Mature Content Warning: Graphic violence at times

Author's Note:

Chapter 7.3: Please Insert Tokens

The grassland hid many secrets. One of those secrets was the small field that Blackthorne and Sonja were looking upon. The early morning sun beamed down gently upon the area. Even at their current distance shambling forms could be seen wandering aimlessly around the area.

“So, the people in Argent sleep soundly at night even though the undead wander around a few miles north of town?” asked Blackthorne.

Sonja nodded. “Yes, the walls are there for a reason. There are no monsters in the area that the guards could not defeat, either.”

“Fairly safe there, then?” he asked.

“There is more concern over mercenary armies or bandit raids than wandering monsters.” said the Valkyrie.

Blackthorne saw one of the walking dead fall over then struggle to stand back up. They did not seem to be much of a threat. He asked her about their abilities.

She shrugged. “The ones on the surface are the weakest. During the day their strength is sapped even more.”

“What about poison or disease?” he asked.

“They can cause both, but only if you let them bite and claw you too much.” she said.

“I’ll leave it to you then. My spell is only able to hit something up to one foot away. We’ll press forward after getting some equipment.” he said.

She grinned at him then hefted the sturdy stick that she held in her hand. She had not been allowed to keep her practice sword, though the apron was granted in order to preserve her dignity slightly.

They trotted forward slowly. It did not take long before the wandering zombies noticed their presence. Unlike the grassland, the monsters were far more visible from a distance. However, that meant that travelers were more visible as well.

Blackthorne slowed his movements and Sonja raced ahead. As soon as a zombie got within striking distance, she lashed out with her stick. It had been prepared as best it could without a knife, but it was a terrible weapon.

However, the moment the stick slammed down atop the monster’s skull a bright flash of dark energy raced through it. Blackthorne had enchanted her stick so that the first three strikes would hit with a weaker version of his current Jolt spell.

It took two hits to bring the beast down, but it was proven to be susceptible to the spell. At the moment it could deliver an additional three to eight points of magical damage to an opponent. Zombies had strong physical resistance, but their magical resistance was largely non-existent with a few exceptions.

The next zombie took a powerful blow to the chest then jerked spastically as the dark lightning crackled through its disease ridden body. Sonja leap to the side then swept the creature’s legs. It fell to the ground, hard, and was left vulnerable to her repeated strikes. She was forced to thwack the monster over twenty times before it died. The physical resistance that it possessed was problematic without the enchantment. Sometimes a strike did absolutely no damage.

Blackthorne watched the monsters carefully and called out to Sonja. “Pull back. We need to re-enchant.”

Six more of the monsters staggered toward them at an excruciatingly slow pace. Five of them seemed to be unarmed but one of them held something that looked like a badly rusted sword.

They ran off at a high rate of speed, easily distancing themselves from the monsters. While the creatures plodded along in the distance, the zombie hunters regrouped and Blackthorne began to enchantment process. It took roughly one minute for the branch to be enchanted, but the monsters had only covered half the distance to their current position.

“See if you can get to the one with the weapon, but be careful.” said Blackthorne. That sword was probably garbage but if it was an upgrade it could help the process of finding equipment.

Sonja smiled at him. “Sounds good.”

She took off toward the monsters again, and her master took out a sandwich. He ate while she battled the undead. Weapon enchantment took a lot of his vitality, and he needed to keep his strength up.

The under-dressed slave girl ran in a wide arc and drew away several of the monsters, including the sword-wielding one. Two remaining zombies continued to plod toward Blackthorne.

Sonja danced to the side and easily avoided a downward slash from her zombie foe. She lashed out with her stick and strongly connected with it along the spine. It jerked and spasmed as the magical energy raced through it, but it did not die again until a second strike lashed down.

The rusted sword fell to the ground and Sonja picked it up. She was more than a little disgusted to have to hold the thing, but it was a much better weapon than her stick. She could already tell. The stick lashed out once more and delivered its payload of dark energy to the next walking corpse then she discarded it and focused on slashing with her new weapon.

Unlike the stick, it only took seven or eight solid hits with the sword to bring down a zombie. She could do it in half that number of strikes if she aimed for the head or neck. Sonja’s warrior skills and great strength helped tremendously.

The first of the remaining zombies had reached Blackthorne by the time that Sonja had finished cleaning up her four monstrous foes. The mage had easily dodged and worked his way around to the back of his opponent while he chanted his spell.

~ Anger of the disquiet soul, become my weapon and strike down my enemy...~

“Jolt!” cried Blackthorne.

Crackling energy raced out of his finger tips and lashed into the exposed back of his opponent. The creature screamed in agony then fell forward. It was not dead, but it had been knocked down. Its magically oriented opponent started to kick it repeatedly in the head. The blows did little damage, but they did not have to as the monster had been nearly destroyed by the magical attack.

Sonja raced in just before the last zombie reached her master. Her sword arced downward and cleaved the spine of the monster open. It did not care about having its spine severed and continued to walk. It barely acknowledged the fact that it had been hit.

She kicked the back of its desiccated knees and it fell to the ground. Sonja swung her sword in a strong, brutal, motion and the creature’s head was cleaved from it shoulders.

