Tired Of Death

"Hurry up!" Cuthbert half carried Dreth up the hill, staggering along the narrow muddy path that wound between the closely packed pine trees. Sprat tried to help, but he was too small to do much good.

"Who was that?" asked Emerald, panting.

"I don't know, but I sure kicked his ass!" Percy replied, waving Darkblood about. "Who said zombies aren't hard core? I'll show them!"

"Be careful with that sword!" said Tybalt. "It's not something you want to play with."

"What… happened?" croaked Dreth. "Who was that? Where am I? Who am I?"

"I saved your hide," Percy beamed, doing a little jig. "Perhaps now you'll take us zombies more seriously eh? Just call me Percy the Necromancer Killer. No, no, the Necromancer Slayer! Percy the Necromancer Slayer! That's' me!"

"Well, good one. Whatever he did was painful in the extreme," Dreth said weakly. "Not even falling in lava hurt as much as that."

"So, who was it?" Emerald repeated.

"I'm fairly certain he was The Extremely Dark Necromancer," Frumble said, panting as he tried to keep up. "I read about him in necromancy class back at the academy. You must have really annoyed this Overlord fellow if he's working for him."

"Apparently so," m.o.a.n.e.d Dreth. 

There was a pop, and the little devil appeared in front of them. Dreth g.r.o.a.n.e.d again. 

"Did you miss me?" it asked, looking around. "I see things didn't go so well without me there to advise you."

"He's a bit of a mean one then? This necromancer I mean," said Tybalt, ignoring the devil. 

"About as bad as you can get. From what I remember he used to be some kind of genius mage, centuries ago. Created a whole book of spells, mainly to do with raising the dead and so on. Then, some while back, so rumour goes anyway, he did a deal with Death himself. Now he lives on the Other Side, with those who have Passed Over."

"So what's he doing here then?" Cuthbert said, struggling to hold Dreth upright. 

"Oh, you can summon him. It's not a spell that you'd want to get wrong though, not unless want to spend the rest of eternity regretting it."

"Pah! He wasn't so hard. I saw him off easily enough," boasted Percy.

"I doubt you've done more than slow him down," said Frumble.

"Well, the good news is your Seer fellow is not far off," said Tybalt. "Though there was talk of some kind of guardian."

"Always a cloud eh?" said the devil cheerfully, taking his old place back on Dreth's shoulder. 

"I need to sit down for a while," said Dreth. 

"Here's a good a place as any," Tybalt noted, gesturing at a small clearing in the trees that was set back from the path a little way.

The group moved off the trail and settled down. "Just a short rest, to get my breath back," said Dreth, lying down on the grass.

"You don't have any breath," the devil commented. 

"Shut up," Dreth snapped.

"I'm going to scout ahead. Clear any dangers away," Percy said, attempting to strike a heroic pose.

"I'll come with you," said Cuthbert. "Sprat, stay with Uncle Dreth."

"Yes daddy."

"Don't stray too far," Dreth called after them. "And that's my sword, I'll be taking it back!" He lay back down. "In a moment," he added in a lower voice.

"Keep close," Percy said as the two zombies pushed their way through branches overhanging the path. "I'm the hero of this party now. It's the zombies turn to shine."

"I don't think we shine, as such," Cuthbert replied, rather annoyed he wasn't the one with the magic sword. "Unless it's the protruding bones of course."

The two suddenly stumbled out of the trees into a barren stony area. Ahead of them a cliff of grey rock climbed steeply upwards. A large cave opening was set into the centre; a dark and foreboding gap in the stone.

"I've discovered the Seers' cave!" Percy proclaimed.

"Hello? I'm here too you know," Cuthbert frowned. "We'd better go carefully, Tybalt said something about a guardian."

"Pah! I'm not afraid of any guardian." Percy flourished the blade, which seemed to be humming, and strode forward, to stand in front of the entrance. "Come forth foul beast, or be smote by Percy the Slayer!"

"Oh good grief." Cuthbert took a step back into the protective shelter of the woods. "His brain's finally given out. I knew I should have given it an overhaul when I had the chance."

