Ascended

It was like a river of Zombies.

I had been expecting just a few to run at a time, but this was like a whole city had been turned and was descending on us. And at the front of the charge were three Touched.

My initial plan had been to try to catch a few of them on fire, then hold them back until they burned up. I still had the vial of Zombie blood and I popped the top off of it and lit it on fire, then threw it into the mine.

It splashed against a wall of stone that appeared between it and the Touched. The wall fell forward, snuffing out the fire. My big plan to buy us time had lasted a few seconds.

“That didn’t work…” I looked over at Val, “How much water can you make?”

“Why don’t you shoot fire at them?” I could feel the anxiety in her voice.

“Because I can’t shoot fire.” I lit my left hand on fire, “This is the best I can do.”

The redheaded woman pointed her left hand into the mine and about five gallons of water shot in front of her. It went about twenty feet, which wasn’t enough to do much.

“Right, swords it it.” I pointed my sword at the Touched that I’d fought earlier. “He can throw stone javelins, be careful!”

“How are we going to keep the Zombies out and fight the Touched?” Eveth looked over at me from the other side of Val.

“That’s…” I swallowed and turned to the mine. “HEY! YOUR MASTER SAID WE HAD UNTIL MORNING!”

The Touched stopped, their purple eyes fixed on me. The only female in the group stepped forward, “It is past midnight.” There was a hunger in her smile, “It is morning.”

“Well…”

She shot a blast of electricity that drove me to my knees. I planted my sword in the ground, which was enough to ground out the shock.

“The other one has fire!” I was able to get my sword up in time to block the second blast. The blade of my sword turned purple as it began absorbing the electricity.

The Touched I’d fought earlier made two stone swords and handed them to the other two, then crafted a stone spear.

“I’ve got him.” Eveth pointed at him.

I didn’t have time to acknowledge her because the female Touched was on me. She was a lot larger than I’d initially thought and her brown hair was flowing wildly as she swung the sword at me. I parried the blade to the side instead of blocking it, but I still felt the vibrations in my arms. Whatever the other Touched had made, these weapons were heavy, which gave me an idea of just how strong the Touched were.

As she drove me back I also realized that until we got rid of the Touched, Zombies were going to be able to slip out of the mine. I needed to finish this fight as fast as I could, which meant that I couldn’t afford to get distracted by what the others were doing.

I paried her sword again, then dodged right into a kick from her right leg. I crashed into the door of the house behind me. A woman inside screamed as landed on top of the door. The houses were all made of stone, but the doors were made out of wood. I rolled off the door as the female Touched slammed her sword down on the place where I’d landed. I kicked at the blade, knocking it away from me, then grabbed her right wrist with my left hand as she leaned forward without the blade to brace on.

Electricity gathered in her left hand, but before she could discharge it, I slashed parallel with the floor with my sword. I cut into her left ankle, which broke her focus on the magic. She twisted to her right to get away from me and I let my left hand be dragged up to the hilt of her sword and tucked the blade under my left arm and rotated away from her.

The result was that she landed on her back and I stood up with both swords. She stretched out both hands as she tried to blast me, but I slashed with the stone sword in a backhanded grip as I dropped to a crouch and rotated on my right heel.I swung with my right arm to complete a full rotation, following it up with a second slash. I wasn’t sure which sword did which, but I saw that both of her hands were removed as I stood up.

I didn’t have time to think about a way to restrain her. With magic, she was too dangerous, especially as I saw electricity arcing over her arms even as she screamed on the floor while cradling them against her chest. I dropped the stone sword and grabbed mine with both hands and took off her head.

I looked at the family that was hiding against the wall. It was a mother, father, and a boy that was about seven. They should have left with the caravan, but it didn’t look like they had anything packed.

“What are you still doing here?” I couldn’t keep my irritation out of my voice. I noticed the pickaxe by the wall. This family were miners, probably part of the ones that had been promised to be turned in exchange for helping the Zombies break into the city.

“Lewiu and the Touched...” I pointed at the dead Touched on the floor in front of me. “Are dead. You aren’t getting turned into a Touched. You never were. The Zombies are in the city now, so get to the gate NOW!” I turned towards the door and ran back out. There was still plenty of stuff to fight.