Chapter 31 - North entrance

Erik's eyes widened, but then his expression morphed into a lopsided grin.

"Oh, I just thought I would relax for a bit."

"Hmph!" Freya huffed and rolled her eyes.

Then the female warrior coughed out a mouthful of blood, then fell on her knees, and breathed her last as she collapsed dead.

Freya looked down at the corpse, and her eyes twitched. Erik noticed the slight shaking of her hands. He could guess what was going through her mind. But before he said anything, she shook her head and ran over to him.

Up close, he saw that the weapon she wielded was indeed a dagger made of blood. It appeared that she had pushed her Talent further.

"Are you alright? Can you stand?" she asked.

"I'll be fine," Erik said, attempting to get up but collapsed back onto the ground.

She pursed her lips, seeing his condition, and began using her Talent to heal him. He wanted to protest and say that she needed to conserve her essence, but his wounds protested louder.

In a little bit Erik was feeling better. He had not healed completely, but he had stopped bleeding, and his more serious wounds had been alleviated somewhat.

Freya paled and swayed slightly as she got up and offered him a hand.

He took it, and with a groan, he got up himself.

"Do you know what's going on?"

"Yeah, but we don't have time right now. I'll tell you about it later."

She only nodded and said, "Let's go."

Erik, however, did not move.

"No... we should stay," he said after a moment of consideration.

She creased her browns and asked, "When they told me that you were going on an expedition to get water, I figured you were doing it because you want to get them to help us... but now they seem to be in the middle of some sort of conflict with another faction in the valley. At this point, I don't think there is any use in doing that anymore. Is there...?"

She paused and studied him carefully with an inscrutable expression.

"Or is it because you have grown close to them?"

He did not say anything for a moment, his eyes on the young woman who had died in such a brutal way and Endur lying unconscious at her feet. There was something that bothered them. Something disturbed him more than it should have, but he didn't know what. The closest way he could describe it was that this was... familiar?

Then, his sight shifted back to Freya.

"No. I haven't." He said while holding her gaze.

"Then why—"

"We still need help to reach the tree. Even more so now because Yaren has most likely joined the other faction. And I don't think they will welcome us."

She grimaced.

"I suppose we should try to salvage the situation as much as possible."

He nodded and asked, "What are you doing here, by the way? How did you find me?"

"I cut through the bars late last night, but I was waiting for an opportunity to break out. And I didn't know if I would be able to find you even if I did, so I decided to wait. I snuck out when the fighting began, and I kept to the edges of the battle until I heard a boy's scream and an unnatural flash of light from one of the houses. When I checked it out, I saw you. That light... did you get a Blessing?" she asked as her eyes regained her usual spark of curiosity.

"I did, but I'll tell you about it later."

Before they continued, they would need help. And he had enough essence to get it.

He walked over to Hilda and used his Talent.

Teal mist seeped into the corpse, and the flesh, organs, and muscles melted away. Then, the teal sparks lit in the sockets of the skull.

"Fascinating!" Freya exclaimed when she saw the Undead rise while leaning over his shoulder to look at what was happening.

Erik judged that he had just enough essence to raise one more minion, and he did so with the tall warrior who wielded two axes.

He decided to let them wield the same weapons they did while alive. He wanted to see if there would be any improvement that way.

Then, Erik walked over to check on the Endur. He appeared to be alright, but when he tried to wake him up, the boy did not stir.

He must be exhausted. Or maybe it's his mind...

And just as he was thinking that, Havrek groaned as he woke up.

"Get up, old man. We need to move."

He slowly rose to his feet and looked around, raising a quizzical eyebrow at Freya.

"Her name is Freya. She is with me."

The older man gave her a nod, "Havrek."

His eyes moved to Endur and grew worried when he saw the boy unconscious.

"He is fine. Just knocked out," Erik said.

They gathered themselves, and he assigned one of his Undead to carry the boy. His minion barely managed the weight, but they didn't have any other choice. Erik and Havrek were not in a condition to carry him, and Freya was their most capable fighter right now. She needed to be free to react to danger.

Peeking out from the house. The skirmishes were dying down.

The street outside widened towards the northern entrance, turning into a small plaza. And there, bodies were scattered everywhere, and blood flowed with abundance. Hollow eyes and unmoving faces stared at the bleak sky as Erik surveyed the situation.

There was still some fighting in the alleyways and inside the houses. Some who had survived tried to gather themselves here and there. But their bleak expressions told him that they would most likely not receive any aid soon.

