Author's Notes: Hey everyone, I hope that you liked the last chapter and that you will like this one as well. As always I own nothing.
They dismounted and left the horses some distance away, not wanting to risk the horses making any noise and alerting their targets of their presence. The barrows shielded them from view, as it did for the enemy. As they drew closer Karl smelled rot and decay, which grew stronger as they drew closer till Karl wanted to gag. Finally there was only one hill between them and the Carnival members. They got down on their bellies and crawled up the side of the hill. Once they got to the top they found that it was covered in brush which enabled them to look down into the hollow formed by the hills.
There was a camp set up in the hallow. There were a number of people sitting around a campfire, Karl tried to count but it was hard to tell how many of them there were. Nearby was a cart, clearly the one that they had been tracking. At first glance it looked exactly like a cart of traveling players would look like, bedecked with garish ribbons and colorful streamers, but a closer look revealed the truth. The canvas was torn and rotten, as was the wood of the cart, the metal was rusted and pitted and from the cart emerged a overwhelming sense of wrongness and a smell so vile he nearly wretched. He started to move forward when Helena grabbed his arm.
"Are you mad?!" She hissed at him if we go at them head-on we'll be dead within seconds!"
"Well, do you have a better plan?" He hissed back at her.
"I'll go around to the back. Give me two minutes and we will hit them from both sides."
"How do I know you will not just run away and leave me?"
"You don't. You will just have to trust me." Before he could respond she rose to a crouch and started to crawl back down the hill and then stopped and turned back to him.
"A word of counsel, remain in your human form. Those things serve the Plague Lord, I doubt even your body could fight off the diseases that they carry." With that she was gone. Karl forced himself to wait, both his human and wolf sides urging him to attack and kill the vile beings below, their mere smell enraged him. At last he could wait no longer and he made his move.
He drew his pistol and gazed around the camp, trying to see who the leader was, but in the dark he could not tell. In an effort to see better he shifted his eyes into his wolven ones. This both accomplished what he wanted and also proved to be a mistake. A man emerged from the cart. He was a tall man, swathed in robes and what seemed to be a strip of cloth wrapped around his head. With his superior vision Karl could see that the man's eyes were gone. In their place were twin orbs which glowed a sickly greenish-yellow. Karl could get a good look at the orbs as the man was looking directly at him.
"To arms my brothers and sisters! We are under attack!" Karl cursed and fired at the man but the man, showing surprising nimbleness, leapt to the side and the bullet thudded into the ground.
By this time the other members of the Carnival were on their feet and heading toward the hill where Karl was. His attention was focused on three of them. They were all big men, standing head and shoulders above those around them. They wore hoods, like those of executioners, and simple trousers and boots. Their chests were bare and they bulged with muscles. Karl lined up his pistol and fired at the one closest to him, to his surprise the man reeled as the bullet took him spare in the chest. But the man shrugged off a wound which would have taken down many Beastman and kept coming, stunned Karl fired again and again the man took the hits and kept coming. Karl had fired all three barrels and, as he did not have time to reload, he rose to his feet, thrust the pistol back into his belt and drew his swords and charged to meet them.
They seemed lack any form of discipline, all of them rushing at him as fast as they could without any semblance of order. At glace they looked like normal people, save for the vile smell and minor signs of sickness, but others did not. When they got closer the truth was revealed Karl recoiled in horror. They were foul, they were rotting, and many of them looked more like the undead that he had fought than living men. Their flesh was decaying and rotted as if dozens of diseases were festering in their bodies simultaneously. Their faces were masses of warts and boils, some of them seeping pus. The wolf howled in revulsion and Karl decided that maybe he would take indeed take the vampire's advice about not biting them, just the thought made his stomach heave.
As they reached him, he lashed out with his swords. He took the arm off of one, he was not sure if it was a man or a woman, with one. Instead of screaming it just kept coming at him. In desperation Karl stabbed at its face with his other blade. The thing jerked and went still, dead. As Karl struggled to free his blades the others closed in around him. Fear beginning to take hold of him he kicked out in an effort to keep them away. With a final tug his blade came lose and he fell back, this was not like other fights, these people would not be intimidated by his strength and savagery. Nor could he fall back on his wolven form, putting him at a severe disadvantage.
