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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2669409" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 475“Jannae!” Eldren exclaimed, darting into jeopardy by leaping behind the zombie, coming up into a roll directly in front of the priestess before the mohrgs could take advantage of her helplessness.  The zombie, already turning, slammed him in the chest, but the ranger almost immediately leapt back to a defensive position over the incapacitated woman, deflecting the probing tentacle from the second mohrg with his sword as he did so. Dannel came to their aid with another flurry of arrows that knifed with keen precision into the mohrgs.  He focused on the one that looked the most damaged, and scored three hits in rapid succession that left it shattered into inanimate fragments.  Without pausing he started in on the last one, hitting it solidly in the back of its skull, sending it forward into Eldren’s sword.  There was a moment of tension as it nipped the ranger’s cheek with its tentacle, but the ranger fought off the paralysis and swept his enchanted blade around in a decisive arc that separated its head from its torso.  But even as the mohrg clattered to the ground, the zombie struck Eldren yet again, clouting him solidly across the shoulders and driving him to the ground.  Lying across Jannae’s motionless form, he struggled to rise, his breath driven from his lungs by the force of the blow.  The zombie’s massive arms came up to finish him, but Dannel again unleashed a punishing barrage, fitting arrows to his string as fast as his magical quiver could produce them.  His first shot went through the zombie, taking a hunk of its form with it, but his later shots vanished into its massive form, sending tendrils of electrical energy out from the points of impact.  For a moment it looked like it would shrug off the incredible punishment it was taking, but then a last arrow slammed directly into the center of its head, and it exploded in a shower of clods, corrupted flesh, and shards of bone.  The thing just stood there for a few seconds, then it toppled backward into an inert heap. Eldren struggled to his feet, drawing a healing potion from one of the pouches at his belt and downing its contents.  Dannel, meanwhile, looked up at the evolving scene of chaos above them.  In just the few moments since they had entered the clearing, the second platform had been overrun.  A few of the defending elves could still be seen at the edges of the platform, held in the grip of mohrgs that tore them to pieces.  Even as he fought the rising gorge in his throat, Dannel saw that the last platform was being swarmed by nearly a dozen other mohrgs, most of which had reached the platform and were already fighting with the defenders to gain access to the top.  Once even one or two made it up there, Dannel knew, it was all over. “Dannel!” Eldren warned.  The arcane archer saw that one of the mohrgs that had been knocked from the middle tree in the last rush had noticed them, and was heading toward them.  “Defend Jannae!” Dannel returned, already lost in the growing intensity of the magical song that tied him together with the bow in his hand and his distant targets.  Time seemed to slow around him as he called upon his quiver, which disgorged the first of a sequence of white-fletched holy arrows at his command.  Eldren watched in amazement as Dannel erupted into a blur of motion, fitting and firing arrows with a speed even he, who’d considered himself a peerless archer, had never before seen.  The ranger was dimly aware of the song of power that his cousin wove around himself as he unleashed a hail of arrows at the mohrgs assaulting the platform.  Even as the first arrow slammed into a mohrg’s skull from behind, a stream of others were on their way.  When the barrage finally stopped, and the elf archer sagged wearily back, his limbs moving again in real time, ten arrows had been fired, and ten direct hits had been scored.  That first mohrg had been destroyed, three others had been knocked free of their perches by the impacts, and six others had suffered damage, the force of the arrows augmented by the electrical damage imparted by Dannel’s bow and the holy energies stored in the blessed arrows.  The few surviving elven defenders were quick to take advantage, using their own bows and spears to target the injured undead, knocking another two from their grips on the bottom of the platform. “Dannel!” Eldren warned again, and he spun to find the damaged mohrg rushing at him.  Calmly he stood his ground, reloading and firing, sending two arrows into the mohrg, which collapsed at his feet.  By the time its skull crashed against his boot he was already turning and firing again, sending more shafts up to the aid of the elves fighting above.  He destroyed another mohrg, but then he had to return his attention to the ground, for several of the mohrgs he’d dislodged before were getting up, and quickly heading his way.  “Behind me, I’ll give you cover to shoot!” Eldren urged, downing another healing potion as he moved into a defensive position in front of Jannae’s limp form.  Dannel complied, moving swiftly into position as the mohrgs formed up into a loose cluster, reinforced by several of their fellows who were descending from the second seized platform.  Dannel shot one of those for good measure, knocking it free to land on another just below, sending both to the ground in a clatter of bones.  But neither was out of the fight, and they quickly joined the rush at the defiant elves. With a yell Eldren met their charge, deflecting the lunging slam of the first, and narrowly avoiding the stabbing tongue of the second that tried to pierce his neck from behind.  He smashed through the rib cage of the first with a powerful swing of his sword, causing it to falter, but then found himself overrun as a third, and then a fourth, came at him, one seizing him from behind while the other dealt a punishing blow to his body with its skeletal fists.  The long vine-tendrils plunged at him, and while he fought off the cold paralysis that would have left him helpless, he could not fight free from the strong grasp of the monsters grappling him. But the ranger’s fierce defense had bought precious moments, and Dannel had not wasted them.  The mohrg Eldren had damaged fell as a long arrow punched through its damaged rib cage and sundered its spine, and a moment later the one that had punched him fell back, spun around by the force of one, two, and finally a third arrow that exploded its shoulder and sent an entire arm flying free.  Eldren finally was able to plant his feet and spin, knocking one of the mohrgs holding him into the second, disrupting their hold enough for him to pull his swordarm free.  Even as they lunged at him again he brought the elvish blade down into the first, smashing its skull, knocking it limply back.  The second got a solid hit in that in turn left the ranger’s face bloody, his nose broken, but he met it and cut through the long tongue as it stabbed in to strike, and a moment later two arrows from Dannel finished it. The ranger spun, looking for another enemy, but the battle was coming to an end.  Dannel continued to fire, plucking mohrgs out of the trees above with almost casual grace.  Thus far, of all the arrows he’d fired, almost every one had scored a telling hit.  The elven warders had secured their platform from immediate threat, and now they had joined in the barrage, targeting mohrgs that still lurked on the middle platform or who were descending the tree in order to engage Dannel and Eldren.  None of the undead monsters tried to retreat, but within another minute the grove fell quiet once more as the last undead creature was reduced to inanimate bone fragments and piles of noxious, rotting vegetable matter. Eldren was helping Jannae up; the priestess groaned as she shook off the last lingering effects of the paralysis.  The ranger indicated the rope ladder being lowered by the elves from the last high platform, but Dannel shook his head. “We have to abandon this outpost, and fall back to Aldair Kelalei.”“It is not your right to…”“Eldren.  Listen to me.  This was not a casual raid, nor were those monsters mere undead.  This is an invasion, and all of the residents of the Wealdath are at risk.  We must warn the elder lords, if they do not already know, and find out who or what is behind this… before it is too late.”</blockquote>

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