Spooky Scary Skeletons [LCO]

[Perun]

Mernatel led the small group he'd been assigned to assist Jule by the church as quickly as his legs could take him in his thick plate. He brought a pair of the mercenaries the band had hired for the monster hunts and a few rather rugged looking townsfolk. If more than a handful of monsters came for the sanctuary, he knew that it would not be enough. However, he'd never say such out loud, the other sell swords knew it, Kesh and Dorril knew it, and Perun knew it. There was no reason to make the twonsfolk simply believe they'd get killed if the monsters could not be diverted to the ton center, that would only make their death one filled with more fear than it held already. He hadn't been sent because he'd be enough to save them, but that perhaps other than Perun he had the best chance to take down the most abominations before the clawed him down. As the group came into view of the church, Mernatel called out to the young woman Perun had sent their first, "Hey, you're Jule right?" Then they drew closer, "We're here to guard the church too." Then he turned, and tried to see if there were any vantage points he could see where the monsters were coming from. In an attempt to boost morale, he swung his lance so that the metal tip rang against his left pauldron. It was the more ornate one, it was orange like most of his armor, but the gold trim formed the head of the bull across his broad shoulder. The sound wasn't loud, but he was sure they could all hear it.

---

The Skeletal general could have laughed if... well if he could have laughed. The big hairy one had tried to slay him with an arrow. An arrow, as if he could be put down by a bit of iron glancing against the bone. He drew his sword from where it hung at his hip, and pointed the blade at the big orange man as he fired another arrow, this one hitting a corpse a little to the armored Skeletons left. The monsters surged forward, and their leader began to follow, though as the bulk of the monsters began to make for the man and his little group waiting for them, about nine broke off and began to shamble towards one of the towns other entrances. To go around or to simply avoid being stuck behind their brethren, it was unclear.

---

Perun began to backpedal almost immediately as the monsters started their rush, "Move!" the others around him began to move, a little faster than he'd have liked, they might just disrupt the appearance he was trying to make. They needed to look like they were trying to fight back, so that the monsters would try to overwhelm them. As the others kept moving Perun suddenly stopped, took aim, and fired. Again his arrow took the same corpse he'd hit before, and saw the monster go to the ground. They continued much the same until they had made it almost where the rest of the people of the city stood, and Perun could see the archers and Kesh get into position. As he, Dorril and the others kept moving, the big Illian wondered what was going through the young man's mind.

---

SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T!

---

Kesh waited as the orange giant and the others rushed past him. The archers and the mage were waiting near where the townspeople had decided to make their stand, and he was to give the signal for when they could fire. He waited, and waited. They couldn't hope to thin more than a few of the monsters from the field, but a few was better than none. Kesh waited. Then, the monsters were almost at their clashing point, and throwing up his hand and yelling an incantation, fire leaped from the air into the line of monsters, and the archers all stood, and began to answer.

[Aria]

Welp. We found them. Aria thought to herself as she saw a small group of shambling corpses heading out towards the other entrances of the town. There she counted about six or seven but had a sneaking suspicion that there were more then that. She sighed softly and started to think at how she was going to approach this. Right, now she was at the southern end of town. Three monsters had branched out towards this path in an attempt to get behind those who were guardian the northern pass. Aria wasn't about to have that happen. She gritted her teeth. Damn it.. if i hit these guys.. then the other monsters go around towards the other ends. Sh*t. I've got no way of warning anyone either.

Chewy growled and turned to her side in order to avoid the flying lance of one of the skeletons. Oh... you little! Aria drew her lance and ordered Chewy to head down. The wyvern landed in front of the three walking corpses and let out a roar. Chewy slammed her tail down on the ground she was challenging the skeletons. One skeleton had a javelin, another two had swords. Chewy's hide was strong a few rusty weapons like the skeletons swords wouldn't do too much damage. But those were just the enemies she could see. Aria and Chewy couldn't see who or what was lingering around the background foliage.

Aria had Chewy duck her head and the rider threw one of her own javelins out towards the skeleton with the javelin. The weapon found it's mark and hit the corpse right into the chest and got stuck there. The other two skeletons tried to charge out towards the large wyvern but one met the beast's tail and was flung a few feet away. The other managed to strike at Chewy's leg. This caused the wyvern to turn and face the skeleton, Aria pulled her body forward and trusted her iron lance into the creature's skull. She managed to drive the lance into it's mouth and severed it from it's spine. She pulled the lance up and the skull was still attached to the metal end. It was biting the weapon in a desperate attempt to free itself. The body of the skeleton fell apart into a pile of bones once the head was removed.