Another came at him, this one a woman who looked almost normal, and he stabbed her in the gut. She let out a wail of pain as she fell to the ground. It seemed that the normal looking ones were more susceptible than the more heavily diseased ones. Even with them being easier to kill there were still a lot of them and he had no intention of biting them either. So instead he gave ground, slashing at any that came too close. WHERE IN SIGMAR'S NAME WAS THE VAMPIRE! Karl thought furiously. Then he got his answer.
Cries rose from those farther back and he heard the sound of weapons landing on flesh. Risking a look beyond those pressing in on him he caught a glimpse of what lay beyond. Though he could not see the vampire he could see her work. From the trees emerged an army of the death, skeletal figures clad in the ancient and rusted armor of kings and lords were coming forth to fall on the members of the Carnival. Their weapons were old but they still cut and unlike Karl they had no fear of disease to restrain them.
A bellowing roar brought Karl's attention back to his own fight. One of the burly giants brought his flair around in a swipe which, if connected, would be enough to take Karl's head off. In desperation he brought his short sword up to parry the blow. When they connected the jolt down his arm was like nothing he had ever felt before. His arm went numb and the sword fell from his hand. He shook his arm, desperate to try to get feeling back in his arm, while at the same time trying to dodge further blows. He ducked under another blow, fed muscle into his remaining arm and struck at the man's belly as hard as he could. When the blow landed he felt another jolt, almost as bad as the first.
Still the blow had landed and the blade dug deep. To Karl's surprise the man did not even seem to notice the wound and continued his attack. Karl desperately tugged on the blade but it was stuck tight in the other's flesh. Karl at last released the blade and rolled to the side as the man struck at him again. The flail thudded into the ground. As Karl rolled away, he was reaching toward his short sword, which he had ended up near, as he reached for it he felt flashes of burning pain. The others, who had hung back while the giant attacked him, now surrounded him and surged in to attack. Blades and other weapons rained down on him, reducing his back to a bloody mess. Karl kicked and punched out, trying frantically to drive them away long enough for him to get to his feet. Fortunately, in their frenzy to get at him, they got in each other's way and Karl received fewer wounds than he otherwise would have received.
Just then the other giant, now joined by the other two, came at him. They shoved aside those of their fellows which were not quick enough to get out of the way in time and closed with Karl. Karl, for his part, tried to roll out of the way again, but he was not quite quick enough and one landed a blow. It was only glancing blow but it was still enough to shatter his left shoulder. He screamed in pain, then one of them kicked him in the stomach. The blow lifted him off of the ground and threw him several feet. He landed on his left side, causing him to scream again, but more importantly, he landed right next to his sword.
Hearing them closing on him, Karl grabbed the sword and scrambled to his feet. Trying to ignore the pain of his body knitting itself back together. Turning he saw the cultists closing in, the three large men leading the way, others fanning out to surround him. Not seeing any other alternative, he charged. The leading giant raised his hammer over his head as Karl closed. When the man brought his weapon crashing down Karl waited till the last second and then dodged to the side and the hammer's head buried itself in the ground. As the man worked to free it Karl, gritting his teeth but still whimpering with the pain, rushed at the man.
He knew that a direct attack on the man would do no good so he opted for another tactic. He jumped forward and wrapped his right arm around the man's throat, while at the same time transferring his sword to his left hand. As the man struggled to get Karl off of him Karl stuck, aiming his blade at the other's mouth and throat, hoping blows there would have more effect than ones to the belly. The man batted the first thrust to the side but the second found its mark and the man's cries became gurgles as the blade went into his open mouth. As the body crashed to the ground his hood came off, beneath his flesh was as diseased and corrupted as the rest of him was clean and healthy.
