Chapter 40 - Battle for Bledsbury Dungeon

Hump helped Celaine to her feet and together they retreated until they were firmly behind Bud. He stood with his back to them, facing Kassius head on, his sword at the ready. Hump glanced at the Black Paladin, who dragged himself along the ground, seemingly without direction. Across the chamber, the tide seemed to have turned in the fight against the undead. Their numbers were dwindling, but it would still take time for the dungeoneers to break through. Time Hump didn’t think they had.

“Hump, Celaine, stay back,” Bud said. “I need space.”

Kassius’ shadows reformed around him, until all but his face was shrouded. “You speak as if you can defeat me.”

Bud lashed out with his sword in response; a quick jab to the throat that might have caught even an experienced swordsman off guard. Kassius swayed back out of range with ease. Frostfire parted shadow like smoke, the trailing embers tearing streaks like starlight through his dark veil. In that light, the youth and life of his skin was all but gone now, as the full force of his death magic came to bear. He was pale as a ghoul, his skin appeared suctioned to the bones of his face. Despite his wounded eye, he seemed unperturbed by the injury.

“Come now, Robert,” Kassius sneered. “That’s no way to treat your prince.”

“I always suspected something was wrong with you,” Bud said. “But never this. Never did I think you would have fallen so far. The gods will judge you, Kassius.”

“They already have. I am unworthy,” Kassius spat.

He surged forward, propelled on a torrent of shadow. His poisoned blade hummed as it tore a line for Bud’s throat, and Hump felt its hunger. Bud barely managed to raise his own blade in time to meet the furious swing.

Despite Bud’s technique. Despite his frostfire empowered strength. It wasn’t enough. Kassius’ slender blade hammered down on him, breaking through Bud’s block and throwing the knight off balance. Hump grimaced as Bud stumbled back, dodging the thrust that followed by a hair’s breadth.

They exchanged a flurry of blows, but it was always Kassius on the attack. Bud scrambled to keep up, blade a blur of motion, marking the air with trails of blue embers.

Across the chamber, Hump saw Vamir cut his way through the undead horde at its rear and race toward them. Bud just had to hold on.

But he was fighting a man that had faced down a wolf dragon and won.

Hump clenched his fist around his staff. He felt useless, so he did the one thing he could think of to help. He began to cycle his essence using the River and Waves technique. Anything that would help him recover a piece of his strength.

At his side, Celaine hissed in a breath as Bud dodged a thrust at his throat and retreated a step, breaking free of the barrage of blows and somehow finding his own opportunity to attack. Metal on metal filled the cavern as blue sword met black. Frostfire left trails of light in its wake, carving out pieces of shadow as he pressed his advantage, yet somehow it never found Kassius himself. He was too fast. He flew back and forth on his shadow, changing direction in a way that no human on foot could do.

“He can hold him,” Hump muttered.

But Kassius caught Bud’s sword on his own. Somehow, he twisted the blades together so that Bud’s slid harmlessly to the side. Before he could recover, Kassius charged forward, body arched, poised like a duellist, his sword arm outstretched to the fullest.

The strike was simply too fast, even for Bud who was empowered by his new blessing.

It plunged through Bud’s chainmail just over his heart, penetrating what lay below. The impact threw Bud’s body back and he landed in a crash of metal on the ground. Kassius loomed after him to finish the job.

“No!” Hump shouted, charging forward and stabbing at Kassius with his staff. It fell into his shadowy veil, impactless.

Kassius swung at him with his sword, and Hump felt death descending. Celaine blocked it with her dagger, the ring of steel pounding in Hump’s ear. She caught the blow and redirected it. The impact sent her rolling to the ground, but it bought him a moment. He pulled his staff back and took aim at Kassius’ chest, gathering what little essence he’d managed to recover into the crystal focus. It moved painfully slow, like oozing ice through the veins of his arms. “Focused Blast!”

Blue light exploded from his staff, a spear of energy that lanced through the air and struck Kassius in the chest. He grunted from the impact, shadow parting like wind through mist, throwing him back a few steps. At this range, none of the spell’s power was lost, yet it hadn’t even been enough to stagger him. Hump just didn’t have enough essence left in him.

