The air thickened as the Knight of Chaos took its first step forward. Each movement was slow, deliberate—like a predator savoring the fear of its prey.
Xin's fingers tightened around the weapon in his grip, but the moment his skin touched it, pain lanced through his arm like fire.
A spear—if it could even be called that.
It wasn't metal, nor any material he could recognize. It was a shard, jagged and crystalline, glowing faintly like an ember barely clinging to life. The entire thing was translucent, pulsing with a sickly light. Xin gritted his teeth as the shard's surface burned into his palm, sending tremors of agony up his arm. As if It was rejecting him.
Every instinct told him to let go, that this weapon wasn't meant for him, but he held on. He had to.
Nearby, Roderic pulled out a shard as well, though his was smaller, fractured—a broken piece of something greater. It gleamed in the dim torchlight, its surface slick like frozen glass. Unlike Xin, Roderic didn't flinch as he gripped it.
The difference between them was clear.
Roderic had held this kind of power before.
Xin had not.
And Xin knew, in the depths of his heart, that he was going to die here.
The realization settled like a weight in his stomach, ice-cold and absolute. He wasn't ready. He couldn't win.
And then the Knight moved with blinding speed.
This was The Rush of Death
The sound came first.
A deafening, metallic screech as the knight's armor groaned from the sheer force of its acceleration. One second it was standing still—
—the next, it was upon them.
Xin barely had time to react before the entire world lurched.
The Knight's movement was inhuman. A blur of black steel and writhing shadows, it closed the distance between them instantly. Its massive, armored fist shot forward, and Xin knew—this was a killing blow.
He raised his shard on instinct.
It did nothing.
The force of the impact was indescribable. A mountain falling. A landslide crashing.
Xin's ribs buckled. The air was ripped from his lungs as the blow landed square against his chest. His body lifted off the ground, time slowing to a crawl as his vision blurred—then,
Boom.
His back slammed into the far wall of the chamber. The impact shattered stone, cracks spiderwebbing outward as debris rained down around him. Xin's body crumpled to the ground like a broken doll, his head ringing with white-hot pain. His lungs seized—he couldn't breathe.
His entire body screamed in protest. Every nerve was on fire. He felt something warm trickling down his chin. Blood.
Somewhere in the distance, he heard Roderic shout his name.
But he was already fading.
Alone with the Monster
Roderic had no time to think.
Xin was down, possibly dead, and now he was alone.
The Knight of Chaos turned toward him, slowly, like acknowledging an insect that had yet to be crushed. Its jagged crimson lines pulsed with a deeper glow, its aura pressing against Roderic's very soul.
But Roderic did not run.
He couldn't.
Not because he wasn't afraid. But because he knew—if he turned his back on this thing, he would never make it out alive.
He gripped his shard tighter.
Unlike Xin, Roderic had wielded blades before. He knew how to use it.
But against something like this…?
The Knight of Chaos took another step forward, the ground cracking beneath its weight. It raised its right hand, chains coiling around its gauntlet like living serpents. Then, with terrifying ease, it swung.
Roderic dodged.
Barely.
The chains ripped through the air where he had been standing just moments before. The force alone sent a shockwave outward, shattering the stone floor. If that had hit him…
No. He didn't have time to think about that.
Roderic's eyes narrowed. He twisted his body, dashing to the side before lunging forward. His shard hummed in his grip, its sharp edge glimmering . He thrust forward—aiming for the knight's exposed flank.
A direct hit.
Or so he thought.
The moment his shard made contact with the knight's armor, a force repelled it.
Roderic's entire arm went numb as his own attack was flung back at him, sending him skidding across the ground.
The Knight hadn't even moved.
Roderic's breath came fast and shallow. Impossible. His attack had been completely nullified. Was it some kind of barrier? No—it was something worse.
This knight wasn't just armored. It was protected by something else. Something unnatural.
The realization hit him like a hammer to the gut.
They weren't just fighting some mindless monster. They were fighting something that refused to be harmed.
The Knight of Chaos turned to him again, as if amused by his futile attempt.
Then, it attacked.
Faster this time.
Roderic barely had time to suck in a breath before the Knight moved again. The towering mass of metal bore down on him, its arms swinging in another brutal arc. He rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the impact. The ground where he had lain shattered, debris flying in all directions. His body screamed in protest, every muscle aching, his vision blurring at the edges. He could not keep this up.
He knew it. The Knight knew it.
