FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

22 - Valdys

Ulric carried their trembling attacker in his arms out of the thicket. The spirits rushed at him again but diverted away before getting close, and twirled in a wild cloud at a short distance. 'Looks like they don't dare attack now that you caught their master.' said Elzbieta and put her sword away.

'Thankfully.' he said and knelt to sit down the cloaked figure. Kaui sat down in front of the hooded figure. 'Why did you attack us?'

The hood turned her way. 'Weren't you sent to attack me?' asked a voice that sounded lifeless but was unmistakeably from a young woman.

Kaui shook her head. 'We're only travelling here. We came to this clearing in the hopes to find some information on what's around here. We have no hostile intention, even if you commanded these spirits to attack us.'

The hood looked down. 'I didn't command them.'

Kaui looked at the flickering white wisps crossing each other nervously. 'You didn't?'

The hood shook. 'They're my friends.'

'They were protecting you.' said Iphigenia. 'They thought we'd harm you and that's why they attacked us.'

The hood nodded.

'Why would anyone try to attack you?' asked Kaui.

A sigh came from the hood. 'Because Demetrus keeps trying to capture me.' she said and pulled back the hood.

Ulric and the girls stared at the grey-black face of a young woman with long, grey hair and black eyes with light grey irises. 'You're an undead.' said Elzbieta.

The woman nodded. 'I was cursed a long time ago by a nobleman that wanted me. I disliked him and kept refusing, and one day when he tried to force me I smashed a jug in his face. In his rage he cursed me with his secret knowledge of undead magic while I ran away, and by the time I came home I noticed my heart had stopped beating.' She placed her hand on her chest for a moment. 'In the days after the colour of my skin turned from black to this grey, and cuts in my skin didn't bleed any longer. I was shunned by the rest of the village and fled here into the woods, but it didn't matter much because soon Demetrus revealed his plans and turned the entire area into this dead wasteland.' She looked up at the black sky. 'Everyone I knew is dead. He sucked away their life force to replenish his own, and used their undead existence for his experiments and as fighters to attack intruders. After all this time none of who once lived here are left.'

Ulric growled low and the girls nodded. Kaui leaned closer to the woman. 'Is there a way to defeat him?'

The woman looked at her wide eyed. 'Defeat!? That's impossible! He's living deep within a twisted mausoleum guarded by living armour and stone statues! The book that holds his soul is thoroughly defended!'

Kaui nodded. 'So, his weak point is a book.'

The woman looked around at them. 'Yes! But there's no way to get close to him through the mausoleum and my friends don't have the power to steal the book either without getting caught!'

Ulric growled and took a step towards the whirling cloud. 'But they could if they wouldn't get caught?' asked Kaui.

The woman looked at her, then at Ulric's back. 'But there's no way!'

Ulric turned around and smiled. 'I think you just told us how.'

***

'Let me introduce ourselves.' said Kaui while Iphigenia and Elzbieta pulled food from their packs. 'We are Iphigenia, Elzbieta, Kaui, and Ulric. Our party is named Quaint.'

'Valdys.' said the young woman and gave a nod in greeting. 'So, you're a party of adventurers then?'

Kaui nodded. 'Indeed.'

'But there's nothing of value around here. No adventurer has come here in ages.'

Kaui glanced at Ulric. 'We, have our reasons to come this way.'

Valdys nodded and didn't pry any further. 'Why help me though? I don't have anything of value to give you, and even if you'd defeat Demetrus, I don't think he has a lot of valuables either.'

'There's some information he might have that could help us in our quest, but Master doesn't like people like Demetrus either and will try to help whenever he can.'

Valdys declined Iphigenia's offer of food and drink. 'I no longer need to eat or drink, thank you.'

'Of course.' said Iphigenia. 'I should have realised but this is the first time I don't have to be hostile towards one of your kind.'

Ulric growled and Kaui nodded at him, then turned to Valdys. 'What can you tell us about Demetrus?'

'I don't know much, just what I hear from friends who've been inside the mausoleum. When he cursed me he was already advancing in death magic and progressing in controlling dead things. Since then he became a master necromancer and delved into the most forbidden knowledge, and my friends even overheard a mention of challenging the demon lord.'

Kaui caught Ulric's eye. 'But that never happened, right?'

Valdys shook her head. 'No.'

'Did the lord or any of his staff actually come here?'

'Not that I've heard of. But I have barely any knowledge about who comes and goes there. I believe there might be a portal somewhere in the deepest regions.'

Ulric nodded. 'We'll just have to find out then.' said Kaui.

Valdys pulled on her cloak. 'How do you plan to defeat him? You might fight your way in but at some point you'll face his strongest guards or even himself, and you can't kill him because he's already beyond death.'

Kaui gave her a gentle smile. 'Master has a plan, but we need your help to complete it. Are you in?'

Valdys looked down at a spirit that floated into her lap. 'Are you certain it'll work?'

'We have faith in Master.'

