Chương 59: Chapter 55

Spit! Adapt! Shaya drew in Ruby, her rage making it all too easy, and twisted it into a spell as quick as she could. Oraeus cried out in surprise and urgency behind her. She hoped that was her cue. Shaya slammed rage-infused aether through the spell's circuit, feeling her spirit scream as the energy burned her. Fire rushed from her feet, propelling her back toward her target. With a roar, she flipped in the air above the reanimated Titan and swung the maul with all of her might.

In its skeletal form, it couldn't sense the magic around it like a living Titan could and lacked the independent intelligence to process the changing battlefield. The necromancer that controlled it attacked Azreon with greater and greater fury, too engrossed in their own battle to notice and order the Titan to respond. Shaya and her borrowed maul slammed into the top of the Titan's skull.

Fuelled by Oraeus' strength potion and rage-enhanced muscles, the blow caused fractures to spider across the whole head and drove it towards the ground with shocking force and speed. The maul's head snapped off from the blow, clipping Shaya's shoulder as it flew away from her. She rode the Titan's skull down, the rational part of her brain trying to get her to widen her stance to mitigate how much this was going to hurt her. As they flew downward, her other spell shot upwards.

Golden light rose from the ground beneath the Titan's head, forming a wall only three feet across but several feet tall. Unlike her usual barrier, this one mirrored the design of her shield. The thick wall thinned to a razor's edge at its top. The Titan's spine crashed into that inverted guillotine, and the sound of glass cracking rang out as the barrier spell absorbed the impact. A moment of panic stabbed through Shaya's anger as she wondered if her plan would work.

Then her sharpened wall ripped through two of the giant spinal discs, separating the head from the rest of its body.

"YES!" She roared in triumph. The Titan's skull provided poor footing for Shaya to brace against, so as it slammed into the muck she was thrown off. She sailed through the air, desperately trying to get her rage-addled mind to allow her to twist in the air and at least roll with the landing. She failed.

"PIECE OF S—" She roared in rage. Vision red, Shaya's body slammed into the swamp. A wave of murky water and rotting detritus surged away from her, then back over her as she sunk into the mud, the impact knocking the wind out of her and making her limbs too numb to push herself out of the water. Everything went dark and the sounds of battle washed away as the water rushed over her, her heart still thundering like a war drum as the rage pounded through her veins.

Blood boiling, she felt no pain and couldn't assess the state of her injuries. There were more enemies to kill and her body struggled to follow its heart's desires, the urge to rise overridden by the current shock to her limbs. This only fed her rage further, her thundering heart feeling like it would burst her skull. Seconds passed before her limbs flailed to shove her out of the water and she gasped for breath.

Nearby, Bitey tore into the Ur-Umbresnake while her crow lifted it partially out of the water, both of the companions bloody from repeated bites. Wherever she spotted fang marks, she could see through their shedding fur and feathers the wounds expanding around black rot, more blood and pus oozing from them than normal. The summoned creatures were having a difficult time getting through the monster's unnaturally strong hide, claws, talons, and beak scraping ineffectually off even the exposed belly.

Then one of Ren's arrows punched through the Ur's lower abdomen. The monster hissed in agony, but continued fighting its attackers, wisps of acidic gas building around its mouth. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Shaya's eyes slid past their struggle without pausing, seeking greater prey. The necromancer emitted a soul-rending howl as they pressed their advantage against Azreon with a rage that may have rivalled Shaya's.

Now only several feet away, Shaya could see the blood oozing from Azreon's wounds and how his movements were slowed, his reactions dulled. Despite the broken arrow shafts sticking from the mage's body and the gashes in their robes from where Azreon's slashes had landed, their attacks weren't slowing. More wounds opened as the mage's bone claws shredded through gambeson with ease, causing the noble to stagger backwards as his off-hand went limp. A part of her wanted to watch Azreon die at the hands of the mage.

