Brace For the Wolves

by Nathan Thompson

  "Prove it, Earthborn," the scratchy voice said, and I heard metal rasp in the next room. "See if you can succeed where your mothers and fathers failed."

  I sighed.

  "Well, Virtus?" I asked with a whisper. "Time to share what we're up against."

  "The last two wardens of this region and the Captain, Martus," the old soldier answered me. "Our employer broke up our company into several levels of this place, but as far as I know, we are all that survived in the end. Orthos can summon his warden souls to create a phantom musculature and empower himself. Pythos can use his phantom souls to create additional troops. The Captain can do both as well as creating a shroud and blasts of magic from his captured spirits. Their combat level isn't anything near what it was when we first helped take this planet. Our skills have dulled over the ages and the Descents we gained didn't counter the Rises that we lost. Still, though, I suspect they are better than each of us individually and the Captain will be greater still. There should be at least twenty conscripts in the room with them."

  "Why haven't they attacked us yet?" I asked.

  "The terrain favors them, and ammo is getting scarce. Most of our missile weapons rotted away, and no one wants to waste mana on offensive magic if they don't have to," the tall skeleton admitted.

  "Isn't it a little stupid to hoard resources at this point?" I asked, baffled.

  "We've all been hoarding for thousands and thousands of years," the fleshless soldier admitted. "It's what we know best."

  "Alright then," I said quietly. "I guess we'll have no choice but to take advantage of it." I started to reach into my battle-link, belatedly remembering that Virtus wasn't in it yet, and that I still had room for about five more people in it. "Battle with me, brother."

  He hesitated, then nodded.

  Before I could second-guess the act of bonding my mind with a ten-thousand-year old talking skeleton, awareness poured into me. It made my head hurt for several moments, but then I felt something expand inside myself, and a tired confidence settled next to the links between myself, Breena, Eadric and the others.

  I realized that unlike the rest of us, the tall skeleton was completely unaffected by the inky darkness. Using his undead mind, he gestured at us through the link, pointing out roughly where the officers and conscripts stood. Sensing each other’s intent, we got into position. Virtus stood in front of us, holding his stone blade in one hand and a javelin in the other. Weylin held his bow and a half-dozen spare arrows all in one hand but kept his other one open, so he could use his new Air magic with it. Eadric readied his hammer and shield, and, against what he clearly felt to be his better judgement, pulled out two of his smallest wooden statues. Karim and I stood on opposite edges of the hallway, keeping our hands and fingers free to do magic. Breena just flew over our heads and probably had a better firing angle than all of us put together.

  I realized that one of these days I'd fight an enemy that wasn't stupid enough to give me time to prepare for him. Until then, though, I had better milk these blunders for all they're worth.

  Ready, I thought out through the mind-link, and to my surprise it worked, because everyone nodded.

  Aim...

  Fire.

  Weylin and I both launched super-heated discs of wind into the most densely populated corners of the room. The discs were noisy but we still managed to hear clattering and cursing over them. Eadric threw one of his small carved statues out into Weylin's area, where I heard a slightly muffled boom go off, as well as the clattering of more bones and armor. Karim drew some more symbols in front of himself, and this time he launched large, fist-sized bolts of blue fire. Breena finished a quick chant and pointed out into the pitch-black room. A moment later I heard the shattering of pebbles, as if it was hailing. She then flipped in mid-air and began firing pink missiles of what I assumed was basic fairy magic. Virtus heaved his heavy javelin into the room, then his bony arm pumped up to the quiver on his back and more missiles came out from him in a dark blur. A smoky gray blast, like the one the last warden had thrown at Eadric, billowed out at us, but our undead warrior caught the spell on his stony sword without missing a beat, grunted, and heaved his blade upward, somehow shrugging the magical attack into the ceiling.

  I heard more cracking noises and more objects clatter to the ground. Virtus threw another javelin and suddenly shouted.

  "Now!"

  Following the direction he had pointed out through the mind-link, Karim, Breena and I all fired our stored lightning bolts into the same direction, then immediately followed up with ten finger bolts each. I heard something scream as it came forward, then another warden with ghostly muscles stumbled out of the blackness into view, smoke rising from his scorched bones. He stumbled through Karim’s script trap and my stone trap, nearly falling on his knees as sharp rocks and blue energy blasted all over him. Virtus darted forward to engage him, slamming him with his shield and knocking the wounded warrior off of his feet. I saw the two merge into a jumble of thrashing bones and swinging short blades, but then my attention turned to the grasping black hands reaching from the floor.

  "Watch the floor!" I shouted as I leaped away. My long-bladed spatha appeared in my hands immediately, and I began sweeping it through the translucent, black, bony arms.