'I wanted to rid this world of him for so long, but never believed it could happen while he became more powerful. Even if there's the slightest chance of success, I will take it. I will help because I have nothing to lose and I believe you're the only hope I have.'

Kaui nodded and put her hand on Valdys's knee. 'Master won't give up easily.'

***

Ulric's ears pricked up after they followed the ancient remains of a road deeper into the dead forest. 'Hold up. I hear movement around us.'

Valdys watched him stand on guard while Iphigenia and Elzbieta unsheathed their swords. She wanted to ask Kaui what was going on but as soon as skeletons from small woodland animals surrounded the group, she understood. 'Wait! These are my friends!'

'These, former creatures?' asked Kaui.

Valdys stepped towards the ones closest to her, squatted, and one of the skeletons jumped up into her arms. She turned and stroked its skull. 'Yes. Because they need a certain amount of mana to move about they can only go so far from the mausoleum that radiates excess mana.'

Kaui looked closer at the creature that she thought used to be a squirrel and she could swear it twitched its non-existing whiskers at her.

'They, along with the spirits, have been the only ones to keep me company all this time.'

'They don't seem to be much of a talker though.' said Ulric.

Valdys chuckled after Kaui translated. 'I learned some death magic myself from books I found in Demetrus's old residence, and my friends here managed to smuggle more books out of the mausoleum to help me learn more. I can control some dead objects at a short distance now.'

'Oh? That aught to be an advantage to us.' said Kaui.

'I don't think I am of much use though. I've only seen the battle armours and statues move in groups. To control that takes much more power than I can muster.'

Ulric held out his paw to the creature and it jumped on it after a short hesitation. He let it sniff his finger before stroking its skull. 'Any small distraction or disturbance on their side can make a difference between victory and defeat.'

Valdys nodded and for the first time in years she noticed the corners of her mouth lifting up in a smile. 'I'll do what I can.'

'Thank you.'

***

A while later the fog became thicker and ahead of the group loomed a darkness blocking what little light there came from above. 'That's the mausoleum.' said Valdys while she held her arms. 'That's where Demetrus dwells.'

'How big is it?' asked Kaui as she peered into the fog above.

'No idea. It has been growing with Demetrus's power and it's even bigger on the inside.'

'Inside?'

Valdys nodded. 'He used transformation magic to expand the space inside the building. It's as good as infinite now.'

Ulric whistled. 'People would kill for that ability in my world. no more cramped housing and skyscrapers blocking the view, infinite closet space for women.'

Elzbieta raised an eyebrow at him.

He grinned. 'A stereotypical joke in my world. Us boys would use it to try to hide our porn stash, but mothers would still have the uncanny ability to find it.'

The closer they came, the more impressed Ulric and the girls were. The view that the fog allowed showed a seemingly infinite wall of black stone, thick pillar motives, intricate chiselled patterns, detailed statues of gargoyles, knights killed by demonic creatures, dragons, elaborate swords, as well as wizards, all framing huge stained glass windows depicting death, war, suffering. Ulric stood on his hind legs and looked up but even his enhanced eyesight was lost in the haze before he could spot a hint of a roof. 'Just how many people have been working on this?'

'None.' said Valdys. 'This has all been created by death magic.'

He nodded. 'I can see it rubbed off on the architecture and decoration.'

He looked at two huge stone doors with decorations of dead members of various races reaching out in agony. 'Very welcoming.'

Kaui shuddered. 'I'm chilled to the bone just from this.' said Kaui.

Ulric took her hand and squeezed it gently. 'I'm here to keep you warm.'

She smiled at him and relaxed as warmth filled her chest. 'Thank you, Master.'

Iphigenia clutched his other arm. 'I feel cold too.'

He looked at her and chuckled. 'Well, I have enough warmth for you as well.'

Elzbieta grabbed a patch of fur on his back and blushed as she looked away. 'And me.'

He smiled at her. 'You know it.'

Valdys glanced at the scene next to her but refrained from asking what exactly the deal was between the remarkable bloodwolf and the women. She agreed the name Quaint was a good fit for them. She stepped towards the door and muttered the phrase to unlock and open them.

The doors opened with the grating sound of hard stone on stone and a chilled breeze of ancient smelling air washed over the group. 'I think Demetrus should air out his home more often.' Ulric said.

They went inside with some sense of reverence and gazed upon the wide stone walkway extending into the dusty haze in the distance and the walkways connected to towers extending into the haze above and below them. Torches lit galleries surrounding the towers and floors were far apart. Ulric looked back. 'Oh crap, you weren't kidding.'

The others looked back to see the space inside extended beyond the entrance, where it shouldn't exist.

'Just how fucking big is this space?' he said and looked over the edge of the walkway into black depths. 'Would someone fall forever if they jumped down?'

The door closed again with a heavy stony clunk and the group stood in the dead silence only large empty spaces can produce. 'You know the way?' asked Kaui.

Valdys nodded and set her skeleton squirrel friend down. 'My friends do, actually.' she said and followed the squirrel as it headed forward.

