Although the horde was still behind, a few undead were running in the lead. One of them noticed the group and burst forth with speed and in seconds reached the circle. Without stopping for pause it reached its paws to grab the old man. BAM!
The moment it passed the boundary of the circle, its paws twisted backward and it yowled in pain. A translucent blue barrier shot up, covering the entirety of the circle in a hemispherical shape.
CornWall could see it was a panther of some sort with a height of two feet. But undead. One eye was hanging out and the rest of the body was full of tears revealing decaying muscles and jutting bones.
Although it should have been in severe pain, within seconds it tore off one of its paws and shifted the other fractured paw back. It turned its head toward the impending undead horde and made its decision. Immediately it started limping away from them, only slightly slower than before.
By the time the panther was out of sight, the main horde had burst forth onto the barrier. All of them stood tense, afraid the undead would break into the barrier, but the barrier held.
In moments most of the undead streamed past the barrier and rushed down the mountain. In moments they were completely surrounded by running undead. The noise itself was deafening. They could hear the thunder of a thousand footsteps, punctuated with roars and the clacking of bones against bones.
All of the undead were franticly rushing down the base of the mountain. They were tearing and throwing limbs, pushing and pulling each other down, stamping on their skulls; all the while determined to be as far away from each other as possible. There were a good variety of species among the horde, all in various degrees of decay.
Bony humanoid figures were the ones that were crushed often, while the other more bestial and bizarre in shape still had some muscles and flesh and showed less bone. There were giant bugs, four footed beasts and creatures with wings of bone. Multi limbed and of various sizes, Cornwall noticed most of them had a red glow in their chests, where their hearts would be.
Whilst they stood enveloped by the stampede, a few of them moaned in fear. The elf entwined his arm with BorderLine’s, whimpering in fear. Every once in a while an ambitious undead would try attacking the barrier and all of them stood guard, waiting for the barrier to break but the undead always failed. That was until the ice giant came by.
It stood fifteen tall, almost as tall as the barrier. When it came lumbering by, it moved slowly and without fear. All the other undead avoided it. It had white skin, with curly white fur and except for its jaws which had only bones left, it had no cuts anywhere else. It stood still surveying them from outside.
Then it hit the barrier. It hit again. Again and again, it banged its hands at the barrier. With a steady rhythm of hits, each time the barrier was hit the white light in the circle would get brighter and brighter.
Until finally a large, vertical crack formed on the barrier. The ice giant opened its jaws in what could have been a grin.
In a flash, BorderLine separated himself from the crowd and ran towards the barrier. He jumped and thrust his sword through the barrier and into the giant’s torso. It wailed in pain. BorderLine pulled his sword out and thrust it back into the torso.
The wounds didn’t bleed. The giant only looked annoyed. It placed its palms on the sword and gripped tightly. BorderLine tugged at his sword, but it wouldn’t budge. The giant opened and closed its bone jaws, in what was definitely mocking laughter.
Unable to stand by and watch, CornWall picked a blade and ran to the barrier. He thrust his blade into the ice giant’s feet. It didn’t even notice.
He tried pushing the blade deeper into its feet, but unlike BorderLine the blade barely cut into its skin. In frustration, he hurled the blade at the giant’s face. The giant panicked, it noticed the blade and tried to protect its eyes from the blade.
The blade missed, but that gap was enough for BorderLine to pull his sword out and plunge it back again. This time the ice giant slumped on its knees.
“Got you now!’ screamed BorderLine.
In a frantic dying effort it tried to push out the sword but only succeeded in letting it penetrate further. The sword impaled the giant and a red glowing object fell out of its wound. The giant wailed in anger but almost immediately its body turned grey. Its body cracked into chunks, and when it hit the ground, it had turned into ash which scattered with the wind.
“Quick, grab it.”
And CornWall thrust his hand through the barrier and plucked the red object, seconds before an adventurous undead grabbed it for itself.
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“What is it?” asked CornWall, turning the object in his hands. It looked eerily similar to the freedom counters that CornWall had been running with just hours ago. Except this one glowed red while the freedom counter glowed yellow.
“The trick to killing an undead is to just poke its Life out. You don’t need to kill it normally. That’s why they’re easier to slaughter despite feeling no pain. The only problem is when they mob around like this,” he said glancing around the barrier.
The rest of the crowd fell to the ground, visibly relieved.
“Why isn’t the crack recovering?” asked the old man pointing to the vertical crack that the ice giant had left.
“It’s that kind of spell I suppose. Hopefully, nothing else will happen before the Player comes back.”
“You look as though this is the first time you are seeing a life counter, haven’t you ever been assigned your lives before?” asked BorderLine.
But CornWall didn’t answer, still engrossed in examining the life counter. It was perfectly smooth and had a warmth to it.
