Walking through the grass towards him, wearing rotten armor and carrying a rusty sword, was a skeleton. It didn’t have strange glowing eyes, moan as if in pain, or open and close its mouth like it was hungry, or other things that he had seen before in horror movies. Evren swung the light around him, and he could see they were all skeletons.
Really not wanting to fight at night, he thought he might be surrounded and wouldn’t be able to get away unscathed, Evren dispelled the light in his hand, and recast it on the wagon. Changing his mind, he dispelled the light again, and cast it above the top of his head. This way the only shadows would be the ones below him and he would be able to see wherever he stood. He quickly grabbed his sword and drew out his dagger with his left hand.
Evren charged at the one he had shown the light on first. With a speed that betrayed his expectations, the skeleton swung its sword at Evren. Evren cast ‘shield’ and raised his left arm to block. He swung with his sword, slicing the skeleton in two. Evren looked down at it to make sure it was dead and ran around the back of the wagon. There were two back there, both carrying their own swords with the one on the right having a larger sword.
They charged at him, surprising him for a moment. They had all been walking so slowly before, why now to are they able to run? He cast wall to his left as more were coming from that direction and faced off against the two that were closing in. He noticed they were attacking as if the other wasn’t even there. The one with the two-handed sword on the right was swinging down from above and the one on the left was swinging wide from the left. Their shoulders were almost touching as they came.
The skeletons on the left hit the wall and clawed at it trying to get to Evren. Evren used the shield to knock away the two-handed sword into the one on the left that was swinging in to it and swung his sword at them from behind. They both shattered when he struck them. He turned to the wall he had cast and saw the skeletons behind it, so he cast ‘fire wall’ behind the wall, setting the bones on fire. There were two more skeletons coming up from behind him, and he had to dive forward to avoid being hit by their swords.
He rolled to a stand and turned around when something grabbed his leg from behind. He swung at the arm holding him and the ‘wall’ he had casted previously had disappeared, letting the burning skeletons come walking towards him. “Sigh. Really!?” He raised his left hand as one of the skeletons that he dove away from previously swung down at him. The skeleton behind it was swinging down as well and would hit the leading skeleton. Evren jumped back and cast ‘earth ball’ at the leading burning skeleton, striking it in the head and causing it to collapse. When he cast ‘earth ball’ the ‘fire wall’ spell disappeared.
The skeleton on his left struck the one in front of it, shattering it and it continued forward to strike again at Evren. He felt another coming up from behind him, and one on the opposite side of the wagon coming around. He cast ‘avalanche’ centered on himself and looked up to catch the rock that was about to fall on him with telekinesis. When the rocks fell to the ground, three of the burning skeletons had collapsed, as did the one that was behind him. The one on his left had gotten lucky and was swinging its sword at him.
Evren used telekinesis on the rock he had caught to launch it at the skeleton approaching. The skull shattered when the rock hit it. He ran about to the front of the wagon where two more were standing. They both swung at him, and he dodged to the left, hitting the left on in the neck as he swung downward and to his right. The shield on his arm faded and he slipped around behind the other skeleton as it swung horizontally towards Evren. Evren blocked the swing with his sword and stabbed out with his dagger to the skull of the skeleton, stabbing into it. Evren flicked his wrist and set the skull flying. A flaming skeleton approached from Evren’s right. It had no weapon in its hand and it looked like it was just going to punch Evren, so he kicked it in the chest, shattering it.
The one-armed skeleton was crawling across the boulders next to the wagon and Evren cast ‘skewer’ at it, stabbing it in the head with the conical rock. Three skeletons approached from Evren’s right. He pointed his sword at them and cast ‘squall’. A huge amount of wind blew out from Evren hitting the skeletons and sent them flying. Evren dispelled the ‘squall’ and turned around to face the remaining burning skeleton, and two more that appeared from the darkness. Evren sent a ‘water ball’ at the burning skeleton, breaking it to pieces and extinguishing it.
Evren used telekinesis on the right approaching skeleton’s head, stopping it in place. The body kept moving and separated from the head, collapsing on the spot. Evren blocked the incoming sword with his own sword, and went to swing to strike, but had to block the skeleton’s attack again. He launched the skull at the back of the skeleton, hitting it in the back, which threw its balance off, giving Evren a chance to shatter it with his sword.
The immediate vicinity had been cleared of skeletons, but Evren could still sense their weird presence. He appeared to be at the edge of their perception and weren’t approaching him. He turned towards the fortress and focused his sensory field in that direction. There were more skeletons on the way but appeared to thin out as they got closer to the base of the fortress. He was unsure of what to do.
If he were to push the wagon up to the base of the fortress, and had to fight, he would risk the wagon rolling down the hill. If he stayed in place, he risked another skeleton wandering into perception range like the one that was approaching him now. He walked forward to meet it, sidestepping the wild swings and shattering it with one blow from his sword. Sighing, he went to the wagon, and tied the pull bars to the wagon in an upward position. He then went to the block, grabbed it and ran around to the back of the wagon, set the block in the back and began pushing the wagon.
When he sensed that a skeleton noticed him, he would drop the block behind one of the rear wheels and deal with the skeleton, then returned back to pushing the wagon. He got to a point where he had to turn the wagon, which was inconvenient, so Evren went around to the front of the wagon, untied the pull bars and adjusted the wagon so that it was facing directly towards the base of the fortress, and tied the pull bars back upright.
He then pushed the wagon off of the road, heading straight upwards. As he was no longer going from side to side as he climbed the hill, he found that it was harder to push as it was a quicker increase in elevation. Evren didn’t like it but had no room to complain about it. He pushed and fought and pushed and fought until about an hour before dawn when he finally reached the base of the fortress. He needed to turn the wagon now as it was too steep to push straight up the hill.
It was about that time that all the skeletons suddenly collapsed to the ground. Evren stared out over the field leading to the forest. He wasn’t sure how many skeletons he had fought, nor did he want to go down and count. He also wasn’t sure if they had a mana core or not, nor did he care. He had been pushing the wagon and fighting for the last full twenty hours and he was tired. He climbed into the wagon to have a nap and slept until just before noon. He walked around to the front of the wagon, untied the pull bars and began pulling the wagon up the access road. The access road led to the right now, but it would cut back to the left soon, and then again back to the right for the last bit up to the fortress. Now that he was closer, he could see that the gate stood open, and the fortress seemed to be devoid of life.
The gravel on the access road was thick and broke apart easily, slowing down Evren’s progress significantly. By the time the sun went down, Evren was still on the access road leading up to the gate. Evren continued pushing the wagon up the access road, eventually getting to the gate after two hours. When Evren reached the gate, he wouldn’t be able to get inside just yet, as there was plenty of debris outside the gate, and the gate itself had fallen over blocking the way. Evren didn’t care though, he blocked off the wheel of the wagon and climbed inside to sleep on the boxes.