Ulric and the others followed her while gazing at the practically void space around them and suppressing feelings of vertigo.

'We shouldn't encounter any guards until we're deeper inside.' Valdys said. 'I can't tell what kind or how many though when we do.'

'Can we take detours when we do?'

'Can we?' asked Valdys of the squirrel and it produced a bony chitter. 'My friends will try to find one if they don't already know one. This is basically an infinite maze and it's easy to get lost. It's only thanks to the large numbers that they know their way around.'

Iphigenia nodded while she looked at walkways spanning the distance between towers overhead. 'I have no doubt about that.'

***

Skeletal creatures and small spirits popped up along the way and took over as guides part of the way while the group went along more walkways, ascended and descended wide and narrow stairwells in the towers, sometimes navigating around gaps in the walkways or rubble blocking the way from breaches in walls. At one point they halted for a moment to look at a broken tower leaning against another. 'Wouldn't this sort of thing get fixed?' asked Ulric. 'Or shouldn't things be breaking at all with all this magic power?'

'It still takes attention to keep it in the state as it was built.' said Valdys. 'It only goes to show just how large this space is for things to deteriorate and not be repaired at this scale.'

He looked around at the tangible eerie silence and emptiness. 'Maybe that's just a good thing. For us at least.'

'I think he no longer senses much of what goes on beyond his close surroundings. It's the duty of his guards to take care of that anyway.'

The squirrel accompanied by the latest skeletal rat to guide them came running back with faint clicking of their feet bones hitting the stone. They chittered and Valdys looked at the group. 'There are guards ahead. Two floating armours.'

'Can we check them out without being seen?' asked Kaui.

The rat chittered at Valdys. 'We can watch them from behind a corner because they're stationed halfway down a walkway.'

Ulric nodded. 'Good, Let's see what they look like.'

The group kept low and out of sight as they went along the gallery that led to the corner where they could observe the walkway. Ulric watched two battered steel upper body armour parts float motionlessly with faint dark purple light behind the eye holes in their helmets. Both held large broadswords in their disembodied gauntlets. He moved back to the huddled group and Elzbieta took her turn to have a look. 'Have any of you ever fought something like this before?'' he asked.

'I haven't.' said Elzbieta.

'I've only heard a story from an adventurer I met once.' said Iphigenia. 'Everyone always tries to avoid them because they're just too dangerous if you don't have enough magic power or strength to withstand their attacks and destroy them. The one I met only defeated it because a lucky hit against an old wall made it fall down on the armour.'

'How about your death magic?' asked Kaui of Valdys.

She shook her head. 'I might be able to control one for a short while, but I can't really fight them.'

Ulric sat back against the wall. 'Detour?'

The rat chittered. 'Not this time.' Valdys said. 'Unless you want to take a very long one with a good chance we'll be lost for a long while.'

'So we have to fight them.'

'The only advantage is that with this far from Demetrus, he'll most likely never find out. The only communication here is between guards.'

Ulric looked at the girls. 'I'm open to suggestions.'

23 - Blasting Through

Ulric looked up at Valdys as they walked casually towards the floating armours. She understood his intention and gave him a brief smile. 'I'm all right.' she said and tightened her fists to combat the shiver of fear inside her. 'The guards had been engrained with an order to recognise me and not attack like they would with any intruder. It should give us the advantage of surprise.'

He gave her a soft reassuring growl and prepared to transform his fur.

The armours floated at either side of the walkway and turned towards them while the purple glow of their eyes brightened and they lifted their swords in front of their chests.

At a few metres distance, Valdys began muttering her incantation and at her last word she thrust out her arm at the armour on her side. Ulric jumped at the other armour before it realised what happened and hammered it with his spiked fist.

The armour under Valdys's control trembled violently against it while its orders told it to attack the intruders. Valdys felt the strain on her body to regulate the flow of her mana. 'It's harder than I thought!'

Ulric held his opponent's sword back and aimed his punches at the bindings at the side of the armour. 'Hold on! They're coming!' he growled.

Iphigenia and Elzbieta rushed towards them with drawn swords as soon as the attack happened, with Kaui following as fast as she could.

Ulric received a blow against his head from the armour but kept his grip on its sword and punched again at the bindings on the side, piercing holes into the plates with the three thick spikes on his fist.

Iphigenia and Elzbieta shouted for Valdys to jump aside just when she began to lose control of the armour. It shook as it lifted its sword but before it struck at Valdys, Elzbieta pierced the breast plate with her sword and Iphigenia one of its eye holes with hers.

The armour shuddered and produced a metallic shriek and Kaui threw a small jar into the armour's exposed neck. Elzbieta kicked the armour back hard and in the next moment a sharp thud from inside blasted the armour into pieces.

Ulric cracked one of the bindings at the side of his opponent, pierced the opening between the front and back plate with his fingers, and ripped the two halves apart with a fierce roar.

The armour dropped its sword from its gauntlet and every part fell lifelessly down onto the stones.

He threw down the plates and took a deep breath. 'Everyone all right?'