Chewy got up on her hind legs for a moment. The skeleton with the Javelin was still moving and managed to remove the javelin stuck in between it's ribs and throw it back at the wyvern and rider. The thrown lance managed to scrape the wyvern on the chest. Aria tugged on the reigns and prepared for Chewy to charge. She held the lance out in a similar manner a paladin or a cavalier did in a joust. Chewy "ran" out towards the bonewalker. Actually her run was more like a jump or lunge out towards the bonewaker. Aria's skull tipped lance met it's mark and knocked into the spine of the skeleton with the javelin. Chewy then stomped on it as a added precaution and Aria pulled her lance out of it.

There were more noises coming from the woods. Aria gave the command for Chewy to go back into the air. Before she could the other skeleton with the sword somehow managed to jump up land onto Chewy's back. Chewy continued her ascent into the sky.

"Crap!" Aria shouted. As the skeleton raised it's sword in an attempt to slash at the rider. Aria did not have time to turn around and face the threat as she was strapped into her seat for safety. Aria moved to her side and the rusted sword missed her head but hit her arm.

"Ahh!" Chewy felt the skeleton on her back and started to buck wildly in the air in an attempt to shake it off. The skeleton was holding on to Aria's saddle in an attempt to keep itself from falling off. Aria turned her body to it's side, curled her lightly armored hands into fists and punched the bonewalker as hard as she could.

"Let Go!" Eventually she managed to dislodge the bonewalker from the saddle and it crashed into the ground. The rider pulled on the reigns trying to get Chewy to calm down. Aria was panting now. Her arm was pulsating in pain and she could feel blood trickling down her shoulder.

[Perun]

Arrows began to fall into the ranks of the dead, and they were accompanied by the occasional ball of flame. Ultimately, there weren't many of the corpses or skeletons felled by the arrows or flame, but the beasts did show some level of confusion even in their animal like state. The beast at the head, the skeleton in the thick plates of armor marched on seeming almost oblivious to the disarray in the ranks of his weak minded 'soldiers.'

With cries that could convey terror or rage, the people of the little town finally clashed with the monsters, some meeting blade to blade, some crashing a shovel against the rotten head of a corpse. Almost immediately, at the second of the confrontation, the people of the town began to be pushed back. A few of them fell quickly, and a few it was far slower. However, they were clearly at a distinct disadvantage, though the Wyvern rider high in the sky looked more than capable of thinning the numbers down from above. Still, there needed to be an X Factor of sorts, something to give the Lycians an edge.

The X Factor dug the head of his axe deep into the head of one of the monsters, one of the corpses, and allowed the husk to slide off, leaving a trail of black blood and rotten guts on the blade. He feinted to the left of a spear thrust from one of the skeletons, and then dodged the hands of a risen body. The monster then moved on to tangle with Dorril, who somehow had managed to become covered in dirt instead of the black sludge that coated most other men and women standing up to the abominations. Perun blocked another spearthrust with the haft of his axe, then looked into what would have been the eyes of one of the monsters. It was a skeleton in rusted armor.

[Aria]

Aria kept tugging at the reigns. She and Chewy were high above the rooftops of the village. A fall from this height would be more than enough to kill Aria. Chewy was still spooked at the now fallen skeleton. It took all of Aria’s energy and handling to get Chewy to calm down and fly in a regular pattern. Her screaming and yelling didn’t seem to help the situation either. Aria’s arms were pulsating in pain. All of this tugging and pulling was doing some harm to the wound she received from the skeleton’s old sword. After what felt like an eternity Chewy finally managed to calm down and straighten her flight. Aria at this point was panting, she raised her hand up, and smacked the horn of the saddle.

“Heavens above Chew..” She muttered. The wyvern tilted it’s head to the side to glance at it’s rider. Aria was panting hard. It was extremely difficult and draining to control a wyvern while it was panicking. Aria used her hand from the non wounded arm and applied pressure to the wound. If she wasn’t in the middle of combat she would have pulled off the arm guards and patch herself up. The brickish wyvern made a noise that sounded like a bark out of concern.

