The creature lowered its hand slowly.
Its yellow eyes burned brighter.
Far away.....
Thalia's breath caught.
She whispered...
"…What are you?"
Behind her;
"THALIA!"
Leah's voice cut through the chaos.
A skeleton burst from the mist at Thalia's side;
SSSHHHHLAAANG!
Leah's sword split it apart before it could touch her.
BOOOOOOM!
Bone fragments scattered across the firelit ground.
Leah grabbed Thalia's shoulder.
"Thalia! Look at me!"
Thalia blinked.
Her pupils struggled to focus.
Her fingers were still frozen in the shape of release.
Her lips trembled.
"…It stopped it," she whispered.
Another skeleton lunged;
THHRRRKKK!
Mauris's spear punched through its glowing chest.
BOOOOOOM!
He stepped closer to Thalia's other side.
Shield.
Wall.
Protector.
"What stopped what?" Mauris demanded.
Thalia's voice was weak.
"…My arrow…"
Frauner cut down another skeleton in front of them;
SSSHHHHLING!
BOOOOM!
He glanced back.
"What do you mean it stopped it?!"
Thalia swallowed.
Her throat was dry.
"…There's something… ahead…"
Henry stabbed a skeleton that came too close;
SSSHKKK!
BOOM!
He ran back toward them.
"What something?!"
Thalia shook her head faintly.
Her strength was draining fast.
"…Not like these…"
Another skeleton dropped from above;
CREEEEEK!
Leah reacted instantly;
She stepped forward and thrust upward.
SHHHKKK!
Her blade pierced its heart mid-air.
BOOOOOM!
Fragments rained around them.
She turned back to Thalia.
"Thalia, stay with us."
Thalia grabbed Leah's arm weakly.
"I saw it…"
Mauris rotated his spear and smashed another skeleton aside;
CRACK!
Then finished it;
THHRRRKK!
BOOOM!
"Saw what?"
Thalia's breathing trembled.
"…They're not leading themselves…"
Frauner stepped back toward them, cutting down another attacker as he moved;
SSSHHHHLAAANG!
BOOM!
He joined their defensive ring.
"What is?"
Thalia's eyes slowly lifted.
Toward the forest.
Toward the dark.
"…Something is controlling them…"
Silence hit them harder than the battle.
Henry's voice cracked.
"…Controlling…?"
A skeleton rushed him;
Frauner intercepted;
SSSHHHHK!
BOOM!
Frauner grabbed Henry and pulled him back.
"Stay inside the circle!"
Henry nodded, shaking.
Mauris looked at Thalia.
"Where?"
Thalia raised her trembling hand.
Pointing into the mist.
"…Far ahead…"
Leah followed her gaze.
She saw nothing.
Only darkness.
Only trees.
Only death.
Another skeleton sprinted toward Thalia;
Mauris stepped forward instantly;
He thrust his spear straight through its chest.
THHRRRRKKK!
BOOOOOOM!
He didn't even look at it.
His eyes stayed on the mist.
Frauner's voice lowered.
"…Is it coming?"
Thalia hesitated.
"…No…"
Relief almost came;
Then she finished.
"…It's waiting."
Another skeleton attacked from Leah's left;
She spun and cut it down.
SSSHHHHLING!
BOOM!
Her breathing was heavier now.
"We can't stay here."
Frauner nodded.
"Agreed."
Henry looked between them.
"Then why aren't they stopping?"
Another skeleton answered him;
SCREEEEEE!
Frauner cut it apart.
BOOOM!
"They don't need to," Frauner said.
Mauris understood first.
His grip tightened.
"…They're exhausting us."
Leah's jaw clenched.
Thalia whispered;
"…It's watching…"
The word felt wrong in the air.
Watching.
Another skeleton lunged at Thalia;
Leah stepped in front of her and drove her sword forward.
SHHHKKK!
BOOOOOM!
She didn't move afterward.
She stayed there.
Guarding her.
Mauris stood at her other side.
His spear ready.
Frauner in front.
Henry in the center.
Thalia protected.
But Thalia's voice came again.
Weak.
Fearful.
Certain.
"…It saw me…"
Frauner froze for half a second.
He turned.
"What?"
Thalia's lips barely moved.
"…It looked at me…"
A skeleton attacked;
Frauner killed it instantly.
SSSHHHHLAAANG!
