The world outside the shattered doorway was a messy, chaotic and violent. Every thing that moved seemed to be Fighting in every coner.The sound of clattering bone, furious roars, and the eerie wails of figures femi couldn't make out from this distance, that chilled the air. But for a single, suspended moment, the world narrowed between him and Varga; her emerald eyes, narrowed on him.
The faint grey sheen she'd noticed had faded, vanishing like a trick of the eye. Varga was sure she had seen it. And his eye, that grey ring around the pupil was still there and it seemed to swirl with an intensity that matched the fury on his face.
Femi took a step forward, his bandages linen straining over his brown fur chest. "Bloody skeletons," femi truly couldnt tolerate this walking abominations, he thought while hefting the makeshift club. It was an absurd weapon, just a clumsy piece of debris, but in his grip, it looked like the hammer of Ogun poised to deliver divine retribution.
The first skeleton, its empty eye sockets fixed on this new, living warmth, clattered toward him, a rusted hatchet raised high in a mindless, predictable arc. Femi met it.
With a grunt he jumped and swung his makeshift club.There was no need for finesse when dealing with bloody walking ribcages, only brutal direct force, the pure unadulterated physics of impact.
The wood connected with the skeleton's skull with a CRUNCH that was immensely satisfying. The skull exploded into a cloud of white fragments and dust, the headless body crumpling into a pile of bone at his feet.
"Rubbish!"
Two more advanced, flanking him with uncoordinated movements. One thrust a spear in a clumsy lunge, the other swung it's sword in a wide sweep. Varga started to move to intercept, but Femi was already reacting. He was faster than a Krag, his movements may have been hampered by his injury, but they were unnaturally precise. He twisted his torso letting the spearhead slice through the cold air an inch from his bandages. At the same time, he brought his club down hard on the sword-arm of the second skeleton, shattering the wrist bones into nothing. The sword clattered to the trampled snow.
"Clumsy!" he taunted the spear-wielder, his whiskers twitching in amusement. As it over-extended, its balance compromised, he used the momentum of his own swing, spinning the club around and jamming one end straight into its ribcage. He didn't try to pull it free. Instead, he leaned his weight into it, using the impaled skeleton as a shield against the next attacker, pushing it back into its comrades and creating a stumbling pile of bone.
He left the club embedded and snatched up the fallen sword. It was a pitiful thing, rusted and chipped, but he tested its weight by flicking his wrist. I really miss my axe.
"Come you unbreast-feeded goat," he mocked as another skeleton lunged, its jaw clacking mindlessly. He sidestepped with ease, while hooking the sword behind the skeleton's leg and yanked. The creature's feet flew out from under it, and it landed hard on its back with a rattle. Femi didn't even look down as he stomped once, his foot coming down on its skull with another definitive CRACK.
Varga finally reached his side, her axe cleaving through a skeleton that was about to strike him from behind, splitting it from shoulder to hip. "Femi!" She parried a stray spear thrust from a skeleton that had slipped in. Kicking its legs out from under it with a powerful sweep of her boot and crushed its skull with a swift stomp.
Her eyes scanned the battlefield, taking in the broader struggle. The main Krag line, inspired by Goruk's and Dana counter-attack with the treated weapons, their blades now burning in fierce, hungry flames was slowly, pushing the skeletal tide back. Torches dipped in fat and resin as femi called it flared, casting long dancing shadows, and the damned souls shrieked as they were repelled by the fire. The tide was turning, but the fight was far from over.
Varga's gaze snapped back to Femi. The change was undeniable up close. It wasn't just the grey tinted fur, that had some how disappeared, but also he was slightly taller, and if him stumping that skull was any indication, stronger as well, and as she grabbed his shoulder, it felt broader, the muscle denser under her grip. And his left eye... the grey ring seemed to pulse with a faint light of its own, like a tiny, captured storm.
"Varga why are you assaulting me in public."
"What" Varga asked confused by his words, her brow furrowing in bewilderment.
Why are you grabbing soft body like that, femi said why covering his body with his arm in a gesture of protecting his modesty.
She stared at him as if he was mad, her mouth slightly agape, but decided that it wasn't important, not with death clattering all around them.
"Femi how are you.... alive and... like this" she said, her voice tinted with a hint of concern and curiosity.
He glanced at her, his strange eye flashing briefly. Before he groaned while stretching his body, a series of pops and cracks echoing from his spine."Ah. Yes the new look. A bit dramatic, isn't it? The grey doesn't really go with my complexion." He gestured vaguely at his own face.
"Femi," Varga pressed, her tone leaving no room for jest. She decapitated another skeleton with a clean, whistling swing, sending its head spinning into the darkness.
