Loraline stood beside the nearest arrow loop, looking at the mirror in her left hand.

She sneaked a peek outside once in a while turning white as sheet at some point.

I could hear steps from the outside.

Milly was focused on the doorway, her hand firmly clasped around the hilt of her sword, which was still in its sheath. Her shield was ready, but close the chest to conserve strength.

Caroline was on the other side. Her mace was on her shoulder while her eyes were glued to the doorway. She probably didn’t see much, but was probably focused on the sounds of the walking dead.

Tilly had closed her eyes, her hands firmly clasped around her spear.

Finally there were steps entering the hallway.

I looked at Loraline who nodded at me. She slightly touched Tilly who in turn touched Caroline at the shoulder. Milly had tensed up already. No need to disturb her.

After a few long moments a disfigured humanoid stood in the door way.

Milly drew her sword an directly went for the neck with a powerful swing. The creatures head rolled down and hit the ground with a thud. She followed up with her shield and bashed the headless corpse back into the hallway.

There was a moment of silence. Then groans from the outside could be heard. Tilly lighted up Carolines shield with a light spell.

I stepped away from the wall to a position where I could the doorway with the point of my weapon.

There was the sound of many shuffling feet approaching.

Milly stepped back and Tilly gave her a light on the shield as well as Caroline stepped forward to block the doorway for the moment.

“More incoming!” Loraline was staring at the mirror.

The next ghoul threw himself through the door. Milly and Caroline let him through and he skewered himself on my halberd. I stepped aside and swung the ghoul towards the back of the room while it stumbled over a spear getting between his legs.

As he fell forward the door was already blocked while the next ghoul jumped back to avoid Milly’s sword.

I pulled out my halberd and got it ready to cleave his neck. As he scrambled to his feet I lopped his head off with a hard chop. Tilly turned back to the door, readying her spear.

The next one managed to dive under Milly’s sword while Tilly rammed the butt of her spear into his groin. It seemed unfazed, but Caroline’s mace turned his head in a messy pulp.

“We should try to bring them down outside!” I didn’t like the idea of these guy piling up in the room.

Then a larger group tried to force itself into the room. Milly took the brunt of the attacks, while Caroline focuses on distracting the ghouls and smashed any ghoul to pulp that found away around Milly’s sword. Tilly and I jabbed at the legs and eyes. Those who came in to far were hooked with the beak and pulled in which usually ended with a smashed head.

We worked like a well oiled clockwork. Years of hard training together payed out. After about a dozen casualties they retreated.

“Let’s throw the junk out, Tilly.” I grabbed the next ghoul by an arm and leg together with Tilly.

As Milly and Caroline cleared the doorway we threw it out in the hallway. The rest of the ghouls followed suit.

“They’re icky!” Tilly looked at her hands in disgust.

“We will have a bath later. I don’t care about the freezing water!” I tried to keep the contents of my stomach where it belonged.

A few moments later the next assault started. We managed to keep them out, but not without a few scratches for Milly. She was the most exposed of us at the moment. We would have to replace her sooner or later and change weapons. The halberd and the spear were not the best weapons against the ghouls and generally in close range.

After a few more assaults there was a longer pause.

“What are they up to?” Milly frowned.

“We will see. Give me your sword and shield and let Loraline patch you up.” I leaned my halberd against the wall.

“They are disgusting!” Milly handed me the shield and the arming sword.

“They are. I keep your position for now.” I turned to towards the doorway.

“Don’t let them bite you!” Milly stepped over to Loraline, who handed her the mirror.

Then she started to clean and bandage Milly’s wounds.

“They’re sneaking along the wall Lilly.” Milly looked at me.

“They gonna regret it.” I got ready and activated my armor spell.

Only a few moments later a ghoul came round the corner at my feet. I stepped aside and beheaded the crawling thing. Caroline smashed her shield into the next one, stopping it in it’s tracks.

The headless ghoul on the ground was still flailing with it’s arms. I smashed the lower rim of the shield into his back and sent him to the ground.

Tilly pinned him down with her spear while I lunged at another ghoul climbing over his fallen comrade. It raised it’s arms to protect the head, which left it with the stumps of its arms.

