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Realm Lord-Chapter 183: What Night Brings
Chapter 183: What Night Brings
Arthur’s eyes remained locked wide with shock, his pupils dilated as his mind struggled to process the horrifying reality before him. The primal fear that had seized his chest felt like a vice grip, squeezing tighter with each labored breath. His body moved of its own accord, taking another tentative step backward as his survival instincts screamed at him to flee from these abominations that had once been human.
The shambling figures continued their relentless advance, their movements creating a sickening symphony of dragging feet and wet, guttural moans that seemed to emanate from somewhere deep within their decaying throats. The sound sent shivers racing down Arthur’s spine, each moan like fingernails scraping across the chalkboard of his soul.
Suddenly, a flash of brilliant light cut through the darkness beside him, and Cara materialized in a graceful blur of motion and luminescence. Her enhanced speed had allowed her to close the distance between them in mere seconds, her feet barely seeming to touch the ground as she came to a perfectly controlled halt right next to Arthur.
"Arthur!" she called out, her voice sharp with urgency and concern. Her chest rose and fell rapidly from the sprint, small wisps of light still trailing from her form like dissipating smoke. Her dark eyes immediately locked onto the approaching horde, and Arthur watched as her expression shifted from worry to grim determination. freёwebnoѵel.com
"Shit..." Cara breathed quietly under her breath, the profanity slipping out despite her usual composure. The single word carried the weight of recognition and dread, confirming Arthur’s worst fears about what they were facing.
A split second later, the night air crackled with electrical energy as Aziel appeared in a spectacular flash and blur of lightning. Unlike Cara’s graceful arrival, Aziel’s lightning brought him to a much less controlled stop, his boots skidding across the dew-slicked grass as he fought to maintain his balance. Sparks of residual electrical energy danced across his hair and fingertips, the acrid smell of ozone filling the air around him.
"What the fuck!?" Aziel’s voice cracked with disbelief and horror as his eyes took in the nightmarish scene before them.
The shambling figures were close enough now that Arthur could make out the gruesome details of their condition. Their skin hung in loose, grayish flaps, and dark stains covered their tattered clothing. Some were missing limbs, others had gaping wounds that should have been fatal, yet they continued their inexorable advance with single-minded hunger.
Light began to coil around Cara’s form like liquid starlight, spiraling up her arms and torso as she clenched her fists and prepared herself for battle. The luminous energy cast dancing shadows across the ground around them, creating an almost ethereal battleground in the darkness. Her jaw was set in a hard line, her eyes burning with the cold fire of someone who had seen too much death and suffering.
"These aren’t people anymore," Cara said, her voice carrying the weight of hard-earned experience and bitter acceptance. "They’re beyond saving... the best thing we can do for them now is put them out of their misery."
Her grim words hit Arthur like physical blows, each syllable landing flat and heavy in his mind. The reality of what she was saying began to sink in—these had once been living, breathing human beings with families, dreams, and hopes. Now they were nothing more than walking corpses driven by an insatiable hunger for the living.
"They’re stronger than they look," Cara continued, her tone deadly serious as she took a deliberate step forward, positioning herself between Arthur and the approaching horde. "And they only die if their brain is destroyed. Don’t listen to their words—it’s all a facade."
The light around Cara intensified, and with a brilliant flash that momentarily banished the darkness, she summoned her signature weapon—a blade covered in concentrated light that hummed with deadly energy. The sword cast prismatic reflections across the grass, its radiance so intense that the shambling figures actually seemed to recoil slightly from its presence.
Arthur’s mind raced with a thousand questions, each one demanding immediate answers. How did Cara know so much about these creatures? Where had they come from? Were there more of them? But there was no time to voice these concerns, no opportunity to seek the explanations his rational mind desperately craved.
