I wasn’t alone! Bill just pointed up and I saw an outline of a person standing on a branch. Because of the mist, I had to guess that the man on the branches was James. I shot my tendrils to wrap around each of them. I would keep them alive while they fought to do the same for me. Bill had already turned into his armored form and was simply waiting leisurely for what was to come. I tried attaching James and Bill to my displays and after giving them a call to accept it worked. Bill’s came up first. James’s attached to my display slowly and it was a bit fuzzy. Reading any text that popped up about him would be problematic but with the new display it should not a big issue. I crossed my fingers that it would be true. Some issues and conditions were easier to read than interpreting from a picture. I made a mental note to fix my display once I was out of danger. I must have messed it up when I re-vamped the display.

I saw shadows moving within the mist. I could hear their clawed feet, the scratching as they dug into the hardened earth giving away their presence. Then the bushes to the right and left of me rustled as they moved in the foliage. Bark could be heard being ripped from the trees as they climbed onto the branches. Still, most of them were coming head on down the path. I waited and all the noise stopped. The only things I could hear, other than the creaking of the branches, was my ragged breathing and beating heart. This was by far the stupidest thing I have ever done. I never fought wights before and while the smaller ones seemed to die fairly easy, I had no idea about the others.

‘Were they waiting for their reinforcements?’ I thought but before I could even voice my concern there was a rough howl and the wights started to swarm out of the mist. They tried rushing by Bill as if he was not standing in their path. With every swipe of his big hammer he sent half a dozen wights flying back to crash into the woods, never to return. But, for every six that flew away another three or four ran by him to get to me. As they closed in on me, Bill started shouting at the wights, “Pfft, picking on a girl? No wonder you were failures in life; real men, fight men.” His voice had an irritating tone to it that implied he knew it all along. As he spoke, a few of the wights that were about to get to me growled and charged to attack Bill’s back. He smiled and with an overhead smash, planted the skull of the first one into the ground and swiped outward to make the rest keep their distance.

I went purely defensive. Between my armor, skills and spells I was as slippery as an eel. Even as they surrounded me, very few could land a blow. When they did, something weird happened. Their claws scratched along my skin but could not break it. More importantly, their touches didn’t steal any life energy from me.

I was left unharmed even after a dozen hits. Smiling, I began to shift from defense to offense and hit a few with my mace. I did not down any but kept them at bay. I was doing pretty well until one of them leapt from the branches overhead. I did not see him as much as I felt the impact to my upper body. I crumbled beneath his weight and momentum. As I fell, I could see James leaping from branch to branch in a dazzling acrobatic display that would be worthy of gold metals. He only had one blade drawn and was using his other hand to grasp branches as if they were bars for him to spin on, only to appear behind a wight and end its existence with a single quick thrust.

It was amazing. Too bad I had little time to appreciate it. The snarling wight, a head taller than the smaller ones, rode me to the ground. I felt his claws searching for a weak spot in my armor and he found one. Under my armpits there was a small spot off thinner leather to allow ease of movement and I felt him trying to dig his claws into my flesh. His nails scratched against it and began to slowly push in. My flesh flaked away as if it was made of stone and I soon felt his fingertips wiggling inside of me. I bucked and tried to throw him off me but felt smaller hands holding me down.

His fingernails rubbed against my bones and I let out a wheezing gasp. It hurt. I could hear Bill swinging his war hammer along with some notifications but it all seemed so far away. I didn’t want to distract him so I bit my lip to keep from screaming. I knew he had three times the adversaries compared to me and any distraction may be deadly. I needed to kill this thing and get to my feet. I kept repeating that in my head as I tried to focus enough to wrap my tendrils around him but the feeling of it wiggling its fingers, looking for the gap between my bones, kept distracting me. Once he found one, a quick jab would end my life. I knew what he was doing. Time seemed to slow as my adrenaline kicked in. It was as if I had all the time in the world to think, to feel, as it tried to pierce my heart with its nails.

My tendrils appeared to be moving at a snail’s pace but I knew that was an illusion created by my predicament. Would I be able to kill it before it killed me? I didn’t know but I prayed. I needed to succeed and live. My tendrils slowly wrapped around its arms. I was going to make it. I felt something pop within me and its fingers finally moved deeper inside me. I could hear my ribs cracking. Ya, all the time in the world…time to feel the pain. Time to feel the odd sensation of its fingers pushing into me. Ravaging me, but not enough time to live!

I was going to die. Just one more second and it would all be over. His hand stopped moving. I did not stop to think of why. I was just glad to feel his fingertips sliding out. I kept moving my tendrils. Ignoring the pain. Was he playing with me? His snarling face looked like he was hell bent on killing me as fast as possible so why? I saw a shadowy figure appear behind him before he was ripped off of me violently. His fingers ripped out of me and my vision swam from the pain. He was flung away, along with a little orange ball clinging to his arm. As it flew through the air, it was slowly turning into dust particles. It never made it to the ground whole again.

I thought Bill had reached me but instead saw the emo teen from the market place standing before me. He looked exasperated. It was as if he was called out to pick up a drunk friend at three in the morning. I knew that look because I wore it myself doing just that. I smiled up at him. Hell, I was smiling just to be alive! I wrapped my tendrils around myself and began to heal my wound. The smaller wights that had taken the opportunity to hold me down simply stopped moving. Their eyes dimming as the flames within vanished as they slumped to the ground. 

