Halloween Special: The Mansion
Cassie entered the dark hallway, the heavy doors opening with a loud creak. It wasn't the first time she found her prey welcoming her to its lair with open doors and she never understood why. Was it a sign of arrogance? A challenge? Maybe a way to mock her for coming? Cassie didn't know. Nor she even cared.
Clutching her father's crossbow hard, she fired out a bolt at the nearby wall, the glowing projectile piercing deep into the surface and serving as an improvised torch. Soon the light emanated from the crystals at the back of the bolt amplified greatly, dispelling any nearby shadows. Another shot soon followed, and the entirety of the hall became illuminated in white light.
"It's awfully quiet around, don't you think?" Cassie heard her companion think. Mental link with your pet was one of the few positive effects of becoming a Hunter. You could see, hear and even smell what your linked animal did.
"Yeah, it is." Cassie agreed. "He must be hiding somewhere. Why won't you go and scout around, Zigs?"
"As much as I'd like to do that, I'm afraid my senses, however heightened, may prove useless against this… unnatural darkness."
"Is it magical in nature?"
"To be frank, it is hard to tell. Nothing similar I've felt in my life. I'm afraid we'll be blind in this mansion of shadows."
"Terrific." Cassie thought to herself. She changed the boltpack in her crossbow and began looking around the hall, searching for anything that could help her identify her target.
"Do remember we're here not only to slay the beast, yes?" Zigs reminded her.
"Yes Zigs, I know." Cassie responded, a tinge of annoyance in her voice. "A Hunter went missing, the Order wants me to find them, yadda yadda yadda. How hard can it be to find someone who wants to be found?"
"Considering the fact that its Huntress Tyra we're talking about, I'd say very. So please, don't get cocky, especially now."
"Oh please, Zigs. I'm never cocky." Cassie retorted with a smirk.
Zigs sighed internally. "Just don't get distracted."
Cassie continued walking through the hall, scanning the area for any clues. She soon found the first sign of Tyra's presence in this decrepid building. A single rifle round casing sticking out from under the half-rotten cupboard. The very same one Tyra used for her weapon.
"Cold as ice." Zigs pointed out. "Must've been here for a while now."
"At least we knew she was here."
"Was, or is?" Zigs grimly remarked.
"Stop being overly dramatic, Zigs." Cassie chimed her companion, before hiding the shell into one of her pouches.
"Can you sniff her out?" She asked, earning a glare from her feathered companion.
"Two things. One, probably magical shadows. Two, I'm not a bloody dog!" Zigs thought, his thoughts amplified as a way to mimic screaming.
"Right… forget I even ask…" Cassie stopped herself mid-sentence, her head instantly snapping to the right. Something moved in the dark part of the hall, the visage so fast it was but a blur as it ran into one of the corridors connected to the hall.
"What was that?"
"An undead most likely. I heard no breathing as it ran through the light. Or possibly a gorger."
"Great, a necromancer is around." Cassie grumbled. Necromancers were always tough to fight against. Suck
"Still better than fighting a vampire. Or a sorcerer. Or a wrai…"
"Don't. Say. The word." Cassie cut the crow off before it could finish, an angry frown on her face.
"Alright, alright. I won't say it. Let's just… follow that thing. It's the best bet to find Tyra."
Cassie huffed before moving out. She slowly approached the entrance to the corridor, stopping just before the entrance. With a quick press of a button, the crystals on the front of her crossbow began shining, creating a beam of the same white light as the one in the hallway.
"You're coming?" She motioned at Zigs, who took himself a spot on the half ruined cupboard.
"I'll… defend the entrance. It is imperative that I do that. We need an escape plan if something goes wrong, right?" Zigs
"Courageous as always, Zigs." Cassie mocked as she went deeper into the mansion, leaving her only companion behind.
