Whispers of A Dead Empire

Chapter 52

Seeing our chance, Gunther and I threw ourselves off of the building. Thankfully, since we left most of our gear back in the safe zone, the fall wasn't too bad. Nothing a quick tuck and roll couldn't fix. I impacted the ground and quickly exhaled my held breath, and immediately began running. A quiet impact that followed shortly after told me that Gunter had landed. We both ran towards the door we entered, hoping to make it away quietly, while all the other undead seemed to fight amongst themselves.

I quickly pulled away the wooden slab, threw it away, and swung open the door, letting Gunther out first. I threw back my head, making sure that we were not being followed. However, what I saw was shocking. Even more of the uniform undead were pouring out of the now visible buildings, quickly swarming the small horde of undead pushing into the outpost. My heart was hammering in my chest as I watched the carnage unfold.

It was terrifying. This domain was unlike anything I had ever experienced, and every faucet of knowledge I thought I knew on the undead proved wrong. I tore my attention away from them and followed Gunther out. We hurried past the outpost and down the road, confident that all the zombies' attention was on the soldiers they were attacking.

I could feel my chest throbbing from how hard my heart was beating. Fear spurred me forth as if they were flames licking my heels. I didn't have the energy to fight anything else at the moment. Fighting that praetorian absolutely drained me. It forced out all my last resort skills and countered everything that I could throw at it.

Once we were out of distance for most of the undead, I stopped and spun around. The soldiers in the outpost seemed to have already pushed out the bulk of the zombies and were already cleaning up the stragglers. What really chilled my blood was that the two praetorians had already fought their way through and seemed hell-bent on catching us.

"Shit, we need to make a break for it," I called out to Gunther as I booked it even faster than before. I prayed to whatever gods existed that Carter and Alinore were nearby. The muscles in my legs were close to giving out, the pain in my legs seemed to only grow in strength with each step I took, and they felt like they were tearing. I threw another panicked look behind me and saw that they were gaining on us with each passing second, and for the second time today, I felt like I was going to die.

That was until I saw the familiar silvery strands of Lunar magic as they tore a divide between us and the praetorians. Alinore drifted from in between the trees and casted another spell, which quickly condensed into a silvery dart and shot towards the one on the right. Unfortunately, it dodged to the side yet didn't make a further move to chase us. They stood there menacingly for a moment, staring at us before they turned and went back into the direction of the outpost.

I almost fell from the relief that coursed through me. Well, mainly because my body was nearing its limit. Gunther reached out and caught me as I fell and supported most of my weight. "Thank the gods," I muttered to myself as Gunther helped me walk.

"What in the nine heavens happened out there?" Carter asked as he materialized from the trees. Three arrows were already locked into his bow, ready to be fired at a moment's notice.

"We snuck into the outpost, but there was a strange skeleton waiting for us. Before we could kill it, it rang a bell and made a break for it. However, before we could follow it, we were engaged by those two spirits. Almost killed Gunter and I both before the zombie horde broke in and all hell broke loose." I quickly explained as my walk turned into a limp. The after-effects of quick steps quickly started to damage my body, and I wasn't sure how much more I could take.

"Wait, two spirits almost overpowered you and Gunther? How is that even possible?" Carter asked us, his voice laced with no small amount of skepticism.

"Aye. They were at least adept swordsmen, and they moved as if a war maiden trained them." Gunther spoke between huffs. He clearly wasn't in any better shape than I was. I mean, we were both taken by surprise, and they forced many of our last resort skills out at the start of the fight.