Those Who Dare: Book 1

Episode 4: Him

Bianca paused halfway through a swing and looked up at the cloaked mage. Enty! That's who Snacks wanted her to look for!

An icy pain gripped the elf's stomach as her opponent's sword failed to fully penetrate her armor and she was brought back into the true danger of the situation. She struck the animated corpse in the neck and heard the porous spine crumble beneath the flesh. She struck it again and, with a horribly slimy tear, the head rolled off the body to meet the ground first, a chunk of rotten flesh torn off with it. She needed to get to the cloaked mage. He would lead her to Enty!

She heard Uriah grunt as his opponent slammed the butt of its spear into his face, his eye barely missed on impact. Lightning fast, she heard his palm shatter part of the shaft of the spear. He stepped forward and shoved the corpse back, hollowed bones broken at the impact. Omar could be heard as he commanded the other soldiers on how to use their weapons and encouraged them to "strike true." Jethro was the only silent one, but Bianca knew the sound of his sword as it ripped through writhing branches and moss.

Suddenly, a woman's frightened scream ripped through the air. Bianca snapped her head around to see Sansa on the ground as she scrambled away from one of the mage's new shrouded friends. At first, she thought they were also humanoid; so, imagine her surprise when claws of twisted branches and sharpened bone emerged from the new enemies' sleeves instead of human hands.

The elf launched herself toward the young woman and smashed the head of her staff into where a skull was supposed to be. The hardened wood beneath the cloth was a little hardier than bone, but Bianca was ready for it. She followed the momentum of her swing and dropped to her knee as she whipped around, her free leg swung into the backs of the creature's "knees." The being shuddered and buckled for a moment, and Bianca reassumed a ready stance.

She turned to Sansa. "Get to Omar!" she commanded kindly.

The young woman shook her head, panicked as she tried to stand. "I-I can't!"

"What do you mean?"

The young noblewoman didn't get the chance to reply as a corpse that had hobbled behind them let out a horrid screech as it plunged its spear into her back. Fear gripped the elf's stomach when she heard Sansa slump back to the ground as the thing ripped its weapon out of her shoulder.

"Omar!" Uriah called from somewhere to the side. "Get the girl!"

Bianca heard her tiefling friend grumble about needing to rescue everyone – which doesn't happen as often as he said – but he came to Sansa's aide anyway.

The cloaked attacker in front of Bianca balled a fist of nettled vines and pointed sticks. Its arm shot forward and struck her square in the forehead – rather, that's what was supposed to happen. She watched as the punch vaporized into a phantom image before her. She turned her head to the side to see where it would go and was quickly met with the actual strike, the brunt of which clipped her skull as the rest scraped across her cheek.

"Enty!" the mage chanted further on. "Enty! Enty! Enty –"

"Shut up!" Uriah growled, his knees buckling under the weight of a mound's agape jaw.

The cloaked mage shot a daggered look at Bianca's friend. "Master Enty!" he cried louder. In a way, it reminded Bianca of a quarreling child. It was actually kind of funny.

"Bianca!" Omar shouted. The elf turned to see the corpse that stood over Sansa earlier withered and broken on the ground. The tiefling lifted Sansa into his arms and nodded toward the shrouded attacker. "Keep that thing off our backs, will you love?" Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heels and sprinted across the battlefield with his charge.