The long, grizzled finger bathed in the purple light still pointed at them, stopping their progress in their track. Faro even didn’t have time to think about his next move when an arrow came whizzing over his shoulder. The whooshing sound cut through the air, and was so close to him he felt the air from the arrow's path on his big, furry ear.
Lena’s arrow found its mark and hit Amazadan in the forearm, making him draw his arm back momentarily. The magical light disappeared, and Faro took that as his cue to start pulling as hard as he could on the rope. A few pulls further didn’t get them very far before bony, green hands began reaching up from beneath the water and trying to pull their owners up onto the raft.
“Circle up! Take a side!” Lena yelled above the din of groans that began to fill the air as countless undead elves began to try and heave their way up to overtake them and pull them down into the depths.
Lena, Thora, Mathias, and Tobi each took a side of the raft, and as they began knocking back the hands and slashing into the faces that emerged, Faro pulled with all of his might to try and get them toward the other side of the lake. He wasn’t sure that forward was the best option for them to go, but they still had a mission, and he just hoped that forward would yield less undead to face than this particular spot.
Amazadan pulled the arrow from his arm and began flying around them in the air. Lena was now distracted by the undead coming from the water, so the sorcerer elf was able to use his magic unchecked. Faro caught a glimpse of him and saw that he now looked pissed. The scowl on his face showed wrath as he ignited his hands in purple and raised them both into the air, fingers up as if grasping something.
The reaction from this motion was undead elves rising straight up from the water and into the air. With a flick of his hands, Amazadan sent these elves flying down to land in the center of the raft. This action spooked the horses who went barreling over the side. Thora had to quickly skirt around one of them, almost being knocked in herself by the big beasts careening into the green water.
They could hear the horses high, panicked whinnies as they were pulled down into the depths by more of the undead creatures. Now it was just the five of them on the raft with five undead elves right in the middle, and more coming up over the side.
Faro thought that the fight in Graeton had put them in a tight spot, but now they were utterly surrounded by these ghastly creatures trying to pull them down into the depths below. Outnumbered, he dropped the rope and pulled out his bigger hammer. “Keep the perimeter!” he yelled to his friends, charging into the elves that had taken the middle of the raft.
Luckily for them, the quick move by Faro brought all of their attention to the lion, and they moved to attack him. Faro swung the hammer with all of his might, dropping two elves in one quick move. The other three moved in on him. Each had a long, elven blade. Their weapons appeared to all be decorated with the same ornate designs that their clothes were. Faro wondered why, as he dropped the other three, all of these intricately dressed and armed elves were brought to such a fate.
Amazadan was busy pulling up more undead and hurling them onto the raft. Faro made it a point to bash them and kick them over the side before they had a chance to gain their footing. He could see Thora flailing her mace as she lost some ground and a few elves climbed up over the sides. The other three seemed to be keeping their attackers at bay well enough. Faro thought they were doing pretty well for how outnumbered they were, but they were sitting dead in the water with no end to the onslaught of enemies in sight. He found himself wishing that he had some kind of ranged weapon to take Amazadan down. If he could just get the sorcerer elf down, they could work to move out of this mess.
Faro swung his hammer into another elf, and stepped in closer to Thora, kicking one of her assailants overboard and smashing his hammer into the chest of another.
“Thanks!” she yelled to him as she focused her attention back on the edge where they were trying to board the raft.
Another set of elves landed in the middle of the raft and Faro charged at them, but instead of hitting them he grabbed one and rolled of his back, using the momentum to launch himself over closer to Lena.
“I’ve got this side!” he yelled to her over the groans and the clashing of metal on metal. Clear out the middle, and then take down that sorcerer!”
She nodded and got to work. She already had two blades in her hands, her trusty elven swords, not too unlike those that they were up against. She went low and sliced out the legs from a pair at once, dropping them down to the floor of the wooden raft. In the same swift move she brought both swords up and together, taking off the head of the last elf standing between her and a moment's reprieve to make her next move.
