The memory of Melin's words crystallized in Femi's mind.
Three chances..That's all.
Those words had caused a strange calm to settle over him.
Okay, then. Resolve hardening in his gut. One more chance.
"Shall we?" The Necromancer's voice rasped through the cold night air.
Femi's fur had returned to its normal earthy brown, but his left eye still retained the faint storm-grey ring, which was now a dull echo of the power he'd already spent.
They stood locked in a silent stare, with eyes searching for an opportunity to do harm. This quiet though was only interrupted by the distant clashes of the Krag line holding back the remaining skeletons.
But, the silence between them dragged on.
Until Femi's round ears twitched, swiveling independently as they picked up a strange sound from directly beneath the snow at his feet.
"Sly Dog!" he hissed, his instincts screaming a fraction of a second before the attack.
As the Necromancer's thin finger twitched upward in a subtle gesture, Femi was already gone, launching himself backwards. The ground where he'd been standing erupted, spraying snow and frozen dirt as a skeletal hand armed with a rusted short sword shot out of the earth. The blade whistled through the air his throat had just occupied.
"Too bad," Femi sneered, landing in a low crouch a few feet away. The sudden movement sent a fresh, white-hot jolt of pain from his bandaged side. Causing him to grit his teeth as he mocked. "I thought you were foolish enough to fight one on one."
A second skeleton, this one missing an arm and half its ribcage, clawed its way out of the snow to his left, while the first one fully emerged, its jaw clicking silently. Probably his personal guards, Femi realized. Look at them hiding like thieves in the night, waiting to gang up on an innocent person. How shameless.
The one-armed skeleton lunged; its single hand outstretched like a claw. Femi had no choice but to meet the charge. His body ducked under the grasping fingers; he grabbed the extended arm, using the creature's own momentum to swing himself around its back. Which was enough to unbalance it. He planted a foot on its spine and kicked off, sending it stumbling into the path of the sword-wielding skeleton, that was already bringing its blade down for a chop.
Femi didn't wait to see the result. He was already moving, his earlier limp replaced by a rapid rush as adrenaline overrode his pain. His goal was the Necromancer. He just had to get past the guard.
He closed the distance, eyes fixed on the robed figure who hadn't moved an inch. As he drew near, the Necromancer's hood shifted slightly. From the deep shadows within, a faint purple light pulsed.
The ground in front of Femi erupted. A dozen more skeletal hands burst forth from the front and his sides, forming a semi-circle of grasping, clattering death. They were rising too fast.
"Eh, this is too many."
He tried to leap over them, but a hand snagged his leg, bony fingers digging viciously into soft furry flesh. He cried out in pain and was yanked down.
Femi hit the snow hard, the breath driven from his lungs. Immediately, the weight of the other skeletons was upon him, their cold, hard bones pressing him down.
"Your defiance is… pitiful," the rasping voice stated, devoid of emotion. "Soon you will join me in understanding the truth of the world."
This is it, he thought. Na skeleton go finish me. My village people have taken me again. This is where the show ends.
Show…
… ends?
The words echoed in his mind, but it wasn't his own thought. It was a memory, clear as water, cutting through the terror.
It was Melin's voice.
---------
Ah, my eye! Femi screamed. The pain felt like a hot brand had been pressed directly into his optic nerve.
"There, all done!" Melin said, her tone infuriatingly casual as she removed her bloodied glowing hand from his left eye socket.
"You demonic spawn, I knew you were after my life!" Femi cursed, rolling across the pristine white floor while screaming in pain to put distance between them.
"Oh, calm down, mortal! You're so fickle and dramatic. You did agree to take my gift, and I made sure it was clean and fast. Look, it's already healed. See?" Melin waved her hands, and a silver mirror shimmered into existence before him.
Femi, still clutching his face, forced his hand away a moment later of gathering his thoughts. A grey-ringed eye now stared back at him from his reflection, its strange, stormy hue adding an unsettling charm to his furry features. Wetin be this? Femi thought, shocked into silence.
Femi gazed at his reflection, still reeling from the phantom pain and the sudden transformed eye. Melin continued, not minding his confused face. "Three chances...that's what the power I left in your eye will give you. It'll temporarily unlock part of your body's potential. Call on this power with the chosen phrase, and it will fully activate."
Melin turned towards the mare to gaze at something Femi couldn't perceive and after a small paused added. "But, after that, you will have to slowly master it yourself. I've already told you enough on that."
Femi got up and stepped back, anger and confusion warring within him, but a weary resignation won out. He had agreed to this bargain. Now wasn't the time to complain. At least not In front of her.
Melin looked amused as if reading his thoughts and raised her hands. "Now, mortal, show me my efforts haven't been in vain. Go, survive and grow." Her glow became even more unbearable, like a miniature sun forming in the center of the space. "Remember, don't die too soon..."
A bright, all-consuming light spread from her, covering the entire realm, and rushing towards Femi.
"Oh, and give me a good show, Mortal!" Her voice sounded immensely pleased. That was the last thing he heard before he woke up.
