Klein stopped in the middle of the street. In front of him, about twenty possessed were emerging from the alleys and collapsed buildings. Their movements were jerky. They advanced with a dragging step, their bodies shaken by irregular spasms. Their eyes were injected with black blood, and their jaws snapped intermittently. Some growled while scratching the air with their broken nails.

He slowly drew his katana. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

One of the possessed threw itself at him while screaming. Its mouth opened excessively and it emitted a hoarse cry that had nothing human about it. Its two hands were stretched forward, the black claws ready to lacerate.

Klein took a step to the side. He avoided the claws. Then he slashed with a movement. The blade struck the base of the neck. The creature’s head flew into the air, its eyes still open, before falling back onto the cobblestones. The sound of the fall was both dull and wet. The headless body continued to advance two steps, its arms still clawing at the void, before collapsing with the sound of crushed meat.

A second possessed arrived from the right. It had just come out of a doorway, and it had taken advantage of the attention Klein was paying to the first one. Klein pivoted on his left foot. He raised his weapon to shoulder height, then he split the creature’s torso from the shoulder to the hip. The possessed opened in two with a wet sound, a long crack of fractured bones.

Klein did not waste any time. Quickly, he threw himself into the horde of possessed, decapitating the first one that came, then he leaped into the air, performing a backflip to avoid being surrounded, and slashed three of the possessed who had their backs turned. Black blood spurted everywhere.

He ducked without turning around. The possessed passed over him, arms stretched into the void. Klein then delivered a circular kick, his heel striking the creature’s kneecap. Klein finished the movement by standing up. He planted his blade into the skull with a vertical gesture, from top to bottom, and the tip came out through the chin.

" I can no longer do anything for these possessed except give them death to free them," he murmured.

Four possessed rushed at him at the same time. Klein took a step back to gain space, just enough not to be touched by the first salvo of claws. Then he activated a thin layer of aura around his blade.

< Sundering Eclipse>

His katana shone with a cold blue light. The intensity of this glow was just enough to draw a luminous outline along the edge of the sword. He released a crescent moon that sliced the nearest possessed.

A possessed that measured nearly two meters, and its arms were abnormally long, almost touching the ground when it stood upright. It had leaped from the top of a collapsed wall, and its shadow passed over Klein a fraction of a second before impact. Klein raised his weapon in time.

The blade met the two claws descending toward him, and the black nails screeched against the metal. With a quick twist of the wrist, Klein pushed back the attack. He took a step forward, passed under the monster’s guard, and drove his katana into its belly. He jerked the blade upward to the chest, opening the ribcage in two. The possessed vomited a thick jet of almost clotted black blood before collapsing on its side, its long arms beating the ground one last time.

Around him, the bodies were piling up on the cobblestones. He had already taken down about ten. Their silhouettes lay in twisted positions, some partially stacked on others, their limbs forming impossible angles. The other possessed continued to approach, attracted by the smell of blood and the noise of the fight.

He changed position slightly. He retreated three steps and placed his back against a section of wall still standing. That way, he could no longer be surrounded.

Two possessed arrived at the same time. One from the left, the other from the right. They had coordinated their attack, or at least their possessed bodies had reacted simultaneously to the same stimulus. Klein parried the attack from the left with his katana the blade blocked the claws two centimeters from his flank then he delivered a powerful kick to the knee of the possessed on the right. The bone cracked with a dull sound. The possessed immediately collapsed. Klein finished with a backhand slash that severed the head of the first one. The head spun once in the air before falling.

The second one, on the ground, still tried to crawl toward him. It dragged itself on its belly, its nails scratching the ground to move forward, its eyes still fixed on the prey. Klein finished it with a thrust into the nape of the neck. The blade pierced the spinal cord and the possessed froze instantly.

" Well, it never ends," he noted in a low voice.

After twenty minutes, the horde was almost entirely eliminated. Only a few possessed remained. They circled around him while growling, but they no longer attacked. For the first time, hesitation appeared in their movements.

Klein spun his katana in his hand. He relaxed his wrist with a small circular rotation, then placed his hand back on the handle.

Not wanting to waste time, Klein threw himself at the nearest possessed, and with a direct thrust into the mouth. The blade entered through the broken teeth, crossed the palate, then came out through the back of the skull. The possessed remained suspended for a second, its body agitated by final convulsions. Klein withdrew the weapon with a gesture, and the body collapsed on its side.

The remaining possessed felt fear, their instinct telling them to flee, but Klein did not share that opinion. He quickly searched for his new target then rushed toward it, but before he could deliver his attack, he stopped his run before shifting to the left. A moment later, the fist of a possessed met the ground and created a small crater there.

After taking his distance, Klein observed the possessed, immediately noticing that it was different from the others.