BOOM!
He stepped closer to her.
"What did it do?"
Thalia's answer came like breaking glass.
"…It stopped my arrow…"
Silence fell between heartbeats.
Even as the dead kept coming.
Leah's voice dropped to a whisper.
"…That's impossible…"
Mauris said nothing.
Because he didn't believe in impossible.
Another skeleton came;
He killed it.
THHRRRKKK!
BOOM!
Frauner stared into the mist.
Not at the skeletons.
Beyond them.
Searching.
For something he could not yet see.
Thalia's fingers tightened weakly on Leah's sleeve.
"…It knows I'm here…"
Henry whispered;
"…Can it see us?"
Thalia answered.
"…Yes…"
A skeleton screamed and charged;
Frauner stepped forward to meet it.
His sword rose.
His voice cold.
"…Then let it watch."
SSSSSSSHHHHHHLAAAAANG!
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
And the battle did not stop.
Henry ducked as a rib flew past his face.
He stabbed upward blindly;
SSSHKKK!
BOOM!
The skeleton collapsed into fragments in front of him.
He stumbled backward toward Thalia, breathing hard.
His hands were shaking.
His voice was small.
Fragile.
"…How… how did you see it?"
Another skeleton lunged at them;
Mauris stepped forward and drove his spear through it.
THHRRRKKK!
BOOOOOOM!
He stayed there.
Guarding.
Listening.
Waiting for her answer too.
Thalia's eyes were distant.
Not looking at the forest.
Looking beyond it.
"My awakening…" she whispered.
Leah blocked another strike above her;
CLANG!
She shoved it back and split its chest open;
SSSHHHHLING!
BOOM!
She glanced at Thalia.
"…What about it?"
Thalia swallowed.
Her voice trembled with exhaustion.
"…It's tied to my arrows…"
Frauner cut down another skeleton in front of them;
SSSHHHHK!
BOOM!
He didn't turn.
But he listened.
Always listening.
Thalia continued.
"…I don't just see what's in front of me…"
Her fingers twitched weakly.
"…I see paths…"
Henry frowned.
"…Paths?"
Mauris killed another skeleton;
THHRRKK!
BOOM!
Thalia nodded faintly.
"…Where the arrow can go…"
She lifted her trembling hand slightly.
"…Where it shouldn't be able to go…"
Leah's breathing slowed.
Understanding began to form.
"…That arrow…"
Thalia whispered,
"…I followed it."
Frauner's grip tightened on his sword.
"You mean…"
Thalia finished it.
"…I was seeing through it."
Silence hit them harder than the explosions.
Henry's eyes widened.
"…You were… there?"
Another skeleton rushed him;
Frauner intercepted instantly;
SSSHHHHLAAANG!
BOOOM!
Henry flinched.
Frauner spoke without turning.
"Continue."
Thalia's voice dropped lower.
"…My awakening sharpens my eyes…"
Her chest rose and fell unevenly.
"…But it's more than sight…"
She placed her hand weakly against her heart.
"…I can feel presence…"
A skeleton tried to reach her;
Leah stepped forward and killed it before it could touch her.
SHHHKKK!
BOOM!
Thalia didn't even react.
"…Far beyond distance…"
Mauris looked into the mist again.
Harder now.
As if trying to force himself to see it too.
"…How far?" he asked.
Thalia whispered,
"…Far enough that it felt me."
That sentence lingered.
Cold.
Heavy.
Alive.
Henry's voice cracked.
"…Felt you…?"
Thalia nodded weakly.
"…When it opened its eyes…"
Her fingers tightened slightly.
"…It wasn't looking at the arrow…"
She hesitated.
Fear flickered across her face.
"…It was looking at me."
Another explosion lit their faces;
BOOOOOOM!
Frauner turned this time.
Fully.
His eyes locked onto hers.
"Are you certain?"
Thalia met his gaze.
And nodded.
"…Yes."
A skeleton screamed and charged;
Frauner killed it without looking.
SSSHHHHLAAANG!
BOOM!
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
"…Then it knows."
Leah's jaw tightened.
Mauris adjusted his stance.
Henry swallowed.
Thalia whispered the truth none of them wanted:
"…We weren't supposed to see it…"
The mist shifted.
The skeletons kept coming.
Endless.
Relentless.
Watching.
And somewhere far beyond the forest;
Something watched back.