NOVEL NEXT Chapter 423: A Blur Of Slaughter
It hadn't been too long since the battle started, and the streets of Carthage had already become rivers of fire and blood.
Ren, Lilith, and Thorn fought their way through the ruins, the roar of war crashing around them like the sounds of a storm.
They could see the tower in the distance, but it was still too far away. That wasn't enough to stop them, as they moved towards it, hacking through the bodies barring them with every violent step.
A group of Carthage soldiers barred their way, shields locked in formation. Their commander shouted, and spears leveled as they surged.
Ren was already moving. He became a blur, his feet cracking the cobblestones as he burst forward.
A Push resonance detonated from his arm, scattering the front line like pins on a board. Shields splintered, men screamed, and the formation crumbled instantly.
Ren didn't stop. His vines erupted, snaring throats and limbs, jerking bodies into walls and snapping bones like twigs.
To his left, Lilith danced among the chaos. Her knives whistled through the smoke, becoming silver arcs of death that found eyes, throats, and knees.
A blade buried itself in a soldier's gut. Before the man could even scream, Lilith yanked, and the knife tore free in a spray of blood, flying back into her palm.
Another knife curved through the air, under the power of her resonance, cutting a soldier's cheek open before slamming into the base of his skull.
She spun, her knives orbiting around her like deadly moons, recalling and throwing them in a terrifying wave.
On the right flank, Thorn tore through men like a beast unleashed. His bone arm crashed into one soldier's shield, the sheer force folding the man's arm backward with a wet snap.
He swung the limb like a hammer into the next soldier, the woman's skull collapsing under the blow. When three more tried to pin him with spears, Thorn roared, shifting charges into strength, and tore the nearest soldier in half with his bare hands.
But it was chaos.
Screams pierced through the smoke. Thorn glanced towards it to see that it hadn't come from soldiers, but from civilians.
It was a small family, made up of the parents and two children. They ran from a crumbling street into the open, directly into the path of Death's invaders.
Thorn's eyes widened.
"Move!" He bellowed, charging toward them. His body, covered by his bone armor, crushed everything in his path, shoving aside soldiers of Carthage as he bulldozed forward. But he was too slow.
The invaders reached the civilians first. Blades flashed, and blood painted the cobblestones.
The mother's scream was cut short, the father's arm severed before his body fell, and the children…
Thorn didn't even let himself look.
"NO!" His roar tore through the street like thunder.
He plowed into the invaders, his bone arm smashing them into pulp. One man flew across the road, another's head caved in under Thorn's fist.
He grabbed one by the throat and crushed his windpipe with a single squeeze before hurling the corpse into a wall hard enough to shatter it.
Breathing hard, Thorn looked at the blood pooling at his feet. His jaw clenched so hard his teeth cracked.
"Damn it!" he spat, before hurling himself back into the battle, demolishing everything within reach.
Ren heard him, but didn't stop. The rage and grief in Thorn's voice only added to the fire already churning in his own chest.
He burst through another squadron, a whirlwind of vines and Pushes, ripping apart armor and scattering weapons like leaves in a storm.
Lilith continued forward in his shadow. She hurled her knives, one after the other, and when a soldier dodged the first, she recalled it backward into the man's skull.
Another knife carved through a soldier's tendon before snapping back to her hand. Her Pull resonance bent the battlefield to her will, soldiers collapsing in fountains of blood as her blades sang.
A massive warrior from Death's army leapt into their path, his axe glowing with power. He swung it down toward Ren.
Ren intercepted it with crossed swords he'd procured from his spatial pouch, sparks showering the air. The impact cracked the stones beneath his feet. The warrior grinned, shoving down with brute strength.
Ren's eyes narrowed. Purple lightning flickered around his arms as he pushed back, vines crawling up the warrior's legs, rooting him in place.
The man's grin flickered as his body stiffened, vines constricting tighter and tighter until his bones snapped.
Ren shoved upwards with a roar, his Push resonance detonating outwards. The warrior exploded into pieces, raining gore across the street.
"Keep moving!" Ren shouted, his voice echoing above the chaos.
They advanced, step by step. Every inch of ground was earned in blood.
Thorn barreled through another squad, his fury unrelenting. One soldier tried to parry him, but his bone arm shattered the man's blade and crushed his chest in one swing. Thorn's eyes were wild, his teeth bared, every strike a roar of rage.
Lilith covered him from behind, her knives flickering like lightning, felling anyone who slipped past him.
One soldier almost reached Thorn's back, until Lilith's blade buried itself in the man's temple. She pulled, and the throwing knife returned to her hand, sending blood spraying into the air like a fountain.
Ren dashed ahead, slamming into another soldier, his sword punching through the man's breastplate before yanking free and decapitating the next. A Push launched two more into the air, their bodies crunching as they fell.
He didn't know how long had passed. All he knew was that the streets had become a blur of slaughter.
Smoke burned their lungs, blood soaked their boots, and screams echoed all around. But the tower grew closer. Every fight, every kill, dragged them nearer to their goal.
At one point, they broke through into a square littered with corpses. Soldiers of Carthage and Death alike lay tangled in heaps. Ren didn't pause. He sprinted across, Lilith at his heels, Thorn smashing through stragglers on their flank.
By the time they reached the shadow of the tall building, their bodies were drenched in blood, some their own, and most not.
The three of them stood at the threshold, ready to storm the tall building and take the vantage point they so desperately needed.
But before they could even step inside, the world shook.