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  Vaylari turned in time for the first Wight to slash her forearm. Before she could parry, the second Wight slashed her same arm again.

  She grunted at the pain but forced herself to parry the third Wight’s attack.

  It was knocked back into the way of the other undead and her following attacks lopped off the arms of one Wight, and the head of another.

  “Get down!” Pegg cried and swung his half sword. Vaylari took a knee and let Pegg attack over her head. His strike cut the armless Wight in half.

  “Behind!” Vaylari choked out as she slapped a bandage on her arm. When that one dissolved she slapped another one on.

  Two Wights squeezed through the unguarded gap in the wall while Pegg cut down the last Wight. He turned in time to parry their claws with his buckler and chop off one of their hands in a quick combo.

  “Vaylari, give me a hand once you are done with that bandage!”

  Vaylari slumped over, her hands covered in blood. The second bandage disappeared just as quickly as the others.

  “Vaylari!” Drew called out.

  Drew ran over to cover her. He blasted a Wight with a stone bolt before it could slip past Pegg to get at the injured woman.

  Debuff removed: Broken Bone (0/1) 156 exp.

  Just one more broken bone and then I should be able to reattach my wing.

  “Hey! Vaylari,” Drew said. “Stay with us.”

  Drew dropped his wing to put a claw on her and activated his Healer’s Blessing ability.

  Debuff: Bleed (2/2)

  Debuff: Bleed (1/1)

  Debuff: Blighted (05:45)

  On his end of the wall, William felled three more Wights and stepped into the gap with his shield.

  “She okay Drew?” William shouted.

  “Shes got a couple bad bleed effects. I’m fixing her up now.” Drew called back. “And what ever this Blighted Debuff is… can’t be good.”

  Pegg grunted under the weight of another Wight as it clung to his buckler. He slammed the butt of his sword into its skull repeatedly until he had smashed it completely.

  “I’ve got that Blighted debuff, it drains HP,” Pegg said. “Would love to get that removed by the way.”

  She might be out of the fight. We are getting over run, and I’m all out of fire bolts. So the undead keep standing back up.

  William’s armor glowed as he leveled it up again. He hit a little harder and was a little more steady on his feet under the undead onslaught.

  “We need to fall back again,” William shouted. “Can you build us a new wall? Something with only one entrance.”

  Drew took in the scene as three more Wights climbed over his wall.

  Vaylari is unconscious and bleeding HP. Pegg is Blighted too, possibly William as well. Hemut is down and needs healing.

  Debuff Removed: Bleed (0/1)

  How do we get out of this? I’ve only got two charges left on my stone wand too.

  “I’ll build a dome around the wagon!” Drew shouted. “On three, clear your side and retreat.”

  “Three!” Pegg and William shouted at the same time.

  Drew summoned a stone dome 15 meters wide, three meters tall, and one meter thick.

  It rose up out of the ground around Hemut and the wagon.

  He left a archway wide enough for William’s shield to act as a door.

  Pegg grabbed Vaylari by the armpits and dragged her awkwardly to the safety of the dome.

  William pushed the undead back and released his sword’s ability. A shockwave of force sliced through the Undead before him, slicing them in half at the waist.

  “Take that!” He shouted.

  William turned and saw Drew and Pegg retreat. Three Wights launched themselves from atop the wall. William charged forwards to intercept them. He plowed through them with his shield.

  Wights started pouring through the gap Pegg left behind as the last of Drew’s dome came together.

  William ran backwards without looking as he fended off five Wights.

  “Hurry up!” Pegg cried from the opening of the dome.

  “Doing the best I can!” William shouted back.

  Drew used his last charge of his stone wand to shatter the skull of a Wight that flanked William.

  The Blacksmith turned and sprinted to the dome and squeezed through the archway. His armor barely fit, for a second he was stuck, but he dropped to his knees and slipped through.

