOOM.
Grim gave ground—five ters, ten—his feet carving furrows in the sand.
But he didn’t fall.
He pushed back.
[Grim HP: 420 → 380/3,360] (impact Reaper’s Wrath cost)
The Wyvern Alpha reeled back, confused.
That skeleton shouldn’t be able to do that.
Grim capitalized on the confusion.
[Death’s Harvest – Enhanced]
The scythe swung in a wide arc.
Not at the Wyvern.
At the massed lesser creatures behind it.
Eight Desert Wyrms in a single cut.
[Desert Wyrm x8 – ELIMINATED]
[Souls harvested: 0.8]
[Grim souls: 670.1 → 670.9/1,000]
No pause.
The Wyvern Mate attacked from the right—its crystal tail sweeping horizontally.
Grim jumped.
Over the tail.
Over the Wyvern’s body.
Landed on its head.
Drove both hands into its skull.
[Command Undead – NOT AVAILABLE: target alive]
Doesn’t work on the living.
But his hands did.
He applied pressure.
[Ice Wyvern Mate HP: 68,200 → 61,400/82,000]
The Wyvern screeched and thrashed wildly.
Grim held on.
[Grim HP: 380 → 340/3,360] (Reaper’s Wrath continues)
"Still. I said."
---
[CENTER]
The exorcist changed tactics.
Instead of fighting directly, he retreated a hundred ters.
And raised his hands.
"Enough close combat," he said. "Let’s be more... efficient."
The Sand Scorpions responded.
All three advanced toward Alex in tight formation.
[Sand Scorpion Elder – COORDINATED ATTACK]
Their claws struck the ground in sync.
The impact generated a shockwave—sand exploding outward like a grenade.
Alex jumped.
[Shadow Step] in mid‑air—repositioned twenty ters back.
Landed.
Imdiately two Frost Serpents erupted from the ground beneath his feet.
[Alex HP: 580 → 510/1,110] (venom bite — damage reduced by Partial Awakening)
He shook the serpents off his legs.
[Blood Weapon – Daggers]
Drove them through.
[Frost Serpent x2 – ELIMINATED]
[Souls: 0.2]
But anwhile, Matthias had advanced fifty ters.
Accumulating green energy in both hands.
Too much.
[HOLY CORRUPTION – CONCENTRATED BEAM]
Not an explosion.
A beam.
Narrow. Precise. Continuous.
Straight at Alex.
There was no room to dodge. The creatures blocked both sides.
Alex took the only option available.
[Blood Weapon – Shield]
A flat wall of crimson energy materialized in front of him.
The green beam struck the shield.
SCREEEEE.
The sound of two opposing energies tearing each other apart.
[Alex HP: 510 → 390/1,110] (penetrating damage through shield)
The shield held.
Five seconds.
Ten.
[Alex HP: 390 → 320/1,110]
Can’t hold much longer.
Alex looked through the semi‑translucent shield.
Matthias was focused, channeling.
Vulnerable.
If I drop the shield now, the beam kills .
If I hold the shield, it bleeds out slowly.
He needed a third option.
He found it on the ground.
The corpses of the Frost Serpents. The Desert Wyrms.
[Reanimate]
---
Two serpents and three wyrms rose.
Not as creatures.
As projectiles.
Alex hurled the shield forward—not as defense, but as a distraction—and simultaneously sent the reanimated bodies straight into Matthias’s beam.
The corpses absorbed the beam for two seconds.
Two seconds was enough.
[Shadow Step]
He appeared ten ters to Matthias’s side.
[Battle Flow – Strength: 22%]
Sword plus Blood Weapon wrapping the blade.
A diagonal slash. Deep. From right shoulder to left hip.
[Matthias HP: 14,800 → 13,400/32,000]
Matthias howled—real, no pretense this ti—and lurched away.
His robe was cut open. A line of dark blood crossed his torso.
He stayed standing by sheer will.
"Well... played," he said between short breaths.
[Holy Regeneration – Active]
[Matthias HP: 13,400 → 13,900/32,000]
Damn regeneration.
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