"Why'd you stop on my account? Feel free to tear each other apart," Dyrroth clapped his hands together.
"More for the dead," Vexana whispered, and it felt as if the air itself had turned sharp.
Luo Yi began spreading her hand again, and Gusion hurled a dagger at her hand.
"Don't interrupt the pleasantries," Dyrroth told the mage, who simply pulled the dagger out and crushed it, the magic seeping into her.
"Maybe you shouldn't attack her," Lesley said to Gusion, her rifle trained on the centre of Dyrroth's chest.
Dyrroth smiled, looking at Lesley. "I came there that night to kill your brother, actually," he said, and Gusion clenched a dagger. "But I got your boyfriend instead."
"Not my boyfriend," Lesley snapped, and Gusion's heart twinged.
Dyrroth's smile grew wider. "Best friend then," he shrugged. "Maybe I'll end him and you tonight-it would be satisfying."
With that, Luo Yi snapped her fingers and the monsters lunged.
"TO THE EXITS!" Gusion roared, as he cut a monster's head down the middle and threw daggers at the monsters, miraculously keeping them at bay.
He heard a sound like a death knell, and turned around as Vexana came at him, green eyes alive with malice.
He parried two slashes of her claws with his dagger, and then Vexana stepped back when Gusion expected her to press the attack and pushed her palm out.
A pitch-black hand rushed forward and Gusion, for a moment, heard the souls of the dead pass through him, and life drained out of him and Vexana stepped in.
Gusion's head cleared and he backed away, knowing that he was being forced on the defensive and not liking it one bit.
He'd heard stories of the dreaded necromancer, but had wondered how dangerous a mage could be.
He should have learnt after getting beaten to a pulp by Eudora during training sessions.
Vexana closed in, the monsters clearing around them and Gusion tried to move towards her, but Vexana was just too damn fast and Gusion found himself backed to a wall as he dodged another swipe of those claws.
"Finally," she spoke in that high-pitched whisper, and Gusion looked down to see the ground open up beneath him.
"You belong to the dead; you cheated them once, it will not happen again," Vexana chanted, and Gusion's bones began to rattle as his ears filled with the indecipherable whispers of the dead and his vision clouded and the fight drained out of him-
-and then he felt like his head had been blasted with a jackhammer as Lesley stood over him, shaking him so hard he thought his neck would come loose from his shoulders.
"Answer, damnit!" she whispered, and even through her stony exterior, Gusion could see the frantic worry in her eyes and that was enough for him to nod.
Lesley dropped him with a snarl and Gusion saw her advance on Vexana, who was clutching her hand like a wounded animal.
Vexana lunged but Lesley was equal to the task, moving to the side and slamming the butt of the rifle into Vexana's head, aiming the barrel of the gun at her head almost immediately, and then Dyrroth leapt over Gusion, falling into a roll and his legs shot up like a cannon blast and cracked into Lesley's chin, pushing her away from Vexana, and Dyrroth pressed the attack.
Gusion snatched up his dagger and moved, but his brain was suddenly attacked by an onslaught of speaking, the voices louder than ever, and he realised with a muted horror that they were speaking to Vexana.
Kill him.
Bring him to us.
One more for the count.
Vexana's head snapped up, and Gusion staggered back, cutting wildly with his dagger as he backpedalled to the exit.
Vexana held out her hand, and Gusion braced himself for the black hand, but Vexana instead howled in agony, and Gusion noticed the jade green blood sifting through her fingers.
Lancelot and Luo Yi fought parallel to them, Lancelot moving his lance as though it were an extension of his arm.
Luo Yi was bleeding from a cut on her shoulder but grit her teeth, throwing orbs furiously and missing.
Lesley flew out of the darkness, hitting the ground and rolling backwards to her feet.
Dyrroth stepped out, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he sent a ridged object at Lancelot, who barely dodged it, falling back.
Dyrroth looked at them with a hard look in his eyes, then looked at Vexana, who was glaring balefully at Gusion and at Luo Yi, who was holding the wound on her shoulder.
Corpses of monsters littered the floor around them, and Dyrroth knew that he wasn't winning this.
Lesley stepped forward and Dyrroth moved to Luo Yi, whispering something to her. Luo Yi nodded and beckoned to Vexana, who moved to them.
"Next time, you will die," Vexana spoke, pointing a longer finger at Gusion.
A circle enveloped the trio and they disappeared, just as Gusion's knees gave out and he collapsed, voices swarming his head, and he heard his friends' voices call out, and then they blended in with the rest and then a cold chill coursed through his body and then his vision blurred and he saw all the dead minions and monsters that he had killed.
And then something burned against his abdomen and Gusion jerked awake to find Lesley and Lancelot standing above him, the end of Lesley's rifle burning his stomach.
Lancelot pulled him up and asked him something but Gusion felt like his ears were waterlogged, and shook his head before hearing what he was asking.
"I'm fine," Gusion said, stumbling forward.
"Can you walk?" Lesley asked, her voice sharp as nails.
Gusion nodded, and that action itself caused so much pain.
They walked out of the cottage, the corpses of the monsters rotting behind them.
