Aki sits up, groaning quietly. The branches had been a painful speedbump to the ground. Even so, they served their unintended purpose well since she hadn't been seriously injured this time.
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Aki Title: Witch
LE: 30/55 HP: 85/200
MP: 19/250
SP: 47/50
[Adjusted to Darkness: 10% increase in vision when in dim light or pure dark]
[Waning Life: All stats reduced until LE restored]
More: ⟲
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She frowns; bruised, sore, and exhausted, she wasn't capable of much of anything right now.
Aki wraps her cloak tightly around herself and breathes a sigh of relief. She is about to call out to the others considering she couldn't see them amidst the rubble, when a small hand covers her mouth and pulls her into a nearby bush.
Winter is there with a finger to his lips and an urgent look in his eye. Aki nods, removing his hand from her mouth. With her silence secured, Winter draws a message in the dirt.
He points at where she was seconds before. Through the settling dust, the forms of shambling Dead come into view. Armed and armoured, the lot of them would be a difficult challenge in a head-on fight.
Zombies, modified skeleton monsters, and even a pair of draugr poke and prod the battlement rubble. Strangely, a greenish glow emanates from their eyes, and a pale grey aura surrounds their bodies.
Winter pokes her shoulder. Pointing down, Aki sees a pair of messages written in the dirt.
Are you two okay? Mirra and I are fine, but we're tapped on everything. By the way, just write in the dirt to talk. We can't see you, but I've got enough strength for this. I'll be able to see it and respond. - P
Below that message, Winter had written down his own.
Got it. These Dead aren't directly controlled, so if we catch them by surprise, we should be able to take them out with muscle. My guess is the bad guy anticipated someone destroying his mass control spells and put up spell receivers to keep a lot of his army moving. -W
Understood. We'll get ready on our end. Wait for the count of three. - M
Draugr first. Aki hurriedly writes. She silently pats Winter on the shoulder and points at the two draugr.
Armoured slightly better than the rest of their companions and carrying a mace and tri-tipped spear, respectively, the draugr stand in the middle of the investigative formation. They'll raise their allies faster than we can beat them with how we are. They can also use magic to call for backup if left alone. - A
Got it. - M. Then, 1.
2.
Mirra flies out from a thick bramble of bushes off to the right and immediately grasps the draugr by the head. With more force than could have been expected from someone exhausted, Mirra slams their heads together.
The draugr's skulls explode in a flurry of rotten flesh, sloshed brain matter, and other liquids Aki doesn't want to think too deeply about.
The other three follow shortly after, taking advantage of the stunned Dead to immediately dispatch the weakest of their number.
Aki aims a kick at the nearest skeleton's knees. It buckles from the hit, and in its attempt to stabilise itself, it drops its spear right into Aki's expectant hands. Not losing momentum, she turns on a dime and separates the skeleton's head with its own spear.
Its grey aura dissipates with the loss of its head. However, Aki is too preoccupied with the charging zombies to pay much more attention.
Winter tackles the nearest Dead that was just about to take a chunk from Aki's neck, sending it into the rubble. In the meantime, Aki makes use of the space he won her and thrusts the spear into the next zombie's exposed mouth and pulls horizontally with all her might.
The zombie's head is split in two, and the four-armed skeleton next to it is clocked clean on its jaw.
"Never expected kids to be so strong. This place is really something else, don't ya think, Phoebe?" Mirra smashes a bone soldier's skull with its own shield before using it like a frisbee to decapitate the last zombie present.
"Well, Aki's an Acolyte of Moon-something that fights this stuff all the time, right?" Phoebe struggles to keep her balance, using her staff as a cane to hold herself up.
Still, she flashes a hearty smile at Aki.
"Y-yeah. Magic doesn't always work, so…" Aki says sheepishly.
"We're getting surrounded by more Living Dead." Interjects Winter. He starts moving diagonally through the rubble toward the trees while keeping an eye on the starlit sky. "We should hurry back to the city before it gets any darker than it is. We're close, but not enough to be home-free."
Mirra scoops Phoebe up on her back and hurries after Aki and Winter. Tired but small, the child duo spearhead a safe passage through the forest. Mirra tries her best to trudge after them, but her size, exhaustion, and carrying another body don't do much for speed. Still, she perseveres.
Up ahead, the pair move quickly and quietly. Bones rattling nearby keeps everyone alert. Skeleton warriors of varying types patrolled small areas within the forest. Grouped together as if they were a military encampment preparing to attack, Aki sees many unmoving skeletons grouped together among the trees, surrounding strange effigies spiked into the ground at their centre.
Most unsettling of all is that there were other Dead creatures mixed among the skeletons. Draugr, zombies, and larger creatures she couldn't quite make out. The powerful Dead Winter mentioned, most likely.
Winter as well was engrossed in their observation because he nearly steps out directly in front of one of the patrolling skeletons. A taller, big-boned figure with a two-horned helmet and twin axes.
Aki notices just in time and pulls him back from danger and behind a tree. Its plate armour is incomplete with huge defensive gaps and deteriorated fabrics, but it looks at least decently polished even in the dark.
