The parasite-filled corpses shambled forward and were halfway across the room before the fear that had sapped Rosaendra and Chloe of their ability to move released them.

“I’ll hold them for a second. Do you have anything on you that’ll burn?” Chloe asked as she rose the buckler in front of her, and stepped forward.

“I have some kerosene and whiskey mixed together. Was going to make some Molotov cocktails out of it and the lighter fluid. Will you be okay?”

As they were speaking with one another, the quickest of the undead Birdman neared and raised its saber above its head in a direct, downward path toward Rosaendra. Chloe stepped forward and intercepted it with her buckler above her head. The Birdman pressed forward with as much of its weight as it could, and as she fell to her knees she began an incantation.

“Oh, you Ghostly Legions who watch overall all wars from the Halls, lend to me thy strength, and thy shields.”

At Chloe’s utterance, a semicircle of transparent, floating shields of various shapes and sizes form in the air and interlocked with one another in a testudo-like fashion. As if a dozen pairs of hands were on her back, Chloe stood back up and pushed the birdman away from her. The second and third birdmen tried to go around either side of the ghostly formation.

Chloe hit her sword on the rim of her shield. A type of energy rippled through the air like a stone thrown into a lake. As this energy collided with the birdmen they stopped in their tracks, and turned their attention to Chloe. The shields around her rose up to meet their attacks as they plunged their weapon toward the woman.

“Fifteen seconds, Rosie,” Chloe called. “Until the taunt wears off.”

Rosaendra nodded and pulled off her backpack to dig through it for the first bottle of unprepared molotovs. She popped the cork off and ran around the shield wall, and around the back of the birdmen. Their attentions were turned to Chloe still as if held there by some unseen force as Rosaendra as she dashed the contents of the bottle over their backs. This was probably the safest way to do it; if she had treated it like a grenade, Chloe might have been caught up in the flaming blast.

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A loud crack broke through the room, as a sharp pain rose from between Rosaendra’s shoulder blades. The force of whatever had hit her, caused her hand to reflexively let go of the bottle. It fell to the ground at the feet of the birdmen and shattered.

Rosaendra glanced back just in time to see the strange woman in the mist pull her arm back and shoot it forward. A long, pink strand of...something held in her hand parted the air as it snapped forward like a whip. Rosaendra turned her face away as it struck her in the chest, and sent her flying backward into the writhing mass.

Even this close, the creatures seemed unable to tear their attention away from Chloe as they tried time and time again to break through her spell. Their weapons slammed against the ghostly shields. This close should do it, Rosaendra thought. She drew the box of matches from her pocket and hurriedly pulled one out.

Would she die here? No. Rosaendra had been through things that would make others balk. She struck the match and tossed it into a pile of the foul-smelling liquid pouring from the bottle.

A loud snap and something coiled around her ankle. The creature in the mist pulled back on the strange whip, and lifted Rosaendra into the air.,

“Too late, bitch.”

Rosaendra mutters as she tosses the match at one the back of one of the creature's soaked in the foul-smelling mixture of whiskey and kerosene A bright orange flash, and a loud, thum as the bottle breathes in the fire, followed. Chloe retreats a step behind the shield wall as the bottle exhaled the fire in a loud boom.

A bright and hot, orange flash blasts forth in the middle of the three undead birdmen. A small column of fire roared to life at their feet, and consumed their rotting flesh and rotting feathers.

The shaded dancer screamed as the rotting, parasite infected birdmen fell away from the shield wall. It had let go of the strange whip, and Rosaendra fell to the ground, hard on her shoulder. She glanced back to Chloe to make sure she was alright The blast had been strong enough to shatter it. A few shards of heated glass scraped the black armor leaving white star-like scrapes where those shards shattered against it. Small curling crimson flows ran down her elbow and dripped on the floor. Luckily, she managed to raise the buckler in front of her face and change her stance in such a way that only one side was impacted by the explosion.

Rosaendra rolled over to her side; the strange dancer was clutching her head as if in immense pain. The creature turned its gaze to the teetering Chloe and grabbed the whip that had fallen out of its grasp. She brought it back, and forward.

Crack

The miasma still hanging in the room parted at the speed of the cord. Chloe was tossed off her feet and into the wall behind her. The dancer rolled the whip back over its webbed knuckles. Rosaendra drew her dagger and sprinted forward. As she neared, the fourth, parasite infected birdman pushed itself off the ground.