Sean scrambled back to the hull of the ship. “If you are trying to scare me my friend you’ve done it.”

Mac scowled and hefted another bar in his hands. “I don’t understand what is going on here, but I’m not gonna go down easy.” He pulled a few more bars from the pile and propped them up against the crates on both sides of himself. “Backup bars. When the first one gets here I am going to throw this as hard as I can at it and hope to smash it’s bones. Prop your bad leg into a corner and just defend yourself. don’t leave that spot. I’ll be able to better defend if I know your position.”

A dragging noise and a bump from something hitting wood sounded right outside of their hideaway. Sean snarled and held the bar over his head ready to throw it. “Time to bring the pain!” He muttered. In the back of his subconscious he was thinking to himself, “Where do I know that phrase from?”

A gnarled bony hand gripped the corner of a crate by their entrance and a skeletal body with chunks of flesh all over it followed. Mac hurled the bar from over his head with all his might throwing it like an axe. The hammer handle smashed into the nightmare at chest height rotating around and crushing the face and skull at the same time. The skeleton flew backwards in a clatter of bones and broke into pieces scattered and not moving.

Before Mac could pat himself on the back two more dead pirates rounded the corner. One was holding a cutlass and the other had two daggers in its hands. Mac reached over and grabbed another handle. “Come get some Bucko!”

The first undead charged forward shocking Mac with its speed. He barely had time to raise his handle with a hand on each end to block the overhand slash that the pirate threw at him. He was in close and could see the second one closing in so he threw a shoulder into the first knocking him back into his undead friend.

The skeletons got tangled up for a second and Mac didn’t need an invitation to attack. He leaped forward swinging the bar with all his might. It connected on the sword wielder’s shoulder causing a small explosion of bone and knocking its left arm off completely. The pirate dropped to one knee from the force of the blow, but didn’t stop it’s attack. It swept it’s right hand with the sword in a sideswipe cut. Mac dodged to his right, but the blade caught him by an inch cutting into his thigh!

“Son of a bitch!” Mac swore and rage seemed to take him over. The pirate was exposed and Mac swung his bar like a baseball bat connecting right at the skeleton’s neck. The skull popped right off and flew over a crate as the monster tumbled down into a pile of bones. As Mac was regaining his balance the dagger wielder popped into view and started to swing a wide hook at him. Mac backhand swung the hammer handle tearing off the rogue’s hand with the dagger in it.

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The skeleton looked down at his hand as if wondering where it went. “Sean I think these things have a bit of intelligence still in them.” He called out. The pirate skeleton waded forward trying to swipe with it’s left, but it was obvious it was off balance and didn’t know how to fight one handed. Mac stepped back to let the strike fall well short of him and he waded in like a miner swinging a pick axe and crushed the thing’s skull.

Mac reached down to the cut on his leg which was no more than a scratch really. “Hmm weird… This isn’t bad, but I expected it to hurt a lot more than it does. I hope I don’t get infected.” He looked back at Sean who was staring at the piles of skeleton bones. “You weren’t lying! If I wasn’t looking at it with my own eyes I wouldn’t believe you! It’s really undead! Oh my God what is going on? We need… Mac LOOK OUT!”

Mac turned back from Sean and instinct had him throwing his bar down to his side to block the sword slash that was coming in at him. The clang of metal on metal was loud and the vibrations from the heavy strike sent a small wave of pain up his arm. Facing him was a pirate that looked like a Captin from it’s hat and shredded, fancy, jacket. It was holding a cutlass in one hand and a rounded metal buckler on the other arm. It came at him slowly leading with the shield/

“I think this one knows how to fight!” Mac called out. He circled to his right as the pirate swiped at him. He swung his bar overhand at the officer who lifted it’s arm and blocked the blow with it’s shield. “Dammit! If I can get it turned do you think you can take a crack at it?”

Sean nervously took a two handed grip on his bar. “I can try. I don’t know how much muscle I can get into a swing with this busted up leg!”

Mac kept circling trying to get the monster to give it’s back to Sean, but it seemed to know what was going on. It threw a series of swipes at Mac. He backpeddled barely hanging onto his bar as he blocked the slashes. Before he could take another strike Sean launched himself at the pirate’s legs! He tackled it onto the ground. “Quick, smash it, I have a grip on his sword arm!”

A surge of adrenaline shot through Mac out of fear for his friend. He took a huge step at the pair and started swinging his bar down over and over. The pirate lifted the buckler to stop the rain of blows, but after a few massive strikes it’s arm crumbled under the pressure. Mac lost it for a minute and only came out of his stupor as Sean grabbed him from behind and pulled him away.

“Yo, Mac… You in there buddy? Mac turned around “Huh?” Sean smiled, “There ya go. I think you went a little nuts and crushed that thing into bone paste!”

Mac looked down at the skeleton that was now just a pile of bone lumps. “Ya… I think the stress of this had gotten to me. I don’t remember beating that thing.” he reached down and scooped up the buckler and sword and handed it to Sean. “You hang on to these please. You need the protection more than me.”

Sean looked around eyeballing the crates. “Well… You took out all four of them. We have some time. Think maybe we can move some of these crates and partially block off our entrance? You look beat, you need some rest.”

Suddenly the sound of wood collapsing could be heard from outside of their den. The two men went silent and looked at each other. Sean raised an eyebrow and pointed with his chin at their entrance. Mac padded over to the corner and took a quick sneaky peek. Sean noticed that he almost immediately ducked back in.

Mac stalked back over to him with a finger on his lips motioning for silence. He whispered “There are a lot of them milling about out there. If I didn’t know better I would say they are searching?”

Sean whispered back. “Searching for what?

Mac rolled his eyes. “Us bro… They are searching for us.”