"These will serve as your opponents. You are to control your skeletons and engage. Should you lose command…" Fenric let the silence hang. The air seemed to shiver. "Then you will defend yourselves with your own flesh."
Laxin paled. "Wait—you mean they'll actually try to kill us?"
"Of course," Fenric replied, voice flat. "What worth is a soldier who cannot kill?"
Aria's lips curved into a grin. "Finally. Something worth testing."
Fenric's eyes flicked toward her. "Then prove it."
He raised his hand, and the two enemy skeletons lunged forward with sudden ferocity. Aria's mana surged instantly, her own pair rising in mirror to intercept. Bones clashed, steel rang, sparks danced. Her constructs stumbled at first, but under her sharp corrections, they recovered, forming a clumsy shield wall that caught the enemy's blades.
