“What’s the plan?” Andre asked. “That priest looks like he’d kill both of us without much thought. And that’s without the seven or eight zombies he has wandering around.”
“The ritual looks like it takes all three of them,” I answered, looking over the pile briefly to see them start chanting again. “If we can kill the ghouls, that would stop him, or at least delay him.”
“That’s a big if. A bigger one is can we do it without him seeing or hearing us.”
“I know. But I think it’s worth a shot.”
“Oh, it’s worth a shot, but I’d rather not die today.”
“Then keep it quiet,” I whispered.

We waited what felt like hours before the ritual was completed and another of our kin was made an unwilling slave to the Nexadom army. Andre quietly drew steel as the ghouls approached the pile of bodies we were hiding behind. Strxick lay on the ground, concentrating on not smoking or touching anything that did. The ghouls picked up the body and we moved to attack.

I boosted Strxick’s strength and speed through our magical connection. My other spells would just be too loud. Strxick punched the first one in the back of the head, the whip again too loud to risk using. Andre’s blade went through the other ghoul’s chest, then slashed him practically in half. The remaining ghoul moved to run away from the fight, Andre’s sword cutting him down before he could move or scream.

We all froze. We could hear the priest muttering about how this would have been much better if he’d been able to bring his acolytes instead of these ghouls for help. Then he called two names, which I assumed were for the ghouls. We slowly made our way back from the pile and melted into the woods.

“I can’t believe that worked,” I said when we were safely out of line of sight.
“It was your plan.”
“I’m still surprised.”
“Well, then, next time I make the plan. How am I supposed to trust yours if you don’t,” Andre said and he punched me in the arm with a smile.
“Let’s get going. All that waiting put the army further in front of us.”
“We’ve got to be getting close, though. They wouldn’t have someone doing that without them being able to get the reinforcements to the main body.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “We’ve been fighting some of these things without finding the main body of the army. Maybe they’re just animating them and letting them go.”
“Meaning they think that they have enough as it is so they are just creating undead to scour the land.”
“Or act as skirmishers for people in the area.”
“What a lovely thought. Let’s hope my thinking is the right one.”

We jogged the rest of the day, meeting nothing. We kept to the woods just in case Andre’s theory proved true. When we couldn’t run, we walked, and when night fell we walked some more. It was a clear night and two of the moons were out to guide us and keep us from getting lost. When we couldn’t walk anymore, we tied ourselves up to a tree and slept.

The next morning, we untied ourselves and climbed back down. As Andre went to put on his armor, a disembodied hand crawled out from the chainmail. Another attacked me from under a pile of brush. Letting out a curse, Andre tried to parry as the hand crawled up and slashed him with it’s claw-like nails. The other slashed my leg before I had a chance to say anything. Andre slashed the hand in half, ran over and did the same to the one attacking me.

“What in the name of the Hells were those things?” he hissed.
“I don’t know, but I hope we never meet another one. Are you hurt?”
“Just a scratch.”
“Same here, but I’d better treat them in case those things carry disease.”
Twenty precious minutes went by as I carefully bandaged our wounds, then we were on our way.

The day went on, jogging all the way. My muscles ached under the strain, but we continued the best we could. We kept to the road, hoping to make up more time on the army until we spotted three figures wandering the road ahead.

“They could be innocents,” Andre said.
“They could be a rear guard.”
“They could be bandits.”
“In any case, we should be ready,” I said, manifesting Strxick. “We may have need of you, my friend.”
“Good,” Strxick crackled. “I was getting bored sitting around waiting for you to call me all night.”
“They have night on the plane of fire?” I asked.
“Where do you think camp fires come from?” Strxick replied.

Andre drew steel as we approached. As we neared, the figures twitched unnaturally and all turned to look upon us with dead eyes. They were all three zombies, including one that was one of the guards from our village. I spat a curse.

