The Manticore let out a low growl and retreated without turning away, the tide of undead parting to let her blend into the crowd. The soldiers, even in death, surrounded her in a pulsating wall of flesh. Their glassy eyes glowed with zombified loyalty, their distorted limbs forming a grotesque barricade.
At the same time, the horde of mutated soldiers gathered, some fusing together with the sound of snapping bones. Torsos intertwined, screaming mouths grafted onto shoulders, creating chimeras with five arms and three heads. Their cries were anything but human—a chorus of gurgles and screeches straight from hell.
Alpha sneered, but her smile froze when one of the chimeras lunged. Its shapeless mass crushed the ground where she had stood just a second earlier.
"Beriel! The scraps!"
