Lyerin stood at a distance, his gaze impassive as he watched the carnage unfold around him.
The air was thick with the stench of blood and the acrid tang of sweat and fear.
Shadows flickered across the walls of the cavern, cast by the dim light that barely pierced the darkness.
It was a dance of death, and Lyerin moved through it with an eerie calm, sidestepping and evading the savage strikes of the trilobites with a grace that seemed almost otherworldly.
The soldiers fell one by one.
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Each death was brutal, a raw disy of the trilobites'' relentless savagery.
Their ws ripped through flesh, their mandibles crushed bone.
The sounds of screams and desperate cries echoed off the cavern walls, mingling with the hissing and clicking of their monstrous enemies.
There was no mercy here, only the harsh reality of survival—and for the soldiers, survival was slipping away with every breath.
One soldier staggered back, clutching a gaping wound in his chest.
Blood poured through his fingers, staining the rocky ground beneath him. He looked around, searching for allies, for hope—but there was none.
The trilobites descended upon him, their ws and mandibles tearing him apart. His scream was swallowed by the darkness.
Another soldier fell to his knees, his weapon slipping from his grasp.
Exhaustion and despair had overtaken him. He raised his head just in time to see a trilobite''s w descending.
There was a sickening thud, and then silence. The creature moved on, seeking its next prey.
"Fall back! Regroup!"
Lucas''s voice rang out, ragged and desperate. He swung his sword with all the strength he had left, cleaving through the shell of a trilobite.
The creature screeched and recoiled, but another took its ce almost immediately.
"We have to hold!" Lucas shouted, but his words were met with silence. The others were gone.
Lyerin continued to watch, his expression unreadable.
asionally, a trilobite would lunge at him, and he would move with fluid precision, sidestepping the attack or deflecting it with minimal effort.
His movements were almost dismissive, as if he were merely swatting away flies.
The Stonehooves Tribe spirit''s decree still held him—he could not spill blood. But as the battle raged on, it became clear that hisck of intervention was not due solely to the spirit''smand.
There was something cold and detached in his eyes, as if he were measuring something beyond the soldiers'' struggle.
One by one, the soldiers fell.
The ground was littered with broken bodies, their lifeless eyes staring into the abyss.
Thest of them fought valiantly, refusing to give in even as the odds became impossible. But in the end, they too were overwhelmed.
A young man with a shattered arm swung a piece of metal, screaming in defiance.
A trilobite''s w sliced through him, and he fell, his voice silenced forever.
Only Lucas and the other one remained.
Lucas stood with the soldier, his chest heaving, blood dripping from countless wounds.
His sword was slick with ichor, his grip unsteady.
Around him, the trilobites circled, their dark eyes gleaming with a cold, predatory light.
Lucas nced at the bodies of his fallenrades, grief and rage warring within him. "Come on, then!" he shouted, his voice hoarse. "Is this all you''ve got?"
The trilobites closed in. Lucas swung his sword in a wide arc, forcing them back for a moment. But it was a fleeting reprieve.
They came at him from all sides, ws and mandibles snapping.
He fought with everything he had, each strike fueled by desperation. But he was tiring. His movements grew sluggish, his breath ragged. He knew this was the end.
In the midst of it all, Lyerin moved closer, still untouched, still calm. He evaded a trilobite''s strike with a slight shift of his weight, his eyes never leaving Lucas.
There was a flicker of something in his gaze—pity? Amusement? It was impossible to tell.
Lucas stumbled, his legs giving out beneath him.
He fell to one knee, using his sword to prop himself up.
Blood dripped from a gash on his forehead, blurring his vision.
The trilobites circled, sensing weakness.
They moved in for the kill.
And then they paused.
Slowly, deliberately, they turned their attention to Lyerin.
The creatures seemed to sense something in him, something different.
For a moment, there was a tense silence, broken only by the sound of Lucas''sbored breathing.
Lyerin stepped forward, his movements unhurried. He met Lucas''s gaze, his expression unreadable. "You fought well," he said, his voice calm. "But this is where it ends."
