The way I saw things at that moment was that either I get rid of all the undead or die trying. Firstly, I really didn’t want to die. Secondly, I didn’t want to join their ranks. I didn’t see myself as a puppet to be used by some necromancer who chose to hide in the dark. I wouldn’t accept it.

‘Don’t attack yet,’ Eva urged me. ‘I’m still adjusting my Essence within your arms.’

‘How long?’ I asked as I dodged another swing from the swordsmen. I was running out of space to evade their attacks. With all the outstretched hands around me, I had but a few paces to dance around the sword swings.

‘Give me a minute,’ she said.

I dodged another swing. I tried to disarm the swordsman but Eva stopped me before I did so. ‘You can’t use your hands without sending some Essence through them. Don’t interrupt what I’m preparing!’

‘Is that minute over?’ I asked. It’s funny how one minute seems to stretch into eternity when you’re waiting for something crucial to happen.

‘Just… focus on evading their attacks,’ Eva said. ‘You have two legs, don’t you?’

I was no Angon martial artist either! I wouldn’t be able to land deadly kicks like they did, with their crazy agility and speed of execution.

But now wasn’t the time to argue. I had to make do with what I had. I saw something flash before my eyes. I had just escaped death and I didn’t even know how I’d achieved it. Damn these undead. I had no more room to move around in. Then an idea came to mind.

I focused the energy on my calves and hamstrings then jumped. If I could use it to kick, why not do the same to jump?

It was a great idea. But the execution was fairly poor. I’d put too much Essence on my legs and so, I soared higher than I’d anticipated. It all happened in slow motion. I was in the air. Some fifty heads were following my flight with their mouths open. They made for a ghastly display.

I realized I was beginning to fall. There was no escaping gravity. I was about six feet on top of them. The landing wouldn’t be pretty. So I chose the easiest way for damage control. I landed on the pile of undead that awaited me below. I’d reinforced my legs to reduce the impact and the result was amazing.

I crushed an undead skull then slowly rose to meet the rest. They started moaning and turned to surround me once more. But Eva had signaled that she was ready. My counterattack – sorry, our counterattack – was about to begin.

‘Open your thoughts to me,’ Eva said. ‘We’re almost one. I’ll be able to predict what you want to do and apply it on the field.’

Many counter arguments came to mind. I didn’t have time to argue though. I just did as I was told. Four undead surrounded me. I picked the closest and thought of punching him hard in the face. My right arm moved. My fist was already closed and heading for the undead. It was an unnerving experience to say the least. I could control every part of my body except for my arms.

They moved as I wanted them to. But it wasn’t me doing the moving.

‘You’re moving them, dumbass!’ Eva said. ‘Yes, I can read your thoughts because you’ve opened them to me. And I can move your arms as though you’re the one doing so. Stop spacing out and focus on attacking.’

I obeyed. I held the closest undead by the hair, pulled him toward me and introduced him to my right fist. The latter fell to his knees. I kicked him and sent him rolling toward his brethren. He didn’t move anymore.

‘I can apply enough Essence to incapacitate them,’ Eva said. ‘We’ll be able to come out on top if you move efficiently. We don’t need to blow their body parts up to know they won’t rise again.’

‘I’ll let you think of the energy we spend then,’ I said. ‘Leave the fighting to me.’

‘Agreed.’

I turned to the undead behind me. By then a plan started to form. I could defeat them all without moving much or worrying about getting surrounded. I started the execution right away. I pulled the next undead from the crowd and landed a heavy punch in his abdomen. This one didn’t wear any armor. The punch easily incapacitated him.

I went for the next and landed another punch in the head. I was aiming for the area with most concentration of energy. The necromancer had made different links to every puppet he controlled. It was an ingenious way for confusing the enemy. If you behead them and it works for you once, there’s no guarantee that it would work again. But I could feel their weak points and I aimed for that.

I had defeated about ten of them. I selected the ones that would allow me to cut in line actually. I’d pick the first in front, punch him then throw him at his friends to the side. It slowed them down and allowed me to move forward. I had to get out of that circle of death.

No matter how much they grabbed me or attempted to slow me down, I fought back. Eva and I made a great team. She knew exactly what I wished to do next and executed it nicely. I almost got ambushed by a crawling corpse, and another who tried to pull me to his side. While I stomped at the corpse below, Eva had beautifully wrestled out of the second and pulled him toward me instead. My elbow landed in his groin then I sent him flying toward his friends.

By the time I got outside the ring of death, I’d disposed of fifteen undead, give or take. I wasn’t keeping count, but I’d thinned the herd a bit. Now it was time to execute my new plan.

They were all haphazardly heading toward me. I couldn’t allow them to surround me anymore. So I went for a preemptive strike. I moved left and right, and disposed of the ones in the front. Thanks to the previous miscalculated jump, I’d left the armored undead in the rear.

