“Ilfridil! Freeze the water so we can stand on it, goddamnit!”

Red immediately recognized the precarious position they were in. Without their cleric, they had no capability to erect a protective barrier, meaning, they would be really prone to attacks. And with their feet being underwater instead of on the ground like this, their mobility would be severely limited, screwing over attempts to dodge any incoming attacks headed their way.

“Grif! You attack the woman! I’ll handle the man! Duke! Revive Majorka! Use the reviving potion we got in your back! Arcturus! Stay here and guard her!”

After giving out his orders, he let out a roar before catapulting himself towards one of the zombified mages. Using the sheer strength of his legs, he managed to leap all the way to the man. Grif did the same, with the two launching their assault near simultaneously. They knew if they didn’t interrupt their casting, they would doom their entire party to their spells.

“Beast King Fist!”

“Swift Thrust!”

Their blows landed inside the mages’ respective stomachs. Red left a gaping hole inside the man’s stomach while Grif’s lance pierced through the woman’s abdomen all the way through.

However—

What? They’re not stopping?!

As if nothing had happened, the mages finished their chants.

It was too late for either of them to dodge.

Light filled their eyes merely milliseconds before thunder struck their bodies.

“Gwaaaahhh!”

Red fell from the air first, plunging downwards towards the bottom of the reservoir. Grif followed as he lost grip of his lance.

And just like that, another two of them fell.

“Red! Dammit!” Arcturus yelled. Ilfridil had barely finished freezing the water when the inconceivable happened. Duke then yanked the rest of the party to above the ice before using the reviving potion as instructed.

“Stay here! I’m going to go after him!”

Without even waiting for a response from Duke, Arcturus dived into the water towards Red. He can’t just let his friend die, can he?!

Seeing his heroic action, Mirth, the rogue, decided to do the same, going after Grit instead.

“Damn it, you two!” Duke cursed under his breath. He knew those two were being reckless, but there was no other choice they could make if they were going to save Red and Grif from drowning.

“Come at me, you bastards!”

He then yelled as loudly as he could, hoping to attract the attention of the two mages. He was the tank of the group, so this was a frequent routine for him. 

The twin mages did exactly that, turning themselves to face him. It was now obvious that they weren’t human, but zombies instead, as no blood poured out from the wounds they had sustained.

“Ilfridil! Make another platform!” He ordered his friend. He was ready to sacrifice himself to the barrage of their spells as long as he could keep the rest of the party safe. It was his role, after all.

The mage nodded as he began casting. The two zombie mages started to cast their next round of spells as well. Ilfridil finished his spell first, allowing Duke to jump away from their platform to an entirely new one.

“Yeah, that’s right! Fight me, you rotbrains!” He readied his axe in a defensive stance.

Only to find out they had no intention to attack him. They fired their lightning spells downwards, right at the water of the reservoir.

The electricity spread like a wildfire. Thanks to the ice platforms being poor conductors, Duke and the others barely felt the shock. But for those who were under the surface…

“Red! Grif! Mirth!”

He could only yell in horror as he saw electricity crackling on the surface of the water.

“U-urghh…”

The potion finally kicked in, making Majorka regain her consciousness. She shakily stood up, tried to cast another Barrier spell, only to lose her balance. She would’ve fallen into the water if not for Ilfridil catching her mid-air.

Even if she was back at full strength, it was too late. There were only three of them now, against two zombified mages that could bombard them with ease from the distance.

Suddenly, Ilfridil, who had kept his silence all this time, spoke up.

“That’s enough! We surrender!” He yelled. “You won! We’ll leave this blasted dungeon at once! So please, let my friends go! You can hear me, can’t you, you damn necromancer!”

He couldn’t keep it in any longer. Normally, he would be the last to complain when things got tough, but he knew there was no chance for them to win from their current situation.

“Ilfridil, what are you doing?!” Duke yelled back at him. “Surrender?! Have you lost your mind, boy?!”

“Can’t you see? We can’t win anymore! Look at Majorka! She can barely stand!” The elf shouted back.

“I-I’m fine, Ilfridil,” she whispered weakly. “I just need to… regenerate my mana a bit… A-and I’m sorry… for being so weak…”

“That’s enough. Don’t blame yourself.” He held her tighter.

Indeed, the two were seeing each other. They just hadn’t made their relationship public yet.

“Cordelia Flameu! I beseech you! Forgive us for our arrogance!” For the safety of his love, he was willing to throw his pride away.

At first, there was no response. However, the twin mages just stood there on top of the water surface as they halted their assault.

And then, black shadows fell from the ceiling, forming the figure of the necromancer right in front of the elf and his lover. Naturally, he took a few steps back out of fear, nearly slipping on the ice in the process.

“Oh? Now you want mercy? After you’ve been defeated?” She gave a victorious grin. “How convenient.”

“P-please! Forgive us!” He released his grip on the cleric before kneeling down, prostrating himself before her.

“Boy! Don’t humiliate yourself like that! Do you really believe that she will let you go? If we’re going to die, then we will die in battle! Not like this!” Duke yelled before jumping back towards the elf’s ice platform, swinging his axe at Felicia’s shadow. Naturally, it only passed through.

