Aurelian backpedalled furiously from the now-awakened undead and promptly fell backward on his arse, kicking out with his foot and impacting the skeleton solidly in the process. It felt like hitting a wall. A very undead, bone white, and pissed off wall. Panic threatened to seize him, and he teetered on the brink of straight screaming like the inner twelve-year-old within him wanted to. A flicker of stubborn will, however, caught alight somewhere in his no-longer-monkey brain and instead, his Iron Will smothered the rising terror like a blanket over a nascent flame.
Iron Will is now Level 7!
His lessons from years prior when first learning martial arts came back to him, and Aurelian acted on them immediately: he put some distance between himself and his opponent. His legs came in under him and he pushed himself hastily to his feet, glancing at the door and then back to the now-rising armoured skeleton. Its movements were jerky and unnatural, as if it were a puppet being lifted on strings, but Aurelian barely had time to register the oddity of it.
Before the creature could attack him in earnest, he retreated back towards the doorway and paused at the threshold. For a long moment he considered just slamming the door closed and locking it, but the realisation that he might only be delaying the problem held him firm. Even if he did succeed in shutting the door, he had no guarantees that would be the end of the matter. The skeleton was, he had to assume, perfectly capable of just scratching away at the wood until it made a big enough hole to step through, or of using one of the many, many weapons littered around the room to smash through the obstruction given enough time.
There was a chance the door was metal beneath the wood, but that seemed far too implausible and impractical for a mediaeval society, magical locking mechanisms notwithstanding.
All of these thoughts raced through his mind in the time it took the skeleton to fully gather itself, and in that moment that it did; Aurelian came to a final decision.
Fight.
He gripped his Runesword in both hands and fixed his stance as he’d practised, allowing his Longsword Mastery skill to guide him while he prepared for the skeleton to advance. The creature stared at him for a long moment as if assessing him, its burning gaze fixed on him… and on the sword in his hand. A sudden and impossible wail erupted from its mouth that made the hairs on the back of Aurelian’s neck stand stiff, and he stared at it in disbelief.
“Dude, you have no vocal chords!” he said without thinking.
The skeleton responded by charging him.
Aurelian felt himself seized with fear for a crucial moment, until Iron Will once again suppressed the urge to run, and he let loose the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. Once more he leaned into his Longsword Mastery and followed his quiet instinct to step towards the charging skeleton. As a result, his blade was perfectly positioned for an acceptable, but far-from-elegant slash at the creature’s armoured torso.
His sword parted the steel of its breastplate like a hot knife through butter, and the skeleton within was cut down with no more than the sound of suddenly collapsing, no-longer-animated bones.
Aurelian raised his eyebrows in shock, and then grinned to himself. “Well shit, that was ea—!”
“El… ys… ean…!”
His eyes lifted slowly towards the sudden noise, and he spotted several new pairs of acid-green eyes within the sunlit room.
“Me and my big mouth…”
When more skeletons began to rise, Aurelian decided to take the initiative.
He had made worse decisions, after all.
Like entering the fucking room in the first place.
Moving forward with a burst of mad courage, he veered straight for the rising, tangled form of one of the skeletons and twisted his sword in his grip to bring it down and thrust forward through the creature’s spine. The impact of the blade-tip clanging against the stone floor sent shivers up his arms, but he held firm.
This time, however, the undead didn’t fall apart; and instead Aurelian yelped as bony fingers closed around his ankle.
Then they started to squeeze.
Pain exploded from his leg and Aurelian let loose a wordless bellow of rage, pulling out his sword and cutting down at the skeleton’s extended arms. He severed them neatly at the elbow, and the moment he did the hands gripping his left leg crumbled to pieces. “So why did that w—the head! Always go for the head!” He almost wanted to hit himself when he realised the obvious but chose to hit the undead wanker instead.
His Runesword came down in a novice-if-acceptable slash and severed the creature’s head from its spine, killing whatever magic had kept it animated.
“Alright you fuckers,” he said while he turned to the dozen or so remaining skeletons, “it’s Evil Dead and I’m Ash fucking Williams!”
Ignoring the fact the reference was likely lost on the small pack of bony nightmares he was abruptly charging towards, Aurelian put the surreal insanity of his situation aside as he thundered into the ranks of assembling skeletons.
