Owin kicked a pew with his full strength. It crashed into a putrefied human and sent the undead mob tumbling across the chapel. Owin had to sprint and evade the wights as they flew across the room and tried to rake their claws across his skin.

The portal vanished without spewing out more mobs. Kashchei stepped off the altar. Its hood fell down, revealing black wispy hair and skin so tight on the face that every part of the skull was fully visible. Black balls of necromantic magic acted as its eyes. If the creature wasn't undead, then it had to be a specter or something unique.

Strands of black magic flew from Kashchei's fingers toward each of the different mobs. Upon contact with the magic, the cockatrice stopped its advance toward Owin and backed away toward the egg in the center of the room. Even the warpers mostly circled above.

Kashchei lifted its scythe, coating it in necromantic magic. When it sliced, a diagonal line of razor-edged magic was launched straight at Owin. He stepped to the side and leaned just far enough to dodge the attack.

As soon as Owin started moving toward Kashchei, the horde in the middle surged toward him. The wights were especially aggressive, constantly diving at Owin as they screamed. Kashchei directed the horde back into the center as soon as Owin backed away.

Killing any of the mobs would be pointless. It would be a great effort only for Kashchei to revive them again. But without killing any of the mobs, he was going to be constantly harassed by the wights and the putrefied humans.

He continued dodging, dashing, and attacking as necessary to stop the wights and undead humans from tearing his skin off. As expected, Kashchei continued to revive the mobs with enough speed that Owin was only backing away from the center of the room, being pushed toward the wall.

The few times he managed to dispatch the mobs quickly, he started to sprint forward, only to be stopped by another magical slash from Kashchei.

Summon the Withered Shade

A wight collided with Shade as soon as he appeared. Instead of being launched and turned to dust, Shade stayed still. The wight's claws scraped horribly across Shade's skull. In the moment the mob was stunned, Owin jumped and cut the wight's head off.

"I need help," Owin said.

Shade smashed an incoming putrefied human with the Thunderstrike Maul. His index appeared in front of his face. "A soldier? Sure." The yellow glow dropped as the second putrefied human neared. A quick swing of the Thunderstrike Maul tossed the rancid corpse aside. "What do we do?"

"All of those mobs are protecting that cockatrice egg, so it has to be important. I was having trouble fighting Kashchei, but a big part of that was everything else running around." The fire covering the Incandescent Blade vanished as the last of Owin's mana burned away. "Oh."

Shade held out the Thunderstrike Maul. "So, you're saying you need a distraction?"

"I might need more than that."

Shade patted him on the head. "No, you don't. You can handle this easily." Shade plucked the sword from Owin's hand and slid it back into the sheath. "Are you ready?"

"For what?"

Kashchei launched another slice of necromantic magic toward them right before the reanimated wights dove in for another attack. With the Thunderstrike Maul, Owin was able to easily smash the mobs into the floor. With enough force, it was actually more successful than cutting the wights in half. By the time the black slash reached them, they both easily ducked below.

"Who are you distracting?"

"Well, everyone. Obviously. You get the egg." Shade immediately turned and sprinted toward the center of the room.

Kashchei pointed its hand, sending black tendrils that connected to the various specters. As soon as the black threads touched them, the warpers lurched into motion. The necromancer gathered black magic around its scythe, but didn't move from the altar.

Owin waited and watched. It was his first chance to really try to learn what was happening in the room. What was the scenario or puzzle? Was it something as simple as destroying the egg?

But what did an egg have to do with an undead necromancer?

It was moments like this where he wished he could just ask Potilia. She probably knew.

A warper smacked into Shade's face and immediately vanished. They reappeared near the ceiling on the far side of the room. Shade fell onto his face, jumped back to his feet, and started sprinting straight back toward the egg without hesitation.

Everyone, including the noble cockatrice, turned toward the skeleton.

That was as easy of a cue as Owin was going to get. He shoved a putrefied human over and dashed toward the center of the room. Another slash of necromantic magic flew toward him, but he easily hurdled over it. If Kashchei was going to remain standing on the altar, that only made Owin's job easier.

Before he could reach the center of the room, black threads flew overhead, connecting with the noble cockatrice and the warpers. The mobs turned to Owin long before he could reach the egg. A warper barely grazed his arm, but it was enough to make the room vanish. He reappeared back beside the putrefied humans.

