*THUD! *THUD! *THUD! *THUD!
The earth cracked and splintered beneath the monster's weight, each of its steps shaking the ground like a collapsing mountain.
*bzt!
"Ninety percent charged!" Thron's voice boomed through the comms, the railcannon now glowing intensely as streams of blue eidric energy coiled around its barrel.
*whirrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
Sparks burst from the joints of the cannon as the power built to its peak.
"Shit!" Rox cursed, raising her rifle and unleashing a rapid burst of shots at the massive creature.
*bang! *bang! *bang! *bang!
Her bullets tore through the air but bounced uselessly off the beast's hardened scales, leaving behind only faint scorch marks.
The monster—an enormous basilisk twisted by corruption—kept charging forward, tearing through its own kind as it rampaged toward the ship without hesitation.
"It's gonna reach the ship!" Rox yelled, emptying another magazine before slamming a fresh one in, her boots grinding against the trembling ground.
"Calm down." Gelhyne's tone was steady, even amidst the chaos.
She stepped forward, her eyes glowing fiercely as she extended one hand toward the charging beast.
"Your ship is a valuable asset—and I won't let it be destroyed."
In that moment,
*CRACK!
a sharp crack echoed through the air as arcs of green eidra surged from Gelhyne's palm, coiling together into a single concentrated stream.
The torrent snapped forward like a whip, wrapping tightly around one of the basilisk's rear legs.
Gelhyne clenched her hand into a fist, and the energy constricted violently.
*GROAAAAAAR!!!
The beast let out a guttural, ear-splitting roar as its leg twisted under immense pressure.
The sound of bones snapping echoed across the field before the massive creature stumbled, its momentum too great to stop.
The basilisk's body slammed into the ground with an impact that sent a shockwave through the earth, carving a long scar into the soil as it slid forward—its claws gouging trenches in a futile attempt to stop.
Rox shielded her visor from the debris as the beast finally came to a halt—its snout resting just a few meters from the Nightjarr's railcannon.
The air was thick with dust and the scent of burnt eidra.
Gelhyne lowered her hand slowly, breathing heavy but controlled.
"There," she muttered, her eyes fixed on the crippled monster.
"Now, finish it before it gets up again."
Rox nodded sharply, her voice cutting through the static-filled comms.
"Thron—fire!"
The railcannon's glow reached a blinding peak, the hum turning into a violent roar as power surged through its coils.
*Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr—
*BZZT!
"Railcannon fully charged! Firing directly at this sucker's face!" Thron bellowed, his tone practically gleeful.
With a deafening crack, the massive cannon released its shot.
*KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
A beam of condensed eidric energy erupted from the barrel, cutting through the air with incredible speed before colliding straight into the creature's head.
The impact was catastrophic.
The basilisk's skull exploded in a violent burst of blue light and black ichor, its entire upper body thrown backward as the beam ripped through flesh and bone, carving a molten line into the ground behind it.
"Fuck yeah!" Rox shouted triumphantly, lowering her rifle as she turned to Gelhyne with a wild grin.
She grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her lightly.
"We did it!"
"Okay, okay—fine Now unhand me!" Gelhyne groaned, rolling her eyes though her voice softened slightly.
Despite her tone, she couldn't hide the look of relief flickering in her eyes.
Rox laughed, still gripping her rifle.
"Mhm, now let me fini—"
*GROAAAAAAAAAAR!!!
A sound cut her off.
The roar was louder than before—distorted, unnatural, like a chorus of tortured echoes coming from the same throat.
Both women froze and turned toward the sound.
The massive corpse that had been lying still moments ago was moving.
*creak…! *thud!
Slowly, unnaturally, the basilisk's headless body began to rise.
Black tar-like blood gushed from the stump of its neck, splattering across the ground as its body twitched and convulsed.
It stood tall once again, impossibly alive.
