Keystone
Location: Deymin's Tower (3F)
This new adversary was huge.
Huge. Not the largest opponent he had faced before up close and personal, but damned close. Okay, check that - this was the largest
undead opponent he had gotten up close and painful with, ever. It led to an interesting change in tactic.
The creature had smashed Sana into the wall, then thankfully let go. When the bard collapsed bonelessly on the ground, Keystone's sense of urgency kicked into overdrive. He didn't know if she was alive or dead, hovering on the cusp or otherwise. Keystond did know that he was virtually helpless to do anything about it right then. He was no worker of magical feats, nor was he particularly in good with any deity. Gods and the like had little to do with people like him, he figured. He was just some guy that hit people really, really well. If that was the base sum of his existence, then he might as well go with it. Be true to who you are. The broad Pugilist intended to do just that.
First, Keystone dipped low as the great, lumbering creature turned toward him. Just as he selected the giant as his opponent moments earlier, it appeared that the Grey Render Zombie had used whatever decision-making ability it retained to likewise call him out. This suited Keystone just fine. From his low stance, he rotated his body in a single, fluid turn, bracing with a wide, powerful stance. He could feel the wind of a wide swipe ruffle the air above him where his head was just a half-second before, and responded by implanting the black metal of his Dwarfcraft knuckle dusters into the side of the creature's knee.
It buckled.
The force of the blow combined with the great zombie's ponderous weight caused its knee to fold sideways. Unable to maintain its stance upright, it began to collapse as a mighty tree felled by a rage-inspired lumberjack. The creature's head wobbled and arched toward Keystone as the zombie fell, which the experienced brawler connected against with a sharp, bone destroying uppercut, its jaw coming partially unhinged and teeth spraying outward in a gory, black-blooded spectacle.
But the spark of undead animation lay within it still. The split second that Keystone recgonized this, he leapt into the air and focused the entirety of his weight, coupled with the speed of his arm, into a pulverizing downward strike. The Grey Render Zombie's cranium folded under the ferocity of this final, finishing blow, what remained of its head a fetid mass of bone and spoiled meat. His peripheral vision let him know that Sana was moving yet, if shaky. Good. She was alive still.
Keystone looked toward the summoner of this latest abomination and issued a single, wordless shout of triumph. Sometimes, just being a guy who hit things very well was enough.
