My hand pressed against the cold stone, but nothing happened. ‘Wait… really? Nothing?’

 

I turned to face the wall, rubbing it with my hands to try and find the trigger point, but still, nothing happened. ‘So I guess it’s the one-and-done kind of trap then… Even without him, my situation is the same… Which means the plan hasn’t changed. I fight my way back to the entrance and wait. I’ll just explain what happened to Zu in the note I leave for the others. Maybe they can help him.’

 

I looked down at my hands. They were still shaking, and they still hurt… But just like every other time, no one was coming to save me.

 

‘Ok, come on you can do this. I survived getting thrown in a pit full of hungry wolves I can take out a few zombies on my way to the surface. I should be fine, I can probably run past most of them anyway, and it should be mostly clear since we came from that way…’

 

I tried to shake out my joints, but I couldn’t get the stiffness to go away. My saliva got caught in my throat as I tried to swallow. Eventually, I just gave up and drew my weapons. ‘The longer I wait here the more likely I’ll get attacked. I don’t have time to be nervous…’

 

I took a few more deep breaths, and set a pace I could hold for as long as I needed to. It was dark, but that wasn’t a problem because I could still use dark sight to see just fine.

 

The moment I entered the first room though the air became hard to breathe. I could feel the ghoul’s presence stronger than ever. ‘Is it going to attack now? It might be better to fight it in an open space like this…’ I looked around seeing the several corpses my father and brother didn’t finish off. Some of them had even started piecing themselves back together. ‘Maybe not…’

 

My feet took off toward the other end of the cavernous room, but another zombie blocked the entrance. It had a plate chest piece and was missing an arm and a leg. A wraith-like projection covered its missing limbs as it stared at me silently from a distance. ‘No way around… No turning back. I have to go through.’

 

“You have no place here.” Its words were fragmented and blurred as if death was speaking from far away. But for some reason, I still knew what he was saying, the same as when Airsidh spoke to me in the stables. I heard the voice as if I were reading it from a page.

 

“That’s why I’m trying to leave!”

 

It growled as its head twisted, “Too late…” I pulled up my arms to block. it had no weapon, so I thought for sure I could counter, but my sword passed straight through it as it faded in and out of space.

 

It grabbed my neck and lifted me up into the air, both of us levitating off the ground as it stared down at me. “You do not deserve to be king!”

 

‘If I can’t hit you with my fits…’ I struggled to focus while it choked me, but with a surge of manna, I froze it solid. In a flash, everything within a couple of meters of me turned to solid ice and we fell to the ground. 

 

“Serves you right…” I muttered, my voice turning course as I struggled to get my voice back. I didn’t have time to think about what it had said, or the fact that it could speak, the only thing I cared about was getting out of the dungeon.

 

I stumbled to my feet, using my sword to support me, and that was when I finally started to hear them… The chains, dragging across the stone floor.

 

‘Ok, it’s back, but this is what I've been training for with Rafi right? So I should be fine… probably… hopefully…’

 

The chains came to a stop, and the black void slowly encompassed the exit, but then it all vanished at once and all that was left was the ghoul, standing firm like a human barricade.

 

“You lost your fear of me… but it seems… you are still afraid.” Its voice was even more human-like, making me feel as though it had only grown stronger since the last time we had fought.

 

I looked to where it was pointing and saw a mass of 12 slashed-up zombies. “I’m not afraid, they’re just gross…”

 

Its voice may have changed, but it still had the same breathy laugh. “Your fear keeps me alive.”

 

I turned back to the Ghoul, but it had vanished. Its voice started to echo around me again as I lost track of it.

 

“Still up to your same old tricks!” I yelled, glancing at the entrance again. ‘I don’t care where you are this time. I’m not trying to fight you right now.’ I bolted straight for the tunnel but just as I thought I had reached it I ran into something hard as a brick wall, bouncing off and landing on my back.

 

Looking up I realized it was nothing else but the ghoul. I quickly tried to push myself away, getting to my feet as I locked my eyes on it.

 

“Oh no, this won’t do, don’t you remember, it’s not me you’re afraid of anymore?” It laughed again as my heart raced and it faded into shadows that even my darksight couldn’t see through.

 

‘It can’t be gone, it’s still here somewhere. I was slowly backing away. Why don’t I make an educated guess…’ With a smug grin on my face, I whipped around, stabbing my dagger right into its side. ‘No freaking way… That worked?’ It was almost like I was starting to be able to sense it through dark magic.

 

Its long chains wrapped around my arm, crushing it even through the plates until I let go of the knife and it fled. “Silly girl, don’t you know you have to pierce my heart.” It vanished again into the black mist as the undead only grew closer.

 

“What will you do without your weapons?”

 

I tightened my grip around my sword. 

 

“Oh, sorry, I should have done this before I asked that.”

 

 I tightened my other hand around my sword as well, sharpening all my senses. ‘Just try it…’ My eyes fixed on it as it appeared out from the shadows, taunting me by showing itself. “You were right before, I was afraid. But I didn’t know how wrong I was to be afraid of something so weak as you.” ‘If I say it enough times maybe I’ll start to think it’s true…’

 

It slowly raised its hands and its chains rushed towards me, not just from the front, but from behind me as well.

 

I channeled my manna just like before, and ice exploded out from my skin bursting forth all around me, stopping the chains dead in their tracks.

 

It groaned. “You’re so annoying… Well, no matter. I was just the distraction anyway.”

 

My skin felt cold, and my joints were stiff, making it hard to move. ‘I’m starting to hit my limit. I wasted way too much manna.’

 

The ghoul vanished, but he did what he had wanted to. The zombies were too close for me to run, and to make matters worse more were coming from the entrance, attracted to the noise.

 

‘I still have my sword… I can still fight…’