56

A Sea of Bodies

Had they gotten weaker somehow?

He didn’t have the time to figure it out, as a fist caught him square in the jaw.

No. Not weaker, but...

He rubbed at his jaw and worked it around, making sure nothing was out of place. A decent punch, but strength clearly was not their forte.

One body went in with a blade, ready to jab him right between the eyes. Ludgar used his own to push it aside, and twisted it over to the shadows offside, keeping his atop and sliding down the edge of the short sword, and thrusting it down through the assailant's neck, through the flesh between the collarbone.

It fell to the ground in a slump.

The others retained an unperturbed appearance, stepping over the body that faded into wisps of ethereal smoke as though it was no more than the corpse of an enemy soldier. Yet there was more to it than that.

From behind the pained, silver masks, Ludgar saw it in their eyes.

It was no more than a twitch, a flinch of something, but Ludgar could tell.

It happened the moment the blade met flesh. And at that moment, each did the same thing. It was too much of a coincidence for it not to be significant.

Still, it wasn’t enough to be of much help. The pain didn’t look much to stop them, and when one fell, another took its place.

At this rate, he’d be fighting them for the rest of time.

They had him circled, blades at the ready. Then he wondered why they didn’t take the opportunity to follow up on their attack. It was the perfect time to get some extra hits in. Even just one or two.

They’d given him enough time to pull his blade from the corpse of their fallen, and ready it.

It lasted only about a second before another manoeuvred in with their blade. For just a second, they all stood there. Almost like they were waiting for something.

That was it. Their coordination caused a kind of lull in their thinking, and their assault regressed into more basic manoeuvres. Must be hard for one man to control twelve minds at once. Doing anything more than simply swinging a blade looked to be too much.

Two stepped forward, one slashing horizontally with his blade. Ludgar jumped back, and the other took him by the arm. Another ran forward to grab his other.

The first tried stabbing the grappled Ludgar, but a swift boot to the chest sent him back, only managing to get a light cut up Ludgar’s leg.

The two keeping him in place held a tight grip, yet didn’t possess the strength to back it up, so when Ludgar moved, they followed.

Mustering his strength, he stepped forward then swung his arms in front of him, causing the two to fall forward and collide into each other, releasing their grip and falling to the floor.

Maybe a little testing was required.

He let the two stand, which they did in a unified fashion far too parallel to be a coincidence, both stumbling up to their feet in a mirrored manner that no level of coordination could achieve.

With a flick of his wrist, he sliced through the neck of one, and followed up on the second by bashing him in the eye with his hilt.

They’re all linked in some way. That must be why they wore the masks. Hides their weakness. Hides the reactions and each feels a fragment of pain from the others.

That’s one mystery sorted, now how was he going to exploit it?

He guessed by killing them, only faster.

Not the greatest of revelations by his own measure. Still, it’s not the way he usually fought. There would be less time to savour each fight, but that seemed a necessary sacrifice given the current circumstances.

Eventually, all the pain of each lost body would pile up, to a point it would start to take serious effect.

At least, that’s what he was hoping for.

Three more ran in and fell just as fast, as he parried the blade of the first and redirected the blade of the second so it caught the first in his side, just above the hip. Almost instantly, the first’s body began to fade, morphing into a transparent, mist-like haze.

He used the confused body of the second to interrupt the attack of the third, by barging it with his shoulder. The two collided and fell. He used the moment to crush the neck of the second under his boot and pierce the chest of the third with his blade.

Felt pointless though. As soon as they turned to mist, three more stepped out from behind the others circling him.

Still, Ludgar smiled.

‘Stop with this half-arsed shit. Why don’t you actually start trying?’

‘Fool,’ they spoke in unnerving unison. ‘I haven’t even begun.’

Another stood out from behind each shadow, doubling their number. Then stood out another, tripling it.

The circle stood in ranks of three, an overwhelming enough number for Ludgar’s band of five, let alone his lone self. If anymore were to be summoned, Ludgar wondered how well they’d be doing for space.

Even now, against overwhelming odds, Ludgar had to stifle his smile. He was never the best at traps. Before, it was Belfry who he relied on for that kind of thing. So it filled him with quite a sense of accomplishment when the snare is sprung, and something falls right into his trap.

In unison, they tightened their circle, tightened their grip.

This was it. The moment he lived for. No worries about the world. No plans for their next job. No wondering where the next meal would be.

No memories.

To let go of the future, to let go of the past and just live in this moment.

Not the most interesting of fights. As more of their numbers rose, their manoeuvring and unpredictability continued to fall.

Ludgar didn’t mind. He was just happy to be in a serious fight again. Not just the blade in his hand, but his whole body became a weapon. His claws ripped flesh, his teeth gouged throats, his boots crushed skulls. No tactic was too dirty, no skill too dishonourable. Nothing was off limits or off the table.

All was permitted, and all would be utilised, which Ludgar handled with frightening efficiency.

Every one that went in for an attack was swiftly rendered to arcane smoke.

‘What is this?’ The confident, self-assured attitude of Arimah began to crumble as he saw his army struggle against a single black wolf. A single back wolf that he had managed to beat before. ‘What is happening?’

Ludgar had just pierced one straight through the eyehole. It turned to dark mist right in front of him, and he flashed a sharp smile.

‘Can’t keep up with all the men you’re summoning, can you? That’s a lot of minds to manage, and you can’t focus on all of them. Their movements become basic, and basic becomes predictable. Summon all the bodies you like; they won’t help. I’ve got you all figured out.’

They stopped.

‘Really? You believe that?’ In unison, they stopped their assault on Ludgar, lowered their weapons and stepped back. ‘Fine then. We’ll summon more bodies. We’ll summon enough to drown you in a sea of them.’

Another shadow stepped from behind each clone. Then another. And another.

Then more and more till there wasn’t any point in counting anymore.

There must have been hundreds of them, all shoulder to shoulder in this room. It wasn’t a small room by any margin, designed to store weapons in the event of a siege, but it wasn’t made to hold a number like this.

Ludgar figured this paragon could summon a lot, yet he never expected a number like this. It didn’t matter how well their coordination was or how complex their manoeuvres were; they could perform the same strike over a hundred times, and one was bound to get through. And at this number, the amount of pain he could inflict overall was most likely negligible. For any effect, he’d have to kill a lot, and all at the same time.

He stood ahead of a sea of writhing black, speckled with silver lights of their demonic masks.

They were starting to really struggle for space, and Ludgar found himself backed up against the wall. There was a metallic tap as his back touched the stone.

The black blade.

He almost forgot it was there.

His hand reached back for it, and it felt as though it almost leapt into his hand.

The blade slid free of the baldric without any resistance or even the hint of a single sound.

The uncountable faces of Arimah took notice.

‘That blade…’

‘I’m gonna warn you, I’ve only done this once before and I blacked out afterwards. Who knows what’ll happen this time.’