-Catacombs, spike corridor, Fortitude-
So, she is being a skeleton… but she is definitely no Draugr at least.
The skeletal earth pony charged forward and brought her axe down towards me, I took up my shield in my right hoof and blocked it. The force of the blow sent a small chunk of my shield shooting past my head as the axe dug into it.
The guardian was quite powerful for a skeletal earth pony that was smaller than me. I pulled the claymore out from my shield, it was swinging for my opponent as I drew it.
The skeleton jumped back to be hit head on with a fireball that exploded on contact.
Once the smoke cleared the skeleton was perfectly fine, even her silver hair wasn’t scratched. The blunt side of her axe took the brunt of my brother’s fireball without damage.
“Why didn’t that work?” Turning to Flamberge behind me while still trusting the guardian to not attack me during a moment of inattention, I had to tell my brother something important.
“She is no Draugr brother, she may even be the only thing keeping them mostly in the catacombs and I doubt she has their weaknesses.” I don’t think the guardian would let me get away with distractions too much after this. “I believe she is testing our resolve to deal with the problem, even in the face of death… which she has faced already and is still going long beyond her time.”
The skeleton nodded while staring at us, she was now standing on her hind legs and balancing her axe across her shoulders with her right hoof. Her left hoof gestured for us to come at her with all we got and her skeletal tail, also still bearing her silver hair, shifted a bit to help her keep her balance.
“We should introduce ourselves if we’re going to fight. I am Fortitude, the fantastically fragrant!” I held the claymore high up, showing my strength since I was wielding a weapon meant for two hooves with one. “I must say that even as a skeleton, you are is still quite beautiful.”
The skeleton looked a bit shy and rubbed the back of her head with her left hoof, but afterwards she took up a defensive stance.
“I am Flamberge, the fiercely flammable! Though I sometimes also go by Flamberge, the obnoxiously loud!” My brother joined in shouting out his title. “Our third brother is Gene Eric, the swift reaction! He’s doing other things who knows where with a fair maiden that caught his eye, but we know he would absolutely be with us in spirit in this moment!”
That said I charged forward and brought the claymore around with a sweeping strike from left to right moving upwards, my blow was deflected when she slammed her axe’s blade down against the claymore.
I was pushed back and she leapt forward and twirled her axe to slice it upwards through one of the nearby spikes.
The long needle of metal came away from the random array of spikes lining the walls. After flipping through the air for a second, the spike was deftly caught in her left hoof by the hacked off portion and then she blocked Flamberge’s incoming diving strike with it.
She swung her axe upward and Flamberge flapped backwards and out of range of the attack, narrowly avoiding an axe to the chin.
Flamberge landed on the ground grunting. I take it his wings were still sore and since fire wasn’t a weakness for the guardian, this wasn’t going to be an easy fight.
The guardian twirled the spike in her left hoof, then held it aloft and forward as if it were a rapier. She held her axe off to the side and would likely use it to counter while she riposte and deflected with the spike. She was quite skilled with improvised weapons judging by the way she held herself.
Looking to my brother, he nodded. I was taking the lead, he still needed time to recovery and couldn’t afford any serious injuries if we have to fight more battles. We were both quite sturdy, but we weren’t dumb enough to think ourselves invincible.
I took a cautious step forward, then suddenly lunged forward thrusting the claymore at her.
She went to block with the spike, only my thrust fell short and she was thrown off balance by overextending. I pivoted to thrust my ignored shield roughly into her body.
She barely interposed her axed in front of her and was knocked onto her back by the blow, she quickly rolled to avoid my brother bringing his sword down on her with a leaping downward thrust. Flames burst out from the impact zone, but the skeleton had already cleared it.
Having got his sword stuck in the floor and needing time to pull it free, I charged forward and blocked the spike stabbing for Flamberge with my shield. I held the subsequent axe swing off with the flat of the claymore.
The middle of the claymore cracked slightly under the pressure of the axe hitting it and it sent a powerful shock up my leg making me almost drop the weapon. She pushed with her other weapon and forced it slightly further through my ever weakening shield.
Pulling my head back, I slammed my right horn forward and down into the top of her skull. She dizzily stumbled backwards, pulling the makeshift weapon from my shield as she did. I didn’t know skeletons could be staggered like that or that they could even feel pain.
She quickly shook her head and took up her defensive stance again, her glowing red orbs seemed to intensify as they focused on me. She took two steps forward then stopped and the two floating red orbs went to the right side of their sockets.
Pointing it backwards as she tossed the spike up, she hit the end of it roughly with the flat of her axe that started glowing brightly. She then spun towards the wall to my right and slashed another spike from the wall to turn that against us.
The spike she launched behind her, taking on the same glow as the axe, rammed its way through the neck of a griffon Draugr that had been charging up the stairs. The spike decapitated it completely in an instant and impaled the roof of the staircase going downwards with ease.
The glowing eyes in the griffon’s head immediately went out as it rolled on the floor slightly, the Draugr’s body collapsed at the top of the stairs. It was around this time that Flamberge finally wrenched his sword from the floor.
“Why isn’t she doing those kinds of things with us?!” Flamberge tried to whisper, he was not good at it. He might need remedial lessons later on what whispering means…. again… maybe a dictionary might help? “I mean if the axe is magic, why not use that against us?!”
“We are not Draugr, that and she fights with honor.” Speaking of the aggressive skeleton, I watched as she waved the spike at us impatiently to continue our fight. “A battle of honor does not appreciate interruptions. She is knowing this, as do we brother. Let us continue!”
I charged and thrust the sword at her and tried to slash at her after she ducked under my thrust. She moved away lashing out with the spike and I caught it on my shield.