I created a line of corpses that either slowed the others down, or urged them to move to the side, toward the opening I’d purposefully left. My plan was simple, lead the armored undead into a single file. No two swordsmen should attack me at once, not while I didn’t have a weapon of my own to repel their attacks.

“I see what you’re doing,” a voice, the necromancer’s no doubt, echoed in the cave. “I won’t let you do as you please, not when I’m close to reaching my goal!”

What is he going to do, come down here himself? I mentally mocked. But the necromancer had a different idea all together. All the decaying corpses suddenly fell to the floor. Only five swordsmen, with their armor in good condition, remained.

“Finish him!” he ordered. And the five swordsmen ran at me.

They actually ran! Armor clanking and swords in the air, they scattered around me then circled me in a fighting stance I couldn’t recognize. Their swords were pointing at me, as though they were preparing to skewer me. Their feet spread, in line with their shoulders. They slid toward me, slowly, carefully.

‘We’re so fucked!’ Eva exclaimed. ‘Look at their eyes!’

They shone a fiery blue light. When I tried to sense the concentration of energy, I found out that it had doubled, maybe even tripled.

‘The bastard’s gone and concentrated all the other energies into these five capable fighters,’ I told Eva.

‘What do we do?’ she asked.

‘Studded armor won’t hold against thrusts,’ I said. ‘Is he the one controlling them?’ I asked.

‘Is it important?’

‘Very,’ I answered. ‘I’ve never seen that stance before. If these are soldiers, fighting with their own memories, then you can assume the worst. They know their discipline more than I do. And they’d generally have a way to counter my every move.

‘But if it’s him, there’s a chance he knows nothing about sword fighting. So I might still snatch a weapon from them and fight back.’

‘Memory is stored in the soul,’ Eva said. ‘They’re brainless, soulless soldiers. At least humans are. There are other sentient creatures that qualify as undead. If he could control them, I guess we’d be already dead.’

‘Then it’s settled. Make sure you do everything I think about.’

‘What will you do?’ Eva asked.

‘Improvise!’

‘What?!’

‘Just do what say,’ I said. ‘Now’s not the time to strategize.’

‘Make sure –‘

‘We’ll live, Eva. Don’t underestimate my fighting skills.’

One of the five soldiers had a cracked breastplate. I decided to go for that one. He was the weakest link and gods know I could use a break.

‘Make sure you provide more energy into the next punch,’ I told her highness before I reached the first undead.

The others noticed I moved and ran to intercept me. I was faster though, and I had years of fighting experience to back me up. I reached the weakest link who tried to stab me with his rusted sword. Thrusts are easily countered if you expect them though. The necromancer didn’t know that. He was about to learn a thing or two about actual sword fighting.

I stepped to the right the moment the undead moved his shoulders to thrust. It was a simple disarming technique really. All I had to do was move to the side as the sword passed by me. My palm hit the lower jaw of the undead, destabilizing him. He didn’t die though. These one were though.

I managed to snatch the sword away in the process then landed a punch at his left temple. That did the job.

‘Eva, we can’t afford to waste time on two hits,’ I said then turned to face the others. Two came from my right, one on the left, and another took his time to go around me. The necromancer was determined to see me fall.

“You’re a strong one,” his voice echoed in the cave again. “I need to have you! You’ll do nicely. Yeeees, you’re the one I’ve been looking for.”

‘You have four punches before I run out of Essence,’ Eva said.

‘That’s all I need,’ I retorted and turned to face the one creeping up behind me.

I wasn’t a sword master, but years in the battlefield teaches you to be efficient. My muscles actually remembered all the work. I only had to observe and let my arms and legs guide me through the process.

The one behind me was the easiest target. Why? Because the necromancer always won on account of surrounding and backstabbing his enemies. I understood that much from observing how he led his army of undead around. He’d focus on that one and give little to no attention to the others, which slowed them down a bit.

He tried to stab me and I countered it with the rusty sword I’d snatched. Then a heavy punch to the chest and his armor broke. I thrust my weapon deep inside, targeting the core of the threads that controlled the corpse. He fell down then I turned to face the remaining three.

All in all, this encounter was easier than I’d anticipated. I got rid of them all before Eva ran out of energy. I felt her Essence retract and move to the Fragment which was near my left kidney.

“Now that you don’t have any more external source of energy,” the necromancer spoke again. “It’s time to finish this!”

Wait, what?

“Rise, my beautiful Ofelia!”

A flash of green behind Zoey then I saw an apparition, perhaps a ghost, materialize. She was definitely a corpse. Her clothes were but tatters. Her lower jaw didn’t exist. It was the way she died I guessed. Somebody must’ve chopped it out for her. She had a bright green shimmer about her, giving her an ethereal look.

Then she screamed. I was blown away and landed heavily on my back. Now Zoey’s shrieks didn’t seem so bad.

‘Banshee!’ Eva’s faint voice told me.