“Thank you. Thank you for saving me.” I was still smiling even as the battle raged on around us. I could hear Bill taunting them with things like “With those skills it is no wonder you died angry”, “My mom hits harder than that” and “Why don’t I just rip off your skull and use your eyes to cook my food? At least then you’d accomplish something”, while James cleared the wights from the trees. None of them came near me even as I saw the dungeon messages popping up, repeating ‘TARGET THE HOLY (CONFIRM)’ over and over. Even so, nothing moved to attack us. He looked around and with a voice that lacked any real emotion said “No problem, what … friends for.” The sounds of combat broke over him talking and I saw his mouth moving but missed what he said after his first sentence. I saw him frowning as he looked around and as he looked at me continued, “I have… go. Here, you’ll need … help.” With a swipe of his hand he cut the air. A black void appeared where he cut. His arm vanished within the inky darkness and soon reappeared holding a four foot tall robed figure. All I could see was her face. Her form was emaciated and looked frail but with those high cheek bones I was pretty sure it was a girl. A girl on the brink of starving to death perhaps but a girl none-the-less. He bent over her, whispered into her ear and then stepped into the portal he created. As soon as he stepped all the way in, the portal vanished leaving the girl behind. Her eyes were wide as she looked at me in awe.

Shit, I forgot to get his name. The battle still raged on, the wights lay mostly in broken heaps. Killed by either Bill’s hammer or James’ sword. Those that lived were of the bigger variety and ignoring Bill’s taunts came at me. As they got close I shot out my tendril and wrapped it around six of them and began to spam ‘Smite’ as quickly as I could. These wights did not fall easily, nor were there only six. The others rushed in and I heard an airy voice saying, “Oh, I would not do that. His greatness told me that she was not to be touched.” I glanced at the girl and she had her head hung as if she was praying. In her hands was a tiny wagon wheel made of bone was held together with what looked like skin. She did not say anything else but as she raised her head she opened her mouth wide as if to shout. Instead, the trails of the green flames inside the wights eyes began to fly into it. The fire first bent toward her as if there was a wind and then as if she were a giant vacuum. They flew out of their eyes and into her mouth. Her mouth shut as the last of the wights eyes turned dark and they fell to the earth dead. Crunching noises soon followed as wights dropped out of the trees.

The girl giggled, as they fell, like a child that successfully played a prank. I noticed that her eyes now had a green shimmer to them as she looked at me. “Mistress, I took care of them for you. Do you wish to rest? Or perhaps, you would like to reclaim your little fuzzy ball of death?” She pointed in the direction of where the wight, that was trying to dig my heart out, was tossed. Pumpkin sat near a tree. Its orange fur now matted with dirt. The last thing I remembered was her attached to that damn undead’s arm. Was she the reason its hand stopped moving? I went to pick her up. She looked so pitiful. A little ball of death? Only if you can die from cuteness overload. James took this moment to jump out of the tree, landing beside me. He cleaned his sword before putting it away. I saw both their displays showing red from where they took wounds. After re-attaching my tendrils, I cast ‘Minor Healing’. The red in my display went away. James must have been more damaged than he looked because it took me a few tries to get him back to full. By the time I was done my mana was running low. I let them both know that there were still four more groups coming our way. The girl was just nodding as if she knew. I looked at her, “Thank you for your help but who are you?” I asked and after I thought about it added, “And why do you call me mistress?”

“My name is Frigus and what else should I call a friend of his Greatness.” Her eyes dilated and she had a fan-girl look about her. “The fact that he acknowledges you shows how distinguished you are, so of course I cannot disrespect you. If I do a good job, he may even give me the ultimate reward.”

I could not help but ask, “So what is the ultimate reward?”

She looked at Bill and James who was watching her like she was an alien creature and she suddenly got shy, “You know. Don’t make me say it in front of them.” She shrank into her cloak until her four foot frame looked even smaller and only her face could be seen. Her cheeks red.

I felt like I was bullying a child. “No need. No need. Of course you don’t have to say it.” Was Emo teen going to sleep with her? I knew women in this country wanted children almost fanatically. Especially if the men were rich and his clothing, while dark, looked expensive. They both saved me so I tried not to judge their actions. It was just that she looked so young and fail.

“If you two are done with your girlie talk, you said there were four more groups coming? Care to fill us in on what is actually coming? And you girl, is that holy symbol the real deal?” Bill pointed at Frigus’ necklace charm. He had a weird look as he asked as if he was warry. Was he afraid of her? 

It took me a second to answer as I contemplated why he had such a look. “Oh sorry, there are ghouls, ghasts, banshees and a stitch horror. I’m not sure how far away they are but hopefully they aren’t close because I am running low on magic. I can use a sanctuary spell to hide us but…” I looked back in the direction we had come from, “if I do that they may go after that party you set me in with.” My voice held reluctance. I would rather face danger than use others to secure my safety.

As I finished, Frigus’ soft voice began, “Of course. Do you think that my god would allow fakes to exist?” She held up her wagon wheel of Flesh and bone. There were five tiny bones connecting the middle ring to the outer ring. I’ve seen weirder things than a bone necklace since I got to this world so I did not give it much thought. After all, I needed to figure out how to survive the upcoming fights.

Bill took out a couple of light indigo potions and tossed me one. “Drink it,” was all he said before downing his. I looked at it and noticed its clarity. This was a high quality potion. I drank it and felt the pores of my skin open. The wisps of blue energy in the air, that the veins that ran throughout the dungeon gave off, began to flow and mix within the mist, and swirl about Bill and me. It seeped into me and seemed to flow through me with every breathe I took. My energy rose rapidly. It became full but the energy continued to flow into me. It had nowhere to go and I felt bloated from the excess.

‘+1 to magic energy regeneration’ flashed before me and I felt more comfortable.

“Thank you.” I owed him another one.