Flamberge swept in with his flaming sword angled to slash at her ribcage, she blocked with her axe and I slashed the claymore for the left side of her head.
The skeleton pulled back and my swing missed, only to collide with Flamberge’s sword and she dragged the end of the spike sharply across my right side as she pulled back. I grunted as I felt myself bleeding and saw the old spike covered in blood.
“Fortitude!” Holding up the claymore to Flamberge, I signaled that I was fine by shaking it at him in a specific manner.
“It is only being a scratch brother.” I blocked the incoming axe swing with my shield as she wasn’t going to let us talk without taking action. “Long and painful, but nothing life threatening!”
The axe burrowed through my shield a bit and created a visible hole in the left side where the axe was penetrating through it. She then tried to stab me in the chest with the bloodied spike while maneuvering my shield up and out the way using the axe still embedded in the shield.
Flamberge rammed into her, getting her off of me before she could follow through with her stab.
We both watched as she got stuck on the spiked wall for a second before she pulled herself free, she was probably thankful that she wasn’t alive or that would have been a mortal blow.
The skeleton shivered a bit after looking at the wall, she was then focused on us again and she leapt forward with an overhead swing of her axe for Flamberge who blocked her with his sword.
His sword didn’t crack like the claymore had when it was struck, it just caused a burst of flames to wildly spray into the air.
I swung for her with the claymore and she dropped the spike to catch the blade with her bare hoof, she did it expertly without injuring herself and she held it firmly in her grip.
She then kicked the falling spike with her left rear leg and it rammed through the webbing of Flamberge’s right wing making him scream and back away.
I brought the edge if my shield around and slammed it into the side of her skull sending it spinning, after a moment of dizzy stumbling she stomped her rear right hoof to regain her focus and was soon standing proudly once more.
“How do we defeat her?! She’s good enough to handle both of us at the same time!” Flamberge had a point as he removed the spike from his wing, the guardian has probably lived long enough and stayed in practice by fighting Draugr by whatever was generating them.
The question was, why were there Draugr still around if the guardian was this strong and capable of dealing with them quickly? A thought for another time as she was coming right at me!
“We are to disable her, we have no need to destroy her!” My voice might have come off as harsh, but I liked the guardian whether she had flesh or no flesh at all.
I blocked her axe and lost the top portion of my shield as she pulled it away and tried to slash me with the spike.
She was managing to push us both back on her own, as she slashed, deflected and swung her weapons at us and slowly pushed forward.
It took several stumbling steps back and Flamberge tried to slash at her and she deflected with the spike while spinning away from the both of us and continued to block our path forward.
We only had to figure out how to achieve such a victory, otherwise we had a tireless skeleton that could wear us and our very spirits down. We were resolved to push forward and she was standing in our way.
She was looking between the two of us and then glance at both spiked walls, likely pushed apart by the dragon Draugr. A strange glint entered her glowing orbs as she looked at both of us, what was she planning?
She tossed the spike was holding up and launched it at me with the flat of her axe’s blade, she then cartwheels towards the wall on the right and cut another spike away to immediately launch it at Flamberge.
I blocked the spike with my shield and almost lost my right eye to the penetrating spike, Flamberge managed to deflect his into the ground. Only that wasn’t the end of it as several more spikes hurtled towards us in a barrage.
My shield barely took the next three hits and was almost no longer useable, then Flamberge interposed himself between me and the spikes hurtling for us.
Flamberge held his left arm over the closed wound in his side, his other arm went over his face and he turn his sword the he held in his right claw so that it was covered his body. He took several spikes coming at him pretty well.
Cartwheeling to the opposite wall the guardian tore several more spikes from it with her axe and launched them at us.
Flamberge continued to stay in front of me and took several hits that pushed him back into me and he kept get peppered by the spikes. After this barrage ended, Flamberge was quite battered and bruised, but the spikes did not pierce his scales.
Looking at my brother groaning and battered form as he kneeled on the floor, he propped himself up on his flaming sword and looked to me.
“We will not be stopped here, we have the resolve to keep fighting!” I firmed my resolve and dropped the remains of what used to be my shield and surged forward towards the guardian placing both my hooves on the claymore.
I swung the claymore down with all my might and she brought the axe up to defend against the incoming blow.
We clashed and the claymore shattered, but not before sending the axe flying from her hoof to where it embedded the floor a few feet away. The metal shards from upper half of the claymore impacted with my body, aside from a few of the shards digging into my flesh I was fine.
I tossed aside the broken blade and before the skeleton could get up I grabbed her by the spine where her neck would be and lifted her from the floor. She bashed at my right leg with her hooves as I held her off the floor where she could find no leverage, she was really quite lightweight and right now she was struggling to get me to let her go.
I had the upper hoof… but how do I finish this battle in a way that she would accept without me destroying her? She is being a great warrior… one that held her own pretty well for being a skeleton.
I looked along the walls and at the spikes lining them. That could work…
As Flamberge rested on the floor looking at both ends of the corridor for Draugr, I Carried her to a nearby wall to my left.
She looked over her shoulder at the spiked wall as I reared back to thrust her forward and her glowing orbs seemed to dim. The reality is that they were turning black as if she were closing eyelids that weren’t there, she expected me to destroy her.
I wedged her into the wall and held her there, using my other hoof I bent one of the spikes so that it passed through her ribcage without hurting her. Her eyes lit up and she looked down at the spike that was pinning to her the wall.
“We are the winners, do you yield!” After a moment of looking at me in either disbelief or something close to it, she finally bowed her head and nodded. “Good… now we are needing your help, join us!”
“Are you serious?!” Asked an angry Flamberge.
“Yes.” I let her go. She would join us in traveling further down into the catacombs.