Unfortunately, the step back necessary to keep Winter out of view causes Aki to step on a twig. In the quiet, dark forest, the sound of a snapping twig is as loud as a fireball.
The horned skeleton pauses in its tracks and swivels on the spot. It raises its weapons as it scans the ground. Though its kind lacks sensory capabilities like other creatures, the magic that powers them serves as a substitute for its normal senses. However, a skeleton's magical senses are more acute, causing most living things to be unable to hide for long.
It steps closer to the source of the noise, weapon raised and poised to strike. The skeleton is next to the tree now, axe up and teeth chattering. It steps around, and suddenly its vision blackens. Next thing it knows, it's flat on the ground.
Aki had scaled the tree and pounced on its head.
Relying heavily on her dexterity, Aki staked her chances on grabbing and spinning the skeleton's horn helmet. With a combination of skill and luck, she came from directly above and used her momentum to simultaneously block the skeleton's vision and slam it to the ground.
Having just arrived, Mirra stomps down hard on the skeleton's weapon arm to prevent it from attacking.
With the sneak attack successful, Winter jumps on the skeleton's plated chest and encases it with shadow magic. The skeleton struggles for a moment, then ceases its movement.
"Rise, my servant." Winter mumbles.
The skeleton shudders. Inside its skull, a green flame flickers before becoming crimson red.
No longer struggling, Winter gets off its chest, and the horned skeleton moves into a kneeling position.
"That's all I have left in me," he whispers. Winter looks between his three companions, pursing his lips. "Let's get to a safe spot, and I'll explain what I just found out. Lead the way, horned skeleton."
The Dead bows its head and follows its new master's instruction.
Using the Dead as an incognito warning system allows the four to move through the forest quicker and easier than before.
It isn't long before they can see the city over the tree line. Unfortunately, they've also arrived at a clearing where a hulking fleshy mass of a monster lies sleeping. Across from it, closer to the city, is an abnormal rock formation with another one of the strange bone effigies staked into it.
Aki jumps behind a tree and starts searching her bestiary while Winter sends the horned skeleton into the clearing. Meanwhile, Mirra circles around the clearing with Phoebe on her back in an attempt to get closer to the effigy.
The creature begins to stir and sleepily rise as the rock formation crumbles, revealing more of the effigy. A thick grey smoke-like aura seeps out of the effigy as more is revealed. Likely a type of miasma, Aki and Winter wordlessly guess.
The creature rolls in its sleep and kicks at the formation. The sudden impact causes it to jolt upward.
Two heads sit upon its massive, rotund body. Now that it is no longer curled up, what once looked like nasty sores or rags on its blue-hued flesh could now clearly be seen as deformed faces contorted into expressions of agony and hatred.
One head lolled sleepily in place while the other took notice of the skeleton warrior and swatted at it.
Winter's control allowed the skeleton to leap to safety. Unfortunately, that only served to aggravate the monster, causing it to smack its other head awake and point at the unanticipated guest.
"It's a Corpse Ettin," Aki whispers, trying to read the text on the page. "It's not smart, but it is loud. It's powerful enough to kill us, or we'll get swarmed and die."
"We don't have enough strength between us, and I don't know what that dreamcatcher-looking thing is," Winter responds, pointing at the effigy. "Since it's under someone's control, it won't rampage, but it's still gonna draw attention. Not to mention New Pinacca's in danger if there's more of these."
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(Tactician Lv. 1 - Insight granted)
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"Backstabbers are the hardest to anticipate," Aki taps Winter on the shoulder and waves at seemingly nothing. "Corpse Ettin aren't intelligent. It probably sees the skeleton like an ally, so you could use this blind spot as a way to easily kill it."
Winter's eyes widen, a stroke of realisation hitting him. "Since it probably has the order to destroy enemies, it won't think twice about a skeleton nearby."
Their plan, however, doesn't make it any further because the Corpse Ettin is already trying to crush the skeleton warrior.
It makes low growling and barking sounds, almost as if it were some sort of canine with an uncanny humanoid tone as it tries to destroy the horned skeleton.
At first, it swats or slams its hand down, but Winter commands well enough to stay out of reach. However, Winter is running on fumes.
It only takes two more attempts for the Ettin to partially crush the skeleton. When it does, Winter coughs and spits up a small amount of vomit as if he, too, took damage.
One of the Corpse Ettin's heads swivels toward the noise, curiosity piqued. Then, an intriguing scenario occurs. Half of it wants to finish off the skeleton, while the other attempts to investigate the noise.
The ensuing result is an intriguing display of its two heads making loud, aggressive noises at each other, culminating in one attempting to bite the other and getting punched instead.
The force of the punch makes the Corpse Ettin stumble and destroy the effigy.
All at once, the sound of ethereal screams and howls fills the air as a miniature vortex of dark grey smoke that appears to have faces spirals upward from the ruined effigy. The Corpse Ettin seems to have been affected too, because the miasmic aura it has dissipates, and its movement ceases.
"Your worst enemy is yourself," Winter mutters, wiping the spit from his mouth.
Stepping out from the bushes, he pulls Aki after him to get to where they last saw the other two. "After all, it's easy to win against dumb enemies, right?"