Getting away from the body he turned to face the rest of the oncoming band. To his relief he saw that a number them, including the remaining two giants, had gone back to the cart to fight the skeletons that Helena had summoned, though there were still quite a few of them still coming after Karl. To his dismay he say that several of the highly decayed ones were still there. One of them, dressed in the colorful motley of a fool, sprang at Karl, twin daggers in his hands. Karl knocked one away with his own blade but the other made it through his defenses. He yelled in pain as the blade sank in; inside him the wolf howled in revulsion as the corruption on the blade spread through his body. His immune system was fighting the disease, but it was weakening and slowing him down, allowing the others to surround him.
In desperation he began the change. He figured that, as he was already infected, things could not get much worse. In his wolven form the towered over those surrounded and struck out left and right. Blood sprayed all around him as he clawed at them and then he grabbed one of the robed ones and bit down. That proved to be a mistake, as the blood filled his mouth and he instantly felt sick. He released the body and fell to his hands and knees, he vomited up the blood and everything else in his stomach, but it did no good. His whole body felt like it was burning and freezing simultaneously. His nostrils became full of mucus and he felt nauseous and light headed.
Those around him, seeing his weakness, closed in again. Fear and rage filled him and Karl struck out again and again. His vision was coming and going and he could not always see what he was aiming at. He launched another blow and, losing his footing, he fell to the ground. For a moment he just lay there, after a moment it slowly occurred to him that no one was hitting him. Looking around he saw that they had also returned to the cart. Once there they joined the other already there as they worked to hold back the skeletons. Despite their efforts the undead were closing in.
Getting to his feet he started to head toward them, he could only manage a stumbling hobble and that just barely. He was making his way down the hill, noting absently that patches of fur was falling out, when he heard the sound of screaming. The man who had spotted him was chanting in a language which Karl did not recognize but which made the sickness inside him flair even stronger, which drove him to his knees again.
From there he saw more of the Caravan dragging a number of people from the cart. They were all women and children and the all bore the signs of disease on their bodies. Those holding them dragged them into a circle around the leader, who began to dance around the circle formed by the prisoners, making gestures with his hands the whole time. As he did so he began to chant again, though this time it was in reikspiel.
"Oh Great Father of Decay, Lord of Rot. Aid your servants and strike down the servants of your enemies! I give you the lives of my bride in return for your aid!" So saying he slit the throat of one and then he went to the next one, repeated the chant and slit the next one. As he worked his way down the line a pillar of green mist began to form in the center. Desperate to stop him Karl forced himself to his feet and began to stumble forward again. As the horrible ritual continued the mist began to take form, with what looked like a head and limbs taking form.
Then, as the man reached another, a bolt of black energy shot into the circle and stuck the woman. Instantly, she shriveled up and fell to the ground dead. The man screamed in rage, at the interruption the mist wavered and the figure seemed to flicker. Seeing this the man began to chant again and rushed toward the next victim. But again more blast of magic struck them down. As more and more of them died the mist and figure became more and more unstable. Suddenly, they both exploded. The man was knocked to the ground and Karl was also knocked backwards and landed on his back and everything went black.
He was not sure how long he was unconscious but when he came to it was still dark. Shifting around he found two things. One, he had returned to his human form. Two, Helena was standing over him and in her hand was the necklace.
"Well," she said in a sardonic voice; "You're awake, I was beginning to think you were dead." Karl tried to speak but another wave of sickness came over him. "I did warn you not to bite, but I guess an animal like you could not resist. I suppose I should be grateful, it has given me a golden opportunity. I would tell you to tell the wizard that I have reconsidered his offer of employment but, unfortunately for you, you will not have the opportunity." She turned and, with an effort moving his head, Karl saw that they were not entirely alone. All around them stood the skeletons which she had summoned. Many bore marks of battle, with limbs missing, but they all bore weapons. At a signal from Helena they advanced.
"Deal with him." She said simply as she turned and walked away. As they advanced Karl tried to raise himself up but the sickness still held him and he was too weak. Their blades rose and fell, again and again and again.
Author's Notes: Hello everyone, I hope you liked it. How was the fight and did you see the end coming? Please let me know in the reviews. Till next time please pleas pray for the Americans held abroad, one whose father is dying please pray for him too and checkout #FreeAmirNow. Please pray for all those who need prayer, especially the people in Nepal. Bye and may Jesus bless you.