Chaos...

[Katharina Brightrim]

...cause that is what it was. This thought struck Katharina, as something exploded near to her and right before the bridge slammed into her roughly. She rolled out and when she came to a stop, the bridge was above her, blocking the sky from her vision. A frown and her brain caught up to the reality and sorted 'above' and 'beneath' out again. Lights danced in her vision and her ears rang, as she sat up and saw the others around her trying to get back on their feet.
"Skeletons!"
She had not the slightest clue where the shout came from, directions still confused her and the sound around her worked in very odd ways. Making some uncertain steps towards where S'rrt was still trying to get back up, she heard Aswe's voice, "Katharina. Aleytys may be concussed." As she helped S'rrt up, she became aware of the all the fire and the skeletons marching through it, casting their spells at whoever was unfortunate enough to stand too close to them.

Sarangerel fell. One step towards the enemy. Caswir fell. Another step, hands fumbling with an arrow, trying to put it on the bowstring. Guir fell. The bow rose and she tried to find a target despite her blurry vision. Aly fell. She let go of the arrow and it hit one of the skeletons with the disgusting sound of breaking bones. Mirai fell. Something struck her shoulder and almost made her topple over again. People teleported away, the mages had succeeded in their attempt to reactivate the teleporter. Inara's voice over the fighting noises "Come on, lets go!"
She was right, of course. Retreating slowly but steady, Katharina and S'rrt approached the teleporter, while the few remaining mages slowly disappeared, one by one. Inara, S'rrt and herself covered and then, when everybody else was gone, they teleported away as well.

After their arrival in Cadomyr, Inara ran off to check on Aly and Guir. She understood that.
Her shoulder tingled and every tiny part of her body wanted to get rid of the extra weight of the armor, toss the bow and all her other weapons besides Zhambra's shield into the fire and lay down. But her brain would not follow the orders her exhausted muscles shouted at it and her mouth cooperated with that stupid little thing between her ears. "We need to approach from the north. Teleporting in is too dangerous, we take the ship and attack from the forest, we cannot let Runewick alone with this."
Looking over the small group that was left standing around her, she started to doubt their chances to reclaim the ground. S'rrt, that elf who's name she failed to memorize, Rhain..something, Kavek and Orren. She had never seen any of the three mages in combat and while she trusted in S'rrt's abilities, the sheer number of enemy mages concerned her. They agreed on the approach from the north and traveled over by ship.

By the time they reached the battlefield, her head was pounding, but at least she got her orientation back. They approached slowly and with each skeleton they were able to take down, her hope grew stronger. S'rrt took most of the physical strikes, standing in front of them as the tough soldier he was and the few spells that hit her were mostly absorbed by her armor and the embedded gems. Kavek fell, taken by surprise by one of the archmages. Rhain sought shelter in town. Katharina, S'rrt and Orren moved on, clearing the fields and the forest to the south of Runewick slowly. "Clear, I think.", came S'rrt's voice from somewhere left of her between the trees.

As they returned to the road connecting Runewick with the bridge to the teleporter, they froze. Katharina was speechless for a moment, as she stared at the skeletons who stood between them and the teleporter, marching over the unmoving bones of their comrades. They fought one of the skeletons, but it was clear that S'rrt, weakened by the explosions and hits he had received, was getting slower and slower in his movements, so they retreated once more. Their ways parted at the Necktie, S'rrt returned to Cadomyr to get his well-deserved rest and Orren wandered off, she wasn't all that sure where to. With shaking hands, as the adrenaline started to lose its effect in her blood, she wrote a warning and put it up at the bulletinboard of the Necktie.

Afterwards she stood in front of the teleporter and stared at it. All she had to do now was to get back home, rip that armor off and then sleep. Safe and sound at home. Amanda would scold her for getting herself into danger again the next morning, but they would be fine. So easy, all she had to do was to tap that damn sigil on this damn teleporter and she would be home. She sighed, as she turned and headed over towards the pier, from which she took a ship back to the harbor of Runewick.

Once she had solid ground under her feet again, she hung the bow back over her shoulder and attached the shield to her arm, reaching for her knife with the other. The first skeletons she encountered were weak and she had absolutely no problem with discarding them. The arms practices she had taken part in over the last few years, combined with those strenghtening potions certainly did a fine job and she felt optimistic. Until the lich approached her. Its sword scratched over her shield and she took a step back, answering with an attack of her own, that connected. It was an even fight and her hope started to return. But then her enemy cheated. One arm with the sword stretched out to keep her on distance, its other arm rose and the bones scattered around from the other skeletons she had defeated before, started to move again. She scwoled and made a few steps back, as more and more skeletons sat up again, picking up their dropped weapons in order to join their master. "I thought we had a fair fight going on here...", she said, as she retreated further.

This was the moment, something in the distance lit up and the sounds of another fight reached her. Still scowling at the cheating lich, she started to run and soon joined Guir, Inara and Sarangerel in the northern part of the forest in front of Runewick. They all looked quite battleworn and it made her wonder briefly whether she looked as exhausted and tired, but then decided to worry about that later. "How's Aly?", she asked, as she noticed her absence. Inara and Guir told her that she was alright, but that she had suffered bruises and a headache, making her unable to return to the fights. Sarangerel left the group to check on Clairette and the three of them moved on to yet again clear the fields on Runewick.

A few hours after the last skeleton had stopped moving, she sat in front of her chimney in her night gown, waiting for the tension to leave her body and allow her to eventually sleep. It was a weird feeling. Of course, she had gotten some bruises and her head still pounded from the explosion that had caught her. Yes, her arms were heavy and she was exhausted, but there was also something else. The attack had been terrible, many fell, but she failed to be frightened about it and the horror she was used to after a battle was missing. Did she get used to this kind of stuff? She took a sip from her water and frowned. Did she want to get used to this kind of stuff? Again, she had to withstand the temptation to just melt her armor and her weapons and instead rose and headed towards the bedroom.