The corridor was incredibly dark, even more so than the hallway Cassie started in. Thankfully, the beam of her crystals was more than enough to light the whole place well enough. She continued walking, weapon held high. Though she hid her feeling behind a stoic expression, the idea of engaging a necromancer scared her. Not for what he was, for most necromancers die just as easily as their creations. No, it was the possibility of fighting numbers of his creations Cassie was afraid of. Most necromancers liked to fill their lairs with monstrosities of flesh and bone, either dug out from long forgotten graves in the woods, summoned with foul rituals or simply slain and brought back from the other side before the blood could even cool off.
It was because of men like these that Hunters existed.
A sudden crack of wood brought Cassie out of her thoughts. She shone her light at the origin of the sound, only to find a gaping hole in the floor, dried blood and spent casings covering it. Quickly closing the distance, Cassie shone the light inside of the hole, finding a shallow tunnel that moved forward through the corridor.
"Definitely work of a gorger." Cassie thought to herself as she blocked her nose and continued examining the tunnel. It was clear that the rock under which the manor was built wasn't dug out using claws or picks, it was simply too smooth for that. As if something simply burned a hole through and cleaned it thoroughly afterwards.
"Let's just hope it's going to be only one gorger." She muttered to herself, grimacing at the thought. Gorgers were disgusting beasts. Made with the sewn flesh of whatever the necromancer deemed unnecessary, they took a life of their own, moving with multiple appendages and spitting bile at their enemies, they were surprisingly fast and cunning for something that's literally spineless. Thankfully, the beasts are easy to detect and defeat, leaving a persisting stench of rotten flesh whenever they go and falling after a single bolt to the stomach.
The existence of this tunnel told her a lot. First, the presence of Gorgers indicated that the Necromancer is either an Acolyte or has trouble accessing resources. Second, she can expect Skeletons to make an appearance. Third, the need for special bolts became very unlikely, making her purse much happier for the near future.
"This should be easy." Cassie smirked, getting back up. As she continued moving towards the other end of the corridor, she thought about Tyra's disappearance. The older Huntress was very much experienced with fighting monsters, having killed a Gorlock before she even joined in with the order. And after that? It didn't took long for her to rise through the ranks of monster slayers. She even got herself a nickname of "Baroness" after earning the title during her visit in Sun Spire, when she cleaned out the Sand Scarab nests around the cliffs. It was quite hard to imagine her getting caught in an abhorrent place like this.
She's probably out in the woods, strangling bears or something along those lines.
"I never wished to see that in my life, Cassie. You have made me a very disturbed avian today." Zigs thought, probably shaking his head in dismay by now.
"Sorry Zigs, I'll make sure to not think about those things if they make you queasy."
"I would greatly appreciate that." Zigs mentally responded. "As much as you would appreciate the information about someone who walked through the front door. And he's not a Hunter by the look of things."
"What?!" She cried out in her mind. Who in their right mind would walk into a long abandoned mansion that is probably teeming with dangerous beasts…wait a minute.
"Can you stop offending yourself and meet the intruder please?"
Cassie sighed. First a necromancer, now some random adventurer. What next? An eldritch horror under the manor?
"Well now. I do remember this place falling out of graces last that I've been here, but this is a whole nother thing." The newly arrived adventurer remarked. He was quite a strange character, especially one to be found in a place like this. On older gentleman of elven ancestry in a brown overcoat and a top hat, sporting a backpack filled with different scrolls and whatnot, that saw its fair share of voyages.
He removed his top hat and set it on a nearby coat rack, before looking at the sources of bright light that seemed to come out of the walls themselves. It seemed to be that someone used light crystals embedded into crossbow bolts as improvised torches. A clever little solution he would no doubt take note of for the future.
"Squawk!" The elf heard a screech. He turned his head around, only to see a regular looking crow perched up on the nearby cupboard.
"Oh. Hello little one." He greeted. "It doesn't seem you're the owner of this establishment, now are you?"
The bird hadn't responded, simply glaring at the newcomer before him.
"I'll take as a no then. Say, would you, by any chance, know where I can find the Tome of the Abyss? I'd greatly appreciate your help on the matter."
Again, no response from the avian.
"Oh well. You've been the most helpful." The elf sarcastically told the bird.
