The sea of bones in front of the Wardens seemed like a slowly rising wave, walking over their makeshift barrier, using the bodies of their fallen skeleton soldiers as stepping stones. The Wadens stood side to side, all now carrying new weapons that best fit their fighting style. These people were just normal people until a week ago or so, and now they were bashing the heads and breaking the legs of weird monsters.
They stood their ground and fought, being forced to take steps back as the wave of bones pushed against them. They were doing their best to slow down this already slow force, but they would not be stopped.
One of the warriors supporting the Wardens cried out:
"They've broken through the side alley!"
The blockade held for longer than it should have thanks to the force the Wardens used when shoving it into the ground, but nothing lasts forever. Between that and all the tripping hazards Skye had placed, they bought as much time as they could.
The Chestnut Warriors moved into place and used their bodies to make a new barrier in the tight back alley, linking their shields together side by side and pushing. The skeletons clawed and bashed at them, but they held their ground.
Skye felt a ping of fury as soon as he saw one monster hit his little warrior in the head with a club, only to find the humour watching it bounce back and forth like a toy. The tough little nut didn't even flinch. The warriors broke off from their support of the Wardens and started to fight the new tide behind them.
Skye went to join in with them too, unsure how they would fare without the Wardens protecting them. But first, he had one other trick up his sleeve.
He took a handful of seeds out of his pouch and threw it into the crowd in front of the Wardens, landing in groups around the skeletons. With a burst of mana the seeds came alive, turning into vines that grabbed anything it could in sight and crunching down. Just like at the castle, he created a makeshift barrier on the spot consisting of their bodies.
The Wadens didn't let this moment pass, catching their breath and pushing back the monsters in front of them until they got to the tangled up skeletons. The rest of the creatures would have to crawl over their comrades to keep going forward, and when they did, their heads would get stomped.
Skye then quickly turned heel and joined the warriors and his little Chestnuts, stabbing at the monsters trying to circle them, all under while the sound of Claire now desperately throwing her body against the door rang through.
She was worse for wear, her face was starting to swell from hitting the door so many times and her arm hung low, most likely from a dislocation. With every breath she took spit and blood was falling from her mouth in tiny drops.
She didn't give up, she picked up speed and weight and threw herself once more, this time on her other side to avoid the pain. The gap in the door was now big enough to fit an arm though and the inside no longer so dark. Elli found a torch on the wall and borrowed Claire's fire starter.
The touch caught fire almost instantly, with the darkness of the room causing the oil to never fade. No longer bound by just the light of the door Elli could see everything. This was a warehouse, and a grand one, used to house the town garrison. There were beds built into the wall on one side and weapon racks on the other.
The stares lead off somewhere in the back and Elli had to stop herself from going to explore, she had to get everyone inside.
The thing holding the door shut was a giant block of tempered wood, only now starting to splinter as it bent. She didn't know how much more it would take to cause it to snap but she was afraid of the answer, the fact that Claire even got it to bend at all was a miracle.
She held her hand outside the door and signaled to Claire to stop charging, she had already started her descent, causing the small blond body to fall to her knees to stop herself. She stayed there on her hands and knees, letting the blood fall from her face onto the back of her hands.
Over the ringing of her own ears she should hear the Wardens yelling, the soldiers fighting for their lives, and their desperate need for this door to open now. Elli's voice broke her trance.
"Claire. If you can't break it, cut it. Just another tree in your way."
Claire looked up at Elli, only able to see her arm and half her face peaking out. Her hand turned into a thumbs up and she gave her a wink. She was right, if an arm could fit though, so could her sword. She was too stuck in her obsessively bashing against it to even realise.
Claire gave a thumbs up back to Elli and a bloody smile
"That's whie oo do da inking nd I do da ashing!"
(That's why you do the thinking and I do the bashing)
Unsure what Claire was saying through her bloody mouth and confusion, Elli just smiled and gave her a happy feeling.
"Yep! Whatever you just said!"
Then she disappeared back into the room to prepare for their arrival.
