Ryu's steps didn't pause. In fact, the arcs of lightning around him only became more violent.

His grimoire appeared about his head, guiding the lightning elemental energies that threatened to rampage in every which direction on their own.

"Come!"

The calm cadence of Matheus' voice hung in the air. There was only the slightest breadth of silence before his corpse puppets burst into action, their armor clinking and the ground quaking.

Ryu brandished his Great Swordstaff. Sparks flew along the ground as he swung it in a wide circle, leaving a deep gash in the stone as the blade arched from low to high.

A familiar armored armadillo found itself getting blasted backward, a char caused by strong pulsing lightning splitting its lower jaw apart.

The rest of Matheus' corpse puppets split into four streams, pouncing toward Ryu's Lower Skeleton Warriors under the lead of the former's two Lower Skeleton Wolves.

A silver armored bear rose to its hind feet, standing to almost four meters tall in an instant. The shadow it cast seemed to envelop Ryu completely, seeking to crush him into a pile of minced meat.

...