Blink and I cleared a path through the undead on our way across the river as we high-tailed it back to our last room. With the war hammer and the ring of stones, I could actively engage at range and then close with them to finish things off. While I could still take damage, I wasn’t in near the sorry state we were in before.

It also helped that we only engaged small groups of less than ten. With those small numbers, I could get the drop on them and whittle them down quickly. If I hadn’t put a core in the ring of stones, I don’t think that I would have been able to recharge it. However, it was by far my cheapest attack, even when it took twice the mana to fill.

For every two that I expended to recharge, it only restored one, which was the going rate for powering already imbued items now. So it cost me 10 mana a shot, and while I didn’t fully know how much damage the stone sphere did, I could see it work. If I got them lined up right, I could take out three skeletons. For the most part, my opening shot took out two, and then I could take one or two more before it was Hammer time.

Also, having a way to quickly take out the ranged enemies was helpful, if not the biggest game changer. The problem that I had with the stone sphere spell was that it had a rough drop-off. Once it got out past about 75 feet, it went from flying happily at four feet off the ground to being on the ground and stopped by 80 or so. The magic that made it and pushed it just ended, and down it went.

So that meant that we had to make sure we were close. Which was the problem with this fight. We had thought that we were taking out the last group before we could cross the river. It all went great right up until Blink, and I were almost all the way across the river. Then the problems all showed up at once. The ford that wasn’t being guarded and might still not have been being guarded was in use.

So when we entered the water, we trucked along like we were most of the way to our room, which we were. However, on the other side, the largest group of undead that we had engaged with all day showed up. We didn’t have much choice as to what to do. If we turned and ran, they would kill us at range. If we pushed forward, we would be fighting at least the thirty or so undead that we could see.

There was no way around that it was bad, and I was going to have a bad day. They were too far away for my stones to get them, and the water was screwing up Blink’s vanishing act, so I charged. But unfortunately, I would have to close to at least 75 feet if I wanted a chance to hit them. The problem was that the stone only went at the speed of a bowling ball, so it could be dodged.

As I ran through the calf-deep water, more skeletons started to show up. The front thirty I saw seemed to be more like an advance party and less like the whole force. By the time the water was down to just splashing, there were well over three hundred skeletons. This was like the first time I fought them numbers-wise. However, this time I was looking at a much better-prepared army vs. the horde or mob that I fought that time.

I wasn’t sure why there were so many undead in this forest or why they were all on the move. What I was sure of, however, was the mess that I was looking at in front of me. To my right were ten mounted skeletons. To my left was a contingent of spearmen. In front of me was a mass of bones that was a double-rowed shield wall that I knew would collapse around me. Behind the shield were the ranged units.

I couldn’t imagine that this much was being sent after me. It could only be that I caught these guys while they were moving someplace else, and they chose to array against me. Why I wasn’t sure unless they had a way to talk to the necromancers that claimed them and the ones I had been killing had been reporting in. Even that I wouldn’t think would be this type of problem.

I stopped my rush forward once I hit dry ground. I had nowhere to go but forward. If I went toward the spearmen, then the knights would try to run me down and pin me between them. If I went for the knights, then they might just deal with me as I didn’t expect the same trick to work on ten as it did on one. If I ran forward as fast as I could, I might be able to hit their line without the knights running me down.

The problem being that no matter what I did, the mages and the knights would be something that I needed to take out to live. Engaging the knights head-on would get me killed. Trying for the spears would do the same. Punching a hole in the middle might just let me take them all out. I wouldn’t be running from this, and I wouldn’t be building my way out. The closest tree was off the shore by over two hundred feet which might as well have been gone.

When I started out that morning, I had shifted many of my weapons into my pack because they wouldn’t help me and they would just slow me down. So when I dropped my bag, I dropped almost everything I owned, including my sword. I shifted my standard into my left hand and pulled my war hammer from my belt, and sprinted.

I was going to be using my standard as a shield and trap, turning it on and off as needed. My hope was that I could punch through the front line with my stone sphere and then take them in pieces. As I ran forward, I checked to see if there was anything other than skeletons in the army.

When I was twenty feet from the shield wall, I noticed that the outside had started to bow in. Then I saw the arrows and magic come flying at me. If I stopped, the spells would nail me. If I kept going, the hundred or so arrows would take me. I kept going and turned on the standard. My stone air dome popped to life, and the arrows came down like an angry rain storm.

I fired my ring twice and pushed into the gap. The arrow didn’t stop like I expected them to. The magic did, but the arrow kept up. I watched as they bounced off the dome or missed it completely, only to slide through the bones of the shield wall. I had been thinking about human archers not firing on their own. Not skeleton archers firing on a skeleton who didn’t care at all.

