The chamber opened into a hollowed hall, pillars of cracked stone rising into darkness. Shadows clung to every surface, and the air was heavier here, thick with the scent of rust and old blood. Alpha stepped lightly, sword gripped in both hands, his breath shallow.
The silence was wrong. Too still. Too patient.
Then he heard it—the scrape of steel across stone.
From between the pillars emerged a figure in full armor, blackened with age. The helmet was jagged, like horns broken from some ancient beast, and in its gauntlets it carried a rusted longsword. The knight's eyes glowed with pale fire, steady, deliberate, not the mindless flicker of the shamblers he had fought before.
Alpha froze. His scar seared down his back like molten wire.
The armored knight raised its sword. No rush, no stumble, just a slow, deliberate motion. A duel.
Alpha's throat was dry. His hands trembled on the hilt. "This one… isn't like the others."
The Nameless Knight's voice echoed from behind, low as rolling thunder. "Watch. Count. See its flaw."
The undead knight stepped forward, the weight of its armor shaking the floor. Alpha raised his blade, and the creature struck.
The first swing was wide, heavy, a sweep that nearly tore the air from Alpha's lungs. He dodged back, boots scraping against stone. Sparks flared as the blade struck the floor.
The second came faster, sharper. Alpha barely parried, the impact jolting through his arms. His knees buckled, his body screaming.
He staggered away, chest heaving, eyes darting. 'Flaws… count its flaws''
But there were none. Every strike flowed into the next, heavy but precise. Alpha was being driven back, step by step, until his shoulders hit cold stone.
The knight raised its sword high. Alpha ducked left, rolling across the floor as the blade smashed into the wall, showering shards of stone.
Alpha's pulse hammered in his ears. The creature turned, slow but implacable. Its armor groaned as it advanced, every step measured.
He lunged forward with a desperate strike. His blade glanced off rusted plate, sparks flashing. The knight's gauntlet slammed into him, sending him sprawling. His back hit the ground hard, breath tearing from his chest.
The sword rose again.
''No. Move.'
Alpha rolled, dirt scraping his cheek as the blade crashed where he had lain. He scrambled to his feet, panting, eyes locked on the monster.
Its movements weren't random. They were a cycle. Wide sweep. Overhead strike. Shield bash. Reset.
He saw it now. A rhythm. A pattern.
The Knight's voice echoed: "All things that live, even the dead, fall into rhythm. Break it, and you live. Miss it, and you die."
The undead knight advanced again. Alpha raised his sword, forced himself to breathe. He counted in silence.
One. Sweep.
Two. Overhead.
Three. Bash.
On the fourth, before the cycle could reset, Alpha surged forward. His blade slipped under the knight's arm, piercing the gap in the armor. Bone cracked. The creature staggered, fire sputtering in its eyes.
Alpha didn't hesitate. He twisted the blade, ripped it free, and drove it again through the visor, straight into the skull.
The knight shuddered, then fell, armor collapsing into a heap of dust and rusted metal.
Silence.
Alpha stood gasping, body trembling. His scar crawled again, shifting faintly across his skin as if reacting to the kill.
From the wreckage rolled a Dreamstone, larger than the ones before, glowing deep violet. Alpha bent and picked it up, its warmth seeping into his palm.
Behind him, the Nameless Knight's flame-eyes watched.
"You learn," the hollow voice rumbled. "The Labyrinth is a teacher, crueler than I. But it rewards those who listen."
Alpha clenched the stone in his fist. His arms ached, his ribs screamed, but his eyes burned with something new—fury, sharpened into purpose.
The pattern of death was no longer his enemy. It was his weapon.
And he would use it.