NBB3 - chapter 12: All together now?

Solus woke with a snap, his mind instantly crystal clear. It didn't match the slow, groggy way he knew from sleeping. It was as if his mind was turned off, and then on. A host of sensations demanded his immediate attention, but Laron's voice topped them all.

"Wake, green! Wake! He comes!"

Solus shot up, pushing himself from the wall and looking through the room. The zombies were banging the walls, screeching and in a complete panic as they watched the door. Only Laron and Belgh were watching him, and both pointed at the door.

"Hurry!"

Solus jumped towards Laron to release him. Halfway there, he got a view of the door and saw Lexirg at the back of the hallway, stomping towards them. He was just closing one of the small side doors, shutting off the screaming that came from there. Instinctively Solus knew the limits of his new body's bone warping, and it was slow and cumbersome. He would never get Laron free and make a hole big enough for them to jump through.

He swirled around, looking at the screaming zombies then back at Laron. He might be able to get himself out… but was he willing to leave Laron here? A quick look showed Lexirgh about to reach the door- his mind froze, but his body moved and was halfway to the gate before his mind caught up.

The gate is made of bone!

Solus reached the gate and gripped the bars bone bars. Behind them and halfway in the hall, Lexirg stopped, his eyes flashing up.

"Now... who are you?"

Solus ignored the voice that reverberated through the hall and room and focused on the bone. With his stone shaping, he could sense the stone around him and shape it to anything he could imagine. Unfortunately, the bone shaping wasn't even remotely that powerful. He could barely sense the bone beneath his hands, and as he imagined the bone growing, fusing the lock into the door, he felt the bone only slowly reacting. The bit of bone around the lock stretched and grew as Lexirgh stomped forward, and it barely covered the lock when he jumped back. Thick fingers shot through the gate, then the lower arm got stuck. The bone bent and groaned, cracks appearing. It was too thick to fit between the bars, and Lexirgh's hand closed mere inches from his face.

"Why don't you come closer? I'm sure Kreeg would love to see your pattern!"

I bet he would, Solus thought as he turned towards Laron.

The black zombie had been surprisingly quiet, and when Solus reached him, he only swallowed and nodded.

Solus grabbed the bone bindings dangling behind Laron and focused again. Removing something turned out much faster than warping it, and with little effort, he severed the binding which fell. Then he turned to Belgh and copied the move. The other conscious zombies, stunned for a moment, started shouting at him to release them.

Solus ignored them and jumped to the middle of the room, placing his hands on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Belgh shouted as he sat on his hands and knees on the ground.

"I don't know what you are, but you have such an interesting pattern!"

Lexigh's voice sounded excited, and he was rattling the bone gate, his massive hands wrapped around four bars that began bending and cracking as he squeezed.

"Release the others before he comes!" Belgh cried as he stood beside Solus.

"Impossible Lexirgh will be through before I finish, and I need to open a hole for us to escape," Solus replied calmly.

He didn't look up from the small three-foot indent that was appearing on the floor. The amount of effort and energy it took him to create just this small hole astounded him. He could have created a building with even his very first stone-shaping capable evolution with the same effort.

"You won't make it! But if you unlock them, they can hold Lexigh back long enough," Belgh cried, his high-pitched voice easily overpowering any other sound.

Solus thought for a moment and looked up at Belgh, who was at Glaum, ripping at the bone tendrils that bound her to the wall. A loud crack came from the bone-gate, and something crumbled to the ground.

Solus's gaze snapped around, just in time to see the five middle bars roll away. Lexirgh stuck an arm through the hole, his movements faster than those he had displayed before. The hand reached for Solus, who dodged back. The fingers flashed over his half-finished hole.

No! Bile and bone, he growled. Now he needed to start over again.

"Release them. They can hold him back!" Belgh screeched again, sounding panicked and afraid.

Solus looked up, seeing two dozen panicking zombies ripping at their bindings. Laron stood behind one, cracks on one of the bone cables as he kept striking it.

Perhaps they can, Solus thought. Besides, more zombies running around might draw attention away from him.

Lexirgh was snapping more bars, and he would probably be through before he finished a hole large enough for him to move through.

Solus jumped for the nearest zombie, and a moment later, its cables fell free.

"Stop him, or we are all ended!" he said as he pointed at Lexirgh. Then he moved to the next moving zombie and freed him.

