NBB3 - chapter 24: Zombie swarm

"Have you heard from the others in the hills?" the Golliarn muttered as he rubbed his back against the wall of the compound.

It was getting dark outside, and his replacement would be here any moment.

"Egridh was here a few days ago. She said those two old ones got tossed through a portal," the guards beside him said with a small grin.

"Serves them right, those oldies. All they did was bully the younger undead and complain that there weren't enough awoken being found," the first guard said.

He was about to say more when a raging scream erupted from behind the wall.

"What?" he blurted while turning around.

His hands rose, ready for a fight, and he jumped away from the wall, ready for battle. Another scream came, dull and muted, but not from the compound. The guard swirled around, staring into the darkness of the city. A second, then a third, scream came from deep inside the city.

"Another one?" he rumbled to the guard beside him. "Didn't we just have one a few days ago?"

"They are coming more frequently," the second muttered.

Another piercing scream came from inside the compound, quickly followed by more. The guards turned back to the wall, slowly backing up as the screams drew closer. Something slammed into the gate, and it shook. The door creaked, then swung open as a group of Goliarn rushed out. Eyes wide and looking around in fear, they slammed the door shut behind them. Something thudded on the ground beside them, and another guard stood crouched down, the ground beneath his feet cracked.

"The Lethargic ones are coming up! Someone set them free," he hissed at the two guards that had been outside.

Shouts for help and screams of anger came from inside as a battle commenced behind the wall.

One of the Goliarns barked an order as he backed up towards the city. The other followed him, and as one, they began back up, staring at the door as it suddenly shook again. More pounding came from inside, and the guards looked at each other.

"I think we should warn Scathia," one of them said, then turned and ran towards the city. The others hesitated for only a moment before they followed in a small stampede of massive undead.

The pounding on the door continued for a short while as cracks appeared in the stone. One crack rippled up along the height of the door, then the entire door burst out, slamming into the ground. A stream of crazed Lethargic ones rushed out. Although most were running away, some pounded the others and tore their heads off. The rest screamed madly as they rushed into the city, seemingly uncaring about the fate of a few.

The stream lasted for a while before slowing to a trickle. When the last Crazed Lethargic one disappeared in the city, a quiet returned to the compound. Inside lay a few Goliarn bodies, ripped to pieces amongst dozens of simple zombies. A few still groaned and growled when soft footsteps came from the entrance.

--

Tirella stepped out of the building and into the open area, looking at the mass of body parts. A large figure pushed past her and groaned.

"If anybody finds out we released them, we are going to be in trouble," Greggor said.

"Then don't tell them," Tirella said as she wondered where Gulder had hidden. They hadn't managed to find him inside, and she didn't see him here. Perhaps he had fled? She looked back in the building as the other undead poured out, staring at the destruction.

"You can't be thinking of going back," Greggor grumbled as he stepped beside her. "If those things didn't find him, we won't."

That makes no sense, Tirella thought, but then took a step back.

"No. It's time you did as you promised and brought me to Drys."

Greggor sighed in relief and cracked his back. As he stood up straight, he towered a full head over the Tirella, who was ahead bigger than the rest of the undead.

"Do you think I'm as big as a Goliarn now?" he asked as he moved towards the broken-down exit.

"Close at least," Tirella said. "Still smaller than Skull, though!"

Greggor barked a laugh as his face widened in a grin.

"That's fine," he muttered. "Besides, I can still evolve one more time!"

I wonder, Tirella thought as she stepped over the door. The other undead were still behind them.

"Should we bring them?" Greggor whispered.

"No. Those bile stains can find their own way," Tirella said. "Now get me to Drys."

The two disappeared into the city.

--

"Just end them," Solus roared as he jumped on top of one of the Lethargic ones.

They were on the lowest floor of the Patternhall. Toppled over tables, unmoving bodies, and shattered lay everywhere. Hundreds of crazed undead were screaming and raging at the entrance, unable to pass a cloud of grey that blocked the door opening.

Before that, though, a few crazed Lethargic ones had managed to get inside.  They had ended a few of the undead before Solus reached them and ripped them to shred. Their body parts now lay scattered throughout the room.