The trilobites closed in, surrounding them both.
Their ws clicked, their eyes glimmering with malice.
Lucas gripped his sword tighter, knowing he had no strength left to fight.
He nced at Lyerin, his jaw clenched. "If you''re going to do something," he said through gritted teeth, "now would be the time."
Lyerin didn''t respond.
He simply watched as the trilobites tightened their circle, their movements slow and deliberate.
The air was thick with tension, the promise of violence hanging heavy.
Lucas''s heart pounded in his chest.
He was out of time.
The trilobites lunged.
The first of the humanoid trilobites lunged forward, its massive w raised high, ready to strike Lucas down.
Its eyes gleamed with malevolent intent, and the cavern seemed to pulse with the anticipation of death. But just as its w descended, a deafening impact shook the ground.
The trilobite was yanked back with a sickening crunch as a massive, titanic hand closed around it, lifting it effortlessly into the air before mming it down with bone-crushing force.
The trilobite''s body shattered, its segmented shell splitting apart like a cracked stone.
Dust and fragments exploded outward, sending shards skittering across the cavern floor.
Lucas blinked, stunned.
What he had just seen defied all logic.
Before him stood a colossal figure, its form towering and imposing—a human, but vastlyrger than anything Lucas had ever known.
The giant''s skin glowed faintly in the dim light, and its eyes burned with a primal intensity.
It was one of his fallenrades—reborn, transformed, a titan of raw power and fury.
Another trilobite screeched and leapt at the massive figure.
Its ws nged against the giant''s armored limbs, but the impact barely seemed to register.
With a swift motion, the titan soldier swung a fist that crashed into the creature, sending it hurtling through the air.
The trilobite mmed into the wall with a resounding boom, crumpling like a broken insect.
Lucas''s jaw dropped.
Around him, the ground trembled as more giants rose, each one emerging from the shadows.
The air vibrated with their movements.
They were hisrades—the same soldiers who had fallen moments ago.
Now they loomed over the battlefield, their forms towering, their presence awe-inspiring.
One by one, they turned their gaze toward the trilobites, and in that gaze was a terrible promise of retribution.
The trilobites hissed and clicked, sensing the shift in power.
They circled warily, their predatory instincts screaming danger. But hesitation was not in their nature.
With a chorus of screeches, they attacked, swarming toward the towering figures with a fury born of desperation.
One trilobiteunched itself at the nearest titan, its ws shing in a flurry of brutal strikes.
The giant soldier responded with a roar that echoed through the cavern.
It caught the creature mid-air and squeezed, crushing its carapace with a sickening crunch.
Green ichor sprayed, and the trilobite''s limbs spasmed helplessly before going limp.
The titan hurled the broken body aside, its expression set with grim determination.
Lucas scrambled to his feet, his heart pounding.
He barely had time to react as another trilobite lunged at him.
Its mandibles snapped inches from his face.
He ducked, rolling to the side, but before he could recover, a massive foot descended.
The trilobite was crushed beneath the weight of another titan, reduced to pulp in an instant.
The giant soldier nced down at Lucas, a flicker of recognition in its eyes, before turning back to the battle.
The cavern was a storm of chaos. The titans moved with surprising speed, their steps shaking the ground.
They tore into the trilobites with a fury that bordered on savage, their massive fists shattering shells, their kicks sending creatures flying.
One titan grabbed a trilobite by its limbs and twisted, ripping it apart as easily as a child might break a twig.
Another stomped the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked several trilobites off their feet.
The creatures screeched, regrouped, and attacked again, but they were no match for the reborn giants.
A trilobite scuttled across the ground, weaving between the titans'' legs, its eyes fixed on Lucas.
It lunged, mandibles snapping.
Lucas braced himself, ready to fight, but the attack never came.
A giant hand swept down, catching the creature mid-leap.
The titan soldier raised it high, then smashed it against the ground.
The impact left a crater, and the trilobite''s bodyy motionless, shattered beyond recognition.
It was war!
Titans versus Trilobites!