When a body is desacralized and forced to wander the earth again through the intentional influence of another person by infusing Aether into its flesh and/or bones, it's a practice known as flesh puppetry (even when it's only the skeleton that can move). For various reasons, which I've already mentioned, temples, knightly orders, and (most) mage orders detest those who perform this practice.
This was also the reason I suspected (or was certain) that when the goblin shaman returns, he will be the main target of many warriors, if not the entire Trial.
But this walking corpse coming towards us wasn't like the ones the goblin shaman had conjured. Those were controlled by his will; this one seemed to have no will at all beyond the desire to attack and kill, judging by the blue-green glow where its eyes had once been.
Cases of reanimation of bodies in "nature" were difficult but not unheard of. In these cases, they were called restless dead, not flesh puppets, since they occurred due to "natural" causes.
How such a thing happened I don't know (maybe Cali knows, or even Anna), but the fact was: the places where this happened were all considered forbidden and strictly monitored locations.
If the Trial became one of those areas...
–Would the kingdom still let people enter here like this? – Mav asked what everyone, especially me, was thinking.
Realistically, the answer would be no.
All areas where restless dead were sighted were cleared and placed under the protection of seals from temples and orders of mages specialized in appeasing or purifying the dead.
This was due both to the spiritual risk of being near them (or being killed by them) and the risk of disease. After all, they are walking corpses, often already decaying, so the chances of contracting something serious are quite high.
If that happened, the influx of people would disappear from my village, and the lives of most people wouldn't return to their previous state; they could very well worsen, as they would have to be rearranged whether they wanted to or not.
–There's nothing I can do to?. – I muttered under my breath, watching the dead approaching and becoming increasingly clear.
–Under normal circumstances, no. But I think, like many other things, that won't be the case with the Trial. – Anna said, preparing her spear to fight.
–What do you mean? – Max asked before I could.
But before she could answer, the knight's corpse sped up, and soon was three steps away from us, in a stiff and somewhat clumsy way, raised the sword he carried. I advanced with my machete slightly lowered and dove to the side where he had raised his sword.
Perhaps it was because I had increased my circle (Kaio: level-up above 15, and improves skills) but his movements were even stiffer and slower than those of the skeletons controlled by the goblins. I managed to get into his defense and strike the opening in his armor on his stomach and get out from behind before he had time to lower his sword.
Behind him I still had time to stand up and attack towards his head, but my machete ended up stuck in his helmet. He turned in a way that no living person could, twisting his own body backwards, as if the entire torso was the head of a owl, while raising his sword.
But again it seemed slow to me. Maybe I even had time to force it a little to get the machete out of his head, but I decided not to risk it.
Especially since I wasn't his only enemy.
When he turned to try and hit me, Max and Mav countered with their own attacks. Max attacked the knight's torso, obviously protected by the semi-rusted armor; in any other circumstance, this would have been idiotic.
But Max wasn't an idiot (despite what Cali or Mav might say), especially in a fight. He possessed not only swordsmanship skills but also abilities fueled by Aether.
His blade glowed faintly with a white light, slightly bluish from the reflection of the mist, which allowed it to easily penetrate the armor. Mav also activated one of his abilities, making the blade glow even brighter, attacking from above towards the semi-exposed neck of the dead knight.
As expected from an Aether attack, the sword easily severed the neck. Perhaps because Mav wasn't used to the sword, or simply because of the reach, he couldn't cut the head, leaving it stuck by a bit of muscle in the neck. However, as expected of a corpse, he didn't care and continued to attack.
Max had to draw his sword towards himself or it would be taken from his hands, Mav also drew hirs to block a bad punch thrown by the corpse, and I stepped back when the blade reached where I was.
In a few moments the knight's corpse took on a very unusual appearance (to say the least). A hole in the torso with his chest turned backwards (again almost like the head of an owl), looking at me with its head hanging from its neck, held only by a little flesh.
'This will be a sight I will never be able to forget.'
He didn't wait to be appreciated; as soon as the blade was forced to stop (so he wouldn't break the base of his own spine), he stretched his torso, turning to attempt a thrust at me. I retreated a little further and reflexively threw two throwing knives; one got stuck in his neck and the other went towards his heart.
But he did something unusual: he raised his free hand and placed it on his chest, right where my second knife was going.
'That's definitely not something normal for him to do!'
Mav and Max took advantage of the opportunity and attacked again, this time both delivering downward slashes to the knight's back(?). Feeling more threatened by them than by me, he returned his body to the initial position with the blade extended. However, he was still slow enough for Max to raise his shield and avoid a full blow, but still strong enough to stagger him backward.
(Kaio: Actually, he took the blow with the "tip" of the sword, but the force was still sufficient to almost make him fall towards Mav.)
Mav had to defend himself by raising the hilt and leaving the blade pointing downwards, but he still parried the blow with the face of the sword; however, the blow still forced him to retreat. (Kaio: Almost the same thing as with Max, he just managed to position his feet better.)
Cali came from the other side of Max and delivered two flying punches, but they only made the knight recoil slightly and left two sunken marks on his armor. The knight tried to advance on her. And Max took the opportunity to deliver an upward slash, opening a gash from his thigh to the middle of his stomach.
Mav tried to thrust, but the knight raised his free hand to stop him, trapping Mav's sword in his own flesh. At the same time, he raised his sword to attack Max, who was kneeling on the ground.
But before Cali or I could move to help, Anna's spear appeared and pierced him right where his heart should have been. Like a puppet with its strings cut, he collapsed on top of himself, and shortly after, the corpse vanished. Leaving behind another identification crystal and an ornate but rusty dagger.
We looked at each other briefly and agreed on one thing. If that was the level of enemies here, they wouldn't be too problematic, but if they were like him, a restless dead man, things would get quite problematic for several reasons.