"What do you want?" Brynn managed to ask, and she rose fast, bringing her bow across in front of her, an arrow ready in her other hand. ?Who are you?"
The man, the zombie, didn't respond in any way, just kept moving toward her, and now Brynn was backing to keep pace, to keep the distance between them. She heard movement behind her, though, out in the forest, she didn t have far to retreat.
"Stay back!" she warned, fitting the arrow and lifting the bow before her.
Xhe intruder continued its calm approach.
"Last warning!" shouted Brynn, drawing back and taking deadly aim.
"It is inhuman," came Juraviel's quiet assurance from above. ?Shoot it!"
And as the creature came another step forward, Brynn did exactly that, letting fly, her arrow smacking into the intruder, right between the eyes.
The creature flinched and missed a step, wavering off to the side. But that was just a matter of the weight and momentum of the missile, a horri-fied Brynn realized, for the creature, seemingly uninjured, soon righted its course and calmly came on.
Brynn had another arrow up and away in the blink of an eye, this time aiming lower and putting her shot right through the creature's heart. Right through it went, and out the other side, drilling a hole through which came a greenish, milky substance.
The intruder passed the fire then, and Brynn scrambled to the side, fit-ting yet another arrow.
"What is it?" she cried out, but no voice came back in response.
"Who are you?" she demanded, but the creature just continued to pur-sue her, walking slowly and deliberately.
She let fly again, and again after that, scoring hits that would have dropped any living man, but again, to no apparent effect.
Brynn turned toward Diredusk, thinking to flee.
She gasped in horror and froze at the sight, for the pony was surrounded by more of these foul-smelling intruders, these undead creatures of her nightmares.
But they couldn't have her horse! Never that! With a snarl and a flick of her wrist, Brynn unstrung her bow, the solid wood straightening into a deadly club. Seeing Diredusk in trouble, whinnying and stomping its hooves, even kicking one of the creatures to launch it back into the brush, washed away Brynn's fears for herself.
Staff spinning and twirling, she charged in, coming up short before one turning zombie. She fell to one knee as the staff came around, transferring all of her running energy into that perfectly aimed swing.
With a sickening thud, the staff smashed against the side of the zombie's head, leaving a huge and grotesque dent. The creature rocked to the side, skipping on one foot several times. But it did not fall over, showed no sign that it was feeling any pain, and came on again.
Brynn let out a cry and smashed it again, the squishy head flattening a bit more, and then, when that didn't work, the ranger retracted the weapon, repositioned her hands, and stabbed its end straight out, smashing the crea-ture, which was offering absolutely no defense at all, square in the face. The head snapped back.
The zombie moved forward.
Again, Brynn hit it in the face, then lower in the exposed throat. Then she brought the staff back in and turned it over in her hands, spinning and spinning. Around it went, behind her back, coming out into her other hand for another strike, then going back around the other way and coming in hard from the other side, again scoring a square and brutal hit.
The zombie's head lolled as if without any support. As Brynn leaped aside, the creature continued forward, arms reaching and outstretched, as if it couldn't see her. She took up her staff in both hands as it passed and, just because she wanted to, took a mighty swing and smashed the passing zom-bie on the back of the skull, sending the head into a bobbing motion.
The zombie started to turn toward her, but just toppled over to the ground.
Brynn didn't even watch the descent, leaping into the pair of creatures grabbing at Diredusk's flank. She landed between them, both hands set firmly on her staff, and jabbed it out left and right, and then again, scoring two wicked hits on the zombies' heads.
Diredusk whinnied and bucked, kicking out with both hind legs, splat-tering the chest of another zombie and launching it into a short flight through the trees. The pony landed and bucked again, throwing its head, spinning and leaping.