Chapter 4391: Dawn of War (Part 1)

"How can the undead attack and win against our men? They may be just humans, but the sun is on their side." Abthot said.

"Only one way to find out." The Breaker laughed in anticipation of the battle. "Put your war gear on. The undead know who the core members of the Organization are and what we can do.

"They wouldn’t have dared attack us without a damn good plan. We should assume we are about to step into a trap and prepare accordingly."

"Point taken." Abthot donned her Skull and Maw of Bytra as her twin blades, Balmung, jumped into her palms.

Each Chaos Steps crossed over a thousand kilometers, and the two Eldritches alternated opening the dimensional corridors nonstop, reaching the city of Batara less than a minute after the call.

When they arrived, the main building of the Blood Minotaurs cartel was already in shambles. The outer walls had been destroyed, and thick smoke billowed out of many windows.

"So much destruction in so little time." Orulm looked around to assess the threat. "The undead should have come in numbers. And yet..."

"There is no blood, no corpse, and too much silence." Abthot completed the phrase for him. "A battle of this scale is supposed to be chaotic and messy, yet I can hear the fires crackling inside the building.

The headquarters of the Blood Minotaurs was located in the merchant district of Batara, yet not one of their neighbors had called the authorities or the firefighters, and for a good reason.

The only respectable thing about the cartel’s building was its appearance. Whatever people saw or heard happening in there, everyone gave it a wide berth and hoped for the best. This time it was no different.

"I can detect many energy signatures. Only one is unknown." Orulm read the energy flow of the area with the Skull, obtaining the closest thing to a replay of the most recent events.

Something had come down from the sky, landing right before the main entrance. Whoever it was, they hadn’t bothered to hide their intentions and had slaughtered their way inside.

"One that splits into three?" Abthot said in confusion. "What kind of undead has multiple bodies that can move independently?"

"No clue. It might not even be an undead." Orulm pointed at a nearby manhole. "The rest of the Courts’ forces entered through the sewers after the perimeter was already breached. Maybe they hired someone to make up for their weakness."

"Please." She snorted. "Why do that when the Undead Courts could have just waited until nightfall?"

"We’ll ask them when we kill them." Orulm wielded his Davross spear, Fellbane, and followed the noise of battle to find its source.

The Eldritches constantly scanned their surroundings for traps and magical formations, knowing that a simple darkness-sealing array would have neutralized their most powerful weapon.

"It’s so nice of you to join us. Say hi to our guests, darling." Orulm and Abthot barged into Gorhom’s office, finding the Horseman of Dawn leaning against a wall while her host destroyed the mystical barriers separating him from his prey.

Criminals liked to keep their living quarters on the ground floor, where quick access to alleys and sewers gave them ample choice for secret passages. What was left of the Blood Minotaurs was scrambling through a hidden door in the wall, punching and kicking whoever didn’t move fast enough.

There was no trace of Gorhom. The captain had abandoned the sinking ship the moment Xenagrosh had authorized the retreat, leaving the men who for any reason had straggled behind to fend for themselves.

He had left the barrier arrays active to both protect his lackeys and delay the assailants. The longer the Undead Courts had to deal with the rabble, the farther away Gorhom would be by the time they were done.

"Dawn?" Abthot attacked without missing a beat. "Since when do you care for money?"

Acala turned around and intercepted Balmung with his Twilight Blade and a crystal kite shield. The Orc-Eldritch was faster than any bright violet-cored Awakened, but so was the traitorous Ranger.

He intercepted every blow with a precision and technique that were hard to find in someone many times his age.

"I don’t, but my Undead Court does." Dawn replied with a silvery chuckle. "You parasites have stolen too much, and the war against the Dead King requires funds. I’ve come to take back what’s ours."

"You and what army?" Orulm lunged with Fellbane while unleashing a volley of tier three Chaos Spells, Void Hollow, from his Maw of Bytra.

"Who needs an army when you have a knight in shining armor?" The Bright Day shrugged without moving from her spot.

The Twilight Blade intercepted Fellbane’s spear tip, sending it to plunge deep into the stone floor. At the same time, the kite shield released short pulses of light that fed the Chaos spells with more light element than they hungered for.

The Void Hollows became mere darkness spells that washed over the energy sheath of Dawn’s Firstlight armor like rain on a mountain, fading away before they could so much as brush against its Davross facets.

The enchanted metal’s scales were shaped so masterfully and overlapped so seamlessly that the Bright Day seemed to wear a single white crystal cut to resemble a full suit of armor.

Unlike a white magic crystal, however, the Firstlight armor absorbed the light around the Horseman rather than reflecting it, amplifying her powers.

The surface of the Davross constantly shifted between black and white, giving the impression of a sun always on the verge of coming up over a cloudy horizon.

Abthot didn’t miss the opening in Acala’s guard, and moved to his blind spot so fast that her figure blurred. Dawn didn’t miss it either, and moved to Abthot’s blind spot, kicking the Ogre-Eldritch hybrid with every ounce of her considerable strength.

Abthot had barely the time to register the impact when the world started to spin around her. The kick sent her crashing through the ceiling of two floors before she hit the external wall of the Blood Minotaurs’ headquarters and started to soar through Batara’s sky.

’What the actual f-’ Dawn’s following punch slipped through the Eldritch’s guard and reverberated throughout her body, cutting her short.

Abthot had taken many hits in her long life as both an elf and an Eldritch, yet the strength of her unexpected opponent caught her by surprise.

’That was worse than when a Phoenix whipped me in the face with all his tail feathers!’ She thought as she unwillingly gained more speed and crash-landed past the city borders. ’This doesn’t make sense.

’Our mass is the same, and we both have Davross equipment. How can Dawn hit me harder than a Divine Beast did back when I was an Eldritch with no equipment?’

Abthot Blinked out of the crater a heartbeat before the Bright Day came down on her feet-first. The impact that ensued shook the nearby trees and deepened the hole in the ground by several meters.

The noise and the shockwave it produced would have thrown the hybrid off balance if not for her Ogre side. Abthot released vines from her feet that anchored her to the ground and absorbed the nutrients she needed to heal her wounds.

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