"Alright. I've got them all."

Sig's voice came from the entrance, and the cloud enlarged as it poured outside.

The screaming muffled instantly, and a few minutes later, the only screams were those from further into the city.

Solus growled as he padded to the exit and moved outside. Sig's cloud covered most of the square, then rose, passing the buildings. When it was far above even the tower, it disappeared, and a deluge of undead fell down, screaming and raging. A small cloud appeared to the side of the mass, shooting down towards Solus, faster than the undead fell.

Sig appeared beside Solus, stumbling as he put his hand on the wall.

"I need better mana-orbs or more time to absorb these small ones."

Thudding punctuated his words as undead splattered across the square, green, white, and other colors of goo spraying everywhere.

"Go back inside and drain the ones in the tower," Solus said as he looked around. "But, take the mana-orbs from these undead first, then stay with Drys. I'm going to see where all of them came from."

And see if I can find Laron, Solus thought.

He wondered where the undead -Cestodia- he corrected himself, was.

The idea of something inhabiting a body, changing it into some puppet, made him uncomfortable for some reason. Still, he found he liked Laron, and not just because the other had helped him and proved himself time and again. Besides, he found he missed the other's odd way of speaking and singing.

"Be careful," Sig said. "They are swarming everywhere."

Solus grunted and jumped forward, his four legs carrying him across the square within moments. As he dodged around a corner, he relished in the freedom of movement, rushing through the deserted streets. Only the occasional mutilated body showed that undead and Lethargic Ones had been here. He turned towards the east of the city, where the largest amount of the undead had seemed to come from. His sensitive ears picked up no more screams, but that didn't mean it was safe, and he stuck to the shadows.

A half a dozen streets later, he reached a gate out of the inner city. Sneaking into the abandoned opening, he looked at the square beyond. It was quiet, with no movement, but three ripped to pieces bodies lay to the right. Solus snuck forward, staying close to the left wall.

As he made his way towards the main road, he passed a small side alley.

"Bile," came a muttered curse.

Solus stopped, turning his full attention on the alley. It hadn't sounded like Laron, but it had to be a normal undead. Those raging Lethargic ones didn't speak, and they would have attacked already.

Perhaps they've seen Larron, he thought, and he moved closer to the alley entrance. Two shapes were pressed against the wall, backing up further into the alleyway.

Perhaps they are with Scathia, he thought.

The memory of Scathia and her torturous tactics, as she tried to get his mana-core, caused him to growl in anger.

"Come out," he projected beside the figures.

The two jolted, the bigger one slapping at the air. After a few moments, the figures moved towards him, and he heard them talk.

"That's a shadow hunter, isn't it?" a female asked curiously, her voice oddly familiar as she moved in front of the larger shape.

"I've never heard of one that can talk…" the larger figure whispered haltingly.

Both stopped at the entrance, and he got a clear view of them now. The smaller one was covered in thin spikes, almost like metallic hairs, with a large wad of it on her head. The second one was massive and round with hands so muscular he could see the individual muscles running across them like cables, snaking around his wrists to disappear in his thick forearms.

Interesting evolution, Solus thought, and he wondered if this was one of Drys' new ones. One of those without the ancients troublesome inscriptions interwoven into them.

The undead stopped close to the exit, and he saw the female inspecting the area beyond the square, looking at the other paths leading away.

She's searching for escape routes!

"I'm not a shadow hunter," Solus projected. "I'm an evolved undead. Now get out here. I need to ask you some questions."

"Why don't you ask them now," the female snapped. "And what are you anyway?"

Have I met her before? Solus thought as he scanned her face. There was nothing familiar about it, but that voice... the way she spoke!

"Did you see a black and purple tall undead run around here?" he said, trying to recall where he had met her.

"No, and how would we see it? It's dark out. Everything looks black," she snorted back at him.

Solus growled and turned to the burly figure. "Did you?"

The undead shook his head. "No… but, how is the inner city? Is the way to the Patternhal safe?"

Solus scanned the two. Why would they want to risk moving all the way there instead of just hiding out in one of the buildings and locking the door?

