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Sekhmet clenched his jaw.
"You are an idiot," he muttered.
Bat Bat hovered back, unbothered.
"Yes!"
Sekhmet had no time to argue with a bat.
More raiders fell.
Sekhmet moved through them like a blade sliding between ribs, using Blood Control to disrupt their balance, using Blood Sword to finish fast, using the minion bats to harass and distract.
The ten minions swarmed at eyes and ears, biting and squeaking, making the raiders swing wildly.
Flapflapflap!
"Get off!" a raider screamed.
Another fell to an escort's blade.
Clang! Shhk!
Within minutes, the basin changed.
Bodies piled.
Blood soaked stone.
The remaining raiders backed away, snarling, regrouping toward their leader.
Sekhmet's eyes tracked the leader.
The eight-thousand beast had been watching.
Still calm.
Still cruel.
Then it lifted its cleaver and finally stepped in.
Thud… Thud…
Its aura pressed outward, making the air feel heavier, making the smaller raiders straighten as if their spine was being forced to obey.
It roared.
RAAAAAH!
The roar was not just sound. It was chaos energy shaped into intimidation. The escorts flinched slightly. Lily's guards tightened their grip on weapons, but their breathing changed, the way it did when you knew the real fight had begun.
Sekhmet felt his own body respond too.
Not fear.
Focus.
He stepped forward, placing himself between the leader and Lily's formation.
Lily's eyes flicked to him again, a silent question.
Sekhmet gave her a small, tight nod.
Later.
The leader's voice came out like stone grinding.
"Human," it snarled. "You ruined the hunt."
Sekhmet's voice stayed flat.
"You started it," he said.
The leader's lips peeled back, showing thick teeth.
"You smell… strange," it said slowly, sniffing. "Like blood that is not one but many."
Sekhmet's eyes narrowed.
He did not respond.
The leader swung the cleaver without warning, the weapon cutting air with a howl.
WHOOM!
Sekhmet moved.
His nightmare boots took him sideways, fast and controlled. The cleaver smashed into stone where his head had been.
BOOM!
Rock cracked. Dust exploded.
Sekhmet felt the shockwave hit his ribs.
The leader was strong.
Very strong.
Sekhmet closed his grip on Blood Sword.
The leader swung again, faster, trying to catch Sekhmet's movement.
WHOOM—!
Sekhmet blocked this time, blood sword meeting cleaver.
CLANG!
The impact was like being hit by a wall. Sekhmet's arm went numb for a heartbeat. His feet slid back, boots scraping stone.
Scrrrk!
Lily's escorts shouted something behind him, but Sekhmet did not listen. His attention narrowed to the leader and nothing else.
Sekhmet's mind flickered a cold thought.
"If my real battle power is below this, I will die."
He forced the thought away.
He did not die.
He adapted.
Sekhmet used Blood Control, pulling blood from the corpses around them, lifting it into the air like a swarm of red needles.
Shhhh…
The leader's eyes narrowed at the moving blood.
Sekhmet flung the needles forward.
Whoosh!
The leader swung its cleaver in a wide arc.
WHOOM!
The cleaver's chaos energy shattered many of the blood needles into mist.
Pffft!
But not all.
A few pierced the leader's shoulder, sticking like thorns.
Shhk! Shhk!
The leader snarled, not in pain, but irritation.
It charged.
Thud! Thud!
Sekhmet met it head-on.
He stepped into the charge, blade moving, body turning, using the leader's momentum against it. He cut the leader's thigh.
Shhk!
The leader's blood spilled.
For a heartbeat, Sekhmet's throat tightened.
The thirst stirred.
He ignored it.
The leader backhanded Sekhmet with the cleaver handle.
THUD!
Sekhmet flew back, slammed into a stone pillar, and pain flashed through his ribs like lightning.
Crack—!
He coughed, forcing air back into his lungs.
He heard Lily shout his name—half a sound, half a memory.
"Sekh—!"
Sekhmet raised a hand, signaling her to stay back.
He pushed off the pillar and rolled as the cleaver came down.
BOOM!
Stone shattered where he had been.
Dust rose.
Sekhmet's eyes narrowed through the dust, and he moved low, cutting at the leader's ankles, forcing it to shift its stance.
Shhk!
The leader roared, turning, trying to catch him, but Sekhmet stayed in its blind spots, moving like water around a rock.
Bat Bat swooped in again, hovering above the leader's head.
Sekhmet snapped, "No."
Bat Bat whispered back, "Yes."
Prrrrt. Prrrrt.
Plip… Plip…
The leader's face twisted as bat pee hit its brow.
For one stunned heartbeat, the leader's eyes widened in disbelief.
"What."
Bat Bat laughed.
"Heh!"
Sekhmet used the opening.
He surged forward, blood sword glowing deeper, and drove it straight into the leader's abdomen.
SHHK!
The leader's body jerked. Its cleaver dropped slightly.
Sekhmet twisted the blade and yanked it out, then used Blood Control to rip the leader's own blood outward, disrupting its balance from the inside.
Shhhh—!
The leader staggered.
It roared and swung wildly, but its movement slowed a fraction, just enough.
Sekhmet did not waste that fraction.
He stepped in close, grabbed the leader's wrist, and slammed his elbow into the leader's throat.
THUD!
Then he cut upward with Blood Sword, slicing through the leader's neck.
SHHK!
The leader's roar died into a choking gurgle.
It dropped to its knees, hands reaching for its throat.
Sekhmet watched it fall.
Thud!
Silence spread through the basin like a blanket being dragged across fire.
The remaining raiders froze.
Their leader was dead.
Fear replaced hunger.
They turned and ran, stumbling over their own dead, disappearing into the rocks.
Tap… Tap… Tap…
Sekhmet stood still, breathing hard, blood sword trembling slightly in his hand.
His body hurt.
His ribs screamed.
His arm felt heavy.
But he was alive.
And the leader was dead.
Lily stared at Sekhmet, eyes wide, breathing fast, blade still held tight.
The moment the leader fell, her expression shifted again. The warrior mask cracked, and a different Lily peeked through — one who recognized him fully now, one whose memories had slammed into the present with the same force he had.
"Sekhmet," she said, voice soft but shocked.
Sekhmet looked at her, then forced his own voice steady.