Dragon Tamer: 15. Like Watership Down 2 of 2 (Patreon)

The bunnies advanced. The fine details became clearer.

I… don’t think that undead bunnies ate grass. Most had a ring of rust-like substance around their mouths. Dried blood.

My guess? There is – or used to be – rats and mice in the graveyard.

Back when I was a little kid, my neglectful ass parents didn’t care what I watched. My mother plunked me down in front of the TV and put on a horrible cartoon movie she thought was kid friendly because it had rabbits in it. At one point, the rabbits were trapped underground with poison gas seeping in.  They tore each other up trying to get out in full cartoon glory.

Anyway, these undead rabbits had the same look. If I had the leg to run on, I might have considered splitting right then and there. From the looks Jane and Sienna shot each other, they were thinking the same thing.

Thankfully, they stayed put.

Plus, I had Tiberius's fire breath on my side. Traditionally, fire and undead didn't mix.

The first undead bunny I'd spotted was also one of the largest, about the size of a medium dog. As soon as it got close, it let out a squeaking war cry and charged for my ankle.

Tiberius bounded forward, lowered his head, and headbutted the little monster. With the sound of a rotten melon splitting open, the undead bunny was tossed to the side.

Commadore let out a piercing cry of his own and swooped down to claw the back of several oncoming bunnies. They weren't fatal or disabling hits, but they were distracting. The bunnies were forced to stop and deal with him instead of advancing on us.

Then Ferdinand took the opportunity to waddle forward. He pulled back his head all the way, a lot like the red-eyed seagull meme.

Only when he snapped his head forward, out came a honk so loud that I clapped my hands over my ears.

Four undead bunnies disintegrated under the force of the sound. Like, the flesh peeled off the bones. Then some of the exposed bones cracked.

Even Tiberius turned around to stare at the little dragon.

“He’s not a mallard,” I muttered in realization. “He’s a goose.” Which, anyone who dealt with a goose should know, was nature’s hell beast.

Sienna bent down to pat Ferdinand on the head. "That was his special attack. He'll need a few minutes before he can use it again."

"Got it," I said shakily.

Actually... opening with a special attack wasn't a bad idea. Especially when the enemy monsters had grouped up and doing the slow zombie shuffle our way.

The bunnies who'd been in the graveyard were coming our way, too, but most were slowed -- if not completely stopped -- by the white fence. These were more like the traditional zombies: Slow, dumb, and dangerous due to large numbers.

We weren't dealing with the rage-virus types. Thank goodness.

They still had strength in numbers and if the dragons used their special attacks, they’d trim those numbers down.

"Tiberius!" I called, feeling like I should have been tossing out a red and white ball at that moment. Ah well. "Take out that group!" "Fire Tornado!"

Tiberius made a hiccupping "yup" sound in acknowledgement and darted forward to the middle of the oncoming pack.

Several zombies took bites or swipes with hoofed forelimbs as Tiberius shot past him.

The zombies took swipes at him with hooves and teeth, but Tiberius ran fast and any blow he took was glancing at best. Few connected, and those that did weren't bad enough to draw blood.

As Tiberius made his first turn, fire erupted under his feet. At the first lick of flame erupted under his feet, the zombie bunnies shrank back. This only emboldened the little fennec. He increased his speed, and the flames around him collected into a whirlwind.

"Harmony! Behind you!" Jane yelled.

I had made the mistake of watching Tiber and had forgotten to keep an eye out for myself. Worse, Jane, Sienna and I had been so focused on all our dragons that we had let ourselves become separated.

Three half-rotten bunnies had broken from the graveyard fence and staggered my way. They were between me and the other girls.

At Jane's shout, Commadore swooped down to rake one with his claws. The flesh must have been well on its way to rotten because he took a chunk of its back along with him.

I turned away, gagging at both the sight and the smell. Sensing weakness, one of the two bunnies rushed at me.

Well, rushed was a slight over exaggeration. They weren't very fast.

But neither was I.

I kicked out wildly and knocked one upside the head. The neck broke with an audible snap.

Unfortunately, the bunny was already dead and kept advancing forward -- with its head now at a bizarre angle.

"Ah! Gross!"

I kicked again, this time managing to knock it away a few feet.

The one right behind it, however, hoped forward.

I shrieked, and, in a moment of pure panic, wildly kicked at it with my bad leg. Well... flailed was a better description. My stupid bad leg didn't have a lot of force behind it. Instead of kicking it with my shoe I sort of brushed it with a bare patch of skin just over my ankle.

Ding!

You may loot undead horned rabbit

I paused. Wait.

The bunny was still my enemy, but… it being dead must have meant it was fair game for the loot system.

"Yes?"

Abruptly, the horned bunny collapsed where it stood, deflating like a rotten bag of meat. And with the same level of smell.

Ding!

You have received:

One Rotten steak

One undead core

And in the next moment I had a disgustingly soft gray and green sheened steak in my hands. With a shriek, I dropped the steak. Something clattered right beside it. It looked white like a pearl, and I realized that this was the second item. The undead core.

Whatever that was.

The remains of the undead bunny were just that — remains. I stared at it for a second, my mind refusing to engage.

At least until the second bunny – the one that I had kicked away, with the broken neck righted itself and came charging. It bumped against my bad leg which folded like a bed card table.

“Harmony!" Sienna yelled and came running for me.

… But not before I slapped the bunny and yelled, “Loot!”

The bunny collapsed, I in the next second I held a decaying hide and a second undead core.

“ What just happened?" Sienna demanded. She and Jane ran up and helped me up to my feet.

“They’re already dead so I can loot them. I don't know if it’s a cheat or what, but if I touch them they’re mine." With that, I turned towards another small handful of bunnies which were advancing towards me, horns down and ready to shuffle-charge.

Stupid creatures. You’d think that me heading for them would have raised some kind of warning flag in their minds. But they didn’t slow down for a second. They surrounded me… and fell the moment I touched them with my bare skin. I just bent down and slapped them. Easy-peasy.

I was like King Midas, only instead of gold I got disgusting rotten loot.

The last of the undead became real dead bunnies.

I looked around and realized that between me and the dragons, there wasn't many undead bunnies to be found. Most were scattered here and there.

Tiberius had finally tired and broken off from the fire tornado, the flames dying down to reveal burned corpses. Ferdinand had already used his special attack and appeared to be pecking one of the bunnies to death. Death by goose-dragon. What a way to go.

Commodore had gotten the bright idea to swoop down on the smaller bunnies, lift them into the air, and drop them from up high. That either killed them right off or crippled them so they couldn't get up and rush us again.

We’d won.

"That wasn't so hard," I said, like an idiot. I slapped my hand over my mouth, but it was too late. I had already invoked Murphy, the patron saint of bad luck.

Sure enough, there was an ominous rumble from the graveyard. A stone building I guessed was a crypt split open and a clawed hand made of bones shot out.

Only then did I realize that we have been fighting minions: Horned bunnies that had been previously defeated. That’s why my looting ability had worked.

It was time to fight the boss.

Jane had another opinion. "It's a bone dragon! Run!”