  “Get that shield up and close the door!” Drew shouted. He latched back onto Vaylari once they were both safely in the dome. His Blessing removed another Bleed Debuff and Drew swiped away the notification without looking at it.

  He kept both of his healing abilities going.

  Debuff: Blighted (03:55)

  Drew held his wing firmly to his breast and checked his prompt.

  Debuff: Disarmed. (38:42)

  Thirty seconds to see if I can speed up her blighted timer. I am running out of time to reattach my wing, I need to do both.

  William looked sideways back at Pegg and Drew, his shield filled the doorway completely. Wights slammed into his shield repeatedly. Their claws scrapped and grasped at the edges but he was strong enough to hold them off.

  “Is this normal for adventurers to be leveling up this fast?” He asked, his voice echoed slightly within his helmet. “I’ve gained proficiencies with Heavy Armor, Broadswords, and my Shield Proficiency went up twice.”

  “No this is insane!” Pegg cried. He applied a bandage to a wound on his arm and rummaged in the cart for some water.

  An explosion rumbled through the ground and William peered over the top of his shield to get a better view. A Wight got its claws through the gap and struck his helm. William jabbed his sword over the top of his shield and ruined the Wight’s face.

  “Looks like the Hag blew a hole in the wall.” William said.

  “That’s impossible! She can’t do that!” Pegg cried. “What are we going to do?”

  Debuff: Blighted (03:25)

  Damn. My blessing doesn’t have an effect on the Blighted debuff. Just got to keep minor healing on her until it times out.

  “She has explosives?” Drew asked. “Let me see.”

  “Stay there, Vaylari needs your healing.” William said as he pushed back on a Wight that had gotten it’s claws around the edge of his shield.

  William forced the claws back and stole another look over the top of the shield.

  The Hag was using her book to cast some kind of spell over a goblin. Two Skeletons held the goblin in place as she worked her magic. The purple fog wrapped around the goblin and entered his mouth. The monster’s belly expanded to twice the normal size as more and more fog filled it up.

  “You aren’t going to like this Drew,” William said. “She is turning Goblins into bombs.”

  “I need to get out there,” Drew said. “We can’t stop her trapped in here.”

  “What are you going to do? One Gallows Bird, missing a wing, against an undead army!” Pegg shouted.

  He’s right.

  “I’m going to do the best I can!” Drew said and slammed his broken wing into his shoulder where it belonged. He winced as the raw bones and muscles ground together. His head spun from the pain and he nearly lost the focus on his mage hand. Then the two parts clicked back into place.

  Debuff Removed: Disarmed 450 exp.

  Constitution +1

  “I’m going to save everyone!” Drew said through the throbbing pain.

  Pegg was speechless. Drew hopped up onto William’s shoulder with a single pump of his wings. He used Mage Hand to spear a Wight with his shirk around the edge of the man’s shield. The Wight reared back and Drew flew out through the gap into the cavern.

  William pulled his shield back into place and turned his head to look at Pegg. The rancher shrugged.

  “If you have a death wish you can go out there with him,” Pegg said.

  -

  Drew flew past the destroyed wall. The explosion had torn open a gap wide enough for a monster to easily climb through. But with the middle of the wall mostly collapsed, it was much easier for Wights to jump over.

  My flame wand is out of charges. My water wand is full. And my stone wand is out too. There’s two charges left on my wind wand but sustaining sharp blades of wind drains my mana pool way too fast. I’ve also got a full stack of stones and my shirk.

  Wights threw stones and spears at Drew, he swooped in an S-shape to avoid their paths and took in the rest of the scene.

  The Hag stood at the mouth of the middle tunnel. Two Skeletons were holding a goblin in place as she turned it into a bomb.

  I have to stop her!

  Drew took out his water wand and focused on pulling water from the air around him. He was surprised to see much of the water came from the purple fog. As he drained the moisture out, the fog became a greasy mess on the ground.

  Well that’s a nice surprise. Two birds with one stone, or water spell.