"And I feel that favours should be repaid with favours." He heard a voice from the dark. Very soon, a young woman, no more than twenty five, exited from one of the corridors, a crossbow in hand. He quickly recognized the markings on the black leathers she wore as well as the brimmed hat, and his heartbeat quickened.
"A Hunter." He thought, watching as the woman slowly approached. "What could she possibly look for in here?"
"You seem to know things about this place." The young woman pointed out, her crossbow aimed dangerously at the old adventurer's leg. Judging from the distance, there was little he could do to avoid getting shot.
"Well, yes. I do have history with the owners of this establishment." The adventurer nervously replied, watching the woman's hands for any sort of movement. "At least I had as it seems, for they seem not to be here."
"Well now. Did you know that this mansion has been abandoned for years now, then?" The girl once again asked, before furrowing her brow. "You seem familiar… do I know you?"
The old elf smiled a bit. "I am well travelled so you'd probably see my face in some places." He replied, before offering a short bow. "My name is Torvald, an explorer of cultures long lost and an amateur craftsman. At your service. And no, I have no prior knowledge of this place being long abandoned."
"You like to omit the title of Acolyte Necromancer, don't you?" The woman asked with a smirk, switching her aim at the elf's head, now.
"What?" The elf asked, shocked. "No! I have never practiced Necromancy in my life. It is a foul art of the arcane that should never come to being."
The young woman's smirk turned into a wicked smile. "You really want me to believe that?" She asked, unamused. "Walking through all the nearby villages and not hearing about the Mansion in the forest being abandoned? Or even people disappearing in the forest, for that matter? It's a good joke. Unfortunately, I am in no mood for jests."
"Do you think I am a necromancer?" He asked, his breathing incredibly quick at this point.
"I don't think you are one." The woman replied, calming Torvald a little. "I know it."
Torvalds pulse became quicker than ever. He was about to die because of some strange misunderstanding, when all he wanted was just a tome his friend, count Ulrich borrowed those fateful thirty years ago. A tome that surely wasn't worth dying for.
"Please. I have so much left to learn." He pleaded, gazing at the woman before him. The woman that took no notice of a Gorger sneaking behind her.
"Look…" He cried, only to silence himself mid sentence. The woman, showing surprising agility despite wearing tight leathers, rolled away from the spit of bile that would eat through her back, and fired once, the projectile piercing the abomination's belly. It released all the dangerous substances that the beast stored inside of itself, causing it to quickly itself and all around it.
"...out." He finished just as the woman before him got up from her kneeling position, a look of worry quickly replaced by an annoyed frown.
"Why didn't you warm me Zigs?!" She shouted at the crow, which in turn began screeching at her. It seemed that the crow he spoke to was her Tracker, an animal that she bonded with for the future hunts. It also seemed that the crow was a sassy talker, for the woman quickly decided to quiet down.
"No pork for you in the future." The woman declared, much to the bird's anger. It soon hopped on her right shoulder, watching Torvald with newfound curiosity.
"Alright, ." Cassie said to the elderly elf. "You're not the one guilty of having me here. But you're still hiding something. I can feel it." She finally turned around, revealing a stoic face. "Why are you here?"
Torvald moved towards one of the paintings on the wall, the one that presented his friend and a fellow researcher. "This." He pointed at the image of a middle age man wearing a tweed suit and sporting a beard shaped like a pyramid. "Is Count Marlove Ulrich. We are, or were, considering the state of his house, friends. You see, Ulrich possessed a Tome regarding the nature of the Abyss. It contained a lot, and I mean a lot of knowledge on the topic. Knowledge that I require if I wish to decipher the Ska'Drin runes I've found during my latest expedition. Which brings me here."
"Isn't the study of Abyss outlawed?" The woman pointed out.
"Not from where I come from it isn't." Torvald replied with a smile, perhaps the first one he had ever since he arrived.
"Well. I'm looking for… a friend, I guess." She explained, scratching the back of her head as she did. "She's gone missing a while back and I came to investigate."