---------
"A good show, eh?" he muttered under his breath. "What rubbish, you are lucky I don't plan on dying till I am seventy or eighty, minimum."
The world snapped back into focus. The weight of the skeletons, the bite of the cold, the searing pain in his side. It all rushed back in.
One more chance, he thought, the memory solidifying his will. Time to make good use of it.
Femi twisted violently, his body coiling like a spring. As all his strength flowed through, creating something he couldn't describe.
Badum
At that moment Femi had a single thought.
Bloody skeletons.
He broke out from the pile, sending every skeleton piling on him tumbling. "Ha, you thin-AH!"
Femi was sent flying by the Fist of a very heavy framed skeleton, landing roughly on the snow. The side of his head banging. This people are making me look like a victim.
With that chilling thought in mind, Femi wasted no time. He rushed forwards sliding under the Krag skeleton, that had come to finish the job. His sights on the Necromancer who kept on silently watching as more skeletons began to convey on that location. A skeleton wielding a misshapen sword swung down at where his head had been. The blade whizzed past his ear, so close he felt the displacement of air.
Femi used his twist to kick out with his right leg, connecting with the skeleton's knee. A satisfying crack echoed as the joint shattered and the creature collapsed. He flipped backward, landing awkwardly, and felt a sickening tear under his bandage as fresh, hot blood began to stain the cloth.
Ah, another wound, this is not helping my matter.
Another skeleton, this one armed with a copper-looking axe, charged. Femi dodged again, the movement sending another spike of pain through his side. He began to consider just ripping off part of the bandage to move more freely.
"Coward, fight me one on one!" Femi shouted at the Necromancer, dodging another stab from a third foe, his frustration building.
"Okay, then come on, you dirty bones!" Femi snarled. As a skeleton lunged again, he dropped and swept its legs out from under it with a low kick. Before it could hit the ground, he grabbed its ankle with his clawed hands.
With a grunt of effort, he swung the entire skeleton like a flail, slamming it into two others that were closing in. The skeletons crashed to the ground in a heap of bones, creating an opening. For Femi to get closer to the Necromancer.
Another one came at him, but Femi slammed into it, using his body to crash into the skeleton's ribcage. Both of them tumbled to the ground. "My back!" Femi groaned, holding it.
He couldn't continue like this. Femi thought while dodging another blow from a moss-covered sack of bones. Just for another guard, larger than the others, to emerge for the fray. It was unarmed, but it moved with purpose. As Femi tried to dart past, it lashed out with shocking speed, grabbing Femi's tail in a vice-like grip. With a powerful heave, it yanked him off his feet and threw him backwards, sending him tumbling head over heels, farther from his target.
Femi landed hard. As he struggled to push himself up, his mind racing for a solution to evade. That's when he heard the Necromancer begin a low chant.
"Küröß-mæñīpülàtîøñ<éñtrøpy>pîérçïñg rõt."
A thin, dark, smelly aura, like that of a long buried old man's grave appeared before the mad juju priest and then vanished. Femi threw himself flat against the snow, his face pressing down as a dark, viscous beam of energy passed so close above his head he felt its chill.
It struck a skeleton that had been rushing up behind him. The beam didn't explode as he expected, but it simply bored a perfectly round, finger-width hole through the creature's forehead. The skeleton froze mid-step, its bones rapidly turning a sickly, corroded black before crumbling apart into dust.
Femi felt the sweat trickling down, matting his fur. "Na, small thing, save me," he muttered to himself.
His breathed heavily as he sized up the dire situation. That was a one-shot kill.
The Necromancer watched on as if evaluating why Femi was still alive. Femi tried as hard as he could but he still couldn't see the damned juju priest's face, though he could feel its gaze. So heavy and cold.
Femi's right hand closed around the haft of the fallen axe, dropped by that skeleton that had been… dissolved moments before.
"I no go die here!" With that short shout, Femi rushed straight at the cause of all his current troubles.
From the corner of his eye, he could see that some more skeletons had disengaged from the main battle with the Krags, turning to aid their master. One such skeleton, wielding a thick wooden club, took a swing at his legs. He deflected the blow with the head of the axe and used the opening to throw the axe into the skeleton's skull, shattering it into pieces.
Another lashed out with a dagger, scoring a deep, stinging line across his already wounded back. "Why... am I not injured enough?" Femi seethed, using the fresh pain to fuel his rage. He grabbed the axe and swung it in a wide, horizontal slash, burying it deep into the hip bone of the skeleton. The axe severed the spine, disconnecting the hip from the rest of the body. The skeleton collapsed into two separate halves.
He desperately needed a moment to catch his breath. His lungs burned, his vision spotted at the edges, and he was completely surrounded. "I just need an opening, one single opening, and I've won," he told himself to calm his nerves. "And I know the perfect way to get that opening," he said, his tired mind latching onto a desperate gambit.
The Necromancer spoke once more, his voice rising as he closed his thin hands together in a crushing gesture.
"Küröß-mæñīpülàtîøñ<éærth+lífé>bøñê rüptūrè!"