The zombies lurched toward us, their movement unnatural. They clawed at us, but couldn’t penetrate Andre’s armor or Strxick’s flaming hide. Andre moved to flank the zombie that attacked Strxick, then hacked it to the ground. Forming the words of power, I shot electric bolts through the remaining two, but Strxick missed his attack. I formed a shield of protection around him. The zombie’s next attack bounced off the mystical armor, leaving Strxick unharmed. The other raked at Andre, who parried the attack, then shoved the blade into the zombie’s head, killing it. Forcing power into Strxick, he whipped at the last zombie, hitting it in the leg. The creature stumbled as Strxick drove its flaming fist into its skull. It dropped to the ground, the undead force leaving its body.

“I think we’re getting the hang of this,” Andre said. “They didn’t even touch us.”
“They touched us, but fortunately didn’t harm us. We must be getting closer to the main group, don’t you think?”

Andre shrugged, wiped the blood off his sword and moved on. I unmanifested Strxick and jogged after him.

Hoping that we are close, we keep to the forest for as long as we can. Jogging through the woods isn’t my idea of fun, and it was slowing us down. I prayed to the gods that we found the army soon.

We broke out into a glade. Standing in the middle was a solitary skeleton, clad in armor and wielding a sword and shield. It turned to us and pounded its shield. Andre drew his warhammer as I prepared to manifest Strxick. The skeleton sprung forward, slashing Andre through the chest and stomach. Blood gushed from the broken rings of his armor. Strxick manifested next to me and moved to flank the skeleton. The skeleton slashed at him as he moved, but narrowly missed. Andre swung his warhammer, glancing a blow off its shoulder, just chipping a slight amount of bone, then raising his shield. The skeleton swung and hit Andre again, slashing open his right leg. Andre blocked the next two blows with his shield. Strxick swung it’s whip at the creature, hitting but with only another glancing blow. Summoning stone from the elemental planes, I pummeled the skeleton, crushing some of the bones. It swung at Andre, who desperately blocked the blows. Strxick punched at it, the fire elemental searing it’s backbone black. I pummeled it with more stones, but did almost no damage. With a roar of frustration, Andre swung his warhammer, missing wildly. Twisting into his backswing, Andre hit the skeleton square in the head, crushing the it and dropping the skeleton into a pile of bones.

“That was close,” Andre said. “I take back what I said about getting any good at this.”

I worked for two hours to tend to his wounds, which were even worse than they appeared.

“Let’s be more careful in the future,” I said, tying the last of the bandages.
“It isn’t like I stepped in front of the sword,” Andre groused.
“You are getting better at using your shield, though. Hopefully, that will pay off in the future.”
“Maybe. I’m planning on getting a whole lot better with it.”
“Let’s get moving,” I said. “We’ve got to be getting close. We’re running into them a lot more often.”

We started jogging along the edge of the forest, keeping an eye on the road while keeping out of the line of sight. After another hour, we found three more skeletons guarding the road.

“What do you think?” I asked.
“The last time, there was one and I got nailed. Now there are three of them.”
“These don’t have shields. Maybe it will be easier.”
“We’re not going to defeat this army two or three at a time. Let’s move further into the forest.”

We moved into the woods, avoiding the fight. It seemed wrong somehow not to engage the enemy, but Andre was right. If those were anything like the last skeleton warrior we faced, we’d be in serious trouble if we tried to engage them. But, we did need to do whatever we could to weaken the army, even if it was two or three at a time. For all we knew, our whittling them down would be the difference between them moving on and them moving forward.

A twig snapping in the distance broke me from my reverie. Shortly after, the stench of death grew stronger and stronger, until it was almost overpowering. Steeling myself, we pushed forward to find a tiny hamlet, not much more than 20 houses. The stench was coming from a soldier leaning against a tree. We approached to check on him, when he turned, his parchment thin skin showing his surprise as he drew his sword.