“Well, I see your friend here still wants to fight.” She continued to grin. “How about this then? You kill him and I’ll spare you and your girlfriend’s life.”

The elf’s expression turned into one of shock, and horror, as he froze in place.

“See?! She’s a snake, through and through!” Duke yelled.

“What’s the matter? Not good enough for you? Very well, then. I’ll make the deal sweeter.”

A quake suddenly shook the room, nearly knocking the two off their balance. It was then followed by the sound of rushing water, as the reservoir drained itself. Before long, it dried up entirely, revealing Red and the others—all unconscious on the floor.

“Everyone!” The cleric yelled. She immediately bolted to the nearest person until Felicia blocked her path.

“Do you think I would just let you heal them? Your boyfriend over there has to do his little task first, then you might just have a chance to save your adventuring friends.”

“She can’t hurt you, woman! Just run through her! It’s just an illusion!” Duke yelled.

“Perhaps.” She chuckled. “But they could.”

The two mages promptly closed in with their water jet spell towards the cleric, earning an “Eek!” from the poor, easily frightened woman. The woman grabbed her from behind while the man aimed his wand at her neck.

“Get away from her!” Ilfridil yelled. He ran towards her, only to stop in his tracks as Felicia appeared in front of her.

“Move any closer and I’ll tell them to slit her throat.”

“G-gaah!”

The elven mage could only watch in anger as his lover cried in fear of the cold arms that grabbed her from behind.

“You cowardly bitch!” Duke yelled. “Fight fair and square for once, you corpse-loving whore!”

Unfortunately for him, Felicia wasn’t one of his monsters that could be taunted into charging straight on towards him. His cheap insults merely fell to deaf ears.

“Do it.” The necromancer smiled, full of satisfaction and triumph. “Kill him.”

“Tch!”

The elven mage could only curse under his breath as he turned to face Duke.

“Fine! Come, boy! Give me your best spell! I can take it!” The bald man held his axe forward as he flashed him a bitter grin.

The elf nodded and with a face that sweated profusely, he started his chant.

“O great fire spirit of volcanoes, grant me the strength to burn my foes into ash. Flame Strike!”

Fire burst forth from the tip of the staff. It flew like a fireball would, going straight towards the bald man, hitting him face first as he had no intention to dodge.

“Aarghh!”

Or so it would, if he didn’t spin his axe and deflected the fire towards the two zombie mages and the cleric.

Ilfridil could only watch in horror as the spell flew towards his beloved. Duke, however, had a grin on his face. ‘Tis a shame, but it was the only way to get out of this predicament. The spell would either hit all three, giving them victory, or the mages would block or dodge it with the girl, allowing him to follow up with a close range attack.

He didn’t care if the woman died. He always thought she was a deadweight in their party. She was too weak to even be an A-rank. She should stay as a B-rank and never join their party in the first place. And if Ilfridil didn’t like it, then so be it. He was a weak mage as well, in his humble yet true opinion.

People die all the time in this occupation. It’s her own fault for being too weak, to the point of making him have to resort to an underhanded tactic like this.

The man jumped forth, raising his giant axe above his head. He’ll take them both down in one powerful strike.

“Pathetic.”

Felicia’s shadow vanished. Shadows burst forth from the darkness of the room, forming a shadow barrier that protected the zombies and the cleric. The fireball exploded into a large burst of flames, but the barrier stood on.

Only for it to be split open with Duke’s axe.

“Primal Blow!”

The hardened shadow dissipated, revealing its occupants. The bald man grinned as he moved his axe for a second round. At this range, and with his speed, there was no way the mages could defend themselves.

“Dragon Cleave!”

The female mage responded by releasing her grip at Majorka and the male followed by kicking her out of the way, protecting her from the incoming attack.

Just in time before the two were cleaved into two at their stomachs and arms.

*plop* *plop* *plop*

Their bodies fell apart into pieces. Without the needed connections, the zombies lost their capability to move as well.

He wasn’t finished, however. Using his trusty axe, he chopped them up into more little pieces, making sure that they couldn’t just come back up. He had heard of undead skeletons still being able to fight, even if it only had its ribs and legs (by ramming itself into its opponent). So he couldn’t be too careful.

“Damn it, woman! Don’t just sit there! Heal the others!” He yelled at the cleric. She responded with a whimper and a nod before running towards the nearest unconscious body, starting her healing chant.

“You… you scum! You could’ve killed Majorka with that!” Ilfridil yelled.

“Oh, shut up, pretty boy. I did what I had to. It was the only way to get us out of this predicament.”

“I know you are a selfish brute through and through! Wait until Red hears of this! He’ll kick you out of the party for sure!”

“Heh, you think he will?” He returned with a grin. “You’re just a young’un who’s only with us for a year. You think he would heed your naïve call compared to mine, who’s the third oldest member of this group?”

The elf had more than a fleeting thought to burn him to a crisp right then and there with his spell. But he stopped himself. This needed to be decided by their leader, and not now, when they were in the middle of a dungeon like this.