Iphigenia and Elzbieta sheathed their swords and Iphigenia grinned at Kaui. 'Do you have many more of those blast jars?'

Kaui pat the bag hanging at her side. 'Just the few I could make back in town. They're better used in an emergency but I had to test its effectiveness.'

'I'd say it does the job.' said Ulric. 'When you get the chance, make more of these grenades.'

'Grenades, Master?'

'That's what we call these kinds of devices in my world, although they're more powerful there.'

Kaui nodded. 'Then I will make as many as I can, Master.'

He smiled at her. 'Wonderful.' he said and turned to Valdys. 'Whereto next?'

The squirrel and the rat that had climbed on her shoulders chittered and she pointed at the next tower. 'We must go further down first.'

***

The group came down to a great hall lit by dim light coming through tall and narrow arched glass windows, stone rubble scattered on the floor, and big statues of knights and wizards in alcoves between them, all in battle ready poses. Ulric peered at them from the doorway. 'Any chance these come alive?

Valdys took a look after Kaui asked and shook her head. 'I don't sense any magic aura around them.'

The group crossed the hall towards an arched corridor at the other end while keeping an eye on the statues. 'Creepy.' said Iphigenia at the intense look in the statue's eyes she glanced at.

'They are something indeed.' said Ulric. 'Nothing like in the movies.'

'Movies?'

'Like a play but projected onto a flat surface like a wall.' he said but that didn't alleviate her puzzled look. 'I'll explain it later.'

He was one step away from the corridor when Valdys gasped. 'Stop! It's a trap!'

He froze mid step at the sound of her voice and a steel grate came crashing down a hair's width in front of his nose.

He yelped out as he jumped back. 'WHAT THE!?'

Sounds of grinding rock spun them around in a flash. The statues had come alive and stepped out of their alcoves.

'Try to keep clear of them!' growled Ulric as he rushed towards them. 'Elz, you might be the only one that can damage them with your sword, protect the others. Kaui, I might need your grenades!'

'Yes!' called out the girls and Elzbieta took her defensive stance in front of the others, with Kaui close behind her fishing her grenades out of her bag.

Ulric hoped he had estimated his strength and toughness correctly and ducked at the first slash of the stone sword from the closest knight. He jumped up at the statue twice his size and gave it an uppercut with his armoured fist.

The echo of the hit reverberated through the hall while the knight's head snapped back with part of its jaw broken off. It didn't stop it for long and it swung its sword at him again.

The intention to draw all attention to himself succeeded though and the other knights stabbed and swung at him while the wizards picked up stone rubble from the floor and hurled it at him. He stopped briefly in front of one knight, then ducked between its legs when a wizard threw a large piece of a wall stone at him. It shattered one lower leg of the knight and tumbled it to the floor.

'I was hoping they were stone brained as well!' he said while he climbed up the back of another wizard and swung down his clutched fists into its face. It tried to grab him but he jumped off of its shoulders and away from the guards. A quick glance at the wizard heading towards him confirmed his other suspicion. 'I can't blind them, they don't really see with their eyes!'

'So they'll need to be smashed to bits to stop them!' said Elzbieta.

Ulric jumped away from a stone hitting the floor near his feet. 'This will take some time!'

Elzbieta noticed one knight and a wizard stepping towards her. 'We're targeted!' she said and stepped forward to create distance between her and the other girls.

She evaded the sword and the stones thrown at her and landed a couple of blows on the knight's leg. 'The stone's too hard! I can only chip at it!' she said after seeing the fist sized gap in the leg. 'Even if I cut the legs of the knights I can't cut through the robes of the wizards in time!'

Ulric punched part of the knee of one knight to bits and jumped away to avoid another large piece of stone. 'Kaui! We'll need the grenades!'

'I don't have enough for all of them even if it would only take one to destroy them, Master!'

Iphigenia took one of the grenades from Kaui. 'Elz, cut a gap in the wizard's side!'

Elzbieta ducked and evaded the knight, closed in on the wizard and slashed at it with all of her strength. The wizard turned around to grab her but she moved away again. 'Done!'

Iphigenia bolted towards the wizard, jammed the apple sized jar into the gap, pulled the string, and ran away. 'Look out!'

Elzbieta moved to the other side of the knight to use him for cover and the next moment the explosion blasted a large part of the wizard's side apart. The top half wobbled, then fell down when the weight broke it off completely.

Iphigenia rushed towards Kaui. 'Cut those wizards! I'll plant the grenades!'

Both Elzbieta and Ulric focused their attacks on the wizards and one by one they went down after Iphigenia pushed Kaui's grenades into the cracks in their sides and large chunks of their stone bodies were blown away.

Elzbieta continued to slash at the knees of one knight while Ulric crushed the hand of the first downed knight to take its stone sword, and used it to smash the next knight's legs until they were shattered along with the sword, then grabbed the next one for the next attack.

After the last knight went down, Ulric lifted large chunks of stone and smashed them down on the crawling upper torsos of the statues to destroy them completely.