From there, Lena quickly sheathed her swords at her hips and snagged the bow from her back. An arrow quickly found her hand and she was aiming at Amazadan a split second later.
Catching on to their new tactic, Amazadan crossed his arms and brought the new set of undead elves straight from the water to float right in front of him, making a shield between himself and the raft. Lena quickly loosed an arrow and dropped the center figure blocking the sorcerer. With another arrow quickly knocked she aimed at her main target’s face, but the arrow was blocked by a quick move from Amazadan, sending another undead elf to take the arrow for him. After this happened two more times, Lena knew she needed a new tactic, and she could feel her quiver was down to one arrow.
“Faro!” she screamed. “Hammer! Up top!”
Faro turned and saw her point at the meat shields their enemy had employed against them, and then remembered his little hammer he had strapped to his waist. Taking aim he slung the hammer as hard as he could through the air at the three elves blocking their target. The hammer only caught one of them in the leg, but the sudden, unexpected weapon flying at them had caused Amazadan to move a little too high behind his blockade.
Lena’s arrow found it’s mark in the undead sorcerer’s neck. The three meat shields dropped down into the lake with a splash, and Amazadan let out a high pitched shriek. The sound pierced the air and caused everyone in the party to flinch. They all turned to watch as the elf faltered. He careened through the air in a swirling spiral until he caught himself just above the water and floated back up a bit.
The shriek stopped, his face a picture of wraith, and he began to quickly chant words. Not world's of a language that Faro knew, but that had meant bad news in his adventures so far. It was the magic language that he did not know. It was coming out as almost a gurgle because of the arrow lodged in his neck, but words could be discerned from his mouth none-the-less.
Lena reached instinctively for another arrow in her quiver to find that she was empty. “Dammit!” she yelled, reslinging her bow and pulling her two swords again. The onslaught of undead elves seemed to have stopped their attempt to board the raft as their master had moved on to his next threat.
The water below Amazadan began to bubble. The party stared in horror, wondering what was about to come out and attack them. Then, quicker than any of them could gage, something shot up straight out of the water and into the air.
It was a giant purple serpent as thick around as an old redwood tree. In one swift move it launched itself ten feet out of the water, mouth open wide, and snatched up Amazadan whole.
“Oh, shit!” Tobi yelled in shock, dropping his axe head down to the raft, while still holding onto the handle. The back of the serpent’s body was still in the water, even though it’s head was ten feet in the air, coming back down after having devoured their combatant.
With a huge splash that sent a wave of the foul-smelling green water over all of them, the serpent plunged back down into the depths, and the water became still. They all slowly made their way over to the edge of the raft and tried to look down into the depths, but saw nothing.
“Maybe he didn’t say it right?” asked Thora, perplexed at their turn of good fortune. Tobi burst out laughing at the thought.
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“That’s what magic will get you,” said Mathias from behind them all. He had pulled a rag from his side pouch and was wiping green goo from the undead elves off of his blade.
“I thought you vowed to learn magic?” Lena asked him pointedly.
Mathias sighed. “Okay, fine. For Osric. I guess that’s what dark magic will get you. I know that I said…”
“Shhh!” shushed Thora sharply. “What’s that sound?”
They all drew quiet and listened. At first, there just seemed to be silence. But then Faro heard it too. There was a dull hum that was slowly growing louder.
“Where is that coming from?” Tobi asked. Faro pointed down into the water.
Where they couldn’t see past the murky green water before, they now saw a faint purple light. Tiny ripples began to move through the water and grow bigger as the light got brighter. The light appeared to be moving towards them at a frightening speed. As it got closer to the surface, Faro could see hundreds of undead elf bodies waiting for them just below the surface, but they were quickly making a path for the thing that was blasting past them.
“We’ve got to move!” Faro yelled, dropping his hammer and grabbing for the rope. He pulled as hard as he could and the raft moved out of the way just as the snake came shooting back out of the water behind them. Looking back over his shoulder, Faro could see that it’s whole slick, scaly body was emanating the same purple light that Amazadan had been commanding just moments before.