  He focused the accumulated water into water bolts. There was enough water collected to make 10 fist sized projectiles.

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  Sustaining the spell cost him 1% of his mana every second but he held his focus a little longer.

  A mob of Wights moved to block his attack on the Hag. When the Wights came into range he unleashed his Water Bolts into the mob of undead.

  Every bolt his its target. Heads were struck from necks, arms blasted off, and even a few legs were destroyed. But the Wights picked up spare parts to put themselves back together.

  This is not working. Water is just the wrong element to use. Fire is the way to go.

  MP: 18%

  Drew focused on his meditation skill to boost his mana regeneration while he switched to charging his flame wand.

  I can charge the wand, and meditate to restore my MP. But that stops me from attacking with other spells.

  The undead closest to the wall were climbing over or charging around. The ones closest to the dome were mobbing the doorway. They fought mindlessly with each other in their haste to reach the Ressians inside.

  Drew took aim at the Hag again with a stone from his gathering ring. He swooped around and released it from his claw.

  It would have struck her but a Wight jumped in the way and took the stone to its body.

  Drew felt the charge settle into the flame wand in his claw with a satisfying click.

  He turned his wand on the mob surrounding the Hag and let loose a wide stream of fire as he strafed past.

  “Flamethrower!” He shouted.

  Wights burst into flame and the purple fog caught immediately. The hag dropped her focus on the goblin and shrieked.

  With a wave of her hand, the fog swept towards Drew, creating a gap in the flow before the flames could follow the fog into the tunnel.

  A handful of combat notifications popped up for the slain undead but Drew swiped them away.

  “Playing Hero again!” She cackled as she reached up towards Drew to pluck invisible strings.

  No! Not those crazy debuffs! An ability like that should have a longer cooldown.

  The hag strummed the air, once, then twice. She looked at her hand in confusion.

  Drew saw his chance and pulled another stone from his gathering ring while she fumbled with the strings of fate.

  “How?” She shouted angrily at the air.

  “Who cares! Try catching this!” He said and whipped the stone at her with his mage hand.

  A Wight jumped to block the stone but it was moving to fast. The Hag tried to reach for the stone but she could not bring her magic to bare on it.

  The stone clipped her hand and continued on to hit her in the shoulder with a brittle crack. She shrieked at her broken fingers and glared in fury at Drew.

  “Ha! Take that!” Drew cheered as he started charging his flame wand again.

  A Skeleton threw a bone spear and it clipped Drew’s wing. It took a bit of his HP but nothing broke.

  I need to keep my eyes peeled for attacks coming my way.

  He twisted his head around to scour the ceiling for any more giant bats.

  Are there more of them up there? Or was it just the one?

  The undead he blasted with water bolts were struggling to stay on their feet. All of Drew’s summoned water had turned the dirt floor to mud.

  The water only slows them down, is it a bad element for attacking? Or just bad against undead? If I could use ice magic they might work better. I guess fire is the best option.

  The Hag growled and sent the bloated Goblin forward with a word Drew couldn’t quite hear or understand. The Goblin staggered into a sprint. Its eyes were fogged over with purple and its head rolled crazily as it ran through the gap in the wall.

  It’s going for the dome!

  Drew leaned into a dive to head the goblin off but a barrage of stones and bone spears forced him to change course.

  Drew dropped his Meditation skill and used Mage Mand to catch a stone and throw it back at the Wights bombarding him.

  Before he could look back at the explosive goblin an explosion echoed through the cavern.

  “No!” Drew shouted and turned his head, expecting to see the dome shattered. Instead he saw Pigra with a wild smile on his face.

  Khermet, loosed an arrow and it pierced the Hag through the shoulder.

  Sw?dgar and Yocca charged the mob of Wights around the dome. Yocca was wielding a long warhammer with two heads and colorful ribbons trailing from the handle.

  Sw?dgar had a meat cleaver as long as his arm and a Frying pan as large as his belly.

