"Flank it," Didi called with her hand already swinging out toward the pit, "nobody stands in front of that thing."
Gazel put his feet into the ground and threw himself forward, so the sword came around in a heavy arc that landed on the obsidian shoulder with a clang.
The shock of it ran up his arm until his teeth met, though when he dragged the blade back off the shoulder there was not a scratch anywhere on the scales he had hit.
'Not one mark,' Didi thought with her pulse climbing into her throat, 'so how is that even possible?'
She pushed her mana out through the ground, frost racing from her feet in jagged lines that climbed the legs of the thing and locked around them before anything above the knees had noticed the cold at all.
It shifted its weight once, so every restraint under its bulk went to powder.
"Now," she called to the ring of knights, waving them in with the flat of her hand, "all of you, together."
The formation came in as one, swords and spears coming down on the torso in a rhythm that held for about four seconds.
Metal shrieked on stone until the line broke apart on its own, the knights falling back out of range with their arms shaking from the return shock, nothing at all to show for any of it.
Gazel led the last pass with his three Shards flaring beside him, then he put a concentrated strike into the chest where two plates met.
The monster did not move, since curiosity had settled onto its face.
"How cute," the monster said, in a voice that came up through the ground before it reached anybody's ears.
Its head went over to one side while it watched Didi work for air, her three Shards flashing blue with the effort.
"I expected more from the Underworld King's line," it said, the eyes drifting off her as it spoke, "so it seems you have not even awakened the bloodline yet."
"You are playing at being a warrior," it continued, the claws opening once before closing again, "which is a game that wants a warrior in it."
'Awakened the bloodline?' she thought, her hand closing down on the grip until the leather creaked, 'what is it even talking about?'
The grin came back without much behind it now, since the disappointment had taken most of the malice out of it.
Its gaze went over the shaking line of knights, then it came back to her carrying something a good deal worse than hunger.
"My expectations keep going lower," it said, settling its weight back onto the tail, "so at this rate I bring home a stunted house-pet instead of a royal."
Heat came up under Didi's ribs that had nothing to do with mana, so she stepped forward over the broken ice instead of back.
"I do not know what you are talking about," she said, and the shake in her voice did not quite leave it, "but I am not a pet."
"If you say so, little princess," the monster said, laughing until the ground moved under the men still upright.
She shut her eyes and pulled the mana inward into a knot.
No wide blast this time, since she worked the frost down into a single needle that hummed under the pressure she was holding on it.
She lunged with everything her legs had left, so the needle went into the narrow gap between two plates.
Something gave with a wet sound before the needle came apart, then a thin line of purple ran down the chest.
'The thing bled,' she thought, her eyes going wide over the ruin of her own weapon, 'and I am the one who made it bleed.'
"For someone who talks about bloodlines this much," she said, tipping her chin toward the purple stain, "you are not very hard to scratch."
The monster stopped where it stood.
Its whole attention had gone to the streak across its chest.
'How did she,' it wondered, then the eyes went wide, 'she is awakening right now, under my own hands.'
Excitement came up through the creature and took the place the boredom had left, hungry in a way the fight had not been.
If a scratch was possible at three Shards, then a hard enough push might bring the rest of the bloodline out of her in one piece.
The air in the clearing thickened while bloodlust came off the monster in waves that pressed the knights down where they stood, so the man nearest the pit lost his footing before anything had touched him.
Didi never saw the movement, since a run of wet snapping sounds crossed the clearing before she managed to blink.
Every knight around her stopped moving, their heads sliding off their shoulders in one blurred motion while the bodies went down into the ground in a spray of red.
Only Gazel was left, having thrown himself across the strike so his sword took the whole of it, the force driving him knee-deep into the ground.
She stared at the bodies while every coherent thought went out of her.
'What happened here,' she thought, though her voice would not come, 'there was one flash of dark, then all of them were gone.'
Cold got into her legs and stayed there.
Gazel turned his head and found the terror sitting plain on her face, which told him she had gone past whatever she had left.
'Protect the princess no matter what,' he thought, hearing it in the voice the Knight Commander had used ten years ago, 'no matter what, in those exact words.'
He let out a ragged breath and planted his feet while the air around his wrist warped out of shape.
A fourth Shard came together beside the other three with a chime like struck crystal.
Didi staggered back as the pressure hit her, hot water coming up in her eyes before she could stop it, her feet finding nothing solid under them.
'He had this the entire time,' she thought, staring at the fourth Shard turning beside the wrist she had watched for ten years, 'so since when was he this strong?'
"Finally," the monster said, the grin coming back wider than before, "so you decided to stop playing the humble guard."
Gazel shut his eyes and started the prayer under his breath, so low that only the nearest ear would have caught the first line of it.
"By the light of the fallen, carve the path of the righteous," he said, the words coming out steady while the rest of him shook.
The air pulled tight around his armor while the pressure rippled outward.
"Through the blood of the sworn, shield the weak and purge the dark," he continued, the sword coming up level with his shoulder.
"Let steel remember its purpose," he said, with the pressure spiking until cracks opened in the ground under his feet, "and let the spirit break the unbreakable."
"In the name of the oath, I stand," he said, opening his eyes.
The monster flinched as something sharp and unfamiliar crawled over its obsidian skin.
'That feeling,' it thought, and the grin came off its face entirely, 'that spell, could it really be the one I am thinking of?'
'That prayer,' Didi thought while she stared at the rigid back in front of her, 'the King teaches it only inside his own circle, so how does Gazel have every word of it?'
Gazel gave her no time to work it out.
He came off the ground already coiled low, the sword burning gold, then he brought it down in an overhead strike aimed straight at the head.
The monster tipped its head a fraction, so the blade went past it into the ground and threw up a geyser of rock.
'The Sovereign Brand,' the monster thought, its eyes narrowing to slits, 'I have not felt that frequency in centuries.'
His eyes came up lit with a hard gold light, thin lines branching out from them across his face like cracks through porcelain.
'That should not be possible,' the monster thought, watching the lines spread wider, 'the Brand answers to royal blood, so where does a guard find the authority for it?'
Gazel pivoted on his heel and put a spin kick into the side of the head with the whole turn of his body behind it.
The creature got its arms up in time, though the boom of it crossed the clearing while its feet slid back through two fresh furrows.
He settled into a guarded stance with both eyes still burning, weight forward, sword low.
"My job is simple," he said, without moving his eyes off the thing in front of him, "you do not get past me."
The monster rolled its shoulders back into place, then it started laughing in a way that shook loose rock off the walls of the pit.
"Good," it said, stepping over the first of the bodies with something close to manners, "then I only have to go through you."
Didi got her hand back onto the ruined grip behind him, since somebody was going to have to hold the second line.