“U-urghhh…”

Red slowly sat up as he regained his consciousness. He looked around and saw that the fight seemed to be over. The last thing he remembered was getting a lightning spell right to his face, and damn, that certainly hurt.

“W-what happened? Where are those two mages? And the water—it’s gone!”

Majorka wasn’t there to answer, as she was busy healing the others. She was still weakened from before, so she had to drink multiple mana potions in the process.

Ilfridil walked forward and opened his mouth, but Duke beat him to the punch.

“We took care of them.” He grinned. “As for the water, the bitch got arrogant and drained it on her own. She thought she already won so she came here to brag about it. You should’ve seen elf boy.” He jerked his head towards Ilfridil. “He begged her to save him, to the point that he agreed to kill me according to her order. I used the opportunity to land a surprise blow on her puppets, though. So the idiot bitch dug her own grave, pun not intended,” he added with a smug grin.

“Is that true?” Red turned to face the mage with a frown. “Then you disappoint me. We never betray our comrades. That is the one rule our party, the Desert Bandits, is founded by.”

“T-that’s… H-he tried to kill Majorka as well!” The mage pointed towards the warrior.

“Really, boy? Now you accuse me of such a vile deed, just to make yourself look better? I’m fine with you whimpering like a coward, but this crosses the line.”

Ilfridil could only reply with a glare. Of course Red was going to trust him more than himself.

“Hey, Majorka!” He yelled across the room. “Say something! Tell them how he didn’t care in the slightest from hitting you with that big axe of his!”

No response. The cleric stood there with her back turned from the rest of the group, seemingly frozen in place. She was looking towards the limp, unconscious body of Mirth.

“M-Mirth… h-he’s… he’s not waking up…”

Shaking heavily, she turned to face the rest of the group. In quite the horrifying sight, enhanced by the dim lighting of the room, her eyes were rolling in their sockets wildly, as tears seeped from the eyelids.

“He’s not… he’s not coming back… I-I’m too late…”

The realization dawned upon them.

The beastfolk was dead.

“A... aahh... aaahhhhhhh!”

Majorka broke into a scream, followed by a loud, sobbing mess. It was the first time she had faced the death of a party member. All these years being a healer, she had never suffered a failure in that department, so this took the poor young woman hard. She knelt down, burying her face in her hands.

Just as the party was paralyzed by the revelation, the room suddenly turned pitch-black. Shadows had once again dripped down from the cracks in the ceiling, snuffing the floating fireball the elven mage had conjured to illuminate the room.

And before they could do anything—

“Gaaahhhh!”

Another scream filled the room, only this time, it was a scream of pain.

Quickly, Ilfridil cast his illumination spell back, only to reveal that a blade had stabbed Duke right through his stomach.

That, and the necromancer was standing right behind him.

“Isn’t it sad?” She pushed the blade to the side, bisecting the abdomen of the warrior cleanly before he fell down to the ground. “Us mortals are fragile. Too fragile. Even with his supposedly stronger constitution as a beastfolk, he died from a simple thunderbolt spell. I suppose his heart was weaker than the rest of you. Or perhaps he was simply unfortunate enough to take the brunt of the spell as it spread through the water.”

She stood there with a grin on her face, not even caring that blood had stained her dress and face. Her sword had vanished, as it was a mere spell blade, made by her shadow magic.

“But the undead? They’re so much more resilient than us.”

As a dark light shone from the tip of her staff, the unmoving corpse of Duke suddenly began to move. It lifted itself up before standing beside the necromancer, drawing his axe as he looked blankly to the rest of the group.

It wasn’t just him, however. The fallen beastfolk she spoke about also stood, along with the two diced up zombie mages. Their body parts had assembled and linked themselves together on their own, no doubt aided by the necromancer’s dark magic.

“Thus, to relieve the world from the curse that is death, I took on this mantle. I shall create a world where we could all live as undying immortals.”

“And you.” She turned to face Red and the others. “You stood against that dream, foolish adventurers. I have given you clemency, but in your arrogance, you believe that you can face me and triumph.”

Her staff shone once again before she melted into a puddle of shadows, retreating to the other side of the room before reforming back to her human self.

Her staff shone once more. And then, a pile of corpses manifested out of thin air, raining down to the floor.

And, to their horror, they were corpses of people they were well-familiar with.

“Indeed!” She gloated. “These are your friends! My loyal knight had taken care of them, one by one! Just like you, I told him to show mercy, but they insisted on fighting. And so, they all fell down to his blade. For the rest, who were smart enough to know their weakness, they’re making their way out of this place right now. Yes! They have chosen to abandon you all!”

Her laughter echoed across the large room. 

Red could only respond with a furious growl. Looking at his zombified friends, and all the dead faces on those corpses, it filled him with rage like he had never felt before. If he wasn’t as levelheaded of a person as he was, he would’ve run across the room to punch her in the face. But he very well knew they were in a grave disadvantage yet again.

But, there was still a chance for victory. He had a hunch the person who stood there across the room was her in the flesh. If he could just get to melee range, he could crush her head with a single blow. And then, this nightmare would be over.

He just had to create that opportunity for himself.