"You're pretty worried, huh?" Ermos noted. "Maybe you're not such a bad guy after all."
"I never was a bad guy," Mane said gruffly, "it was you that threatened my people and stood in my way. It was you that sought to cause a problem. If the title of a chevalar meant anything to you, then you too would be worried. You would care more about saving those youngsters than you would about your coin."
Pash listened to their conversation with interest. They both seemed to be similar in an odd sort of way. They were both very straight forward people.
"I'm all for a bit of rescuing," Ermos insisted, "but if they've been gone for as long as you say, they're probably goners, aren't they?"
"Until I find their bodies, I will consider them to be alive and in need of my help," Mane said gruffly.
"Okay…" Ermos shrugged. "Can we get going then?"
Mane frowned at Ermos' words. Somehow, every sentence Pash's master said served to irritate the large warrior. Pash could sort of understand it. Ermos was a rather strange kind of person. It took a while to get used to his ways.
"There are two skeletons out there," Mane said with a point, "but more could come at any moment. Yesterday I saw five fresh ones make their way inside, still with some skin on their bones. The Gods only know how many more they're hiding in there, if we don't approach this carefully, we'd very well-"
"Okay," Ermos said nonchalantly, stepping out of their cover, revealing himself to the skeletons. They moved their necks like bugs, with a single twitching motion. They even sounded like bugs too. They chirped like crickets when they recognized a living human in front of them.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Mane shouted, unable to contain all that rage that had been built up inside him – alas, there was no longer any need to.
"What do you mean? You said we needed a plan, didn't you? My plan is to bash them up," Ermos said.
"I SAID WE NEEDED TO BE CAREFUL!" Mane shouted back, clutching his hair in frustration. "YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A SWORD, YOU DAMNED FOOL, HOW DO YOU PLAN TO MEET THEM?"
"Oh…" Ermos mumbled just remembering. The two skeletons came lumbering towards him, their bones clacking together with every movement. "A little help please, Pash."
Pash barely had any time to think about how ridiculous it all was. He fumbled with his sword in his sheath and he ran across the open ground to his master's aid, just as he had dreamed of doing a thousand times before… yet in his mind, it had never looked quite like this.
Pash arrived just in time to block a harsh cut that had been going for his masters head, but he gasped as he felt the weight of that strike. For all their lack of muscle and mass, those skeletons were ridiculously strong. It felt like it was boulder pressing against his guard.
"Thanks, Pash," Ermos said with a smile, "I knew I could rely on you."
His master was grinning coolly, seemingly convinced that Pash had it sorted, even those his muscles were trembling from the exertion, and the skeleton was pushing his head up close to him, snapping at him with its decayed teeth when its sword could not make it past his guard.
With the other skeleton drawing in close, Pash grew panicked. After all Ermos had done to torment Mane, he wouldn't be coming to their aid any time soon. He'd happily watch them be eaten alive, enjoying his chance at vengeance.
Pash tried his best to do it alone, with his master's eyes expectantly on him. He put less strength into resisting the rusty sword that was grinding against his own, lulling the brain-dead monster into a false sense of confidence. The creature took the bait, and then Pash pushed out explosively with all his might, catching it off guard and making it stumble backwards.
"Oh!" Ermos exclaimed, apparently impressed.
There was no time for Pash to cheer, however, for he had only rid himself of that skeleton's bother for a moment and now there was another skeleton coming towards him.
In frustration, he gripped his sword even tighter and gritted his teeth, looking from one skeleton to the other, trying to decide how he might cut his enemies down from two to one.
And then a massive slab of steel came to solve that problem for him. Mane swung his sword with a swiftness and sliced the skeleton in half from top to bottom, smashing through its rusted iron helmet and then skull and then every vertebra in its spine with perfect precision.
"Show off," Ermos mumbled, before striking out at the remaining skeleton with his fist, shattering its skull inside its helmet. "Ow," he complained, holding his fist afterwards. Fingers barked in delight, seeming to find it funny.
Pash was left covered in sweat, his muscles aching and his adrenaline pumping, whilst those two monstrous men folded their arms as though they had dealt with the easiest thing in the world. Looking at their backs, Pash felt the distance between him and then. He frowned to himself, vowing to get even stronger.
"I made that promise to you under one assumption: you wouldn't be trying to get yourself killed," Mane growled.
"Wait, are you saying you're going to protect me?" Ermos asked with an innocent smile.
"I said I'd let you inside the cave with me. It'd be dishonourable if I did that merely to watch you die," Mane said back, turning away from him in irritation. "So, you're going to be following my orders from here on out."
"Wait, I didn't agree to that," Ermos said.
"I don't give a damn whether you agree to it or not – that's what's happening. Because of your foolishness just now, you could have gotten us all killed. You still might. How loud did you want to be? Whatever is inside that cave will have heard it, and they'll be getting themselves ready for our coming."