“It’s fine, Chew. Come on. We can’t stay up here forever. People are counting on us.” Aria gripped the reigns with the hurt arm and picked up the lance with her good one. Carefully she guided Chewy back around the southern end. The rider pinpointed a lone bonewalker trying to make it’s way through the gates. Aria wordlessly commanded Chewy down and had the brick wyvern land directly on top of the bonewalker crushing it instantly. Two more bonewalkers charged forward at the reddish beast, Chewy scraped her back leg on the ground. It kicked the remains of the bonewalker out from under it and charged forward. These two bonewalkers had lances. Sharp ones. Aria had to hope that Chewy moved in a manner so as to avoid getting hit by them. Wyvern hide was strong and could resist many hits from weapons. But, like all things there was a limit to how much it could withstand. This limit was not counting certain weak points that most animals seemed to share. While a pair of lances like these would do minimal damage towards the wyvern’s body, a jab at it’s eyes would render her blind. It was up to Aria to ensure that Chewy remained as healthy as possible. The skeletons charged forward, lances in the air.

Chewy tucked her head down so that the lances grazed her hard skin of her shoulder. Aria jabbed her lance deep into the head of the one skeleton closet to her. While Chewy grabbed the other skeleton’s leg with her mouth and tossed it aside. The skeleton tried frantically to crawl up the wyvern with it’s arms. But Aria swiftly jabbed it with her lance, knocking the creature down, and away.

[Jule]

Without warning, a large man in garish plate was suddenly looming over her with two of his party of goons. The young warrior snapped to. "Huh? Oh. Yeah, my name's Jule. If the big guy sent ya, you're in the right place." The white-haired knight nodded, introducing himself as Mernatel, along with the rest of their goons valued companions. Once introductions were out of the way, the men and women went about their business, preparing for battle and conversing all the while. No one seemed to pay Jule any mind as she went through simple practice motions by her lonesome, or if they did they were too busy trying not to get cut on the girl's clumsy swings.

The feeling in the air here was much different than when she was hunting dogs in Sacae, or hiking through the animal people forest. The others could feel it too, the girl was sure of it. Maybe it was because they had something to protect this time? After all, most of the time Jule was on a job, she was out hunting instead of waiting to be hunted. It was a very definite "maybe"; she had no other clues about what they'd be so afraid of. The mercenaries looked rugged enough, and the other citizens looked at least as competent as she was, sorta. They'd be fine. Everything would be fine. What was all the worrying about?

---

Lost in thoughts and off guard, the man named Mernatel clapped a gloved palm on her shoulder. "Jule." The swordswoman was stunned for a moment, but she took it in stride with a nod and a wipe of her brow. It was time. Jule's back stiffened up and her body contorted from her lax training posture to a taut fighting stance. "Alright, everyone. You already know what to do. Get in position. the monsters will be here soon." The small group formed up in an uneven semi-circle, facing the entrances towards the church grounds. What few archers they had were already up on surrounding rooftops, nocking arrows to strings.

Moments later, skeletal creatures started trickling in, bony toes scraping the pebbles on the ground. The arrows from the rooftops did little more than slow most of the undead, though one lucky shot fractured a bonewalker's eye socket. More and more kept coming from the left and right, Perun's group keeping the main brunt of the attack from cutting through the most direct route. The young woman's heart raced as she leaped into the fray. Nevermind any of that talk about bolting now. It had allllllll been worth the wait.

---

Mernatel moved like a heavy bolt of lightning, crunching plate and bones alike with a thrust of his spear. The other, faceless mercenaries were also faring well, but within mere minutes of combat the townspeople were starting to fold underneath the onslaught. Thankfully, no one had died yet(keyword: yet), but they were starting to have more injuries than they had morale.

Jule grunted, peeling a bladeless skeleton off of the church door and into the dirt below. This was bad; even she was having trouble. With a wild cry, the warrior jumped onto the monster and slammed her blade into its skull. The undead flailed, raking its claws across her leg. Then another strike. And another, and finally its claws stopped flailing. Already, two more were coming at her. The girl glanced at her ripped pant leg. It stung, but the creature's dulled claws left little more than a scrape. It was fine. She was fine.

