Chapter 48: Chapter 48: What Are You?

From the shadows, Aiden narrowed his eyes.

It was time.

“Undead Reinforcement.”

He released the skill quietly, almost casually, but the effect was immediate.

A faint dark sheen spread across his undead like a thin layer of smoke clinging to their bodies. Their movements even more sharpened. What had been mechanical and relentless became faster, more precise.

Bonefist felt it first.

He stepped in again, his weapon-gloved fists cutting through the air with heavier force. He threw a straight punch at Vayne’s chest. Vayne blocked with his blade, but the impact rang out like a hammer striking an anvil. The force pushed him back half a step.

Still, it wasn’t enough.

Vayne was not some street thug. His Body Tempering foundation was solid, his muscles hardened through years of training and combat. Even with the reinforcement, Bonefist and Skullbreaker did not overwhelm him.

Skullbreaker swung his spiked club in a brutal arc aimed at Vayne’s ribs. Vayne ducked low and countered with a swift slash across Skullbreaker’s thigh. The blade tore through leather and cloth.

Vayne’s expression darkened.

“What are you people…?”

He kicked Skullbreaker away and turned just in time to block Bonefist’s next strike. The clash echoed again, sparks flashing in the night.

While Vayne held his ground, the real shift was happening behind him.

The ten basic-grade undead were no longer merely swarming.

They were winning.

One guard managed to cut down an undead by severing its leg at the knee. The body collapsed, but instead of screaming, it dragged itself forward with its hands, clutching at the guard’s boots.

Another basic-grade drove a spear clean through a guard’s shoulder. The guard roared in pain and retaliated with a desperate slash across the attacker’s neck. The head twisted unnaturally from the blow.

Yet the body did not fall.

It thrust the spear deeper.

Steel slipped from the guard’s fingers.

A third guard tried to retreat, panic creeping into his voice. “They’re not human! Fall back!”

Too late.

Two cloaked figures moved in unison. One locked blades with him. The other stepped to the side and drove a short sword between the gaps of his armor.

This time, blood sprayed.

The guard collapsed.

One by one, the escorts fell.

The reinforcement had tipped the scale, not by making the undead overwhelmingly stronger, but by shaving off the smallest delays in their movements. A fraction of a second faster. A fraction of a second more force.

Against normal guards, that was enough.

Vayne sensed it.

He glanced over his shoulder just as the last of his men dropped to the ground.

His jaw tightened.

“You useless fools…”

But there was something else in his eyes now.

Isolation.

The circle tightened.

Ten basic-grade undead stepped away from the fallen guards and slowly began closing in around him.

Aiden watched the circle tighten around Vayne and felt a quiet sense of satisfaction.

Good.

This was exactly how he wanted it.

Overwhelm him.

That was the plan from the start.

He knew the limits of his basic-grade summons. Against someone like Vayne, one solid, fully committed strike would probably shatter them. Their bones would crack. Their frames would collapse.

But that didn’t matter.

They were cheap.

It barely cost him any mana to reconstruct a broken basic-grade undead. He could put them back together again.

Expendable.

Perfect bait.

Vayne stood in the center of the street, breathing heavier now, his boots shifting slightly over broken stone. His sword gleamed under the moonlight, stained with dust and fragments of bone.

The ten basic-grade undead moved first.

They rushed him together.

Vayne roared and swung.

This time, he didn’t hold back.

His blade carved a wide arc through the air, empowered by the force of his Body Tempering. The strike connected with two undead at once.

Crack.

The sound was sharp and ugly.

One lost an arm entirely, the limb spinning away across the pavement. Another took the blow across the torso, its ribs shattered, spine snapping, the upper half of its body collapsing to the ground.

Just as Aiden expected.

But the rest didn’t stop.

They stepped over the fallen pieces and continued forward, blades stabbing, spears thrusting, forcing Vayne to defend from all angles.

Aiden exhaled slowly.

Now.

He stepped out from the shadows.

Not too close.

Far enough that Vayne’s sword couldn’t reach him in a single burst.

He raised his hand.

“Bone Spear.”

Mana gathered at his palm, cold and sharp. A jagged spear of compressed bone formed in midair, its tip narrowing to a lethal point.

He didn’t rush the throw.

He waited for the opening.

Vayne kicked one undead away, shattered another with a downward slash, and spun to clear space.

Aiden released the spear.

It shot forward with a whistle.

Vayne sensed it at the last second. He twisted sharply. The spear grazed his side instead of piercing his heart, tearing through cloth and drawing a thin line of blood across his ribs.

Vayne’s head snapped toward Aiden. Confused on what just happened.

Their eyes met.

Vayne staggered back a step, his hand tightening around the hilt of his sword.

The thing that hit him.

What was that?

He glanced down at the wound on his thigh. Fragments of something pale and jagged were embedded in the torn flesh. It wasn’t metal. It wasn’t wood.

It looked like, a bone.

A small spear. Formed entirely from bone.

He had seen countless weapons in his life. Magical swords, forged steel from master blacksmiths. Even rare spirit-infused blades.

But this?

This was something else.

His eyes snapped back to the cloaked figure standing at a distance, Aiden. The man had already formed another one of those pale projectiles in his hand.

“What are you?” Vayne growled.

Vayne’s heartbeat pounded in his ears.

These were not men.

They moved like soldiers. They wore armor. They wielded weapons with purpose.

But they didn’t bleed.

They didn’t scream.

They didn’t hesitate.

He was one hundred percent certain now.

These things were not human.

A basic-grade undead lunged at him. Vayne reacted on instinct, slashing downward. The blade crushed through the attacker’s skull with brutal force, splitting it clean in two. The body collapsed.

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