The moment the frontlines met, the ground cracked beneath the weight of the brutes' charge. Flesh like stone slammed into the imperial guard's formation, sending tremors rippling through the field. The air smelled of mana discharge and burnt metal as the guards struggled to hold their lines.
"Push them back behind the barrier!" shouted the mage captain, his voice slicing through the chaos. "Don't waste your strength trying to kill them—just push them back so the barrier can be resealed!"
He was an Imperial Guard, a mage captain with rank 5 prowess, his authority absolute amid the madness. Everyone knew his words weren't born of cowardice but experience. The creatures they faced were abominations, born of corruption, twisted echoes of once-living things. You couldn't kill what was already rotting from the inside out.
They weren't many, only thirty-one in number, but each one fought like a nightmare made flesh.
