The first thrall tripped and fell onto the landing where Elliot stood. It stood up, bent sideways, eyes directly pointed below at Gale.

  "Leave, young one," the knight's head jerked between him and Elliot.

  More thralls dropped onto the stair's landing. Cracks began to form under the immense weight of the flood. Bones snapped as more and more ghouls fell on top of one another. The intervals of the corruption's pulse grew faster by the second, and the essence signatures that patched the area lost ground.

  "No one leaves!" Elliot shouted, almost certainly between half a laugh and half a dying man's breath. "Her Majesty's properties will be taken back!"

  The knight hoisted his sword up to his shoulder as the essence signatures around him swirled into his heart. "The madness comes, little lamb. You must… fight? Yes. Fight. Do not desert your duties. Rid this land of the vile tide!"

  Gale stood in the middle of it all, one foot on the tile ready to kick it at any time. Not that it would do any good. The knight slowly going insane, would definitely block him. On the other side, a zealot of a false deity was spouting nonsense with a literal tide of thralls and ghouls behind him.

  "Die!!" Elliot screamed. "Kill the brat first!"

  One snap of a finger from the madman was all it took for the ghouls to break free like a dam flooding the whole front hall. Cracks webbed along the hall's marble from the weight.

  All hell broke loose. The fight started. A wave of flesh.

  The knight stepped forward casually to just where Gale was right beside him. A chuckle formed from the bottom of the knight's throat that grew to a manic full throat laugh.

  Gale slammed his foot against the floor. First trap triggered. Beneath the tide of flesh, the marble crumbled into a pitfall. Stones shaped as sharp stakes jutted upwards. Tens of dozens of the followers crumbled into the dark of the pitfall.

  The knight's sword swung at Gale. His head already ducked. Inky darkness trailed from its path. The same darkness leaked from the armour joints of the knight. Another overhead swing came at him from above.

  Gale rolled away from the strike, his hand landing on the wall beside him. Phase Touch applied to the wall caved in the ceiling atop him. Chunks of stone fell on to where the knight was, forcing it to step back. Darkness around the knight swayed. At one time, the leaking smoke poured out heavily. At another, the darkness went inwards as if being sucked back in.

  "Her Majesty demands blood!" Elliot screamed.

  The flood of thralls died at the caved in rubble that fell. When the rubble mostly stopped falling, the knight charged through, targeting the horde of thralls. One swing cleaved dozens, sending half corpses through the air.

  Gale sprinted for the right corridor. Behind him, the knight's sword met the thrall's flesh with wet splatter. It tried to lunge at him, blocked by a thick curtain of flesh.

  Elliot's laughter mixed with the howls of the thralls.

  "Running, young lamb?" the knight hissed. "The eyes see everything! Do not desert!"

  Several thralls cut off Gale's escape. He dropped to a slide. Sword stanced to a slice. He passed and sliced through the legs. The thralls toppled over, no longer mobile as they clawed and crawled in the direction of the right corridor.

  The narrow corridor was just ahead.

  Perfect.

  Gale phased through the wall, releasing the tension in his carefully prepared chambers. The ceiling groaned.

  The first section collapsed behind him, crushing more thralls. The knight's blade punched through the falling stone like paper, but the debris slowed its advance.

  "Coward!" Blue fire exploded around Elliot, deflecting all the stones dropping onto him. "Face Her Majesty's judgment!"

  The knight's armour scraped against stone as it continued its pursuit. It changed direction, jumping onto a clump of thralls, crushing everything and wildly swinging its sword at anything that dared move. Its helmet once again swayed towards Gale's direction.

  He had already reached his second trap point. More thralls flooded the corridor. Phase Touch flowed into the wall, phasing out of the material and revealing the chambers. Thralls reached that spot. Tens of stone arrows shot horizontally, piercing both the windows of the castle and skewering any thrall that went in its path.

  More thralls came. Of course. Gale kicked a piece of floorboard, activating the next set of mechanics. The ceiling came down in sections, each falling like a domino and releasing boulders the size of their own heads.

  Dead thralls turned into ghouls. Pursuit continued. But the mechanism wasn't done. The open chamber at the ceiling now revealed the stone arrows pointing downwards.

  Gale slammed the floorboard against the wall. It was the trigger. Kinetic energy stored up in the crafted wooden slats released. Tens of stone arrows rained down. All the ghouls in the corridor were pinned to flesh that covered the entire floor.