“How old are you really, child?” asked the old man.
“I am going to turn eighteen in a few days, I think. Why?”
The old man and BorderLine looked at each other.
“That means you’re kind of immortal, yes? Since you haven’t been assigned your lives yet.”
CornWall’s head shot up and he glared at the two of them. “No, how could I be immortal?”
“I mean, if someone without any Stats, someone normal, wanted to harm you, it would be very difficult for them to kill you because you still have perfect health regeneration. Right?”
“Ehhhh, yes that’s true. What’s your point?” CornWall looked suspiciously at the two of them.
“Well undead can’t directly use their Stats and they wouldn’t be able to easily harm you.”
BorderLine was interrupted by the tree nymph who shouted, “What’s that?”
Everyone stopped talking and looked around the barrier. They couldn’t see anything except the endless sea of undead all around them and the constant rumbling of the earth. Until one of the other humans shouted, “I hear it too.”
And then the rest of them could hear rhythmic pounding. Like war drums. It grew louder and louder until the undead themselves gave way to about six ice giants. Three on each side of the barrier.
These ones were of better quality than the lone ice giant that had attacked them moments before. There were no tears, cuts or any abrasions. It would be hard to identify them as undead except for their pale skin and their precise, uniform movement.
They spread themselves symmetrically across the barrier and began bashing their arms on the barrier. One of them was exactly at the crack and with one hit the crack grew larger. All of them stopped hitting. This time they synchronized their movements and as one smashed their arms onto the barrier.
The crack widened.
“Shit, they’re being controlled by a necromancer. They have to be. Everyone go grab a weapon and try distracting the giants. You might not be able to kill them but you can distract them. Remember people inside the barrier can leave it partially but once you’re outside you’re stuck there. Now GO!”
BorderLine got a hold of the pilot. “See that giant opposite the crack. Shoot the shit out of it. Aim for the face, especially the eyes, and the torso. You probably can’t kill it with a gun but if you’re lucky you can cripple it. This guy and I will take care of the one at the crack.”
CornWall and BorderLine ran to the crack and the rest of them dispersed hesitantly. The elf grabbed a shield and sat at the centre, quivering in fear.
BorderLine thrust his sword at the same spot where the Life was in the previous giant. But this giant was ready for him. It swatted the sword with its palm. CornWall threw his blade into the eyes of the giant. It stepped back and shielded its eyes. When BorderLine tried thrusting his sword he found he couldn’t reach.
The giant was close enough to bang the barrier with its long arms but far enough to avoid BorderLine’s thrust. It ignored them and hit the barrier.
The crack widened again.
“Fucking necromancers.” He grabbed a blade from CornWall pushed a bit a Strength into it and threw it. The blade lodged itself straight in the eyes of the giant. The giant ignored it and raised its arms to swing at the barrier.
BorderLine infused Strength into his calf and thigh muscles and leapt high into the air. He swung his sword at the giant’s hands. The giant’s hand broke off and it couldn’t hit the barrier. It tried swinging the remaining arm into the barrier but he leapt again and broke the other arm.
The giant had lost both of its arms. It stepped back and charged at the barrier, this time trying to ram the barrier with its shoulders. But BorderLine was ready. He leapt up and thrust his sword straight into its chest.
The Life popped out of the body immediately and the body flaked and crumbled into ash. CornWall shot forward to grab the life counter and handed it to a gasping BorderLine. His face was red and he knelt on the ground struggling to get back up.
“Don’t. Have. Enough. Strength,” he wheezed. He swore silently and turned to see how the others were faring.
The giants had adopted the same strategy with the others as well. Standing back with their arms stretched out, they managed to avoid the feeble attacks from inside the barrier while still wrecking the barrier. The pilot had blinded his ice giant with bullets but it wasn’t enough to prevent it from joining the rhythmic smashing.
BANG! Instead of just one large crack there were also five smaller ones on the barrier.
BorderLine called out to the rest of the crowd. “This isn’t working. I can push my Strength to maybe kill two more giants but there’s no way I can confront them like the last one. Because of that fucking necromancer they’ll just avoid us. Anyone has any ideas?” He looked at CornWall.
The elf started crying, "Will the Player abandon us?”
Everyone looked uncertain. They knew that by themselves they would die out here and if the Player abandoned them then they were doomed.
CornWall looked at the rest of the crowd, deep in thought. He made up his mind.
“I’ll go out of the barrier to distract the giants. Both of you said that they can’t use their Stats and can’t kill me. Right? If I distract them then maybe BorderLine will have enough Strength to kill them.”
“Are you sure?” asked the old man.
The ice giant smashed the barrier once more and the small cracks widened.
BorderLine answered for him, “Distract the giant that the pilot shot, ok.”
CornWall nodded and ran out of the barrier.