  The two dwarves smashed their way through the undead laughing and chortling the whole way.

  “Thought you could use a hand little Bird!” Pigra laughed as he spun a fireball across his hands.

  “Take out those Undead!” Drew cried. “They are highly flammable!”

  A red gleam lit up the Dwarf’s eyes and his smile grew even wider.

  “Oh I know… they are begging to be incinerated.” Pigra moaned before summoning another fireball and throwing both into the undead’s back line.

  -

  “Are we going to hide in here until they break in?” William asked.

  He stole a look back at Pegg. The Rancher placed a wet cloth on Hemut’s brow. He brought another bandage over to Vaylari and applied it to a wound on her shoulder.

  “Someone has to stay and help these two. Or did you forget they are dying?” Pegg whispered loudly. “And our only healer flew off to save the day.”

  An explosion rocked the dome and William braced himself against the blast.

  “That one was too close!” William grunted. “I need to block this door, that leaves you to go out there and thin the mob.”

  “Fat chance of that!” Pegg said. “They will just get back up if we cut them down.”

  “Knock knock!” A cheerful voice said. “Anyone home?”

  “What? Who’s there?” William said and peered over his shield. The undead were scattered and regrouping near the broken wall. In their place stood Sw?dgar and Yocca back to back.

  “Can anyone come out to play?” Yocca joked.

  “H?rdy-b?rdy! Skr?ff der grüt-bellied SKRAANG! B?rk-b?rk-booooor!” Sw?dgar cheered.

  “There’s two Dwarves out there!” William said. “I’m taking the fight to them. You can stay here if you are too wounded to fight.”

  Pegg looked at his two friends and then down at his hands. He clenched them into fists and stood up.

  “Dammit! I’m not going to let a blacksmith and some dwarves showboat on me!” He said and equipped his sword and buckler.

  “That’s the spirit!” William cheered and they both charged out to join the two Dwarves against the mob.

  “About time you big idiots showed up!” Yandas said from the top of the dome.

  Pegg turned to see her strike a dramatic pose.

  “Thought you could use a little help?” She said.

  “Missed you babe.” Pegg said with a grin.

  The undead mob creeped forward. A few of the bolder ones swiped their claws to test the groups range.

  William blocked one Wight with his shield and parried quickly. His slash cut the Wight’s hand off near the elbow.

  “Gotta hand it to you,” Yocca jeered at William as he drove his hammer in an upper cut and knocked two Wights apart. “You are getting pretty handy with that sword!”

  Sw?dgar laughed and pulled the same shield and parry combo with his large cast iron pan and cleaver.

  The body parts of the undead started to pile up as the group held them off.

  “Heads up!” Yocca yelled as he swung his hammer in a wide horizontal arc. The hit shattered the heads of three Wights, one after the other. A fourth Wight was caught in the attack but its head didn’t shatter, it flew off intact to land near Khermet.

  The Dwarvish Leader was at the left hand gap in the wall firing two arrows at a time into the mob. He was aiming for the Hag but she had withdrawn several Skeletons to shield her from his arrows.

  “Whenever you are ready Pigra!” Khermet yelled.

  On cue, the Dwarven Mage set the piles of bones aflame. He didn’t stop there, he set his sights on the mob of undead and kept throwing fireballs.

  “Bork! Hurrn-de-burnie! Yer sk?rchin’ der beardies!” Sw?dgar shouted at Pigra.

  Their group had to move quickly to not get caught in the crossfire. William and Pegg charged the gap in the wall and Sw?dgar and Yocca joined Khermet.

  Yandas sprinted over to Pigra and stabbed him in the thigh with a dagger.

  “What are you thinking!” She yelled at him. “You nearly roasted us!”

  The knife wound caught the mage’s attention and he canceled his fireball spell before it could form.

  “Thank you little Rat… I may have raged a little too much there.”

  Drew swooped around to join Pigra and Yandas.

  “Thank you!” He said. “We were getting over whelmed.”