  "You think petty tricks will save you?!" Elliot shouted and pointed at him. "After him you useless idiots!"

  More of the thralls seemed to have turned into ghouls, and now the ghouls had flooded the corridor.

  Gale took the right corridor inwards. It was a circle that would lead back to the entrance hall as another entry point. In that hall was the masterpiece that he made in little time. Elliot wasn't in the right place to trigger it at the beginning.

  The knight barreled down the corridor like a train. Any ghoul that got in his way splattered against its armour.

  "The eyes! The eyes! The eyes!" The knight's sword slashed upwards, scattering both flesh and debris.

  Around Elliot, corruption thickened as he raised his hands. The blue flames in his eyes pulsed once. Thralls and ghouls alike moved in unison, falling back to the main hall.

  Too late. Gale was already at the centre of the hall.

  Time slowed. Wait for it…

  The knight burst through the wall. Along with him, a flood of ghouls and thralls. Elliot came next from the right corridor's entrance. Hundreds of ghouls jumped at him. Mouth open. Claws outs.

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  Gale slammed both hands against a specific square outline on the floor. A wave of cracks rippled along the floor, originating from where he had slammed. Walls bulged and cracked.

  The floor rippled like water. The walls bulged and cracked. The carefully prepared tension points released all at once, turning the hall's far end into a meat grinder of spinning stone on a ledge.

  Thralls screamed as sections of floor disappeared beneath them. The meat grinder didn't give them a chance to turn into ghouls. Others were crushed by falling debris or thrown by sudden buckling stone.

  It was a sight to behold. The wonders of combining traditional survival and his improv with his new skills.

  The knight charged through it all, not caring a single thing. The spinning stone nor the falling stone didn't even dent his armour. His sword hacked at targets that were already dead.

  "No!" Elliot shrieked. "Her Majesty's castle! You dare defile it!"

  The corruption fought against the essence signature as the castle shook. Blue light pulsed from Elliot's eyes. A new set of howls and screams came from above the stairs.

  Fucking hell. This whole skyscraper of a castle was a literal dumping ground of bodies and thralls.

  Gale sprinted along the left path through the chaos. The knight's blade whistled past his ear, then turned to slash through several thralls that turned into ghouls mid air.

  "HAHAHAHA!" The knight's voice cracked. "Do NOT run, young lamb! Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!"

  Corruption thickened around the corridor, making it hard to see. Essence signatures fought against the thickening miasma.

  The castle groaned. The floorboards shook with each step Gale took while he sprinted along the left corridor. This demolition plan might've been too effective for the worst.

  The knight's blade cut through the air. Ghouls flew, sticking them like bugs onto the 4 story high ceiling. Each step he took, put another thrall into the ground or a ghoul plastered into a surface.

  Elliot raised his hands. A blue fire pulsed from his palm. Looking at the blue fire stabbed at Gale's retina and into his left temple.

  "Her Majesty's power flows through me!"

  The knight spun, his sword trailing inky darkness as it cleaved through more ghouls.

  More thralls replenished the diminishing amount of ghouls. Flesh poured down the stairs, but the knight's giant figure lunged through them like a train and directly to where the madman stood.

  Elliot snarled. Blue fire crackled between his fingers, meeting the knight's blade as it swung toward him. The clash sent sparks flying.

  "You dare challenge Her Majesty's chosen?" Elliot shouted. The smokey miasma surged around him. Waves of miasma were sent towards the knight.

  The knight answered with manic slashes at everywhere that whiffed off the miasma. A swing connected to where Elliot's neck would be. Blue sparks illuminated the area as it was blocked by blue fire.

  Gale stopped, watching the ghouls flood the left corridor. Some of the traps at the left corridor entrance didn't trigger. Looking at it quickly, they had already been triggered before. Don't know when, but fuck it.

  Without warning, the knight wheeled away from Elliot, his helmet snapping toward Gale.

  Breath of the Void told him to run, and so he did. Suddenly, the walls burst open. The knight lunged straight at him even through the walls. Blade came down as a blur, forcing Gale to roll sideways, barely missing him. Stone chips flew at his face where the sword struck.

  From the hole that the knight had made on the wall, Elliot shouted, "Her Majesty will have both your heads!"

  The knight pressed his attack on Gale. The sword no longer resembled any of the grace he showed in the ship. Each swing aimed at random body parts. Wind passed by his hair where the sword had struck.

  More thralls reached the bottom of the stairs, forming a direct beeline to the left corridor using the hole in the wall.

