The first wave hit like a breaking dam.
Thousands of nynthralls compressed into a charging mass created a pressure that preceded their physical arrival by seconds — the collective displacement of air, the ground vibrating under coordinated corrupted footfall and the malice energy radiating from that many bodies moving in the same direction combining into something that felt like weather rather than combat.
Jolthar stood in the path of it and let Horgath read them.
The chaobane energy extended outward from the blade in threads too fine to see but perceptible to anything carrying significant accumulated power — and every nynthrall in the horde carried significant accumulated power, malice being the substance of their existence rather than simply an attribute.
The threads found purchase immediately, mapping fault lines in corrupted structure the way water finds cracks in stone, identifying the specific frequencies at which each creature's coherence was most vulnerable.
