For a brief moment Azrael wondered whether he was dreaming. Afterall, it didn’t make sense for them to be attacked by skeletons. Slimes, wolves, dragons? Sure, they made sense, they were all living.

It was only when James smashed through his skeletal opponent and half a skull landed in Azrael’s lap that he properly woke, immediately summoning his familiar twin stone daggers. Around the camp others were also woken by the noise, grabbing their weapons and immediately forming a protective circle around the fire.

A third, fourth and fifth skeleton appeared from within the night, their teeth clacking in malice. James’ sword smashed through all of them unfeeling, but the bisected undead continued on relentlessly, dragging their shattered bodies with their arms.

Azrael summoned a streamer of mana, looping it back onto itself and igniting it. Mana fed into mana and flame into flame, until a halo of golden flames illuminated the camp, revealing a seemingly endless horde skeletons that emerged from the darkness. Already the group were slowly being surrounded.

“Aim for their heads!” James cried, bringing down the tip of his sword down to crush the skull of a skeleton that was crawling towards him. The rest of the animated bones fell apart and ceased moving. Though nobody answered, Azrael was sure that everyone had heard. It was hard to miss James’ booming voice.

On one side of the circle, Kaira and Rudy showed exactly what they were capable of, using broad sweeps of their spears to shatter bones, while precise strikes targeted joints to disable their opponents. Finally, when their opponents could offer no resistance, they would step in and destroy the skull, before engaging their next undead opponent.

Durkov and the other dwarves were similarly handling their situation. The three of them worked together, shattering first the legs of their taller opponents to bring them down to their height, before immobilising the arms and then smashing their skulls.

Azrael turned to the other two villagers, finding the two men struggling with a lone skeleton that had managed to slip past James. Both of its arms were shattered, but it used the splintered stumps to great effect, trying to impale its opponents. Already one of the men was bleeding from a jagged gash to his side.

Azrael rushed over, a well-placed [Stone Bullet] causing the skull to crack, before the second one shattered the skull completely. The skeleton crumbled, whatever was holding the bones together disappearing. Two more skeletons came to replace their fallen comrade.

It was an endless onslaught, an undying horde against nine mortals. Granted, one of those mortals was James, but despite his overwhelming strength and the extra reach with his blade he couldn’t be everywhere. Everyone was fatiguing fast, the unending fighting and the seemingly endless line of opponents wearing on both body and spirit.

Though Azrael wasn’t exactly struggling against the skeletons he realised that if this turned into a battle of attrition, then it wouldn’t be one that they would win. [Stone Bullet] was relatively effective against the undead, with two of them being enough to shatter a skull, three if he was off center. Other elements weren’t effective either. [Fire], [Water] and [Air] weren’t concentrated enough to deal any visible damage.

Azrael fired off another [Stone Bullet], following it up with a quick jab of his dagger, before dodging half a flying skeleton that Jams had sent in his direction. He brough the pommel of his dagger down, smashing through its skull and right through the one he’d just been fighting. Both of them fell apart, adding to the ever-growing pile of bones on the ground.

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He engaged his next opponent with purely his daggers. His mana was finite and his mana regeneration wasn’t keeping up in this fast paced fight. Just mowing them down with spells wasn’t an option.

Looking around the clearing in a rare moment of respite, Azrael noticed that everyone was faring worse than he’d imagined. Rudy’s left arm was limp, while Kaira’s spear had snapped. She was now using both halves to fend off attackers. The dwarves similarly looked exhausted, while Azrael was surprised that the two other villagers weren’t already dead. Only James seemed in his element, swinging his greatsword with a massive grin. Around him the ground was white, each of his heavy steps crunching bones underfoot. He did however have a layer of heavy perspiration and his swings were smaller now, though still ladened with deadly force.

A glint of gold flashed through the trees, drawing Azrael’s gaze. There was something amongst the horde, hidden in the dark. He wasn’t able to pinpoint it, but he kept checking that direction as he fought. Twice he thought he saw it again, though in vastly different spots. On the fourth occasion the golden glimpse finally revealed itself, manifesting itself as a half-rusted sword held in the bony hand of a black skeleton. The blade had caught the light of his slowly dying halo of fire.

James noticed it when he did, body slamming into the horde in order to reach the new threat. With great force the massive blade came up and with greater force it came down, ready to cleave the black skeleton in two.

The sword sunk down into the forest floor, buried almost halfway to the hilt. The skeleton clacked it teeth mockingly as it sidestepped. It stabbed forward with its sword, with far more coordination than all of the others they had fought so far.

James stepped back, forced to let go of his sword. For a moment Azrael thought that he had successfully evaded, but almost immediately he saw spatters of red fall onto the white ground. The skeleton clacked its teeth, its skull caught in an eternal grin.

James roared, balling his hands into fists and letting loose a flurry of blows. On caught the skeleton in the ribs, snapping two off. The next caught the skeleton in the jaw, sending it staggering back. The third sent it flying into the skeletons behind it. It regained its balance, raising its sword.

James’ blade smashed into it from above, snapping its sword in two and bombarding it with clods of rich soil from when he’d ripped it free. The next blow smashed through its side, snapping both arms and its spine. The top half of the bisected skeleton fell at his feet.

For a brief moment Azrael felt the air around James gain a sudden sharpness, before James’ heavy blade dropped right through the black skull.

Both sides fell silent for a brief moment, the ferocity of the sudden battle drawing all eyes. Mortals took the moment to take a gasping breath, while the undead stared at the spot where their leader had fallen. Then came the clacking.

If the sound of a hundred rattling bones had been bad before, now they were an almost physical force. The skeletons looked away from where James’ sword was planted and back to their living opponents. Azrael raised his daggers, only to almost drop them in surprise. Two more black skeletons emerged from the horde. On with a shield and another with a sword. Their positions coincided with where he had previously seen the two flashes of light. James’s downed opponent hadn’t been a leader Azrael realised, but an elite. He made a decision.

“Retreat!”

Rudy and Kaira got what he meant before he next spoke, while James too disengaged with his opponent.

“Everyone to the boats! James, help me hold the back!”

Abandoning their sleeping rolls everyone streamed towards the boats, pushing them off with all their might.

Azrael turned his attention the other way, not sparing his already meagre supply of mana to summon one [Earth Spike] after the other. Within a few moments his mana hit rock bottom, but now a barricade of sharp stone stood between them and the greater part of the horde. Leaving James to take care of those who tried to clamber over the barricade, he took care of the few stragglers who made it around the side. Further back, Rudy and Kaira were covering the boats as everyone made ready.

A call from behind and both James and Azrael turned and made for the already floating boats. Despite the situation they were in James managed to find a moment to turn to Azrael with a grin.

“This is great.”

Azrael didn’t answer, instead launching himself off the riverbank onto the barge. James landed a moment later and the boat rocked so hard that he almost fell off the other side. Honestly, he was surprised that the boat didn’t snap in two. Fortunately, the boat managed to withstand the force that was James and nobody ended up in the water.

On the riverbank a horde of skeletons clacked their teeth as the expedition pushed out their oars and rowed into the night.