While it groaned a mace beat it’s face into pulp. I bashed the shield into him, causing a bit chaos in the hallway. Quickly I retreated while a claw raked across my protected shoulder.

The gambesons would suffer tonight, that was sure.

I tried to behead anyone I could. Sometimes they hesitated for a few moments, but in the end they always tried to press through. I loped off any hand I could get to get rid of the claws. As I got more and more tired they managed to get through a few scratches after another bunch of waves.

Ghouls seemed not the be that quick and nimble, so I could avoid many attack while defending the doorway while the others covered my flanks. I tried to push any decapitated ghoul out of the room with my shield.

Milly had joined in with the halberd after a while.

They pulled the corpses away from time to time for better footing. It gave us some time to breathe.

I switched with Tilly after a while and got my halberd back. Milly took the spear.

We had to replenish our light spell after a while though.

We rotated through the front line position each time when it looked like a brief break.

My mana slowly went down more and more, but it didn’t regenerate!

“Anyone regenerated mana recently?” I looked at Tilly and Milly.

They shook their heads.

“Shit! We should switch to using the gem for light after the light goes out.” I looked at Loraline.

“Sure.” She started to fix the gem to her helmet with a bandage.

As the last light spell, they lasted for about ten minutes, went out Loraline activated the light gem. The ghouls didn’t seem to like the ligth at all, squinting their eyes.

An eternity later in a short breather I got my next front line turn.

“There is a ghoul outside who sticks out a bit. He seems to command the rest of them and after he arrived the number of ghouls outside started to ramp up.” Loraline had sneaked a peek outside.

“That’s bad news. The ghouls are bad enough as they are now. Has anybody an idea how much time passed?” I looked at the others.

They shook their heads.

“The purple moon is out, I can see a slight purplish hue, but it’s an erratic moon so far.” Loraline shrugged.

“Keep an eye on the guy. We should try to get rid of him.” I cut off the right leg of the ghoul appearing in the doorway and Caroline bashed him back into the hallway.

Another, but distinctively longer, wave of attacks tried to break into our room. As they gained some ground pressing us back, Loraline raised the light level until they started to get a bit sluggish. Panting heavily we drove them back into the hallway, which broke the wave for now.

“There was a thumping noise at the back of the room.” Loraline stared at the back of the room.

“There’s nothing to see.?” I kept my eyes on the doorway.

“I’ll go an have a look.” I heard Milly leave for the back of the room.

There was a loud groan from the outside and a fresh wave of ghouls came down the hallway. After a few moments we had stopped the rush, taking out a few of them in the row.

One ghoul was flailing in panic in the hallway with only holes where he once had eyes. Tilly wore a smug grin as she realized the guy made everyone stumble outside.

“They’re trying to make hole in the ceiling while trying to distract us at the doorway.” Milly came back.

“Loraline.” I kicked a ghoul, whose eyes were glued to my sword right in the tummy sending him flying back into his fellow ghouls.

“I keep an eye on the ceiling.” She cried.

Good girl. I took out another ghoul but my gambeson had to endure a set of claws trying cut my sword arm.

The wave took much too long, and so we switched position without a break. Caroline held the door for a few moments assisted by Tilly, while I handed Milly the sword and shield.

Milly took point again after a few moments.

I recovered my halberd and leaned on it, while regaining my wind.

Loraline drew a few arrows from her quiver. Then she peeked outside and readies an arrow. Finally she drew and shot while readying the next arrow with practiced ease. A loud pained groan came from the outside as she sent another arrow through through the arrow loop.

“Got him! Their leader will be blind. It won’t kill him unfortunately, but he seems distracted.” She shot me a grim smile.

I nodded and readied the halberd again to send the ghoul in the doorway off balance as he tried to claw at Milly. He dove towards Carolines side who smashed his head to bits while Milly parried an arm while cutting it off halfway.

We got a small break as the ghouls had to clear the hallway once more. Tilly and I gave them some more work to do as we cleaned out our room again.

Loraline dimmed down the amber again while the rest of us gained back their wind.

