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My lips peel back from my teeth as hellfire burns hotter in my throat.

The nearest one moves first. It goes from completely still to fucking flying at me, dead limbs snapping into motion as it launches across the last few feet.

And every corpse on the hillside comes with it.

My shoulder caves through the first one’s chest with a wet crack, its ribs collapsing beneath my weight as we hit the ground together. Black sludge sprays across my muzzle. The stink of rot floods my nose while the thing keeps clawing at me despite half its fucking chest hanging open.

I clamp my jaws around its neck. One hard wrench and the head tears free. I spit it into the dirt and surge back onto all fours as the hillside erupts around me.

Raze catches one by the throat before it reaches him, ice spreading from his hand so fast the corpse barely gets its claws up before its entire body freezes solid. He hurls it sideways into another, and both shatter against a tree, frozen chunks of flesh and bone spraying across the dirt.

Roxy is right there with him. One of the dead breaks away from the pack and lunges for her, but she doesn’t reach for a weapon. Her hand snaps up, and magic hits the corpse mid-stride. Its body jerks to a stop so violently its feet leave the ground, limbs locking as Roxy curls her fingers into a fist. The thing hangs there for half a second, twitching against whatever invisible grip she has wrapped around it.

Roxy twists her wrist, and the corpse folds backward with a sickening series of cracks. She flicks her hand toward the trees and sends it flying hard enough to splinter against a trunk.

Another one comes straight over the top of it. Roxy’s eyes flash as power gathers around her fingers, and this time she doesn’t bother stopping the bastard first. A blast of magic catches it square in the chest and throws it twenty feet down the hill, taking two more bodies with it.

Raze glances her way with a great big smirk on his face.

“Eyes front, dragon,” she snaps.

His grin is fucking feral.

Scar is harder to track. Shadow swallows him between one corpse and the next, leaving bodies dropping behind him with throats torn open or heads hanging at angles even the dead shouldn’t survive.

Cali moves through the mess beside him like she was fucking born for it. A corpse grabs for her hair. She traps its wrist, twists until bone punches through rotten skin, then uses the broken arm to drag the thing straight onto the stake in her other hand. Another comes at her before she can pull it free.

Echo’s voice cuts across the hillside—one sharp note. The corpse jerks sideways so violently its neck cracks, giving Cali the second she needs to wrench her stake free and bury it through the thing’s temple.

Cali looks across at Echo. “Nice.”

“Been watching you.”

“That’s mildly concerning.”

Echo turns, her silver hair whipping around her as another dead bastard charges. Her mouth opens, and this time the note that comes out hits hard enough that I feel it through all four paws.

The corpse stops.

Its entire body shudders.

Then it flies backward and takes two more with it.

Fuck, she’s beautiful.

A burst of gold tears across my vision as Sentinel drops from above, wings spread wide, while Holy Light punches through three bodies at once. Rotting flesh burns away beneath it, leaving them smoking when they hit the ground.

Wreck has apparently decided weapons are optional. He grabs one of the fuckers by what’s left of its hair and drives its face into a rock hard enough to leave most of it there.

“Still fucking hate this!” Ruckus yells somewhere to my right.

I catch a flash of him ducking beneath a dead arm before his luck kicks in at exactly the right second. The corpse’s foot catches on a root, pitching it forward as Ruckus swings. His blade takes its head clean off.

“Never mind. Getting better!”

Fucking Ruckus.

Something lands on my back. Claws rake through my fur before I buck hard, throwing the corpse over my shoulder. It hits the ground in front of me, and I bring one massive paw down on its skull… crunch.