It was inevitable.
The enemy advanced, relentless, methodical. Roderic forced himself to his feet, knees nearly buckling as he tried to steady his stance. His fingers dug into the dirt, desperate for leverage, for anything to keep himself upright. His breath came in short, ragged gasps. His body was failing, and they both knew it.
A glint of steel.
He had no time to react.
The fist caught him square in the shoulder.
A sickening crack.
Pain, raw and blinding, tore through him as his body lifted off the ground. The world spun violently, weightless for a brief, agonizing moment before he slammed into the chamber wall. Stone crumbled around him. His breath hitched, sharp and ragged, his limbs refusing to obey. His vision flickered, fading in and out of darkness.
He tasted blood.
The Knight did not stop.
It lunged.
Roderic tried to move. Too slow.
The killing blow came down.
Then—
A scream.
Not his.
Xin's.
Through the haze, Roderic saw him—a lone figure standing amidst the wreckage. Blood dripped from his forehead, tracing a crimson path down his face. His breath was uneven, chest rising and falling in erratic gasps. He was trembling, his body barely holding together.
But he was alive.
And he wasn't running.
Xin gripped his shard again, his knuckles white with pain. But this time, he did not care.
The crystal's once dull glow surged, pulsing with newfound intensity. The sickly light burned away, replaced by something searing, something blinding. It crackled in the air, an ethereal force that sent sharp gusts rippling through the battlefield. The chamber walls trembled from its power, dust and loose debris cascading down.
The Knight of Chaos hesitated.
For the first time, it faltered.
Xin wiped the blood from his lips, his eyes ablaze with a fire Roderic had never seen before. It was not desperation. It was resolve. A raw, unbreakable will that pushed past the pain and exhaustion clawing at him.
"I'm scared as hell," he admitted, voice shaking.
But he stepped forward.
His body was battered. His strength was waning. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to stop, to flee, to survive. But something deeper, something unshakable, kept him moving.
Xin raised his spear.
The shard pulsed again, its energy crackling in waves across the stone floor. The air itself felt heavier, charged with something powerful, something ancient. The glow spread to the spear's tip, embers of light dancing along the weapon's edge.
The Knight shifted, its massive frame tensing as if sensing the shift in the battle.
Xin inhaled sharply, forcing his battered limbs to obey. His fingers tightened around the shaft of his spear. The pain in his body had not disappeared, but it no longer mattered. He lifted the weapon higher, his stance solidifying.
"But I'm not dying here."
A deep rumble echoed through the chamber, the very foundation shaking beneath them. The light from the shard blazed, surging outward in a blinding flash that engulfed them both.
The Knight roared.
And Xin charged.
Sparks exploded as metal met metal. The impact of Xin's strike sent a shockwave rippling outward, the air crackling with raw energy. The Knight staggered back, its enormous frame quivering under the force of the attack. Xin did not relent. He twisted his spear, driving it deeper, the shard's light searing through the Knight's armor like molten steel.
The creature howled, its voice an unnatural distortion, something ancient and wrong. It swung wildly, its enormous gauntlet cutting through the air with devastating force. Xin ducked, barely avoiding decimation, and countered with another strike, this time slashing across the Knight's midsection. A fissure of energy split the armor, golden light spilling from the wound like liquid fire.
The Knight bellowed in agony, stumbling back. The chamber trembled, dust cascading from the ceiling. Roderic, still on the ground, forced himself to move, to breathe, to stand. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain screaming through his body. Xin was buying him time. He couldn't waste it.
But Xin's energy was fading fast. His arms trembled with exertion, the light in his shard flickering erratically. The sheer force of his attacks had begun to take their toll. He knew he had one final chance, one last decisive strike before his body gave out.
He lunged.
The Knight, sensing the desperation in his movement, reacted with a brutal backhand. Xin was too close, too committed to the attack to dodge in time. The blow connected, sending him flying across the chamber. He hit the ground hard, rolling several times before coming to a painful stop.
The shard in his grip dimmed, its glow faltering.
Xin coughed, spitting blood onto the stone. He struggled to push himself up, his body trembling. The Knight of Chaos loomed over him now, its armor cracked, damaged, but its strength still overwhelming.
A shadow fell over Xin.
The final strike was coming.
Then—
A second light blazed.
Brighter. Stronger.
Roderic stood, his own shard igniting, his body no longer trembling with weakness but with something new.
Resolve.
The battle was not over.