…Faydraelle spat a mouthful of blood into the face of her attacker, but it hardly mattered in the way of distraction. Undead do not need to blink, and the zombie that was trying to throttle the life out of her was hardly an exception…
Traveling north from Hampshire, she had passed through Fort Hope without even a chicken crossing her path. Passing through the dark forest to the north, again without seeing a thing, she grew careless as she went on. Nearing the edge of the forest, she started to run just to be out of the unnaturally quiet wood, and ran right into the hands of an undead standing in its infinite patience just behind one of the trees.
Trying to stop her own momentum, she slipped on the floor of leaves and fell backward with a crash of jangling metal and rustling leaves. Trying to crawl backwards as fast as possible to prepare herself, she wasn’t having much luck in getting her heavy armor to allow her arms to reach behind her. The thing needed only take three steps before it reached down and raked its claws across her helmed head forcing her head to snap back from the impact.
Being more of a punch than a scratch, it mashed her helm into her face so hard she felt her nose pop. Kicking up and outward where she thought the enemy was, Faydraelle worked quick to get her helm off because it no longer was sitting right and she couldn’t see. Boot met resistance that also gave, and as she got her helm off, she was able to see the undead thrown back slightly, giving her enough time to get to her feet and pull her blade.
Lightly touching her nose as she backpedaled out of the wood with the undead in tow, she felt a sting on her face and that was all she needed to know. This thing was going to pay for the shot it got on her.
Adjusting her stance now that she was ready, she waited for this dead thing to close the distance with her. Close enough now, it moaned as it took an arcing swing at Faydraelle. Sidestepping, she swung hard with a slice across its back in hopes of severing its spine. Sword sank deep into rotted flesh, cracking bone; she had thought she had made a telling blow, until a second later. Turning with blade still embedded, it backhanded her under the arm with enough force to fling her back and rip the blade from itself as well.
Coughing from the impact, she felt more determined than ever to see this thing made still by her own hand. So it went on for hours it seemed, trading one blow for another, slowly hacking bits out of the undead as it battered and clawed bits out of her.
Breathe coming hard and painful, she backed away after a time to evaluate the situation. She was too tired to deal with this much longer, and the undead was just as unstoppable as before, even if it was missing alot of sections of rotted flesh. It was time to take a gamble or she’d never even be able to make it away from this creature now.
Gripping her blade in both hands, she ran forward with as much strength as her legs had left and rammed the blade through abomination’s chest. Letting her weight carry her into the undead, she toppled them both over and drove the rest of the blade into the ground, pinning the monster down.
Though now pinned, it lashed out and wrapped both hands around her throat and started to squeeze. Jerking her head back and forth and bashing her fists into the face of the zombie, she just couldn’t break its grip. The only good thing about her current predicament of being trapped on top of a zombie was where it had grabbed her. Luckily, it had grabbed onto her throat just under the metal collar of her armor and it wasn’t strong enough to bend it…but it sure wasn't letting go...
Trying to think quickly while she was relatively safe and before it decided it needed a better grip, she was severely lacking options. She was too tired to do anything physical, all she had left was her magic to try and finish this.
Closing her eyes to block out the grotesque face less than two feet from hers, she readied what she had left quickly. Opening her eyes to the puss-covered, black-eyed horror before her, she started speaking and moving her arms. Almost finished, she raised her arms up, but hit the undead’s arms before she reached the proper length. A flash went through her mind as knowledge faded, wasted.
Cussing several various things, she took another swing at the monster’s face, bashing out several more rotted teeth. Still it did not do anything to loose the grip she was in. Preparing her last ready spell that might do anything; she said a quick prayer and started casting. Words were unhindered by the hands around her throat, and arm movements were not flashy enough to be stopped by the small area between her and the body.
Finishing the words and motions, she grabbed the handle of her sword to complete the spell. A flame ignited at the hilt of the blade and quickly spread down to the undead. Watching now as skin smoldered and acrid smoke started pouring out of its mouth and from under its body, she slowly smiled. Skin cracked and flaked away as flame slowly spread from within, fed by her blade.
Feeling the grip finally slacken after some time, she was able to pry the hands off her. Coughing from the smoke as she stood now, she laughed at the burning corpse.
“Ha! That’s what ya get!” Kicking the zombie in the face, she reached for the blade. Pulling hard, she removed most of her blade from the ground; almost half was broken off into the ground from the impact. Giving a sigh, she dropped the blade on the cooking body and started walking slowly north towards Krandor. Passing some sugar cane, she grabbed a small stalk and start munching on the end along the way.
With the town in sight, she gave a sigh and lightly touched her nose again to test for blood. Seeing no blood on her glove, she wiped hair out of her face but stopped short with her hand over her eyes.
“Aw Hell! I forgot my helm.” Giving another huff of annoyance, she turned right around and started the walk back to the forest.
Stopping after several steps, she sighed again
"The Abyss take the thing, i'll get a new one." Turning around again, she walked her way into Krandor, reaking of smoke and burnt flesh.
//This was inspired by a high level spawn that somebody left behind for a weaker person to find(namely me)
Thank you whoever you were, hope it makes for a good read.
