As Leo ran through the snow with the other Dragon Knights, his thoughts kept wandering back to Jasmine. He shook his head, clearing his mind of those thoughts. He had to be at his full concentration in battle and could not afford to waver even a little. As he neared the cliff that lead to the valley below, he could only gasp as he saw the hordes of undead marching from the north. They looked like a plague, swarming the entire snow and covering it in a blanket of pure black armor, with only the occasional glisten of a sword. Leo took a breath and jumped. He never got tired of the feeling of freefalling off a cliff. The breath that got knocked out of his lungs and the rushing of adrenalin. He landed perfectly, landing on all fours, crouching like a cat.
They would take their position just at the entrance of the valley with the priests at the back ranks healing them of any injuries they received and buffing them up with protective spells. Forming a phalanx, they would fight the undead head on, the narrowness of the valley limiting the number of undead crowding on them at one time. As the undead drew closer, Leo breathed in as he invoked the energies of the dragons of their namesake. He could feel energy coursing through his blood as he somehow felt stronger, even as energy started to drain from him. He looked backwards at Jasmine, making sure she was in position. He would have to literally put his life in her hands. Whatever wounds were inflicted, she would have to heal it or he would be dead. Or join the ranks of undead. Neither were very promising options.
Leo drew his shield and his spear, getting ready as he saw the first signs of the undead rushing on. Placing the shield in front of him and the spear on top of the shield, he braced himself for the first impact. He had never felt anything like this. The undead stampeding alone felt like there were a million yetis pounding their fists on the ground. And the impact. The impact of the undead against the shields of all the Dragon Knight's. The sound alone was groundbreaking. The force they hit with was enough to break bones. Leo grunted as he started getting pushed back by the sheer numbers of undead. He heard a vague yell of "PUSH!" Even now, this early into the battle, Leo could already feel the surrounding environment fade away as all his concentration was diverted to the battle at hand. He mustered all his strength and started pushing. Somehow, against all the odds, they were actually winning. As they pushed their shields, their spears edged forward till they impaled against the undead warriors. With the undead distracted, now was the time to strike. All thoughts of defense were gone as the Dragon Knights charged forward, dropping their shields, yelling out war cries. Now, the battle was just beginning.
Leo charged forward, slamming his spear into the nearest undead soldier and started spinning in a circle, smashing that one undead soldier into a dozen others, shattering them into just bones. He jumped up and smashed down into the ground, as a translucent blue dragon wrapped around his spear , instantly decimating many more undead. It seemed like it was endless, every undead slain was replaced instantly by another five. Even then, the Dragon Knights were still near unstoppable. Every wound that they received would be almost instantly healed by the priests. Leo had to admit, Jasmine did make a pretty good priest, despite his protests to the contrary earlier. A dragon head appeared on his spear once again, as he stabbed through a bunch of undead, shattering them. Even then though, they were still after all, humans. They would tire eventually. The undead on the other hand, just kept coming. The ranks of the undead stretched on for miles, and there seemed to be no end to them. All could be seen one mass of black.
It seemed as though days had passed and still Leo kept fighting on. It was true he was starting to tire but he could still kill undead. He stabbed through more undead, and felt a sudden piercing in his shoulder. And his chest. He had been stabbed by two undead soldiers. He tried to slash but his vision started to blur… He could not see them properly. They were coming in for the kill. A bright light flashed as the skeleton soldiers were reduced to dust. He vaguely saw a blue light flash in front of him as a figure appeared. An angel perhaps? Maybe he had died already. He felt a piercing pain as the two knives were pulled out of him. Fine. Maybe not quite dead yet. He felt his flesh knitting back together, the venom receding from his wounds. He saw Jasmine, standing over him hands glowing green.
"You almost died. The poison in those blades was extremely deadly. They act within a minute. Thank goodness I was there to heal you and extract the poison before you…"
Leo felt a stab of fear as he saw an undead creeping up behind Jasmine. "Look Ou-" Before the words came out of his mouth Jasmine had already waved a hand, a flash of light, and the undead was already flying backwards, crashing into it's comrades.
Leo felt his head tingle again, a voice echoing inside it. "Dragon Knights, we cannot take this much longer, everybody is exhausted. We need to retreat. At least delay the undead for a few days. You know what to do."
Leo did know what to do. He always hoped it did not come to this every time they fought here. This was the first time they had to retreat. As in any strategies, there was always a plan B. The Dragon Roar was the greatest weapon in the Knight's arsenal but came at a great cost. It drained the Knight using it of almost all his energy. He gathered all his energy as he stabbed his spear into the ground, willing the strength of the dragons to come to him. All the other Dragon Knights started doing the same, looking up to the heavens, starting to glow eerily purple. All of them mentally connected, they opened their mouths at the same time, letting out a massive roar that even the stampede before could not rival. The undead got blasted backwards and the snow started to rumble, as it started rolling down from the mountains into the valley in a massive avalanche. Whatever undead that had been spared the sonic assault were immediately crushed under the growing pile of snow, and the passage through the Ice Valleys was now completely blocked.