"Then you're looking in the wrong place." Torvald remarked. "If you want to know where she is, you have to know what happened here first." He stopped to think for a second. "If I recall correctly, Marlove had a penchant for keeping a journal in his room on the second floor. Mayhaps you, and by extension me, could find some valuable information there."
The woman looked at her crew for a second, before nodding and going back to look at Torvald. "Alright. But you'll lead the way."
"Old people first. I never expected that kind of manners from a Night Bane." Torvald playfully mocked as he walked towards the stairs.
"Cassie." The woman introduced herself, sounding rather annoyed as she did. "And I still don't trust you. So just be quiet and lead the way."
The trio moved slowly through the building, careful as if to not step on something that would break. While Cassie slowly walked keeping her crossbow as a source of light, Torvald simply put on some weird goggles that started glowing green after a press of a button, no doubt a contraption he himself designed to defeat the need for Krys-light.
Secretly, Cassie wished she had a pair of her own right now.
"His room should be the second door on the right corridor, if my memory serves." Torvald quietly announced.
"Do you think he's trustworthy?" Cassie asked Zigs mentally.
"I don't hear his heartbeat increased, so he's not lying. And well, he did try to warn you about the Gorger." Zigs regarded, watching the… old elf gleefully observing his surrounding.
"You're right. He's more reliable than you are in that regard." Cassie countered, her thoughts thought up up in a way that made them sound annoyed.
"I really don't know how he came that close!" Zigs defended himself. "It's like he materialized out of nowhere."
It hadn't helped him make her feel better. He could feel that she wanted to have a chat. "Let's just… wait, do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Zigs asked, trying to focus out anything unusual.
"Clanking ahead."
"What?" Torvald asked, visibly perplexed.
"Skeletons in the corridor next."
The old man brought his hand into the overcoat, and pulled out a strange cylinder-shaped bronze contraption made out of bronze. Upon putting it on his right hand and pressing on one of the buttons, it quickly shot out a series of smaller pieces of bronze, all of them quickly forming into something that resembled fingers. The whole thing looked like a fake limb one could commonly find in war veterans, just without all the flashy bits.
"Now you're just full of surprises, aren't you, Mr Torvald." Cassie remarked with a smile, as she marveled at the construction before her.
"Life is full of surprise, Missy." Torvald responded, sharing the smile "Now watch." He said, as he slowly walked to one of the walls. Once he arrived at the end of it, he aimed his gauntlet at the crossing of the corridors and started knocking on one of the walls, keeping up the same gleeful smile for the whole time. Very soon the clanking became louder and more numerous, suggesting the presence of a larger group converging on their position.
"What are you doing?!" Cassie asked, preparing for a confrontation. She quickly checked if the crystals had enough energy to overload the next bolt into a Blast Shot, but it seemed she'd have to wait a few seconds. Few seconds she didn't have.
The first skeletons came out of the corner, brandishing whatever could be used as weapons while whatever foul magic kept the bones from turning into dust. They looked at Cassie, multiple orbs of sickly green energy turning yellow as they started charging. Cassie fired a bolt. There was a blast, a crack and a flash, the light blinding both the young Huntress and her avian companion for few seconds. Once she opened her eyes, she saw an impressive display of power.
Torvald stood next to what could only be considered a crater, his gauntlet pointing right at it. There was no sign of skeletons around, only wisps of energy that bonded their souls and bones together.
"How the?" She asked as she rubbed her eyes.
"Hahaha. Amazing, don't you think." Torvald asked, examining his gauntlet. "The Ska'Drin had a thorough knowledge on how to not only manipulate, but also interrupt any arcane forces at work."
"So you… broke the spell?" Cassie asked, watching the bronze pieces float around the device in amazement. Such a small thing and it can do so much damage.
"It is a very useful thing to have while exploring. For some weird reason many ancient civilizations like to put all sorts of nasty magics in their monoliths." He shrugged. "I learned a lot about undead during my travels that way."
"Well. I'd love to talk about that, but we should get going." Cassie responded. She rubbed her eyes once more for good measure and walked up to the crater, stopping just before the danger zone.