He fell against his staff, gasping.

“Are you done?” Kassius asked.

“Just about,” Hump panted out. Kassius grunted, as an arrow pierced through his chest from behind, until the head protruded from his front. “He, however, is just getting started.”

Behind him, Vamir lay down his bow and drew his sword. “Hump, Celaine, see to Bud and get back to the tunnel.”

A tendril of shadow extended from Kassius’ grabbing the arrow by the feathered end and pulling it free. He turned on Vamir, his face dark.

“Kassius has a heartstone,” Hump said quickly as he heaved Bud to his feet. “I think destroying it will kill him. His blade is also enchanted. Apparently, a cut from it is enough to kill a dragon.”

Vamir nodded. “Now go.”

“I don’t think so,” Kassius said, raising his sword toward them. He swung, but Vamir appeared in a blur, crouched low and swinging his sword up from waist height, knocking aside Kassius’ blade. He dashed in close, lunging forward with an equally quick strike. Still, Kassius was faster. Their blades caught in the middle. Steel clattered. Silver sparks shone amongst shadow—Vamir’s essence.

Celaine was already on her knees at Bud’s side. He lay on his back, gasping, one hand clutching his chest. Celaine pulled it away and opened the gash in his chainmail where the ringlets had been torn apart for a better look, digging through the gambeson beneath.

“There’s no blood,” she said, confused.

“I’m okay,” Bud said breathily. “I’m okay.” He pushed Celaine back gently and slipped a hand beneath his armour at the neck, pulling out a chain necklace from underneath. A silver flame medallion, bent in half at the middle—Kelisia’s sigil.

“Your mother’s medallion,” Hump said. “I don’t believe it. Maybe the gods are watching after all.”

Hump grabbed him by one arm while Celaine took hold of the other. Together they heaved the big man to his feet, and Bud groaned.

“You can’t leave!” Kassius boomed. His shadow wafted down and expanded along the floor like murky water. It clung to their feet, suctioning them in place, but Bud’s frostfire blade made short work of it, cutting them free.

Vamir didn’t let that moment of distraction go to waste. His weapon blurred, silver sparks showering from its edge. Kassius barely managed to get his blade up in time to parry. He was thrown off balance, saved only by the liquid nature of his shadow that carried him back out of reach. Hump felt the pressure of the room drop like a weight off his shoulders. His feeling of sickness was gone, he had the strength to move, to breathe.

“See if you can handle me first,” Vamir said. He shrugged off his quiver and chucked it to Celaine, who caught it and strung it on her back with ease. “The three of you, get out of here.”

“Try not to die,” Celaine said.

“Like I’d do anything as stupid as that,” Vamir said.

With that, the fight began in earnest.

They were both quick. So quick, it was hard to tell who was faster. Blow after blow, their swords clashed, scraping against each other, twisting and sliding against each other’s steels. A chorus of metal and dazzling display of black and silver. Each fought with a long one-handed blade; but where Kassius favoured quick flicks and jabs and a stable position, Vamir circled around him like a hawk, zipping in and out of combat with an agility Hump had never seen matched. He leaped over Kassius’ blade, spinning horizontally in the air as he brought his sword around at the prince’s now exposed flank. As he landed, he chucked a dagger from his belt and followed it forward.

Kassius’ shadow blocked it, then slapped out with a jagged spike as Vamir closed the distance. Vamir slipped underneath it, appearing around Kassius’ side in a blur of movement. Their blades met, ringing out in the song of expert duellists.

“Come on,” Celaine said, jogging toward the tunnel with a limp in her leg.

Hump followed quickly, Bud at his side. He couldn’t help but glance back at the fight. For all Vamir’s strength, Kassius was still stronger. And it was getting worse by the second.

He was slowing down. Dodging back instead of forward. He was on the defense, dancing at the edge of Kassius’ reach in quick and flashy strikes, harrying him with stabs like lightning. But he wasn’t breaking through. Kassius met each attack with an easy parry. Each time their blades struck silver sparks lit up his face, Hump saw nothing but hatred and glee. He was enjoying this. enjoying his chance to kill Chosen.

