Battle cries rang out as the living and the dead collided. The number of dead was surprisingly high, leavening Herro counting the difference and noting that the group they were with was a lot smaller than the number of patrols they’d lost.
“We’ll take this side!” Razor yelled as he darted past Herro, his sword parrying slashes from his fallen subjects.
With a scowl, Herro fired a ball of energy into the crowd, “Where did he get so many bodies?”
“What?” Razor asked, slicing the legs of one amazon as he dragged it up through the abdomen of another, “That’s a good question.”
The swarm kept coming as arrows flew through the air and slammed into foreheads and eye sockets, dropping the zombies only for them to rise again.
“Highness,” Archer’s voice came from the other side of Razor, his broadsword slamming straight down the center of a zombie, almost bisecting it.
Razor put his hand out and one of the zombies burst into flame, “What?”
“We need to get you to safety, there are dozens of zombies.”
“No,” Razor said with a terse clipped tone as he rammed his sword through the head of another zombie and ducked one swinging a dagger at him, “I will not hide behind my people as they fight.”
Archers jaw tensed but he didn’t break his fighting, “We may be warriors, but you are the future of our kingdom.”
Without w arning a zombie charged from the behind another as its fellow got burned to a crisp. Slaming it’s shoulder into Razor’s gut and sending him flying. Catching himself with a backflip he glared at the creature before returning a charge and impaling it.
“Not happening,” He glanced at Archer, “I lead from the front, as always.”
Letting out a sigh, Archer cuts through a pair of zombies, batting another’s arm away from his body, “I thought I would at least try Highness.”
A bit away, completely oblivious to the Amazons, Herro threw small spells at zombies, their bodies flying aparet as the spells connected. He saw the pieces on the ground lose their magical aura nd become inert flesh again.
“Ugh, is there no end to these things.” He griped as he watched more come from seemingly everywhere.
Between one spell and another as he rose his hand to target another zombie, he felt his legs grabbed. Letting out a scream he looked down and saw a trio of zombies rising from the ground and grabbing his legs.
With a word he sent the magical energy he had contained for the spell down his body and into the ground. His clothed smoked as they were singed and the bodies of the zombies started to crumble, leaving charred skeletons where he’d stood.
Razor pushed off of another zombie, his sword pulling free of its chest as it slumped to the ground. Glancing around he saw more zombies than he’d ever had people here, and his remaining guards were being swarmed.
Letting out a guttural growl he shouted, “Fall Back! Don’t let them flank you and form rear guard near the street!”
Passing buy he grabbed Herro, causing the Magia to jump with a soft yelp of surprise before he saw he was being pulled away from more zombies by a living person.
“Edgy Much?”
Herro scowled at the other man as they broke through a line of bodies that started fighting zombies all around them, “We need to get inside there.”
“Great idea,” Razor said dryly, “How do you propose we do that?”
“No, we can’t win here. The zombies aren’t real, but they aren’t illusions either.”
Stopping briefly past the guards, Razor turned and looked, wiping his sword quickly one the ground before looking out at the zombie horde, “Yeah I figured it was something like that. The corpses seem to meld with the earth, but then we can’t find them with our earth magic.”
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“We can’t ask your people to do that though,” Herro said obviously talking aloud only part of his thoughts.
“Ask them to do what?” Razor asked, “Defend us so we can get to the heart of this? Risk everything for us to do this? Look around and tell me what you see.”
Following Razor’s command, Herro glanced around. He saw wounded Amazons either treating their own wounds or getting treated by another. They growled in pain but no one was wailing and confidence seemed to exude from them. All the faces were optimistic and there was even joking as the front line where they kept a tally of their kills. Not a one seemed downtrodden amidst this overwhelming force and they fought as if they could not die, despite a number of bodies being dead on the ground behind the zombies.
Razor grinned as he watched the realization dawn in Herro’s eyes as they came to rest on his again, “I told you we are a warrior people. We train since birth for fighting, even if it’s only for sport. I also like to think I rate pretty highly amongst my people.”
“That still,” Herro started, “That still doesn’t mean we should ask them to die for us.”
“We aren’t. We are asking that they guard our backs as we go into and deeper into the danger that we are sending them into.”
Herro growled before sighing, “Yeah I guess you’re right.”