He sat down and slumped back onto the floor, panting with his tongue hanging from his mouth while the girls hurried up to him. Iphigenia smiled at him and put her hand on his heaving chest. 'Well done.' she said and kissed his nose.

He smiled tiredly at her and the others. 'You all did well.' he panted. 'I just finished them off.'

Elzbieta sat down next to him and stroked his cheek. 'But lifting all that stone to crush them was quite something.'

He chuckled. 'Good thing bloodwolves are sturdy and strong creatures. In my case anyway.'

'My friends tell me there's a relatively safe chamber close by where we can rest.' said Valdys. 'They found the controls to the grate and are trying to open it.'

Ulric had caught his breath by the time the grate lifted, and the group followed several rodent skeletons along dark corridors to one with empty chambers on either side. They settled into one with a stone slab on the floor that could be used as a low table and took the opportunity to have a bite.

'We've encountered floating armour and stone statues now, any other kinds of guards we should look out for?' asked Kaui for Ulric.

'I can't tell for sure.' said Valdys. 'The guards don't react to my friends so they don't know what kinds there are or where more traps might be.'

'You couldn't tell if the statues were guards until the trap was triggered, right?'

Valdys nodded and looked down. 'Sorry.'

Kaui gave her a gentle smile. 'It's not your fault. We'll just have to keep in mind that we don't have a way to detect them.'

Valdys looked up again. 'I asked my friends to look for signs of them.'

'That's good. Hopefully we can avoid at least some of them.'

Ulric looked at Elzbieta eating quietly. 'We'll take a rest here, give her friends some time and regain our strength.'

The others agreed and Kaui would keep first watch with Valdys, who didn't need any sleep as an undead.

***

'A sewer that's not exactly underground. This really is a fantasy world.' said Ulric when the group followed a couple of small spirits through brick tunnels with a narrow water canal in the middle. The sounds of droplets trickling and torches crackling echoed faintly with their footsteps.

'Not to us, Wolfie.'

He chuckled and looked up at Iphigenia. 'Yeah, to you my world would look like a fantasy one.'

One spirit came up to them from the other end and floated in front of Valdys. 'It says there's a statue behind a barrier up ahead at a junction and it could be a trap.'

'Any way around it?' asked Kaui.

Valdys shook her head. 'Only through more halls with statues.'

'Let's have a look, Maybe we can take it down.' said Ulric and they continued in silence.

At a thick iron grate blocking further passage through the tunnel, they kept to the wall behind the short extension the grate was cemented in and peeked at the statue standing farther away with its back to them. 'How can we pass this grate without breaking it and that thing hearing it?' asked Kaui.

Valdys pointed to the water. 'Apparently there's a hole in the grate near the bottom. The difficulty lies in the possibility the statue will react when we try to get out of the water.'

Ulric looked at the canal. 'How deep is the water here?'

'More than a man's height.' said Valdys.

He looked at the statue again. 'And that one is a man's height.' he said and calculated the distance to the statue. 'I think I can make it that far.'

'You're thinking of swimming underwater?' asked Elzbieta.

He nodded. 'Grab the statue by the ankles and pull it into the water where it can't get out. Probably.'

She frowned. 'That's rather risky.'

He looked at the statue again. 'Seems our only choice.'

She sighed. 'True.'

Iphigenia took his face in her hands and kissed him. 'Be careful, Wolfie.'

He smiled gently at her. 'Of course, my cutie.'

Elzbieta pulled his face towards her and kissed him as well. 'Just for luck.' she said with red cheeks.

He chuckled. 'Thank you, sweetie.' he said and noticed Kaui fiddling with her fingers as she looked up at him. 'Want to add something?'

She pulled out a grenade jar from her bag and put it in his paw. 'This is the last one, just in case.' she said and kissed him. 'Please be safe, Master.'

'I will, my dear.' he said, crawled to the edge of the canal, took a few deep breaths, and slipped silently into the water. The girls followed his shadow in the water towards the grate, then saw it vanish to the bottom.

There was barely enough light from the torches to see far into the water but his senses helped him find the hole quickly, and he went through and kept as low as he could while swimming towards the junction where the statue stood.

The girls watched the end of the canal in apprehension while every sound seemed to scream through the silence. 'Almost there.' said Ulric through the familiar link and the girls held their breath for the next part.

The sudden splash of water startled them as Ulric surfaced fast from a jump at the bottom of the canal. He embraced both ankles of the statue and pushed himself away from the edge with his feet.

The statue fell forward and hit the floor hard with its torso and head as it was pulled into the water. Ulric let go of the ankles and stepped against the back of the statue to rise up from the water, but before he could get his head out, the statue snatched his tail and pulled him back down.

'Ulric!' shouted Iphigenia through the link when she sensed his surprise and the difficulty of holding his breath.

He stomped at the fist gripping his tail but his foot slipped away each time. Growling hard he dove down, stomped hard against the statue's torso to topple it, and quickly placed his grenade underneath it as it fell to the bottom. He braced himself on top of it with his paws covering his ears.

