Unconquered Tower

TWENTY-NINE

Tyler stepped forward toward the horde and everyone else began to back up. Roan followed them lethargically as the last dregs of his stamina potion began to fade away. He kept his eyes on the tall woman as her skin began to take on a green hue reminiscent of the potion. The horde kept coming forward without slowing down at all, uncaring of the danger that Tyler represented.

“Some intelligence gained from eating the amulet, but not enough to see a trap. That’s good to know.” Even his thoughts felt sluggish now as Roan leaned against a wall, warmhammer resting on the ground. Taoya drifted over to him, a concerned look on his face.

“What’s your problem?” the big man asked in his failed attempt at whispering.

“Stamina potion is wearing off. Mean crash,” Roan admitted. Taoya grunted and nodded his head as he turned to look back at the crowd.

“Have you ever seen something like this?” he asked a moment later.

“A horde of undead? Can’t say I have,” Roan said, exhaustion wearing away at the icy mask he had been wearing.

“He does have a sense of humor. Moira just lost a bet,” Taoya said with a laugh. Condensation looked like it was building up on Tyler’s skin, green dots that bubbled forth as she threw her tattered robes off and to the ground. She was wearing a sleeveless wetsuit underneath that ended at the knees. Her exposed limbs were corded with muscle, like a swimmer’s.

“A scion using their bloodline in full? Only a few times. Not like there’s a lot of you sitting around out here. Just us who have nowhere else to go,” Roan said. He couldn’t hid the bitterness in his tone.

“Clamp that shit down. Nobody cares about your sob story. Don’t look weak.” Roan’s mind screamed at his mouth, but the aftereffects of the potion were stronger than his willpower.

“Tyler’s ability is special, even amongst our kind. It’s nice to see it being used for a greater purpose than just winning some tournament,” Taoya said, not seeming to have cared about Roan’s slip up.

Tyler’s entire body was now covered in green dew. Roan couldn’t see her face, but from the way her shoulders were tense, he had to assume this was difficult. If he had blinked he would have missed it. The little drops of liquid aerosolized in a second, bursting forth in a cloud that drifted forward as she shoved her hands toward the horde.

It was a slow attack. Walking briskly would have kept Roan ahead of it with ease, but it covered the entirety of the boulevard from side to side. And the zombies seemed intent on walking right through it.

“Will this be enough to kill them?” Roan wondered out loud. So far they seemed fragile, but fast healing unless their tumor itself was destroyed. He didn’t know how potent this acid attack was going to be, but he doubted that it would be enough to destroy the pulsating tumors.

“Oh, yeah. This is going to be nasty,” Taoya said grimly. Roan kept his eyes locked on the horde as they slowly disappeared from sight as the fog thickened. It became an opaque haze as Tyler sagged, staggering backward and slamming into a wall as she went limp. No one got close to her though, not with that haze of acidic fog still trailing off of her skin in thin streamers.

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“It won’t last long. When she gets a core in her though, look out,” Taoya said, shaking his head. Roan blinked slowly as he tried to focus his mind, but it was not going well.

“I need something from you. Further down the hall, even my amulet couldn’t handle the amount of corruption. I gave you all my shards. I want them back when we get to the end. The upgraded versions of them.” Roan wished he could take the words back, ease them into the conversation as he looked for a better way to approach it without sounding like a miser. Not after he had run off with nearly every amulet shard from the first saferoom in his pocket.

“I’ll see what I can do. You’ll have to pay up your fees though. That will warm Darren’s heart,” Taoya said.

“I can do that. Least I can do,” Roan slurred as his eyes began to shut against his own volition.

“Maybe throw in a bit to sweeten the pot. That won’t hurt.” The words seemed to be coming from a distance but Roan nodded his head.

“It’ll balance out. I’d need to pay for nine more repair kits. Just throw in an extra five hundred credits. Save thirteen-hundred that way.” Roan nodded to himself. Show contrition while saving a few bucks. It would work out better that way.

“There they are,” Taoya said and Roan forced his heavy eyelids open. The first wave of zombies came free of the mist. Taoya and the others had been right in staying away from Tyler’s attack.

Flesh sloughed free of bone, falling to the ground with wet slaps as the zombies continued to step forward. The tumors resisted the effects of the acid, but Roan could see a spiderweb of pulsing black veins that wove around the gory skeletons. They flared with a dark light as they resisted the effects of the acid mist.

The first creature staggered and fell as its body started to crumple, the bones fizzling and crackling as it fell to its knees. Roan watched as the wounds began to heal, slowly, and the tumor shrank. The bones grew intertwined with the dark roots as the tumor continued to shrink, spreading its growth along the skeleton.

“Don’t let it finish,” Roan said, trying to stand upright. The world spun and he blinked repeatedly as he shook his head vigorously. Taoya placed his hand on his shoulder and pushed him back gently.

“You’ve done plenty. We can deal with these…whatever these are.” Taoya reached down and picked up a loose skull from the ground, throwing it up and catching it as a tendril of his blue-white power licked around his wrist. It sank into the yellowed bone as he took a step forward and threw the skull like a baseball pitcher.

Power discharged and covered the skull as it rocketed away from them. Roan blinked and it was over. The dying zombie’s tumor had been blasted apart by the attack, the skull having completely obliterated it. The mob slowly keeled over and slapped into the floor wetly, gore still leaking free of its ruined body.

More and more of them were coming out of the dissipating fog. All of them ruined, their bodies falling apart as they kept trying to walk forward. Suddenly soft bones were breaking as they collapsed, but the tumors kept them from dying.

“It looks like a root structure.” The random thought popped into his head as he felt his eyelids closing again. He couldn’t fight the drowsiness as it attacked him. He fell against the wall and started to slide down, a yawn cracking his jaw as he wiped at his face.

“Get up. Not here. You useless meat suit. Mind over matter, wake the fuck up!” His mind screamed at him as he slumped to the ground. Someone was walking over toward him and it took his foggy brain a second to realize it was Moira. She leaned over and he smelled the scent of blood and sweat on her as she slid her hands under his arm and pulled him up again.

“Come on. Back to the saferoom.”