"Come forth I say!" Percy waved Darkblood over his head, nearly decapitating himself. 

There was a noise from the cave, as if a lot of snakes were hissing. Very large snakes. Cuthbert edged behind a tree. 

Slowly a shape emerged from the gloom. A monstrous reptilian head, twice the size of a man's, with teeth as long as fingers appeared. Its green scaled neck was long and sinewy, and it looked down at Percy with evil yellow eyes. A second later another, similar in form, followed the first, and then another and another until eight dragon-like heads stared down at the zombie, who hadn't moved. 

"Oh Dreg! A Hydra!" m.o.a.n.e.d Cuthbert from his hiding place. "Percy! Get out of there!"

"I'm trying!" his friend called back in a quivery tone. His voice definitely lacked the bravado it had moments ago. "I can't seem to move. I think the sword wants to fight it!"

There was a sudden movement, and Percy swung Darkblood as one of the heads lunged forward, hissing like a geyser about to erupt. The sword screamed and sliced clean through the neck, splattering gore and blood over a wide area.

The beast's other heads howled as the severed section crashed to the ground, nearly squashing Percy in the process.

"Wooo! Go zombie!" cheered Cuthbert.

"That was the sword, not me!" Percy shouted, skipping backwards to avoid the attacks of two more heads. Moving far faster than he usually did, the zombie did a dive and a roll, coming up under one of the necks. Darkblood stabbed upwards, showering himself with more blood, and inducing another roar of anger from the great beast as the damaged head slumped to the floor near the first one.

Percy back-flipped over another lunge with the grace of a dolphin, ending up beyond the immediate danger range of the Hydra's jaws.

"How did you do that?" gasped Cuthbert.

"I told you, the sword's too strong! I can't stop it! Yow!" The last as Percy was caught a glancing blow, knocking him to the side.

"Feeeed meeee!" hissed the dark blade, pulling the zombie forward into the fight once again.

The monster screamed and counter attacked

Cuthbert winced and covered his eyes. "This isn't going to end well."

~ * ~

"Where are they?" Dreth grumbled. "If that zombie's lost my sword, I swear I'll pull his limbs off." 

The group was climbing up the small trail, Dreth having decided he didn't want to wait any longer, even though he still wasn't feeling very well. He was concerned about the zombies, and even more concerned that the damned necromancer was going to come after them. Admittedly, being stabbed with Darkblood should have slowed even him down, but better safe than gutted, as the saying went.

"I can hear something ahead," said Tybalt. "Sounds like fighting."

"Oh goody!" said the devil, clapping his hands. "Finally a bit of action."

"And what was that back in the village then?" asked Dreth, staggering up the slope. He still wasn't feeling normal, and it was upsetting him more than he wanted to admit.

They stumbled through the trees and into a clearing. Ahead of them a figure, Percy, Dreth saw after a moment, was wielding a black sword, his black sword, and engaging in death defying combat with a large dragon-like beast with multiple heads. Dreth counted fifteen of them. The creature was standing in the entrance to a large cave.

"A Hydra!" gasped Frumble.

"I thought they only had eight heads?" said Tybalt, taking as step back as Percy sliced one of them off. Another two immediately began to sprout in its stead. The cave entrance was beginning to get crowded.

"It did, at first," another voice said. Dreth looked round to see Cuthbert emerge from his hiding place in the trees. 

"Why doesn't he stop?" asked Emerald. "Is he mad?"

"Well, yes," Cuthbert said loyally, "but the sword's in control now. He can't stop."

Dreth shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder why I allow you zombies to tag along. You're more trouble than you're worth most of the time."

"Oh thanks a lot!" Cuthbert said. "It wasn't like we were given a choice in the matter. 'Come with me or die!' you said.

"I'm sure I phrased it more politely than that," Dreth replied, frowning slightly as he tried to recall the situation. His decision to set out from his dungeon crypt seemed to be a long time ago.

"We have to do something!" said Emerald, watching as Percy narrowly missed being swallowed whole.

"You're right," said the devil. "If he cuts any more heads off, we won't be able to get past and into the cave."

Another voice suddenly cried out. "What do you think you're doing???"