"I got it!" Shade held up the massive egg. A beak smacked into his skull. A few unsteady steps to the side nearly caused Shade to collapse, but he managed to get his feet under himself before fully collapsing. As soon as he steadied, the cockatrice smacked him again.

An ability flashed on the skeleton's hands as he fully tripped and smashed the egg onto the stone ground. It shattered and sent dissipating wisps of black magic into the air. There was nothing else in the egg, so Shade only fell onto the egg shells.

The cockatrice screamed.

Kashchei stumbled off the altar.

Owin smacked a warper out of the air, dodged a wight, then pivoted and hit the same wight with a fully charged hammer. It sent the wight into the wall, cracking the stones. The other warpers were all swarming Shade, constantly teleporting him around the room. He was screaming wildly, but the warping itself was harmless, so he would be fine.

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Owin crushed the skull of the other putrefied human before sprinting toward Kashchei. The necromancer used a withered, desiccated hand against the altar to slowly stand. Its legs were suddenly shaking and the necromantic magic covering the scythe started to lift and disappear into the air.

Owin leapt over a few rows of pews and swung the Thunderstrike Maul with terrifying strength. Kashchei managed to raise the scythe to block. This time, instead of stopping Owin's swing, the scythe just snapped. The hammer continued down, hitting Kashchei in the face. The necromancer collapsed under the strike.

Another few swings really made sure the boss was dead. The third time the hammer hit the necromancer's head, a portal opened in the center of the room, sucking the remaining specters back through.

Shade took the hammer from Owin and finished the fight, somewhat awkwardly, against the wights and putrefied humans. Neither was able to inflict real damage upon him, so it was an unfair battle. With soldier skills, Shade looked somewhat competent, but he obviously still needed practice.

They looked at each other from across the room as silence fell on the abandoned chapel.

"I thought I was going to make an omelet," Shade finally said.

"A what?"

The skeleton let the hammer rest on his shoulder. "It's a . . . you cook eggs and fold them. His eye sockets narrowed. "I don't know. Do you think I can cook? It's probably been a few hundred years since I last tried."

Owin shrugged. He lifted Kashchei's corpse by the ankle and scowled as his hand touched the rotting flesh. A light blue potion fell out. One Owin hadn't seen before. He carefully picked it up and tossed the corpse aside.

Mana Recovery Potion

Restores 50 points of mana that has been afflicted by curses, apparition damage, or other inhibiting sources.

Shade tripped over a broken pew and fell right in front of Owin. Instead of getting up, he stayed on the ground and pointed at the potion. "That will help from all the specters." He wiggled his hand. "The damage and such."

"Yeah, I see that." Owin drank it. It was a little sweet, but mostly tasted like nothing. A chunk of the burned section vanished from his mana bar. Owin let the bottle fall to the stone floor. "Do you have any idea who Kashchei was?"

"An ugly thing."

"That's not helpful."

Shade sat up and shrugged. "We can find the lore in a book somewhere if we want to look."

"I'll ask Potilia when we get back."

"Is she a book?"

Owin pulled Shade to his feet. The way to the stairs and exit were wide open. After a quick search through the chapel, they headed up to the ninth floor.

***

As soon as they reached the top of the stairs, a woman appeared, leaping through a painting. Pale wings spread out as she dove forward and caught Thalgodin with a fist. The neural demon tumbled across the gallery, but caught himself before crashing into a wall.

Myrsvai gathered abyssal fire and cast Infernal Shroud, covering the whole gallery in an opaque, choking haze. Suta sprinted past as a gray glow settled on their eyes. The visual enhancement from Thalgodin would make seeing through the shroud easy.

A moment later, Suta flew right past Myrsvai and hit the railing beside the stairs. The familiar gave off a sense of surprise, but not fear. He wasn't worried about losing to this vampire, whoever they were.

"Horrid demons," the vampire said. She walked toward Mrysvai with a cloak of bubbling blood. Her left eye was gone, and the socket was practically overflowing with maggots.

Fortress Mob

Lucie Masson

Vampire Lord

Level 68

"The lord," Myrsvai said loud enough for the others to hear. He had been planning on unleashing a horde upon her, but this wasn't where he had been expecting to have the battle.