In a quick headcount, the number of monsters were near double the amount of humans. So it was only fitting that Jule could take on more than one at once. Of course... she wasn't very good at group combat yet, but it was worth a shot at least. Jule hopped from the now-fully corpsed corpse and slashed horizontally. While it didn't instantly destroy both monsters(though she had hoped it would), it cracked a rib of the rightmost revenant. Unfortunately, that seemed to make it angrier. It jabbed with a rusted lance while the other circled around, ready to strike. First of all, that pole had to go. The lance cut across her shoulder, but thankfully its weight was enough to imbalance the skeleton. With a cry of pain, her sword hacked against the pole and splintered the rotted wood. The skeleton tumbled to the ground in a heap and the girl seized her opportunity, stamping on the head until it caved in. One down, one... missing? "Wait where'd the other one gUWAH"

A skeletal foot kicked her into the dust. For a moment, the girl struggled to roll over, competing with both the predicament of a foot holding her down and the wind being knocked from her lungs. Clearly, this thing wasn't happy with what she did to its friend. Jule's hand desperately struggled for the tibia. The skeleton was very deliberately raising the blade overhead, chattering its teeth all the while. "You... hah...Think you can make me give up just like that?!" She frothed, grabbing hold of its leg bones and heaving. "I'm only gonna fight harder!"

The skeleton lost balance and toppled over, blade falling from its grasp. "Serves ya right..." The girl muttered. Struggling to get up, the thief turned to look at her adversary, but a townswoman had already severed the head from its spine. As the light faded from its eyes she pulled Jule to her feet. "Be careful out there, kid." the lady's tone was stern, even as she wheezed in pain. She was in even worse condition than Jule was, hair and clothes matted with blood. There was no time for a mercenary like the girl to be resting in the dirt.

Jule beamed, the woman managing a weak smile in return. "You got it!"

[Perun]

The thick boned skeleton shuffled towards the bear sized human with startling speed in the rusted armor that hung from its meatless frame. It tightened its boney grip against the hand and a half sword that rested in his hand as the orange haired giant tore his axe through the rib cage of one of the skeletons comrades. The sword was one he had taken from the corpse of a slain farm boy, who weilded the sword with the technique of a butter knife. The sword was probably one used by one of his parents or near relatives some years before, but its make did not reflect the hands that had taken it up. It was expertly crafted, its weight perfect, each inch a testament to the labor that the human body was capable of perfecting. In a word, it was perfect. Perfect for the hand which now gripped it, a thin figure of death, coming with the torch and sword to destroy humanity on tiny useless village at a time. No bearded fool would manage to stop him.

He came on like a raging storm, swinging the sword of the dead farm boy at the head of the pale skinned, orange haired, massive shouldered human. The blade would have taken the man in his arm, however the gargantuan man shifted back on his heel and turned away from the swing, managing to only take a thin cut from the sword. If the man hadn't taken down more of the black horde than the skeletal warrior had deemed acceptable, the chalky boned wraith would have felt a deal of pleasure from the slight grunt that escaped the ugly warriors lips. However, he wanted to put this bestial human down, and to do it as quickly as possible.

---

Mernatel's thick plate was taking a beating. He had one of the walking husks of flesh hanging over his shoulder, and another still living, just past the head of his lance. The one hanging on his shoulder clawed at the armor on his back, while the other fought to step forward as the wood splintered inside its torso.

The Knight of the Thirty-Third looked around him, and saw that one of the young men who'd come with them was on his last legs, and both an old man and a woman lay dead on the ground. Grunn and Lolys seemed to be holding their own, and the thin little girl Perun seemed familiar with was doing surprisingly well, but none of them were doing well enough. Mernatel looked to the monster clawing its way slowly up his lance. Time to go to work.

In one motion, the snow haired Bernese man shrugged the beast off his shoulder, and grabbed the lance with his shielded hand. Then, setting his feet shoulder length apart and bending at his knees, Mernatel lifted the lance so that it pointed straight at the sky, so that the wretched thing slid down it at frightening speed. Before letting go of it, Mernatel set its butt against the ground, then caught the lance after the monster had slid past where his hands were meant to rest. Then he tore the lance from the things torso with minimal effort and slammed the butt of the lance into the back of its skull, crushing it. Turning, Mernatel hurried towards the chapel door as quickly as he could in the plate and yelled, "To the door! Cover the door!"

---

SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T!

---

Atop the roof, Kesh launched another bolt of flame into the head of one of the beasts, narrowly stopping it from devouring the arm of a boy no older than fourteen. He shouldn't of been out, his parents should have seen to him being safe, and if he didn't have any parents somebody else should have done it. Not that it mattered, Kesh considered, the boy would probably get killed by a monster or an Etrurian sometime soon even if he survived today, so why not spend his living hours futily holding your arm just a bit too close to a monsters arm. Kesh had helped him once, and if he saw him in trouble he'd help him again. But if he was too stupid and thrust his hand into a gaping jaw while Kesh wasn't looking, the mage couldn't give a sh*t.