For a moment, Femi sensed only DEATH.
It was in the air, in the ground, in the very marrow of his bones. The air around him exploded. Dozens of skeletal remains, both from the fallen, buried and from those still standing, detonated simultaneously, creating a maelstrom of razor-sharp bone shards flying towards him from every direction.
It looked inescapable. Femi's eyes widened, his body instinctively bracing for the inevitable, shredding impact.
Yet, Femi furry face twisted into a fierce grin. "Well, I have my own jazz too," he declared, widening his grey-ringed eye.
Badam....Badam
He whispered, "let's fly!"
His fur rippled, the brown slowly tinting to grey. His mane like fur around his neck puffed out even more, with claws gaining a metallic gleam. For a moment, the world seemed to lose its grip on him. Gravity became a suggestion. Femi felt himself become lighter, his body surging to life as he tapped into the last fumes of power Melin had 'gifted' him.
The bone shrapnel arrived, like a cloud of piercing white daggers.
"Ah, I deceived myself, thought I was flash for a moment... damn it!" he grunted as a shard grazed his arm, another his thigh. But he was moving, his body a blur. He didn't so much run as flow between the flying fragments. He wove and ducked, his movements impossibly light and nimble, the world itself seeming to slide past him without resistance.
Like he was just another gust of wind.
Before he even knew it, his light feet had carried him through the storm and positioned him directly beside the Necromancer. His claws, extended and gleaming, hovered mere inches from the robed figure's neck. His body current state of body was a testament to his ordeal. Battered, covered in weeping wounds, his bandages soaked through with new crimson. He had put everything, his last chance, into this single attack.
But the Necromancer shifted at the last possible microsecond. Femi's claws, meant for a killing strike, ripped through the thick cloth of the hood instead, tearing it away to reveal the horror beneath. The face was zombified, the skin grey and taut over the skull with barely any hair remaining. One eye a milky white, the other burning with that malevolent purple light…a sight so disgusting it nearly broke Femi's concentration.
Yet still, he had missed and the last of the power fled his body. His fur flushed back to brown, the grey ring in his eye vanishing completely. He collapsed into the snow, utterly drained.
"You nearly succeeded, ratling," the Necromancer said, his uncovered face making the rasping voice even more horrifying. The purple eye glowed brighter, focusing on his helpless form. "But you fell short, at the end."
"Really" Femi struggled, using the last dregs of his strength to push himself up onto his elbows. "You walking corpses... all of you really have an issue."
Femi grinned.
"With looking up,"
The Necromancer's response was suddenly interrupted by the solid, wet thunk of an axe blade burying itself deep into the side of his head.
Form all his previous fights Femi had begun to notice. There was always that moment after an attack when focus of his opponents are most narrowed, and awareness of the wider battle is at its lowest. So, he had gambled everything on the split second where the Necromancer was too focused on the result of his technique to notice that the axe Femi was holding was no longer in his grip.
Simply put, the instance the juju priest was most dangerous was also the moment he was most vulnerable.
Is that not right, Oga skeleton, Femi thought quietly. Remembering the dungeon.
"Admit it, i got you. Now die in peace. Rubbish." Femi said, coughing up a spray of blood.
The Necromancer just stood there, frozen, the axe handle protruding grotesquely from his head. But something was wrong. A deep, instinctual dread settled in Femi's gut. But why.
The answer came when the Necromancer's hand, moving with calm, deliberate slowness, reached up and took hold of the axe haft. With a sickening crunch of bone and desiccated tissue, he pulled the weapon free. Putrid, black blood oozed sluggishly from the grievous wound. The Necromancer's purple eye flared.
"Do you really think your little trick is good enough to best me, ratling?" the Necromancer asked, his voice unchanged, as if commenting on a minor inconvenience. "My flesh is already dead."
"Ah, so wait, you no fit die? Is that what you're saying now?" Femi said, his voice a mixture of astonishment and utter despair.
"Now I shall pay you back for your attempt."
The Necromancer raised his hand, bony fingers curling towards Femi. The air began to hum with concentrated malevolence. "Küröß—"
So.. again... Femi thought, the fight draining out of him.
"—mæñīpülàtîøñ—"
You know what? am tired... He closed his eyes, too exhausted even for fear.
"—Ēær—"
"Shhhhhen!"
The Necromancer's chant was cut off...
Femi's eyes snapped open.
...quite literally.
"You did well, ratling," a familiar, deep voice said. Femi turned his head to meet Aerius's gaze. The war-chief stood there, holding the severed head of the Necromancer by its matted hair. The purple light in its eyes was already beginning to fade.
"How...?" the Necromancer's head gurgled, its jaw working weakly.
"Well, it was easy," Aerius said, a wicked, predatory grin spreading across his face. As he brought the head close to his own, boring into it with his crimson eyes. "Since you were so focused on the ratling, you didn't notice we broke through your forces." He gestured with his free hand to where the remaining Krag warriors were dispatching the last of the leaderless skeletons.
"And I," Aerius continued, his grin widening, "couldn't resist such easy prey."