  They fell apart, but further behind us I saw other figures rising from the floor. They looked like smoky, half-formed corpses, and they lurched toward us, forcing us to divide our attention between two different directions.

  And there were a lot of them.

  Breena flew ahead of us in her largest, brightest size, helping us illuminate the last of our enemies.

  “Don't bother with them!” Virtus shouted as he slammed his enemy back into the ground. “They can be remade faster than they can be destroyed!”

  That, unfortunately, forced our hand. We had created what I had thought to be an effective kill-tunnel. But if we stayed in it any longer we would be overrun.

  With that knowledge, I called for us to move forward, and as I ran past Virtus, I smashed my sword across one of his enemy’s flailing appendages. My spatha caught the monster on the unarmored portion of his leg, and the damage overpowered the remains of his vital guard, severing the limb. Eadric took up the idea as well, knocking the monster’s sword arm free with a blow from his hammer. Virtus slammed his foe into the floor two more times, decapitated him with a final swing from his sword, and then he was up and running behind us.

  There were a handful of still-mobile conscripts, but they were so battered by our earlier storm of magic that we were able to bash them down easily.

  The two remaining figures in the back were both gesturing with a smoke-trailing hand over their heads, shields held out before them. One of them was in the back-left corner of the room, and about Virtus' size, clad in Roman chainmail. The other hung back dead center, and this one was taller than me by at least a foot. A red cape similar to Tovius' hung from his bony frame and his armor seemed to be a mix of silvery Greek-style plate with Roman chain and lorica running down the top of his legs and arms. More silvery plate covered his forearms and shins, and he wore a plumed Roman helmet that also supported a facemask. Purple light glowed from his eyes, and spectral muscle super-imposed itself over all of his armor. And as if that were not enough, moaning spirits raced in and out of him much like they had done with Calphus.

  I suppressed the urge to swallow nervously. I didn't need anyone to tell me that the last two opponents would be our greatest test yet in these creepy catacombs.

  So far the Wardens had fought carelessly and still took all four of us to bring them down. Now we had two to contend with, and without the use of tricks. Finally, I knew the captain had to have a number of tricks of his own.

  “Weylin! Eadric!” I shouted, projecting my intent for them to keep the summoned corpses busy. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Eadric turn and throw his second carved statue at the oncoming horde of black corpses. Weylin turned as well, whispered a chant as he touched his quiver, then ya
nked out an arrow and fired it at the closest shambling monster. Both the arrow and the statue created a concussive wave that knocked the horde backwards.

  Reading each other's intent through the link, we all skidded to a stop, knowing it was a bad idea to fight two of these things at once in close combat. We focused fire on the weaker of the two legionnaire-necromancers, firing off arcane bolts and icicles and javelins and spinning wind discs into him. He reeled backwards as he tried to defend against the attacks with his shield, then he halted his spell, drew a spatha of his own and charged among us.

  A few seconds after he did so, the taller one drew his own glowing weapon and did the same. Virtus intercepted him with his shield.

  “I'll hold him!” the deathless hoplite shouted as he struggled to impede his former captain. “But you have to bring down the other one quickly!”

  “I have a name, traitor,” the warden snarled as he bore down on Eadric’s shield. “I’ll remind you of it before I take you apart!”

  “Weylin!” I shouted as I ignored the pompous idiot. “Close in!”

  The horde behind us was much slower in getting up now that their summoners were no longer actively maintaining their spell. Weylin nodded at me, set down his bow, and drew combat daggers. Then, with a rush of wind-enhanced speed, the elf vaulted into our opponent.

  He couldn't easily hurt the warden, but his quick-moving blades helped Eadric distract the undead legionnaire while the remaining three of us charged up our lightning magic again.

  For about fifteen hair-raising seconds our three melee fighters went back and forth with the two giant, Greco-Roman mercenaries from Hell. I tried not to pay too much attention to just how many times Martus managed to overpower Virtus and slam his weapon into my new soldier's armor and bones. Just hold out for a little longer, I thought desperately.

  Finally, though, our lightning spells recharged. The three of us fired our finger bolt spells all at once into Eadric and Weylin’s opponent, and the thirty bolts staggered him for just a moment. I used that moment to rush past my companions and tackle the giant undead around the waist, discharging my Outer Current spell after I wrapped him up. As soon as my attack finished, I let go of him so that Karim could reach over and do the exact same thing. As the walking skeleton reeled from the damage, Breena alighted on his face, stuck her tiny hands into his eye socket and let out her electric discharge.

  The undead warden sank to his knees, dropping his shield and weapon in the process. Eadric and Weylin struck at the same time from different angles, the hammer colliding with the monster's skull and blades intersecting the undead thing’s neck.

  The warden’s head and helmet went spiraling away from his body, and the armored torso fell to the floor in a heap.

