Lilit woke up slowly. She was wrapped in warmth and felt so safe. She didn’t really want to get up. There was a warm presence at her back, and an arm wrapped around her middle. She felt herself snuggling in closer to Awenda without any conscious thought.
A deep, rumbly ugh vibrated through her torso as Awenda chuckled behind her. “Are you ready to get up?” Awenda whispered into her ear. Goosebumps raced down her body as the warm breath tickled her skin.
“Five more minutes,” Lilit reached up and tucked Awenda’s arm tighter against her body.
There was that same deep rumble she felt in her chest as Awenda chuckled in her ear. Her arm tightened around Lilit, giving her a comforting squeeze. “Unfortunately, it is time to get up,” she swept a piece of hair from Lilit’s face and tucked it behind her ear. “The others are already stirring as well.”
“Fine,” Lilit threw off the bnkets in a huff before worming her way out of Awenda’s arms. She stood up and stretched her arms over her head, her back arching. She looked over her shoulder and smirked when she caught Awenda watching her intently. When she noticed she’d been caught Awenda blushed and looked away quickly. Lilit just ughed.
They quickly put away their bedrolls and bnkets. They sat around in a circle and ate a cold breakfast. Conversation was light. None of them seemed to be especially morning people. A quick wash in the fountain, this time sans help, and then they were putting their armor back on.
Awenda soon led the group out through the exit doors and into the next room of the dungeon. Despite what time it was outside the dungeon, it was deep twilight in the next part of the dungeon. The sky was a band of dark purple on the horizon that led up to the first stars appearing in the darkened sky overhead.
The grasses in the open field they found themselves in stretched up to Awenda’s waist, so it was just shy of Lilit’s ribs. The wind swept across the pins, tossing the field into a whirl of moving grasses. It was impossible to know if anything was in the field with them. They’d just have to keep their eyes out for danger.
They were currently standing on a small hill in the field that gave them a better view of the surrounding area. Across the field Lilit could see an old crumbling church. Between the field and the church though was a rge cemetery. Though it would have been completely on brand, there was no fog seeping between the gravestones or anything like that. Just an open field, a cemetery, and a church. Behind them was the start of a dark forest, but Lilit could almost feel the dungeon urging them toward the church. She just wondered where the danger was going to be coming from this time. And what nasty creature would be unleashed.
Thinking back to the door leading into the first safe room, Lilit began to suspect it had been there to warn them of the dangers in each room. The skeletons on the bottom represented the first room. The dripping figures were the vampires covered in blood. The rotting corpses were the zombies. She wasn’t sure what this floor would bring. Something humanoid with sharp cws and rge gaping maws. The figures above that seemed like they would indicate more vampires, though the fact that there were only two and they were crowned was worrying. The final panel had been the creepy skull in the cloak, which again, could be lots of things. She hoped they would be ready for whatever they encountered.
“Let’s head toward the church,” Lilit said to get everyone moving again. The sooner they got started, the sooner they’d be done. And the sooner she could get back to whatever was going on with Awenda. She found herself licking her lips as she thought about it. Shaking her head to clear it, she needed to focus on the here and now. Plenty of time for fantasies ter.
Awenda once again took up the lead with the others following. The group set off through the tall grass. There wasn’t any other sound than their breathing and the whisper of grass as it rolled in the wind.
They were halfway down the hill before they heard it. It started off as a howl almost like a wolf, but something was just a little off. It ended in the eerie cackle of a hyena. The howl-ugh was picked up by several other voices before Lilit saw the first movements in the cemetery.
From behind several crypts and tombs raced out strange figures. They barreled across the ground like gorils, hunched over on long arms. The creatures were surprisingly swift. As they ran, their jaws swung unnaturally wide, sharp teeth gleaming, and the creepy howl-ugh was repeated.
As they reached the field, they disappeared into the grass. They were just short enough hunched over like they were to become hidden by the tall grass. With the wind blowing through, it was next to impossible to track them.
“Two sweeping out to fnk us,” Awenda called out as she came to a stop at the bottom of the hill and readied herself to meet their charge. Lilit wasn’t sure if it was Awenda’s extra height or her military training that allowed her to track the creatures so well, but she’d take it.
“Rana on the left, phantasm on the right,” Lilit ordered. “When they get within range, use your breath weapon to hit them and clear the grass away so Izumi can see them,” Lilit continued her instructions.
The creatures went silent about five seconds before they struck. Three came head on, directly into Awenda’s path, leaping out of the grass. One came up on the left, and one on the right in a pincher attack. They were probably semi-intelligent pack hunters. With their speed and those rge jaws, this wasn’t going to be an easy fight.
Awenda let out a sweeping arc of fire directly onto the three creatures attacking her. They darted backward away from her fmes, but she was able to catch one of them outright. Lilit could hear the high pitched, whistling shriek coming from it as it rolled across the ground. Awenda didn’t stop there and poured out as much fme as she could arcing from left to right. The grasses in front of her fsh fried in the fire. The ones along the edge of her breath attack’s range caught fire and spread quickly. This might not have been as good of an idea as Lilit thought.
They were moving too fast for Lilit to concentrate on long enough to identify what they were and more importantly what level they were. She watched her friends y into the beasts attacking them with trepidation. There wasn’t much she could contribute to this fight, not with how fast they were. Lilit’s little bit of experience didn’t give her the tools to go toe to toe with these creatures. She realized how far she needed to go to be a stronger team member for her party.
Awenda let out a loud roar that had the two creatures that weren’t on fire scrambling away momentarily. While they were on their back foot, she leaped forward and brought her sword down in a glittering arc to bury it deep into the creature still rolling around trying to put out the fmes. The creature’s shrieks turned into wet wails as its lungs filled with blood. It stopped moving a few moments after Awenda stood up and pulled her sword free of its body.