Five zombies in, he still heard no fighting, and he looked up to see the zombies stand far from the door, looking at Lexirgh with wide-open eyes of fear.

"Fight him," Solus shouted, freeing another zombie.

"We need more," Belgh screamed. He stood before Glaum; his hands wrapped together as his gaze swished between Glaum, Lexirgh, and the other zombies.

Solus cursed as he continued, and when he released the eight zombie, the final bars snapped under Lexirgh's pressure. The skeleton didn't wait but forcefully shoved his upper body through the bars, reaching for Solus. It ignored the zombies that were backing up.

Useless, Solus thought. But he had little choice now. He could not make a hole either way.

Belgh was staring at him and swallowed, his face filled with fear. Then he turned to Lexirgh and stepped forward.

"Stop himmmmmm," he screamed, and he held the last syllable as his voice rose and rose. Like struck by lightning, his scream deafened everyone in the room as the walls started vibrating and humming. Some of the zombies grabbed their ears, and even Lexirgh had stopped, turning to Belgh. He stretched his arm, but Belgh dodged behind the group of zombies. Lexirgh's body-sized fist crashed into them, scattering two to a corner of the room.

Solus released another zombie, shoved him forward, then turned to the next. Belgh's scream was still holding, and as it increased in pitch, Solus felt the bones in his body vibrate. A finger on his left hand hadn't fully healed yet, and the crack lines were spreading rapidly. As he grabbed the next set of tendrils, it crumbled and fell away. He looked at it in shock, then realized the implications.

Pushing the zombie forward, he saw the others had finally gotten over their fear, and with Belgh's screams making it inaudible, they were holding Lexirgh, sitting on his back and trying to lock down his legs. Lexirgh was holding one hand to the side of his skull while flailing at them with the other. He was moving oddly, sometimes freezing for a moment as his body shook.

Within moments Solus released the rest and got to Glaum, releasing her. She pushed him aside and jumped on top of Lexirgh without any apparent fear. As she moved, Solus saw a layer of shiny liquid ooze cover her skin, steaming slightly. Looking around for more zombies to be released, he saw those remaining were dumbly staring at the ground.

Has to be enough, he thought as he moved to the back end of the room, crouched down, and started opening a new hole. It bothered him that he had to look at the bone to shape it and couldn't see what was going on.

Long seconds ticked by when Belgh's screaming stopped so suddenly it left a startling silence. Solus looked up, the indent now almost through the for-foot thick bone floor.

One of Lexirgh's hands was wrapped around Belgh, squeezing so hard that Belgh's eyes were popping out of his head. Yellowish puss started to leak from between Lexirgh's bone fingers.

The other hand was wrapped around Laron, who was wedged with his back in the palm, trying to push the fingers away with his arms and legs. Laron's whole body was shaking and trembling, but the muscles were also bulging rapidly. The bigger they became, the less the shaking was. Half of the zombies lay in crumpled heaps on the ground, while the rest were either hanging on Lexirgh's legs, pinning him down, or hovering close by, seemingly unsure what to do.

"Laron, get out of there!" Solus shouted, quickly focusing on the floor.

"You have no way to escape," Lexirgh's projected void sounded so close that Solus' jerked his head back.

Lexirgh's odd neckless head was turned towards him as the skeleton tried to force its way forward, dragging a dozen zombies with it. Laron was now heavily muscled and covered in glowing purple streaks and easily held back the fingers but unable to free himself. Belgh's eyes were closed, and green and yellow ichor was dripping from his lips. There was no sight of Glaum.

"Even if you get out of this room, you can't flee the city," Lexirgh continued, and an evil laugh rang throughout the room. "If you just stop resisting, I might go easy on-"

Solus focused back on the bone floor, ignoring the rest of what Lexirgh said. He felt the ground shake a bit as the skeleton moved closer, but then light poured through a hole in the middle of the deep indent. A moment later, the edges fell away, and a four feet wide hole appeared in the middle of the floor.

"Laron, we are leaving!" Solus said as he got up and looked forward.

Lexirgh was almost upon him, but he seemed to be struggling to move forward. The purple strips covering Laron's body had begun pulsing and glowing, lighting up the entire room. His eyes were burning purple flames, and he seemed to be holding Lexirgh's hand and arm in check with ease now. Solus looked at the hole, then at Laron. With a sigh, he jumped forward, close to the hand Laron was holding. Lexirgh tried to turn, dropping Belgh on the ground and reaching for him, his massive arms and hands getting in the way.

