All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 159: Specter of Doubt

Chapter 159: Specter of Doubt

Bee rushed over to where Arthur trembled on his knees. Leaping, she again tried to spear the tip of her broom through the wraith's chest.

It faded out of existence, releasing Arthur right before she managed to land a blow. Bee whirled around looking for the opponent but didn't see anything. As she sent furtive glances in all directions, Arthur’s ragged breathing stabilized. He stabbed the ground with his sword, forcing himself back up to his feet.

Bee felt a cold hand on the back of her neck. She tried to roll forward out of the wraith’s grip, but before she could react the strength left her body. It felt like she had run a marathon twice already today. Like she was level two again.

She fought the suddenly leaden weight of her limbs. Gritting her teeth and screwing her eyes shut, it took all her will to stay standing and not collapse on her face right away. As the exhaustion clouded her mind, she bit down on her tongue. The pain helped to focus and gather her willpower in an attempt to resist. Once she had control over her mind again, she tried to push out with Holy Aura and condense It around the wraith behind her as it drained her life force.

The drain continued. Nor did she hear any noises of pain. Struggling to raise her arm, she maneuvered it shakily behind herself in a feeble strike. Her hand met something solid, and the scouring Strike released.

The drain on her energy lessened slightly, but only enough that she could open her eyes and look down. She realized she had just struck its walking stick.

Just then, there was a whoosh above her head, and the touch vanished completely. Coming back to her senses, she struggled to stay on her feet. Arthur was standing over her, sword in hand and glaring intently behind her. The wraith had backed up a few feet and was looking at a small gash in what appeared to be a misty overcoat.

"Now, that wasn't very polite. It's rude to interrupt someone's meal." The wraith spoke in a very proper accent, but the mocking tone was all too prominent.

"I say, is it too much to hope for some decent conversation? Before I eat you, of course. Do you know how boring zombies are to talk to?" The wraith moved forward, slowly circling around them. Arthur offered Bee a steadying hand as she recovered herself. They moved to stand back to back as they kept their enemy in sight.

“The skeletons aren't any better. All they want to talk about is their glorious god or maybe their leader sometimes. Simply droll. It's all about crusading this or service that. No understanding of the arts or literature at all."

Bee felt both her Repair and Improved Repair skills working overdrive to replace her drained energy and health. They weren't nearly as efficient as they would be on a normal injury. She had burned herself many times making potions, especially when she was experimenting recently, and those are always healed in seconds. This would take a lot longer to replace the energy she had lost.

She felt at her belt for her potions. There were only a few healing potions left, and she probably couldn’t use more of the enhancement potions for a while. Feeling the older man pressed against her back, she wondered if he had the same kind of regeneration skills as she did. He seemed far more solid, like he was recovering better as well.

It could be that he was a soldier and had more combat-oriented skills rather than her priest-cleaning class. A lifetime of war would get him skills a lot more suited to combat than hers and maybe just more experience in battle. He was also older and probably had higher physical stats than she did.

Realizing that her exhausted mind was getting distracted, she focused back on the wraith. It was still talking. She wasn't sure if this was a strategy to distract them, or if it was honestly that desperate to talk to someone.

"...I've had to nearly convert to a brand new religion, too. Can you believe that? Some undead god, no less. The Father of Darkness they call him, some sort of ruffian that wants to cleanse all humans. Believe me, I can get behind the message, but it just seems a little bit… Well, I don’t know, fanatical? Not my style at all." As the wraith finished speaking, it faded from their sight.

So it was a distraction? Perhaps the words weren’t even true to begin with. If they were, that would be disturbing. The idea that the undead started a religion was unheard of. Such a perverse one too.

She felt energy materialize between her and Arthur. They both whirled around but had to pull their strikes just to not hurt each other. The wraith materialized before them and struck out with its palms on either side, striking both of them in the chest.

Once again, Bee felt her senses withdraw, and she stumbled backward. There was no long-term drain, and it only took her a few moments before she was reoriented. But by the time she got her sight back, she was staring up into the sky, blinking.

Struggling to get to her knees, her limbs were shaky. As she rose she saw that Arthur was holding back the wraith’s cane with his blade. He pushed the ghostly being back, taking a swipe at it, but the wraith slipped underneath with alarming speed and placed its palm on Arthur’s chest. The larger man collapsed to the ground, sprawled out.

She needed to act. Somehow she had managed to maintain hold of her broom. Without time to get up, she twisted her body and launched her precious divine artifact like a javelin.

Unfortunately, brooms were not meant to be thrown. The uneven balance caused the weapon to tumble end over end through the air. Despite that, it still got the job done.

The bristle side struck first. It swatted the wraith away, knocking it off Arthur, but the commander struggled to regain his feel. The wraith lunged for her instead. She tried to strike with her palm, but it saw the attack coming and dodged around to touch her shoulders. Soon, her senses were gone as well.

The drain only lasted for a fraction of a moment this time. Prepared for what was going to happen, she fought it from the beginning. Her Holy Aura and Repair skills worked in concert to push back against the sensation. She focused on the thought of the people she was protecting and how her master believed in her.

Her senses sharpened. Then, just like that, the sensation was gone.

