Chapter 154 Fire and brimstone

Chapter 154 Fire and brimstone
Irin watched as the black smoke infused into the skeleton. She had tried to prepare for all scenarios. Did she have a plan for dealing with the undead soul of a warlock fusing with the undead skeleton of a giant warrior? No, she hadn't seen that scenario coming, she admitted.
"Irin, you should have given some of your talismans to the skeletons," Melir called back to her. She couldn't help but giggle. Then the feeling passed as a group of skeletons charged Jacob. She moved in front of him and let her blade sweep down in a smooth motion. The first skeleton was caught off guard and was cut in half. The other had time to counter her attack. But their weapons were old and had spent a thousand years in the ground. With her next swing, Irin shattered their swords and shields. The third swing cut them into pieces. They didn't pose too great a danger, she found. The biggest danger was the number of skeletons. There was a real possibility that they would get exhausted by fighting through the waves of them.
"We need to find a way to take them down in groups," Jacob called out as if he had come to the same conclusion. "Irin, I need to focus on the trees," he told her.
"Do it. I will keep you covered," she said. He nodded and she saw his lips move in a quiet prayer, then closed his eyes. Irin moved around him, making sure no skeleton came close to him. Alesseja's magic was dancing over the blade of the sword, making the work of slicing through bone easier. When she could, she kept an eye on Koth and the others. Koth looked magnificent as he stood in the middle of the chaotic battlefield with his robe and hair moving in the wind, his hands full of fire and brimstone. His friends were doing just as much damage as he was. The three of them had taken on the group of giant skeletons that were protecting the possessed one. Even Melir did his best to fight. Noodle wasn't as useful against enemies that were already dead and lacked flesh. But he did his part by flying around the heads of skeletons, distracting them so that Melir could easily cut them down with his sword. All around her, clerics and priests fought side by side. The different temples had stopped thinking about which colour your robe was or who you worshipped. They all had the common goal and they fought as one.
"Senaya, to your left," Irin called out as she saw the high priestess's bodyguard was distracted by another group of skeletons. The older woman swung out with the staff in her hand, leaving a streak of sparks in the air. The skeletons turned to dust as the staff touched them.
"Thank you, Irin," the head of Noxa's temples said. Irin nodded and focused on protecting her own high priest. Her body moved as her eyes, ears and nose told it what was happening. The waves of skeletons didn't seem to stop. How many warriors were buried underneath this hill? Jacob had used Alesseja's magic to animate the trees closest to the hill. They used their branches as brooms, sweeping over the ground as soon as a new set of skeletons crawled from the ground, shattering them before they were even fully free. It meant that one side of the hill didn't have incoming skeletons. Orders were shouted for anyone injured or in need of help to gather on that side.
"Koth! Look out!" she heard Nenhir call. Her head turned so quickly she almost thought she would twist it clean off. The giant possessed by Vexirin was charging Koth with a club the size of a tree. She looked back to Jacob.
"Go, I'm fine," he told her. Relief, fear and adrenaline flooded her system as she moved forward, starting a sprint towards Koth. She knew he only had a dagger to use as a weapon. That dagger could just as well be a toothpick against a club like that. Her own sword cleared a path for her as she used it without thinking. Her focus was on the man she loved. The giant swung his club and with a final, desperate dash, she covered the last space and swung her sword upwards from her hip, countering the club's downward fall.
"Irin!" Koth called. As her sword blocked the club, Irin could feel the force of the impact vibrating through her arms, but her sword was sharp and her magic was running along it. The club was no match. It ended up in two halves and before the giant skeleton could collect itself, Irin let her sword fall back down. Her height worked against her, she was limited in her reach, but she cut one of the giant's femurs clean off. He screamed. It was the only skeleton that had made a sound. Was it Vexirin that screamed? Koth was at her back and he was sending a swarm of fireballs at the one-legged giant. One of them hit its shoulder, but the others fizzled out before they hit it.
"He is using his magic," Irin said.
"Why isn't he blocking the magic? If he could do it when he was trapped in the statue, he has to be able to do it now," Meghart asked.
"Great, remind him of that party trick, why don't you!" Nenhir hissed.
"I don't think he can," Koth said. "He has raised an army, his focus needs to be on them. To suppress the magic, he needs to shift focus."
"There has to be a way we can use this," Irin whispered to Koth. He grunted in agreement.
"Are you hurt?" he asked.
"No, nothing a hot bath and a day in bed won't cure. You?"
"I'm fine, little one. If we distract him, he might lose focus on the skeletons," he suggested.
"Do we want that?" Irin asked. "At least we know what we are getting with the skeletons. What if he loses focus and then decides to do something even worse?"
"That would be bad," he agreed. "What if we find a way to keep him distracted?"
"How? I'm not stripping down naked," she said. Koth made a sound as if he was swallowing his own tongue.
"Agreed, that was never an option. It would distract most men and we need our people to be level-headed. What if we leaned into his faults?" he told her.
"Which one are you thinking of?" she wanted to know.
"His biggest one, his ego." Irin let herself look away from the swaying giant in front of them to look over her shoulder at Koth.
"Your brain is really sexy," she told him. He smirked.
"Sure, it's my big brain that turns you on," he chuckled. "Ready to do this?" he asked. She nodded. "Hey, Nenhir, did we tell you what happened to Vexirin?" Koth called out.
"What?" his friend asked, not understanding what Koth was doing.
"Irin found this book in Esnon and it described how he tried to do this big thing, only to fail. They caught him with his hand in the cookie jar and killed him. He couldn't even protect himself," Koth said.
"Eh. Okay," Nenhir said.
"You do not speak the truth!" the giant screamed.