Army of the Dead 2

Alan and Aileen stood at the back of the group. The others stood before them, spreading out to the side. 

Brian clenched his spear so much that you could hear the sound of the shaft trying to snap. Raheem and Garret took out their sword.

Before any of the animals or the dead scouts came closer, an arrow made of flame passed through Brian and the other, piercing the head of one animal, stopping the advancement of the others.

The Animal twitched a bit and froze on the spot, unmoving, then it dropped to the ground with the flame arrow still stuck on its head, burning its fur and brain, and then slowly spread all over its face. The smell strangely had an ammonia odor. They could smell it from where they stood, though the intensity was less.

The animals stared at the dead but soon turned their attention to them and they started to gallop towards them in a weird, almost comical way. They would have laughed if it wasn't a deadly situation.

Aileen's fur burned slowly as flame covered her paws. She would grimace slightly from time to time from the pain. Alan looked at her in surprise. It was the first time he had seen a luminary use Astral Essence.

Brian dashed towards the animals, he thrust his spear towards one animal, a bear standing on its two feet. The spear was so fast that before the bear could even react; it went through his heart. He pulled the spear out and turned his attention toward another one of these creatures.

He swung his spear, cutting some of them. He would thrust his spear, piercing their heads and hearts. To his side, Raheem and Garret were hacking and slashing their way into the horde of animals. Arrows were flying and hitting some of the animals, while some missed.

As Brian thrust his spear into the stomach of another animal, one of the dead vulpine slashed its claws from his side, but an arrow went right through its head before its arm could reach Brian.

The other dead vulpines were running towards Raheem and Garret. One of them reach Raheem, who was deep in the hoard. It started to slash its claws at him, blocking with his sword and dodging. The dead vulpine was surprisingly faster and stronger.

Garret kicked the one he was fighting and dashed towards Raheem, giving him some breathing space to gather his thoughts. However, before Raheem could relax, a deer ran towards him, faster than he could react, as he was occupied with the dead vulpine.

As the deer was only a few meters away, a spear went right through its stomach, making it lose balance. It swayed and missed Raheem. At least that was what it looked like from where Brian was standing on.

Raheem's body turned as he fell to the ground. Brian noticed the side of Raheem's body, around his stomach, had been gouged out, leading to profuse bleeding. His blood already making a small pool on the ground.

"Aileen," yelled Brian.

Aileen was throwing arrows and spears made of flames, but most would miss their intended targets landing on the ground instead, when she heard Brian yell.

She turned to look at him, but his attention was elsewhere. Seeing that she followed his gaze, and it landed on Raheem, who was on his knees by the time she saw him, holding his wound, trying to stop the bleeding, though it was doing no good, the blood flowed out as if his paws didn't exist. Garret was busy fighting the vulpine when another one joined it.

Brian ran towards him. He dodged and rolled to the side when another dead vulpine jumped at him from the side.

Aileen ran towards Raheem, but Alan grabbed her by her shoulder, forcing her to stop. She turned to look at him with a frown on her face, but Alan couldn't see it as the mask had covered it.

"Why did you stop me?" she asked with a shaken voice.

"He's a lost cause. You can't save him."

"So you want me to just stand still and let him die?"

"Even if you went there and stopped the bleeding, it won't help much. He has lost a lot of blood."

Aileen pulled her shoulder from his grip, her head facing the ground and said, "I don't know whether he will live or not, I just…I only know that I have to try, even if the chances are close to zero," she looked up at his eyes, "cause I don't ever want to have any regrets, ever."

Without waiting for him to answer or stop her again, she dashed towards Raheem. She ran as fast as she could with her eyes fixated on Raheem, drowning out the sound of the surrounding chaos. 

She didn't notice another dead vulpine coming towards her with its shape claws extended longer than any other vulpine. It tried to mutilate her with its claws; it swung its paws, aiming for her neck. She heard Alan yell from the back and tried to turn to look, but was met with the dead vulpine. She poured astral essence into the flame in her hand, which caused it to surge. A stream of flames gushed out from her hand's continuously. The flame cover the vulpine's face, burning it and causing it to stop for a moment, and that was all Alan need to put an arrow through its head.

She continued to run and reach Raheem shortly. He was grunting and vomiting blood inside his mask, some leaking out of it. She didn't talk or made any sound. She silently put her hand that was covered with flame on the wound, but there was no burn. His skin surrounding his wounds instead turned pale blue like it had a frostbite. Aileen had sucked the heat out of his body, freezing his wound and stopping the bleeding. She then immediately started to increase the temperature of her flame, burning the wound so that it will close. The skin blacked making a crackling sound and smelled like charcoal but with a mix of sulfurous odor.

Garret was defending them, but he was losing ground. Two dead vulpine were too much for him to defend and with the mix of the dead animals, it was getting dangerous. While he blocked the paws of one of the dead vulpine, the other one torn his leather armor, leaving a claw mark.

 Rushing towards them, Alan shot his arrows. The last arrow founding its mark in the vulpine's stomach, giving Brian the opportunity to sever its head with his blade.

Alan took out his daggers and joined Garret in the fight, lessening the burden on Garret. By that time, Garret had accumulated scars all over his body, with cuts present everywhere. Even though the wounds weren't deep, they were siphoning his strength bit by bit.

Brian joined them right after killing the vulpine. The three of them surrounded Aileen and Raheem and continued to fight, but the hoard seemed endless. Whenever they cut down one, another two seemed to replace its place.

*********

The fire that was at the center of the misty forest was spreading rapidly in all directions. It was getting closer to where the others were fighting, but it still had some distance to cover.

The wildfire was flickering, acting like it was having an internal struggle with itself. It burned anything that was in its way. It consumed everything in its path - trees, animals, anything - reducing them to ashes and leaving behind only charred and ash-filled ground. All the animals that saw the wildfire run in any direction. Their hooves and feet shaking the ground like an earthquake. The sound of roar or bellows resounding across the forest.

*************

Raheem's wound was patched up, the skin around the wound was darkened, his furs burned off. He had fainted a while back because of the pain of being burned and Aileen was resting beside him, panting through her mask. Both her hands were black because of her flames.

Brian and the others were fighting with everything they had. A black liquid from the hoard soaked their torn armor and weapons.

Shallow wounds covered their bodies, but there were some deep wounds in the mix. The hoard was decreasing, giving them hope, when some of the previously killed stood up except whose that were burned. Some of those that stood up had arrows on their heads or chest or anywhere of their body, some didn't have heads at all, some had a missing arm or leg, some have lost have of their body, dragging their upper bodies on the ground by their hands but all of them were moving towards them.

Their eyes widened when they saw how almost all of them got up, regardless of their injuries or missing parts. It looked like a place straight out of HEL.

Aileen, seeing this, understood that those things, whatever they are, need to be burned for them to stay dead. But she was getting tired and her hand were hurting more and if she used her astral essence more, then she might burn her hands to ashes. But she had no choice. Either she had to burn those things to ensure they stayed dead or risk being torn apart by them or, worse, turning into one of them.