Thalgodin dashed in and chopped with a sword. Lucie easily batted it aside. The demon followed it with his axe and other two sword arms. A quick exchange of blows left the vampire one arm short while Thalgodin was sent flying back through the shroud.

Buff.

Myrsvai tapped the butt of his staff on the ground. Abyssal magic flew from his staff and tore the air open behind him as a half-formed portal to the Abyss appeared. Catalyst of the Abyssal Lord connected with a realm of the Abyss. If he had more time to prepare the portal, he could have picked which realm or navigated to a position that was most favorable. Opening the spell so quickly meant he simply connected with a random part of the Abyss. Magic poured into Suta as the familiar marched straight at the vampire lord.

A deep laugh echoed through the room as Thalgodin noticed what was happening.

Even Myrsvai couldn't help but crack a smile.

The spell had connected Suta with the Fighting Pits, the brutal arena-focused realm of the Abyss where brawler and blood demons thrived. The realm of the Odious Brute where demons fought with their fists every hour of every day.

Suta stopped before Lucie Masson and raised his hands. His feet slid over the wood floor into a fighting stance.

The vampire lord looked down at the demon like he was some sort of filth.

Myrsvai canceled Infernal Shroud, clearing the gallery. The haze wasn't causing any damage to the vampire, so it was only acting as a potential hindrance to Suta.

Abyssal magic flowed past Mrysvai. He had no idea what exactly it was doing to buff Suta, but any buff from the Fighting Pits had to be beneficial for Suta's fighting style.

Lucie surged, blurring as she stepped and slashed a clawed hand at Suta. The familiar swiped his hand, easily pushing Lucie's arm aside. She missed completely and scored a huge mark across the floor. As she was thrown off balance, Suta thrust a palm strike into her abdomen.

Blood and intestines sprayed out of her back, splattering across the wall. Some of the gore entered portals and exited in different positions throughout the room.

Within a heartbeat, the wound closed. Lucie beat her wings and went on the assault, blurring as she furiously attacked. The flurry made Suta back away even as he blocked and deflected most of Lucie Masson's attacks. Tears appeared on his skin, and even through his gi as the assault continued.

Thalgodin dove in, chopping through a section of the vampire's wing. When Lucie turned to attack the neural demon, Suta kicked her knee, shattering the bone with a single strike. She crumpled as she tried to beat her wings, which were slashed even more by Thalgodin.

Lucie Masson's blood cloak grew like a rising flame. Her leg shifted unnaturally as it restored the bone. She turned and kicked Suta back. Even as the familiar blocked, he was sent flying directly into a painting. Her attack left her wide open for Thalgodin to step in and cut her head off with his battle axe. Black blood sprayed across the gallery.

Lucie caught her own head and smashed it back onto her neck. Skin immediately snaked out and restitched her decapitated head.

Suta landed on his feet as he emerged from a portal. Violet flames appeared over arms and flared on his shoulders like fiery spikes. He stuck out a hand and pointed at the black vampiric blood. It shuddered, then gathered together in a single ball.

Thalgodin flashed yellow as he used all four weapons to block a single punch from the vampire lord. He was sent flying right past Myrsvai.

Suta brought the ball of blood to his hand, then shifted it into something like Potilia's kanabo. He swung it a few times, then changed the bumps into spikes. When he looked at Myrsvai, Suta just nodded.

Apparently, the fight was over.

Suta leapt at Lucie, reminiscent of Owin's brutal fighting style.

The vampire lord easily predicted the attack, but as Suta swung the weapon down, it morphed, splitting to avoid the vampire's arm, and reformed just in time to smash into her face.

Lucie Masson was sent straight into the ground. The entire room shook from the strike. Suta unleashed his own flurry.

Thalgodin was bruised and bleeding when he stopped beside Mrysvai. They both watched silently as black blood pooled in the center of the gallery. Even the paintings seemed to shy away from watching the massacre.

When Suta stopped, he was dripping in vampiric blood. "Dead."

"She certainly is." Myrsvai canceled Catalyst of the Abyssal Lord, shutting the portal to the Fighting Pits. The flow of abyssal magic stopped causing the flames covering Suta's arms to fade, then vanish completely.

"To the next floor?" Thalgodin asked.

"Yes." Suta stalked past them, leaving black footprints in his wake.

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