Solus put his hands on the ground beneath Lexirgh's absurdly small feet, and slowly the bone grew across it, biding the out of proportion skeleton in place.

"Get ready to draw back," Solus said as he locked the second foot in place.

“Ready, ready,” Laron sang. There was no strain in his voice, and a wide grin lit up his face. "Strong, I am strong," he said, grinning at Solus.

"You two are weak and will never get away!" Lexirgh howled, struggling to turn around. His free hand slammed against the ceiling and wall, crushing a still hanging skeleton as he tried to get free.

Finished, Solus scrambled towards the hole. Many zombies were already crawling through it, preferring the fall to the ground, hundreds of feet lower over the prospect of staying in a room with Lexirgh. Glaum was beside the hole, liquid oozing from her body and pooling by her feet. She was dragging Belgh to the hole. Before Solus reached it, she looked up at him.

"If we survive, I'll see you in a bit," she muttered. Then she shoved Belgh through the hole and jumped after him.

Solus reached the hole and watched her and Belgh plummet towards the ground, quickly disappearing through the dense leaves covering below.

"Laron, now!" he shouted.

Laron bellowed a laugh, and as the stripes of his massive leg burned bright purple, he kicked against Lexirgh's chest. Lexirgh upper body was knocked back, his arms jerking outwards and releasing their hold on Laron. His knee's jerked, but his feet stayed attached to the ground, and he began falling backward. Laron didn't wait but turned and rushed for the hole.

By now, only Solus, Laron, and the unmoving zombies on the walls and ground remained. Solus had no idea who was still conscious, but he had no time to save them. The screaming, fighting, and falling undead were bound to draw attention.

"Let's go," he said with a quick look at Laron.

Then he jumped through the hole without even worrying about the landing. Freefall took him immediately, and his speed increased as gravity pulled him down ever faster. He had lots of experience with it, but he also knew that he likely wouldn't survive the impact if he didn't do something. A frightened shout came from above, and he looked up to see Laron plummet down above him. The small hole in the massive building above them was quickly shrinking, but at the last moment, he thought he saw Lexirgh's face above it.

"You won't escape me!" an angry voice projected beside him.

"I'll remember you," Solus projected back, suddenly angered! This weakling that made him flee without a proper fight was now threatening him? For a moment, a raging inferno came through the small cable that still clung from his body. It pulsated with a deep, green color, and Solus knew it was the anger from his real body, awakened by something. It lasted for only a moment; then it faded, leaving behind a desire to destroy Lexirgh's.

That wasn't just because of Lexirgh, Solus thought as his mind calmed.

Something had happened, something outside of his current senses. He wished he could check on his real body. The thought barely finished as he slammed into a bunch of thin branches and leaves and started spinning out of control. Everything turned into a chaotic mess of flashes of black and white as he crashed through layers of leaves. Each time he struck one, he slowed down considerably only to pick up speed again a moment later.

This is going to be a hard landing, Solus thought as he tried to keep his legs below him.

--

Tirella gazed at the scene below her, gritting her teeth in anger. After all that, it would end like this?

The fire-undead was backed into a wall, surrounded by a half-circle of Kaots. Although they were short, barely the height of Sigmintrons, they were also twice as wide and with a long tail that dragged behind their body. Their large slits of mouths seemed toothless but also bottomless.

As they moved closer towards the fire-undead, Tirella roared in anger and frustration.

She could hardly believe the bad luck of the fire affinity undead. She had followed him for days since his escape, quickly finding that he seemed to know exactly where he was going. To her surprise, he had easily dodged a small Kaot Lord -how did that get here?- two groups of swarmer Kaots and one roaming Ygdra, hunting anything that came too close. Either by hiding, running away, or a few well-placed fire blasts, the skeleton impressed her without end as he managed to get away each time. And now? Now he had been cornered by some group of low-level Kaots?

Why did he even enter this stupid canyon, Tirella thought, as she looked around the dusty chasm with its twenty-foot, steep rocky walls of jagged rock that blocked any chance to flee.

Below her, the undead's hands became covered in fire, and he made tossing motions. Streams of fire shot at the incoming Kaots. Two got a blast full in the face, and with a screech, the others charged.

Tirella sighed. The fire undead was a goner, and there wasn't anything she could do. Perhaps she should have stayed in the city and found out what she could about Scathia.

