Anthony was so surprised that he took the tackle head on. Unfortunately for Anthony, they had reached the end of the wall. Finley had gotten clear as the death knight pushed Anthony.
Both of them fell.
There was a second in which they were in free fall and Anthony questioned everything in his life. His life didn't flash behind his eyes but he did get the feeling that someone was preparing a slide show for his benefit.
"Fuck this shit!"
They fell for at least ten feet, both crunching against the ground. Anthony could feel something breaking in his back. He cursed again, crying out in pain.
She was upon him.
The death knight was now sitting on his stomach, trying to pull her unwieldy bastard sword up for another swing. Everything slowed down around Anthony as the sword went up. Somewhere along the fall, the death knight had lost her grip and only the need to adjust had saved Anthony a small respite.
The little voice in Anthony's head that sounded a lot like Finley pulled at his mana reserves. It was now time for him to act like a cleric. And if there was one thing that Anthony wanted to do ever since he got into this world, ever since he went to nursing school it was to heal himself.
And if there was a way to heal the death knight?
Anthony would be the first one to figure it out.
"Heal!" He said placing one hand on himself and one hand on her. Where his bare hand contacted the death knight's body, it burned. Blue flames shot up from his outstretched hand as it went deeper, sinking into her torso. She stopped short, nearly dropping her sword.
Unfortunately for him, at this time she flashed a smile. She was a predator, and he was her prey.
She punched him in the face with her broken hand, then adjusted her grip. Anthony knew that she wouldn't stop next time.
"Fuck! Take that!" He yelled.
Blue smoke poured out, obscuring her face. This was probably the only time in the recorded history of this world where someone had tried to heal a death knight. It did not go well for either the undead or the person trying to heal it. As her visage shuddered, she began to bring its bastard sword up with her one full remaining hand.
If he died right here, he could accept this trade. His friends would be along to finish it off, shortly, even if his death was just a distraction. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his head that he might rise again as a death knight. That little bit kept him going, kept the spark alive. He might die, but he would be damn sure that he would take her down with him.
She breathed down upon him, icy breath that spoke of the need for regular dental checkups.
Anthony struggled against the weight of the tall thick woman. He had a quick flashback to his night with Sonya. He realized in a panic that it wasn't going to workout nearly as well for him. There wasn't much else for him to do except dump all of his mana in a final Hail Mary attack. His tunnel vision narrowed on her, mana focusing on one final push.
She raised her arm up to take a swing. For some reason Anthony remembered his days playing at the arcades. He raised his right hand to her neck. It had never felt so heavy and at the same time, so light.
"Holy Bolt!"
A white bolt of mana blew a basketball sized hole in her shoulder. The holy bolt continued on arcing into the sky as it lit up the battlefield. Her head hung limply on the opposite side. The bastard sword did not stop moving.
Anthony embraced his death. He had always wanted to die a good death and-
He was interrupted by part of the wall coming out to grab the death knight's arm. The wall enveloped the bastard sword and then began to pull. The red eyes of the death knight opened wide with alarm. She began to scramble to get up.
"Stay away from my fucking boyfriend," the most beautiful voice he had ever heard said. "Because I don't want to be that girl but this isn't the time to be playing 'Pick me' girl. Because I just took a DNA test-"
The earth next to Anthony crunched. The death knight was far too late.
"And I'm one hundred percent that bitch!"
Anthony relaxed into the ground. He was going to have to get up, but perhaps he had a minute? Satisfied that he had done enough. His hand dropped onto the ground and came up wet.
"Oh. Yeah I did hit the ground pretty hard," he said, slipping into unconsciousness.
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The effect after she had crushed the death knight was immediate. Most of the zombies slowed down significantly and lost their direction. A few kept moving towards them, but without a coordinated effort, then instead began to walk around, looking for their next meal.
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"Mount up!" Sonya said, drawing her dagger.
"Hey! Just because uh-" Bob said peering down.
"Just fucking do it, Bob," She said. "And get Finley. I'll get Anthony. We're going to need you to heal them."
Bob went to grab the quivering green mass that had been an elf earlier that day. Stella was already getting people to the escape route. Sophie, now behind the front lines, was counting people and horses.
"Sophie! Two wounded!" Sonya yelled. "Make room!"
Sonya tapped into her warlock powers, feeling the well nearly dry. She would have nothing left soon, but Zan could take her place.
"Zan! Wide area defense! I'm getting our wounded out of here!" She yelled.
"On it! Zappity zap!" Zan yelled back. Electric lightning sparks raced out of her hands towards the few orcs that had remained on the walls.