Based on Havrek's words, the survivors were on their side. Which meant that they had almost won.

A loud crash drew their attention to a tall wooden building next to the north entrance. The most intense fighting that was still going on, was happening in there.

"What is that place?" Erik asked.

"The watchtower. It's one of the key points that keeps the spiderweb and camouflage above the village."

"Do you think Omr and Gylfi are going to be there?"

"Most likely. They were planning to lure their strongest fighters there."

Erik nodded, "Let's go."

As they made their way towards the watchtower, they ran into lone warriors or pairs of enemy warriors, but thankfully, like them, they were not in the best condition. With a combined effort from Erik and his free minion acting as support, Freya managed to dispose of them.

As the killing continued, he sensed she was becoming more ambivalent towards it—both being progressively more disturbed by it and, at the same time, increasingly numb to it.

He partially felt the same way. But he wouldn't have any chance to talk to her about it anytime soon.

This nightmarish place would not allow them to process it. However, he had a hunch that it was something that they would have to confront if they survived it.

Even with his Talent and what it did—despite how natural it felt—he still struggled to keep down the bile rising in his throat at the ghastly sight of corpses melting away.

He shook his head and tried to get rid of these thoughts.

The macabre aftermath of the battles continued to unfold as they got closer to the most intense fighting. It was a good thing that there was still a threat to focus on.

They first decided to check on the situation and then decide what to do. So they approached one of the windows in the alleyway between the watchtower and the buildings next to it.

Peeking through it, Erik saw the chief and his wife, along with two more villagers, fighting against five enemies.

There was also a number of bodies that lay on the floor, forcing the fighters to mind their footing.

The building itself was roughly three stories tall and square in shape. There was an open space in the middle, and along the edges, a spiraling staircase led to the roof.

The fighting was chaotic, but despite that, the villagers were winning.

As the battle intensified, debris and wooden pieces flew everywhere. One person was killed by a spear through the heart, while another by an axe to the throat.

"What do we do now?" Freya whispered.

Havrek clearly wanted to help but knew that in his condition, he would be a liability. The old man just gritted his teeth in silence.

Thinking through their options, Erik did not want to send his minions in there blindly. The Undead would most likely be killed right away, and he did not have the essence to create more.

But just as he was thinking about what to do, things escalated, and Omr, along with a massive middle-aged man wearing wooden armor, crashed through the wooden wall halfway up the wooden watchtower and landed on the street with a bang.

They both looked like they had taken a number of wounds, but the massive man was in better condition. He also had a wooden tower shield and a large wooden mace with a stone spike, which gave him the air of a strong fighter.

"Now is our chance," Erik said.

He gave the command to his one free minion, and with it, he and Freya rushed forward to aid the chief.

As they came out of the alleyway and approached the pair, another loud bang echoed, and two more figures crashed through the front door—both locked in a savage fistfight. Blood and teeth flew as they whaled on each other.

The new pair was in their way, so they had to tackle them first.

"Attack the black-haired one," Havrek shouted from behind.

When they closed in, the enemy noticed them and ducked under Erik's axe swing, who was the closest, before elbowing him in the face and sending him stumbling backwards and falling on his rear end.

She then proceeded to kick his Undead in the chest, sending it back as well. But that opened her up to the person she was fighting in the first place, who kicked her on the side of the knee and broke it with an audible crack.

The female warrior shrieked, but it was cut short as Freya's blood dagger sank into the woman's right eye.

And as she died, her opponent gave Freya a curt nod.

Just as Erik got back on his feet, they all turned their attention to the chief's fight.

He was losing.

His axe moved with an unusual speed, and sometimes, there was a blue and transparent copy of it following behind the real blade or moving in advance of it. But Omr was struggling to find an opening. The blade was always stopped by the shield or axe of his opponent while the transparent copy bounced off a red sheen that appeared over the massive warrior's skin.

The chief was only saved by his higher agility. But nonetheless, he was still accumulating injuries.

Freya and the new ally were the closest and were about to jump in to help when the massive warrior drove the handle end of his mace into Omr's chin, making him stagger. That was followed by a hard slam of the shield's rim into his face.

The chief fell to his knees and was completely exposed to a finishing blow from the enemy. And his opponent was not about to let the chance slip by.

The mace hurled towards the chief, set to crush him.

But before it could land, a glowing red spear whistled through the air, piercing the massive warrior’s head—killing him instantly.