Rituals, Regrets, and Really Dumb People

Chapter 13: Ash, Part 3

"I agree. Let's go," I said as I slammed my morning star right upside her head. It knocked her to the side. "That's for shooting two of my men." Technically, one of them was not one of my cultists, but it did not matter.

"Did you think that hurt?" she asked, sitting on the side of her hip on the ground. She pushed herself up and caught the haft of my weapon before the second blow could land. "Nu-uh."

I may have underestimated her—again. Undead are usually ridiculously slow creatures, a restriction set on their muscles from decay and their joints going rigid. She didn't suffer this; she had both the speed of the living and the durability and strength of the undead. I felt as much when she punched me across the face, sending blood and spittle shooting out of my mouth. I was lucky that my head was so hard that the blow didn't outright kill me.

Still, it wasn't good to take too many blows like this.

I'd remedy this. Before she could get a second punch in on me, I jabbed my left hand's fingers into her cloth-covered stomach and shot her with a beam of boiling blood. It pierced her—not that it'd do much to the undead—and sent her back a few steps. I needed the distance. Of course, I wouldn't let her have time to recover. More blood oozed into my palm; more beams shot her way. I even had a chance to shoot one of the undead off three of my cultists and give them some breathing room, but she was my main focus.

The gouts of streaming blood did little to hurt her overall. She was as steadfast and eager to get back at me, but I kept her on her heels with each hit, if just because she had to defend herself. She countered some of them with her own spellcraft, extinguishing some of my barrage here and there with her magic. Still, it was good to be able to put someone on the defensive like this.

Lilly eventually caught sight of me and the undead sorceress at a standstill. Her, Corbin, and Geraldine were having the same difficulties I was having; we weren't making progress. The undead were, essentially, too tough to just take down, too fast to just be skirted around and whittled away at. So, she decided to help me; bring one target down and we could focus on the others.

I couldn't shoot anymore as Lilly was grappling with the sorceress from behind. This seemed to genuinely surprise the sorceress, who was slammed into the ground by the bottom of Lilly's fist. It hit her shoulder, sent her flat to the ground. Hel, I could hear the fist connect as it slammed her.

"Good job," I told Lilly.

She gave me a thumb's up. "Help us with this one."

"No," the undead sorceress said. She got up to her knee, surprising Lilly, and punched the succubus right in her gut. I could see a magical beam puncture Lilly from the undead's fist, sending her stumbling back and onto the ground. Lilly was hurt, though I did not take the blow as deadly. "No more interferences and cheap tricks."

"Lilly!" I called. I stepped forward and grabbed at the undead sorceress, trying to keep her away from Lil. "Lilly, are you alright?"

"Hurts," she said, sucking in air as she kept scooting away from the sorceress. "I think I'll be okay."

"Not for long," the undead sorceress said. She threw me back, the force sending me sliding across the pavement. "I'm going to stomp you out."

Our attacks may not have hurt the undead, but their attacks were hurting us. Even with the blood blessings, we were getting hammered. I raised and looked around, found a few of my men out for the count; they were hurt badly and sent to the floor. There was Lilly trying to get away from the sorceress as well. I needed to heal them all, I needed to try what I had practiced recently. I needed to use the art of regeneration through my blood.