---

Perun and the powerful skeleton stood locked in combat, neither giving ground but neither gaining. For a thing that was free of sinew, the beast somehow put up quite a fight against the Thunderbolt of Clan Volsungg. He had hooked his axe around the things sword, and they now fought to gain an advantage over the other. In the raging chaos of the battle however, neither seemed to be in a position to finish the clash quickly.

[Aria]

Two more skeletons were heading towards her direction. Aria let out a tired sigh and drew her lance close. She had to prepare herself for the next attack. Her arm and shoulder were throbbing in pain. The sky haired rider gritted her teeth and pushed past the pain. She needed to be tough. There were people in this little town who did not deserve to die today. They certainly didn't deserve to die by the hands of some angry un-dead monster. She was the only one holding the line at this other entrance too. What ever stragglers went past her and Chewy would be her responsibility. The deaths of those people might be pinned on her. No. Can't let that happen.

She made a light motion with her wrist. The motion carried through her reigns and down towards Chewy's harness. The brick colored wyvern let out a ear piercing roar. A signal to the other bone walkers to come challenge her. To break their limbs in the wyvern's mouth. To be bludgeoned by the wyvern's tail. Aria hoped the bone walkers would take the bait. The two she noticed earlier seemed to have slowed their movements down. Are they scared? She didn't blame them. Not everyone saw the beauty in wyverns. It seemed that that notion carried over to undead things. Perhaps a memory of their former lives. It didn't matter to Aria. She just knew that she needed to stop them.

Chewy growled and used one of her feet to scratch at the ground. She then charged at the two skeleton men at full running speed. The red wyvern knocked them down like bowling pins. Aria had her lance held out to Chewy's side and felt the torso of one of them get driven through the blade and into the wooden shaft. She was panting now. Just a bit more.. just a bit more.. SLAM

Something hit her. Something hit her and it hurt. She looked down at her chest and noticed a spear of some kind wedged in her chest plate. Upon further inspection she noticed that the spear was actually a javelin. One cheeky bone walker was out there hidden away in the bushes and throwing javelins at her. Aria didn't scream. She didn't flinch. She just grabbed the javelin and pulled it out of her armor. The tip of the thing was coated in a thin layer of blood.

She was fortunate that the armor and leather guards underneath her armor lessened the severity of the attack. Later, when the fighting finished, she would remove her armor and see a puncture in the skin near her breast bone. With large uncomfortable bruising around it.

She looked around for the javelin throwing culprit. Aria spied him hiding behind a tree. She waited. Waited for her moment to strike. The skeleton stuck it's body out from behind the tree in order to prepare a second throw. But, Aria threw her javelin first. The long slender sharp piece of wood flew through the air and wedged itself right in the eye-socket of the monster. It wasn't enough to kill it. But, it was enough to send the creature reeling back a few paces. Chewy finished the job by ramming it with her tail.

[Jule]

Slowly, but surely, the horde was thinning. Jule saw less than a half dozen more monsters in the square, including the corpse that Mernatel was in the process of flattening. At the same time, the humans were running out of spirit, not to mention bodies of their own. Grabbed by a ghoul, one archer fell to the streets and was down for the count. Another had emptied her quiver and was fending off another monster trying to snatch her too. A young mercenary had taken to a knee by the doorway, blood dripping from his mouth. The woman who helped Jule back on her feet was nowhere to be seen either, lost in a field of blood and bodies. Even the swordswoman was running out of fuel. This was not fine. She was not fine. Still, the only thing she could do was grit her teeth and bear it.

Suddenly, the monsters ground to a halt in their battle, limbs falling limp like ragdolls. There was no longer anything in the way of the door. The tiny one had moved. The large one was too far away. Slowly at first, then at a trot, they moved away from their assailants. Mernatel's eyes moved from the bonewalker he was rushing towards, then to the church, then back again. It didn't take a grandmaster to figure these monsters' gambit out.

"To the door! Cover the door!"

Time to test just how strong that mettle of hers was.