At the tunnel entrance the injured dungeoneers had been dragged to the safety of the tunnel. While two of their own lay dead nearby. But the undead were falling too.

Priestess Alerai had her head bowed in prayer, chanting. Her body radiated an aura of holy light, shimmering in the air like golden fire. Around the group of dungeoneers her powers formed a golden line in the shape of a half circle, that the kobolds had yet to pass. The sight alone filled Hump with a feeling of warmth, which meant it could only be some sort of boon for those that fought within it.

As Hump and the party neared, a handful of undead kobolds broke off from the horde when they spotted them approaching. Hump readied his staff, as Bud took up a position at the front to meet them, while Celaine already felled one with an arrow. But as Bud cut down the closest, the three remaining kobolds caught fire from a strike from behind.

Lantheer stood in the gap left behind by the now fallen kobolds. “Alerai!” he called.

The priestess looked at him, and golden light trailed up his feet.

He levelled his staff toward Kassius, eyes blazing red as the top of his staff smouldered. Hump crouched as a fireball flew over his head, homing in on Kassius. Amidst the red flame, golden light flickered. Holy light.

Kassius’ veil moved to block the attack and was set afire by the blaze. Darkness and flame fought, black smoke billowing out from the shadow. Kassius screamed as his entire cloak was engulfed. His shadow expanded rapidly, blasting Vamir back. It gathered at his sides like two giant wings, then flapped, launching him through the air.

He landed in a tumble beside the dungeon core, rolling on the ground as he screamed. Lantheer launched another set of flames as the first ones were extinguished. Kassius rose to his knee, slashing at the flame.

He searched the chamber desperately, eyes wild as a cornered animal. He stared at Lantheer, who was already readying his next spell, then turned on Vamir as the ranger closed the gap between them. He turned away from them both, for the first time Hump saw what he thought was panic on the prince’s face, and then he realised what he was staring at. The crystal barrier that surrounded the dungeon core. The wall that kept the dragon at bay.

Lantheer was already readying his next spell, and Vamir was closing on him fast.

His eyes roamed from Lantheer back to Vamir, rabid and wounded. Then they fell on the crystal barrier that surrounded the dungeon core.

Hump’s eyes widened. “Stop him! He’s going to set it loose.”

Vamir doubled his efforts to reach him, but Kassius swiped at him with tendrils of shadow, forcing him to dodge backward. He plunged his sword deep into the barrier, piercing it as easily as flesh. The red crystal lit up with throbbing black veins. They bulged across the surface, spreading out from the point of impact like cracking glass.

There was a crack like thunder. A ring of red light exploded in a shockwave around it, blasting Kassius and Vamir both back, the latter flying into the chamber wall. Hump steadied himself against his staff as a roaring wind rushed him, and as the crystal sphere shattered into a thousand pieces.

Shards flew out like shrapnel. Kassius raised his shadows around him, absorbing the shards harmlessly and hiding him from view, even the sensation of his essence was gone. He was merely a spot of darkness in the chamber. The shards tore through the ranks of undead kobolds and dungeoneers like they were fodder. Hump’s heart nearly stopped when he heard Lantheer scream. The man collapsed to one knee, a piece of crystal the size of a fist embedded in the left side of his stomach. He knelt there gasping, head bowed. Only looking up when the ground began to shake.

The dragon roared, leaping from the nest in a sudden fury, wings beating up a storm. With Kassius veiled in shadow, it was the large cluster of kobolds and dungeoneers she found first. She charged.

“Dragon!” someone shouted. “Dragon!”

There were screams as another of the dungeoneers fell to the undead kobolds in the moment of distraction.

“Hold your ground,” Joslin roared. “Steady! Stand with me. Not one step back!”

She actually stepped forward, raising her shield, intent on the dragon that charged straight at her. Her lips moved in a whisper, forming the beginnings of a chant.

The dragon tore through the first of the undead kobolds, tossing aside bodies and barrelling straight for Joslin.

Essence flared around Joslin’s shield, as an illusionary version of it flickered into existence, this time it was almost as tall as the dragon. The dragon headbutted it with a boom that shook the dungeon, pushing Joslin back a step. The stone cracked beneath her feet, but she held. A lone bastion against a dragon.