"I just came from there," he finally said. "There are a few of those Raging Lethargic things-"

An ear-shattering scream tore through the relative quiet of the square, echoing all around as it interrupted him.

Solus' head snapped to the right as his ears picked up dozens of footsteps rushing their way from one of the main streets that led deeper into the city.  He turned to the two undead and noticed they were out of the alleyway, running towards the gate he had just exited. He took a last hard look at the female as she loped forward, then turned to a road in the distance and dashed away. He was sure he'd met her before, but he couldn't recall when.

As he rushed around the corner of the street, he heard the raging Lethargic ones pour into the square behind him. One look back showed a dense mass of screaming figures running towards the gatehouse and after the two undead.

Raging brainless bile stains, he grunted. If those things swarmed into the inner city… Sig wasn't up to cleaning them up right now! With an angry growl, he turned towards the mob and drew in a breath.

He'd wanted to roar, but something about his new body, some instinct, changed it just before it came out, and a deep, bone-rattling howl erupted from his throat. The first Lethargic ones froze, mid-movement, fell and slid unmoving across the ground. The rest surged across them, and some ripped the fallen to shreds and took out their mana-orbs. Those to the side turned to Solus, running towards him.

Solus took one final look and saw that most, but not all, of the Lethargic ones were following him. Then he turned and rushed away.

Hope you are hiding somewhere, Laron, he thought as he rushed deeper into the city.

--

A long dash later, Solus stood inside a building, listening to the screams of the Lethargic ones fade into the distance. When he couldn't hear them anymore, he moved forward and stared at the compound in which Scathia's undead had disappeared. The gate was open, and there was no movement anywhere. Bodies lay strewn around the square.

After taking one more look around, Solus pulled his head back through the window and made his way back through the building and to the door. The square outside was still quiet when he got outside, and his sensitive ears didn't detect anything. He stared at the compound, not sure what to do.

The gate was broken open from the inside, and as he thought back to the road here, he began piecing things together. There were dozens of bodies strewn out along the way, and most had looked like they were running away from this place.

They likely came from here, he decided.

He looked at the gate, wondering if he should go inside. Would Scathia be in there? Probably not, but perhaps he could find something about where she was hiding or what she was up to? He wondered if it was worth the risk and focused on the pressure he sensed on the barrier. It was a constant, dull ever-increasing pressure.  If he went in there and got into trouble... he had no idea where Laron was and if he had escaped the Lethargic ones. If he was ended, how was he going to communicate with Drys?

Annoyed at how tied-up he was, Solus turned away from the compound. I'll get Dryss to send someone inside to find what is there, he thought. Then he turned and sprinted back the way he came, heading back towards the Patternhall feeling like he'd wasted his time.

Halfway back to the tower, all sounds, the muted and faint screams, suddenly stopped. Solus slowed down and stopped in a narrow street that would bring him to another gate into the inner city. His head cocked, he tried to pick up something, but all he heard was silence.

It ended, he thought, and he quickly sped up again.

When he finally reached the massive square in front of the Patternhall, he stopped. A dozen undead were rushing about, pulling at the corpses and examining heads. Solus crouched and hid against the wall. How would those undead react to him?

After a while, he decided it didn't matter. There were only a few, and they were all single evolves, so he should be fine even if they attacked him. He moved out of the shadows at a steady pace, not too fast and not too slow, heading straight for the Patternhall entrance.

"What's the-... that's a Shadowhunter?"

The startled shout came faster than he had thought, and he looked up to see an undead stare at him from across a corpse. The zombie's mottled red-skinned hands sat forgotten inside the head of the undead she had been ransacking. A quick look showed that the other undead had also stopped what they were doing and were gaping at him.

"It's not the same," one of the undead whispered.

It's much bigger than any shadow hunter I've ever seen," another hissed.

Solus ignored them and turned back to the red-skinned zombie.

"I'd take the mana-orb if there is one," he projected as he continued as if nothing was going on. "Before someone else takes it."

The undead's eyes widened, and she quickly looked around as if she expected someone was already sneaking up on her. When she saw nothing, she continued ransacking the head, ignoring Solus.

