No Longer Alone


Once again, battle-heavy update. Hope you all enjoy it.

Also, unless I've done my sums wrong, this is now my longest story in terms of of the number of words.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


The fog hadn't cleared up any, and upon reaching the deck Franz was forced to glance uselessly around for several precious seconds. While sight of anything beyond an arm's length was bereft him, the sound of confused combat still reached his ears.

He hesitated, torn between wanting to call out to Amelia as loud as he could, and the unhappy realization that doing so would simply make him a target for whatever unknown assailants were coming after them. Nor could he assume that they were similarly vision-impaired as he was.

With a sigh, he stumbled forward, feeling the ship give another shuddering lurch. The urgency of the current task at hand was not lost on him, but neither was his annoyance at having to fight in the middle of a rolling ship.

Abruptly, a dark shape flickered in the mist ahead of him, and instantly, Franz brought his sword up into a ready position.

"Who's there?" He demanded.

There were the sounds of a scuffle, a cry of surprise and something heavy fell at his feet. A soldier wearing the armour of Frelia, a long gash in its throat.

The next instant, a skeleton burst out of the fog, hollow eyes staring straight at Franz as it raised a rusted sword, preparing to strike.

"You-!" Franz was unable to prevent a cry of surprise as the skeleton leapt forward. Bring his sword up, he was able to prevent the monstrosity from stabbing him through the heart. Reversing his parry into a diagonal slash, he was able to sever the skull from the rest of the body, leaving the bones to collapse noisily into a jumbled pile.

Franz paused a moment, trying to catch his breath. Were these the same type of monsters that had assaulted them in the Za'Ha woods? It seemed likely, if nothing else.

Swallowing, he tightened the grip on his sword a ventured further into the gloom.

He had to find Amelia – and fast.


"What are these things?" Amelia whispered nervously as she backed up behind Neimi.

Her friend looked equally nervous, but resolute nonetheless, and she was firing arrows at the shambling monstrosities as quickly as she could. "I'm not sure," she panted as she drew another arrow. "I'm "

Those words had barely left Neimi's lips when the nearest zombie-creature lunged forward, rotting claws ready to tear into the soft flesh of the two girls.

Neimi loosed her arrow at that same instant, piercing the creature's eye. As it staggered back, stunned, Amelia drew her dagger and stepping forward, she quickly plunged it into the creature's neck. It gave a choked gasp and fell.

As she quickly stepped backwards again, Amelia reflected unhappily on her current weapon's rather troubling lack of range – a lance would have been so much more welcome at this point.

"Nemi, can you see anyone else?"

"No, not really. Some shapes here and there, but they could easily be more enemies. I hope-" She was cut off from replying by another of the creatures lurching forward.

Working in their favour was the fact that the zombies or whatever didn't appear to have the sufficient mental capacity for planning concerted assaults or whatever. In Amelia's estimation, that had been the chief factor for the two girl's continued survival. Still, the situation was precarious enough as is.

Abruptly, the odds for the situation shifted abruptly, as a trio of Frelian knights charged from the gloom, dark blood staining their armour. In seeing a far more nakedly aggressive threat, the zombies reacted instinctively, bringing up claws and stretching open jaws to face off against the knights. Neimi brought up her bow up, ready to lend support, whereas Amelia, perceiving the immediate threat to have lessened, relaxed somewhat.

That was, naturally, a mistake. Catching a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, she instinctively brought her dagger up to a defensive position – and was met with the harsh sound of metal on metal. The force behind the blow was sufficient that she was knocked backwards, landing painfully on her rear end.

She heard Neimi's startled cries, but that was secondary to the skeletal creature that loomed before her. Check that – it wasn't a skeletal creature; it was a skeleton. The bone warrior stumbled forward noisily (how could she possibly have missed the clanking noise of its bones?) and Amelia hurriedly rolled over, fighting to get back to her feet before the creature could strike again.

She was therefore stunned by the sight of Neimi firing an arrow that slammed into the skeleton's skull, impacting it hard enough that cracks weblined their way across the grey bone. The creature halted its advance, turning towards Neimi with deadly intent.

"N- Neimi!" Amelia blurted out, finally struggling to her feet. The archer had already reached back to draw another arrow, but one of the zombies from the pack behind her had come forward, sharp claws raking at her unprotected back. With a cry of pain and surprise, Neimi jerked away – just as the ship lurched once more, sending the pink-haired girl to the floor.

