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The contract had said thirty draugr.

Lars counted more than that coming through the trees.

“Back!”

Fire swept across the road.

Three draugr disappeared behind the flames. One came through anyway, clothing burning, frost cracking across its face as it lunged.

Lars caught it on his shield.

Iron Brace.

The impact still drove him backward.

Jaxon’s hammer came over his shoulder and crushed the draugr’s skull.

It dropped at his feet.

“More left!” someone shouted.

Lars looked.

Pale shapes moved between the trees.

Five.

Ten.

More behind them.

“Mara!”

“I see them!”

Their company had taken draugr contracts before.

Mara knew what they were walking into when she accepted this one.

Fire softened them.

Heavy blows broke them.

Destroy the head or torso, and they stayed down.

Thirty draugr should have been a long morning.

The first forty had already proven the contract wrong.

The next group made it worse.

“Fall back to the road!” Mara shouted.

They fell back together without breaking formation.

Sorra's arrows carried small bursts of heat into the closest draugr. Serrat and Edwin threw fire whenever the undead crowded together. Lars and Cedric kept the front line from reaching the casters while Jaxon and Holt shattered anything that made it through.

They kept the draugr back until something larger walked out of the trees.

Lars almost mistook it for another one.

It had the shape of a man, but the proportions were wrong. One shoulder sat higher than the other. Its arms hung too long. Dark flesh stretched tight across a broad chest with almost none of the frost covering the corpses around it.

Holt stared.

“What in the hell is that?”

The creature charged.

Cedric raised his shield.

The impact threw him off his feet.

Lars barely had time to turn before Cedric struck a tree hard enough to shake snow from its branches.

“Holt!”

Holt and Jaxon moved together.

Two hammers struck the creature from opposite sides.

Something cracked.

It fell.

For half a heartbeat, Lars thought that was the end of it.

Then it grabbed Holt.

Everything happened too quickly after that.

Holt hit the ground.

Jaxon caught his arm.

Lars ran toward them.

A draugr lunged into his path.

By the time he smashed it aside, Holt was screaming.

The larger undead had pulled him against its body.

Its flesh opened around him and began drawing him in.

Dark strands wrapped across Holt’s chest and legs while Jaxon struck the creature again and again.

“GET HIM OUT!”

Lars grabbed Holt’s wrist.

For one second, he thought they had him.

Then Holt’s arm disappeared to the elbow.

Lars let go.

The rest of him vanished seconds later.

The creature changed.

Its torso widened.

One arm thickened.

Its hunched back rose until it stood noticeably taller than it had moments before.

Nobody moved.

Mara recovered first.

“RUN!”

They did.

They lost Cedric during the retreat.

Nessa died somewhere behind them after a draugr caught her in one of its sudden lunges.

Edwin went down when the group tried to turn and hold long enough for Serrat to recover.

Lars never saw exactly what killed him.

He only saw the larger undead crouched over his body afterward.

Then it grew again.

By the time the village appeared through the trees, eight of them were left.

Lars had stopped trying to count the draugr.

There were too many.

“Buildings ahead!” Sorra shouted.

The village looked untouched.

Snow covered the roofs. A cart stood beneath an awning beside one house. Split firewood remained stacked against another.

The chimneys were cold, and the livestock pens stood empty.

No one came outside when eight armed strangers stumbled into the road.

“They evacuated,” Jaxon said.

Lars saw old wagon tracks beneath the snow leading south.

“Smart.”

Something shrieked behind them, and Lars looked back.

The larger undead was closing the distance.

Mara pointed toward a stone building near the center of the village.

“There!”

They ran.

The door was unlocked.

Lars and Jaxon dragged a heavy table against it while the others blocked the windows with benches and whatever furniture they could move.

“Rear?”

“Clear for now.”

“Serrat, how much do you have left?”

The mage leaned against the wall, breathing hard.

“I can still cast.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

Serrat looked away.

“Enough.”

Mara accepted that.

Lars moved to one of the narrow windows.

The draugr entered the village without any order to them.

Some came down the main road.

Others wandered between houses until a sound or movement drew them toward the stone building.

Their numbers seemed worse now that there were walls around him.

Then Lars saw the larger undead broader through the chest and shoulders than it had been before.

“Mara.”

She joined him.

For a moment neither said anything.

Then the first draugr hit the door.

Everyone moved.

The stone building kept them alive.

That was about all Lars could say for it.

The doorway forced the draugr together.

Serrat burned them when she could.

Jaxon smashed whatever came through.

