Vortex Origins
Chapter 93: The Third creature wave - 11

Chapter 93: The Third creature wave - 11

Ash caught the blade mid-swing, steel grinding against steel. The shock rattled through his arm.

’Six.’

He counted again, not in seconds, but strikes. That many blows, and the sword hadn’t snapped—but it was bending.

The knight pulled back, raised a foot, and went for a kick.

Ash vanished.

"[Skill: Phantom’s Stride]"

He reappeared behind the creature and slammed his heel into the back of its helm. The knight stumbled forward, metal clanging as it dropped to a knee, then surged up like it felt nothing at all.

It charged, sword raised high.

Ash stepped to the side, feeling the wind of the strike brush past him. The knight’s head shifted, tracking him. The sword came down again, fast—almost too fast.

Ash blocked, but this time his blade didn’t hold steady. He let it slide with the impact, redirecting the strike down and to the left, guiding it where he wanted.

The knight drew back again, not hesitating. Another slash. Ash met it in the same spot. Sparks burst.

Then again. Again. The same place. The same clash.

He wasn’t aiming for the knight.

He was aiming for the sword.

The creature didn’t notice. It swung and Ash met every strike, carving pressure into that single spot, feeding weakness into the blade.

Then—on the ninth clash—he felt it.

A shiver in the knight’s arm. A small shift in the weight of the weapon. When their blades met again, Ash pushed harder than before and felt the edge of his sword bite deeper.

The ground cracked from the force.

A line spread along the knight’s sword. A thin fracture, barely visible in the dark.

Ash saw it.

The knight stumbled a step back, not out of pain—because it didn’t feel pain—but because something about the clash had disrupted its rhythm.

Ash held his sword low, breathing steady, eyes locked on the crack.

It wasn’t enough.

Not yet.

But now the knight knew what he was aiming for.

The knight twisted its head.

Its twin, locked in battle farther down the slope, fought to stand its ground. Max’s bots swarmed it—tight, precise, unrelenting. Each time it tried to swing, they collided with its arms. When it tried to throw its blade, they blasted it out of the air before it could gain momentum.

Ash narrowed his eyes, watching the pattern.

A grin spread across his face.

"Yeah... that’s the difference between people and machines. Robots don’t slip."

He stepped forward, blade raised, stance firm.

"Come on, let’s end this."

The knight froze, then turned—not toward Ash, but toward its twin.

It ran.

Ash didn’t wait. He blinked forward Using Phantom’s Stride and reappeared above the knight mid-sprint. His blade came down in a perfect arc, heavy and fast.

Steel met steel.

The knight’s sword cracked with a sharp, shrieking snap. Then it broke. The upper half clattered against the stone, split clean.

A scream—not human—echoed through the battlefield. The knight staggered, then unraveled into black smoke, its body tearing apart like ash in a storm.

The broken sword hit the ground with a dull chime... then crumbled into dust.

Ash landed beside it and stood still.

Darkness melted into silence.

Then the voice came.

"[You have vanquished a Tier 5 Creature: Dark Sword. Gained 10 Soul Energy.]"

Ash blinked.

His breath caught as another line echoed through his soul.

"[New Skill Acquired: Dark Sword]"

His grip on the hilt tightened.

’What?’

The words rang in his mind, heavy and real. He could feel the skill... coiled somewhere deep inside, waiting to be pulled into shape.

He wanted to reach into his soulspace, to see it—feel it—But the battle wasn’t over. He turned toward the second knight.

Now wasn’t the time to look inward.

Ash fixed his gaze on the last knight.

The thing was cornered. Max’s bots swarmed it in tight formation, moving with precision. For a moment, Ash felt... something. Not sympathy. Just a flicker of thought. This creature, like the others, was being hunted without pause. It didn’t stand a chance.

He shook the feeling off.

Then the sky cracked.

Something large dropped fast—metal, sleek, and heavy. A bot, taller than the rest, slammed into the ground with a crash that made the earth jolt. This one wasn’t like the others. It stood as tall as Juliet, but on its chest was a name etched in white:

MIKE.

The bot didn’t wait. It gripped a massive sword in one hand and, with a brutal swing, struck the knight’s arm mid-motion. The knight’s weapon flew from its grasp.

Ash saw it coming.

The knight vanished... only to reform a second later beside its blade.

It lunged, sword raised to cut into Mike’s frame.

But something else fell first.

A blur of silver crashed from above—the diamond rod. It slammed into the knight’s weapon before the strike could land.

The dark sword shattered on impact.

And with it, the knight broke apart, its form torn into smoke and swept away by the wind.

Ash stood still for a moment, watching.

Then he turned.

The battlefield stretched wide before him, lit by the flashes of explosions and bots moving in perfect lines. The tide had turned—no, it had collapsed.

The machines were everywhere. Fast. Organized. Unstoppable.

Ash let out a breath.

The war wasn’t over. But for now...

This part was won.

————

At the middle of the battlefield. Alex dropped to a knee, breath ragged, skin streaked with dirt and blood. The horde was thinning—at last. Corpses covered the field like rotten mulch. Smoke curled into the air.

He grinned, eyes lifting to the floating ship above.

"Don’t know what that thing is. but I’ll take the help."

Beside him, Kaius leaned on the ground. His shoulders shook, not from exhaustion—but something else. His eyes stayed locked on the space in the distance where his team once stood.

Four of them. Gone.

Alex looked away.

Far ahead, the stone wall shuddered. Cracks lined its surface, and chunks had already fallen. Mia stood at its center, hands outstretched, lips tight. Her stone golem was gone. Her power stretched thin.

She screamed over the sounds of battle.

"I’m at twenty-five percent! You said you were almost done!"

Kevin sat cross-legged on a stone platform, unmoving, eyes still shut.

"I should be,"

he said through clenched teeth.

"But every time I fix one crack, two more show up. It’s draining my energy too fast."

Mia growled.

"If it weren’t for these bots, we’d be corpses already!"

Above the wall, lines of red light sliced through the air. Laser blasts from the skyship tore through the Grimhorns climbing over each other, but there were too many. Thousands of them. The wall groaned louder, every second closer to breaking.

Mia clenched her jaw.

"I can’t hold this anymore."

Stone lifted beneath her feet. A rough floating platform. She pulled Kevin up and shot towards the wall of ironhold, her energy flickering like a dying flame.

The wall gave out the moment she left. The platform fell with it. Stone crumbled and dust roared into the air.

The Grimhorns poured through the breach—massive things, horned and snarling, climbing over bodies like a tide of death.

And behind them...

A figure emerged.

An old man. Hood drawn low.

He walked slowly, calmly, his feet never touching blood or dust. A smile played across his face. Not joy—something colder.

A grin that promised the end.