27 - Drown
by SilkyNoire
The half-rotted corpse of a human lunged at her from behind a stone doorway. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed into a deliberate slide under the undead monster. She was faster than them, but they were everywhere, and they were tireless. They almost felt like the Flaming Fist. She darted over a fallen pillar, her hand propelling herself into a frontflip for added flourish. When she landed, the sudden vice around her ankle caused her heart to skip a beat. She fell to the sodden ground, and looked back in a panic. A zombie had her leg. With strength far more than she could match, it pulled her into a grotto below the fallen pillar.
Sariel didn't so much scream, as she did yell out in alarm as she fell. She braced herself for a hard impact, but found her fall cushioned by chilled water. Moments later, a splash behind her. The zombie. She quickly moved away from the impact zone, and took stock of her surroundings. She was in a sort of natural cave shaped like an inverted wine glass: a tall, skinny section that ballooned out into the body she was treading water in. And the water was rising. All of a sudden, another vice around her ankle, and she was dragged underwater with a yelp.
She reflexively reached for her dagger, but her eyes adjusted to the water, then went wide. There were dozens - hundreds - of shambling corpses in this well. They were all coming for her. There were more splashes around her, as the undead followed her through the cave. A quick slash severed the zombie's hand, and she once again searched for a way out. There! A small tunnel near the bottom of the cave. It was waterlogged, but anything was better than being torn apart by a horde of flesh-eating monsters. Without surfacing, she tucked her legs in, spun herself to face the cave, and began kicking.
Their numbers were without end. Even as the cave went on, they crawled from holes and fissures, clawing and groping at her limbs. To top it off, her abdomen started painful contractions. She knew how to push through them, but it was a reminder that she was on borrowed time. She hadn't taken a real breath when that zombie dragged her down, and the winding caves were nearly unnavigable. Maybe if she found an air pocket-
It was too late. As the shambling undead closed in, she gagged, swallowing water. Her lungs relented. Her eyes went wide, and her body went limp, sinking. A gaggle of rotting hands greeted her as she descended, jerking and tossing her as she disappeared into them.
A zombie unceremoniously dumped the half-elf girl's corpse before the necromancer. She had tried to swim out through the flooded passages, drowning in the process. Stupid girl. At least she would make a pretty zombie, he thought. For a time, until her flesh fell off. As he prepared to turn the girl into a zombie, he paused, catching himself staring at her. She had bypassed his traps, eluded his zombies, and nearly killed him. She was a highly skilled adventurer. He glanced his recovered artifact, still strapped to her belt, pulsing with divine energy. Perhaps he could do with a more skilled agent. A geas spell would do the trick.
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