Then the dragon swiped out with her claw, striking the shield on her side. Joslin was thrown off balance, her shield losing its form. The dragon tried to press forward but reared back and screeched as it touched Priestess Alerai’s ring of holy power.

The dragon’s chest bulged and she extended her head forward, unleashing fire upon the priestess.

There was no shield to stop it. No Chosen to disrupt the dragon’s flame. The green fire consumed her, ending her screams in seconds.

“Gods above,” Bud muttered, lowering his sword as he watched in horror.

Joslin screamed, launching at the dragon with her shield and slamming into its side. The giant creature rocked from the force of the impact and fell back screeching as Sanya caught it with an arrow to the throat. But with Priestess Alerai’s power gone, there was nothing to keep the undead out.

They were losing. The escape was blocked. There was no way out and no way to fight. Kassius had already recovered from the blast and was rushing Vamir before he had a chance to fully recover. He made it to his feet in time to retreat out of range, but Kassius was coming for him now, and Vamir was definitely moving slower than before.

And then Hump’s eyes found an unguarded tunnel near the back of the undead force. It must have been the one Kassius had used to enter the dungeon. More importantly, it was a route out.

He could run. He could slip through the back and keep running while the dungeoneers held the tunnel. Someone had to tell the world about Kassius after all. Hell, they would probably reward him for it, if they believed him that is.

But he’d be running alone, abandoning those that had come to save him. Abandoning his friends.

Hump clenched his fist around his staff. He wouldn’t run. People he could count on were fighting by his side, and he wasn’t going to betray that trust. They were losing, that was all but a fact. Which meant only one thing. “If we want to make it out of here,” he said, “we have to do something.”

The dragon tore apart kobolds and dungeoneers alike. For now, they managed to hold the tunnel, but once the undead stopped distracting her, she would be free to chase them down the tunnels until none remained.

“What?” Celaine said, hopelessly.

Hump looked back at the dungeon core. At the dragon’s egg. At the runes Kassius had carved into the stone nearby.

The runes, he thought. He’d only recognised the meaning of a few, but it was enough to know that it was more than just a trap for a dragon. It was key to Kassius’ plan to absorb the dragon’s power.

Hump recalled the moment his spellbook shook when he was at Kassius’ side, the runes at his feet. It hadn’t been the same reaction to Kelisia’s power and the God Glyphs that had formed around Bud, but it had been something.

He scrambled to pull his spellbook from his belt.

“What are you doing?” Celaine said. “We need to get to the tunnel.”

“I have an idea,” Hump said quickly. His book shook even as he touched it, and he could feel its excitement with his own.

“Hump…” Celaine stopped herself, looking at the spellbook doubtfully.

“Running won’t save us,” Hump said, opening his book. The spell formation was already there on the page, formed of thick black ink and jagged lines. It had no name, no description, but the runes were there as clear as day. Even just the sight of them filled Hump with a feeling of sickness, but they were there. And through them shimmered essence, flowing through them in the same way it had for Bud’s Heart of Frostfire.

While he couldn’t read them, they were simpler than the god glyphs. The essence pulsed through the formation rapidly, following the circle of runes from two directions and meeting in the centre at the bottom of the formation, before rushing back to the rune at the top where the caster had to stand. He didn’t need to understand the meaning of the runes to replicate the way in which Kassius had wielded his power.

It was a start. He would just have to hope he knew enough of Kassius’ intent for him to guide the spell’s effect. He’d figure out the rest when he had to. He snapped the spellbook closed. Bud and Celaine had their packs to him, protecting him from any of the undead that had tried to step close. Three new bodies lay on the ground nearby.

“Have you got a plan?” Bud asked.

“Sort of,” Hump said. “It’s not a very good plan.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Celaine said, loosing another arrow. “What is it?”

He told them.

“Can you do it?” Celaine asked.

“I think so,” Hump said. “I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t think it was possible. And unless you have a better idea, I don’t see what choice we have.”

Celaine looked around and then nodded. “I’m in.”

They looked at Bud.

“You don’t even have to ask,” he said. “So all we need to do is get you to the nest?”

Hump nodded. “I’ll handle the rest.” He decided not to tell them that it might kill him in the process.