His Runesword rose and fell, and he cleaved the head from the first armoured foe rising to meet him, kicking away the suddenly inert bones—armour and all—and lifting his blade in an upward slash to deflect a clawed hand reaching for his throat.
Three bony fingers spun away, drained of animation, and Aurelian trusted in his instincts and darted backwards out of reach of a second arm. He landed on his left foot and then pushed off of it to balance on the ball of his right, and viciously sliced the creature’s head off.
He shouldered it away after he was done and then backed up when two skeletons came at him at once.
Aurelian looked between both.
“Hell with it,” he growled while adrenaline, fear, and most surprisingly exhilaration burned through his system. He attacked the first undead even while exposing himself to the second, and snarled in pain at the searing feeling that followed the flesh over his ribs being raked by skeletal fingers.
Condition: Bleeding (Minor)
He ignored the blinking warning on the right of his vision and finished his assault on the first of the two undead: slicing the edge of his Runesword through its neck and collapsing the animated bones. He immediately turned to the other fiend after dispatching the first and abruptly froze for a moment, finding himself facing three instead of one. He scrambled backwards with a grunt when his torn flesh made itself known and realised his error.
He had assumed all the skeletons would rise slowly and had become surrounded.
Aurelian glanced across the room at the far corner, and a desperate idea formed into his head. “Come on then!” he shouted at the shambling group of—a number popped into his head without him needing to think—nine enemies and turned on his heel.
The skeletons pursued when Aurelian sprinted toward the far corner, and upon reaching it he turned and waited for the undead to stagger after him in their macabre, puppet-like run.
When they crossed the better part of three quarters of the distance, he turned and ran across the room to the next corner, flinging every bit of discarded armour, pottery— maybe he really was Link!—and weaponry he could find. None of it had a major effect, but it did sew some measure of chaos into his pursuers.
They were not nearly as agile or aware as living creatures, and so did not remember to watch their steps. Every piece of detritus he grabbed and threw became an impediment to their advance, and even if only briefly; it started to stagger their approach.
Aurelian again waited until they were almost on him before sprinting to the next corner, to the left of where he’d entered the chamber, where the door would be behind him and to his right. This time he started hurling even more debris, and grinned savagely when more than one skeleton took a tumble as a result of twisted limbs.
With three on the ground and six chasing him, he advanced to the next corner—this one with the door behind him and to his left—and once again repeated his tactic of hurling every piece of loose debris he could find, including the de-animated bones of former skeletal enemies.
This time two of the pursuing undead went down, and subsequently entangled themselves with the three that had stood up to resume the chase, taking all five down together in a stroke of luck.
What remained was four charging skeletons, each one separated from the other by about two seconds of motion.
Yeah. he thought with an adrenaline-fueled grin. I can work with this.
Aurelian stepped forward into the charge of the first skeleton, ducked under a grasping claw and drove his blade up into its chest. He received a vicious slash across his spine as a reward, but ignored it in favour of putting his strength behind his Runesword and tearing it upward.
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The skeleton almost exploded into bone shards and bisected armour when his blade erupted from its neck and sent its skull flying.
With no time to waste, Aurelian took three quick leaps towards the corner he’d started his mad ploy in and then turned and slashed out with his blade in a somewhat less-than-refined arcing strike at his next approaching enemy. He overjudged the angle slightly, but luck was on his side, and he managed to just barely connect with its spine; severing it at the ribs and promptly smashing his sword down onto its skull on the reverse to finish it off.
With the next two coming at him and the other five not far behind, Aurelian turned and raced back to his starting corner to repeat his new tactic.
Blood staining his shirt, stamina diminishing, and heart pounding; he made his stand.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Ruined pieces of armour, already-smashed pieces of pottery, loose limbs and as many awkward pieces of bone as he could get his embattled hands on sailed through the air at the undead. Each time he paused, he did so only long enough to cut down another enemy in a quick, frantic sequence of haphazard sword strikes before moving to the next location.
By the time he was down to the last two undead, Aurelian was a sweating and bloody mess.
Two sets of claw marks bled on his chest, he’d received two cuts to his right cheek, and his left arm was covered in blood from a shallow stab into his bicep. Still he met the oncoming undead with a haggard snarl, reaching out to block an overhead swipe from bony hands with his left arm, and thrust his Runesword through the mouth of the creature’s skull.