  The knight spun away from Gale as suddenly as he'd attacked, his sword finding more thralls before anyone could blink. Their bodies fell in pieces, adding more flesh to the floor.

  Elliot's power surged, meeting the knight's blade again. Blue fire crackled against metal, neither yielding. The thralls closed in.

  Without warning, the knight jumped straight at the densest group of thralls. His body sent several thralls flying. However, the real target was the wall behind them.

  The wall cracked, then shattered. Chunks of masonry flew outward, crushing thralls and creating new paths through the castle. Dust and debris filled the air as more of the wall collapsed.

  While rubble fell, the knight continued its onslaught, cleaving more ghouls in half.

  Gale kept moving, using the destruction as cover. The knight's actions had changed the battlefield completely. What plan? There was no longer a plan the moment the knight came in.

  "Her Majesty's judgment comes for you!" Elliot thrust his hands forward. Blue fire erupted from his palms, crackling through the air like lightning.

  Gale rolled sideways, feeling the heat sear past. The fire struck the wall behind him. He sprang up. More thralls stumbled through the wreckage.

  "You cannot escape!" Elliot's voice rose above the chaos. Another wave of blue fire split the air.

  Sword held up against the blue fire, mostly blocking it but singeing the edges of his clothes. Surprisingly, the blade didn't get hot. After the wave of blue fire ended, Gale slammed his fist onto the pillar beside him.

  The knight had rushed him, but not before the ceiling came crashing down on him. This wasn't any normal one. The corruption had weakened the foundation, and even larger pieces of stone came falling down right on top of the knight.

  Onto the next trap. A thrall blocked his way. A clean slice to the neck toppled it over.

  Elliot directed his followers with sweeping motions of his hands. "Tear him apart! Her Majesty demands sacrifice!"

  The knight burst out from the large debris, miasma leaking like a waterfall from the joints of its armour. It swung at Elliot, and a shower of blue sparks staggered both of them away from each other.

  An opening.

  Gale took it. He sprinted toward his final trap, sword slashing through any thrall that got close. The floor beneath his feet had been prepared hours ago, weakened by careful application of Phase Touch.

  The knight's visor turned on him with a snap. Its sword dug into to the wall, swinging and sending debris flying through the air towards Gale.

  "Coward!" Elliot's fire followed Gale's path, scorching the walls. "Give your life up for Her Majesty's sustenance!"

  Gale reached the centre of his trap. Thralls surrounded him.

  The knight advanced from one side, Elliot from the other. He was caught in the middle.

  "Now!" Elliot commanded. Blue fire erupted from both hands.

  The knight lunged, his giant blade whistling through the air.

  Gale dropped and slammed both palms against the floor. Phase Touch spread through the stone, releasing all the tension he'd built into the structure.

  The floor buckled. Stone cracked and split. The carefully weakened sections gave way. A chain reaction spread outward.

  Thralls fell screaming into the darkness below. The knight's charge was interrupted as the ground collapsed beneath its feet. Elliot's fire went wide as his platform tilted and broke apart.

  The destruction spread. Support pillars already damaged by the knight's rampage crumbled from the loosened foundation. The entire first floor collapsed, taking walls and ceiling with it.

  Gale was already moving. He sprinted through the chaos, sword clearing his path. The windowed walls. He phased his whole body, allowing him to pass through the wall. Quickly turning around, he jumped upwards, managing to get his hands onto a gryphon statue.

  Blue fire scorched the wall beside him. Elliot's voice carried over the sound of falling stone: "You cannot escape Her Majesty's reach!"

  The knight's blade punched through the debris he was buried in.

  Gale climbed higher, jumping from one gryphon statue to another higher up. Below, the whole castle crumbled into a collapse, swallowing the ghouls and thralls with it.

  Breath of the Void fed him information. There were more, much more thralls that were above the 1st floor. Hordes and hordes.

  There was no time to think.

  Another blue fire crackled beside him. It was interrupted by the knight's swing at Elliot.

  Gale held onto the gryphon statue as he glanced over his shoulder. He didn't expect Elliot to be able to hold his ground against the knight. The madman was even weakened. None of this was fair.

  Had Gale been alone, who knows what would’ve happened. He couldn't have won. Especially not against the tide of thralls. The amount in the meadows couldn't even compare.

  Miasma suddenly started enveloping Elliot.

  "Pest! Give back the amulets!" Elliot shouted, glaring at Gale from below. "Her Majesty's gifts!"