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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3587634" data-attributes="member: 143">I'm heading out of town very, very early (i.e. pre-dawn) tomorrow to do a training 100 miles away. I won't be back until Saturday, but I have a good cliffhanger coming up in chapter 189 (at least I think so) so I may post it either tomorrow morning or when I get back, depending on how much time I have. Thanks for reading, everyone!  36 thousand views and counting...LB* * * * * Chapter 188THE BONEYARDBody parts were everywhere.  Bones, thousands of bones, many shattered into pieces as small as a thumbnail.  Littered among that debris were more substantial hunks of flesh.  Small gibbets of foul-smelling gore were everywhere, and among those were dozens of arms, legs, heads, and other part of what had once been living, breathing things. The detritus of waste covered the corridor floor like a thick carpet for a good forty feet.  At several places, the remains formed low mounds, some almost waist high, hills and mountains in a landscape of destruction.  The smell was ferocious. A bright ring of light shone around the companions, clustered close up against the river, where a purifying breeze flowed over the water.  They had made a small space for themselves by the simple expedient of pushing back the corpses of destroyed zombies, or rolling them into the river.  The exhausted survivors of the desperate battle doused themselves in the cold water, washing off not only sweat and blood, but the sick feeling of death that covered them like a film. Blue flares rallied with the light of their continual flames.  Varo, Allera, and Serah each exhausted one of their healing wands, but none of them stinted on the magic despite their dwinding supply.  They reveled in feeling alive, but all of them knew that their respite was temporary. “Damn, that was...” Dar said.  He trailed off, unable to find a word that accurately described the battle. It had ended fairly quickly, once Varo had destroyed the idol that had so bolstered the undead horde.  With the fading of that dread power the undead became mere “common” skeletons and zombies.  Dar had torn free from the four trying to drag him into the river, and he truly had become an instrument of destruction, laying a zombie down with every cut of Valor.  Allera had caught hold of Serah before the current could drag her fully into the river, and had brought her back to consciousness in time to unleash several pulses of positive energy that had blasted rank after rank of zombies into dust.  It had been a very, very close call; another few seconds might have pushed them beyond even their considerable mortal strength.  Varo had been caught apart from the others, and dragged down under a wave of zombies.  His armor had protected him long enough to call upon his own power, bending those closest zombies to his will.  His destroyers became a shield that had kept him safe long enough for Dar and Talen to fight their way to him.  The goblin high priest had not remained for that, fleeing back up the tunnel shortly after the destruction of the idol.  “How many do you think we destroyed?” Kalend asked, nodding in thanks as Serah used a healing wand to finish treating his injuries. Shay, sitting at the water’s edge, glanced down the tunnel.  “I would say about a hundred zombies, maybe two thirds as many skeletons.  Just a guess, really; I don’t think you’ll have much luck counting bodies.”“We must stop the high priest before he can seek further aid,” Varo said, as he tucked his empty wand back into his pouch.  His store of healing aids was completely depleted, but Allera and Serah each had a wand of cure light wounds that was more or less fully charged.  “Go screw yourself,” Dar said, collapsed on his back on the water’s edge. “We... we are spent, Varo,” Talen said, leaning against the adjacent wall in a way that suggested only its support was keeping him erect.  “We need... to rest.”“I share your sentiment, commander, but I would suggest that this is not the safest place to camp.”Talen shifted his sightless gaze over to Shay.  “Can we get back across the river?”The scout looked across the gap.  “Not easily.  The current is really fast.  But I think I can manage it, and can string a rope for the others.”Allera pulled herself up.  “Between Serah, Varo, and myself, I think we can help, Talen.  Our lesser restorations can ease exhaustion... we have a few castings of the more potent version of the spell, which can completely eliminate all fatigue, but that spell requires us to use up some of our stock of diamond dust.”  Talen nodded, he understood fully the unspoken implication in the healer’s words.  We might need it later.  “All right,” he said.  “Treat everyone you can, starting with Dar and Shay.”“And you,” Shay said.  “Blind or not, we will need your sword.”Dar grunted as he sat up, then rose to his feet.  His heavy armor clanked with the movement, and again as he drew Valor from its sheath.  He started down the tunnel.  “Where are you going?” Shay asked. The fighter’s face was grim as he looked back at her.  He hefted his sword, the blue-tinged steel flashing in the artificial torchlight.  “I’m going to get my club, and then I’m going to shove this down that freaking cleric’s throat.”</blockquote>

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