The Bound - A Tale Of Tamriel

12

"Sithis' soiled pants!" Tilly muttered under her breath and  the sound of her daggers drawing accompanied it.

The skeletons, with surprising quietness, began to stand, each picking up a pitted, rusted sword that had lain beside them. At first, they did nothing, standing there in silence, staring at them with their unnerving empty eye sockets. The two groups stared at each other over the short distance, neither seeming to want to move.

"How about if we just, you know, slowly and carefully run?" Tilly gripped and re-gripped her daggers. "I mean, the skinny bastards have no muscles. They can't run that fast, surely."

"I think they heard you, Tilly." Öenthir watched as all the toothy skeleton heads turned to look only at Tilly.

That was when the skeletons attacked, lipless mouths opening in silent war cries, as they launched themselves at the party and Öenthir cursed the day she had refused to join the other students when they had sneaked in to the Guild library to snatch spell books well above their levels. Because now she was stuck between skeletons in front of her, or ghosts behind her and not one of her pitiful spells was going to be of any use.

ii. Itagaki.

The skeletons were fast. Very fast. Itagaki had bare enough time to lift her sword to block the first blow and a second sword was already swinging for her throat. She ducked, stepped sideways and swept her sword upwards towards the bony wrist of the first skeleton. The skeleton was as fast, though, stepping backwards and swatting its sword downwards to parry Itagaki's.

She saw this, though, changing her swords direction, mid-swing, looping it in an arc away from the parry and using the momentum to swipe towards the neck of the second skeleton. Again, their speed amazed Itagaki as the second skeleton bobbed out of reach of her swing with ease.

She glanced across from her to see Revna locked together with another of the skeletons, its sword trapped in the 'horns' of the Khajiit's axe head and, in that small pause, the first skeleton took advantage. A bony shoulder slammed into her, with surprising weight, sending her stumbling backwards and leaving her at the mercy of the second skeleton as it thrust its sword towards her chest.

Using the momentum that the body strike had given her, she rolled backwards and was back on her feet in one fluid move. She feinted left then made a diving forward roll to the right, finishing on her feet once again, spinning around to slash at the back of the second skeleton. Her sword clattered against the spine and ribcage, chipping off bone, but causing little damage.

"Don't dance, Redguard!" Revna caught the wrist of one of her skeletons, twisted its arms out of the way and, with one mighty swing, brought the flat of her axe down like a hammer onto its skull, shattering it into pieces and knocking the rest of the skeleton crashing to the floor. "Smash!

Revna's victory was short lived, though, as her other skeleton had found a way to her rear and swung a slashing sweep across the back of the Khajiit. Revna howled in pain and turned towards her silent, skeletal opponent, her eyes burning with rage.

In the sliver of a moment where all the skeletons had seemed to pause, recognising the final demise of their comrade, Itagaki had taken the advantage and unsheathed her long sword. Standing, now, in a dual-sword stance, she waited for the next attack.

It came soon enough, both skeletons swung their swords. One high, one low. But Itagaki had prepared, parrying both blows then launching her counter-attack. The exchange was furious and with such great speed that it almost became a blur even to Itagaki. Strike and counter-strike, move, slip, swipe, parry, duck, weave. Blow after blow. And Itagaki did dance. The dance of a consummate warrior.