“Alright then,” Razor said, his smile widening, as he yelled to his people, “Fall into Spearhead and get me and this idiot here into the center!”
Archer was heard calling orders before turning to him, “You’re sure Highness?”
“Yes,”
He watched Archer run into the front and they started moving forward. Razor glanced and saw Herro with a short wand held in his hand that he was using and chanting.
“Eh,” Razor laughed, “Y’er a Wizard ‘Arry!”
As he finished the chant, Herro’s wand slightly drooped as he hung his head, “Oh god, don’t compare me to him.”
“Well whatever it was you did seems to be working,” Razor said as he watched their spearhead gain ground with greater alacrity than only moments before.
Passing the edge of barrier, Herro felt the necromantic energy around them spike, sending a shiver through his spine. He put his wand up and with a slight murmur of a spell a smaller bubble appears around the group before slimming down and wrapping each member in a bubble around each of the members in the spearhead.
“He’s in a warehouse in the center!” Herro yells, the bubble keeping the energy at bay, but still letting him sense its origins.
Razor glances the way Herro points, scowling, “We need to get through the zombies.”
“Yes Highness,” Archer said from his point, “We aren’t making good headway and the zombies keep coming. Does the young Magia have a way to get you through the horde?”
Herro glanced around then nodded, a slight smile on his face, “I might. I’ve practiced this spell but never really gotten around to being able to use it on a person.”
“Do it,” Razor nodded.
With a return nod Herro changed and pointed his wand at Razor. With a sudden flare, the air around Razor burst into a flaming aura, the flow ruffling his hair and clothes. Herro stepped back, a slight reddening of his skin showing the heat.
Razor glanced at his arm before clenching his hand into a fist. With a wide smile he looked at Herro, “I could kiss you.”
“Please don’t.” Herro cringed, pulling back and expecting Razor to do it.
He opened his eyes to see Razor up behind the line of Amazon’s speaking to Archer and the other officers. Razor glances back and waves Herro forward, “They’re gonna open up and I’ll run through. You follow behind before thy close ranks again.”
“It will be easy. This spell is supposed to be more effective against undead, so you should be able to cut through them like butter.”
With a huge smile plastered on his face Razor holds his arms out and makes a few superhero poses, “Should I be Flame Lord, or is that too obvious a name?”
“Ugh,” Herro rolls his eyes, “Can we get going?”
Still grinning, Razor motions the guards to separate. With a practiced motion they split and razor darted out. With a slight curse at the Amazons haste, Herro ran after him, the Amazons closing ranks behind him and Archers voice the last coherent sound before the zombie groans and moans blotted them out, “Be well Highness.”
Blasting zombies away as others burned, Herro could feel the pull of the necromantic energy get stronger. The odd thing is the number of zombies decreased as they got closer.
He watched as Razor laughed almost with glee as he shouted while attacking the zombies.
“Burning Fingers!” Razor shouted as his flame coated hands burned into a zombie and it fell down. He spun and leveled a punch into another, “Flame Fist!”
Herro shook his head as he threw spells at approaching zombies. His disbelief at the Amazon prince calling his moves and showing off while they were trying to save the day.
“Darkness Beyond Twilight. Crimson Beyond Blood that Flows,” Herro heard Razor start chanting as a surge of the undead roared and closed in on him and obscured the rest of his chant until a burst of fire from Razor’s point, incinerating zombie flesh as a scream is heard, “Dragon Slave!”
Gawking for a second, Herro almost lost Razor as the other man ran through the newly cleared area towards the warehouse.
Razor burst through the tail end, slashing a few zombies as they lit on fire. Dismissing the flame spell Herro chanted and all the zombies near them flew away like pushed by a gale force wind.
“Over there,” Herro said once he lowered his wand. He started walking towards the door, Razor at his side. Once they got to the building, Herro tried the door. It didn’t move as he pulled it.
Razor grinned and gripped the industrial handle, “I got this.”
With one foot braced on the wall, he pulled and the door broke free of the frame with a rusted screech. Razor stopped the door before it hit the wall and Herro ran inside. Razor started in and felt a heat on his back as he flew through the air, an explosion of magic slamming the door shut again leaving Herro alone in the building, and sending razor into a nearby warehouse through one of the stone walls.