As she glanced back at Rue, she noticed that the witch had picked up a rock almost as large as her both fist put together in one hand and grabbed hold of the broken wagon wheel with the other. With a frown of concentration, she unleashed her magic, and the wheel started reshaping itself according to her will. A length of it detached from the rest and straightened out, becoming a shaft. Rue slammed the rock at one end of it, and the shaft transformed yet again to envelop the rock. Anaya realized what Rue was doing – making a weapon, with the rock as an additional weight to make it a more effective blunt weapon.
“Take it!” Rue tossed the strange weapon to her, and she caught it in one hand, wincing as the wound in her hand reminded her of its existence. She unceremoniously tossed the short sword on the ground, then grabbed her new weapon with both hands. The rock made it quite front-heavy and would’ve been unwieldy against human opponents, but for this purpose that was just right. The two skeletons had gotten up and were closing in again, so it was time to put it to the test.
The closer skeleton had lost an arm to Rue’s reckless onslaught – not that she was one to judge anyone on that account – but as Anaya rushed forward and swung the two-handed club, it quickly lost a lot more. The impact shattered the jaw, neck and collarbones of the apparition, sending the rest of its skull bouncing off along the ground. What remained of it collapsed in a heap. No more being on the defensive, Anaya decided and rushed the other one. A powerful if reckless vertical strike went through its protectively raised arms – an action strangely reminiscent of a living human – and smashed into its skull, shattering it. The club was a little tiring to swing, but the results were more than worth it.
“Anaya!” Rue’s voice called out. As Anaya glanced toward her, she saw her pointing. Following the direction, she saw that the injured guard had fallen to the ground, trying desperately to back away from three encroaching undead, one being a skeleton while the other two were ghouls. Anaya swore and sprinted toward the guard. Another skeleton was on the way, and it wasn’t facing her, instead appearing to be just standing still for some reason, so she just unceremoniously tackled it, knocking it over, and kept going without slowing down. She barely made it in time. One of the ghouls had gripped the guard’s weapon and was just reaching out toward the guard herself when Anaya smashed its head, still covered in rotten flesh, to pieces with a slightly angled vertical swing. She kept the motion going, pirouetting around and transferring to motion into an upward swing. The manoeuvre was not unlike what she’d used against the bandits with her sword, but due to the nature of the weapon, it was a lot slower, yet also more devastating. It smashed through the spine and entire ribcage of the skeleton, sending its remains colliding into the second ghoul, staggering it. Relentlessly Anaya brought the club around for another swing, and the ghoul crumpled, yet again with multiple bones shattered.
Anaya was breathing heavily, and when the guard she’d rushed to defend called out in sudden alarm, she was a little too slow in reacting. Just as she finished turning around, she was suddenly hit in the chest. It felt like she imagined getting kicked by a horse might, and she was sent falling backwards, then rolled a few times, her armour clattering as she went, before coming to a stop. If she hadn’t been wearing her armour, she knew she would’ve been dead from that blow, sharing the fate of the undead creatures she’d smashed apart. Even then she was pretty sure she’d broken something. Half-stunned and struggling to breathe, she saw a skeleton approach. Given there had been no others in the immediate vicinity, despite her daze she realized it had to be the one she’d only knocked down. Its attack seemed strangely vengeful. He looked around and saw she’d dropped her weapon, and now the approaching skeleton was between it and her.
It was clear that this one was stronger than the others. There was no way she was going to get past it after taking that hit. Now it was her that was sent crawling, trying to get away. She saw that the guard was trying painfully to limp towards them and picked up the club with a wince. Gritting her teeth, Anaya braced herself for the pain; she needed just a little time. To that effect, she swept at the skeleton’s angles as hard as she could with her leg. It was like burning hot metal was being poked around in her insides, but the desired effect of toppling the skeleton was also achieved. However, that also meant that its arms were now on the same level as her, and one of them reached out and grabbed her by the shin. It was lucky in the sense that her shins and calves were protected by her iron greaves, but the thing’s inhumane crushing grip could immediately be felt even through the armour. The armour was just buckling when the guard got there and brought down the club on the skeleton. She had trouble swinging the heavy, unbalanced weapon because of her own injuries, so it wasn’t a killing blow; the thing’s skull was only slightly cracked, not shattered. But as it stayed focused on Anaya, the guard didn’t give up on the opportunity, bringing up the weapon for a second swing, a third… finally, the pile of bones remained unmoving. The guard fell on her knees and almost went face down before being able to support herself with one arm.
Anaya was finally able to look around her again. It looked as though Rue and the remaining guard had managed to handle the remaining few undead, and the former was just heading her way. With a long and pained sigh, Anaya allowed herself to just lay back on the ground, eyes on the sky.
“I’m starting to think you may have a death wish,” came the admonishing if dispassionate words from her companion as she appeared in her upward field of view.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes, you know,” Anaya muttered. It suddenly felt difficult to focus her eyes. She tried blinking to clear her vision, but then suddenly everything went black.
When Anaya regained consciousness, it took her a while to make sense of what was happening. She was still lying on the ground, but she felt lighter; her armour was mostly removed. Something soft and warm was directly touching the skin in the middle of her chest; it turned out to be the gentle touch of Rue’s hand.
“Using my diminished state to take advantage, huh?” Her voice was barely audible and speaking felt difficult. Rue smiled, but her expression looked strained.
“Don’t try to move. Looks like that pile of bones really did a number on you.”
“And what kind of a number are you trying to do on me?”
“Fixing your pile of bones. Stay still. This is difficult.”
Anaya closed her eyes, feeling the gentle warmth coursing through Rue’s hand, and drifted off again.
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