Chapter 20 - Taykaw the Necromancer

He slammed the end of his staff into the ground, shattering the plank underneath.

Tar climbed up his staff halfway, hardening in layers. He let go, stretching his arms to the sky. Immediately, a smoking skull burst through the wall behind him, screaming as it flew towards her. She parried it with her glaive, slicing it open. Multiple other skulls burst through the same hole, coming at her from multiple angles. She cut through all of them except one, which bit her leg hard. She smashed it with the end of her glaive, grimacing from the bite. The would bled black blood.

Before she could get concerned about it, a skeleton's arms, covered in tar, busted through the wall behind her. They grabbed her and pulled her against the wall, its grip unwavering. As she let go of her glaive, multiple tar skeletons burst through the floor. As they climbed up, she unsheathed her dagger and slashed at the skeleton's arms. She cut its wrists, forcing it to let go, before immediately ducking as the others lunged at her. She grabbed her glaive again, stepping away from the walls as tar skeletons creeped in through the holes. Taykaw laughed.

"How many skeletons can you beat before you simply get overwhelmed?" He taunted.

"Be quiet!" She swung her glaive through his body. Unlike the skeletons, the blade passed through without harming him.

Taykaw wagged his finger and shoved her away without touching her. "Found out where I was, but didn't learn that my body can't be physically harmed. How diligent of you."

She kept her mouth shut as the tar skeletons charged her. Her glaive cut holes in the planks as she swung it around, decimating the skeletons with each blow. Gunshots echoed outside the cabin; the skeletons were coming for them, too. Skeletons poured endlessly through the holes, climbing over each other to get to her. Ten skeletons killed. A skeleton slashed her in the back with a knife before being slashed itself. Twenty skeletons killed. An arrow from a skeleton archer nearly clipped her in the neck. Thirty. The planks from the floor fell into the tar, and skeletons fell back down. Forty. Fifty. Tar splashed onto her clothes. Sixty. Sweat dripped from her chin. Seventy. Her muscles ached, but she couldn't stop.

Then, pain ripped through her stomach.

She stumbled backwards, falling onto one knee. She looking at Taykaw. He held a revolver in his hands, its barrel smoking from the gunpowder. He shot her! His smile widened. "You know, this new technology from Phegolan's quite convenient, don't you think?"

The skeletons laughed alongside him. She forced herself up with her glaive, gritting her teeth. She touched her bullet would and looked at her fingers. Thankfully, it was still red. If he'd magically enhanced his revolver, her chances of winning might've plummeted to zero. At least her chances right now were a fraction above it.

"You're still standing? Quite the hopeful dreamer, aren't you?"

"I'm not kneeling because of a little pain." She walked to the wall and tore off a piece of the wall, the sliced plank creaking in her hands.

"You've got some guts to you, I'll give you that. But it won't be enough to beat me."

"I've got more than guts." She said, throwing the plank at him. He shot it, splintering it into pieces, before seeing the Elf rush in. Before he could cock it again, she swung, knocking the revolver off of his hand and into a hole in the floor, where it sank in the tar.

He immediately pushed her away and retrieved it, trying to shoot her again. Unfortunately for him, the revolver refused to work, too gummed up with tar to function properly. "Well-played, elf. But can your body still function properly with a bullet in it?"

She refused to answer. A skeleton to her right charged her. She smashed it into the wall. On her left, a skeleton with a dagger pounced. She kicked it down to the ground and crushed its skull. The torrent of skeletons began again, and she responded as best she could with her glaive. Her movement slowed significantly with each skeleton she ended, and not just because of the gunshot wound. Her leg was now effectively poisoned from the smoking skull's bite, slowing it down. Her body begged for her to stop, but she couldn't. Not now, not when -

A skeleton popped up behind her, holding a sword in front of it. Before she noticed, Taykaw charged her, throwing her backwards with one push.

The sword impaled her through her stomach.

Her eyes widened as it went through, the bloody blade in full view. Black, just like her leg. Strength left her body, her hands unable to keep their grip on her weapon. The skeleton pulled the sword out. She stumbled a bit, then threw her fist back, cracking open its skull. She struggled to stand, her legs refusing to cooperate, until she collapsed onto the ground, the gaping wounds in her stomach bleeding profusely. She heard Maya screaming outside. Maybe the skeletons got to her too. She tried sitting up, then gave up. It wasn't of any use. There was only one thing she could do.

"Peter!" She screamed. "Peter, get over-" She yelped as Taykaw slammed his foot against her chest. She coughed violently; blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Did one of her ribs crack? She couldn't tell, everything hurt so damn much.

"Crying for your friends? I didn't expect such a distinguished warrior like yourself to stoop so low. Reminds me of when you cried for your mother when I took you away. You were screaming and kicking your legs... in the end, none of that mattered. You traveled so far away from home... I wonder, does an elf mother shed tears for her lost child? Or, with the lost importance of time, does she simply make another one? I never did finish her off when I came across you. Oh, to come back to your family, only to see that they forgot you..." He cackled, assured of his victory. He leaned forward, the blood gem around his neck dangling just above her face. He took out a large knife, brushing the tip against her cheek. "Wouldn't that just be wonderful?"

Just then, the door burst open. In the doorway stood Peter, covered in scrapes and tar. Before Taykaw could react, she gathered all her strength into one swift movement.

She ripped the blood gem off of his neck.