Having lost less energy this time, she was able to recover from the wraith's attack quicker. She saw that Arthur had gotten to his feet and, instead of just throwing his weapon like she had, he was forcing the wraith back with a combination of slashes and feints.

Scrambling for her weapon, she crawled a dozen feet and picked it up. Using the broom to lever herself to her feet, she charged back into the fight to relieve Arthur. It seemed that the wraith could only teleport so frequently though as it didn't immediately try to drain them again. Instead, it continued talking.

"And can you believe our ‘glorious leader’ is just a dead rat? I didn't believe it when he summoned me. I've never seen an undead rat with such intelligence. It was smarter than most people. Still, he truly does need to work on his image.

"But he does have a mind for warfare. Truly. Though, I suppose he’s not infallible. He told me not to attack and to just wait things out, but I was certain I would be able to take this city. You lot are fairly weak, after all. I'm just going to get into a little bit of trouble when he comes back and finds the majority of his zombies are dead. What can I say though? Can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. I’m sure there’s plenty in this city that can replace those.

"It's really a shame that so many people are escaping from the back, though. I'd have them chased down, but most of my troops are busy. Oh well. Stupid zombies can only do stupid things. You know what they say, if you want something done you have to do it yourself." The incorporeal gentleman then disappeared again.

Bee realized that its strategy of distracting them with speeches was working. Much to her shame, they had spent their time sitting there listening to him talk while he regained his ability to teleport. Were they charmed somehow?

The military man at least shouldn't be taken in by such tactics. Looking over her shoulder at him, she saw that he was in much worse shape than she thought. His breathing was ragged, and his brow was covered in sweat. Still, he stood tall, shoulders back and his eyes dancing around, checking hiding spots and ready to fight again. Perhaps he wasn't falling for the tactic but rather using the time to recover himself. That would make sense. She was recovering much better than she had initially feared, luckily.

The wraith appeared between them again. This time, she was ready with a Scouring Strike. She smashed it into his chest, and it was sent flying back through Arthur. He flinched but didn't collapse this time. The wraith skidded through the air for 15 feet before slowing to a halt.

"Ah, I see you are learning. Well, good for-"

Bee didn't let him finish his sentence, sensing that he was trying to distract her again. She dashed forward and swung her broom at the wraith. She had been aiming for its chest where it floated several feet in the air. It dropped down, passing through the ground under her strike.

She rolled around, looking for it to appear behind her, but instead, she just felt its hand grasp her foot. She desperately stabbed down at the spot indicated by her Improved Pathing, and it released her. That was the good news. The bad news was that there was now a sharpened broom-spear sticking out of her foot.

With some choice words for her skill, Bee yanked the weapon out of her boot and immediately focused her regenerative skills on it while chugging a healing potion. It was only a few seconds before she was mostly healed, but during that time, Arthur was left to fight alone. Instead of just draining the man, the wraith swung its walking stick in a flurry of blows. Arthur managed to deflect them and even slipped in an occasional counterattack, but the thing’s ability to dip in and out of the ground was clearly throwing him off.

She charged back into the fight with a very slight limp. Trying to catch the wraith from behind, she made to swing until her Improved Pathing skill warned her off. She backed off just in time to avoid a walking stick to the shins.

Getting struck with a stick wouldn't likely hurt her very much, and for a moment she wondered if her skill was malfunctioning somehow. But something about this attack was different. Her skill clearly agreed that she did not want to be hit by this semic corporeal weapon. Her instincts told her that would be disastrous.

The exchange went back and forth for almost a minute, the wraith never even once being in danger of getting hit. But Arthur and Beatrice were both clearly slowing down. As high level as they were, they simply couldn’t keep up. They were fighting something that did not breathe, did not get tired, and was also slightly higher level than them. Not to mention stole their own energy.

The situation was not looking good. After a few seconds more of melee, the wraith disappeared again. This time they were careful, scanning the ground and behind them. However, still, it managed to smack the side of Arthur's head with its hand, sending him stumbling and falling, clearly disoriented. And then it swung its cane towards Beatrice.

Bee blocked with her broom handle and tried to counter, but it did something very uncharacteristic and kicked her shin. It was more surprise than anything that made her falter. The blow landed with surprising solidity, completely unexpected given how incorporeal it had been so far..

As she stumbled, caught off guard, and it smashed its cane into her side. She felt several ribs break, and she was flung back as if struck by a hammer wielded by a giant. As she crashed to the ground, she rolled head over heels, scraping her limbs and back and twisting her neck in a painful way. Eventually, she slammed into a rock. Looking up, she realized it was the city wall. Trying to get to her feet, her condition just wouldn't allow it.

The arm she used to brace herself up bent at a weird angle and wouldn't support her leg weight. She was having trouble sitting up with just core strength. Instead, Bee slumped against the wall like a puppet with its strings cut.

Tilting her head slightly, she saw Arthur was on his feet but clearly losing ground to the opponent. He fought valiantly, but the level difference and the damage he had already taken were too much. There was nothing she could do. She was out of this fight and soon Arthur would be too.

Bee squeezed her eyes shut, willing her repair skills to work harder and faster. If this thing got into the city, it would cause so many problems. Who knew how many people would be hurt?

As she slowly faded out of consciousness, the last thing she heard was a soft whirring noise.