Kronel tried to escape the explosion, but he was too close. As he tried to escape, the wave pushed him away toward Seweryn. All three warriors looked at the injured man.
The man who was so focused suddenly snapped and shouted, “That was fucking close!” He then looked at his friend Seweryn and continued, “Did you see that!? I got his hand! Ha!”
“Do you wish to surrender? Or would you like to lose another hand…” Veronika threatened as she pointed the tip of her longsword toward the remaining hand.
What they didn’t notice at first, because of the smoke, was that the man wasn’t bleeding at all. Normally, a person would shout out of pain and fear that he would bleed out. Yet this man was calm, acting as if nothing had happened. He picked up his own hand and placed it back. After a moment, the hand began to move once again, reconnected to the body.
“Ummm… I don’t think people can do that… Well, there is a possibility of a gate with that kind of power, but… Ew…” Kronel’s mouth wouldn’t shut, so he was the first to be targeted by the intruder.
The tip of the sword was closing up toward his eye; he could take a good look at the blade, splitting the man in front of him perfectly in half. He felt some kind of presence slowing his attack, which allowed the lanky man to dash to his companion. He tapped the brick on the floor, and it extended toward the ceiling
As he tried to free his sword from the tall brick, Veronika caught up to him and drew a long line along his back. “If cutting you down is not enough, then I will watch you root!” Where her blade met his flesh, it slowly withered the meat and muscles, turning his skin black.
With the help of an explosion, he was able to free his blade for a moment. They could all see that Veronika’s attack was effective since there was no sign of regeneration.
The intruder suddenly slashed air and smoke beside him while Kronel appeared right behind his back as he turned. “Looks like we have a plan! Assist Veronika with her attacks!” The intruder was barely able to lift his sword and block the scythe, which would slash his face. Unlike a sword, which would push him, the scythe wrapped the upper side of his blade and brought it down, lowering his guard and giving space for a spear which quickly expanded and pierced his shoulder.
Veronika jumped forward, her blade swiftly moving toward the intruder’s arm. Unfortunately for them, both she and Kronel were standing right beside him. “Gate Open.” This time, four bright lights appeared around them. This time, the walls and ceiling crumbled under the strong explosion. A narrow corridor turned into empty space with rubble flying around.
Right in the middle stood the man who looked just like Taizen. All that was left of his coat were a few patches of it, which were slowly burning, revealing his mostly naked body, with only his trousers on. His whole body was covered in stitches, and many parts of his body were of different colors. It wasn’t Taizen; it was a doll made out of many parts of flesh, skin, and bone that looked just like him.
Sitting pressed against the wall, Kronel tried to catch his breath; the tips of his hair burned into a crisp, but not a single injury was visible on his face. Seweryn was kneeling a few feet away from him, a long line drawn on the ground from the place from which he was pushed by the explosion. As for Veronika there was no sign of her, not a single trace.
“Kronel! We are not finished! Stand up!” Seweryn shouted with concern, tightly gripping his spear as he observed the ‘creature’ in front of him.
“I… am… unscathed… Thanks to her… Veronika pushed me with her gate at the crucial moment… She can only push one thing at the time… Which means she wasn’t able to avoid that attack…” Kronel slowly thought of what had just happened, grunting as he tried to stand back up. “At best, she might be unconscious and somehow alive under the rubble…”
“Seweryn… Keep up.” As those words left Kronel’s mouth, all that was left was his afterimage. In nearly a second, he reached the abomination standing in the middle of all the rubble. It responded by lifting a sword, but Kronel was faster; a deep cut appeared on its shoulder as the man vanished, leaving a faint afterimage. Next, he appeared right above, slashing along the intruder’s arm.
Then he stopped, with his back turned to the intruder. He felt the blade coming, but he couldn’t move. The pain in his legs was too intense at the moment; he barely held back tears. The intruder felt the strong presence, which felt as if thousands of needles were stabbing him, but he ignored it, knowing it was Kronel’s gate.
