I opened my eyes to see the space I created had indeed shrunk while I was getting back my magical energy. What was still ‘Alive’ now looked withered and a light mist had begun to swirl through the air. Even so, I noticed some of the ‘Grass’ was some low level herbs I could use to make a couple of different potions. I plucked them and tossed them into my storage ring. I did it in such a way that it looked like I was putting them in my belt pockets. Two hours had passed since I started to meditate but it was worth it to get my mana back to full.

The dungeon messages I got during the time I had been recuperating were just about the other groups entering different areas. Group one was still ok and advancing in, what seemed like a straight line, judging from the sector numbers. On the other hand, the remaining members of group two were all over the place. The mage had entered the cabin fairly early into my meditation and before I finished, the mage was dead. The only oddity was the assassin. The dungeon was having a hard time tracking him. He would appear and disappear from its senses randomly only to reappear in a random sector.

I talked about what I knew as we ate a quick meal. We were going to set off right after and while I had wanted to learn more about my new party members skills, I decided to wait until we were protected behind my spell.  This dungeon was alive, tactical and listening. I had no doubt it could use anything we said against us. Something I was not sure every dungeon could do but something I should keep in mind going forward.

They wanted to continue even after I let them know that the Stitched Horror was coming. After the last fight, they seemed more confident than I thought they should be. I mean out of twelve rats they killed one. It was not my definition of success. Since Stitched Horrors came in a variety of shapes and sizes I had no valid reason to panic. They were just a type of golem that was made up of bits and pieces from whatever the necromancer had lying about and because of that they also had the nickname, 'scrap golems'. Generally, they were weak servant types. I got the feeling that wasn’t the case with the one coming for us though. I was nervous. I’ll admit it. I don’t even know why. It was like I knew that the shit was about to hit the fan. But still, I was part of a group, so retreating while they wanted to move forward would probably not look good. 

I would get dungeon messages as we walked. They were mostly about a monster’s movement, the location of other groups, or ours. As raring for a fight as my group was, it didn't matter. All the monsters not in 'special' locations would be ordered to retreat as we got near. Was it waiting for the stitched horror, for us to enter a named location, both, or something else? It was hard to tell. We were trying to avoid the named locations so much so that we had backtracked twice. So far we have run into the graveyard, a lake that had a rickety dock with a boat the clattered against it, and the one we were at now, the cabin. In each area the mist thinned out allowing us to see more of the area. Not that it was any less creepy.

We needed to decide on which one to pick. Each one would allow us to get closer to the way down to floor three and that was our goal. Twist was completely against going to the lake. His main objection was he would sink like a rock with all his gear but his eyes were showing more white than normal. I was kind of glad I was not the only one nervous. In the end, we settled on the graveyard. The main reason was that it was more open so Janet and I could use our bows. 

After a short break, we trekked back to the first place we discovered. Each of the three areas were a bit over half an hour to get to from one to another so walking back and forth while also exploring dead ends had used up most of the ‘day’. I stress day because in dungeons it was hard to tell how much time has passed. There was no standard night and day cycle here. It was whatever the dungeon designed. I would have long lost track of time if not for my display.

As we approached the graveyard the mist thinned and hung just above the ground. It looked as if we were walking on a cloud. The ill kept tombstones that jutted out of it looked more like broken bones than the stone they were made out of. Statues of people and angels were around them in the dim light and mist. The mausoleum, near the center, overshadowed everything else. Even the scattered tombs were tiny in comparison to it. The huge stain-glass windows it had looked oddly pretty in this eerie place. 

‘Where are they?’ I thought. I knew that there were wrights here just from the messages. Yet, they were nowhere in sight. Should I waste the mana to cast ‘Detect Evil’? I did not want to but a hidden enemy is far more dangerous than ones you can see. Sighing, I began to silently cast as we moved toward the entrance of the graveyard. My aura rippled and ebbed outward, flattening out as it moved until the golden light disappeared beneath the mist. I felt presences. Then as if the clouds were parting golden beams of light shown through the mist wherever I felt a presence. They were mostly clustered by the far exit and I was having a hard time gauging their numbers since they were not spread out. But at most, there shouldn't be more than a dozen.

I filled the group in and we set ourselves in the shape of a half moon. Twist was in front with Tom and Jack on the right and left of him, with Janet and me a few steps behind. I again cast ‘Guardian Angel’ on Twist. I split my aura, deactivating the ‘Detect evil’.