"What?!" Jule swiveled towards the knight screaming at her. Despite the stout one's direct command, the girl had to stop and catch her breath question why. "Whaddya mean, 'cover the door'?" There ain't no more monsters there, I cleaned 'em all off-- Oh. Wait. Never mind." That question of hers quickly found its answer in five pairs of shambling, bony bodies clinking together as they rushed the door from all angles, trampling over anyone in their way. It almost seemed like they had had enough of the fight. The young woman's brow furrowed. While it was true that these things were more interested in killing than fighting, she couldn't help but feel a pang of contempt. "Hey, bozos!" She spat in challenge. "Turning tail from me and running like that... You're all cowards, every last one of you! Face me like real monsters!" ...No response. Jule growled and flung herself after them.

Though not for lack of trying, the girl's tired legs just couldn't outpace the monsters' stamina. As they packed together, the monsters picked up speed, mowing down the resting mercenary, alongside anyone else foolish enough to be in their path. Within moments the horde slammed into the church door at full force, throwing both weight and weapon with reckless abandon. The oaken wood, cheap as it was, began to splinter and crack from the abuse. Jule bounded forward, leaping over the fallen mercenary. "I said, 'face me'!!" the girl roared at the crowd, charging forward with her blade pointed like a spear.

This was it. The monsters were knocking down their last line of defense, but at the same time, they had completely cornered themselves. For better or worse, this would be the humans' last charge. Hopefully, the rest of the gang had followed suit and started running.

[Perun]

Kesh and two of the towns arches sprinted across the rooftops of the little town, jumping when they needed it. The townspeople now outnumbered the monsters so heavily on the main road that Kesh had decided to go and assist his original commander, Mernatel. The giant had only given the leviathan a few mercenaries, a number of townspeople, and that small girl that seemed to know him somehow. He needed more fire power. Literally and figuratively speaking. As the trio came to stand above the church square, the pair of archers immediately filled the last walking corpse with arrows, dropping him to the ground to be finished of by one of the remaining villagers as she made her way for the door. As one skeleton fell on Mernatel, Kesh saw his commander ram his shield against the beast's head and knock it to the ground. Kesh picked one of the other monsters, and prepared his spell. Before he'd finished his incantation, the last mercenary dug an axe into the things skull, and the monster shook them off. Kesh blasted the thick with a thick ball of raging flame. There were only two monsters left now.

---

SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH*T SH- Dorill took the base of a hilt to his temple, and hit the ground unconscious.

---

Perun and the thick boned skeletal warrior remained locked in combat, the two whirling about the field paying no heed to any but the other. The sword of the boney beast had cut both of Perun's shoulders. They were shallow cuts, nothing that worried Perun in the long run, but at the moment he was in a rage. The battlefield was not left in wanting of the Thunderbolt's roar.

As the armored wight pushed the massive Illian back into the lines of the defending villagers, one of his harsh strikes left him open. Perun rushed into the beast's range immediately after ducking a swipe that the skeleton had no way to recover from. The orange haired warrior dug the head of his axe deep into the exposed skull, an overhead strike that made use of all of his strength. The skeleton was unshaped.

Pulling away, the thing wrenched his axe from his hands, then raised it's free hand and made an attempt to pull the weapon from its crumbling skull. Perun's roar came like that of an angered bear, waking the whole forest in a fit of rage, "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The giant rushed forward, and wrapped his hands about the thing's sword arm bone just below the shoulder joint. With strength like a bull, he pulled and twisted at the monster, screaming in its dead face as he went. Whatever black magic that held the thing together was quite strong, but perhaps his axe had phased it, as after a few moments of the two shuffling against each other, Perun ripped its arm from its socket. He threw it, sword and all away, and wrapped both hands about a set of the monster's ribs.

The skeleton wised up, and took its boney hand away from the haft of the axe and began to claw at Perun's throat from the side, leaving three trails of blood across his meaty neck. It did no good for the villain, Perun soon tore the ribs away, and set his own thick sinewous hands about the vertebra of the monsters neck. Before he could tear it away though, the skeleton's black heart seemed to go out, and it ceased to move. As it fell to the ground, Perun stopped its desent by catching his axe, and forcibly wrenched its blade free.

Before long, the rest of the bone warriors were down and out too, but the town had taken heavy losses. With no time to think, Perun began to sprint for the church.

[Aria]

Aria was panting hard now. Her body was just about at it's limit in terms of energy. She needed to rest but the battle would not let her. Things around her were quiet. Perhaps a bit too quiet. Chewy was on high alert. The reddish wyvern knew her rider was hurt and tired. She could smell the blood on her sky haired friend. Aria held her hand towards her chest. Over the area where the javelin had hit her. Heavens above she was so sore. And it hurt to move and to even breathe. But, she knew she had to keep fighting. Innocent people's lives depended on it. She just needed to hold out a little longer. Come on Aria. We can do it. We can do it.