The serpent didn’t go back down into the water this time. Instead it hovered over them, its slitted eyes staring them down, its body arched as if ready to strike. The party stared up in awe at the magnificent and terrifying beast.
“Hydralisk,” Lena whispered.
“What do we do?” asked Faro, feeling very inferior and small for the first time since he became a lion.
“Pick up your hammer, and start praying to Solana,” she said, taking an attack stance with both of her swords. The snake swayed overhead, dominating their whole field of vision, sizing them up and deciding where to strike. Faro wasn’t sure how much good his warhammer would do against such a beast, but he supposed it was better than using his fists.
They all got into attack positions, expecting a strike, but instead the snake opened it’s mouth, and spoke words. The same language that Amazadan had been speaking before.
“Oh, fuck no!” exclaimed Tobi as the water began to stir around them. Hands began to clamor back onto the raft, as the undead elves of the depths began to make their attack again.
Faro was beginning to think that Amazadan hadn’t made a mistake with his words. Instead of going down to a watery, final grave, it appeared that he had called this creature to consume him, to become him. The thought sent a shiver down Faro’s spine, but he shook it off and began to think about the situation at hand. Their odds didn’t look so good here.
Without prompting, Mathias and Thora stepped to the edges of the raft and began to fight off the elves that were trying to board them. That left Lena, Faro, and Tobi staring down the snake, who hadn’t taken its eyes off of them.
The water serpent opened up its jaws, exposing its massive fangs, ready to come down hard on them. Its tongue shot out of its mouth and the creature let out a massive, guttural hiss that shook the air around them.
Faro was expecting it to strike down on them, but instead, straight from its mouth, the snake sent out a torrent of purple light, aiming to blast them into oblivion. Lena quickly dropped her swords and threw up her hands. In an instant her yellow, blinding light magic pierced the air in a sphere around them, blocking the purple jet from hitting them, and keeping the other undead elves at bay. The old elf was already grunting from the effort it took to shield them.
Her magic seemed to set the snake into a rage. It cut off the stream of magic and struck at the shield, its mouth opening wide as if trying to eat the force field that was protecting them. Faro stared in terror as he watched from inside the shield, the snakes large, curved fangs seeking to pierce the shield and kill them all. He could see the dark abyss of the inside of the snake as it struck down on them with its mouth open wide.
After several attempts to destroy the shield, the serpent let out a hiss that seemed to be in frustration, and it dipped back below the water. The scene went quiet and still again, and Faro felt a huge sense of unease. Should he start pulling the rope and try and move them further, or stand ready to fight?
Before he could even make a decision to go for the rope, the serpent's head bobbed out of the water, slow and methodical, pulsing in the purple glow of the dark magic. It seemed to be staring down at them with it’s cold, purple eyes with every circle it made around the raft, coiling up into a sharp circle around them up into the air.
It took a moment, but then Faro heard the cracking and he knew what the serpent was trying to do. It was trying to squeeze them out by constricting around them. Looking at Lena, Faro could see her sweating now from the effort of holding their magic shield in place. From the last time he saw her use magic in the Church of Solana in Graeton, it seemed that this type of magic was very draining on the caster’s energy, and couldn’t be maintained for extended periods of time.
Nonetheless, the shield seemed to be holding the snakes constricting coils back. The raft began to creak and snap on the fringes, but Lena’s shield was holding it back enough for the time being that it was unable to completely consume them.
Lena began grunting from the effort and Faro knew she couldn’t hold much longer. Tobi must have sensed it too, because it was he who spoke first.
“Are we able to leave this thing without getting hurt?” he yelled to her over the noise of the raft cracking and the reverberations from her magic.
“Ahh! Uhh… yes. But it’s a one way ticket. Once you leave… ahhh… you can’t get back in!”
The dwarf had no hesitation in what was apparently already his decided action. “Gotta run then!” he yelled as he bolted out through the shield. The yellow light fizzled a bit as he slipped through, but then was placed back firmly around them.