The night air suddenly whistled with the sound of something massive cutting through the atmosphere at tremendous speed. An arrow—no, calling it an arrow was an understatement—a projectile the size of a small human zoomed past them with such velocity that it bent the air around it, creating visible distortions in the moonlight. The displaced air created a sonic boom that made Arthur’s ears ring, and he could feel the pressure wave as it passed mere inches from his face.
The massive projectile struck one of the shambling figures directly in the head with devastating precision. The impact was instantaneous and catastrophic—the creature’s skull exploded in a shower of dark, putrid matter that sprayed across the grass in a grotesque arc. The headless body stood for a moment, as if confused by its sudden lack of direction, before toppling backward like a felled tree.
The silence that followed the creature’s destruction was deafening, broken only by the continued moaning of its companions who seemed utterly unaffected by the violent death of their fellow abomination. Arthur’s eyes darted toward the direction the arrow had come from, and he caught a glimpse of Myah in the distance, her bow already nocked with another oversized projectile.
As if that devastating shot had been a horn to sound the beginning of the battle, Cara suddenly exploded into motion. Her light-enhanced form blurred as she launched herself toward the remaining creatures with lethal grace, her luminous sword trailing streams of brilliant energy behind her. She moved like a dancer of death, each step calculated and purposeful as she closed the distance between herself and the shambling horde.
Arthur’s stomach churned with unease about the entire situation. Everything about this felt wrong—the creatures, the violence. But there was no time to question, no opportunity to seek understanding. The battle had begun, and hesitation would mean death.
Without wasting another precious second, Arthur launched himself into action alongside Cara. His shadow powers responded to his call, wrapping around his form like a living cloak that seemed to absorb the very light around him. The familiar weight of his odachi materialized in his hand, the blade’s edge gleaming with an otherworldly sharpness that promised swift death to anything it touched.
The transformation was instantaneous and complete. Where moments before there had been a confused and terrified young man, now there was a shadow-wreathed warrior moving with deadly purpose. His enhanced speed carried him forward in perfect synchronization with Cara’s luminous charge, creating a striking contrast of light and darkness rushing toward the shambling horde.
Behind them, Aziel’s electrical energy crackled to life as he summoned his own weapon, its surface dancing with arcs of deadly current. He gripped the weapon tightly, his knuckles white with tension as he prepared to follow his teammates into the chaos of battle.
The three warriors moved as one, their diverse abilities complementing each other in a display of coordinated lethality. Light, shadow, and lightning—elemental forces given human form and deadly purpose.
The shambling creatures continued their advance, seemingly oblivious to the destruction that awaited them. Their hollow eyes reflected no fear, no recognition of danger, only an endless, consuming hunger that drove them forward despite the obvious threat posed by the approaching warriors.
The distance between the two groups closed rapidly, and Arthur could feel his heart hammering against his ribs as the moment of contact approached. Each step forward felt like walking through quicksand, time seeming to slow as adrenaline flooded his system and sharpened his senses to an almost painful degree. He could hear the wet, sucking sounds of the creatures’ footsteps in the muddy earth, could smell the putrid stench of decay that surrounded them like a miasma of death.
The shambling horde spread out before them in a grotesque line, their numbers becoming clearer as they drew closer. Arthur counted at least fifteen of the creatures, maybe more lurking in the shadows beyond his enhanced vision. Some wore the remnants of business suits, others casual clothing that had once been bright and cheerful but was now stained with substances that Arthur’s mind refused to identify.
One of the creatures in the front ranks had been a woman once, her long hair now matted with dark, congealed blood that had dried into brittle strands. Her dress, which might have once been yellow, now bore the mottled brown and red stains of violence. But it was her face that truly haunted Arthur—the left side was missing entirely, revealing the glistening bone underneath, while her remaining eye stared at him with that same hollow, hungry emptiness.
Another creature, this one wearing the tattered remains of a police uniform, dragged its left leg behind it with each step. The limb was clearly broken, bent at an impossible angle, yet the thing showed no signs of pain or discomfort. Its badge was still visible on its chest, the metal tarnished and streaked with what looked like claw marks.
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