Leah sprinted.
Straight at him.
No hesitation.
Frauner pushed forward too
Boots pounding earth.
Sword raised.
The mist closed in again around them.
Two warriors charging.
One reaping king rising.
Mauris sprinted toward the charging skeletons.
Not limping.
Not hesitating.
Spear leveled.
The first skeleton lunged;
He drove straight through it.
THUNK!
The spearhead burst through its ribcage and out its spine. He twisted hard, ripping it free. Brittle ribs snapped and scattered across the forest floor.
He stepped through the collapsing frame without breaking stride.
Another came from the right.
Blade raised.
Mauris ducked under the swing and swept his spear low.
CRACK!
Its legs shattered at the knees.
Before it could fall fully;
He reversed his grip and smashed the butt of the spear upward into its skull.
The head burst apart in a spray of bone fragments.
A third rushed him headlong.
Mauris pivoted and kicked;
Hard.
His boot connected with its sternum.
Already weakened bones exploded outward from the impact, scattering like thrown pebbles.
Behind him;
An arrow hissed past his shoulder.
THUK!
It pierced clean through a skeleton's eye socket.
The skull snapped back and separated from the spine as the body collapsed into pieces.
Thalia was back on her feet.
Breathing heavy.
But steady.
Draw.
Release.
Draw.
Release.
Her arrows struck joints.
Knees.
Elbows.
Spines.
Each shot precise, disabling movement before Mauris finished the rest.
One skeleton leapt toward him;
An arrow drove through its ribs midair.
It dropped at his feet.
Mauris spun with the momentum, planting his spear into the ground and vaulting forward, bringing his heel down onto a half-formed ribcage.
CRRRAACK!
The remains flattened beneath him.
He yanked the spear free and hurled it with a roar.
The weapon pierced through two skeletons in a brutal line, pinning them together before their bones split and collapsed in a clattering heap.
The clearing began to quiet.
Bone fragments littered the ground.
Mist drifted through the wreckage.
Mauris stood among the remains, chest rising and falling hard.
Behind him;
Thalia lowered her bow slightly.
Henry guarding her flank.
Both watching
.
Because across the clearing;
The true storm still raged.
Mauris drove his spear forward one final time.
THUNK!
The last skeleton split through the spine.
He ripped the weapon free and spun with the motion;
Landing on one foot.
Balanced.
Breathing hard.
Around him;
Bones clattered to the ground in widening circles.
Fragments rolling to stillness at his boots.
Silence claimed that side of the clearing.
Behind him;
Thalia turned.
Drew.
Nocked an arrow toward the Bone King.
Her hands trembled faintly.
A thin line of blood slipped from the corner of her mouth.
Too much stamina burned.
Too much power forced through a mortal frame.
She wiped it with her wrist.
Inhaled.
Held still.
On the other end....
Leah charged.
The Bone King had just steadied himself from the blast;
Sliding one foot back, sickle scraping dirt;
When Leah leapt.
Sword raised overhead.
A descending strike meant to cleave crown from skull.
Midair;
He muttered something.
Low.
Harsh.
His free hand rose.
And stopped her.
Not by steel.
Not by touch.
The air seized her.
Leah froze in midair as if caught in invisible chains.
Her body locked inches from him.
Boots suspended above ground.
Hair suspended in windless mist.
Her sword trembled in her hands as she tried to force it down.
Veins rose along her neck.
Teeth clenched.
Muscles straining.
But she could not move.
The air around her distorted;
Like glass tightening around a trapped flame.
The Bone King tilted his head.
Slowly.
Curiously.
Then he began to twist his raised hand;
The same motion he had used to redirect arrows.
To bend force.
To break trajectories.
And Leah felt it.
Pressure closing in on her ribs.
Her shoulder grinding painfully in its socket.
Her wrist starting to turn;
Unnaturally.
The invisible grip tightening.
Preparing to snap.
.......
Frauner saw Leah suspended;
Saw the unnatural twist beginning in her arm;
And sprinted.
Sword low.
Driving in from the Bone King's blind side.
He roared as he swung;
A killing arc aimed at the neck.
The Bone King did not turn fully.
He only whispered;
"Ossur'kai… Vireth thraal."
The ground answered.
Scattered, scarred bones lying across the clearing trembled;
Then shot upward at lightning speed toward his outstretched left hand.
Ribs.
Spines.
Jagged femurs.
They collided midair;
SNAP! CRACK! FUSE!
Assembling instantly into a long, brutal sickle with an extended handle of fused vertebrae.
The new weapon locked into his grip a breath before Frauner's blade descended;
CLAAAAANG!
Steel met bone-scythe.
The impact rang through the clearing.
Frauner's strike halted inches from the hollow crown.
At the same instant;
An arrow split the air.
Thalia.
Right leg kneeling.
Still steady.
The shaft drove clean through the Bone King's raised hand;
THUK!
The very hand twisting Leah's arm.
The spell shattered.
The invisible force collapsed.
Leah dropped.
Air rushed back into her lungs as control returned to her limbs.
She landed on one knee;
The other foot planting hard;
Sword scraping earth to slow her fall.
No pause.
No hesitation.
She pushed off.
And charged the Bone King again;
Eyes burning.
Blade ready;
As Frauner pressed from the opposite side.