The icy wind bit deep into their flesh, made only worse by their damp attire from wading through the glacial river, their hearts pounded and the adrenaline in their blood made it easy enough to ignore. Gore coated their faces and hands, thankfully not their own.
"They're all around us, damn it!" hollered Haddock, lagging behind a bit as he wrestled with one of Mordring's many ghouls, eventually managing to thrust his dagger into its eye. "Keep moving!" shouted Veidan as he drew back his bow and skillfully picked off one of the riders, causing its body to tumble down the sheer rock face near them, its guts spilling out as it impaled itself on a sharp rock.
The men ran through the frigid valley, dead archers and swordsmen attacking them all the while. Haddock was struck in the arm and Veidan hurt his leg after rolling down a hill to escape a few of the riders. But the combined efforts of both men was just enough to beat them away, just barely.
Nothing but mist and the moans of the beasts closing in on them filled the air. They supported each other as they hobbled through the wastes, arms slung over each others shoulders, using their collective strength to push forwards, away from the horde.
A familiar feeling, one they had both experienced many years prior when facing their childhood enemies.
"You fuckin' bastards don't know who you're messing with!" shouted a young Veidan, about fifteen years ago, throwing himself at kids twice his size. Haddock soon charged in afterwards, often cursing his friends impulsiveness. After they were both beaten back down they hobbled home so that their welts and broken bones could be mended, using each other as support. Things hadn't changed much.
The groaning of their assailants eventually dissipated, their many rotten figures losing them in the vast whiteness of the tundra. They were alone, in this blank canvas of a place, naught but each others blood to keep each other warm.
They kept hobbling along like they had done so many times before, one carrying the other when he was too weak to go on, but Haddock felt his grip slacken, and he fell to a knee. He layed there in the wastes, Veidan suddenly fading away as if it were all a dream.
"No! Don't leave me!" he cried, reaching out to where Veidan once was, his hand finding naught but frozen air. "We always have each others backs, remember?!" he yelled, his voice breaking as he struggled to hold back tears.
He looked down at his hands started to crumbled away into ash, staining the crisp white snow beneath him black. He lifted his head in a panick, spotting the body of someone familiar. Meryl. He cried out her name, but no words came out and he staggered through the snow, holding her pale form in his grasp. He held her up to him and began to cry, his body continuing to crumble away as he held the love of his life who had been ripped from his grasp so young before.
"Finally..." he whispered, pressing her chest to his, "I'm with you again."