Danse moved around the Imprint, stepping to the fetid abomination's right side despite having no weapon on hand. A soft light began to glow from Danse's empty palm. A moment later, a sword of light appeared between his fingers. Holding the sword tightly, Danse stepped forward, slashing at one of the creature's legs.
Leander moved to the Corrupted Abomination's right side, his hands uncomfortably tightened around the borrowed sword's handle.
'This hilt is too small to be wielded with two hands...'
Delivering two slashes to the fetid creature's body, as the blade cut across the creature's skin, it burst with rancid blood. Leander's eyes followed the stream of blood, his expression growing dark. The moment the blood touched the ground, the grass around it immediately died.
"Danse! Do not let the blood touch you!"
Raising his shield, it shattered into strings of light as Danse was knocked back by one of the abomination's legs as it lashed out at him. Falling backwards, Danse quickly picked himself up, shaking his arm that had held the shield moments ago.
Exasperated, Danse called back:
"Thank you, friend, but that goes without saying!"
The Imprint was forced back as the fetid creature pushed itself forward. It's five powerful legs dug into the grass as it surged with a newfound strength, the Imprint's trident losing purchase, tore through the creature's flesh, sending disgusting pieces of flesh flying. No longer held back, the putrid abomination rushed towards Danse's Imprint.
Holding its trident in both hands, the Imprint struggled against the monster as it bit down on the middle of the trident. Taking this opportunity, Leander and Danse repeatedly struck the creature's body, each attack cutting into its skin, before long, the Corrupted Abomination's body looked as if it had been eviscerated. A constant stream of pus and rancid blood dribbled down its body. Yet despite the grievous wounds, the thing kept moving.
Stepping back, Leander furrowed his brow.
'Does this thing not feel pain?'
As its attention was locked on the Imprint, Leander looked around.
All across the no-man's-land, the Goddess' soldiers were all dealing with their own putrid creatures. Each manipulated the light in different ways, using chains, weapons, and walls. Some had summoned their own Imprints – each Imprint different from the last – but one thing was clear. These monsters did not seem to die easily.
The only ones that had died quickly were the ones that had been executed by the rain of swords summoned by the orbs of light. Luckily, after the attention of the orbs of light was drawn to the mountain of walking flesh that had appeared, no more Corrupted Abominations appeared from the Incursion.
Turning his attention back to the Corrupted Abomination in front of him, Leander's eyes widened. Having not dealt any damage to the flesh, Leander realised it had begun to heal itself, the streams of blood and pus stemmed as clots began to form and torn flesh slowly pulled itself back together.
'Pain seems to do nothing to stop it, and it can regenerate… These things are disgusting.'
Tightening his grip on the borrowed sword, Leander dashed forward.
He had an idea, but it wasn't much of a plan; it was just a simple thought.
'It seemed to have been stunned when I pierced through its brain last time, but it then picked itself up. So it quickly healed its brain. I wonder, how well can it heal itself?'
Stepping onto one of its smaller legs, Leander clambered onto the top of the creature's back. Sliding for a moment, Leander slid towards its head. Its eyes flicked to Leander a moment too late as Leander raised his sword into the air.
Slamming down, the sword easily cut through the creature's skull, slicing through the brain within. The mound of putrid flesh shuddered for a moment and then collapsed.
A slight smile crossed Leander's lips.
Raising the sword, Leander changed its trajectory and pierced the brain in another spot.
And again.
And again.
Leander kept stabbing at the monster's brain, again and again.
The abomination's body writhed as its brain was pulverised, its limbs twitching and flailing as Leander showed no sign of stopping. Danse lowered his arms partly in shock as he watched the scene playing out before him. Blood and pus flew in all directions as Leander devastated the Corrupted Abominations' head, after a minute of repeating the same action, again and again. Leander stopped.
The sword buried up to its hilt, Leander's actions halted as he felt something strange, an odd sensation washed over him. The sensation moved through Leander, reaching down into the deepest part of his soul before dissipating.
Danse simply stood still for a few seconds as he looked around, wondering if anyone else had just seen what Leander had done. Turning back to Leander, Danse asked.
"Say, friend, you seem like you might have some anger-related issues."
Still standing atop the fetid abomination, Leander's body was covered in the blood and pus of the fetid flesh. It's rancid blood covered his hands, a splash of pus splattered across his chest and a mixture of it all running down his armour, dripping onto the lifeless corpse beneath his feet.
"Whatever do you mean?"
Looking down at his armour, Leander frowned.
But before he could speak, the dark night that drowned the no-man's-land – save for the pools of light cast by luminescent Soul Arms – began to lift under the light of day.
----
Trying her best to stay away from the light, Narina ran through the darkness as each light held anywhere from one to a dozen of the Goddess' Soldiers and each of these groups of soldiers was fighting against the mounds of rancid flesh, the Corrupted Abominations that had emerged from the Incrusion. She had been close to reaching the border when a particularly large mound of flesh wandered into her path, causing her to have to take a detour.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Leander, there's nothing I can do. You idiot, why couldn't you have just run away!"
Keeping her head low, Narina ran.
"I'm running because what am I supposed to do… Punch these things, these disgusting, flesh, things! I could transform, but then the soldiers would know I'm a beast, and they might try and attack me too. Even if I transform, if these abominations cut me and their blood gets into me, might I just die?"
Narina was currently struggling with the emotions bubbling up within her. She had lost sight of Leander. The last time she had seen him, Leander had stopped running towards the border; he hadn't even tried to use the chaos of the Incursion to sneak across the border.
The moment Leander had heard someone cry out, he had darted directly towards them.
But not Narina, the Wilds had taught her many lessons. Her uncle had taught her the basics of how to live, but the Wilds had taught Narina how to survive. To strike at the weak, to run from the strong. That was all Narina had ever known: to run from those things that could kill her.
Slowly stopping, Narina squeezed her fists until the skin of her knuckles turned white.
'But… Do I want to be the same little girl who ran that day? If Leander can put his life on the line, why can't I?"
Stopping, Narina looked back. Some distance away, she could see Leander fighting beside one of the Goddess' soldiers and some creature with tentacles for legs. Narina's eyes narrowed as Leander mounted the creature. Even from this distance, Narina could see Leander's expression. Calm, determined, fearless.
Turning away, Narina tightly shut her eyes.
"I can't… Because I'm no hero…"
Opening her eyes, Narina stared at the ground. She was unable to concentrate on her own emotions; the world around her was drowning in the sound of cries of those who want to live, screams of those refusing to die, the unnatural, blood-curdling roars of the fetid flesh. The sound of swords tearing through wicked flesh, the sound of bones breaking.
A tear ran down Narina's cheek.
Rubbing it away with the back of her hand, Narina paused.
The darkness that served as her hiding place within the battlefield began to grow weak as a soft light began to illuminate her surroundings. Crouching, Narina's eyes widened as she looked around for the soldier who was approaching her, looking for the luminous Soul Arm that was banishing the night. But as she looked, Narina saw nothing, there was nobody close to her. No soldier or Soul Arm.
What should have been a comfort only served to unnerve Narina, as be
'Is that the sun? But... the sun isn't supposed to rise for another few hours. And it's definitely not supposed to rise... in the north?'