"Now is not the time for your games. I...I...taught you were dead. What happened in there?"
He looked at her, his strange, mismatched eyes serious for a moment. "A conversation for after," he said, his voice losing its playful edge. "After we are sure there is an 'after' to have it in." He gestured with his rusted sword toward the relentless horde. "First, we survive. Then, over a warm meal and a bottle of something strong that I will not be sharing with you or victim." He paused, thinking about the strange entity.
"I will tell you a very strange story."
"so," Femi continued, taking a step forward into the fray, "it time to get busy, and right now, the most practical thing is to make sure none of these walking calcium deposits interrupt our future conversation." He pointed his sword toward a group of three skeletons breaking from the pack, heading straight for them with obvious single-minded purpose. "So, if you would please? This uncle's body is currently filing a formal complaint with his brain."
Varga stared at him for a while, before letting out a short, sharp breath that was half a laugh, half a sigh of exasperation. He was infuriating, but he was right. The mystery of his transformation would have to wait. The immediate reality was a wall of bones and death.
"I will be going first, I can't let this bastards escape."
And like that he was gone rushing towards the skeletons. His brown fur and tattered bandages with his leather shorts was cutting such a heroic figure, making her doubt if it was really femi, until he started to fight.
Femi usied every dirty trick imaginable. He tripped them, shoved them into each other, kicked piles of -snow into their eye sockets to blind them. He used their mindless aggression against them, parrying a heavy blow so that the skeleton's own axe buried itself in the skull of the creature beside it.
"Am I not kind." he cackled, a wild, almost unhinged sound. "See? I am helping you make friends!"
A larger skeleton, probably once a Krag judging by the large-framed heavy looking bones, barreled toward him, with a massive stone maul in its hands. This was a serious threat,and femi saw Varga tensed and ready to leap in, but Femi stood his ground.
"Ah, a big one. You must have been important. Let's see if you still are."
The maul came down in a crushing arc meant to pulp him into the ground. At the last possible second, Femi dropped into a low crouch, wincing as the movement pulled at his wound. The maul whistled harmlessly over his head stirring his fur. As the skeleton leaned into its swing, off-balance, Femi lunged upward and jammed the rusted sword straight up through its jaw, pinning its mouth shut. The creature staggered back, clawing at the blade in its face.
Femi didn't wait. He scooped up a fallen femur and, with the precise aim, slammed it at the knee joint of the Krag skeleton. The leg buckled sideways, and it fell to the snow. With a grin, he started to bash the fallen skeleton skull while laughing.
"Foool! How do you like that hahaha"
He kept bashing the skeleton skull with relentless, strikes until it stopped moving completely. with a sigh femi left it after a final kick, and turned towards Varga who was holding off three skeletons at once.
"Varg! You need help!"
Varga, despite the dire situation, felt a smile touch her lips. She dispatched one of her opponents with a devastating overhead chop that split it to the breastbone and spun, her axe sweeping in a horizontal arc that took the remaining skeletons head clean off their shoulders.
"No need then" Femi said, while picking up the stone maul the large skeleton had dropped, grunting with the strain of the weight.
"Na wa this thing heavy"
He hefted the maul, his body seeming to struggle with its immense bulk and turned to face the next wave, his stance wobbling. The handful of skeletons that had broken through were nearly gone, decimated by the combined effort of him, varga and the Krag warriors who were now mopping up the stragglers. The immediate threat to the infirmary was over, the snow around its entrance littered with the evidence of their defense.
"Now let's..."he wanted to say before a wave of dizziness washed over him, the adrenaline receding to reveal the true cost of his exertions.
Varga caught him in her arms. His breathing was ragged, each rough inhale spoke of his torn muscle and broken stitches.
He gave a weak, shaky shrug. "Ah it seems this uncle don tire." Then his knees buckled again.The maul dropped from his hands, and he would have collapsed into the snow if Varga hadn't caught him.
"We need to get you back inside," she grunted, trying to steer him toward the relative safety of the shattered infirmary.
Femi, however, planted his feet his claws digging into the snow. His mismatched eyes were fixed on the heart of the battle where Arieus and Goruk fought. The spectral wails of the some strange entities were being cut short by the War Chief's cleaver and the flaming Krag weapons, but the pressure from the endless skeletons was immense.
"No," femi said as he pointed a clawed finger toward the distant, robed figure who stood, impassive beyond the sea of bone. The necromancer.
"I not sure why this place is being ransaked by skeletons, but I am sure that unless, I take the juju priest head we won't see tomorrow."
"Femi, you can barely stand and you are sprouting nonsense," Varga argued, her axe moving almost on its own to deflect a stray arrow that clattered harmlessly aside.