Sorra and Bel fired from the upper windows.

Lars stopped counting how many times something struck his shield.

The cold became worse with every corpse crowding around the building.

His fingers stiffened.

His breathing grew heavier.

Even lifting the shield started taking effort.

“Left window!”

Lars turned.

A draugr had forced one arm between the shutters.

Bel drew his knife and hacked at the reaching arm.

The arm broke.

Frost immediately crawled across the ruined elbow, locking it stiff.

The draugr kept reaching.

Jaxon crossed the room and smashed its head through the opening.

Something heavier struck the front wall.

Everyone stopped.

Another impact.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Lars looked through the nearest gap.

The large undead stood outside, feeding on the draugr they had killed.

Its flesh spread over the body.

The draugr disappeared.

Lars watched its shoulder swell.

“Oh.”

Mara stepped beside him.

Another dead draugr vanished into it.

The creature grew again.

Jaxon saw it too.

“So killing them feeds that thing.”

Nobody had an answer.

The large undead turned toward the building.

Then it charged.

The wall shook.

Stone cracked beside the doorframe.

The second impact widened the crack and part of the frame broke inward.

Cold rushed through the gap.

Serrat raised both hands.

A weak flame flickered between them.

Jaxon tightened her grip on her hammer.

Sorra had only a handful of arrows left.

Lars raised his shield.

Iron Brace.

The Skill settled through his exhausted legs.

“Ready?”

Nobody said yes.

Something hit the wall.

Then the world outside exploded.

The floor jumped beneath Lars’s boots.

Dust poured from the ceiling.

For one stunned moment, every person in the room froze.

The explosion was followed by a second one farther down the road.

Orange light flashed through the cracks around the shutters.

The draugr outside changed direction almost at once. Their scraping against the building lessened as noise and heat drew them toward the street.

Lars moved to the nearest window.

“What is it?” Mara asked.

“I don’t know.”

Another blast rolled through the village.

This time Lars saw it.

A knot of draugr near the road disappeared behind a burst of fire and shattered ice. Two were thrown against the side of a house. Another landed in the snow missing most of its torso.

Sharp cracks followed.

Bolts of light crossed the street.

One struck a draugr through the chest. Another hit the one beside it in the head and dropped it before it could lunge.

Sorra pushed closer to the window.

“Who are they?”

Lars finally spotted the people advancing from the southern road.

Four soldiers moved between the buildings.

At least, he assumed they were soldiers.

They wore fitted plate covered in faintly glowing lines. One was human. Another was too short and narrow to be anything but a kobold. A goblin moved behind them with a strange rifle braced against his shoulder, while a broad gnoll covered the opposite side of the street.

Their plate looked heavy, but they moved through the street with surprising speed.

The human slipped aside from a lunging draugr and fired into its ribs before it could recover.

The gnoll caught another one when it came too close.

He drove a plated shoulder into the corpse and sent it sprawling into the road before putting a bolt through its head.

“Those aren’t regular soldiers,” Jaxon said.

“No.”

The kobold carried something different.

A squat weapon rested against one shoulder.

Lars saw the kobold stop near the corner of a house and aim toward a cluster of draugr moving between two buildings.

There was a sharp thump.

Something small crossed the street.

The explosion tore through the group.

Serrat stared.

“I want one.”

Despite everything, Lars almost laughed.

Then someone else walked into view.

She was larger than any of the soldiers.

She carried her hammer in both hands as she came up the center of the road.

Lars recognized her.

Most adventurers working around Glasshold would.

Mazoga had been taking contracts from the Guild for months, usually monster clearing or work farther north. Lars had seen her around the hall more than once.

He had never watched her fight.

A draugr rushed her.

Mazoga stepped into it.

Her hammer came around from the side and struck the corpse across the chest.

The draugr folded around the blow.

It left the road entirely and hit the wall of a house several paces away.

Another came from behind it.

Mazoga changed her grip and brought the hammer down.

The head and shoulders disappeared into the snow.

She kept moving.

The militia followed behind her, firing past either side whenever the road opened.

They were clearing toward the stone building.

Mara moved away from the window.

“Get the table off the door.”

Lars turned.

“Are you sure?”

“They’re coming for us.”

Jaxon and Lars pulled the table back while Bel dragged one of the benches aside.

Something slammed into the outer wall again.

The larger undead.

Lars had forgotten about it.

He rushed back to the window.

The creature stood near the side of the building, one arm hanging low enough that its fingers nearly brushed the ground.