  The slaughtered soldier's captain snarled and swore, but with far less rage than I would expect from someone who had just lost the last of his entire company. Then I caught him glancing several times at his soldier's torso, not his still-surviving head, and I remembered that these warriors kept their mana pendants inside their torsos.

  The captain was more bothered by the potential loss of mana than the loss of his last officer.

  And something told me that he didn't even realize that fact.

  But in the meantime, he had knocked Virtus off of his feet and pinned him to the ground with his shield, all while stabbing him with his strangely glowing blade, and the remaining corpses at our back were finally closing in on us. I yelled for Weylin to go back on minion duty while Eadric and I rushed to save Virtus. My spatha lunged forward to parry a thrust directed at my hoplite’s eye socket, but Martus turned on me and launched a kick that penetrated my wards, chainmail, padding and stoneskin, knocking the air right out of me.

  I was starting to get frustrated by just how regularly three layers of protection kept failing me.

  My semi-heroic act still allowed Virtus to roll clear of his former commanding officer and get back to his feet.

  “Stand down, Martus,” the hoplite pleaded. “You can't want this anymore than I do. And your mana won't hold out forever.”

  “It won’t,” the undead captain agreed with a nod. “That's why I’m not giving up what's left. Come at me, Virtus.”

  A sigh escaped my new friend’s skull.

  “Very well,” the hoplite said quietly. “Goodbye, Martus.”

  “Goodbye, Virtus.”

  Then the two slammed into each other again, bashing shields and slashing blades all over each other's armor. Virtus’ blade work now was even better than when he had fought me, but his stabs just glanced off of Martus’ shroud of spirits, while the captain's spectral muscles let him hammer away at his former brother-in-arms.

  Fortunately for Virtus, he wasn't alone.

  Eadric and I each darted to a different side of our enemy, relying on our link to work at least somewhat in concert. I slashed at the back of Martus’ sword arm and torso, but the undead captain quickly parried my attack and countered with a hit that sent a burning pain through my bracer. Then his boot slammed into Eadric's hastily raised shield and knocked my dwarven friend back by over a foot.

  But Martus suffered a knock-back of his own as Virtus barreled into him with his shield and started stabbing into his former captain's thigh.

  Both undead soldiers growled as Martus knocked Virtus away with his shield. The captain drew his sword back for another strike but my next lunge struck true and tangled up in the pit of his elbow joint. As he struggled to dislodge my sword, I focused and drew out my Stone Grip spell, a quick and easy piece of magic that Breena had taught me months ago during a Challenge where I really needed to hold on to something. The mighty giant still almost succeeded in wrenching his arm and my weapon free.

  This time though, Eadric was able to slam back into Martus and land a hit on the back of the undead captain's knee. The attack still didn't penetrate the monstrous warrior's shroud, but now the commander had to deal with two restricted limbs at once, while on opposing sides. As more souls coiled into him to form more muscles, several handfuls of pink and blue darts swarmed around us and slammed into him. He thrashed to try and get free, but Eadric and I held fast, and more arcane bolts channeled into the undead giant. As the monster's shroud of souls visibly dimmed, Virtus ran forward, his stone sword slashing over Martus’ shield and just under his helmet. The spirits shrouding his body moaned and melted off in droves, saving him from decapitation but leaving his control in the process.

  The undead giant roared in frustration as he slammed the edge of his shield into Eadric's helmet and finally knocked him loose. Then he stepped around me, pulled me around by my sword, and the next thing I knew, I was hurtling through the air in a judo throw much like the one Virtus had put me in earlier that day. This time I twisted with the flip and managed to land on my feet, to my pride and surprise.

  The armored elbow that impacted my face immediately humbled me.

  Then Martus was dashing between me and Virtus, heading for Breena and Karim. The two continued to channel missiles at him as they spread away from each other, with Breena flying higher toward the hidden ceiling. The skeleton's sword stabbed at the robed mage, who deflected with his spear, and was then bashed backwards by his enemy's massive shield.

  Then he pointed to the ceiling and fired a smoggy blast of polluted souls at my bonded companion.

  Breena dodged to the side, but the smoky ball followed her, impacting with a whoosh. The only noise she made was a startled chirp, but through our link her bloodcurdling scream wrenched into my mind.

  Her glow dimmed immediately and she began to fall to the floor. A scream of my own tore its way out of my throat and I rushed at our enemy, zig-zagging my way around his shield and slamming him away from my falling friend. Virtus was there a moment later, and Eadric joined him in the next instant. I heard them clash against Martus while I dropped my sword and shield and did my best to catch Breena as she tumbled to the floor. I barely caught her in time, and did my best to cradle her against the padded parts
of my armor and uniform.