In their hands, he saw rusted old swords, things of the past, brutish in their design, more batons now than cutting weapons. On their heads, they wore horned helmets of the same rusted iron as their swords. Scraps of decayed cloth hung from their bones and blackened teeth framed their mouths.
"Retreat. One step, two step, three step," Ermos said in a whisper. "And, perfect."
A little ways away from where the skeletons stood, they crouched down behind the trees, a man, a boy and a dog. And there they held their strategy meeting.
"What did I tell you, Pash?" Ermos said with a smile. "I knew we'd stumble upon something sooner or later. With how creepy and dark that cave is, it's sure to run deep. Perhaps it's an ancient burial mound? They'll be all kinds of treasure in there."
"Aren't you missing something, master?" Pash said in disbelief. "Those are skeletons! Dead men, standing there, as though it's the most normal thing in the world."
"That they were," Ermos agreed, not seeing what was so strange about that.
"But… aren't they unkillable? How do you kill the dead? What if there's more of them? Couldn't they overwhelm us?" Pash said.
"Nah, they look pretty weak," Ermos shrugged, "if you can't kill them, you can just bust them up a bit, so they can't come crawling after you anymore. Besides, even if there are thousands of them, Fingers can swipe them all away at once, can't you Fingers?"
Fingers wagged his tail to indicate his agreement. He looked like he wanted to bark as well, but he had the sense not to, what with the enemy being so close by.
But even with the effort they put into remaining quiet, something must have heard them. They heard slow and heavy footsteps coming from nearby. The snap of a twig as something clumsy blundered through the forest.
Pash's hand went to his sword, whilst Ermos and Fingers starred in the direction of the noise with an alertness.
The bush nearest them ruffled, and out stepped the most terrifying creature Pash had ever seen. At nearly seven feet tall it, was an extremely large… man.
Pash realized that he was human with a start. A human with flesh and skin as well. After expecting to see a bloodthirsty skeleton, it came as something of a shock.
A moment later, he realized that it was a human he even recognized. That short pitch-black hair, that angular jaw-line and that face littered with scars, but most of all, that abominable sword that he carried on his back.
The man's eyes widened as he saw them and he reached for the sword on his back. But Ermos was even faster. Before the man could fully draw it, Ermos was behind him. He slapped his hands away and ripped the sword from his grasp, before dancing away with it lightly, far out of reach.
"Hello again," Ermos said with a smile. It was likely the most irritating thing he could have done.
"You…" Mane growled, seething with a demonic anger. His face was still covered in cuts and bruises from where Ermos had sent him flying.
"Ah, this is lighter than it looks, you know? Is it a special type of metal?" Ermos asked, swinging his sword with one hand.
That only served to infuriate Mane even further. Clearly, being able to wield a sword of that size was something he was extremely proud of. He clenched his fist and veins bulged on the side of his head, but, instead of violence, he growled a warning in a quiet but rage-filled voice. "Keep your damned voices down, you bastards… What in the name of the Moon Gods are you doing here?"
"Looking for treasure," Ermos replied, swinging the sword over his head once more, using but a single hand. "How about you, big guy? Is your chest still hurting?"
"…Give me my sword back, now, then we'll talk," Mane said, lunging forward, trying to taking it from Ermos by surprise.
But on the tips of his toes, Ermos danced away. "Nope," he said firmly.
Mane went after him, chasing him around their little patch of forest, moving as quickly as he could, but with a tentativeness, as he worried about being too loud. From that, Pash thought that he might have known about the skeletons too.
"Haha!" Ermos laughed as Mane once more lashed out with his hand, trying his very best to reclaim his sword, red-faced and panting from the effort, but no matter how quickly he moved, Ermos was always faster, and he always made it look easy.
Mane chased Ermos for so long that he nearly collapsed. Fingers soon joined in too, nipping lightly at Mane's heels, not doing any damage, not even drawing blood, but irritating him so much that he nearly howled at the top of his lungs from the rage.
He had to take a knee as he recovered his breath, panting more than even Fingers. "Damn you…" he cursed them. It was likely the second-worst day of his life. The first being when Ermos had sent him flying.