"Right. Though considering the state of the main route, I'd suggest we rather take a detour." Torvald announced, watching the wall he knocked on just a second ago.
"What are you planning to do?" Cassie queried, watching as the man began fidgeting with his device.
"For one, I'll ask you to move away." He told the young Huntress, before turning his attention towards the gauntlet. "Now then. If I move the main energy rune closer to the secondary power exhaust... and recalibrate the focusing glyphs…" He kept moving things around, until abruptly stopping. "There we go!"
"His heart tells me I should be afraid. So should you." Zigs remarked internally just as Torvald was aiming at the wall.
"Wait Torvald…" Cassie tried to stop him, but it was too late. The gauntlet shone a bright hue of green for a split second, before sending a crushingly large beam of pure energy into the wood.
"It's working, IT'S WORKING!" Torvald shouted with glee as the rotting wall quickly turned into little splinters, all of them flying in different direction. Even behind him, Cassie could feel the overwhelming power that just go released. Thankfully, that power died out as quickly as it appeared, leaving the eccentric elf clutching his armed hand in pain.
"Gods, are you alright?" Cassie asked, quickly closing the distance between the two of them.
The old adventurer looked her in the eyes, tiny sparks of excitement filling them. "Never felt better, Missy." He spoke, before starting to chuckle. That chuckle slowly turned into full-blown laughter, which proved infectious enough to make Cassie chuckle.
"Ah." The elf sighed. "Let's go and check Marlove's room."
They entered the room through the busted wall, the bed from the earlier apartment embedded into a wall.
Cassie looked around, there were stacks and stacks of books on the libraries, most of them bearing enough dust to choke people to death.
"Any idea where to look?" She asked no one in particular.
"I'd say the desk could be a good shot." Torvald pointed out, his feet slowly walking towards the place.
"You already launched a bed." Cassie quipped with a smirk. "Please refrain from using furniture as projectiles for now."
Torvald chuckled at that. "Was that jesting I've heard? You said you're in no mood."
"Mood can change quickly, so let's get to work now. I don't want to stay here longer than I need to. Makes me… moody." She responded, giggling at her remark.
"Gods Cassandra, you're on duty." Zigs complained.
"Still more aware of my surroundings than you!"
Zigs only sighed internally.
"Found it." Torvald announced, pulling out a large volume covered in red leather.
"Are you sure it's his journal? Looks quite bigger than an average book of the sort."
"Marlove was a big man." Torvald explained. "Both figuratively and literally. He was seven feet tall last I met him."
Torvald quickly began flipping through the pages, stopping from time to time to read a date. After a while of flipping he finally stopped, pointing the bronze finger of his gauntlet at a page. "Hah! There we go. This entry is twenty years old."
Cassie looked at the page. It was easy to notice this Marlove fellow was well read, as indicated by the amount of unnecessary big words he frequently used. Out of the whole page she only understood he managed to find something called a "Soul Orb" while scouring an abandoned temple of Nox. It seemed to be a great find, judging from two lines of adjectives describing its greatness alone. Also some informations about lesser things like cost of paying the worker and taxes.
"Torvald." She called the elf's attention.
"Yes?"
"Any idea what a soul orb is?" Cassie asked.
Torvald scratched his chin. "It's an artifact used by various magically inclined beings that know a thing or two about the soul manipulation."
"Can it be used by necromancers?"
"Can it? It's popular with many who use souls as playthings or sources of power, necromancers included."
"Oh joy." Cassie muttered. "Next page please."
He turned to the next page, the date informing the three that the entry was written in nineteen years ago. There also seemed to be a few pages lacking between the two.
"Strange." Torvald announced. "Marlove hated damaging books."
"Maybe someone else did it?" Cassie proposed, watching what remained of the pages.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not."
The entry spoke about Marlove's study of the orb. It seemed that he started getting visions from long exposure to the artifact, visions of his dead family members. He somehow came to the conclusion that the Tome of the Abyss was required to understand them.
"Next page."