The battle had ended, so the valiant warriors started to loot the corpses. The long-dead monsters were not as juicy as Blackthorne had feared that they would be. They were more like walking jerky, than squishy zombies. However, there was no way that they would wear equipment fresh off the corpse.

Blackthorne loaded up his apple sacks with battered chainmail, cracked leather, and rusted plate armor. Sonja took up the burden of the sacks and they left to go clean up their equipment at a small pond two miles away.

The pond was a simple place, too shallow for water monsters to take up residence, but deep enough to clean armor torn from long dead bodies. They used dirt and grass to scrub at their equipment. Sonja showed Blackthorne how to make it as clean as possible using naturally occurring sand in the area.

They spent several hours working at the armor pieces and cleaning everything in order to make it as useful as possible. Blackthorne took the salvageable chain links and reworked them until he had made a chain bracelet. Most of the rings were useless, but there were enough to make bracelets at least.

Sonja eyed him carefully then shook her head. “Magic, swordsmanship, making armor... What can’t you do?”

Blackthorne grinned at her. Apparently most of his skills were things that she highly valued. He checked the stats on the item that he had just made.

<<< Item >>>

Ancient Chainmail Bracelet

A bracelet crafted by a jewelry maker of little renown. It was crafted using simplistic techniques, and suffers a lack of strength and durability.

Defense: +6

Durability: 9/9

Value: 89

>>

He handed the bracelet to Sonja and she blinked. “You are giving me this?”

“You’re my tank aren’t you? I can only make one, so I would rather protect you.” he said simply. It was true, after all. She was the one who would be doing the majority of the physical combat until they could acquire more equipment.

Sonja took the bracelet then looked at it. A complicated expression crossed her face for a moment. “Thank you...”

“Sure. I’ll get you something better before we head toward your homeland, but right now every little bit helps.” said Scott.

The Valkyrie looked up at him then smiled a bright and sincere smile. She clutched the bracelet in her hand then said, “I have not had any real armor in a long time. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Sadly, I think most of the rest of this stuff is useless.”

“That makes sense. Most of the stuff will be garbage on the surface.” said Sonja.

“If I had a forge and some idea how to use it, I might be able to do something with the plate metal, but the leather is ruined and the cloth is falling apart.” said Scott.

“Keep the metal. Even rusted junk can be scoured and melted down to make equipment.” said Sonja

“Right, let’s head back and kill some more things. How is the durability on your sword?”

“Not good, but it’ll hold till we find another.” she replied.

Blackthorne gestured toward her and she granted him her sword for a moment. He enchanted the blade then passed it back to her.

She smiled at him once more. Enchantments truly did make her happy.

It was mid-afternoon before they returned. They were only slightly better off than before, but it was a work in progress.

“Let’s push in a bit.” said Blackthorne.

Sonja nodded then raced ahead of him. He walked along behind her and watched the area for incoming zombies.

A meandering zombie noticed her movement then moaned loudly. It staggered toward her with its arms outstretched and its mouth hanging open. When they met, her slightly less rusted blade slashed downward and slammed through its face then continued down to snap its clavicle. Dark energy raced through the beast and it spasmed wildly before it fell to the side, dead once more.

Sonja unleashed a feral grin. If she focused properly she could one-shot the zombies on the surface during the day. That was good. She quickly took down two more of the monsters staggering around.

After returning to her master to enchant her weapon once more she sought out a zombie with a weapon, any weapon. The constant enchantments and usage of her current sword had caused the durability to drop enough that it could break soon.

She eventually sighted something that she had hoped for all along. Sonja raced toward a zombie that wielded a sword and a shield. Neither piece of equipment looked particularly promising, but it was a possible upgrade from her current blade.

Sonja ran in and slashed downward with her sword. The zombie made a feeble attempt to block with its shield. That meant that it had at least a little of its ancient instincts remaining. However, then moment that sword struck shield, the enchantment was unleashed.

The zombie spasmed wildly, then fell to the ground in a smoking heap. It was not dead; the shield had resisted some of the damage. Still, enough damage had been done that it could not even attempt to fight back when another strike neatly crashed through the side of its skull and exploded out of the other side.

She quickly snatched up the sword and shield then turned to check the area. Her master currently fought against three of the zombies, one of which was wielding a sword. She saw perhaps five more zombies staggering toward him and another dozen in the burial ground altogether. They could finish the current lot of them easily. Even as she thought that, Blackthorne destroyed a zombie with a spell then hopped around a weak strike from the sword wielding beast.

She opted to watch him for a moment to see what he would do. She smiled gently when he easily defeated the next zombie with another cast of his spell then took up its sword and started to beat the remaining zombie mercilessly. His skills were lacking, but she had to admire his spirit.

Sonja lifted her wrist then looked to the bracelet dangling there. A slight pink tinge crossed the bridge of her nose. “So, there is such a human in the world after all...”

Her expression became complicated once again, but a moment later she opted to turn her attention back to the monsters that were coming for her. Armed with sword and shield, she ran toward her opponents. Her hair streamed backward in the wind, and a smile rose up on her face. She was a slave, but in that moment she was once again free.