“Stay together!” Shouted Decius. “We keep moving forward!”. Decius’ vanguard was down to just seven fighters. Bloody, tired, exhausted, with torn clothes and missing sandals, staggering, but carrying on. There was one burly, hairy man named Apostathese. Prior to the cataclysm, he was a mild mannered builder. He was proving to be a ferocious warrior. Much to his own surprise. He turned the tools he once used for building on the Abandoned. His heavy adze* he was crushing every enemy that stood in front of him. Literally in this case. The adze was made to swing all the weight of the heavy curved blade from the very last finger of the long shaft. It was swung down like a farmer’s hoe. Meaning he was not mowing them down like wheat, but rather hoeing them down.
The adze required huge overhead strikes, which were nearly unblockable, but left its wielder open to a fast thrust to the gut or a stab in the shoulder should the wielder miss his target and strike the ground. Therefore, Decius quickly organised the men as an escort. Protecting Apostathese by engaging or occupying all enemies near Apostathese and defending him as he attacked. This allowed the little group to fight defensively as Apostathese knocked the enemies down one by one.
Decius and the vanguard were in the process of overthrowing a group of nine Abandoned that had moved very deliberately to block their path. Decius didn’t like that. A few of the groups they had come across seemed to be acting with a bit more purpose, as though some of them were starting to take orders from somewhere.
As the man with the most battle experience, Decius also allowed himself to be more aggressive than the rest of the escort. Shouting and making aggressive feints and lunges with his short sword in order to draw more attention to himself. Apostathese made his usual short work of his first opponent. Toppling the guy over with brute force. Apostathese then brought his adze down on his downed opponent’s leg, which was more than enough to take him out of the fight. He then quickly turned to the next occupied opponent and made similar work of him, and then the next. This was enough to cause the Abandoned to run. In all directions, Decius noticed. Perhaps the Abandoned were also afraid of each other.
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However, even as Apostathese struck down his last target, Kythos, a farmer on the smallish wielding an old family heirloom sword, cried out as he took a wound to the leg. He was out of the fight for certain. He might even need another sledge to drag him along like Greg.
Where was that fool god of heat-lightning? Why wasn't he the one here getting stabbed?
“Where the hades is our god?” Grated Decious. The fighters around Decius probably thought he was speaking in more general terms than he actually was. It didn’t seem like anyone else in their group of rag-tag refugees could actually see Josh. In fact, they seemed to have a slightly different interpretation of events than Decius and Epictetus. But by now, some of the refugees were beginning to sense that they might be receiving supernatural aid. It gave the group hope, and it gave the fighters courage. It was probably better for morale that only Decius and Epictetus could see him.
“He’s up on that hill. Where you sent him.” Said Epictetus, catching up from behind him.
“Oh… Why is he doing the javelin pose?”
“Must have seen it on a statue.”
“Oh… Why is he putting his forehead on his back arm?”
“I don’t know. I guess it’s some kind of javelin pose, face hiding celebration. Maybe he doesn't know how to javelin pose.”
“Oh, cool. Cool. Well, down here we are getting stabbed, so can you tell him to get back to his intercept patrol?”
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*An adze is like an axe but with its blade perpendicular to the shaft rather than parallel or like a hoe but with a heavy axe blade. It has been used since prehistoric times for crafting, farming and shaping timber.