It was a hard call since doing so allowed me to save some magical energy and cast on multiple people faster but I would not be able to keep track of the enemy. Still there were only a dozen so I chose efficiency over detection. My mana pool was pretty sizable but still it had its limits and I didn't know how long this fight was going to last. I began casting after my tendrils were attached to each of us. I cast three spells in succession; Aid, Blessings of the Goddess, and Golden armor. I could have done a few more but it was better to be a little conservative. As it was, I could only maintain this for roughly sixteen minutes if I did not cast anything else during the fight.

I was the last one done. So when I finished casting and lifted my bow, we set off. The ground was spongy adding to the illusion of us walking on a cloud. Waking slowly, our heads continuously moving trying to spot any sort of movement. I already let them know that my detection spell had limitations and some things would not be detected.

Instead of calming everybody, the lack of noise and movement seemed to be doing the opposite. About a quarter of the way through Tom started glaring at the statutes. "They moved," he whispered. Did they? I hadn't noticed. I focused on the nearest one. An arrow notched waiting for it to move. "See! It moved!" And with a roar he charged at the nearest one. The one I had been watching. It was a lady that was looking down at a baby cradled in her arms. It was weather worn and because of that it looked as if tear tracks had etched into the stone. She hadn't moved!

"Tom wait! It didn't move," I yelled but I was far too late to stop him. He lead with a right hook. His gauntlet knives embedding themselves into the statutes skull. His momentum causing a crack to appear around the thin neck.

Two things happened all at once. A skeletal hand broke through the ground and tried to pull him under. While the baby started crying. It's wails seemed even louder in the silent graveyard.

I noticed everybody's display start flashing red as we all began to take damage and because I was focused on Tom, I could see blood trickling out of his ears. On His display the right leg was darkening. It was the leg that the hand was holding onto. He was screaming as he tried to break free. His leg began shrinking as if all the muscles within were slowly disappearing.

'Idiot! Where the hell did the prince find these guys? The brothel?' I silently cursed as I sent my tendrils to wrap around the skeleton and the baby. Once each had three wrapped around them, I cast smite.

Messages of ‘Screaming Horror killed 65XP’ and ‘Flesh Devourer killed 45XP’ flashed as the skeletal hand and baby crumbled to dust. I moved to attach all six tendrils to Tom’s leg. After reading through the damage on my display I cast ‘Moderate Regeneration’. This was going to take time. His muscles were completely rotted to the point that I wondered if amputation would be a better option. There was some type of necrotic energy residing inside it keeping natural healing from occurring. Perhaps it would be better to start with a clean slate. For now I had his brother help him to walk. It would take me and hour, at least, to fix that type of damage with my spells strength.

I noticed that the healthy glow that 'Aid' gave people was gone from the group but decided against recasting it on everybody. Getting Tom mobile was more important.

A message of ‘Activate Wights Lair (Yes/No)’ popped up and after the ‘yes’ was highlighted I could feel the ground vibrate a little. We continued forward trying to avoid getting too close to any statues. The mausoleum just a few strides away, I could now see that its stained glass was depicting a bunch of undead feasting on screaming humans. ‘So much for them looking good,’ I thought.

Soon we all heard the scraping of stone on stone. It did not take long for pale, humanoid creatures to begin to crawl their way up and out of the tombs and graves that were placed at the far points of the cemetery. They were wights, a type of undead that were mostly warriors. Humans that held immense anger at the time of their deaths tended to become this type of undead. They were skinny with grey; white skin that hung a little loose. Green fire had replaced their eyes as if to show the world that their anger still raged within them. The most annoying thing about them were their attacks. They used claws as their main weapon. But even if they did no damage to you as long as their hands touched any bare skin they would absorb some of your life; healing them and damaging you.

There must be tunnels that led to where they were coming out from because soon we were surrounded. I saw some of the wights begin to rush forward. Others crawled beneath the mist, their pale faces bobbing up to look at us before disappearing back beneath the mist.

The second blood red message I have seen since I entered this dungeon appeared as the wrights got closer to us. One I wish I had not read, ‘TARGET HOLY MAGE (CONFIRM)’. Well f’ my life!

I pulled my bow taut and let lose an arrow using ‘Prediction’ to place it in the area that one of the wights would be. The arrow left the bow before shattering into ten tinier arrows, over half of which pierced into its face. A plus ten XP flashed as the Wight dropped and I notched another arrow. I was feeling ecstatic that I downed one of them but that faded as more and more popped out of the ground. It went from a dozen to two dozen, then forty, then fifty and I had to give up counting as I let loose arrow after arrow.