Her wyvern let out a low growl. It sensed something. She roared in order to coax the thing out of it's hiding spot. Chewy knew better then to simply charge after the last skeleton. Not with the way Aria was. Not with her injuries. Aria was hunched over the saddle horn now. It had become difficult to hold herself up. The skeleton emerged from it's cover. It wanted to take advantage of the rider's vulnerability. Aria was in pain but she wouldn't give up. She couldn't give up! She had her lance in her hand and wordlessly commanded Chewy into position.

The wyvern crouched down low and let the skeleton get some height. Then the wyvern got back up. The motion was enough to propel the skeleton upwards. Aria grabbed the lance with both her hands and thrust it upwards at the skeleton's falling body. She skewered the bony bastard and tossed the remains aside. Chewy finished the job by crushing the skeleton's skull until it splintered into several shards.

Aria sat there for several minutes. That last attack took too much out of her. Chewy glanced around. The wyvern couldn't hear any movements. She didn't see, smell, or hear any more skeletons in their area. Satisfied with this she let out a triumphant victory cry.

"Chewy.. please.. to the sky." She spoke in harsh hagrid breaths. The wyvern did as she was told and took off into the air.

[Perun]

The last of the skeletal warriors stood with its sword pointed at the defenders of the Church door. Arrows glanced off its boney frame, the risen soldier barely registering the missiles. Its mind was filled with the same black desire it had taken upon rising, destroy. It began to march forward. The hatchet of a villager crashed into its skull, that didn't stop it, it only slowed it down. The monster was missing ribs, bits of the bones in its legs, and a whole arm, but that didn't stop it. It would destroy, because that was its purpose.

Perun barreled into the skeleton from behind, and drove it to the ground. The bones were held in one by their black magic, but once it was pinned beneath him, Perun rose and stomped on its skull four times, till it was crumpled dust beneath his thick boots. "Gnili v der'me koz'yego ublyudok." He whispered the curse to the draugr in his native tongue, then looked up at Jule, then to Mernatel. The Snowy haired leviathan let out a small smile, and Perun answered for a moment, then his face fell. The battle was done, but he had led these people in their defense, where many of them had died. He would need to remain long enough to take the guilt from their eyes onto his round shoulders.

---

More than half the adults in the small town had been killed in the fighting, those that remained waled in the streets as they cradled their husbands, wives, and children. Their friends had been killed beside them, parts of their homes torn through. All of it because they'd listened to a massive simpleton who couldn't even speak properly.

That was what their eyes said, as they gave him a number of dirty looks while he had his shoulders stitched up. Perun and his fellows sat to the side, save Mernatel who now helped in clearing the streets of the monsters who had fallen. Kesh was at work on Perun's flesh, and Dorril was slumped against the side of the town's smithy. In time, Perun would help, but he was needed elsewhere, to root out the disease that had just flared in the town, he could not let his pride and his guilt drive him to risk bleeding out now. Still, he kept his eyes out as his flesh was tended.

[Aria]

With the last of the monsters slain the battle was over. The people had survived but with massive casualties. Half of the adults were dead and the other half were busy grieving. Aria had to wait for her turn to be healed. But, even after the light of the staff had soothed her wounds she was exhausted. Chewy too. They had both fought so hard to keep the monsters at the gate at bay that the didn't have any chance to aid in the assault from the other end. Perhaps if they did then maybe those that had died wouldn't have. But, she couldn't think about that now. She and Chewy needed to rest.

The duo found a spot by an empty building to roost. Aria had taken her armor off and was staring at the red scar she was now sporting. Her clothes would need to be mended and washed at some point in the future. Her arms and a good chunk of her torso were littered with bruises from where the weapons met the armor. These would heal and disappear in time. Though the bruises and soreness would make rebuilding this place difficult. Chewy herself had escaped most of the damage. Aria did a thorough inspection of her mount as she removed the armor and saddle off of Chewy's body. Chew's hide was harder then Aria's armor and fortunately a majority of the monster's blades were dull. The wyvern had itself curled up around Aria as if to shield her from the public eye. Aria leaned on Chewy and slept. By morning the two of them would be working hard to rebuild what they could. It was the least they could do.

[end thread]