A unicorn.
It took seconds for Leila to identify the magnificent beast, after the imprint of intense glare from the rainbow beams finally faded from her retina, moments after the light itself. The creature’s mane carried a feathery texture and was laced with colourful patterns that reminded one of the feathers of a peacock, the iridescence fluctuating hues as the mane swayed in the wind.
Leila couldn’t take her eyes off the unicorn. She wondered where such a beautiful creature could have originated - there were in the dark side of Nowhere, after all, were allegedly mostly only wicked beings lurked. How, then, could things of such beauty appear here? Speaking of that, though, Leila was reminded of a similar being - something that would also perhaps qualify as an unicorn? Except with hollow eyes, torn skin, exposed bone and rotten flesh. She noticed that that creature was now nowhere to be found. Curious.
This is not to suggest that it is implied that the zombie unicorn somehow turned into this beautiful beast, of course. Such an absolutely ridiculous event is-
“-wah!”
The instant of distraction was sufficient for one of the undead to close in from the already tight fighting circle, and she felt the jerk from the skeletal fingers that had embedded themselves into the side of her arm. Before she did anything about it, however, the tip of a spear materialized through the space between the eyes of the decaying face that was peering over her shoulder, droplets of whatever flows inside the brain of a man dead for decades splattering accompanied by the sound that was a combination of a shovel making its way through half-melted snow and what was obviously the cracking of bone. The undead collapsed to its knees, but it took an extra, panicky punch from Leila’s bow-wielding hand for it to finally loosen its grip to allow it to fall to the ground.
Pain pulsed through her finger joints and she wondered whether she broke anything throwing that punch. Hopefully not.
Leila turned around to see Inadi pull back his spear and return a look at her. Before she could thank him or he could say anything, though, they were both distracted - Inadi to cripple another zombie nearby, and Leila to expend another arrow on one that was accelerating towards them.
”Definitely would like to see these things stop popping out like rabbits right?”
She’d say that she didn’t mind them popping out of the ground much so long as they would stop attempting to eat the humans alive, but well…that’d work as well, she figured.
”Do you think you can aim for that crow?”
She heard Harper call from the other direction and nearly panicked because she had just exhausted her arrows. She tried to hide that as she took the bloodstained arrow Harper handed her.
Her sight followed the direction he pointed towards - the silhouette of a resting bird docked upon a twisted twig. Its blank eyes glowed an eerie red, seemingly staring at them no matter how she moved. She drew the bow and took aim. It wasn’t hard, but she hesitated longer than usual.
It might have been because used arrows are aerodynamically flawed and required additional adjustments. At least that was what she told herself. What actually bothered her, however, were the chills that ran down her spine as she made eye contact with the wicked bird.
And when she finally was composed enough to decide to let go of the bowstring - an interval of a mere couple of seconds - a great wind struck her and she was again thrown off balance. When she rightened her stance, the airs were empty and the crow was nowhere to be seen - until she heard the hissing of a thousand-year-old voice:
”Prideful...”
Within her range of sight she could see Harper, Ace, and a couple of nobodies, all occupied in combats. The witch was at the centre of the circle, sending out wave after wave of black wisps that petrified everything they came into contact with. Leon and Jasper appeared to be struggling with repelling the projectiles of black magic.
In books and movies, any crucial decisions or dire situations call for slow motion camera takes, detailed descriptions, and close and complete analysis of everything that is going down, down to great detail.
At this moment, with all that’s happening around her, Leila had the chance to verify the credibility of such descriptions. Results: slow motion: yes. Detailed analysis of situation: as far as one can be from it.
The dead had fallen silent and the witch has decided to face them directly. There is an attack plan and several people are charging towards the witch. ...and that is all that Leila knew. Nothing more. No theory, no calculations, no forecast of results. They were taking great risks and they had to do something.
”Someone, get a hit in!”
Leila heard someone yell. She reached behind her back into her quiver only to remember that she didn’t have any arrows left.
Except she did.
Without thinking much, she secured the arrow, drew the bow, and released it into an accurate trajectory that intersected that of one of the wisps headed towards the group of humans. The two collided in mid-air, the falling to the ground in shattered stone.
Leila rubbed her fingers together, a chilling sensation lingering at her fingertips. She turned around and saw Haku, apparently not noticing her and focusing his strength on the spells he was casting towards the witch.
Leila reached into the quiver for another arrow of ice.
The projectiles were surprisingly well-balanced, and she was quickly accustomed to the feeling of the new material. In quick succession, she started firing shots towards the wisps that posed a risk to the humans, blocking them in their way so that her companions are covered in their advance. For some reason - the same reason she shivered when she saw the red-eyed crow - she dared not aim directly at the witch, yet arrow after arrow she tried to knock back as many of the incoming wisps as possible, alongside Leon’s gusts of wind.
Tracking moving targets was harder than she expected and success rates are mundane at best, while the sessions of rapid firing drained her amulet rather quickly. She realized it wasn’t efficient, yet it did seem to be the only thing she could do now, from here.