I stepped out into the fields outside of the manor and met up with my grandma who was slowly pounding her metal gauntlet into her open palm. “What do you think of your grampas weapon? I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to use it, the shaft was designed for his hands after all.”
‘No way I could carry this thing without my magic… And yeah… My thumb can barely touch my fingers as I wrap my grip around it.’ I sighed. “You’re right, it’s really thick.”
She slowly opened her mouth, but no words came out, leaving me to only think about the words that she left unspoken. After a moment I dropped the hammer and flinched away. “Grama!” I whined with a long groan.
“I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING!”
All I could do was let out another uncomfortable groan… ‘Well, now I don’t want to use it…’ “Can we just name the hammer, that would probably fix the… Issue…”
“Oh, well, that one’s named Tremble.”
‘That one… He said this was the only one he used…’ I sighed. “Good enough…” I stared at it, having dented the ground where it fell. “Can we switch weapons…” I muttered.
She looked down at it. “Sure, it’s been a while since I wielded this one.”
‘Kill me now…’ She took off her armored gauntlet and threw it at me. It was too big for me by miles, but after cinching the straps down to the max it was manageable. I would only really need it for defense anyway.
After a few moments we started to hear a scream and a few moments later she flicked a man with the hammer, sending him flying like a ragdoll as his body squashed and stretched like a cartoon. “Oh, right, some ground rules. Stay close to me in case you need help, but stay out of range of my hammer. I’m a little tipsy. Oh, and the leader is mine… What else…” She swatted another one, taking care of both the idiots that charged ahead of the rest. “Oh, right. Remember, they are already undead, don’t feel bad for killing them, even if they can talk. We have to help their souls pass on… Also, they are bandits. So it’s not like they were good people anyway.”
She started walking forward to meet the hoard head-on as they bellowed out a mix of incoherent war cries.
“For the dream!” One man yelled pointing his sword. He wore no helmet, looking human but smelling of death and wearing the best armor, its metal gleam shining through the blood and rust, standing out among the leather that the others wore.
‘So stay away from that guy, and stay close to her, but don’t get hit. I can do that…’
I was fighting without armor, so I channeled as much magic as I sustainably could into toughening my skin and using the rest to strengthen my body. “This will be just like fighting other humans right? And Grama’s here, so I can’t show my magic. This will be a good test.”
As they got closer she never changed pace. Every muscle fiber I had was tense, telling me I should start charging to meet them head-on, but she stayed completely calm and continued walking. “The first rule of engagement is to stay calm and march together. The moment you charge it becomes impossible to hold a formation. Look at how uncoordinated they are.”
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My body started shaking as they got even closer, but it was easy to tell she was right. They certainly were not marching like a Roman legion, or packed tightly into a phalanx.
“Here it comes!” She yelled, and the clash began. One after another she smashed and swatted each one out of the way, either with her hammer… Or her open palm, slapping them so hard it sent their head straight to the ground… If not taking it clean off…
My eyes traced the relative few that I had to deal with and after taking down the first one I stole his sword, from there making short work of the others. It was a lot less gory than I remembered, and a lot less gross seeing as how their flesh hadn’t yet rotted. On the other hand, I had to use a lot more force to sever a limb, part of that was just because of the lower-quality sword though.
Every time I came upon an opponent I thought might give me trouble, they were sent flying and got absolutely destroyed by my grama's powerful swing, sometimes getting uncomfortably close to hitting me as well.
Finally, the leader of the group stepped up and the others surrounded us. “You sorry bunch of rogues, this is why we all died the first time! It’s not enough to fight for our dream, we have to be strong enough to take it into our hands. It all starts here!”
It was a rousing speech… Well, at least in the opinion of the bandits that surrounded us.
Grama slowly raised her hammer off a corpse, some of the gore sticking to it as she flipped it over her shoulder, making everyone around us take a hit to their morale, possibly even bigger than the amount he had just raised it. “I’m curious, what is this dream of yours that was strong enough to keep you going even in death.”
He continued to step forward until he was right in front of us. “OUR DREAM!” He yelled. “Is to raid 100 villages! And it starts now with our first!” He sheathed his sword and threw it to the side. “You are famed for fighting hand to hand are you not? Then take me on with your fists.”
She smiled and dropped the hammer.
‘Is he serious?’ “Wait… This is your first? But… You’re all undead right?”
His grin turned to a grimace. “Yes, well, we didn’t exactly win our first time around… So I don’t think you could count that…”
‘You’ve got to be kidding…’ I sighed. “I guess there are stupid people everywhere you go…” I mumbled out loud. ‘I really hope desire isn’t all it takes to raise the dead…’
I crossed my arms gesturing to my grama. “Well, what are you waiting for? Knock his head off already. The sun is going to be setting soon and I need to wash my clothes now… I tried my best to keep the blood off them, but I still got a little on me. Turns out dead people don’t bleed that much.” I looked around again, scanning them with my eyes. Some of them had strength and speed that rivaled members of my family. In other words, they were people I probably couldn’t beat without using real magic. Even then, a few of them still might have put up a good fight. ‘The real question is… How did these guys get wiped out…’ I turned to their leader. He wasn't the most impressive one there, but he wasn’t weak. He was shorter than Grama, making him not very intimidating, but he was deceptively strong. Stronger than me at any rate. If I were to fight him alone I wasn’t sure if I could actually win with just my shotty sword. Thankfully I didn't have to find out.
‘He’s undead though right…’ I thought back to my time in the dungeon. ‘They don’t feel pain and keep going no matter how horrible the injuries… Even she might have a hard time with–’
I focused my eyes on her, scanning her stats, and my brain almost crashed, having to reboot. ‘Oh… No, she’ll be fine… She’s stronger than Keigan… How… Is that even possible? I thought he was like the third strongest fighter in the nation?’
The man challenging her to a duel stared at me in shock for a moment before clearing his throat and turning back to my grama, who was already cracking her knuckles. “I told you you should have just taken them off. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about it.”
“I’m not a pervert like you…” I sighed, slowly looking around us at our situation. ‘I’m being way too casual about this… I’m surrounded by zombies, I’m surprised I’m not panicking…’ I looked down at my hands and felt my steady grip on the old battered sword. ‘Oh, I get it. This time I’m not alone… Not only that, but she’s actually been looking after me while we fight.’
The man charged her with his hands raised in a boxer's stance and threw a quick jab. She didn’t even bother blocking it, taking it right to the stomach without flinching before slapping him so hard in the face that his head spun around backward and his neck snapped.
“Show off…” I muttered.
She just grinned back at me as she raised her hammer and dropped it on his skull, making sure he wouldn’t get back up.
After that, the rest of the army quickly started dropping like flies right where they were. “I guess… The dream died?” ‘So wait, we actually got off the hook. We didn’t even have to fight the toughest guys.’ “That’s convenient…”
Just like that, my first skirmish came to an end.