“Still! Alive!” Milly looked me deep in the eyes.

“The Suns are coming!” I looked back at her with a slight nod.

The gaps between the waves increased noticeably.

“The leader isn’t out there anymore.” Loraline gave us a slight grin.

“They’re still trying to come through the ceiling. They did a good job building this.” I nodded at the back side of the room.

“What could we do about it?” Tilly leaned on her spear.

“Not much. The ones with polearms are going to harass them when they try to come down here. Loraline may able to get in an arrow or two. Try to hit the joints, that will slow them down.” I rubbed my chin.

“We won’t be able to switch when that happens.” Milly frowned.

“We’re going ramp up the light of the amber. They shun it even if it’s dim.” I looked at Loraline.

“We burn their eyes out!” Loraline nodded at me with a grim smile.

“We’re reeking!” Milly wrinkled her nose.

“We probably can burn everything we’re wearing now.” I looked down at my armor.

“Get ready. They’re coming!” Loraline whispered and we all got ready for the next wave.

“Are there at least fewer of them outside?” Tilly jabbed at the ghoul trying to sneak around the corner.

“Not so fast” Milly cut off it’s right arm.

“I can’t see a difference, but it’s dark outside.” Loraline shrugged.

Looking at the ceiling at the backside of the room I noticed more and more cracks. Sometimes a piece of plaster fell to the floor. A fallback position would be nice. At least the ceiling was quite high. Hopefully many of them would hurt themselves.

Until they pile up for a save decent for the rest! They were just too many! Hopefully the light from the amber was able to keep them back to a degree.

I focused back on the task at hand.

Even with taking a break once in a while the endless fighting too a toll on all of us, except perhaps Loraline who at least didn’t get hurt. I wondered how much of these bandages we actually had.

Eventually a rock fell down from the ceiling below and left a head sized hole. Loraline took her bow and went to the back. She looked up and shot an arrow through the hole which causes a groan from the floor above. Then she stepped back again.

“There are plenty of them above.” She frowned.

A few stones came down the hole doing no harm. She came back after a few moments. The onslaught continued and our armors got more and more holes. The shields were doing well so far.

My mana was dropping further and further just for the magical armor. The spell didn’t prevent a good hit but the cuts were shallow and could be bandaged without much of an issue.

Eventually more stone came down and the hole in the ceiling widened considerably.

“How is your mana?” I looked at Milly and Tilly.

They shook their heads.

Then a pair of legs appeared through the hole. Loraline put an arrow through the right knee. At the same time another wave of ghouls tried to force their way in.

Our line held, but it was clear that it won’t hold forever.

“Brace!” Loraline touched the stone on her helmet.

I squinted my eyes while trying to keep Milly and Caroline save.

Then it got really bright. Another two ghouls had been dropped from the ceiling already. The first one was on the ground and trying to pull the arrow out of his knee.

The ghouls in front of us jumped back after a few moments, which Milly and Caroline used to wreck havoc on the ones in reach.

I turned back to the ones in our room and beheaded one of the ghouls who stood there reeling. Loraline cut down the one on the ground while Tilly toppled the last one over.

The ghouls retreated completely and no one tried to come down the hole in the ceiling.

“They lurk in the shadows in the hallway, but shun the bright light.” Loraline looked at the mirror again.

“Let’s keep it that way for a while. Tilly keep an eye on how fast the the stone discharges, but no mana!” I leaned against the next wall and kept an eye on the hole above.

It was really bright inside at the moment.

Loraline gave the gem back to me and started to bandage every wound she could find.

“Let’s wait.” I looked at the magic of the stone was slightly fading over time.

No one dared to sit down, but the light kept the ghouls at bay for now.

“Should we deplete it completely?” Milly looked at me:

“I want to wait for an hour at least.” I looked back at her.

“You want to know if the mana comes back?” Tilly looked at me.

“The healing could come first.” Milly furrowed her brows.

“Just wait. Healing won’t that bad, but I can live without it. I think the situation is too tense for it to kick in. It always comes after the fights when we start to relax.

A long, long while nothing happened.

