Nevin bit back a vehement curse as he dodged out of the way of the female zombie’s first lumbering charge. While this thing was nowhere near as fast as the mutated dear that he had fought outside, Nevin found himself only barely able to avoid the attack. It didn't make sense - he could see that this thing was moving slower than the deer, hell it was moving far slower than he was. So why was he only just capable of ducking past an angry swipe from one of its arms?
The zombie turned furious eyes in his direction and let out a loud, rattling groan that sent a chill of fear through him. The alchemist swallowed, trying to work past the lump in his throat - and his eyes widened as the thing lunged for him. He threw himself backwards, barely saving his throat from the rotted, jagged teeth of the zombie.
I can't keep this up. I have to figure out why I feel like I'm swimming through molasses - the zombie let out a strangled moan as it pushed itself to its feet from where it had fallen in front of him. The change in the noise was almost comical, and against his will he felt a terrified laugh force its way from his mouth.
And for a moment, Nevin moved smoothly again, easily avoiding the grasping bony fingers of the zombie. Unlike the last attacks, this one didn't even come close to hitting him, and Nevin let himself think that the strangeness had passed - and then the monster groaned, enraged and glaring at him, and the blood mage felt that thick resistance in the air again.
It's a magical effect! How on earth is a zombie - There was a digging pain in one leg, and Nevin looked down. He had completely forgotten about the first zombie that had woken up. Its legs didn't work so it had had to crawl towards him - but in his focus on evading the second zombie, this one had managed to reach him, and had sunk the claws of one hand into the meat of Nevin’s calf. The man let out a strangled scream, choking the sound in his throat.
Crimson threads burst from his leg above and below where the claws were buried. They snapped together, weaving into a spiral that was wrapped around the arm of the zombie, obscuring it from sight. There was a sickening squelch - and the zombie pulled back a stump of an arm, roughly crushed just below the elbow. Nevin felt a painful tugging in his leg, and a glance showed that his threads had pulled the zombie hand out of his flesh.
He shuddered, and turned his attention back to the female zombie. It had shuffled toward him while he was reacting to the crawling zombie, and when it saw him looking at it again, it let out a shrieking groan and lunged for him, hands raised and bony fingers outstretched.
This time Nevin reacted quickly, apparently pain broke whatever the magic was doing to him. Threads slid from beneath his skin and wrapped around his arms, and he almost contemptuously brushed the lunging zombie aside. He drove his fist into its side, feeling and hearing ribs crack as his punch knocked it to the ground. One hand shot down to pull out his whip, and he snapped it out to wrap around the zombie’s neck.
With a powerful pull and a loud crack, the zombie’s head lolled to one side. The mage kept pulling, his threads boosting his strength as he wrenched the zombie’s head from its body with a sickening wet tearing sound. The barbs of his whip had helped in this - cutting and tearing through flesh as he had pulled on the whip.
Nevin jumped to the side to avoid another attempt from the crawling zombie to surprise him, though the blood mage did let out a gasp of pain as his injured leg gave out under him as he landed, and he collapsed to the ground.
