Heh, I may let an arcane caster survive for a few chapters at some point, just to shock and amaze you guys.
Of course, there is at least
one that survived an incursion into Rappan Athuk, and who will return at some point later in the story.
And now, the continuing adventures of the
ElevenNine:
* * * * *
Chapter 127
COLLAPSE
Shay felt her muscles weakening as a second touch got through her defenses, sapping more of her strength. Desperate, she swung
Beatus Incendia before her in a wide arc. The stroke bisected a pair of shadows, and to her own surprise, both came apart with a faint echo of a shriek sounding in their wake.
She looked around for the last shadow, but there was no sign of it.
Allera faced two more wraiths, including one that had until recently been the Guild mage Attius. The other one was damaged, with insubstantial rents in its faded outline, evidence that at least the wizard had managed to fight back before he’d been killed. Allera went for that one, meeting its attack with one of her own, blasting it with another
cure wounds spell. The blue tendrils of energy ripped through it, and it dissolved. The other lunged in to attack her, but again Snaggletooth intervened, deliberately becoming visible as he darted in between her and the wraith, slashing at its face. His claws did no damage at all, but he cast a
cure light wounds as he attacked, the spell drawing bright white gashes against the dark outline of the wizard’s face. Attius lunged at the little dragon, but the creature nimbly darted up out of reach, narrowly avoiding the attack.
The dragon’s intervention gave Allera a few seconds of respite, time enough to hit the wraith with her third and final
cure critical wounds. Something that could almost have been gratitude flashed in the dead wizard’s eyes, and then he too joined the other undead in oblivion.
Allera staggered back, and fell to the ground beside Talen. Her hands trembled as she took up her dropped pouch and began casting her
restoration spell on the stricken knight.
Shay came over to them, holding the flaming holy sword like a beacon. “Will he live?” she asked. But Allera was focused on her spell, and did not respond.
A shadowy figure materialized out of the darkness, and Shay lifted
Beatus Incendia to strike. “Stay your hand, scout,” Varo said, as the light of the sword fell upon his features.
Relieved, Shay started to go to Talen, but Varo said, “The skeletons are breaking through; you must help the warriors.”
Shay felt like she could barely keep lifting the sword, but as turned, she saw that the cleric was right; nearly all of the defenders were down, and skeletons were crawling over the low barrier. Lifting the holy sword, she ran toward the barricade. Varo looked around, verifying that all of the shadows, including those that had risen from the bodies of the slain clerics, were held at bay by his rebukes. He could not control any of them, not without relinquishing command over the first two he had dominated. The enemy cleric he’d sent them against may have already regained control over those, but at least it would keep him busy for a little while. His rebukes would only last about a minute; it would have to be enough.
The situation was grim. His summoned centipedes were still keeping about a dozen skeletons busy on the right flank, but on the left, he could see that the skeletal archers were coming out of the woods, switching to melee weapons as they came. These were clearly moving to come around the village, avoiding the barricade entirely to come up upon their rear. There had to be a priest in there, somewhere, giving them commands, but he couldn’t worry about that at the moment. One look at the line was enough to tell that in a few seconds, there would be skeletons all over their position. Varo looked down at Talen, but he knew it would be precious seconds yet before Allera’s spell could be of any help to him.
He walked forward, drawing the power of Dagos into him.
The sight of Medelia being struck down, while he stood helpless to intervene, finally gave Galen the strength to shake off the
hold person spell that had left him helpess. The skeletons all around him continued to rain blows on him, but he ignored them, roaring as he charged toward one that was coming toward the unmoving form of Medelia. A skeleton slashed at him, its legion sword glancing off his helmet, opening a deep cut in his forehead that sprayed blood down into his eyes. Half-blind, Galen swept his axe around in a powerful arc that caught the skeleton in the spine, severing it. Galen bent to help Medelia, who was not moving. With his back momentarily to the foe, he didn’t see the skeleton behind him until he felt something cold and hard drive into his body. Looking down, he saw an inch of bloody steel protruding between the links of his chainmail, just under his right breast.
Grimacing, the knight turned enough to see the skeleton that had stabbed him. It still wore the remains of a Camarian legion coat. He recognized the faded insignia, crusted with mud and old blood. The markings were those of a Camarian colonel.
That was the last thing he recognized, as he fell forward, the skeleton’s sword stuck in his body.
The skeletons started forward, but a wave of power washed over them, holding them in place.
On the other side of the barricade, the troll skeleton smashed Sextus hard on the side of the head. The armsman’s helmet kept his head from coming apart, but the blow still hurt, and he staggered back, falling to his knees. With him down, several man-sized skeletons surged forward, clambering over the barrier toward him.
Boosted by her magical boots, Shay leapt up onto the edge of the fallen cart. The troll skeleton started to turn to face her, but she was moving too quickly, and before it could bring around a claw she leapt past it, the holy sword flaring in her hand as she swept it through the skeleton’s skull. The troll’s skull exploded in a shower of hundreds of fragments, and as Shay landed lightly on her feet a few feet away, it collapsed to the ground.
Unfortunately, the scout looked up to see three more large skeletons, along with a handful of the man-sized ones, charging straight at her. Varo’s centipedes were gone, either destroyed or banished back to where they had come.
She also saw the duo that stood alone in the shadow of the forest. One moved, slightly, lifting an arm to point at her. That was all the warning she got, as a second blast of eldritch energy shot out at her, a probing, deadly surge of magic. Instinct alone saved her, as she flung herself to the side, coming up into a roll, her skin tingling with how close the blast had come to hitting her.
