A Fast Ending

So when a man comes at you weilding a stick, surrounded by men weilding swords, your first reaction would be to ingore him first, right? Weapons can be deceiving, but appearances aren’t. The moment I saw him I knew he was to be the one I would need to stop.

Now that I’ve placed a good opening paragraph, let me start at the beginning of the day and work toward resolving said paragraph. Weak in the knees and rather groggily, I woke up this morning to the sound of armor being secured in place by Sir Nuttor. With the amount of poison darts flying around, I suddenly wished I had something to protect me like that. Alas, it would only ensure that I would pass out.

The camp broke uh… camp as the sun began to rise, and I watched as a number of weary soldiers prepared themselves for a fight. A chaotic bunch, I remembered thinking. Few individuals were dressed the same, wore the same armor, and used the same weapons, but in the end there we were, getting ready to face off against yet another foe.

We marched toward the enemy camp, Jonas and Saki near the lead with their eyes out for ambush, Ren in the middle preparing to issue the battle commands, and Shevat, the Zombies, Sir Nuttor and I taking up the center to protect the zombies. Towering above all around him Cross could be seen leading the largest troop. He seemed awkward surrounded by so many others, but his determination seemed to try to outshine that feeling.

We arrived at the site they took up as their main camp. One of the community’s outlying buildings, possibly originally used for storage of materials. A couple dozen ninjas stood out front, and as we approached a few dashed into the warehouse. I could see some agitation in Ren’s face, but before I could make my way toward him, Jonas began the charge.

I could see Ren’s mouth shouting the words "No!", but his voice was masked by the cry of warriors as they ran to crush the small ninja unit against their own walls. Aware of Ren’s distress I glanced around. In a few seconds I realized a few things: The grass was not short, but it wasn’t very tall. Just high enough to hide bodies; There were a few trees around, but they were large enough to hide some more bodies. The building itself had a tarped roof, but if the tarp were removed…

That’s as far as I got before the ambush began. Much to my suprise, Ren’s lips let loose the hint of a smile. As the trip lines, strung from tree to tree were raised, toppling lines of solders, and ninjas dropped from the trees and sprung from the grass, Jonas let out a cry and sounded a retreat. From one side of me to the other Shevat asked Sir Nuttor, "now?". A few moments later Sir Nuttor responded, "Now."

Shevat suddenly pulled out a large flask of what seemed to be a giant sized molotov coctail and lit it up. As the fire began to burn down the rag, the nearby zombies seemed to notice and reeled away in fear. Shevat threw it at the ground, and the bottle exploded, sending some shrapnel out, but more importantly, lighting the grass ablaze. More zombies noticed, and surged away from the center. At the same time the warriors who followed Jonas’ lead pulled toward the center, allowing the zombies to move to the outside of the battle formation. Not wanting to get separated from Doughb0y, I also dashed toward the outside. Sir Nuttor cried out for me to stay where I was… but that’s not me.

The warriors who didn’t turn back joined Saki at the building’s entrance, fighting the ninjas, but falling quickly to a deluge of incoming darts from the roof of the building. Saki used his giant sword as a giant shield, taking quick stabs with his back-up weapon, a smaller basket-case broadsword.

In the mean-time I found myself among the zombies, in the front ranks. I was terrified, not for me, but for them. I watched as a pair of darts plugged themselves into Doughb0y’s shoulder and chest, and tore them off. Doughb0y didn’t fall. I dodged a dart and glanced curiously around as the nearest zombies were all taking darts to their bodies, but they showed no effect. I watched the ambushing ninjas gape as the zombies just keep moving toward them, fearful of the fire behind. Of course, the ninjas didn’t know why the zombies were charging them.

The nearest ninjas broke rank and fled away from the building, not looking back. The further ninjas dropped their remaining darts and charged forward with katanas in hand. Ok, I knew this game. Doing what I do best, which apparently is to have bad breath and to breath it at people, I… discouraged the first line of attacks against the zombies with my halitosis. I don’t think I need to say more. Along-side me were Nuttor and Shevat, taking out as many as they could. Confused and scared, we were able to chase away most of the ninjas without too many casualties. *sigh* One casualty is too many, though.

