Chapter 89: The Husk Its body shuttled forward low to the ground, moving with speed that defied what its size suggested. Tron’s eyes widened, but his body was already reacting quickly. His axes came up in a defensive cross, blocking the creature’s blow despite its speed. It seemed like he had defended himself successfully. The creature’s attack had been extremely fast, but it had been simple and predictable... But Tron quickly realized why it had been that simple. The blow was jarringly heavy! Tron’s body tumbled backwards in the air immediately. His boots carved twin trenches through the dead earth as he slid a dozen feet before managing to arrest his momentum. "What the—" he snarled, glancing at his arms that trembled visibly from the impact despite his body enhancer’s soul mass strength. He looked back up at the creature, specifically at the air around the creature’s fist, as it rippled and distorted, as if space itself was being compressed and released in the same instant. The creature didn’t pursue Tron. It simply straightened, turning that fixed smile toward its next target... Finn and Althea. They were already moving. Althea dropped from her Owl in a controlled fall, landing in a perfect crouch that transitioned immediately into motion. Her sword flowed through positions that were half-dance, half-combat form — the signature Seneschal family sword style. She came in swinging her blade in a sweeping motion, targeting the creature’s legs. She weaved her way past the creature’s strike at her approaching form, catching it by the sides and scoring a hit, diagonally up from its waist to its ribs. It should’ve been a deadly a hit. One that would render any other creature unable to use most of its fighting strength. But as Althea widened the gap after scoring the hit, her eyes widened fractionally. "No blood..." she muttered. In fact it wasn’t just a lack of blood. There was nothing spilling out of the creature. Barely anything was visible through the cut, not even its innards. Besides its weird-looking bony skeleton, all that was revealed beneath was... emptiness. But the discovery didn’t seem to slow Althea down. She deftly switched back into motion, flowing into her next strike. She dashed at the creature, striking with precise, economical slashes that probed the creature’s defenses while maintaining constant pressure. The creature met her attacks more accurately this time, as if it was learning from her movements, all with that uncanny smile still plastered on its face. It blocked each strike with its forearms, using the same weird spatial enhancement it had used to beat Tron back in one strike. In the heat of the moment, Finn also swooped down from above, diving with his wings tucked in for maximum speed. The creature noticed him coming, but it was too late. Althea kept it busy, and it didn’t have enough time to beat her back and defend from Finn’s attack at the same time. Finn honed in on the weak point he’d seen earlier — the joint on the creature’s neck where the spine connected to the head. At the last second of his dive, his metal-edged wings abruptly snapped out and sliced through the creature’s neck in a perfect strike. It went clean through the exact point he had intended, severing the head of the creature from its neck and causing it to stumble. The head tilted forward immediately, dangling by only its shriveled skin on the outside. For a frozen instant, Finn thought they’d done it. Then he heard a click. They all heard a click. A sound like a mechanism engaging. Like the seconds hand of a large clock ticking and resounding through the blighted clearing. And immediately the sound was heard, the creature’s head simply... reverted. The cut sealed itself in a blip. The damage unmade as if it had never occurred. The three Ossuarists jumped back immediately, eyeing the creature with shock. "It can regenerate?!" Tron spat. "Of course it fucking can!" "No," Althea said. "It’s not regeneration. It’s reversion. It’s resetting itself to a previous state." "Same difference! It doesn’t matter if we can’t kill it," Finn growled with a rough voice colored by his Ferropteryx bloodlust. His words made them all snap back to attention and come to the same, wordless conclusion. Overwhelming attacks! They needed to bombard it with overwhelming attacks! The all noticed the major point that the creature could’ve reset itself at any time, but it only did after they had given it space, thinking Finn’s attack had killed it for sure. This time... they weren’t going to allow it to have space to reset. Tron was the first to move. He dispersed his battleaxes back into his shadow and planted his feet in a wide stance, bringing both fists up to guard his chest. The air around him changed. But unlike before when Finn had felt the difference, this time he could actually hear it — tiny detonations occurring just beneath Tron’s skin, like controlled explosions in his muscles and bones. His body enhancer soul mass had truly been someone special when they were alive. What was occurring in Tron’s body was something only Master rank body enhancer Arcanists could do. His body was converging all the force that would otherwise be wasted during a strike into his body. Making it sound like miniature explosions were popping off in his muscles and bones. Althea also readied herself. Overhead, her Owl began circling, preparing its sonic attack. Her faceless female elemental moved into position, readying her green flames to launch at strategic moments. And Althea herself... She breathed out softly and her eyes slowly took on that eerie, detached presence of Order that made her seem ancient. She calmly ran her hand along the length of her black soul sword, caressing it from guard to tip. "[Order Edict: Certain Trajectory]" Immediately, the creature’s head snapped toward her, and its uncanny smile somehow conveyed something resembling a recognition of threat. Without hesitation, it blurred forward again. But this time even faster than before, charging with a speed that suggested it had been holding back during its initial attack on Tron. But Althea didn’t flinch at all. Instead, she calmly raised her sword like she was about to deliver judgement. And the moment the creature entered a five-meter radius around her, everything stilled. The air itself became rigid, locked in place by imposed order. The vibrations from the creature’s charge ceased instantly. Its terrifying speed and forward momentum were killed in an instant as if it had run into an invisible, jarring wall of perfect stillness. And then, Althea’s sword came down. It was a calm, easily observable strike. But it felt like the focal point of the world. It filled both Finn and Tron with a certain surety that it was going to hit its intended target. As if the trajectory of that blade had been decided by fundamental law, and reality had no choice but to comply. The sword tore into the creature’s chest, carving a vertical line from collarbone to sternum that split its body open, revealing the hollowness inside of it. The creature let out a soundless shriek of pain, but it managed to leap back at the last possible instant using everything it had. The last second leap was enough to salvage what should have been a killing blow into merely a grievous wound. Althea staggered back after the strike. She swallowed a visible cough of blood, but it still trickled from the corner of her mouth. Her sword suddenly seemed to weigh heavy in her hand, dipping toward the ground. "That’s... enough for now," she gasped, stumbling back to give herself recovery time. The spell had forced order onto too many variables at once — the creature’s momentum, the air’s natural movement, probability itself bending to ensure her strike landed true. The cost was staggering. But she’d created an opening. And Finn and Tron didn’t waste it.