"Dey play, I will show you something new." He bent down, dropping the maul after a second thought, and picked up a skeletal arm that still clutched a rusted short sword in a death grip. He tossed the sword to Varga, who caught it reflexively. "Here. A spare. I'll take the club." He then snatched up the femur he'd thrown earlier.
"We meet again old friend." Femi said while testing the bone weight. "Now, I am mobile. Let's go have a word with the man in the dress."
Varga paused at his words. It was madness. She was under orders to hold the Left flank, and she disobeyed. Now she was now contemplating escorting a critically injured, delirious ratman on a suicide charge. But the cold dread she'd felt when the ward was breached was gone, replaced by a fierce fire. This strange, infuriating creature saw the true enemy. And he was right.
Varga paused at his words. It was madness. She was under orders to hold the Left flank, and she had already disobeyed. Now she was now contemplating escorting a critically injured, delirious ratman on a charge across a battlefield. But the cold dread she'd felt when the ward was breached was gone, replaced by a fierce, burning fire in her chest. This strange, infuriating creature.
Was right.
"By Kraggoths blade," she growled, but she shifted her grip on her axe, her decision made. "Stay close to me. If you fall, I am not carrying you."
"What generous and fair terms Varg," Femi said, his smirk returning.
"Stop calling me Varg, you rat." Varga growled back.
And so they moved, with Varga acting as the spearhead. She became a whirlwind of controlled, emerald light. Her axe forming arc after arc, shattering ribs, severing spines, and clearing a path through the boney ranks. Femi acted as a rear-guard and flank, using his ferum to bash the skeletons away while he tried to recover strength.
A skeleton lunged at Varga's blind spot, its rusted dagger aimed for the gap in her leather armour. Before she could react, Femi slammed he end of his femur into the skeleton's angle. It stumbled forward, off-balance, and Varga crushed its skull with a backward swing of her axe without breaking stride.
"I not going to lie, I am enjoying this."
"Just keep moving!" she shouted, parrying a spear thrust and driving her spare short sword into the attacker's eye socket and put the other side.
Varga carved through another dense group of skeletons, her chest heaving with the effort, her breaths pluming in the frigid air. The immediate space around them was clear again. The song of combat, Goruk's bellows, the ethereal wails. Seemed to press in from all sides
Femi, peered out into the fray his eyes assessing the full battle field. He squinted, the grey-ringed eye seeming to see things in a different light. Since he got it he had began to see strange things, he could perceive something strang in the air but he couldn't just explain it. But at this point it can't be helped, he will figure it out after this battle.
He watched as a Krag warrior, his weapon ablaze with flame, desperately swiped at a flickering entity that darted just out of reach, its mournful cry seemed to sap the fighter's strength, because as time went on the Krags swings became slow and clumsy.
"Wetin be that.. wait....Varga are you seeing that evil spirit or have I lost my mind".
He slowly, took a step back and...suddely froze. His whiskers twitched violently. Not ten feet away, a new flickering entity had materialized from nowhere. It's form writhing with visible anguish as it fixed its hollow eyes directly on him. A low, moan vibrated through the air, making the fur on his neck stand up.
In one fluid motion, femi spun on his heel, his back now to the advancing specter. He looked up at Varga, his mismatched eyes wide with sudden, relief. Without another word, he shuffled quickly behind her, using her larger frame as a shield. He peeked out from around her waist pointing a clawed finger at the approaching apparition.
"Varga there's an evil spirit, cast and bind it"
Varga stared at him, torn between utter disbelief and the overwhelming urge to laugh at the sheer audacity. The sheer, unashamed cowardice was breathtaking.Yet, she couldn't help but smirk. He may look different but at least he still acts the same.
Varga sighed, there was no time for those thoughts now. The Damned Soul let out a piercing, mind-rending shriek and shot toward them.
"Kuros- Enchantment- Crushing axe"
Varga's voice rang with power, her axe flaring with a sudden, brilliant emerald energy. She stepped forward, putting herself firmly between Femi and the spirit. "Just stay out of the way!"
She met the charge head-on, her enchanted axe slicing through the spectral form with a sound. The spirit screamed, and dissolved into motes of light.
As the last of the light faded, she glanced back over her shoulder. Femi was cautiously emerging from behind her, tapping his chin with a claw as if analyzing her technique.
"Excellent form," femi said approvingly, nodding his head. "Very efficient. You made that look easy." He then pointed his bone-club toward a group of four skeletons clattering toward them. "Now, these fellows... these I can handle. A much more honest day's work."
He got his ferum ready, adopting a low, ready stance, to resume his role as the skull breaker.
Truly a more enjoyable job.