The girls cried out at the explosion of water. Iphigenia and Elzbieta dove into the water, swam as fast as they could through the opening in the grate, and swam towards the junction while calling out to Ulric as he drifted up to the surface.

24 - Failure

Ulric coughed up some water while he held on to the pathway's edge. 'I'm all right.' he said through the link. 'Just a little jumbled from the pressure of the explosion in the water.'

Valdys and Kaui followed Iphigenia and Elzbieta through the water after quickly undressing, used the grate to get back onto the side, dress again, and hurried to the junction. 'Master!' called out Kaui. 'We're coming!'

The two helped the others get out of the water and Iphigenia and Elzbieta pulled out dry clothes from their packs while Kaui pulled out a towel and dried Ulric. 'Thank you.' he said as she rubbed his back and he smiled at Iphigenia and Elzbieta while they undressed.

Elzbieta noticed him watching and covered her front with her towel. 'Don't look!' she said while blushing hard.

Iphigenia chuckled. 'What? As if he hasn't seen every intimate detail of you already.'

Elzbieta looked away. 'I know, but it's still embarrassing to do it when there are others around.'

Iphigenia looked at Valdys, who looked discreetly away. 'Ohh, right.' she said and grinned at Ulric. 'It's no problem if she's a member of our party then.'

Ulric chuckled once and shook his head. 'I'm not going to make every woman we meet into my familiar.'

Iphigenia stuck her tongue out playfully and took her time drying and dressing for him while Kaui blushed as she dried his front. 'Ehm, Master?'

He looked at Kaui glancing up at him. 'What is it, my dear?'

She quickly licked her lips. 'Do you want me to dry you, or to please you first?'

He looked down at his erection and coughed. 'No! Eh, just dry quickly!' he said, glad that Valdys stood with her back towards his back. 'We can't do that in front of others!'

'Yes, Master.'Kaui said and rubbed his nether region quick but gentle while feeling relieved, but also a little disappointed. She blushed more when she realised the thought of him making her please him in front of others caused a pleasant shiver through her body.

'Which direction now?' she asked of Valdys when everyone was dry and ready.

Her skeleton friends pointed with their noses into one of the passages. 'That way. We're going up again.'

***

Several stairwells, winding passages, and silently sneaking through tunnels to avoid more guards, the party crossed a pathway spanning three towers. Elzbieta noticed Valdys looking around when they rounded the second tower. 'Guards?'

Valdys stopped. 'I'm not sure.' she said and closed her eyes. 'I sense a presence but my friends haven't seen any up ahead.'

Ulric sniffed the air. 'I'll have a look then while you wait here.' he said. 'Maybe the critters can't recognise a possible threat.'

'I'll go with you.' said Valdys when she understood why Ulric moved towards the next tower while the rest stayed put. 'I might detect something.'

He gave her a nod when Kaui said Valdys would follow and she hurried to his side.

She gasped and stopped at once, then turned to the side. 'It's there!'

From out of the haze a giant statue of a bulky barbaric warrior appeared with a raised club. Ulric had no doubt on what it planned to do and grabbed Valdys by the sleeve of her cloak. 'Get away!' he shouted to the others and ran towards the third tower.

He'd barely pulled Valdys with him when the club struck the pathway and broke it in two behind them.

The two halves sagged under their weight and Ulric pulled Valdys onto his back. 'Hang on!' he growled while her squirrel friend gripped his tail.

Valdys clutched his neck at the urgent growl and he bolted forward, claws gripping the stone underneath as it gradually inclined more on its way down into the abyss.

Iphigenia gazed with large eyes at Ulric half running, half climbing the crumbling stone passageway. 'WOLFIE!'

'Get away from there before that thing attacks you!' he yelled through the link.

Elzbieta seized Iphigenia by her shoulder. 'He's right! We have to get out of here!' she said and pulled her back.

'But Wolfie!'

'He will be safe!' Elzbieta snapped at her despite her fear for him. 'We have to get out of here so he won't worry about us!'

Iphigenia clenched her jaw as she knew Elzbieta was right, and ran towards the first tower with her and Kaui, following the couple of rat skeletons that were with them.

Ulric pushed off from the broken chunks of the pathway close to the third tower while they fell down and landed on the part of the pathway that was still intact. He dove into a doorway in front of him and turned to see the warrior statue strike the second tower. 'Iphi! Elz! Kaui!' he shouted while one corner of the tower shattered and fell down into darkness.

'We're running!' Elzbieta said and cursed at the sight of floating armours rushing towards them from a pathway to the side. 'They're after us!'

One rat jumped onto her shoulder and chittered frantically in her ear.

'We're going to follow the rats!' she said while they turned away from the armours at the first tower.

Ulric saw the warrior look at him and raise his club again. 'We have to get away again!' he growled and ran through the tower towards the pathway at the other end.

It shook violently underneath him from the strike behind them but it held.