Barreras only last so long, and sadly they were out of even their ones made out of bodies. The Wardens were being pushed back around the corner now and the Chestnut Warriors couldn't hold them any longer. Their little smooth brown outer shells were covered in shallow cuts. Skye called for the retreat.
"Move back! Force a circle around Claire and the door, now!"
Everyone disengaged and quickly ran to form ranks. The military trainers only had a few days with them yet the first thing they were taught was instant obedience to orders.
Skye wanted to call for a full retreat as he knew they could still outrun the monsters, but he wasn't ready to give up on this plan. He didn't know how they were going to do it but he believed Elli could pull it off. He grabbed his Chestnut Warriors by the back of their shells and took off running.
They formed a tight circle around Claire, the least exhausted in the front and the most in the back catching their breath. They didn't have any more ground to give so they had to put up their best fight now.
For the first time Skye saw how hurt Claire was, her shaking arms summoning her sword into reality and resting the tip on the ground. It looked like she wouldn't even be able to lift it above her head. He thought they were struggling against the skeletons but for the most part no one was hurt yet, and here she was, hardly holding on.
Against his expectation she did raise her sword above her head, and easily so. Her arms were shaking and blood was running down from the scrapes on them, but it stayed there.
The skeletons finally started to wash over them, the alley and the main road merging to turn the corner on them. The Wardens took the front and stood tightly together, the warriors pushing them back with their spears, the sharp rocks that made the points now broken or dull.
Claire kept her sword above her head and stood there with her eyes closed. She only had one shot at this. She had to take in as much weight as she could and move it to her sword right after the swing while also expelling all the energy she gathered from throwing her body at the door. If she messed up a single step she wasn't sure it would cut all the way through.
The difference between tempered wood and a tree was like cutting through a stack of paper and a book.
Her weapon no longer had dead status and she often felt like it was helping guide her, and she needed it now more than ever.
The scraping of shoes against the cobble stone of the road could be heard behind her, groans from the Wardens and warriors as the pressure started to build. It was no longer a fight but a game to see who could push who.
Skye couldn't even thrust Thorn anymore, it was now pressed against him and the skeleton in front of him as the back of the herd tried to keep moving forward. If they had skin, it would surely be burning them by now.
The Wardens and warriors tried their best to hold them there but they were losing ground, even the workers were now piled behind them to push.
Claire couldn't hear any of it, her sword above her head and her eyes closed. She could only focus on the feeling of her body. Her breath no longer a pant but a forceful in and out, scraping by her clenched teeth. Blood flowed from her head and over her eye, down her cheek and dripping from her chin.
Claire couldn't feel any of it, her sword above her head and her eyes closed. She could only focus on feeling her body. The pain of her skin fading away as she started to get heavier and heavier, all her nerves now needed to feel the pain of her bones. They cried out for relief and started to splinter under the pressure.
Claire couldn't care about any of it, her sword above her head and her eyes closed.
And like all the moments she stood there collapsed into one under the density of her body and sword, she moved like lightning. The sword moved slightly and then it was gone, all that was left was the force of her swing.
She moved the sword, then she blasted the sword forward with all the force she carried in her broken body while it weighed nothing more than a feather. Once it was in motion and before it struck, every pound her body carried moved into the handle and then the blade.
Down came the sword, moving faster than a bullet, weighting more than a car.
The force of the swing sent her body upwards and the dirt flying outwards. The vibration from the sound alone pushed the skeletons backwards and the Wardens forward, falling on top of them. Even Skye had to quickly use Thorn to catch his balance.
The Skeletons all fell like dominos, and if this wasn't a life or death situation, Skye would have been able to find the humour in that. But there was no time.
They were not the only things that were affected by the blast.
The doors shot open with a slam. The beam blocking their entrance sliced in two and thrown to the side
Elli was already inside and hiding behind a large table for cover expecting this to be quite the blow. As the doors were blasted open, she hid, allowing her to recover much faster than everyone else.
