Chương 5: Chapter Five: Fighting Retreat

FIVE Roan turned and ran instantly. Behind him he felt an electric pulse of power while Taoya laughed uproariously. A crack like thunder rolled through the air and Roan winced as his ears rang, but he couldn't help but turn to see what had happened. The wall of energy that had built around the big man had disappeared. Sparkling blue-white light had been discharged into a wall of force that had thrown back a wave of the skeletons.

All around Taoya was now a ring of free space as the big man gasped and staggered back, suddenly mortal.

"Shit," Roan hissed as he stopped and ran back to help him. Taoya smiled appreciatively as he sagged around Roan's shoulders when Roan got to him.

"Do you have to weigh a ton?" Roan said with a gasp as he staggered under the man's weight.

"It's bulking season," Taoya said with another tired laugh. Roan risked a glance behind himself to see that the skeletons had recovered, clustering around the entrance. There was only a hundred yards between them, but the skeletons were slower than he was, even with Taoya on his shoulder.

"What did you do?" Roan asked.

"Bloodline talent. My grandmother was from the tower. Gathers and stores kinetic energy. Grandma said I had a weak talent." Taoya spoke in short sentences, breathing hard but he was starting to recover.

"If that's weak, I don't want to see strong."

"My clan forbade the talented from entering this tower. As do all of the other clans and colleges," Taoya said.

"Might be why this tower hasn't been conquered," Roan said, a hint of venom in his voice. He couldn't help the bitterness that infiltrated his words.

"Plenty of talent has entered this place. They forbade it when none of them came back." Roan had nothing to say about that; it was something he knew well enough.

"Look out, there's a hand hanging over the edge," Taoya said, breaking the conversation. He straightened up and they turned sideways to pass the resting dead. Roan froze as he stared at this corpse.

"They're different." The words tumbled free before he could even figure out why he said them. It was a skeleton that was stretched out across the shelf, but it looked fresher. The bones not as frail and yellowed, the armor on its body had more heft to it. There were no rusted out chunks and the sword the creature had on its chest was higher quality as well. The skin on its body wasn't just strips of leather, but nearly whole in places.

Its skull was bare but Roan could see the skin under the jaw and how it stretched beneath the armor of its chest.

"Fresher. Not as useless," Taoya said. Roan nodded and fought the temptation to kill one of them, but knew he shouldn't. Not when there was a crowd still chasing them, closing the distance even as they stood there.

"Keep moving, we need to catch up to the group," Roan finally said, pulling the big man with him as they kept pushing forward.

"Darren is smart and skilled. There's a few more of our group with them, they'll work together to keep everyone safe," Taoya assured him. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on." I really don't care if they are safe. Just need them to find the exit without screwing me over." Roan kept that thought to himself. Taoya seemed to be one who wouldn't appreciate that line of thinking. The hallway of the dead was just as long as his original had been.

The adrenaline of the fight was fading away, leaving him shaking in blood-blotted clothes. He was starting to get a bit light headed, but it wasn't like they could stop. After a few minutes Taoya had regained enough strength to stand upright on his own. Without having to support him, Roan sped up. Together the two of them cut down the lead of the group ahead of them.

"Should have held the rearguard longer. Destroyed some of the sleeping ones," Taoya said when they finally met the rear of the line. Everyone moved carefully so as not to disturb the undead. Roan looked behind and saw that the undead had not been so polite. The fresher undead now led the pack. Just as Roan feared they were faster than the shambling skeletons. Not by much, but with Taoya and Roan coming to a stop, the gap was shrinking quickly.

"You keep resting, I'll hold them," Roan said. The big man nodded and leaned against the wall, starting to catch his breath in deep, measured, calm breaths. Roan charged toward the skeletons, wanting to have room to retreat as the pressure pushed him back. The longsword was once again a hindrance, not being able to fully utilize it in the tight confines. Roan lunged, the longsword leading as he faced the first of the new type of undead.

Steel crashed as the creature parried with ease, sending the blade into the wall. Roan dropped the sword and continued his attack, his axe hacking down without pause. It leapt back and the blade parted the air in front of it without tasting bone. Shock hit him as he realized the new skeleton was much faster than the old ones, at least in short bursts. More of the shelves were waking up, undead hands shaking them from their eternal sleep, sliding out of the alcoves and landing behind their fight.

Roan made it a mission to keep the undead from reaching the alcove behind him.

"Tough bastard," Roan gritted out as he reset his position. He wasn't anywhere near as fresh as he had been. Exhaustion was creeping up on him, blood loss and the fight dulling his edge. If he had been fresh he would have been able to fight the creature without issue. It was quicker than the inferior skeletons, but still not as skilled or fast as a true opponent.

"Grit it out," Roan growled, mostly to himself, as he held his ground against the skeleton's attack. The creature used a long, wide dagger with a curve to it. The axe had better reach, but the skeleton shrugged off glancing blows that merely cracked bone rather than splitting limbs free. It took him five exchanges before Roan came to his victory. He'd been pushed back four steps, entering into range of the next row of funeral alcoves.

The alert for the defeat of the skeleton dinged in his head, but he couldn't risk looking at it to see what it was because the next improved skeleton came forward without hesitation." Can't keep going." The words were corrosive, drawn forth by his fatigue and pain. His jacket was torn to ribbons, remnants of his shirt sodden, pants ripped and torn as blood pooled in his boots.

"Shut the fuck up and get the job done!" Roan snarled, using his rage to push the whispers of despair away. He refused to give in. To fall before he could find his answers. A fresh flush of rage-infused energy pushed into his limbs and he overwhelmed the skeleton with three ringing blows. It collapsed with its skull rent in three places, emerald energy fading from its eyes as he kicked the dead backward.

"Taoya, are you ready?" Roan asked as the third skeleton got within stabbing range. Roan battered it about, pushing back against the tide for a moment. A precious moment where his raw strength and rage kept the wrath of the tower from advancing even a foot. It couldn't last. The weight of the enemy was just too much. Their numbers refused to be denied. Roan raged against them anyways, not allowing himself to take a single step back as he hacked apart the third one.

His leg folded underneath him as he did so, sending him to a single knee as the skeleton died, but the fourth one was already coming.

"Down!" Taoya ordered and Roan had no problem following it, going boneless to collapse on the ground.