Page 4 of Ensii
Before the ensaak had even turned around, Gilsazi was at her shoulder along with an Ilian with a spear ready in his fist.
Another creature like the first came bounding on its heels, pouncing at the nearest warm bodies it could find.
“Yes, my lord!” Kurzik reached them just as the fourth abomination ripped through the wall.
“Form into ranks!” Ashek yelled.
“Battle formation!” Shaza shouted, surprising Talitha by being the one to give the order. “Make ready!”
“Send them back to hell!” Breida cried. The young northerner still didn’t seem to care if she lived or died.
Gilsazi braced his spear as the Hudspethites and northerners flocked into a united front. “I am going to gut that priest like a rabbit,” he growled.
Talitha expected there would be a line.
“Make ready!” Ashek shouted over the clamor and the screams.
Before he could order their ranks forward, the monsters crashed into them. The abominations hit with the full force of hundreds of pounds of solid muscle and bone.
The shapes launched into the ranks at once, ploughing into their line of shields. Talitha had one crystalline moment of seeing the warriors in front fold and buckle before their armor was clawed through.
The heat of battle rushed through her veins and she didn’t even stop to wonder how they would win or even hope to succeed.
With a cry, Talitha raised her sword and a wave of swords and spears rose around her. She lunged for the nearest shape, the only thing she had a clear path to attack. As soon as the black flesh came within reach, she hacked.
Her sword caught the abomination in the shoulder. The skin sheared easily, oozing bubbling red like a broken blister.
The creature didn’t seem to notice, tearing at the soldier under its claws with fervent madness. It gulped and wolfed down the soldier’s throat and chest cavity, clawing out his heart even as he screamed.
Talitha forced herself not to look and hacked at the creature along with the tight press of swords around her. They lanced and stabbed and gouged at the creature again and again.
Blood spilled out and the flesh tore, but the wounds bubbled and then sealed, festering and healing in an instant. Talitha’s chest hammered as panic began to set in. How could they kill what they couldn’t even wound?
“Why won’t it die?”
“It’s not hurt!”
“How is this happening?!”
“What is this?!”
Around her, cries rang out. Voices clamored, questions filled the air like a smog. Why couldn’t they kill it?
The thing looked up, finding Talitha with uncanny accuracy. Her heart squeezed in her chest, fear taking over.
Talitha snatched up a shield from the ground just as the creature pounced.