Their ears were ringing and their heads spinning like an explosion just happened right under their feet. They were just standing up fighting and then boom, they were suddenly laying down on some bones squirming underneath them. They moaned and groaned as they tried to come back to their senses.
Claire hit the ground with a bounce and let out a yelp, then just laid there unable to give anything more to the fight.
Elli blinked into existence and grabbed Claire, picked her up and carried her in her arms, then ran back into the room.
She yelled back as loud as she could.
"Get everyone inside now, and get these doors closed!"
Skye could only slightly hear her over the ringing, but his body reacted to her command. He started to grab anyone he could see and got them onto their feet, pointing at others that they needed to help, trying to scream and communicate over sign language. Mostly pointing and then pointing up. He knew they probably weren't ready for any commands more complicated than that. The slow moving skeletons were clumsy in their attempts to get up, but they didn't have much time.
The Wardens were the first to revolver and they helped the Warriors get to their feet and situated, who in turn grabbed the workers and dragged them inside.
The Wardens quickly started to push the doors closed once the last people got inside but Elli stopped them before it was shut.
"Not all the way, use the broken wooden beam to prop them so they're only slightly open and can't be moved. We want them to come in slowly."
They blinked in confusion, unable to comprehend what they were hearing. She wanted them to get inside the building? The building they were inside of? The one with no windows below the third floor that they would die if they had to jump out of?
Skye was quicker to pick up on the idea. She said she wanted to farm slivers, this might have been her idea from the start.
"Don't think, just move!"
He yelled as he pushed the door, locking it into place with the broken beam wedged between it and the wall. The Skeletons were now figuring out how to get up for the most part and were now starting to make their way into the door.
"3 Wardens on the door now, whoever is fresh, 5 warriors support at all times to kick the dead bodies inside."
She started to give orders while physically moving people into position.
"One team of workers grab any gear they have and their slivers then pass them off to the other team to run their bones to the top floor and throw them outside through the windows. Don't let them pile up."
She's developing a god damn conveyor belt to get weapons and slivers isn't she?
Skye could only think to himself, this idea was so crazy that he didn't dare believe someone had the balls to try and create this. Seeing it in action made him a believer. He was trying to just survive, she was trying to automate.
With the doors slightly closed only a few could enter at a time and the rest got stuck in the funnel trying to push past each other.
The Wardens handled them easily, hardly breaking a sweat. The other warriors didn't even have to help, they focused on dragging the bodies in. The workers and the warriors who were not fighting moved fast and precisely as Elli said, and before long the warehouse started to shine with slivers and weapons.
Skye stood there with his Chestnut Warriors looking on in amazement, unsure how someone could think so far ahead. Elli came next to him after lighting the rest of the torches, Claire laid in one of the beds recovering. She nudged his shoulder with hers.
"And the best part, we're killing them faster than they're coming out of that tunnel. Sooner or later you'll see, this whole town will be empty."
Her coy smile stayed on her face as she looked to the place where she found those dead bodies. They were different from the rest. She couldn't help but wonder what happened here. The place was clearly locked from the inside and those who died inside of it never even tried to get out. There was a mystery here, and she wanted to solve it.
The Wardens switched shifts and went to get that rest they were promised, they would each get a couple hours of sleep then get back into the fight, breaking slivers open by the handful in the meantime. Even Skye couldn't help himself, it's been a long day, he deserved a few after all.
—--
At the edge of the forest, Nora watched a large plum of smoke and dust rise over the berm.
"That's the sign. They're in. Let's head back."
She signalled to the warriors and workers, who started their long walk back to town. They would make it a few hours before the sun set if they timed it right, even with the sleds full of gear, now being pulled by multiple men.
They were covered in the skins of monsters they brought from the fort and tied tight, but peaking out from it were axes and swords, bits of armour and shovels. A black cast iron pot fell out as they started to move and Nora picked it up.
"Can't leave you behind, I know someone who is very excited to see you."
She had her orders from Elli before they even arrived, amazed that everything happened according to her plan. She would be returning tomorrow with supplies and fresh warriors to replace them, and if Elli was right, there shouldn't be many skeletons left.