The armies erupted from the treelines on both sides of the plateau with terrifying synchronicity. It was a calculated slaughter; Corvus hadn't just been waiting, he had been baiting them, holding his forces back until the geography of the plateau turned the defenders into a cornered, immobile target.
Lucian watched the movement, his mind a cold engine of tactical analysis. He filed away the timing, the positioning, and the sheer malice of the deployment.
To defeat a monster, one had to think with the same ruthless efficiency as the monster itself.
The vanguard was a nightmare of two hundred corrupted warriors, their armor etched with glowing purple seals that pulsed like a fever in the dimming light. Above them, the sky groaned as thirty chimeras wheeled in a loose, predatory formation, preparing for a coordinated, bone-shattering dive bomb run.