Its attention had shifted toward the newcomers.

A light bolt struck it in the shoulder.

The creature barely moved.

A second hit its chest.

Flesh burst away.

It turned toward the newcomers.

“Oh, no.”

“What?” Mara asked.

Lars shoved the shutter wider.

The creature charged.

“Watch out!” Lars shouted.

He doubted she could hear him through the walls and fighting but Mazoga saw it coming.

She planted her feet in the middle of the road and tightened her grip on the hammer.

The creature crashed into her.

Lars expected her to go flying.

Instead, the impact drove her boots through the snow and into the frozen ground beneath it. Her upper body rocked back, but she stayed upright.

The creature pulled back and swung one of its oversized arms at her.

She caught the blow against the haft of her hammer.

The impact rang through the street.

Then she shoved the arm aside and drove the hammer into the creature’s ribs.

The sound carried all the way to the building.

The undead left the ground.

It crashed through the fence beside one of the houses and rolled across the snow.

Lars stared through the window.

Behind Mazoga, the soldier had already spread through the village.

The kobold dropped to one knee beside a stone trough and fired his strange weapon.

A projectile disappeared between two buildings.

The explosion that followed sent fire through a cluster of draugr and threw burning pieces across the road.

The human and goblin advanced behind it, their strange weapons firing bolts of light into the draugr. The gnoll moved along the opposite side, picking off anything that came around the houses.

Jaxon stepped up beside Lars.

“Where did these people come from?”

Lars had no answer.

The larger undead pushed itself out of the broken fence.

Several of its ribs had collapsed inward.

Mazoga rolled her shoulders and waited for it.

This time the creature came in with one oversized arm raised.

The blow caught her across the side.

Lars flinched.

She slid several paces across the road before one knee struck the ground.

“That should have broken something,” Serrat said behind him.

Mazoga stood.

The creature was already coming again.

She met it halfway.

Her hammer struck its stomach hard enough to fold the creature around the weapon.

Before it could recover, she pulled the hammer free and struck again.

The second blow landed higher.

The creature stumbled backward.

Lars had watched Jaxon and Holt hit it together and barely keep it down.

Mazoga was doing it alone.

A draugr wandered too close.

The larger undead grabbed it.

Lars leaned toward the window.

“Don’t let it—”

Mazoga moved before he finished.

She brought one boot down hard.

The frozen road jumped.

A crack raced through the packed ice, and the draugr toppled away from the larger creature.

The undead's fingers closed on empty air.

Mazoga kicked the fallen draugr farther aside and swung her hammer into the creature’s wrist.

Bone broke.

The oversized hand dropped uselessly.

The creature lunged with the other arm.

She took the hit straight on and it drove her into the side of a house.

Timber cracked behind her.

Jaxon swore.

The creature followed, reaching for her before she could move away.

Mazoga caught its wrist with one hand.

For a moment they stayed like that.

Then she pushed.

Lars watched the creature’s arm bend backward.

Mazoga stepped away from the wall and drove her forehead into its face.

Its head snapped back.

She followed with the hammer.

The blow landed under its chest and lifted the creature completely off its feet.

It hit the road on its back.

Jaxon let out a slow breath.

The creature tried to recover.

Mazoga didn’t give it the chance.

She closed the distance and struck one knee.

Bone broke beneath the hammer.

The creature dropped to one knee. Mazoga stepped in and swung.

The hammer struck the side of its neck. Its head snapped sideways.

Mazoga swung again.

The head tore free and rolled across the frozen road. The body collapsed beside it.

Lars waited for it to move. It didn’t.

Mazoga lowered her hammer.

Mazoga wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and looked down at the body.

Up close, it looked even worse.

The proportions were wrong in ways that had nothing to do with undeath. One arm was thicker than the other, the torso swollen around masses of flesh that did not seem to belong together.

She nudged the severed head with her boot.

“Grint.”

The goblin looked over from where he was checking one of the fallen draugr.

“Yeah?”

“Radio Foroughfore. Have them send a wagon.”

Grint glanced at the corpse.

“For that?”

“For that.”

He walked closer, rifle still in hand.

“You planning on bringing the whole thing back?”

Mazoga looked over the body again.

“If we can.”

Grint frowned.

“Why?”

“Academy put out a contract a while back. They want reports on unusual undead.”

Grint looked down at the creature.

“Think this counts?”

Mazoga looked toward the ruined fence, then at the adventurers beginning to emerge from the stone building.

“I think they’ll want to see this one.”

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