Before she could make a move to help her fallen friend, another skeleton warrior appeared from behind the first one. This one had already been through some rough fights – the lance it carried was coated in blood, and half of its skull had already been knocked in, revealing a gaping hole where its left eye socket should have been. Nevertheless, its vision didn't seem hindered in the least, as it moved quickly to intercept Amelia while its partner dealt with Neimi.

Too many of them, she thought desperately as she prepared herself for a fight she knew she could not win. Just too many…

"Amelia! Down!"

She barely had time to register the words that had been said before she dropped herself into a crouch. An instant later, a silver missile zipped through the mist filled air, slamming into the lance-wielding skeleton and forcing it back.

Wait… my lance? What…

Glancing behind her, Amelia nearly collapsed with relief. "Franz!"

The young knight had somehow appeared out of the gloom, sword at the ready. He spared a concerned glance for Amelia, but the two skeleton's took first priority. He started forward, taking advantage of the creature's uncertainty to seize the initiative in combat. Meanwhile, Amelia fumbled for her lance and followed behind him, uncertain how she could help, but determined that she wouldn't be mere deadweight.

As the lance-wielding skeleton stabbed forward with its spear, Franz twisted at the last possible moment and brought his sword down, slashing off the creature's right hand.

Dashing past Franz, Amelia saw Neimi, cornered by the skeleton and the zombie, and charged.

Her lance pierced deep into the zombie's back, and halted its slow advance on Neimi, but other than that, none of the results were exactly what she desired. The creature paused, and then swung around, its clawed arms slashing wildly at the young lancer that had been behind it. Amelia barely had the time to pull her lance out and duck backwards before the claws reached her.

Trying to catch her breath, Amelia quickly sourced about for some sort of plan or idea. As far as she could tell, aside from tearing a gaping hole in the creature's midsection, she had accomplished nothing of note by stabbing the creature.

Maybe if I aimed at the head. That thought in mind, Amelia paused to gauge the length between her and her opponent. Okay, keep it together, Amelia. This'll be just like training – the zombie's only slightly more mobile than the training dummy, after all… This cheering thought in mind, Amelia lunged.

Her aim had been the slightest bit off – instead of piercing the dead centre of the creature's forehead, the silvery tip of her weapon smashed through the zombie's eye. The reaction was instantaneous – the creature ground to a dead stop. Not wishing to take any chances, Amelia yanked her lance from the creature and kicked at it, sending it sprawling. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Franz finishing off his own opponent, and Neimi had managed to put her skeleton down for good.

As she leaned wearily on her lance, Franz jogged over, concern apparent in his eyes. "Amelia… you okay?"

She managed a weary smile. "I'm fine. Not a scratch."

Franz let out a sigh of relief. "I was so worried – I thought I could wander this stupid deck forever and I'd never catch sight of you."

"Yeah, uh – Neimi?" Amelia turned to the archer. "How's your back?" She questioned worriedly as she pulled a vulnerary from her pack. The archer gave a pained chuckle.

"I'll live." She said softly as she splashed some of the curative mixture on her back.

Very suddenly, she became aware that the three of them were the only ones in the vicinity that were still moving. The Frelian soldiers had vanished deeper into the fog – apparently they had succeeded in removing the rest of the zombies.

Hugging her unconsciously, she shook her head. "We should go. Find some of the others – group together."

Franz nodded. "Well, which direction? Your guess is as good as mine."

Amelia paused. "Well, the zombies-"

"Revenants."

"Huh?" She turned to look at Franz.

"Technically, they're revenants. Zombies are usually known as 'reanimated corpses', but in reality they refer to soulless beings without free will. So it's more accurate to-" He paused, a frown on his face, which rather matched the odd look Amelia was giving him. "Never mind. You were saying."

"Uh, right. Anyway, the zombies came from that direction, so it'd probably make sense for us to go in the opposite direction. We might find some other soldiers along the way."

"Got it." The three of them set off. Neimi, with the sharpest eyes of the trio, kept her bow notched and a steady watch at the surroundings while Franz walked beside Amelia.

"Amelia?"

"Hm?"

"The next time I start behaving like that again, please knock me on the head. Nothing too hard, just a sharp tap. Okay?"

"Can do."


"Wait." Franz held up an arm as Amelia came to a stop slightly behind, holding her lance ready.

"What is it?"

"I'm… not sure." Franz paused and glanced around the area. "I could've sworn I heard something…"

"Maybe it's the others?" Neimi said hopefully.

"I don't think so." Franz replied tersely.

The three of them glanced around, muscles taut, ready to leap into action at whatever unseen menace might burst out from the fog.

A second later, Colm appeared, fog swirling around the navy-blue cloak he always wore. He gave a sigh of exasperation upon catching sight of the trio.