Solus continued forward until he reached the door. A look behind showed that a few undead were still looking at him every few moments, but most were only interested in the bodies. So far, he didn't see any with a mana-orb, which was as he expected it. Sig had taken them all.

As he stepped into the door, a looming shadow stepped in front of him, and he dodged back, readying his spike attack. A bald, red-eyed, and stocky undead stepped forward. It was covered in white plates covered in dents and scratches.

"You are Solus?" the undead asked, his thick leathery eyebrows scrunching up as he looked Solus up and down.

"Yes," Solus said as he relaxed slightly.

"Sig… told me to expect you. I am Bilderbin,” the undead said.

He remained quiet for a bit, looking at solus expectantly. When Solus didn't say anything, a sad look crept across his face, and he shrugged.

"The others are waiting upstairs," Bilderbin said as he stepped aside.

Solus quickly moved past him and up the stairs, looking back as he ran up the stairs. The undead was following him with a wistful look on his face.

Should I know him? Solus thought as he frowned.

On the next floor, dozens of undead Librarians moved about, replacing stone and bone tablets on their places in the wall. In the corner was a pile of shattered stone tablets. Another guard, shorter and less imposing, stood before the stair leading up to Drys' place.

He took one look at Solus, and his eyes widened as he stepped aside. When Solus passed by, the undead made as if to touch him, and Solus dodged forward out of the way of the hand.

"No bad, no bad," the undead said as he took two steps back, almost falling in his haste. "Want touch Solus… Mighty Solus," the undead said in a dull voice.

The sounds stopped, and Solus looked up to see the Librarians stare at him, tablets forgotten in their hands. The dozens of gazes annoyed him, and he growled softly, causing the undead to all to take a step back.

"Keep working," Solus projected, taking a last look at the undead guard. The way it had spoken reminded him of Skull. Was that why Drys had brought him here? A closer look told him that the undead's evolution was likely strength-based, like Skull.

"Solus?" the undead muttered, taking a careful step forward.

Solus shook his head, turned, and ran up the stairs. He reached the entrance a few moments later and bounded into the room.

"Solus," Drys' voice sounded weary.

Solus looked around, finally noticing Drys hanging back in a chair, a mana-orb in both hands, his heavily lidded eyes pointed his way. Beside him stood Sig, and on the couch opposite sat two familiar figures. A rather spikey-haired undead and a burly one with large hands. The female got up, staring at him so intensely that he became uncomfortable.

"You are Solus?" she asked, and again he frowned at how familiar she sounded.

"I am Solus," he said as he moved closer.

The female undead put a hand on her hip and glared at him angrily. "Don't you recognize me… show off?"

Solus stopped mid-step as he realized why she seemed so familiar.

"Tirella!"

As soon as he said it, he tried to feel through the connection to her in the back of his mind, but it was still as silent as ever.

"So, you have been doing the same as me," Solus said as he moved forward.

He'd barely gotten next to her when Tirella kneeled and put her hand on his head as she began petting him. Solus blinked, ducked out from under her hands, and shot sideways out of reach.

"What?" he shouted.

A peel of laughter filled the room, and he turned to find Sig doubled over, almost choking as he tried to contain his laughter while at the same time saying something.

"Wha-... what.." Sig said as he pointed and Solus before falling over in a fit of laughter.

Solus shook his head. That one had such a weird sense of humor.

"Now I understand why Tatjie kept grabbing Domain," Tirella muttered. "What did he say? Something about a lapdog?"

Solus growled as images of small canines sitting on ancient's laps played through his mind.

"Oh, don't get so upset," Tirella said as she looked at him. "What have you been doing? When did you wake up? Did you see…?"

At the last question, Tirella's face turned fearful. Sig's laughing faltered, then stopped, and the room slowly turned quiet. Solus moved towards one of the tables, jumped on, and lay down. He looked at the big undead with muscular hands before turning to Tirella.

"That's Greggor. He's a smart one. We should keep him around," Tirellla said as she waved behind her without looking.

Solus nodded, then tried to orden his mind as he wondered how he should answer Tirella's question.

"I don't know exactly when I woke," he began, and the rest sat back as he regaled most of what had happened.