He ran with all his might towards the next tower, where he turned to see if they were safe again. He took deep breaths when it looked like there was no immediate threat and put his paw on Valdys's arms.

She relaxed her grip around his neck and moved off of his back with trembling knees. He looked up at her while she leaned on his shoulder for support. 'I'm all right.' she said. 'Thank you for saving me.'

He understood and gave her a short growl, then swung his tail aside and looked at the squirrel clenching it tightly. 'You can let go as well now.' He gazed back into the haze. 'Girls! We're safe for now!'

'The rats are leading us through some passages!' Elzbieta said. 'I think we can escape safely!'

'Good! Tell me as soon as you are!'

Valdys shook his shoulder and he followed the direction she pointed at. Floating armours and fast stone knights were moving towards them. The squirrel chittered at them from a stairwell behind them and he gave Valdys a nod. 'And we're running again.' he said and followed behind Valdys as they hurried up the stairs.

***

'?olfie?'

Ulric smiled a little. 'Yes, cutie?'

Iphigenia fiddled with her dress while she, Elzbieta, and Kaui had a quick rest in a secluded small hall while more skeletal creatures scurried about along with some small spirits. 'I hate this.'

He chuckled once. 'I don't like it either. I don't want you girls to be where I can't protect you.'

Valdys shook her head at him after other critters and spirits came up to her.

'Looks like they don't know a path yet for us to meet up again.' he said and looked down at a gallery with floating armours from a narrow window in the room they hid in. 'The guards are at full alert too.'

Iphigenia sighed. 'There goes our plan to defeat the necromancer.'

Ulric looked at Valdys talking to her friends. 'Not so much. I think I can still do it with Valdys and her friends. It'll just be tougher on my own.'

'You still want to go on with it?' asked Elzbieta.

Ulric nodded. 'It's no use giving up. By now that Demetrus must know we're here and we'd probably have a harder time trying to find and fight our way out of this dead maze than going forward. Not to mention it would most likely take a lot less time.'

Elzbieta sighed and leaned her head back against the wall she sat in front of. 'Can't argue with that.'

'Promise me you'll take the least risk of getting hurt, Wolfie.'

'I will, cutie. I may be tough now but I still don't like to get hurt.'

Iphigenia nodded and smiled slightly.

Ulric turned to Valdys, grabbed a small rock, and drew a crude drawing on the stone floor of her in her long cloak, himself looking more like a large dog, the necromancer as a robed figure with a skull for his head, a tiny skeleton and a wobbly shape as her friends, and a book. 'This is what I have in mind of doing.' he said, more to make a point than actually telling her since she couldn't understand his speech. 'Simply said, I'll attack Demetrus to distract him while you and your friends steal his book and sneak away to destroy it.'

Valdys watched while he drew everything and gestured at the figure of her, then at herself, and at the figures and her friends. Ulric nodded and she nodded in return in understanding. Ulric gave her a smile and she smiled quickly in return while realising she once again felt a sense of purpose and being alive.

She asked her friends to find a way to Demetrus's chambers where he kept the book and after a while a rat skeleton and a spirit returned to convey they'd found a way. She asked for help in retrieving the book and they immediately indicated they and the others gave their support to end the necromancer's reign.

Valdys gestured at Ulric she and her friends were ready and he smiled again at her. 'Let's do this.'

***

'Are you safe?' Ulric asked through the familiar link.

'We're doing all right.' Iphigenia said. 'The rat skeletons sort of said they might have found a way for us to come your way although it might take some time.'

'That's good. Valdys and I are ready to assault the necromancer so please don't contact me unless it's an emergency. Don't worry about me when you sense trouble through the link.'

'Wolfie, don't say that!' Iphigenia said while her chest tightened.

'I will need to focus on fighting, Iphi.'

She sighed and nodded. 'Tell us as soon as you're all right, Wolfie.'

'I will.' he said and took a deep breath. 'We're almost at the end of the tunnel to the back of where he lives. I'll speak to you later.'

'Good luck and stay safe, darling.' Elzbieta said. 'Both of you.'

'Come back to us whole, Master.' Kaui said.

He smiled a little. 'I will not let anything prevent me from going back to you, my dears.' he said and gestured at Valdys he was ready to go on the offence.

She gave him a thumbs up and he took a deep breath. 'We're going in.'

The corridors were dim and cold. Ulric moved along them with anxiety twisting his stomach. According to Valdys, Demetrus dwelt in a small hall like a throne room with an attached study room where he conducted experiments, and Ulric had no idea what to expect.

The rat that led him stopped at a set of large, open black doors, smooth as granite, and he took a peek inside after he listened carefully for any activity. The throne made from the same stone as the doors and shaped as a collection of bones and skulls with two large bone wings looming above it and forward was the first thing that he noticed. "What is it with evil wizards and their taste in furniture? Do they all get off on the same kink? Or do they all buy at the same Swedish chain store?" he thought and observed the rest of the hall lit by tall fire stands at the sides of the throne, casting menacingly flickering shadows everywhere.