A roar came from the back of the canyon, and she swirled around to see a group of four undead charge towards the fight. All fleshies, two were odd zombies with tears in their faces and lesions on their arms. They were almost identical; a left arm that was slightly too long and muscular for the rest of their body, covered in plates, attached to an agile, dull-green body.  Left of them was a bald fleshy, with thick muscles, some bulging out through tears in his flesh, while behind them was a simple zombie of average built.

The two green zombies wielded hammers made of an angular stone, bound to a thick bone by a thin strip of what looked like flexible bone. Each wore armor made of unequal patches of leather, similarly bound together by more of the strips of bone.

"Grimz, hold on!" the muscular zombie roared as he rapidly outpaced the others. More of the muscles in his legs bulged through rips in his flesh, ballooning outwards.

The fire-undead, who she took to be Grimz, looked up, and a grin appeared on his thin lips. His whole body was alight with licking flames. The short distraction got him a tail on the side of the head, and he was flung sideways. Rolling over and over, a spout of fire sprayed a few feet around him, keeping the Kaots at bay. Still, the small creatures were surprisingly agile, flipping over as they struck at him with their tails that stretched and thinned during the attack. They maneuvered around, trying to get through the quickly weakening cordon of fire.

Following everything with increasing interest, Tirella gauged the distance between the other undead and Grimz and nodded with satisfaction. They'd make it in time!

The fire burned out at the same time that the muscular zombie reached the Kaots, bodily slamming into one before striking it with his stone hammer. With a growl, half of the Kaots turned to him, and the lime-faced zombie laughed. He opened his mouth, splitting the sides even further,  and roared, spittle and small slivers of flesh spitting forward.

The Kaots stopped and took a step back.

Tirella frowned as she saw the Kaots' reaction. Since when do they back off or show fear, she thought. Then the other three zombies came trudging near, and she was even more astounded. An odd ripple moved through the green mana that sufficed the canyon, and the Kaots turned around as one before jumping away. Their tails propelled them forward like springs, and every consecutive jump was faster and farther than the one before. They were a hundred feet away within a few seconds and disappeared between the rocks and boulders that dotted the hillside.

The muscular zombie stepped after them a bit as if to chase them, then stopped and shook his head.

"Hah! Runaway now! I'll hunt you in a few days."

The other zombie and the unevenly-armed ones ignored him and moved towards Grimz. They were still holding their weapons up, circling him.

"Grimz?" the simple zombie asked.

The fire-affinity undead nodded wearily, lowering his arms, and the fire on his body extinguished. Only his eyes were still smoking, little flames licking in their depths.

"It is me, Laorn, but how did you even recognize me?" he asked as he raised an arm, inspecting his dull red flesh. Dimly glowing yellow veins lay almost atop the skin.

Laorn lowered his hammer, and the worry and uncertainty faded.

"Not us, flabface! It was him!" Laorn pointed at the muscled zombie moving towards them. "Balra said he recognized your movement and the route you took."

The muscular zombie grinned as he gazed at Grimz.

"Course I did! You always make that odd one-two landing when you jump across something, and on top of that, nobody takes this route! I told you before; there are-" he stopped talking and pointed at Grimz with raised eyebrows.

"Kaots here that will eat you," Grimz completed, shaking his head as he stepped forward with an outstretched hand. "I'd be nothing but a mana-orb without you!"

"What else is new," Balra said with a short laugh as he clasped Grimz's arm.

That's the same odd thing they did in Skulltown, Tirella thought as she looked at the action.

"Now, how about you tell us how you turned into that while we travel back," Balra said.

"Wait," the other zombie, Laorn, said as he took two steps forward. "What happened to the others?"

Grimz gritted his teeth as he looked back the way he came. His hair burst aflame, waving atop his head and casting long shadows everywhere.

"Gulder got them. I've found out what he's been doing with those he captures..."

"After I evolve, I'm going over there and rip those limbs off," Balra said, his voice deep and guttural.

"Let's head back. I'm pretty sure Alyra wants to know you're back," Laorn said. They turned away.

Tirella followed them, taking curious glances at the undead with the odd arms. They hadn't said a single thing ever since arriving.

Curious, she followed the group, hoping they would lead her to a town. She wanted to pinpoint its location, then find how far it was from Skulltown. Now she had a possible way to communicate, it was time to find a body and speak with Drys.

I wonder how they have been doing, she thought as she quietly followed the group of undead.