Over the sounds of combat I could still hear Bill muttering in disappointment, “Does this count as her killing something? I thought I would see something impressive.” I could hear disappointment in his voice as if this was just a television show and not my life. If I lived through this, I was going to beat him.

I had downed a few but they were agile and I was just as likely to wound them instead of landing a killing blow. Still, I was nowhere near Janet’s kill count. Her arrows would land within a group with every pull of her bow. Followed by an explosion that sent bits and piece of anything within a few feet of wherever it landed flying in all directions. Her hands were glowing turquoise that lit up runes on her bow every time the string went taut.

Janet was thinning them out but as one fell, two more would come out of their earthen lairs. It was not maintainable, the dungeon was summoning more and more as we fought. The ‘Summon group of Wights within the Fallen Lair for 500DP (Yes/No)’ kept popping up. After a while another message would follow saying ‘DP running low!’ until the dungeon just stopped summoning. By then, there was a wall of undead all looking at me. “There are too many. We need to retreat or find shelter in the mausoleum before we are overrun!” Jack had to scream to be heard above the explosions and growls.

A few of the wights had made it to our group and, unlike being the easy kills they were from a distance, they became resilient. Like cockroaches, just when you thought you killed them they would simply claw one of us to steal enough energy to keep on fighting. I had to sling my bow and use my footwork technic ‘Steps of an Angel’ to make myself harder to hit while continuously healing everybody. It was taking too long and by the time Jack and Tom finished off the last of those close to us, more were coming like a wave of tooth and claws. We were going to get overrun. Well, I was anyway. The wights attacks made it obvious who they wanted dead.

We were encircled so to retreat out of the graveyard would mean we would have to break through them. Tom gave the order to enter the mausoleum. So far there was nothing between us and it. Twist led the way and with a push, the big doors swung inward and Twist dashed in with the group right on his heels. I did not even see the trap he stepped onto before a bone spear came shooting at him. His momentum moved him forward even if he did not want to and when I thought Twist was going to become a shish kabob, a tiny soap bubble rammed into him, knocking him to the side and with a pop, vanished.

The rest of us had enough time to get out of its path as it shot out the door. 

I watched them run inside. Their panic evident. They knew they were going to die even if they made it inside there was no coming out. NO! I could save them. This dungeon was after me for some reason. I could use that to lead them away.

"I will lead them away. Escape once they are gone," I called out to them before pulling the doors shut and manifesting my wings. 

‘+1 to luck’

'+1 to luck’

‘+1 to luck’

‘+1 to luck’

appeared as I shut the doors. Laughing to myself as I read the messages. ‘I was going to need all the luck I could get,’ I thought. I retracted my tendrils and stopped maintaining their spells. I was going to need all I had to survive my stupidity. Me versus a few hundred wrights? What could go wrong?

Right now I had to deal with hundreds of undead. I saw a couple in the back giving orders so they definitely weren’t mindless. The ones snarling out orders stood a little taller and had more muscle definition to them. Sadly, I did not understand anything they were saying but I saw a few smaller ones run into the tombs. I had to come up with a plan. I did not fly often in my training so of all my muscles, my back muscles were a little lacking. So for now, I needed to conserve my strength.

I was kicking myself for pulling out the ‘Heavenly Rain’ spell. Now the dungeon would be on guard and by the time I finished casting, those wrights would probably be able to take cover. Who knew that it would be that effective? In the last fight I just wanted the rats to run away.

I un-slung my bow as I landed on the top of the mausoleum. I began to fire as quickly as I could. There was not much point aiming since the ground was covered with targets. For every arrow, ten took its place as soon as it left the string. Sure they didn’t hit as hard but as I rapid fired ten arrows in a row I did see some fall, as a hundred or more rushed the building. I fired a few more before having to take off again.

I hovered; wrapping my tendrils around any that got close. Smite was very affective against them and soon there was a circle of dead wrights. Still, I only got about a dozen before they moved far enough away that I could not easily grab them without moving. It wasn’t a lot compared to what they had but since the dungeon was running low on DP maybe I could whittle them down. I was trying to decide on where to fly to when the floor shook. Literally shook! It was like a small earthquake just hit.