Entry from eighteen years ago. Marlove explains how the visions made him "understand" the deeper inquiries of life and how the living were chained to the idea of death and rebirth. He also talks about his experiments on animals that could help him "break the wheel".
"Oh no. That's starting to get dark. Next page."
The next page was from fifteen years ago, though half the page was mostly gibberish. It talked about him "freeing" the people that lived and came to his mansion, removing them from the "Wheel of Life" as he called it and rebuilding them to be perfect.
"We crossed the point of blasphemy for many cultures after reading this one." Torvald remarked, his mouth grimacing at the words before him.
"We have to go deeper though. No information about the person I'm looking for." Cassie countered.
"And no whereabouts of the Tome. Alright." Torvald responded, before flipping the page.
Entry from seven years ago. The ink seemed to be much more red this time. It reads about Marlove successfully extracting the soul from the hold of the Abyss and how happy he is about…
"Oh Gods." Torvald remarked with disgust.
"What kind of a man makes his own mother into a wraith?!" Cassie cried out, averting her eyes from the horrid description of a ritual that bound a soul to the material world. She was disgusted, plain and simple. To do things as appalling as making someone live in eternal torment and think it is for their good? The man deserved to suffer for that.
"Not the Marlove I know, that's for sure." Torvald grimly said, his face a grimace of sadness and disappointment.
"Next page please. And let's hope it won't be something worse."
Only gibberish. Torvald kept going further and further until a clear entry presented itself. This one from before three days.
"Cassie. I think you should see this." Torvald told her, his voice betraying fear.
Cassie looked at the paper. It described how after losing many of his "perfections" the madman managed to catch a Huntress, one whose soul is strong enough to be sacrificed to gain the very same immortality he so willingly shared with the others. It says that he needed the sacrifice to submit by itself, and planned to have it happen by keeping her chained in the basement of the mansion without food or water until she broke. It also explains how he feels the need to let some blood free, whatever it means.
Cassie swallowed her spit. This was worse than she thought. The lack of monsters wasn't caused by the necromancer's inability to create them. It was because Tyra killed most of them.
"Zigs, we have to save her." Cassie told her bird internally.
"Don't need to tell me that."
"A human body can't survive more than three days without water." Torvald suddenly remembered. He turned toward the Huntress and pulled out a pair of green goggles, similar to the ones he had on himself. "Take this. You need to keep that weapon of yours prepared once we get to the basement. Follow me.
And follow she did. By the Gods, she'd shoot every undead that stood in her way.
"Quickly now!" Torvald called from behind Cassie and Zigs.
"How much more to that blasted basement!?" Cassie asked as she ran, one hand holding the hat while the other held the crossbow.
"Right corridor in the main hallway and the third door on the left! It's not far!" Torvald explained, lagging behind. It seems that old age catches up even to the elves.
Upon reaching the stairs connecting the hallway with the second floor, the trio froze. Before them stood around a hundred deathless abominations. Skeletons, Gorgers, Revenants, all standing there without a sound made. Even an undead Stagella made an appearance in the backline of this reticent mob. But they all paled in comparison to the one that stood before them.
Skinny creature devoid of flesh, the bones shining through the mixture of scars and milky white tissue that was its skin, with only a pair of ragged pants and two belts across its chest. It may have been once a man, but the years of mutation and self torture made it resemble a mutilated husk much more. Add to that the manic smile and you've got one disgusting mug to look at.
"I know that you want to do it, but refrain yourself from barfing up the stairs, alright?" Zigs asked her.
"Visitors!" The creature boomed, it's raspy voice surprisingly loud for someone who's one gust of wind away from breaking its spine. "So kind of you to join us!"
"That your friend?" Cassie asked Torvald, who was seemingly petrified after seeing the man before them.
"Marlove." He managed to mutter out, unable to come to terms with what he was seeing.
"Have you come to join us? I am always looking for more poor souls to free!" Marlove cackled to himself. Abruptly, he stopped, and pulled out an orb from his back. A metal object that seemed to be magically suspended to two chains that held it in place.