It was the least he deserved given all the harm he caused today, let alone—Shaya assumed safely—the rest of his life. But a larger part of her wanted to destroy Azreon herself. Before she realized it, she was already charging towards their duel, broadsword drawn and gripped in two hands.

She took a casual swipe at the Ur as she passed that battle, her enhanced strength cleaving through its tough hide without issue and splitting the monster in half as it tried to unleash another cloud of flesh-melting gas upon her and the summoned allies. Her crow cackled in delight and Bitey chittered in triumph over their fallen foe.

The necromancer's flesh looked like the night sky at this distance, mottled clouds and stars moving about their skin while wisps of shadow trailed off their body as if something spectral had merged with them. As she neared, the necromancer's head snapped towards her, orbs of pure Amethyst energy looking directly at her around an enraged brow and rictus grin.

The rational part of her brain flinched as it realized what was going on with the necromancer and noted how deformed the bones in their face were—the brow and cheeks reinforced and angled unnaturally into something that more resembled a helmet. That part of the brain also screamed at her body as the rage drove her towards claws that proved gambeson was as useless as tissue paper.

The enemy twisted away from Azreon, accepting a chop into their ribs as they left themselves open, and lunged at Shaya, still howling in a way impossible to mortal vocal cords. Azreon's sword bit into their rib cage, but the creature didn't slow. Through the tear in the robe, Shaya noticed their torso was also distended, their ribcage jutting through the night-coloured skin of their flesh and wrapping back around themselves for additional protection. Their claws shot forward, looking to tear into Shaya's innards.

With a roar, Shaya slashed downward at the monster from what Krebo or Auric would only have called a high stance if feeling charitable, and no doubt drunk beyond all recognition. The monster didn't even try to dodge, confident that the thick bone armour would protect them as it had against all of Azreon's attacks. Then they would be inside her reach and her guts would join the other rotting detritus of the swamp. They were mistaken.

Shaya's broadsword chopped through armoured bone and deep into the monster's clavicle with a resounding crunch. The force of her chop sent a blast of air down the necromancer's body, causing their robes and even the water to ripple from the discharged energy. The sword burrowed into their chest, tearing through the space where their heart would be. Rather than drive the body into the ground, the blade wedged in and held the body upright on Shaya's sword, the enormous weight of the necromancer surprising her.

The necromancer swung their claws at her, still howling, but she was outside of the creature's reach. Shaya was almost surprised when blood poured from the wound in their chest, spilling over her blade and turning the swamp around the necromancer red. Now it was just a matter of waiting for them to die on her sword. With another howl, the creature lifted one of its hands. Shaya was too lost in her rage, savouring its death, to realize what was going on.

The necromancer's fingers came together as they completed their spell, then a blade of blue-silver burst through the creature's mouth, ending the howling. The body at the end of her sword went limp, hand dropping back to its side. The shifting night-like coating on the creature dissipated into oily smoke and left behind a distended body with pale flesh.

"You fool," Azreon snapped at her from the other side of the corpse, "you almost allowed it to kill us."

"How dare you," Shaya replied through gritted teeth, anger flaring. With another crunch, she dislodged her chipped, bent sword from the necromancer's corpse and stepped up to glare down at him." You of all people have no right to criticize me after I just saved your filthy lives despite everything you put others through."

"You did nothing"—Azreon raised his visor to sneer up at her, the only scar born on his face the one Shaya gave him when she shattered his nose—"but interfere with our triumph. We needed nothing from the likes of you, savage." A part of her took pleasure knowing that his own arrogance prevented that broken nose from being cleanly healed, the time spent in Auric's earthen tomb as punishment for his disobedience too long for the average healer to restore without ritual components.

Shaya had enacted the only justice he had faced thus far in life, but it wasn't enough for what he had done. She could do more.

"Shaya, no!" one of her friends called as her Lance rushed towards them. Vision red, Shaya punched Azreon in the face.