Andre drew steel as I manifested Strxick. The ghoul’s stink was overwhelming this close to it. I gagged as Strxick moved to flank the monster. Andre moved into position, striking with his long sword, retching as he raised his shield. The ghoul attacked with his scimitar, Andre blocking the first blow and dodging the second. I pummeled it with rubble while Strxick slashed it with his fire whip. Then, summoning up my magic, formed a protective circle around Strxick. The smell was overpowering and somehow getting stronger as Andre fought his own stomach while missing the creature. The ghoul struck Andre in the shoulder, then again in the chest. It then clawed at him, rending his leg. Strxick slashed at the creature while I hit it with electricity, the creature dodging out of the way of most of it. Andre slashed at the thing and missed again and again. The ghoul caught Andre with another slash before he blocked the next flurry of blows with his shield. Strxick finally landed a solid hit with his whip while I summoned my magic to heal Andre. The ghoul, outnumbered and wounded, broke off the fight and tried to flee.

“We can’t let it go!” I shouted. “He’ll report the village to the army.”

Without so much as a nod, Andre ran the creature through with his long sword. He then slashed and decapitated it for good measure before retreating to the bushes to vomit. Strxick went to the corpse to set it on fire. Nothing that awful needed to be near this idyllic town.

Andre looked terrible as he left the bushes. He needed healing and some rest before we moved on. We moved toward the hamlet to be met with a bristle of spears, scythes, and sickles.

“We’re armed, strangers. No need to make this ugly,” a man wearing poor quality leather armor said.
“There’s no need for violence,” I replied. “We’re here to help. There’s an army form Nexadora in the area. We just killed one of their scouts.”
“Well, maybe you did and maybe you didn’t. We aren’t looking for any trouble or for any wars. You and whatever knighthood you serve can just walk out of here the way you came in.”
“We’re not in any order of knighthood. Look for yourselves. You can see the smoke.”

The man motioned and one of the men with sickles ran into the woods. He came back looking more green than pale and nodded at the man.

“Stinks more than a week dead cow, but there’s a body burning over there,” he said. “And those wounds look real enough.”
“No coats of arms on that shield, either,” the first man said. “Well, stranger, it seems we owe you a debt. Come in and let us look at those wounds. Just, uh, leave the fire elemental, OK?”

I looked at Strxick and unmanifested him as we walked into the village.

“I’m the mayor here,” the man said. “Don’t ask for my name, because I won’t give it. We’re an isolated group over here and we don’t need any trouble, no matter who you are.”
“Well, my name’s…”
“Don’t need your name either, stranger. The less I know about wanderers the better. You’ve done us a good turn. Better than you know. But, we’re not getting involved in any more wars. Not this one, not the next. The only fighting we’re going to do is to keep people from taking any more from us.”
“You’ll need more than sickles and scythes to defend yourselves,” I said. “I have some swords, scimitars, that I took from the undead we’ve slain.”
“We’ll buy ’em,” the mayor said. “If they don’t come in handy, we can always use the iron. I thank you. I also want to give you some coin for taking care of that scout. It isn’t much, but we don’t deal with outsiders much and you’ve earned something. Just one condition.”
“Don’t tell anyone about you or this place,” Andre said.
“You’re a smart one. Ten gold sound good.”
“You have our word,” Andre said.
“Let’s go talk to our smith,” the mayor said. “And get those wounds taken care of.”

The smith was a young, jovial man who couldn’t have been more than 20. He gladly paid me for the scimitars while someone who looked like his grandmother healed all of Andre’s wounds magically. She did it without any thought, which made me think that either they didn’t have much need for her healing, or she was just powerful enough that burning healing spells wasn’t a difficulty for her. Our business concluded, the mayor wasn’t subtle in his asking us to take our leave, even with night approaching.

We walked through the woods into the night. We were close to setting a camp when we saw a fire in the distance. Deciding to investigate, we snuck forward, not sure who else would be out in the woods besides us, the wildlife, and the undead. We were the only ones who’d need a fire, so perhaps they were friendly. We crept up to a stand of trees and peered out to a massive field filled with unmoving figures, fires with others cooking, and a stand of skeletal guards surrounding the whole thing. We’d found the army.