Suddenly, a spear pierced his leg, pinning him down to one place. Kronel slowly stood up, twitching as he tried to move. The intruder spoke, “Gate-” and suddenly a tip of the scythe was sticking out of his mouth. As his legs lost strength, he pulled down, tearing the man’s chin off.
“Shut up…” he whispered weakly, falling to his knees.
Using his free leg, the intruder kicked Kronel in the chest, making him spit out blood as he flew into the wall. As his eyes slowly lost consciousness, he whispered with a grin, “Your turn… Withering Flower…”
The intruder with his blank face turned his head and saw Veronika with blood on her face and a focused gaze. All she could see was her blade carving through the abomination. With the help of both hands, the man blocked the long sword, but as soon as a single dent appeared on the sword where Veronika hit it, the blade began to rust. Weakened iron broke, allowing the warrior to slash the man’s torso. Since he did block the attack for a moment, the wound was shallow, but her gate left quite a mark on him.
Black and dead flesh painted the man’s chest, stitches in those parts snapped, and a few parts of his skin were hanging from his body. Beneath it, muscles and fat were not of a vibrant red color but grey, as the abomination didn’t possess a single drop of blood in it.
The creature was still standing, with no indication of it being in pain yet, but with those wounds, it no longer looked human. It was a living corpse that somehow was able to get past the walls.
Using a broken blade, the creature swung it, forcing Veronika to block the attack and pushing her away. Even though she had already experienced its strength, it was still a shock to her.
“How could a dead man be so strong… He doesn’t even have that many muscles.” Thought Veronika, having a brief moment to study the intruder’s physique. Most of his body was thin, without refined muscles, while a few parts showed a bit of work put into them, but it was abnormal. Like a few people were put together into one.
The lanky man was a silent type, so the abomination barely noticed him. A tip of the spear grazed his slowly healing shoulder. He faced his new opponent with a broken blade in hand. Seweryn spun his weapon around, constantly slashing with its tip, not giving space for the intruder to attack. When his spear would hit the ground, it suddenly got shorter, and once it was away, it expanded so it could reach his opponent. Seweryn’s weapon constantly changed its length, making it difficult to predict its movement.
Veronika quickly joined the fight, seeing an opportunity, she attacked with a wide swing that could match the strength of the intruder’s quick swings. While she matched him in strength, she couldn’t move faster than his blade. The abomination was able to block three attacks from the spear and switch to block a longsword and then move back to the spear user.
What all of them noticed was that each time he had to block Veronika’s attack, his blade slowly turned into rust, and the blade crumbled on impact. With a shorter blade, Seweryn was able to land a hit occasionally, slowly building up wounds that didn’t heal in time as he struck the place another time. Yet the intruder didn’t pay any mind to it, seeing as Veronika was a much bigger threat with her gate, the man focused more on blocking her attacks.
All of the advantages he possessed in the beginning were crumbling. He couldn’t activate his gate as he needed a vocal activation for explosions. Veronika's Wither Gate countered his regeneration. His speed didn’t matter much against two opponents at the time. He was lucky that one of them overused his gate and was now unable to fight.
Suddenly, Seweryn switched his strategy and hit the ground with a shortened spear and quickly expanded it, impaling the man in the stomach. As he was lifted and his movement was limited, Veronika was able to cut off the arm that held the sword and then the other, making the creature defenseless.
Veronika stood there, contemplating her next move. Seweryn suddenly cut in, “Shouldn’t we kill it? It seems like all it could say was ‘gate open’ as nothing else left its mouth.”
“You’re right. I’ll cut its head off.” Veronika slowly moved to the creature’s side, and Swereryn shortened his spear a bit so she could reach its neck.
She lifted her longsword and prepared for a strike that would execute the creature, but its head suddenly snapped toward her. Its jaw grew out, rebuilding the muscles and most of the bones. A face that was previously blank looked for the right expression, and it suddenly spoke with an awkward smile. “Splendid. My early experiment is as strong as a Captain. Or am I wrong? Please do tell me… Squad Captain Veronika Bertsith, known as Withering Flower.” and the grin grew uncomfortably larger.