Sonya used the earth as an elevator, taking her magic from an eighth of a tank to nearly empty. She pulled the corpse of the death knight out of the earth using the remainder of her power. Using her dagger, she quickly cut the soul card out of the death knight. The dark black card looked ominous, and she quickly tucked it away. The black card pieces right next to it glowed, and she put them away as well.
More than anything, she wanted to make sure that the death knight really had been crushed. That she was easily able to harvest its soul card meant that it was done. If nothing else, the magic behind the death knights required the magic of a card in its soul deck.
"I know I'm a queen, I don't need no crown," she muttered, picking up Anthony. His back was dripping wet, possibly with blood. She stiffened.
Sonya pulled on her warlock powers, pulling his gambeson as close as possible to his skin. It was the best she could do to shrink it, turning Anthony into a shrink wrapped sandwich from his torso down. She lifted him up, then slung him over her shoulder.
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Andrew thought that everything that the humans did was odd. This whole world with its odd magic was reason enough for him to stick with them for the long term though.
That and the ability to make his flame flinger. Only heathens would call such a beautiful instrument of destruction a flamethrower. One didn't just throw flames.
One flung them.
Flames were meant to be flung.
As the sun began to set though, he finally got his wish. Andrew, one of the first to reach the caravan, got to set up everything. There was a reason that his cart, the uncovered wagon, was the last one in the line. Sparkling brass lifted off the final rays of sunshine as he came close to touching it. It was the closest thing he'd ever had to a religious experience when he created it.
And now, he would deliver hot Justice.
"Mount up!" Bob yelled again. The horses began to run.
"Everyone is on board!" Sophie yelled back.
"Or mounted!" Brandon added, from atop the horse next to him. He nodded to Andrew.
"Hold on, then!" Stella said from the front of his cart. The horses began to move in earnest. There would be time to go back for the bodies and the loot. Hundreds of mindless orcs were following them, and they needed to create space.
"Zan, are you ready, lass?" He said. Zan began forming mana in her hand, passing them to him. He didn't need much, but without one of them holding it, they would quickly dissolve into motes of mana that he couldn't use. That wouldn't help much for his experimental gee shooter.
"Can I have the second fling?" She said.
"Lass with you," he said, letting a flame loose at the zombies, "It ain't nothing but a gee fling!"
The flames flew, arcing over the ground towards the closest enemies. It looked like a small meteor hated the orc that it came into contact with.
"I got next. Also, that only counts for one," Zan said, passing mana to him.
"Aye, that will work," Andrew said, passing the controls to her. "Now aim with-"
She took the controls, her eyes alight. Her shot hit two orcs and a dwarf.
"Four!" She squealed.
Andrew wasn't afraid for himself. He feared what she could do with his tools. After all, he has made the tool, but she supplied the ammunition.
The flames began to spark into a wildfire behind them. Andrew turned his attention to their surroundings. He didn't know how dry the tall grass was, but it wouldn't take much.
"Three!" Andrew said.
"Well, this is going to be something, Andrew. I think that this is going to save us," Zan said, swapping out with him. Neither one of them was certain how long that the gee thing would last. The testing was supposed to go on the following day, and barring some initial test runs that day, the pair had run out of time. His gee thing was getting its field test today.
"I hope that we can get Sonya back to full working strength, because this might spread into a larger fire if we're not careful," Andrew said. Aiming at the nearest set of orcs. He flung another volley of flame, hitting their legs. "Two more!"
"We need to worry about getting out of here first. That and are we finally getting further away from them? Did the horses pick up the pace?"
"Perhaps the fire did something? I would want to trot my arse off if I saw that behind me. I know that they had a vague sense of what was going on," he said.
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Bob, Mork's best in show pony, knelt in the back of the first caravan.
An unconscious Anthony was there. He was probably going to make it through. Bob had spent all of his mana, then waited two full minutes before doing it again. He knew that he was going to have to go out there. His work wasn't done, but without Anthony himself acting as the cleric, he was going to have to fill in. Their backup healer, Finley, was in the next wagon-his original wagon laying prostrate. Bob had given the green man one look before stepping to deal with Sonya's stoic face.
She had sat next to Bob, and without saying anything, they both had an understanding of how important Anthony was to their survival. Both of them would do their damned best to destroy their enemies.
Bob began to keep pace with the rear caravan. The uncovered wagon, the group's first new set of wheels, had served them well. It now looked like it had a grenade gun mounted on the back. At least that was how the brass instrument looked to Bob.
The caravan started to put distance between themselves and the horde. The two living orcs sat huddled in the last cart as Zan and Andrew went at it. Sophie and Stella, he had ordered to take the front, leading the caravan back to Arva.