In front of pillars at the sides stood stone knights. Ulric expected them to come alive as soon as he attacked but the number of them wouldn't pose a big problem as long as he kept moving. He only needed to buy time. Faded tapestries hanging from the walls, most with ragged edges, featured gruesome battle scenes of decapitations, impaled bodies. The tile pattern on the floor included many blood red tiles.

The sound of ancient pages being flipped came from a doorway at one side. Ulric suspected that was where he'd find Demetrus and slipped inside the hall and moved silently along the wall towards the doorway.

Demetrus stood at a book stand at the far side of the chamber dressed in a black robe with white curved strands, his back towards the doorway. Bookcases filled to the brim with books and more death related paraphernalia covered the walls apart from one spot, where another book stand stood. The book on it had a visible aura like a swirling black and deep red mist. Ulric would have bet everything he had for it to be the book they had to destroy.

Demetrus flipped another page slowly. Ulric looked back into the hall, wondered once more why he was here in this world and if he wasn't sure he was dreaming all of this, then set his mind to the task before him because he didn't have much of a choice. He felt he'd eventually lose his sanity if he couldn't regain a little of his own world's reality. He moved into the doorway, tensed his body, and sprinted towards Demetrus's back.

Demetrus spun around and threw Ulric back against the far wall of the hall with a single word.

Ulric shook his head to clear his mind and vision. 'Fuck!'

Demetrus walked out of his study and spread his arms. The white strands from his robe came alive and danced all over it while he spoke, and the stone knights twitched.

Ulric grinned slightly, stood up, and ran to the side at the first step the knights took. 'I'm not afraid of a few stone brained knights!' he growled. The closest knight stabbed at him and he spun around to evade the sword, then punched a piece from the knight's arm with his armoured fist.

The next knight came at him and he ducked and jumped to get out of its fighting range. He made a feint towards Demetrus but the bald and pale faced necromancer with hollow eyes gave him a thin smile. Ulric jumped aside with a sense of impending doom growing in his gut, and froze in horror when the knights and the dead depicted on the tapestries came alive and stepped out of them. 'Oh fucking shit!' he growled.

They came at him from all sides and Ulric went for the ones right in front of him. One knight stabbed at him and he jumped aside, hitting a walking corpse with an axe in its chest. His direction was blocked by another corpse and he had to jump up and kick himself away via a pillar to an open spot on the floor.

He growled in frustration while he punched the iron helmet from a tapestry knight and searched for a way out of the hall. Before he could make another jump, more undead and knights tried to grab him and he had to knock them out of his way. They kept coming though and his heart raced not just from fighting, but the fear he might get overwhelmed and not make it out whole. 'Fuck fuck fuck! he growled.

He grabbed an undead at the front and used him as a shield to rush through the line of opponents on one side. He thought he might still make it out if he could thin the numbers towards the open doorway and punched and slashed at everything coming near him, then cursed again when more warriors came from the tapestries and blocked the way towards the doorway.

A white flash from the other side of the doorway blinded him while a rush of ice cold air hit him and panicked moans surrounded him. He blinked when his vision returned and saw Valdys standing at the doors, gazing furiously at Demetrus with undead and knights thrown to the floor away from her.

Demetrus shrieked her name and she reached out her hand to Ulric. He didn't hesitate and ran for her.

Demetrus's shriek rang through the hall and corridor as the two ran away after a group of rat skeletons. Sounds from armour clashing and stone scraping came from every side but the rats guided them swiftly through empty passages and into tunnels where they had to crawl to get through.

***

Ulric slumped back against the wall of a wider section of a tunnel where the rats has stopped. 'Girls?' he said through the familiar link.

'Wolfie! Are you all right!? We sensed you were in trouble!' said Iphigenia.

'I was.' he sighed. 'I failed. There were too many of them and I couldn't fight them all. If it wasn't for Valdys clearing the way I might not have come out with all parts of me still attached.' He turned his head to look at Valdys and held his breath when he saw her lying still on the floor. 'Valdys!' he growled and crawled over to her at once. He brushed her grey hair out of her face and put his paw on her cheek.

'What is it, Wolfie!?'

She's very weak!' he said.

Valdys opened her eyes slightly and raised a trembling hand. A vague tally screen appeared in front of Ulric's eyes.

'Shit!' he said. 'Her numbers are almost down to zero!'

'No wonder then.' said Elzbieta. 'She's going to need a very long rest to regain some strength.'

'I think we can stay here for a while but I doubt we're safe long enough for her to recover.' he said and gazed at her list. 'Wow, she has a long list of abilities, no wonder she could blast all those guys away. She must have used her last energy to save me.'

'It's possible for someone to learn and gain a lot of abilities but if they never use them they won't become stronger.' said Iphigenia. 'She had time enough to learn but no reason to use them probably.'

One rat skeleton chittered urgently at Ulric and he gave it a nod. 'We have to move again.' he said and carefully lifted Valdys in his arms. 'How are we ever going to get out of here?' he muttered.

###