Faro watched in amazement as the dwarf stepped to the edge of the raft and, without hesitation, jumped onto the back of the coiling snake and began running upwards like it was any old ramp to be climbed. The broadness of the massive snake gave him plenty of room to move, but it wasn’t long before the creature realized what was happening and began to writhe, trying to shake the intruder from its back.
Tobi wobbled and swerved this way and that, but the serpent couldn't seem to shake him without losing its grip on the raft. Frustrated, it loosened its grip and then and flicked its body furiously around.
This time Tobi lost his footing, but instead of falling he did what he did best and sunk his axe down hard into the surface beneath him. He wasn't anywhere near the beast's head, which is where Faro assumed his short friend was aiming for, but the blow still caught the beast off guard, and red blood began raining down all around them, splashing off of Lena’s shield and rolling down into the water around them. The mixture of the red blood with the green water began to turn some spots into rust brown colors.
As the snake reeled from the embedded axe, it shot higher into the air, and now Tobi was sliding down it’s back, dragging his axe along with him, and slicing the beast open even wider as he fell. The hydralisk was thrashing madly about, trying to whip it’s head around and strike down it’s assailant.
Tobi had slid so far down now that he was almost back down to the raft, and the serpent wheeled it’s head around and moved to strike at the young dwarf. Seizing his chance, Faro stepped out of the shield and met the snake right by where Tobi was falling from its back, and drove the sharp end of his warhammer into the serpent’s head, right between its eyes.
The head came crashing down into the raft as Tobi slid off into the murky green water. The impact from the snake plowing into them sent the raft flying backwards on a big wave, knocking them thirty yards backwards. Lena’s shield dissipated and they all dropped down and grabbed what they could hold onto to keep themselves from flying overboard. Faro held onto the handle of his hammer for dear life, dragging the entire snake along with them, until the raft came off the end of the wave to a slow, sloshing stop.
When he regained his footing he pulled his hammer from the serpent’s head. The light had gone from its eyes and the purple magic had disappeared. Pulling up his paw foot from the ground, Faro placed it squarely on the serpent’s slitted nose and gave it a kick off the raft. The snake coiled backwards and fell down into the murky deep.
Mathias and Thora stood and tried to get their footing to join Faro. Lena lay on the deck of the raft, almost completely spent from the effort of protecting them, her chest heaving up and down with large, deep breaths. Thora ran to the edge of the raft and looked out into the green and brown waters in search of her father, the dwarf.
Mathias joined her and placed a hand on her back for comfort. “He saved us all,” he said, hoping that she would realize that his sacrifice was worth it.
“And he’d like some help up!” yelled a voice from the side of the raft. Faro spotted a small hand grasping to the far side and grabbed it, pulling Tobi back up onto the raft.
Thora’s face grew brighter than Faro had ever seen it, and she ran to hug the man she called a father. She almost knocked him down with the force of the hug. Tobi chuckled and hugged her back. “You’ll never get rid of me, darlin’,” he said to her lovingly, patting her on the back.
Faro saw Mathias wipe a tear from his eye, apparently moved by the relationship of the pair, and the fact that their friend was safe. He was sure Mathias couldn’t stand to lose another friend in such a short span of time.
He almost missed it, but the lion felt his ear twitch. The light sound of moving water had caught his ear without him realizing, and he turned his head to look at the edge of what was left of their ferry raft.
Cold, greenish hands were again pawing at the edge. He turned and looked at the other side, and they were there as well. They were surrounded by the undead once again.
“Lena!” Faro screamed. “What do we do?”
Undead elves were starting to make their way up onto the deck again. A scream so loud that Faro had to cover his ears pierced the air. Faro watched as Lena rolled over to the edge of the raft, spoke something in tongues, and thrust her hand down into the water. Bright blue fire erupted from her hands and cut through all the undead elves that surrounded them.
With another scream she thrust her other hand into the water, and strong magic shot out. The blast from the magic sent them all stumbling as the raft took off like a racehorse through the water, propelled by the magic of the screaming elf.