Chapter 153 The earth is moving

Chapter 153 The earth is moving
Koth watched as the purple-clad priests and Libero took a step forward. A prayer was on their lips, although Koth couldn't make out the words. Discs of purple and white light, the size of a large dinner plate, swirled in front of each of them. Koth kept an eye on the black smoke above them. He had felt the power from the soul that had tried to possess him. Koth was almost certain he could have withstood it on his own – almost – but he was grateful for the protection talisman Irin had made. He glanced at her, making sure she was safe. She looked like the warrior she was, with her drawn sword and her magic just below the surface, just waiting for a whispered prayer from her to let loose. His focus shifted back to the swirling discs. They had started to hum. It was the only way Koth could describe it. The humming sound from the discs grew louder. It grew to the same strength as the moans from the black smoke. Koth watched as the black smoke seemed to have an issue staying a solid cloud. Ripples were going through it. With a scream, it split into thirteen separate streaks. It looked as if something was forcing the streaks down. The streaks were fighting not to dive down, to merge into one again, but it seemed they were losing the battle. One of the streaks screamed words Koth didn't understand as it was pulled downwards, towards one of the purple discs. As the smoke touched the light, it stopped fighting and glided into the disc.
"Holea has welcomed you home! She calls the rest of you to join your comrade!" Libero called. There was a roar of protest from the streaks of smoke. One by one they succumbed to the discs of light, being swallowed and disappearing. In the end, there was only one streak of black smoke that swirled above their heads. It struggled like the others, but unlike them, this streak seemed to win the fight.
"Can you take it down?" Koth called to Libero. The man was focussing on his purple disc in front of him, cold sweat running down his face.
"Something is different with this one; Holea's lure doesn't affect it," he called back. With a roar, the smoke seemed to pull free of what was trying to control it. It made a dash to escape the stone circle.
"No!" Jacob exclaimed. He had a staff in his hand and he slammed it into the ground as he whispered a prayer. The trees in the forest to one side of the hill they were on grew their branches and blocked the smoke. Koth wondered why the smoke didn't go between the branches. Then he remembered magic: the branches were a symbol of Alesseja's magic. The smoke tried to force its way through the blockade, but didn't have any success. It screamed again. Koth sensed the difference in the scream. He felt the magic in the air. The magic of a warlock.
"Vexirin!" he, Meghart, Nenhir, and Irin called out as one. Koth was about to turn to Libero to demand that his goddess put her back into recalling the soul to the underworld when the ground beneath him swayed. He looked down and then looked at Irin. She was still keeping to her feet as the ground continued to move.
"What is happening?" Meghart asked.
"Look!" a cleric standing outside the stone circle called and pointed to the side of the hill. All around the hill, the soil was bulging outwards as if something was trying to dig itself out.
"What is that?" Melir asked with a mix of fear and curiosity.
"Warriors!" someone called from behind Koth. He spun around and saw a skeleton dressed in what looked like armour crawling from the ground.
"What the fuck!" he called out.
"There are more of them," Nenhir pointed out. They were crawling out of the hills like ants from an anthill.
"Is that an orc?" someone asked, and Koth looked in that direction. It wasn't an orc, he discovered. The skeleton didn't have any tusks or other characteristics of an orc. Koth could see how the woman could be mistaken. The skeleton was as tall as him and broad like a barn door, and it wasn't just one. A handful of skeletons in the same area were all of the same size.
"I guess that answers the question of whether the Enthurs had a company of giants in their army, or if that was just made-up stories," Almot said.
"Great! I love proving historians right. Why did we need to prove military giants? Why couldn't we prove that the king had a harem of kind beauties?" Meghart objected. Nenhir chuckled.
"Do you think they would be as nice to look at, looking like that?" he asked Meghart, nodding towards a skeleton.
"Probably not, but they would be easier to kill. Okay! Time to stop standing around and get to work," Meghart called.
"Libero, how do we kill these things?" Koth asked.
"Why are you asking me?" he answered. Koth turned around and looked at him.
"Because your goddess is the goddess of the dead!"
"Yeah, and she likes it when people stay dead. This is not something we deal with," he told Koth.
"Can't you do the purple discs again?" Irin asked.
"No, those were to capture the souls and bring them to the underworld. These things don't have any souls. They are empty bodies reanimated by a necromancer. The only reason they know how to fight is that their bodies remember how to. We know from our research that this stone circle was erected during the Great War to honour their heroes. And, apparently, their heroes' armies. These warriors would have been fighting for most of their lives. Their bodies remember how to move. Vexirin must have awoken them and sent them to do what they did in life," Libero explained.
"Great. So how do you stop a warrior like that?" Nenhir asked.
"You stop the power that woke him." They all looked up at the streak of black smoke that was swirling around.
"That will be easy," Koth said.
"Or," Libero continued, "if we demolish the skeletons so they are no longer held together, we eliminate the threat they pose. They will still be animated, but can't do any harm. Well, I guess that a femur or something could bounce around and smack people in the head. But generally speaking, destroying the skeletons would make them harmless," Libero told them.
"You heard him! Destroy them!" Koth called out. Orders were shouted, and people started to gather themselves. The first circle of clerics readied themselves and used their weapons and magic to attack the skeletons. The dead were too many; the clerics couldn't hold all of them back, and they welled into the stone circle. Koth grabbed his tattoo, and fireballs appeared in his other hand. He threw them at skeletons and made them explode. Easy. He looked over at Irin and she was as breathtaking as always when she used her abilities. She swung her sword with skilled focus, letting her magic flow into it, making green flames lick the blade. She kept close to her high priest, making sure he was safe.
"She knows how to use that thing," Nenhir remarked as he saw where Koth was looking.
"Of course she does. That sword chose her as its master," Koth told his friend.
"You don't happen to have another one like her around?" Koth raised an eyebrow at his friend as he flung a fireball at a skeleton.
"She does have five sisters, none of them are married," he said.
"Five?"
"Sisters, yes."
"Interesting." Koth had to chuckle. It was typical of his friend to discuss a thing like this in the middle of fighting the undead.
"Heads up! Giants incoming!" Almot called out. Koth and both his friends turned to see the group of giants ploughing their way through the battle. They had large wooden clubs they used to sweep both living and dead out of their way. At the front of them, the largest one stood. Judging by his clothes and how the other giants acted, he was the leader.
"Look at Vexirin!" Irin shouted. Koth looked up just in time to see the black smoke dive down. He relaxed for a moment. Everyone in the circle had one of Irin's protection talismans. Then the smoke flowed into the giant skeleton.
"Fuck!" he exclaimed.