Gelhyne's eyes widened in disbelief, her lips parting as she muttered,
"That… that shouldn't be possible…"
Rox's face hardened beneath her helmet.
Her grip tightened on her gun as she checked the chamber—empty.
The click echoed louder than the distant thunder.
"Shit," she muttered, lowering her weapon slowly as the creature's body straightened fully.
"And I just ran out of bullets."
*ggrkShrieeeeekK!!!"
The headless beast let out a grotesque, gurgling shriek that didn't sound natural —more like air forcing its way through torn flesh and liquid instead of lungs.
*slosh! *Thud! *slosh! *squelch!
Its massive body twitched as it dragged itself forward, every step producing the sickening sound of muscles stretching without purpose.
Black ichor continued to pour from the stump where its head once was, sizzling as it hit the ground like acid.
Rox's visor flickered to life with multiple lines of readings and diagnostic data.
Her HUD displayed unstable eidric fluctuations surrounding the creature, readings spiking erratically before dropping down to nothing.
It wasn't like anything she'd ever seen.
"What the hell…" she muttered, eyes narrowing as the readings continued to shift violently.
Normally, beasts consumed by the Umbral Mist registered almost nothing on eidric scans—their cores were corrupted beyond measurement, hollowed out of any stable flow.
But this one…
this was different.
The data streams jumped again—from near zero to dangerously high, as if something inside the creature was pulsing with inconsistent bursts of energy.
The patterns didn't align with Umbral signatures; they were wild, uncontrolled, and alien.
"Those aren't mist readings," she whispered under her breath, tightening her grip on her rifle.
Her HUD's red warning lines blinked faster as her sensors tried to stabilize the feed.
"Whatever's keeping that thing alive… it isn't the Umbral Veil I know."
The beast took another step,
*THUD!
its entire body cracking with each movement—like a puppet being forced to move without strings.
Rox could feel it now—a presence, faint but distinct—something powerful and wrong, stirring within that corpse.
*SgrKKiieeeeeeeeeeKK!!!
The creature let out one final, bone-shaking shriek—louder and more distorted than anything before.
The sound carried through the entire field, rattling the air as veins of green light began to crawl along its body.
*crack…
In the next instant,
*BOOM!
Its chest burst open, releasing a violent surge of necrotic eidric energy that rippled outward in all directions.
The blast painted the land in a sickly emerald glow, tearing through the dirt and mist with sizzling cracks as the energy spread.
Rox raised an arm over her visor, her sensors flashing warnings from the intense surge.
The shockwave hit her and Gelhyne like a sudden gale, sending loose debris flying before the energy finally began to fade.
When the light died, the basilisk's massive body slumped lifelessly to the ground.
Smoke rose from its dissolving flesh as the corrupted essence within it burned away into green vapor.
Rox lowered her arm and exhaled.
"Well," she muttered, staring at the dissolving carcass.
"That was anticlimactic."
But her relief lasted only a second.
The faint sound of movement began echoing across the field—soft at first, then all at once
Dozens, then hundreds, of corpses that had once littered the battlefield began to stir.
Twisted limbs twitched, bones cracked, and the fallen Umbral beasts slowly started to rise, their bodies still torn and mangled from the earlier fight.
Rox's expression darkened beneath her helmet. "You've gotta be kidding me…"
"It is clear as day," Gelhyne spoke, her voice low but firm as she watched the rising horde.
Her eyes narrowed, faint green light flickering from her pupils as she assessed the flow of energy.
"Whoeve —or whatever—guards the Rune of Veristalzes possesses command over necrotic eidra powerful enough to reanimate Umbral beasts themselves."
Rox glanced around, watching as the nearest corpse finished standing, its hollow eyes flickering with green fire.
"So… something like an eidric lich?"
"Worse," Gelhyne replied sharply, stepping back as she began channeling her eidra again.
"This kind of power doesn't just control the dead and its bodily functions—it controls the very essence of one's eidra to the point that it supersedes the Umbral Veil's control."