"There you are, Neimi!" He exclaimed. "Where you've been? You should know better than to go off wandering in this kind of fog and end up having to rely on guys like Franz for protection!" Blowing out a long sigh, he continued. "Do you know how worried I got when I realized we were under attack and you'd gone off and vanished somewhere? You're always behaving like that, you know? And especially since I can't-"

Franz stood there silently, watching Colm's verbal tirade. Neimi appeared to be physically wilting under the steady stream of harsh words, and Franz suspected that she'd be breaking out into tears soon. He sighed.

The attack came so suddenly, and from all directions, that all involved had only the barest moment to react. A crude, but sharpened spear lanced down from the sky straight at the young knight, and at the same instant, dark shapes appeared at the edges of his vision. Instinctively, Franz threw himself into a forward roll, evading the spear by a hair.

Using the momentum of the roll to boost himself back to his feet, he glanced around quickly, trying to access their situation. Amelia, bleeding from a long cut on her arm was facing off against a strange creature with a thick, muscular body and large, bat-like wings. The grin on its horned visage showed that he obviously believed the young lancer to be easy prey.

Neimi and Colm were preparing to go to Amelia's aid when a blast of dark magic forced them to deal with the more immediate threat of a pair of Mogalls emerging from gloom.

Franz uttered a silent curse, and began running towards Amelia.

He had just taken all of two steps before something slammed hard into his back forcing him to the floor. In the instant between impact and his recovering enough to try to pull himself back to his feet, he felt sharp claws digging into his back. Twisting his neck frantically, he was barely able to catch a glimpse of another one of the bat-like creatures crouching on his back, yellow eyes blazing with malice.

Stupid… He thought to himself. Shouldn't have assumed they'd be landlocked… should have anticipated an aerial assault.

Still, there was no time for bemoaning his problems. More important issues were at hand. Exerting every last drop of strength that his body possessed, he jerked to the right. The strength was enough – just barely enough – to send him into a roll, which resulted into the bat-creature being slammed into the wooden deck, and jarring it enough that its clawed grip on Franz's back was loosened.

Clambering to his feet, Franz darted forward as the creature flapped its wings, trying to gain some altitude. A quick stab with the sword put an end to that, and the beast collapsed to the ground, bleeding out the last of its life.

"Ah!" Amelia's shrill cry of pain caused Franz to jerk up. She'd apparently held her own against the bat creature, well enough that it now sported several shallow wounds along its body, but she'd been too focused on it, to the point where yet another of the creatures had managed to dive down from behind. Pure luck had saved her life, for, anticipating the actions of the creature in front, she'd dodged to the right at the last moment, letting the one behind her score a blow on the side of her calf instead of her shoulder.

The ambusher raised its weapon again for a second strike, only to receive an arrow to the eye as Neimi managed to break away from her own fight long enough to help out her friend. Making use of that distraction, Franz quickly interspersed himself between Amelia and the original bat-creature, fending off its blow, trying to buy Amelia enough time to tend to her own wounds and recover.

Abruptly, the creature changed tacks, sweeping one of its wings forward in an attempt to clobber the young knight from the side. This might have worked well on most foes, except that Franz had been on the receiving end of precisely the same kind of attack before, only it had been a wyvern, and he was thus half-expecting an attack in such a manner anyway.

Bring his blade up, he slashed clean through the wing of the bat-creature, earning a screech of agony and a severed, leathery wing fluttering to the ground. Furthermore, in such a distracted state, it was a relatively simple matter to slay the beast.

Franz paused for a moment and closed his eyes, fighting to catch his breath and steady his heartbeat. Amelia, meanwhile walked up to him.

"Franz! Your back – there're some claw marks and scratches…"

"I know. Nothing bad, they can be looked at later."

Colm hurried over, wiping his dagger clean of the monster's blood. "You guys did okay for yourselves?"

"More or less." Franz sighed. "You know where the others are?"

"Well, there's a pretty big group about thataway. Sir Garcia's with 'em, and I originally left there to go find Neimi."

"Well, seems as good a plan as we're going to get." Franz nodded. "Lead the way, Colm."

"GrrrrrrrRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" An inhuman roar pierced the murkiness, and Franz caught sight of a dark shape hurtling towards them at an incredible speed. Another one? How many…

Colm had apparently seen it too, for he threw himself to the side as fast as he could. An instant later, yet another of the bat creatures thudded to the deck, furling up its wings and bellowing a hoarse scream of challenge.