"He's the talking kind it seems." Cassie said to her companions. She turned her head towards Torvald, a smile on her face. "It's two versus a hundred, they have an experience necromancer and all I've got a crossbow. You in?"
Torvald looked at the young woman before him. Despite the horrible situation they were in, she somehow found the courage to smile. As if the idea of throwing herself against a small army was nothing special. As if the concept of dying to a mob of lifeless automatons meant nothing to her.
Torvald looked at the mob in front of them, refueled his gauntlet and smiled. "I've never thought my friendship with Marlove would end up with me fighting off undead.
"Maybe there's no need for that." Cassie declared, looking at the laughing madman. "Maybe his death, or simply destroying that orb could break connection to his puppets?"
"Chop off the head…" Torvald began.
"...and the whole snake dies." And Cassie finished.
"You take the snake, I'll distract the body." The elf announced, his hand fidgeting with the gauntlet once more.
"You don't look like someone who can take a lot of damage, you know." Cassie responded, watching as the old man dabbled in the inner workings of the powerful gauntlet.
"Really now?" Torvald smirked, before pushing one of the gears in. A few sparks followed and the tall elder became encased in a thick bubble of energy, similar to the one that blew away the walls on the second floor.
"You're full of surprises, aren't you."
Torvald simply smiled, before jumping down the staircase and releasing his weapon on the Count. The man barely had time to disappear before the spheres of energy connected with the creatures behind him, scorching matter whenever they hit.
Cassie had no intention of doing nothing. Quickly bringing her crossbow to bear, she fired a blast of energy into a mass of skeletons, the explosion sending shards of bone everywhere. She quickly followed with a volley of bolts into the bunch of Gorgers that tried spitting bile on Torvald as he was busying himself with the Revenants. Quickly placing a new bolt pack into her weapon, she continued raining death from above. It felt good to use her weapon again.
"Behind!" She heard Zigs cry out. Heeding his advice, she rolled to her left. It was a good call, for a jolt of Abyss energy hit the railing instead of her, showering the area with splinters. She quickly turned around and hastily loosened a bolt, interrupting the Count as he prepared another spell.
"You!" He screeched with enough enthusiasm to make him seem like a child. "You're a lively one! Not fit for the Abyss."
"Not planning to visit that place anytime soon." Cassie retorted, quickly firing two more bolts, only for the madman to flash out of her sight again.
"Left."
Turn. Shoot. Be angry he disappeared again while laughing.
"We won't get him like that."
"At least you're doing better than Gramps there." Zigs responded, showing her as old man struggled with the stone creature after making mincemeat out of the rest. It turned out that the gauntlet's basic attack did little to damage the giant and forced Torvald to modify his weapon as he ran away from the surprisingly nimble foe.
It was a bit funny to look at, if Cassie were to be honest.
"Behind." She rolled to the left, evading a series of spheres flying right at her. This time she hadn't bothered firing at him, instead taking a quick look for any weak spots.
"Tsk. Tsk. The glowing thingy."
"Perceptive as always, Zigs." Cassie countered, before firing at the orb that madman held so close to himself. This time it half-worked, for the orb itself got hit, but the bolt didn't even scratch the surface. Still, it gave her an idea.
While she was waiting for Marlove to resurface, Torvald finally finished modifying his gauntlet, just in time for the shield to break after getting hit with the seventh body. He turned around and with a defiant roar, he charged the stony behemoth. Once he was in range, the gauntlet unleashed a beam attack that seemed to stick to Stagella's chest, slowly burning a hole through the stone right into its heart. Unfortunately for the elf, the scorching pain made the beast even more enraged than before, making it even harder to dodge its attacks.
"Cassie, right!" She heard Zigs cry, and she knew it was the moment she waited for. She dodged backwards, but one of the orbs still managed to graze her left arm, sending a wave of cold and pain through the entire limb. Still, using only her right arm, she released a bola of concussive energy, throwing the orb out of Marlove's hands and straight into Torvald's beam.
