The beam hit the captain directly in his face.
Arrows were let loose at Dell.
They simply glanced off. What could an Awakened arrow do to an Ascended's body?
Dell let the captain fall to the ground, and began to materialize a memory he had stored shortly before. One of his most useful abilities—the power to preserve and recall what he had claimed.
He turned to face the archers on the parapets raining arrow after arrow on him, yellow sparks swirling around his hand as the memory took shape.
Some arrows spun off his shoulders, shooting into the buildings.
Some bounced off his chest, embedding themselves into the ground.
With each shot, another part of the courtyard was destroyed, the force of the awakened arrows wreaking heavy damage to their own stronghold.
Just as the awakened foot soldiers were about to reach Dell, the crystal ball finally materialized in his hand.
"I was telling the truth. Would you like to see for yourself?"
The insides of the crystal ball summoned a great shadow from above.
The sun was blotted out above the Song outpost. The awakened momentarily stopped their ruthless assault on the intruder to witness the cause above them.
A darkness enveloped the world as a gargantuan nightmare creature fell from above.
As Dell looked up to witness his handiwork, he grinned.
The mangled corpse of the Drowned Leviathan had been worth saving for later.
As the beast plummeted down, the outpost growing darker and darker by the second, the proud Song warriors did something unexpected.
They looked at the corpse, then looked at Dell, then looked at the keep where their captain's office had been. Their eyes widened with dawning horror as they realized what was about to happen.
They began to run.
But they were too late.
Before they could hope to reach the keep and perhaps find a sliver of security against the makeshift meteor, the nightmare creature crashed into the ground. Its humongous body slowly crushed the walls, the barracks, and even the keep of the outpost.
Dell appreciated the chaos his dead adversary had caused.
Several awakened—perhaps even half—had been crushed by the mangled corpse. Their bodies had disappeared under the giant beast, their final screams cut short by tons of falling flesh.
The creature's hammer head had landed in the courtyard, facing Dell. Its eyes were hollow and an exit wound sat atop its skull, where Dell had cut his way out of it.
The creature's blood began to seep, staining the outpost's already damaged interior with a light blue paint.
As the dust settled and the light of the sun re-entered the scene, several stunned awakened began to rise from the ruins.
One crawled over the body of the hammerhead snake. One emerged from the remnants of the parapets, bloodied but alive. Even one clawed his way out from the keep's rubble.
Survivors. Of course.
As more began to rise, Dell felt a familiar thrill. The crown rotated, revealing a green gemstone.
His hands hardened, transforming into blades of bone and sinew.
The Song soldiers, despite witnessing the impossible, roared their defiance and charged.
Brave. Stupid, but brave.
The first had some sort of physical enhancement Aspect, allowing him to traverse ground at rapid speed. His eyes burned with fury and desperation.
He thrust his sword at Dell, aiming to deliver a finishing strike in one blow.
Dell's head slipped to the side, avoiding the thrust. His hardened right hand shot forward, punching straight through the warrior's chest.
It pierced through his back, yet the warrior still resisted, glaring at Dell with undiminished fury. Blood frothed from his lips as he raised his sword for a final swing.
Dell lifted the impaled man into the air with one arm. The awakened still struggled, his sword raised above him in defiant desperation.
Dell, having secured his memory to the back of his belt, used his free hand to slice cleanly through the man's waist.
The warrior's eyes went blank instantly as his torso separated from his legs. Intestines and organs spilled across Dell's boots in a grotesque cascade.
Dell gripped the upper body by its head and hurled it as hard as he could at the next soldier approaching.
The second warrior's sword blazed with brilliant white light, easily cleaving through the projectile corpse. Pieces of his former comrade scattered around him, but his stance remained firm and resolute.
Several other awakened gathered around the swordsman, preparing for what they knew would be their final assault.
At least they know they're going to die.
"Warriors of Song! For our Queen Mother!" the swordsman bellowed.
The soldiers roared and rushed Dell in a coordinated charge.
Dell's crown rotated, and a turquoise beam erupted from his mouth.
The bright-sword warrior deflected most of the blast with his luminous blade, but his companion to the side collapsed instantly, his soul torn apart by the monstrous soul damage.
Dell was beginning to enjoy himself too much. As another awakened flanked his right, Dell's crown spun lazily—almost carelessly.
The heavy axe struck the ground, having barely missed Dell's shoulder.
Dell threw his right hand at the axeman, who blocked desperately with his weapon. But the man didn't expect Dell's hardened appendage to shatter his axe blade completely and pierce through his open mouth.
Dell gripped both sides of the man's jaw and tore them apart with casual brutality.
The axeman's whimpers were cut short as Dell raised his bladed hand once more. With surgical precision, he drew a line from the top of the man's skull to his crotch, splitting him cleanly in half.
Organs and gore painted the courtyard in expanding pools of crimson.
In the background, one of the corpses began to stir.
Interesting.
The swordsman was next. Dell opened his mouth, preparing another soul beam. The swordsman braced himself, sword raised defensively.
It was a feint.
Dell threw his left hand forward instead, but the swordsman was faster than Dell had anticipated—and more clever.
He redirected his blazing sword not at Dell's attacking hand, but at Dell's midsection, while simultaneously triggering his Aspect.
Dell's world exploded in blinding white light.
The flash stunned Dell's eyes, leaving him effectively blind in the middle of combat.
Clever bastard.
For the first time since the fight began, Dell felt the cold touch of actual danger.