"Now stow the fucking hostility. We apparently have a situation," Danny said softly to Ozzy. A silent consent came in reply.
Adem quickly surveyed the scene around them. Before them was a mountain ridge, currently covered from end to end with zombies. Many of them were on horseback. They were led by Grimm, his axe hanging from the side of his horse. Next to him, mounted on her own horse, was Viluria.
To their left was a river, working it's way rapidly and violently over the rocks that lay strewn through and around it. To their right was the way they had came, the trail back to Grayavale's castle. Behind them was thick forest, and somewhere in the distance was Godbolt's fortress.
"...Grimm?" Danny said questioningly, stepping forward. Priest, Adem, Ozzy and Zarch stood behind him
Grimm didn't seem to recognise his teammates. Viluria glared at Danny angrily.
A single gesture from the Avatar of Death sent the zombie horde forward, charging at the Vanguardians in attack.
"Shit!" Danny yelled, and stepped back and to the side as a horse mounted zombie galloped past him, swinging a sword down from the side of the horse.
"Brain activity! Cut it off! Decapitation! Skull crushings!" Danny yelled to his team mates as he ducked and rolled to avoid the path of another horse. He jammed a tiger claw into the flank of the horse and a second later it stumbled, throwing it's undead rider to the ground. Priest reached out a hand and helped Danny up.
"The river!" Danny said to him. Priest looked to where the river flowed near them. It was almost all white, the water passing violently over the rock formations on the riverbed.
"You have no idea how much kinetic energy that thing is giving off," Priest said to Danny.
"Go."
Ozzy and Zarch stood shoulder to shoulder a few metres away from Danny, and Zarch had his bow raised. He let fly an arrow at one of their attackers and pierced his target through the skull. The zombie slumped off it's horse, his sword clattering to the ground. Ozzy ducked down and picked it up, decapitating an undead horse as he stood up and swung the sword in a wide arc. Its rider soon met the same fate.
Danny, Ozzy, Zarch and Adem found themselves being forced backwards towards the treeline by the sheer force of numbers being thrown at them.
Ozzy drove his sword into the chest of the closest horse. It remained unharmed, but it slowed enough for Adem to grab the leg of it's rider and yank him down to the ground, there to be met with the blade of Ozzy's sword.
Zarch looked upwards, into the trees. Swinging his bow onto his shoulder, he grabbed the nearest branch and hauled himself up for a better vantage point. He scrambled up several metres and positioned himself on a wide branch, then took aim with his bow.
Three zombies fell from their horses in the next five seconds, all with arrows lodged directly between their eyes.
Danny hauled himself up onto the back of one of the horses, throwing it's rider to the ground as he did so. He jumped from this horse to the next, grabbing its mane tight to steady himself. He jumped to a third horse and found the one he was looking for. He wrapped his arms around the rider.
"Grimm! What the hell are you doing!" Danny yelled.
Grimm twisted around, grabbed Danny with one hand and threw the Vanguard leader to the ground. Danny quickly rolled out of the way to avoid being trampled by an undead horse, and found himself being borne down upon by another one.
Priest tackled it in mid air, throwing it to the ground. He took its rider by the head and twisted it clean off.
Danny stood up and ran for Grimm's horse. Halfway there he was struck by a theory and changed direction. He headed for the horse of the woman who was riding beside Grimm.
Three zombies found themselves with their skulls crushed by a pair of deer antlers as Danny ran.
Ozzy sliced off a horse's head and was slightly disturbed by the thunking sound it made as it hit the ground. He swung the sword back in a wide arc and decapitated it's rider, then drove the sword through the skull of a zombie that had appeared to his left.
Adem ran to the trees alongside the battlefield, narrowly avoiding a few arrows that had been remarkably well aimed, given that the soldiers who had aimed them were currently dead. And had been so for quite some time.
Adem grabbed one of the arrows that had lodged itself in a tree and drove it through the right eye of a nearby zombie, hoping that it would be enough to cut off its brain activity.
He couldn't see the horse mounted zombie behind him taking aim with his own bow.
Priest, as conveniently timed narrative devices would have it, could.
Priest tackled the zombie to the ground and snapped off it's head, grabbing it's quiver full of arrows and hurling them into the nearby trees.
Zarch grabbed the quiver with his left hand and pulled out an arrow with his right, taking aim and piercing another zombie directly through the brain stem.
He saw one of them heading for Danny, a broadsword raised to attack. Zarch drew his bowstring back and let fly another arrow, striking Danny's attacker with such force that he was thrown to the ground.
Danny hauled himself up onto Viluria's horse, and raised a poisoned thorn at her.
