Chapter 67
Lilith still needed time to fully integrate the dragon claw.
It might take mere seconds. It might take several minutes. She had no way of knowing.
Her awareness had already withdrawn from the outside world as she focused entirely on absorbing the relic's immense power. The only reason she could do so without interruption was that her undead were buying every second with their lives.
The other Elite-ranked leaders had also chosen not to interfere, while Nysia seemed content to destroy the undead one by one rather than force her way through the army. Every condition had aligned to create this narrow window.
The Elites had underestimated her as well.
None of them realized that the dragon claw had already vanished into Lilith's body. They still believed they could let the undead wear Nysia down before stepping in to claim the relic for themselves.
On the battlefield, the three Overlords led the remaining Veteran-ranked undead in a suicidal assault.
Morwen moved first.
Her ethereal body became a streak of cold blue light as she circled silently behind Nysia. Soulfrost Chains condensed from her spectral power and snaked toward the base of the griffin's wings.
The mount was the greatest obstacle on the battlefield. Its speed and mobility let Nysia strike from any angle while staying beyond the reach of most undead.
If Morwen could bring it down, the others could force the Royal Knight into a ground battle.
That made the griffin her first target.
Even without attacking Nysia directly, however, Morwen had underestimated the senses of an Elite.
Nysia didn't so much as turn around. She merely flicked the reins.
The griffin loosed a piercing cry and snapped its wings wide. Its golden feathers fanned out like blades, shearing through every strand of spectral power before the chains could tighten.
Nysia fired backward in the same motion.
A silver-white arrow crossed the distance in an instant and punched through Morwen's ethereal body.
Despite her dwindling supply of silver powder, Nysia had chosen to spend a Hallowed Flame Arrow on a Spectral Undead. Sacred fire was simply too effective against incorporeal enemies to pass up.
Morwen had no time to evade.
She screamed as the arrow tore through her soul. Her entire form convulsed and hurtled backward, burning from within. Within moments, her body had grown faint and translucent.
The damage was still spreading.
Without intervention, she would die.
Dozens of low-ranked Specters within the army suddenly collapsed. Their soul fires dissolved into gray-white streams and poured into Morwen.
Her form solidified once more.
Her aura had weakened, but she had survived.
"Sacrifice again?" Nysia muttered, her expression growing more serious.
She hadn't expected these higher undead to wield the same technique as their Master.
Before she could dwell on it, Eldran attacked.
The Bone Overlord charged in beneath her with his broadsword raised, every bone in his body grinding under the strain of his power. Death-Essence Mana gathered along the blade before erupting skyward as a pillar of molten Deathfire.
Nysia regarded the attack with contempt.
The griffin could evade something that direct without her help.
The beast rolled sideways, letting the pillar roar harmlessly past.
A Bone Dragon burst from the snow before the maneuver was even complete.
Its enormous claw swept straight toward them.
For the first time, surprise crossed Nysia's face. The griffin no longer had room to dodge.
She kicked free of the saddle, drew the arming sword at her waist, and brought it down in a single brutal stroke.
A massive blade of force cleaved through the air.
The Bone Dragon—and Eldran within it—split in half.
Nysia landed firmly in the snow and caught Varkhul's full-powered blow on her sword. A swift counter-thrust ran the Corpseborn Overlord through the chest and hurled him backward.
Above them, the two halves of Eldran's Bone Dragon began to knit back together.
More Skeletal Undead collapsed across the battlefield as Eldran activated Sacrifice. His body restored itself within seconds, and he immediately twisted in midair to unleash Bone Dragon Breath down upon Nysia.
She caught the movement from the corner of her eye and slipped aside.
Morwen's Netherfrost Breath followed a heartbeat later.
The three Overlords chained their attacks together with practiced precision. Their relentless coordination made the Elite-ranked Royal Knight appear pressured for the first time.
But Nysia's counterattacks remained lethal.
At close range, she used her arming sword. At a distance, she returned to her bow. Every clean hit was enough to kill one of the Overlords.
Without burning through large amounts of silver powder, however, she couldn't erase them outright. That brief window between destruction and true death gave them time to activate Sacrifice.
Every time Nysia killed one of the three, dozens of lesser undead died in their place.
The Overlords fought on, but the army behind them was rapidly melting away.
Two thousand five hundred became fifteen hundred.
Fifteen hundred fell to a thousand.
The number kept dropping.
"With enough undead behind them, these creatures are practically immortal."
Nysia's expression hardened as she finally grasped the true danger of the Undead Faction.
"They all die here."
She knew exactly what would happen if an army like this ever reached a human city.
Destroying the three Overlords over and over let her drain the lesser undead at the same time. Nysia had no objection to killing them again and again until their supply of sacrifices ran dry.
As for the other Elites hoping to exhaust her, the thought almost made her laugh.
She glanced toward the Goblin High Chieftain, the Archpriest, and Lucian, all of whom kept a careful distance.
Their intentions had been obvious from the start.
Nysia didn't care.
Destroying the undead was buying time for her as well.
Even if the battle cost her more strength than expected, her fellow Royal Knight would return before long. Once he arrived, two Royal Knights would be more than enough to command the battlefield.
The foreign Elites wanted Nysia weakened.
Nysia wanted the undead wiped out while she waited for reinforcements.
And their mutual delay gave Lilith the time she needed.
For the moment, all three sides profited from the stalemate.
Nysia's priority remained the undead.
After another round of fighting, nearly half the army had vanished. Every last Veteran-ranked undead had been destroyed, leaving only the three Overlords before her.
They were still resisting, but barely.
Once the last lesser undead fell, Sacrifice would no longer save them.
Nysia pressed her assault.
Hallowed Flame Arrows rained across the battlefield like silver meteors. Some tore through the Overlords, forcing them to restore themselves yet again. Others plunged into the remaining army and erased entire clusters of undead.
The three Overlords saw that the bone shelter was still vulnerable and attacked with even greater desperation. Even when they had no chance to activate Sacrifice, they threw themselves into Nysia's path to keep her from advancing.
Determination didn't make them any stronger.
Their recklessness only let Nysia dismantle the army faster.
Several minutes later, the final undead collapsed.
The field behind the Overlords stood empty.
Nothing remained except Lilith's crude bone shelter and Giles standing guard outside it.
His expression was grim. He had already made his peace with dying here.
Morwen, Eldran, and Varkhul were at their limit. With no undead left to sacrifice, the next fatal blow would be permanent.
Nysia, by contrast, showed almost no sign of fatigue. She had spent some stamina and a handful of consumables, but she remained uninjured and close to full strength.
"Go ahead," she said, raising her bow toward the three Overlords. "Try sacrificing something now."
She drew the string.
"This is over."
Behind her, the Goblin High Chieftain, the Archpriest, and Lucian reached the same conclusion: their opportunity had arrived.
All three Elites erupted forward at once, becoming streaks of light as they raced toward the bone shelter.
This was their final chance.
Whoever seized the dragon claw first would leave as the victor.
Before any of them reached it, a deep and terrible pressure of death swept across the battlefield.