  “Nothing to fear now little one,” Pigra said. “You’ve got a mage on your side. These undead are kindling to me.”

  “Just don’t burn the whole place down.” Yandas said and punched the mage in the hip.

  -

  He is a real mage, not like my enchanted wand imitations.

  Drew got his flame wand up to its second charge and kept going. His meditation skill almost kept pace with the mana drain of charging the wand.

  I should be able to get one more charge and then I’ll need to wait for my pool to refill.

  At the other end of the wall, Khermet finally got a solid hit on the Hag. Until that point, She had been blocking with skeletons as fast as he could kill them but he finally slipped a shot through. The arrow pierced her chest and threw off her concentration. She dropped the book in her hand and the skeleton she was raising from the fog exploded as the spell backfired.

  “Curse you!” She rasped as she picked up her book again. “Your bones will make sturdy soldiers for my army.”

  There were still two dozen Wights around her. They were focused on putting out the burning remains of the undead. The purple fog could restore them given time once the flames were out. The Hag knew to keep the Fog well back from the battlefield else it could be ignited again.

  Yocca and Sw?dgar charged forwards around the left side of the wall. Not to be out done, William and Pegg advanced through the ruined gap in the middle of the wall.

  Drew joined them, flying overhead and using a charge of his flame wand to scatter the undead’s formation with a firebolt. He visualized a grease fire and gave the flames some extra stickiness.

  If I can ignite the fog then that should drive her back.

  Something brought Drew’s attention up and he spotted a pair of giant bats dislodge themselves from the ceiling.

  “Look out!” He said as he dipped low to avoid getting snatched up again.

  Pegg and William heard him and ducked.

  The giant bats missed them by a second, and carried on to scoop up Yocca and Khermet.

  Khermet’s bow was gripped tightly against his chest by the massive claw. With his free hand, the Dwarven Archer was able to pull a short knife. But the blade made little progress against the giant bat’s claws without his weight behind it.

  A third giant bat dropped down from the ceiling and grabbed Sw?dgar’s pan. The bat flapped its wings and barely managed to drag the heavy set Dwarf across the ground.

  “Hork Hork!” Sw?dgar grunted as he pulled the giant bat down to the ground. It scrambled to get away from him but he broke its wing with his pan. The chef stood over his catch and raised his cleaver high over his head.

  “Zee cheffy hefe-a steeke-a fur deener!” He said as he expertly chopped the monster into prime cuts.

  “It ate him! Khermie!” Pigra yelled.

  Flames roared out from Pigra’s hands and formed into two large arrows. He was yelling, a guttural, wordless cry as the arrows grew larger and burned brighter.

  “Calm down! Stay cool! Calm down!” Yandas yelled at Pigra but the mage could not hear her. “Don’t make me stab you again!”

  She lunged forwards with her dagger but a third arrow formed out of the flames and the heat forced her back.

  “Drew!” Yandas cried as she scrambled back from the heat coming off Pigra. “Stop those bats!”

  Drew turned to see a giant bat rip Yocca’s leg off and toss it aside. The dwarf had not been able to get his hammer free of the giant bat’s grip and suffered a serious wound.

  Drew sent a Fire bullet after the giant bat. The shot echoed around the chamber, every living thing except Pigra stopped what they were doing to cover their ears.

  The supersonic spell entered one side of the bat’s head and blew out the other side. The monster crashed to the ground, crushing several undead.

  The moment of silence ended as the undead wailed with glee.

  Drew did not have time to celebrate. His ears were ringing, but he found the giant bat that still held Khermet.

  Khermet is still in one piece!

  The dwarf had freed his bow and strung four arrows at once. He released them directly into the bat’s throat. The giant bat screeched and died in the air.

  He’s going to be okay, I should focus on reattaching Yocca’s leg!

  Drew pumped his wings and went after the cast off leg. He tracked it down to the battlefield and used his Mage Hand and Shirk to decapitate a Wight before the monster could scoop the limb up.

