At first, it seemed like the shadows themselves were moving into the fortress alongside the defiled creature, but Leor quickly realized that it wasn't a shadow at all. An inky black corrupted mist was spreading from the creature's own skin, snuffing out the light wherever it walked, like some sort of abyssal demon.
Leor only got a clear look at the fiend when it stepped forward out of the cloud of corruption and into the fortress. His body began to tremble as every instinct screamed for him to run. He'd known the moment he felt the creature's awful fallen Willpower, but now that he laid eyes on it there was no doubt. This was a Twisted one.
What was once the slender body of a dark elf had been warped beyond almost all recognition. Only its telltale elven skin color remained unchanged, a familiar dark grey. Its elven body appeared to have been stretched beyond any natural limits, as if it had spent time upon a torturer's rack. Its eerily thin limbs ended in cruel claws, jutting out from the tips of each of its long fingers. Its once noble elven ears had been enlarged beyond all reason, covering the sides of the creature's head like the ears of a bat. Thick veins throbbed all across the creature's naked body, just underneath the oily grey skin. Finally, two demonic grey wings lingered in the air behind its back.
Leor's mind instinctively triggered Alina's prophetic talent the moment he saw the terribly creature.
This defiled creature has undergone a rare mutation, its very flesh radiating a unique corruption as darkness seeps from its skin. Beware! Such mutations can grant defiled beings strength and abilities far beyond what is typical for their tier. ??? ??? ???
After the first of the mutated defiled monsters stepped forward, more and more piled in behind it. Thankfully, Leor could only spot a single Twisted one that felt as dangerous as the first. There was another Twisted one in the group, but it was not as far along in its mutation as the leader. It shared a similarly elongated body, but without wings and with no dark corruption seeping from its skin.
The rest of the group of defiled looked much closer to common dark elves that had been infected with the mutated defilement, appearing much like Rynn. Their eyes glowed red, their teeth sharpened to points, and thick black claws grew from their fingertips.
Leor held his polearm out before him in a defensive posture as he began to circulate his Will, glancing left and right to search for Drelk. The old dark elf should have been directing the defense against the defiled creatures, but he hadn't spoken a word since the attack began. As he glanced over to his right, Leor finally understood why. Drelk had been struck by the flying body of one of the unfortunate bulls when the gate was first attacked. The old elf was lying in a heap on the cobblestone floor, young Rynn on her knees desperately trying to wake him. Tears filled the pale cheeks of the scared young girl. She had been through so much already, Leor felt a pang of regret at seeing the child getting traumatized once again. But he had no time to linger on that thought.
With no one giving orders, the Beasts were left to rely on their instincts to defend their home. As the line of defiled monsters began to rush into the fortress, a chorus of angry snarls rang out from all around as dozens of Beasts resumed their natural forms.
Bone headed the defense, swelling to enormous size as he rushed forward to take on the powerful mutated Twisted one.
Leor heard the telepathic instructions and quickly rushed to move closer to Alina, his eyes locked on the terrible clash that was about to take place.
The floor trembled as Bone's large knuckles struck against it again and again, the huge ape using his powerful arms to help propel himself forward. Bone moved with a speed that felt unnatural for such a large Beast, his gigantic form rushing toward his enemies like a speeding freight train.
As the two powerful creatures got within striking range, Bone launched himself off the ground, clasping both fists together as he used the force of his entire body to slam them down toward his foe. The strike came down like a blast of thunder, shaking dust from the walls and throwing Beasts off balance as the whole world seemed to quake.
The cloud of inky black corruption was blown in all directions by the great wave of wind that Bone's attack generated, making the area visible once again. Leor wanted to hope that the great Beast had struck a deadly blow, but he knew it wasn't so. The crawling maggot-like defiled Willpower of the monster was still just as strong as ever, attacking Leor's mind as it tried to infect his body.
As Bone lifted his fists away from the spiderweb of cracked and broken cobblestone, a look of confusion filled the mighty ape's face. The mutated Twisted one had vanished entirely. He wasn't kept guessing where the creature had gone for long though, as the very next moment the Twisted monster's body seemed to magically reappear out of the lingering cloud of dark corruption around Bone's body.
Leor's heart dropped into his stomach as he watched the demonic Twisted one reappear directly behind the great ape, moving like a ghostly apparition as it latched onto the broad muscular back of the Highblood Beast.
A roar of pain shook the air as vicious clawed hands and sharp teeth sank into Bone's back, tearing at his thick hide. The mighty ape reacted like a flash of lightning, slamming his massive hand against his back to catch his foe, but the Twisted one scuttled across his body like a demonic spider, biting and clawing without mercy as it dodged his attacks.
At the same time, the line of Beasts collided with the mutated defiled. These battles were much more straightforward, as the mutants did not possess the strange ability to disappear into the mist that their leader did. Claws and fangs collided with sharpened teeth and mutated nails as the Beasts of the fortress did their best to destroy the defiled enemies.
The only major problem was the lesser Twisted one. There was not a Beast besides Bone that could match it, so they were forced to try to slow it down until enough of them could join together to overwhelm it. Leor watched as a few familiar Beasts teamed up to suppress the deadly enemy. The female canine who had been a part of the crew that originally brought him to this fortress, along with the three wolves that Leor had fought beside more than once.
Still, the fight was going far worse than it should have considering the numbers and tiers on each side. The Beasts had the advantage in numbers, but just barely. Two dozen Beasts currently faced off against around twenty mutated defiled, and two Twisted ones. Also, there was no way to ensure that more enemies would not pour into the open entrance at any moment.
The defiled mutants moved with incredible speed, climbing up walls and leaping great distances with ease. They possessed far more power than normal defiled should possess, and Leor suspected that their unusual tendency to only appear during the night was connected to that power. Watching the inky black corruption drift from the leader's body was an important clue, as all corruption had a nature of its own. This mutated corruption was clearly tied closely to the darkness.
As Leor's mind raced to try to understand the enemies better, he saw Alina's skin ripple and fill with a blanket of soft white fur. At the same time, she held her rapier out before her defensively.
Leor glanced over in time to see three of the defiled mutants rushing toward the collapsed body of Drelk and Rynn. With no more time to think, the two humans instinctively ran forward to block the defiled mutants' path.
After sending that message, Alina broke away from him. The courageous young human girl attacked the group of three mutants all on her own, doing her best to draw them toward herself. Her rapier hummed with power as she infused the blade with her light-natured Will, slicing it across the extended hand of one of the mutants as she tried to lure them away.
She managed to pull two of them into attacking her, but the third continued forward, leaving only Leor to face it. The young man clenched his fingers tightly around his weapon as he watched the red-eyed enemy approach.
By now, the inky black corruption from the powerful Twisted one had begun to spread out across the interior of the mountain fortress. The mutant's tenebrous darkness appeared to empower the lesser mutants as it surrounded their bodies, but thankfully that darkness hadn't reached Leor's position yet.
Rather than empower his weapon, Leor sent his Willpower flooding into his mind and body. These mutant defiled moved so swiftly that he feared he would be overwhelmed before he even had the chance to fight back. He needed his reflexes and response time to be as sharp and powerful as he could make them if he wanted to survive this fight.
The mutant rushed toward him with a heavy snarl across its face, its black-clawed hands stretched out before it as it charged. Leor took a deep breath to gather his courage as he dashed forward, swiping the sharp bladed tip of his long weapon toward the creature's outstretched claws.