‘Stitched Horror has arrived on Floor 2’

‘Move Stitched Horror to Graveyard (Yes/No)’

‘Move Specters to Graveyard (Yes/No)’

‘Move Ghast to Graveyard (Yes/No)’

‘Move Banshee to Graveyard (Yes/No)’

Five messages popped up followed by the earth rumbling. I needed help and the only people close was Bill’s group. “Bill, if you're watching I could use some help.” I shouted. I could only hope that he was near.

“Yup, you sure could. Oh, look they have slings now. Sorry, I would help you but I am under orders. I would suggest running; really, really fast. Yup, I cannot MOVE to help you. Such a shame.” He stressed the word move as if giving me a hint on how to get out of this. It took a second for it to click and I flew off in the direction of his voice. It was near the graveyard exit leading toward the way down to floor three. I did not think this was the best option, but as the saying goes ‘any port in a storm’. I flew in that direction of the oncoming golem, hoping beyond hope that it would somehow pay off.

I did notice some of the smaller wights distributing slings and ammo to the bigger ones, as I turned to fly in that direction. Apparently, the crypts had doubled as an armory. I was probably too high for them to hit at the moment but if I wanted to join Bill and Jake I would have to fly lower to enter the pathway that the trees formed.

Smiling, I began to take vial after vial out of my belt pockets. Once my hands were full of the multi-colored vials I flew at my full speed. I was picking up speed as I swooped downward. As I got closer to the ground a bigger wright gave a loud cry in its foreign language. Volleys of stones flew at me; some I dodged, most I didn’t. The stones pelted into me since I never practiced my evasion skills while flying. It was definitely an oversight I will have to fix. Luckily, my physical defenses were universal. I used ‘The lesser evil’ skill to take most of the blows to my body and legs where I was the most armored. ‘Resilient’ and ‘Tough Enough’ reduced the damage even more so I was only take a point or two per hit. Once I started taking damage, ‘Divine body’ started to kick in and I saw my wounds healing back up slowly. Even with all of that, I could not take too many more volleys like that.

Still grinning like a cat that ate the canary, I let go of the vials as I flew over them. Unlike the explosions Janet’s arrows caused, mine were gas clouds and as they mixed together it looked like a psychedelic kaleidoscope. The blue clouds froze any within, reds caught them on fire, yellows were electrical storms that did nothing to undead, grays were just smoke but with any luck it would hinder their shots, the hazy clouds were acid and those within had their flesh begin to blacken and pit, and the pale white clouds slowed anybody in them down as their skin took on a stony gray color. Because they did not feel pain and electricity didn’t affect their nerves they weren’t as effective as they could have been but even so I watched as messages of XP gains popped up as those on fire or had acid on them died. My bombing raid netted me another 1,080 in XP when it was all said and done as around two dozen were killed. I almost didn’t mind the hundred gold I spent making those potions. I just thought they would last me longer.

The chaos I currently created allowed me to zoom pass the exit of the graveyard and closer to where Bill should be. A few stones had still flown up at me as I passed by but the amount was negligible by comparison to the first volley. As I passed an iron archway that marked the end of the graveyard, the trees and mist thickened. The bare tree branches moved and grasped at where my wings would have been and I was forced to land. I didn’t see Bill but, between the mist and whatever was concealing him and Jake, I wasn’t surprised.

I heard the wights coming. Their snarls and grunts that represented their language and the movement of a couple hundred undead was kind of hard to miss. Did I misunderstand? Where was Bill? I wrapped all six tendrils around myself. This mistake may cost me my life but I don’t regret it. At least, for a time, I could walk in the sun and meet some interesting people. I cast, ‘Coat of Arms’ and pulled my mace. The emblem for the spell appeared in the air like normal. Perhaps because I multiplied the spell by six or maybe it was because my level had increased since I last cast it, whatever it was I noticed that the rock golem looked more human and I could see that it kind of resembled my father. The wind that normally swirled around it made a pattern of a smiling woman looking down at me. Being wind it was subtle but I thought of my new mom when I saw it. The giant emblem shrank, attached itself to my cape and I saw my white skin turn to a light mocha.

So that was what ‘strengthens the target with what they hold dear to their heart’ meant. I borrowed power from my parents because they were who I cared about in this world the most. It was also why this spell failed on some others. They simply had nobody in their hearts.

“You going to hog all that magic?” I heard Bills voice ask and when I looked I saw Bill fade into sight.

“Where is James?” I could not keep the relief from my voice as I saw Bills smiling face. I wasn’t alone!