I snapped the shield on and off between flights so that I could grab a group of the shield wall, and then I got to start with my dance. The standard went into the ground, and I stepped forward. Then my left hand dropped to my belt, and my totem came off. I took the half step to the side to plant it on the ground. Then I spun, kicking off the party that I was the guest of honor at.

The Skeleton death dance kicked in, and my right arm snapped out as I spun. The war hammer took the first one in the face. Then with my spin stopped, I went the other way. When I dropped the standard, I brought in skeletons from all around me. I wore my tiny metal kite shield like an oversized vambrace, so when I spun back, I used the edge of it to knock the forearm off one of the skeletons.

I took a moment to glance at my totem. It wasn’t part of this fight but was part of the next. However, it was already spewing its steaming smoking heat out into the horde. The ones I was dancing with were in my tight little 10-yard circle.

I caught a sword on the heft of my hammer and turned it over, then I brought the knob of the hammer into the sternum of the one I blocked. As the knob hit, I felt the enchantment kick in, drawing power in and harming the skeleton. I stepped past it and tagged him in the back of the leg with the head of the hammer again, getting a power draw and Lay-to-Rest.

I was past that one, and on to the next that was trying to shield bash me. I stepped to my right as I saw the skeleton lurch forward. My hammer took it on the back of the head as his shield slammed into the one I had just left. Two more steps, and I was at the edge closest to the mages.

I shifted my hammer into my left hand and fired a pair of stone spheres that cut through the ranged attackers. Then I was back in, snatching up my standard, dropping the shield, and running toward the archers. My plan changed when they didn’t stop their attack. If I was going to last with my standard, I needed them out the way early.

I made the twenty-yard dash with only having to pulse on the standard for two volleys of arrows. I turned it off both times. I saw the mages try to target it and their shots went through toward the horde behind me. As I was coming into the archers, I heard the sound of the skeleton horses riding up behind me.

They weren’t on point with me yet, but they were turning their V at me and soon would be ready to run me down. But right now, I had the shot I needed and let loose with another stone sphere. It was my last shot until I recharged it, and I was hoping that I made it count. I snapped the standard on blocking out all but the twenty archers that were in the dome with me. Then I got to work.

Once that first group was done, I snagged another ground, this time with a few mages in it. The damage coming into the dome was much less than it would have been just a few minutes before without me taking out the archers as I was. Once they were gone, it was short work finishing the mages. Some of them were already dead before I got there, either by Blink’s work or missed shots.

As soon as the casters were done, I was moving back toward the mass of swordsmen. If I could get into them, then I could strike out at the knights without them running me down. It was almost as if the shield wall had been reading my mind, and they wanted to help as they were already closing in. I took a deep breath and looked around, and noticed that everyone was closing in.

The knights and the spearmen both were going to lose their advantages with the press of bones, and my Shaman’s Rage was about charged for the third time. The blast was only about three feet around me in all directions, but I was expecting to see it trigger a few more times.

They were pressing in so tight that I was having problems moving. I fell out of my dance because I kept tripping over bones. Then my Hammer got enough power, and the Shaman’s rage powered up again, snapping out, burning everything around me, and setting old bones on fire. If we had been in the forest, I was sure that there would have been a full-blown forest fire.

The knights were down to 4 between the sniping I did with the Stone sphere and the few bursts of shaman’s rage. I had cut that group nicely. The spearmen I wasn’t sure about. I knew I had killed a few, but I couldn’t tell them from the others as they were all the same height. Blink was doing something thinning the number. Perhaps she was the one that took a few of the knights.

Things were going well, and then when I tried to raise the standard, it didn’t. The lance that I was trying to block took me low in the gut and sent me flying about ten feet before my fall was stopped by breaking bones and wooden shields. My chest piece had held, but I felt the horrible pain of breaking ribs and the equally awful pain of the bones being set and healed as my weighted skirt kicked in.

My left arm was numb from the landing, and my head was spinning as the debuffs hadn’t fallen off when I got healed. I dropped the standard since it wasn’t doing anything for me and looked around. The skeletons were down to a handful which regrettably included three knights and six spearmen.

I had full mana, my health was half after that last hit, and my stamina was maxed out. Most of my tricks were played. My standard was empty. The totem wasn’t spewing smoke any longer. My ring of stones was empty as well. I only had myself and my hammer and Blink wherever she was. I adjusted my stance and ground my feet into the ground.

I yelled, “Well what’s ya waiting for?”

* * *