“I’ve got some mana back. Let’s go for another round. The gem should be able to do this two more times. After that we are on our own.” I gave them a grim smile.

We got back in position before Loraline tuned down the light again.

Milly and Caroline were alone by the door now while Tilly and I stood by the hole in the ceiling.

“Watch out for stones!” I got my halberd ready.

After few more minutes another bunch of them tried to come through the doorway. Soon another ghoul started to let himself down through the hole. I put my halberd through his waist and pinned him down in the hole. T

The ghoul started to struggle and groan and tried to get out again. I propped the halberd against my shoulder and tried to pin him down. His fellow seemed to push him down though. I had to stand a bit beside the hole to keep it up there. Tilly joined in with her spear a few moments later.

Milly and Caroline held the door, but it was taxing them.

“Switch with Milly at the next opportunity.” I looked at Tilly.

“Yes!” Tilly gave me a feral grin.

They kept going for quite a while, but eventually they stopped to clear out the hallway.

Tilly and Milly swapped position. Milly was panting heavily.

“Take your time, I can hold him for a while.” I smiled at her.

“This may even work out” She smiled back and put the spear up to support me.

Then the ghouls attacked again at the doorway. Tilly gave her best and kept going. Caroline was fighting a bit more offensive now without the two of us supporting from the back.

The ghoul from the hole came down eventually. Milly skewered the next one while I finished the one on the floor off and pulled him aside. Then I gave Milly a hand again.

We got another break and I switched position with Tilly. A few moments later I was struggling against the next wave of the walking dead. I took several cuts, but my magic protected me from deeper cuts.

We kept the doorway another time.

I nodded at Loraline and then it became bright as day again. We spent another hour without anything happening.

“Round two. I really want a watch.” I took position by the hole again.

This time no ghoul came down the hole, but the started to work on the hole again, widening it frantically.

Then we turned on the gem again for another hour. We would lose our source light soon. The ghouls started slipping through the hole in the ceiling, but no one without severe injuries. It was no problem to gut him with the halberd.

“It getting brighter outside!” Loraline cried out as I took over the frontline.

Milly and Tilly were nearly out of mana again and I was the last one who was able to use the magical armor. Our normal armors were only rags by now. We had to get something new soon.

Loraline activated the light gem one more time. I had enough mana left for another magic armor, but it would leave me drained.

“They’re leaving the floor above!” Milly looked at me with glee.

“The hallway is still filled with a bunch of them.” Loraline shook her head.

“The light will go out soon. Tilly, come and help us at the door.” I looked at Loraline and pointed at the arrow loops.

“The square has emptied nearly completely! They’re leaving!” She looked at me with wide eyes.

Then the light gem went out. I fire up the last mana I had. I got some more cuts, but finally the last of the ghouls was down.

“We’ve done it!” Milly hollered at the top of her lungs.

“Yeaaahh!”

After enjoying a few moments of utter joy we came back to our senses.

“Get your backpacks! We’re leaving! Now!” We helped each other with the backpacks and stumbled out the early morning sun.

I fastened the light gem to my backpack with the remains of a bandage.

After another three hours we left the the dreaded ruins behind. Out mana went up quickly over the morning, but the wounds didn’t heal. At all.

The mood was rock bottom again as we settled down for the night.

“There is a faint strange aura around all of us. It’s faint with Loraline and Caroline, but we three got plenty of it. This has to be the ghoul fever.” Tilly slumped.

“I survived this mad ruins! I refuse to die from a mere disease!” Milly was fuming.

“There is nothing we can do about this at the moment. Leaving the area is a no brainer though. We might have gotten ourselves some new pesky followers.” I gave Milly a hug.

“There are some herbs that help with the fever, but it’s not a mere disease, Milly.” Loraline had tears in her eyes.

“Let’s get some sleep. Perhaps we just need a good night of sleep. We can try to get some help from the dwarves at some point. I don’t think they let us into their cities at the moment, but maybe we can buy some of those herbs you mentioned.” I looked at Loraline.

“Perhaps.” She gulped.

“All we can do is get some sleep.” Caroline laid an arm around Loraline.