No, Franz corrected himself. Not just yet another one. This creature bore large similarities to the ones they had already defeated, but while the earlier ones had had mottled grey skin, this new one had flesh the colour of dark venom. The casual ease with which it gripped its weapon, and the deliberate pace of its approach belied a far greater intelligence than its other counterparts. This obviously wasn't going to be an easy battle.

As the creature charged, Franz brought his sword up to parry – and in an instant realized that he had far underestimated the strength of the creature. The force of the blow was inhuman. Staggering back, he barely had time to bring his weapon up again to block the next blow – and the next – and the next.

There was no opening, no chance with which to mount a counterattack. Sooner or later, he'd let an attack slip through, and…

With grim resignation, Franz continued to defend himself.


Amelia had difficulty remembering a time when she was panicked as she was right now. Franz was clearly outmatched by the creature, and although Colm was running to his aid as fast as he could, he was still in grave danger.

Moving forward, she groaned to herself as pain shot up her leg. The vulnerary had repaired the worst of the damage from the lance-strike she'd received earlier, but the nerves still screamed whenever she put any pressure on it. She was useless like this. No, worse than useless. She was a liability, and others would be put in danger if they expended the effort to protect her.

No.

Not like this. She grit her teeth. A soldier… she was a soldier. She had to fight.

Twang.

An arrow from Neimi embedded itself in the creature's back, earning a cry of annoyance. Barely pausing its furious assault on the knight, the bat-thing scooped a piece of loose debris that had been knocked around by the fighting, and hurled it directly at the archer.

It impacted solidly with Neimi's stomach. The pink-haired girl staggered backwards, doubling over, fighting to catch her breath.

And then Colm was on the creature, slashing and stabbing wildly with his knives, forcing the creature to break off his relentless attacks on Franz. Quickly the creature settled into a defensive pose, backing off slightly and using the longer reach of his weapon to stay out of Franz's and Colm's attacking range.

As Colm reached in, trying to score a blow on the creature, it grabbed on to the rogue's arms. He had time to open his mouth but not to utter the cry of surprise before the creature threw him into the air with casual ease, letting him crash onto the ground a good three feet away.

Now, once again, only Franz was left to defend himself against the creature's assaults, Amelia observed despairingly as she made her way to him as fast as her tortured leg would allow.

Suddenly Franz jumped back from another strike from the creature and then boosted himself forward, trying to get too close to the beast for its lance to be used effectively. The creature instinctively moved back as well, and both their weapons were brought to bear at the same instant.

The creature staggered back away, clutching a bleeding shoulder. Franz, meanwhile, sank to the ground, a deep gash on his thigh.

"H- Hey! YOU!" Amelia shouted, frantically trying something, anything, to buy Franz some time. The creature paused, and turned to glare at her. Trembling, she brought her lance up. "I'm still here!" She shouted. "Come on and face me!"

The creature obliged. Unfurling its wings, it leapt at her, covering the distance between them in little more than a second.

Amelia shifted into a defensive stance – and her eyes widened in shock and pain as even more pressure was applied onto her wounded leg. Unable to bear it any longer, her leg finally gave way, and she collapsed into a kneeling position.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for the creature was clearly not expecting its swing to meet no resistance. Its momentum carried it forward, until it was almost directly above Amelia.

Almost without thinking, Amelia aimed her lance upwards, stabbing deep into the creature's chest. An inhuman shriek sounded from the creature as it writhed frantically, trying to dislodge the deadly weapon.

Hardly daring to hope, Amelia kept trying to force the lance deeper into the being's body, trying to pierce its chest, its lungs, its heart –

A clawed hand closed around her throat and began to squeeze. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. The creature glared at her as she thrashed frantically, so abruptly turned from the slayer to the one about to be slain.

No… no! Have to… Frantically, she tore at the claws at her neck. She might as well have tried to bend a bar of solid iron. Through blurred vision, she saw the creature bring its other arm up, ready to smash it down with all the force it could muster onto her head.

Then the creature's head fell off, accompanied by a spray of black blood, much of which found its way onto Amelia.

As the limp corpse of the bat-monster collapsed to the ground, the battered form of Franz came into view, one hand clutched around a bloody sword.

"You okay?"

Amelia could only nod.

Franz seemed to want to take a step forward, towards her, but then his legs gave out from beneath him, and he fell to the ground, his sword clattering away beneath him.

Amelia wanted to stand up, to go to his aid, but suddenly her vision swam and blurred into thick, indistinguishable lines. She lay back on the hard wood of the deck, realizing just how completely and utterly drained she was.

"Over here! I've found some of them!"

She heard words, but they came at her from a great distance, and she couldn't distinguish any of it clearly. Her eyes closed, and with that came rest.


Chapter End


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