Aurelian didn’t stop there and instead charged forward with the skull still mounted on his blade, and slammed it into the body of the final creature lurking behind the first. With a heave of effort and flying spittle, he tore the blade sideways to obliterate the final skeleton’s ribcage, and then immediately reversed his momentum—swinging the blade back around to cricket-bat smash its skull from its neck upon the flat of his blade with a roar.
When it was done, Aurelian stood with his Crest in hand, muscles shaking, and eyes searching wildly for the next target while blood continued to trickle down and stain his clothes a more ghoulish shade of crimson.
Suddenly and with an echo of disbelief, he realised he was alone.
He’d done it.
They were dead. Every. Last. One.
Condition: Bleeding (Major)
Aurelian collapsed to his knees when the adrenaline left him, dropping like a puppet with its strings cut. He hurt everywhere, to the point where he'd simply accepted the pain in the course of necessity rather than worry about how it affected him. Now with the battle complete, every cut, every scratch, and every iota of drained stamina and rapidly depleting health caught up to him in a wave of agony and shock.
He wheezed as a chime sounded off in his mind, and his eyes unfocused while they were drawn to the alert.
Strength has risen to 21!
. . .
Strength has risen to 24!
Agility has risen to 9!
. . .
Agility has risen to 16!
Dexterity has risen to 15!
. . .
Dexterity has risen to 20!
Endurance has risen to 17!
. . .
Endurance has risen to 21!
Longsword Mastery is now Level 10!
. . .
Longsword Mastery is now Level 19!
Congratulations, Longsword Mastery has reached Novice Tier!
You have gained Experience!
Running is now Level 4!
. . .
Running is now Level 12!
Congratulations, Running has reached Novice Tier!
You have gained Experience!
Pain Tolerance is now Level 10!
. . .
Pain Tolerance is now Level 19!
Congratulations, Pain Tolerance has reached Novice Tier!
You have gained Experience!
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Tactician (R)!
Through careful planning and understanding of combat, a true warrior finds a way to outwit and outfight even the most terrible of foes. A true tactician is never unarmed, for their mind is their most dangerous weapon. You have proven yourself to be worthy of such a title, and capable of snatching victory from the jaws of certain defeat through the merit of your ingenuity alone!
Your enemies are sure to tremble before you, Reclaimer!
Tactician is now Level 2!
. . .
Tactician is now Level 7!
Aurelian released a hoarse laugh, but the System wasn’t done. He could barely maintain consciousness, let alone focus; but his Iron Will held him strong. Something inside of him knew he needed to hold on just a little longer. To hope for something, for anything, to help him.
Iron Will is now Level 8!
. . .
Iron Will is now Level 12!
Congratulations, Iron Will has reached Novice Tier!
You have gained experience!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Dodge (C)!
Dodging is one of the most common and critical parts of any combatant’s arsenal. A foe that cannot hit you cannot harm you, and thus your own victory is assured. By learning this skill, you have adapted to a harsh and unforgiving law of life in the Realms: The slow often become the dead.
Keep those feet loose, Reclaimer!
Dodge is now Level 2!
. . .
Dodge is now Level 13!
Congratulations, Dodge has reached Novice Tier!
You have gained Experience!
Aurelian wheezed again in amusement at what he was reading. Dodge? Really? He knew he’d avoided some of the skeletons’ attacks, but that seemed more like a cruel joke. He’d taken far more hits than he’d evaded. The System definitely had a sense of humour. It had to. If it didn’t, there was no way in hell it would have been so glib in how it delivered the skill. He would have laughed if he weren’t so damnably exhausted.
Congratulations, Aurelian Lucis Imperius!
You have met the requirements to unlock the skill Durable (UC)!
Powerful are those that choose the path of the frontline combatant, and none more so than those that weather the blows of their foes absent care for the consequence. Your repeated injuries at the hands of your enemies and refusal to succumb have put you within this realm of stubborn heroes.
Break not under the strain, Reclaimer!
Durable is now Level 2!
. . .
Durable is now Level 12!
Congratulations, Durable has reached Novice Tier!
You have gained Experience!