Anyway, the main force of the enemy army finally arrived from behind us. We would later find out they they went to try to hit our camp in the morning, only to find us not there. As they patiently marched toward us, I could see that this group would not be fooled as easily as the first, and they had a dangerous individual. As they drew close the master of the ninjitsu held his ground, as the servants charged into battle, they were equipped with their typical swords, save for one. Moving with more assurance even then those around him, I watched as he drew his weapon, a Bokken. A Bokken is simply a piece of wood that is carved to look like a sword… but…

When a man comes at you weilding a stick, surrounded by men weilding swords, your first reaction would be to ingore him first, right? Weapons can be deceiving, but appearances aren’t. The moment I saw him I knew he was to be the one I would need to stop.

It’s too bad I’m crippled by hunger. Slower than my allies I lurched my way toward the battlefield as I watched him go to work. The two armies clashed in the sound of metal on metal. The ninjas, less armored then our units quickly spread out in an attempt to let as many of their own flank as many of ours as possible. Striking and dodging back from the line of skirmish, their tactics were too well known by our troops at this point. However, too many were too foolish to attack the man with the wooden sword. To my suprise the bokken was hardly used by this odd warrior. Instead he used the bokken only when he needed to block against a weapon swing. Otherwise, he seemed to be a specialist at throwing his more armored opponents. In admiration I watched as the expert disarmed a soldier, tripped him off of his feet, grabbed him by the head, swung him over his own back, and threw him into another soldier while breaking the neck. It was sad, brutal, and perfected.

Then before I could call out, I watched the ill-equipped Sir Nuttor take him on. Sir Nuttor came in with a powerful overhead swing, and the expert was forced down while blocking the blow. The expert quickly shifted his balance, though, shrugged away the sword, and used his crouched position as a springboard to deliver a powerful side-kick. Sir Nuttor was knocked violently back and landed on the ground in a cloud of dust. Pulling out my last reserves (and I really mean last) I sprinted and dove over Sir Nuttor as the expert reached down to perform a

finishing blow. My lunge awkwardly crashed into his elbow, and he reeled back in astonishment. A closer look at me and he grinned.

"You’re not fit for fighting." He said.

"You’re right." I replied, "But I will as long as you continue to attack us."

"Attacked you! Only after you burned our home to the ground! I will silence your illogical blather." He cried out, lunging at me. Out of strength as I was, I let him grab me, waiting for the throw. As I expected he grabbed me deftly, and twisted for the throw. As he lifted my body off the ground, I pushed off as well, assisting his efforts. This allowed me for some extra time to land, and I was able to make sure my feet hit the ground first. Amused by this tactic, he grabbed my arm and prepared to twist it, causing my body to twist with it. Once again I leapt, and twisted my body in the air, preventing him from twisting me as he wanted me to. He grinned again and pushed me away from him.

"So you must be the zombie king the troops are terrified of. You’re nothing but a ragdoll."

"Yes. I’m a ragdoll. I take a beating. I always have and always will as long as people think that fighting will solve their problems."

"Blasphemy! You cannot have high ground after burning ours to dust!"

"Look around you. Do we really look like we could raze anything? Did we fight like we knew what we were doing? No. I know those who lead these men, and they would never do anything like this."

"I know you did this. Do not try to defend your horrible deeds."

"Did they look like us?" I asked honestly.

"I… was not there when you razed us. The word of my master is good enough."

"I see…"

That could have been the end of it. My life, that is, but luck must have been on my side. During our conversation, most of the remaining ninjas had been defeated and fled. This would not have protected my death, but the expert’s master came to his side.

"Kill him." he said simply.

The expert looked at me for a short time, then replied, "He has done no harm to our people, father. Let us flee and regroup."

"I said kill him. He is the zombie king." replied the father.

"No he’s not!" Cried out a voice a few dozen yards away, "I am!" All three of us glanced over to see Shevat with an arrow trained on the master. He let fly the arrow.

The expert lunged to protect the master. I lunged to protect the expert. The result was an arrow shaft sticking through my shoulder and into the expert’s. We were pinned. Literally.

"You have failed me." The master said to his son. Then he threw a smoke bomb at the ground. All around us smoke poured into the air.

When the smoke cleared we were suprised again. Instead of nothing in the master’s place, there were two individuals. The master… and Jonas.

The expert and I cried out "No!" at the same time as Jonas drove his shield into the shocked master’s skull.

I passed out.

I am now awake, and finally fed. The expert is being cared for as well, though he’s surrounded by heavily armed and angry guards. Even with food in my stomach I am weak. What I really need is sweet sweet water…