Chapter 7 Hunters Among Corpses

Darius crouched low behind a pile of tangled bodies as the sound of marching boots grew louder. The blood-red System message still lingered in his mind, but he pushed it aside for now. Survival came first.

“Rhen,” he whispered, voice barely carrying. “Stay silent. No talking. We’re too weak for a straight fight. We do this smart.”

Rhen nodded once, green eyes glowing faintly in the darkness. He dropped into a crouch beside his commander, waiting for orders.

A full recovery squad of twelve men entered the battlefield. Their torches lit up the night as they moved among the corpses, stripping weapons, armor, and anything valuable. Two men carried oil flasks, clearly preparing to burn the dead.

“Make it quick,” their sergeant barked. “Lord Merrick wants this mess cleaned before sunrise. Strip the officers first. Burn everything else.”

Darius watched them closely from the shadows. His body still felt unstable, power flickering after the earlier fight. Open combat would get them overwhelmed fast. He needed to use the terrain. The dead were his greatest weapon now.

He signaled Rhen with a silent gesture toward the left flank, then pointed at a cluster of bodies near a small depression in the ground. Rhen understood immediately and slipped away without a sound, moving like a shadow among the corpses.

Darius waited until three soldiers moved close to his position. He reached out and placed his hand on the chest of a fallen kingdom soldier lying nearby.

[Raise minor thrall? Cost: Low.]

Not yet. Too soon.

Instead, he quietly shifted several bodies to create a narrow channel between two large piles of corpses. A trap. When the soldiers stepped into it, they would have nowhere to run.

“Over here,” one soldier called. “Found a captain’s insignia. Looks valuable.”

Two others joined him, bending down to loot the body. Darius waited until they were deep in the channel he had prepared.

“Now,” he whispered.

Rhen rose silently behind them and slammed a heavy rock into the back of the nearest man’s head. The soldier dropped without a sound. Darius lunged from the front, clamping his hand over the second man’s mouth and driving a broken sword shard into his throat. The third tried to scream, but Rhen was already on him, choking the life out of him with cold, relentless hands.

Three down. Nine left.

The squad continued their work, unaware at first. Darius and Rhen moved like ghosts through the corpse field, using the dead as cover. Darius directed Rhen with hand signals only, a point here, a cut there. He was learning to fight differently. No more honorable charges. No more loud commands. Only silence and calculated death.

He spotted two soldiers near a pile of bodies close to a muddy ditch. Darius crept forward and deliberately loosened a stack of corpses so they would collapse when disturbed. As the men stepped closer, he gave the signal.

The pile shifted and fell with a heavy thud, pinning one soldier’s legs. He cried out in surprise. Before his companion could help, Darius was on him, dragging him down into the mud and snapping his neck with a brutal twist. Rhen finished the pinned man with a knife taken from one of the earlier kills.

“Something’s wrong,” the sergeant muttered from the center of the squad. “Where are Thom and Garrick? They should have reported back by now.”

The men grew more cautious, clustering closer together and raising their torches higher. Darius cursed silently. They were adapting too quickly.

He motioned Rhen toward the right side while he circled around the left. Using the natural dips and piles of bodies, Darius created another choke point by dragging a few corpses into position. When four soldiers moved into the narrow passage, he struck.

Rhen attacked from behind, silent and deadly, while Darius came from the front. They worked in perfect coordination. One soldier managed to draw his sword and slash at Darius, cutting across his shoulder. The wound didn’t bleed, but the sting reminded him how fragile his new form still was.

Darius grabbed the man’s arm and pulled him close. “You buried me,” he hissed quietly. “Now I bury you.”

He drove his fingers into the man’s throat and tore it open. The others fell quickly to Rhen’s ruthless efficiency.

The sergeant and three remaining men finally realized the danger. “Ambush!” the sergeant shouted. “Fall back! It’s the dead! The dead are…”

Darius and Rhen closed in fast. Rhen took down one man with a brutal tackle while Darius engaged the sergeant directly. The man fought well, landing a solid cut across Darius’s chest, but Darius was stronger now. He disarmed the sergeant and slammed him against a pile of bodies.

“Where is Lord Merrick?” Darius demanded in a low voice. “Who ordered my wife taken?”

The sergeant spat blood. “You’re supposed to be dead, monster.”

Darius snapped his neck without another word.

Only two men remained. One tried to run. Rhen caught him and dragged him back. The last soldier, a young archer, broke free and sprinted toward the horses tied at the edge of the battlefield.

Darius raised his hand. “Stop him, Rhen.”

Rhen pursued, but the archer was faster on open ground. He reached a horse, leaped into the saddle, and kicked the animal into a gallop.

As the final soldier near Darius died under his hands, fresh power flooded into him from the System.

[Souls harvested. Power increased.]

But it wasn’t enough.

The rider escaped into the night, voice screaming at the top of his lungs as he rode away.

“The dead commander lives! The Hollow King has risen! Sound the alarm!”

Darius stood among the fresh dead, green eyes burning brighter with new strength, but the sound of hooves fading into the distance sent a cold wave through him.

They knew now.