Bone King straightened.
One arm bleeding.
One sickle forged of scattered remains.
Frauner wounded.
Leah charging.
Thalia advancing despite exhaustion.
The Bone King's hollow gaze burned brighter.
The reaper was no longer amused.
He was hunting.
Mauris saw the shift in the Bone King's stance.
Saw Frauner's sword fall.
Saw Thalia still drawing.
He sprinted.
Fast.
Passing her in a blur.
As he crossed her path, he spoke without turning his head.
"Thalia ! you've used too much stamina. Don't use more. Even refilling the arrows in your shoulder box is dangerous for you."
His voice hardened.
"I don't want to see you collapse like the prince."
He kept running.
"Take some rest!"
The words struck harder than any warning.
Thalia slowed for half a breath.
Annoyance flared;
Then memory.
The prince falling.
Helpless.
Breath failing.
Her jaw tightened.
She lowered the bowstring.
Stopped drawing arrows.
Instead;
She gripped the bow horizontally.
The twin short blades fixed at either end catching the dim light.
Her breath steadied.
Fine.
If not arrows;
Then steel.
She surged forward.
Speed building step by step.
"Henry! keep your distance!" she ordered.
Henry understood instantly.
He slowed.
Let her go.
Ahead....
Leah was already near the Bone King.
Mauris closing in behind her.
Thalia just behind Mauris;
Her pace increasing.
Across the clearing;
Frauner regained his footing.
He sprinted;
And without slowing, scooped his fallen sword from the ground with one hand.
The motion seamless.
The blade rising as he ran.
Leah struck first.
Her sword flashed toward the Bone King's throat;
A decisive horizontal cut meant to end him.
Leah's blade cut first.
A horizontal arc aimed clean for the throat.
The Bone King caught it on the inner curve of his sickle;
CLAAANG!
Sparks burst between steel and cursed bone.
He twisted, forcing her blade aside;
But Frauner was already there.
Sword descending from above.
The Bone King stepped back and raised the long-handled bone-scythe;
SHRRAAANG!
Frauner's strike collided with it, the impact vibrating up both their arms.
Mauris lunged from the flank.
Spear thrusting like a lightning bolt toward the ribs.
The Bone King pivoted sharply, one sickle hooking the spear's shaft while the other slashed toward Mauris' face.
Mauris dropped low;
The blade slicing air above him.
Leah re-entered from the left.
Vertical strike;
He blocked.
Frauner swept low;
He jumped.
Mauris ripped his spear free and spun;
But the Bone King moved like something unbound by flesh.
He stepped through their timing.
Inside their rhythm.
A sickle lashed backward;
SSSHHK!
Leah's shoulder guard split, though she held firm.
Frauner drove forward with a brutal shoulder bash;
The Bone King staggered half a step.
Enough.
Thalia arrived.
She slid between Mauris and Frauner, bow held horizontally.
The twin blades at its ends flashed.
She slashed upward at the Bone King's side;
He recoiled;
But she pivoted and reversed the weapon, slicing backhand toward his exposed wrist.
Steel kissed bone.
A thin line of dark blood followed.
The Bone King snarled.
He spun the long-handled sickle in a wide circle;
All four warriors jumped back as the arc tore through mist.
Thalia did not retreat far.
In one fluid motion she stepped away;
Dropped to a half crouch;
Drew an arrow;
Released.
The shot came from within the melee itself.
Too close.
Too fast.
The Bone King tilted his skull aside;
The arrow grazed his jaw and embedded in a tree behind him.
Leah charged again.
No pause.
Her blade struck in relentless combinations.
High.
Low.
Diagonal.
The Bone King intercepted twice;
But Frauner came from behind with a heavy downward cleave;
Forcing him to block high.
Mauris saw the opening.
He thrust the spear hard toward the knee joint already wounded.
THUNK!
The tip punched through.
The Bone King jerked violently and retaliated with a savage backhand;
The sickle carving a shallow cut across Mauris' forearm.
Thalia slid forward again.
This time she spun her bow like a staff;
Left blade slashing toward the ribs;
Right blade hooking at the elbow.
Metal screeched.
She ducked under a retaliating swing;
Then, impossibly fast;
Drew another arrow mid-spin.
Released point-blank toward his chest.
The shaft struck;
But the Bone King twisted at the last breath.
It drove into his side instead of the heart.
He roared.
Both sickles whirled outward;
A storm of curved death.
Leah locked blades with him;
Frauner braced against the long handle;
Mauris planted his spear crosswise to halt the downward press;
And Thalia drove her knife-blade into the wounded leg joint.
All four pushing.
All four bleeding.
Mist swirling violently around them.
Steel shrieking.
Bone cracking.
The Bone King standing at the center;
Furious.
Wounded.
But not yet falling.
And the forest shaking from the force of their clash.