“Fall back to the cottage!”
Talen’s voice sounded loud over the din of battle. The knight commander stood leaning against the overturned cart, Allera at his side, continuing to pour restorative energies into him to replace the drained strength and constitution that the undead had torn from his body. He had drawn his backup weapon, the glowing sword that had carried him through dozens of fights in Rappan Athuk. As he strength returned, he held the sword above his head, drawing the attention of his companions, and their foes.
The fighting men and women of Camar fell back, still battling the skeletons that continued to press at them from all sides. Varo gave them a brief respite, as he directed the skeletons he’d dominated to assault their attacking peers at the barricade. That allowed Talen and Allera to drag Galen and Medelia to the cottage door, while on the other side of the barricade, Shay leapt back over to help Sextus with the crippled Octavius. Keeping her head low, wary of exposing herself to another magical attack, she glanced back once to see what the shadowy spellcaster was doing, but he was gone, swallowed up again by the night.
Eleven skeletons had been sent back into the fray as soldiers of the Dark Creeper, hacking apart their fellows. The few human and hobgoblin skeletons on the enemy side were quickly decimated, but the three giant-sized skeletons started ripping through Varo’s temporary allies, their clubs smashing them into fragments of bone. But they served their purpose, giving the defenders a chance to retreat with their fallen companions back to the cottage. Varo was the last inside, and just as Talen slammed and bolted the door, they caught sight of the group of skeleton archers from the forest group pouring around the undefended end of the house across the way to the left. At the same moment, the last three large skeletons tore through the original barricade, surging toward the cottage.
“Commander, the rebuked shadows... they will attack us again, once my power fades,” Varo said, as Talen barred the cottage door. Shay had come back to help him, her forearms covered in blood from handling Octavius, and she helped him move a bureau from the nearby wall to reinforce it.
“Varo... I’ve got a few things on my mind right now, okay?” As if to confirm his words, the door shook hard in its frame, but the bar held, for now.
“If we do not destroy them, then they will be able to pass through these walls with the same ease as before. I do not know if I will be able to stop them, this time.”
Talen grimaced, as the door shook again. A moment later, the cottage itself seemed to shake as a hard impact battered the wall.
“Damn it! How long?”
“About thirty seconds, give or take.”
“Well, there’s nothing I can do about it right this second,” Talen said. “Help the wounded!”
The cleric nodded, and walked over to where Allera was trying to channel healing into their stricken companions. Galen groaned as the healer drew out the sword impaled through his body, pouring positive energy into him as she did it. Serah was conscious but very weak, unable to move. Octavius was likewise conscious, if in obvious agony, and Sextus was helping to feed him a healing potion. But Medelia did not move at all, her chest and neck blackened where the enemy spell had hit her.
“I will need a few uninterrupted moments,” the cleric said, kneeling beside Serah.
Talen nodded, though he wasn’t sure what he could do to guarantee that right now. The door continued to shake, and several of the planks shattered inward from a hard impact. Through the gap, he could see a lot of moving bones. He hadn’t seen exactly how many skeletons were in the second cohort from the woods, but it had been at least a score, and maybe more.
“Are you okay?” Talen asked Shay.
“A little weak,” she said. “I can fight. Here, you’d better take this.” She handed him
Beatus Incendia. For now, the sword was dormant, and Talen quickly slid it back into its scabbard, leaving his hands free to bolster the bureau pressed up against the door.
A few feet away, a section of the wall about three feet high and a foot wide collapsed into the room. The metal-studded head of a club appeared in the opening for a moment, before its owner yanked it back.
“Varo...” Talen said, glancing back to see that the cleric was still focused on helping the crippled cleric. Sextus and Octavius were both back on their feet now, restored somewhat by the healing draughts they’d consumed, but both armsmen were still pale from loss of blood. Allera was continuing to pour healing into Galen, reversing the mortal wound he’d taken, dragging him slowly back from the brink of death. There was no sign of her little dragon; if he hadn’t followed them inside, he would have to fend for himself.
The door continued to come apart. Even with Talen and Shay both pushing against the bureau, it would only take a few more blows to cave the entire door in. Skeletal hands gripped the slats of the door, ripping them away. The club hit the wall again, expanding the hole, now nearly five feet high and two across. The cottage had only two rooms, and they heard a clatter from the back room, where the only window was located.
Talen caught the eyes of the armsmen. “Go,” he told them, and both went to investigate whatever was trying to get in that way.
“Talen!” Shay warned.
Talen turned back to the door, and barely avoided being grabbed by a skeletal arm that had thrust through the wreckage of the door over the bureau. He drew back and thrust
Beatus Incendia into the skeleton. The sword itself did little damage, the blade passing right through its ribs, but the holy fire scorched its body, and the skeleton fell backward out of view.
Unfortunately, that gave an opening for the troll skeleton, which surged forward, smashing the damaged bureau out of the way with a single powerful swipe of its claws. Shay and Talen were forced back, and several man-sized skeletons crowded in through the new opening. As the pair tried to form up in a defensive position, they could hear the shouts of the armsmen from the next room.
The enemy was inside.
And if that wasn’t yet enough, Talen felt a familiar cold chill, an announcement that was followed a moment later as three shadows passed through the wall, heading right for him, seeking the feeding they had been denied before.