  “You aren’t getting this one!” Drew shouted and brought his Shirk around to cut another Wight off at the knees.

  Drew landed roughly on the leg and rolled with it.

  It was torn off below the knee and weighed down by a long armored boot. He had a moment to cut the boot laces with his shirk before a Skeleton tackled him.

  Drew switched to his Wind Wand and started up his cyclone of blades.

  MP: 25%

  HP: 45%

  The Skeleton stabbed him with its claw. Drew was able to twist its head around backwards with Mage Hand before it could bite down on him.

  HP: 32%

  Come on come on!

  The cyclone got up to speed and the compressed blades of wind stopped nicking the undead around him and starting slicing through them.

  Drew and the Skeleton grappled over the leg in the eye of the cyclone.

  Just let go already!

  Drew let go of the leg and punched the Skeleton in the face with his Mage Hand. The limb rolled away and the Skeleton tumbled into a pile of bones.

  I need to find that leg!

  The undead were scrambling all over the two giant bat corpses. Drew spotted the boot just a couple hops away. A Wight was chewing on it. He rushed over and his wind blades went to work on the undead. Drew managed to pull the leg from its mouth before it was too far gone.

  Just a couple bites missing, no problem, I should still be able to re-attach it!

  Drew strained his wings to lift himself and the dense leg into the air. He got above the undead and oriented himself to William and Pegg. The two were fighting alongside Sw?dgar on their way through the mob of undead. Like fish swimming up stream, they fought throught the undead that were swarming towards the giant bat corpses.

  Where are they going? Wouldn’t Yocca be back that way? We have to get to him!

  “Gurdy-Blurdy! Git Vay da Spoicy Boi! Der Doomin an der Gurdy!”

  Drew followed Sw?dgar’s line of sight and spotted Pigra, surrounded by over 30 white-hot arrows of fire. Yandas was shouting at the mage, trying to get close enough to distract him from his spell. Her armor and hair were smoking already from the ambient heat. She could not get any closer.

  “Attack them!” The Hag cried. “We will feast later! Kill them! Kill them!”

  The Hag shouted at her undead, but they would not listen. They ignored her in favor of the giant bat corpses.

  The Hag staggered forwards bleeding from severe wounds. She throttled a Skeleton and smashed it to pieces. The Hag collected the bones up and used purple fog from her book to shape them into a long spear.

  Oh no you don’t!

  She hurled the spear at Pigra across the battlefield.

  Drew dropped the limb and tried to knock the spear aside with his Mage Hand but he missed. The spear burst into flame as it struck Pigra in the chest.

  The summoned arrows spiraled off in every direction as Pigra lost his focus on the spell. He looked over at Yandas and pulled a small medallion from around his neck.

  “No don’t do it!” Yandas shouted, she took a step towards the mage but he was still hotter than a furnace.

  “It’s too late for me. I won’t become a demon,” Pigra said calmly. “Run my pretty little rat.”

  Pigra raised both hands over his head and Yandas ran for cover.

  When he brought his hands down, all of the arrows came back down onto the battlefield. William and Pegg ran for the dome but did not make it before two arrows detonated on it.

  What is he thinking!

  “Get down!” Drew shouted as he grasped Yocca’s leg and flew low to the ground.

  Multiple arrows hit the bat corpses. They exploded and incinerated the undead.

  Where are Khermet and Yocca?

  “Return to me! To me!” The Hag shrieked as she limped back to her tunnel. The undead nearest her followed her command and blocked the opening of the tunnel.

  Multiple arrows struck the undead and the vile fog exploded in a large fireball that shot back down the tunnel.

  “At least I could save everyone before I die. Hows that for a mindless demon?” Pigra rasped. “Eh father?”

  Blood bubbled up from his lips. He swiped some with his thumb and pressed it to the center of the medallion.

  Pigra smiled as the medallion activated and turned him to ash.