There was an explosion. A flash of blinding smoke, followed by a bang so terrible it made Cassie's ears ring. Couple that with the fact that Zigs heard that explosion with much bigger amplitude, and you have a really big headache coming. It was as if someone decided her head was a bell in a monastery and every second of the day was prayer time.
When she finally came to her senses a lot of things in the environment changed. For one, the unnatural shadows dispersed, allowing for much easier perception of surroundings. Two, her clothes were much more rags than actual uniform. Three, the hall was quiet, save for… crying?
Turning to look at the origin of the sound, Cassie saw Marlove lying on the ground, weeping until his bloodied eyes dry out. Upon closer inspection, one could hear him silently repeat only one word.
"M...mama…"
"Pitiful. To think you were a threat just a moment ago." Cassie thought as she got up.
She grabbed her crossbow from the ground and checked the bolt pack. There was still one bolt left. One bolt was enough to finish the job. She could kill him right now and be done with it for today. No one would need to suffer anymore because of this madman's actions. Ending his misery would have no consequences on the world. And yet, something told her not to do it. To go and check on Tyra and Torvald. See if they still live. Especially Torvald. Killing an undead Stagella is something not many can boast about. It'd be a shame to see him go like that.
"Zigs, are you alive?"
"I wish I wasn't. It hurts to think."
"Go check up on Torvald, would you? I'll get Tyra."
"Alright."
"Third floor to the left, right corridor." Cassie muttered to herself as she walked to the proper door. Torvald was thankfully alive, the barrier regenerating at the last moment. Now it was just a matter of finding her fellow Huntress.
Upon reaching the door, she opened them wide, expecting to find a staircase leading downward. Instead, she found a pitiful excuse of a woodwork, rotten planks leading down to what could only be described as a cave. Still, it had to be done, and Cassie carefully went into the cave, light shined at every step along the way.
Once inside her nostrils have been assaulted by stench of rotten meat. She quickly began searching for any places Gorgers could hide, but the place seemed to be lacking in that regard. As she advanced, the smell became harder to beat with every step. It became so bad that she had to stick cloth into her nose just to reduce the her need to retch.
Soon she entered another part of the cave, and the source of her problem revealed itself. Four Gorgers lying dead near an iron cage, not a single one bearing the signs of fighting. Just to be sure, Cassie fired a bolt at one of the abominations, but there was no response. Satisfied, she walked up to the cage, and found what she was looking for.
Inside of the iron jail was Tyra, the Untamed. Her usually braided, blonde hair was loosely covering her head like some dirty mop, her face carried multiple bruises and the red uniform that indicated her status bore signs of cuts and was covered entirely in dried blood. And despite all that, the woman before her looked as proud as she could, not letting weakness set in.
"Cassandra." Tyra asked,hiding exhaustion in her voice as best as she could.
"I'm here, don't worry." Cassie whispered, trying her best not to sound tired. "The Order sent me."
"That fast?" She tried to chuckle, the gesture quickly turning into a coughing fit. "I'm honored."
"You look terrible. Let's get you out of these chains."
"The key is on the table." Tyra declared, pointing her head into the darkness.
Cassie nodded in understanding, and quickly went to get the key. True to her words, the key lied on the table, next to Tyra's Autorifle and a large book covered in purple leather.
After snatching the key, she quickly began freeing the older woman, making sure not to harm her in the process.
"Can you walk?" Cassie asked, looking at Tyra's bloodied legs.
"I can even dance if it means getting out of this wretched place."
"That will not be necessary." Cassie responded, a warm smile appearing on her face.
"Zigs." She called her companion.
"Yes?"
"We're done here." Cassie announced. "Fly to the nearest Order outpost and tell them to send someone to the mansion. I don't think I'll be able to carry the two by myself."
"Two?" Zigs asked, surprised.
"What? Were you expecting me to leave that elderly elf on his own after all he's done for me?"
"Ummmm…"
"Just fly and shut up."
"Right away."
As the crow fly away, Cassie watched as the sky slowly became lighter and lighter with each passing minute, indicating the setting of the dawn and end of her watch. Gods know she needs the respite after this night.