On her left, Rana seemed to have activated one of her abilities as her body sped up. She attacked ruthlessly, not giving an inch. Her creature did its best to dodge her blows, but the blood freely flowing over its body told the story of Rana’s attack. It rushed in at her with sharp cws wide, trying to tear through her armor. Rana managed to dip to the side at the st instant.
It seemed to dismiss Rana as it ran past her, refocusing on Lilit who was directly ahead of it. Lilt pulled her shield up and braced herself for an impact that never came. Rana had followed on its heels and managed to sm one of her axes straight through the creature’s skull. Her axe was buried to the eye in its skull. It was ripped from her hands as the creature colpsed and slid to a stop at Lilit’s feet. Rana stepped forward, pced her foot on the creature’s neck and yanked the bde of the axe out. She grinned a feral grin at Lilit before she bound away to help Awenda.
On Lilit’s right, Izumi’s phantasm was barely holding its own against the creature in front of it. The phantasm was slower, but seemed to hit harder when it could nd a hit. But the creature had been able to nd several hits of its own based on the dark, shadowy substance leaking out of several gashes in the phantasm’s robes. Every time the phantasm tried to flicker away to avoid a hit, the creature would reorient onto Izumi and Lilit. Izumi was firing arrows as fast as she could into one of the creatures hassling Awenda, trusting her phantasm to hold its own.
“Izumi, pivot targets. Your phantasm is struggling,” Lilit called out. Izumi turned and noticed what was happening to her summons. She let her bow dip down as she chanted some incantation. Her phantasm’s speed picked up and it began to really y into the creature in front of it. She rolled right into a second incantation that had the bck seeping shadows absorbing back into the phantasm’s body.
It was a few moments too te though. With a final swipe from the creature it battled, the phantasm fell apart into a cloud of smoke. It swept up and swirled around the creature that had killed it, seeming to inflict one st bit of damage. The creature convulsed in pain within the shadowy cloud. Then the cloud dissipated, leaving an angry creature. It had finally sat still long enough for Lilit to identify, Ghoul Lvl 2.
Before it could recover, Lilit leapt forward. Izumi also managed to loose an arrow into the ghoul’s shoulder, staggering it further. Lilit swung her mace toward the ghoul’s head, but it twisted out of the way. Instead her mace impacted it in the same shoulder as the arrow. The sound of shattering bone echoed in the air, but it didn’t seem to slow down the ghoul in the least.
The ghoul quickly recovered and lunged at Lilit. It bowled her over with a swipe of cws. She felt it tear through the leather over her chest, but it didn’t seem to pierce through to her skin. She was on her back when she looked up to see the ghoul take an arrow straight through the throat. It gurgled for a moment before falling over backward.
Lilit scrambled to her feet in time to watch Rana down the st of the ghouls. The entire party was huffing and puffing, all but Izumi bent over as they tried to catch their breath and not fall over. That fight hadn’t sted long, but if anything the ghouls had been faster and more organized than the vampires they’d faced previously. The zombies and skeletons had only been concerns because of their numbers. Vampires and ghouls were dangerous on an individual level.
“Fuck, it’s going to be another few minutes before I can resummon Bob.” Izumi told the party.
“Bob? Who the…who is Bob?” Rana asked loudly.
“Uh, the phantasm. I had to call him something. I couldn’t just keep saying, ‘the phantasm,’ it’s a mouthful and a little rude. Everyone deserves a name,” Izumi said.
“Bob the phantasm?” Lilit asked.
“Yeah. Why not?”
“Well, ok then I guess,” Lilit said. “How long is your cooldown for Bob?”
“Five minutes. Should be close to three by now,” Izumi answered.
“Cool, anyone need some heals?”
“Umm, you do,” Awenda pointed at Lilit.
Lilit looked down at herself. Huh. Apparently the ghoul had sshed straight through the armor all the way to her body. She had three long gashes across her ribs on her left side. They weren’t very deep, but as soon as she looked at them and acknowledged they were there the pain fred up. Blood had already run down her side halfway to her hip. “Oh, ow. Yeah, you’re right.”
Lilit pulled out her prayer book and recited her healing prayers focused on herself. She felt a warmth spread through her flesh as she watched it knit back together.
Rana ended up needing a little healing as well. A ghoul had scored a hit on her forearm that looked very painful, but she’d managed to fight through it. A few minutes ter Izumi summoned Bob once again. The party headed out immediately after.
The grassnd that they had been walking through originally was almost all burned out in a wide arc that raced away from the group and toward the church. The fire had finally died out after over a hundred feet had been cleared.
As they continued through the field they were met with more ghouls. They came as single individuals instead of a pack, but they were preceded by that same eerie howl-ugh. Awenda and Rana acted quickly and took down each attacker. They worked together like a well-oiled machine, never needing more than a single word and often not needing even that. A single look had them reacting to each other.
After several small engagements they made it to the edge of the cemetery. The headstones were all at least waist high, and there were crypts and tombs scattered throughout the grounds. It was several hundred feet to the back of the church.
As soon as they all had stepped into the cemetery the night erupted in a cacophony of the eerie howl-ughs the ghouls were known for. From around several crypts ahead of them drifted hunched over figures. The cries echoed all around them, and Lilit spun in pce to see that ghouls were popping up all around them. She did a quick count. Ten. They had struggled to defeat five earlier. She sent up a silent prayer that they would survive this.
Lilit pulled out her prayer book, flipped it open and began her chant to bring up a ward around Rana. As the most mobile fighter and in such light armor she had ended up receiving the most injuries in all their confrontations so far.
The night went silent. All the howls and creepy ughter stopped. As one the pack of ghouls charged across the cemetery at them.
