Frauner and Mauris planted their left feet.
Pushed.
THUD!
And charged again.
Behind them;
Thalia loaded another arrow;
Her lips moved.
Silent.
Focused.
Ancient
A skeleton lunged at her from the mist;
Leah moved first.
SSSSSHHHHHHLAAAAAANG!
Her blade cut through its glowing heart;
BOOOOOOOOM!
She spun with the explosion;
Bone fragments spiraling around her;
Hair whipping;
Eyes locked on the king.
Henry stayed close to Thalia.
Dagger ready.
Breathing hard.
Protecting her.
Guarding hope.
Ahead;
The king slowly brought the sickles together again.
CLIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG…
The sound echoed.
Across mist.
Across bone.
Across fear.
And the Bone King waited.
Ready to reap.
Frauner and Mauris planted their left feet.
Pushed.
THUD!
And launched forward together.
The mist tore apart as they charged.
The Bone King did not retreat.
He welcomed them.
Frauner's spear struck first ;
A brutal forward thrust aimed straight for the hollow ribs.
CLAAANG!
One black sickle snapped upward, hooking the spear's shaft and wrenching it sideways. The impact jarred Frauner's shoulders, but he twisted with it, boots grinding into earth, redirecting the force instead of losing balance.
Mauris was already there.
His sword came down in a savage diagonal arc;
SHRRAAAANG!
The second sickle intercepted, sparks screaming as steel scraped across cursed bone-metal.
The Bone King moved faster than decay had any right to move.
He pivoted.
Both sickles spun outward in a flashing crescent ;
WHOOOOSH!
Frauner ducked barely in time. The curved blade sliced through the air above his head, severing strands of hair.
Mauris stepped inside the spin;
Too close for wide swings.
His sword drove forward, aiming for the glowing cavity in the king's chest;
But the Bone King's elbow snapped down.
CRACK!
The hilt of the sickle slammed against Mauris' ribs and hurled him backward.
Frauner roared.
He reversed his grip and thrust again;
This time low.
The spearhead pierced through the king's femur joint;
THUNK!
For a heartbeat;
It held.
The Bone King's skull tilted.
Then,
He pulled.
Hard.
Frauner felt the unnatural strength rip the spear from his hands.
The king twisted the embedded weapon free and flung it aside.
Before Frauner could recover;
Both sickles came down in crossing arcs.
X-shaped.
Merciless.
Mauris rolled, dragging Frauner with him.
The blades slammed into earth where they had stood;
BOOOOOM!
Soil erupted.
Roots split.
Mist blasted outward.
Frauner regained his footing first.
He lunged barehanded toward his fallen spear.
Mauris charged again without waiting;
Sword flashing in relentless combinations.
Left.
Right.
Low cut.
Upward strike.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Each blow met a sickle in a blur of metallic shrieks.
The Bone King stepped backward once.
Only once.
Then he advanced.
Faster.
Both sickles spinning now;
A storm of curved death.
Frauner reclaimed his spear and rejoined the assault.
Two warriors.
One king.
Steel versus reaping blades.
Mist swirling like a witness to slaughter.
And neither side yielding an inch.
Both sickles rose.
Execution.
They came down together;
CLIIIIINNNNNGGGG!
Frauner's sword slammed upward, intercepting the twin arcs just inches above Mauris' chest.
Steel shrieked.
Sparks burst between them.
Frauner's boots dug into the earth as the weight of both sickles crashed down on him. His arms trembled under the force, muscles straining, teeth bared in a silent snarl.
The Bone King leaned in.
Pressing.
Grinding.
Testing his strength.
Frauner pushed back with a roar;
"GET UP!"
Mauris rolled sideways just as Frauner twisted his wrist and knocked one sickle off balance.
The second sickle scraped across Frauner's shoulder;
SSSHHK!
Blood spilled.
But he did not yield.
Mauris forced himself to one knee, breath ragged, vision swimming.
His spear lay a few feet away;
He lunged for it.
The Bone King recoiled a step.
Then surged again.
Too fast.
One sickle spun low;
Frauner jumped back.
The other came high;
Mauris snatched up his spear and raised it in desperate defense.
CLANG!
The impact drove him down again.
The Bone King pivoted between them now.
A predator.
One with a sword.
One with a spear.
Both wounded.
Both still standing.
Mist coiling at their ankles.
Blood darkening the forest floor.
And the rhythm of battle rising once more.
An arrow struck.
THUK!
It buried itself deep into the Bone King's leg ; between knee and ankle.
Dark blood spilled down ivory bone.
He stilled.
Slowly;
He turned.
Another arrow screamed through the mist.
He tilted aside; it grazed his bone mask;
SKRRRRT!
A shallow scratch carved across the pale surface before the arrow spun away.
A third arrow came.
He jumped back;
The shaft slicing through empty air where his skull had been a breath before.
Mauris saw it.
"He's bleeding! If he bleeds, we can kill him!"
Frauner's eyes locked onto the dark stains dripping to the forest floor.
"Yeah," he growled. "He's not pure bone. No shining diamond in his chest."
His grip tightened on his sword.
"We can kill him."
Another arrow flew past them mid-sentence.
The Bone King sliced it cleanly with a flick of his sickle.
His hollow gaze shifted.
Far.
Through the mist.
At the source.
At the other end of the battlefield;
Thalia ran.
Not blindly.
Not wildly.
Measured strides over roots and broken bone.
Draw.
Nock.
Release.
Her fingers moved with mechanical grace, breath steady despite the sprint.
Each arrow left her bow like a verdict.
Beside her, Leah moved like a streak of silver flame ;blade carving through lunging skeletons without breaking pace. Bone shattered in her wake, explosions flashing behind her as she advanced.
Henry stayed close to Thalia's flank, dagger ready, eyes scanning every shadow. He did not chase kills.
He guarded her rhythm.
Three of them cutting forward through mist and ruin;
Archer.
Blade.
Shield.
Closing the distance.
And the Bone King now watching them approach.