Never Die Twice

They kept coming.

Hordes of white, bloodthirsty rodents crawled from the upper levels, cutting off their escape route. Morgane and Annie had immediately summoned walls of flames to stop them, but this only slowed them down; for the rats had started climbing the tunnels’ walls, getting around the fire.

The group was forced to retreat down into the wet cavern, running in an ordered line towards the other end. “[Sanctuary],” Lady Yseult blessed the group with her magic. “[Balder’s Mercy].”

You gain Resistance to all hostile ailments. You gain [Regen] for five minutes.

A volley of magical spheres flew from behind them, piercing through the wall of fire and aiming straight at Walter. Annie reacted quickly by raising a rounded shield of yellow light, protecting him.

“They can cast spells?” Takeru frowned, readying his bow to shoot at whatever vermin made its way out of the flames. “All of them?”

“They combine their SP!” Annie immediately guessed while Morgane prepared a spell.

“A hive mind,” Walter Tye added, grabbing two potions off his bandolier. “I’m going to disperse them, back off!”

As if to answer his words, six monstrous winged shadows flew through the cavern’s walls and straight at the group. Gwen immediately recognized them as [Shadow Fiends], demons from Niflheim capable of possessing their targets.

“[Shield of Order]!” Lady Yseult cast a dome of light surrounding the group and repelling the [Shadow Fiends]; Morgane and Annie quickly cast spells at the creature, annihilating them with fiery rays and blades of winds. Meanwhile, Walter Tye, while startled by the sudden lighting, recovered his bearing and tossed his potions at the group’s back.

A detonation of light and sound followed, startling the magical rats and sending them flying everywhere.

As her eyes recovered from the sudden flash, a hidden rat suddenly emerged from the shadows near Gwen, as large as a dog. For it to sneak so close unseen, it must have benefited from a stealth Perk. The princess raised her blade to defend herself, but the creature bit her right forearm, its reinforced teeth sinking through her armor and piercing her skin.

[Vampire Plague] negated by [Amulet of Pendragon].

“The rats spread vampirism!” Gwen warned, impaling the vermin with her sword and tossing the corpse aside. Already, her wounds closed thanks to their cleric’s spell.

“[Fire Ray]!” Morgane shouted, unleashing vibrant crimson beams at the shadow fiends. She always had an affinity for fire magic, and tonight it showed. “[Fire Ray]!”

“[Wind Slash]!” Annie added, slicing a shadowy demon in half with a blade of sharp air. Down to two after the barrage of attacks, the remaining shadows fled back through the walls.

“Lady Yseult, Walter, summon more muscle at the vanguard,” Gwen commanded. “They are obviously forcing us into an ambush.”

The priestess and the alchemist obeyed, casting a summoning spell while Takeru fired his bow at the disoriented rats. An arrow of light impacted on the tunnel’s ceiling, collapsing it on the rat swarm and crushing them beneath debris; but at the cost of trapping the group in the cavern.

“Flash bombs?” Takeru asked Tye, his bow ready to fire another shot at any moment. “You don’t sell those at your shop.”

“I keep the experimental products for emergencies,” the alchemist shrugged it off, focused on his incantation. “Like being dragged out of my shop and into a dangerous dungeon.”

“I understand how you must feel, my friend,” Lady Yseult told him while smiling. “But you did promise me that you would follow me all the way to Helheim, if I would do the same for you.”

“I said that?” The alchemist shook his head, while Gwen noticed Annie making a displeased face in the background. “I am sorry, Milady, but if we survive this, I swear to think twice before swearing anything.”

“I will consider your promise fulfilled once we survive this,” the priestess replied, a little amused by the reaction. “[Summon Winged Daughter of Balder].”

A winged, angelic being of light appeared next to the priestess, a warrior wielding a sword and shield of light. Gwen might have mistaken it for a Valkyrie, had she not seen one in the flesh once before. The angel glanced at the group, her eyes waiting a bit longer on Morgane, before awaiting commands.

Meanwhile, Walter Tye summoned a mighty [Earth Elemental], a nine feet tall titan of stone and mud. “The summoned creatures will move to the front,” Gwen told her group. “What spells can they cast?”

“None, but it can resist almost anything and meld into stone,” Walter Tye replied.

“Healing spells and offensive, light and fire ones,” Lady Yseult answered.

“Then the angel will focus on healing, with the occasional area of effect spells to disperse enemy groups.” She had the feeling a huge fight awaited them further. “Since they must have monsters hidden in the walls, we will not risk the elemental as a scout; it shall be our vanguard instead. Annie, Lady Yseult, prepare to summon barriers at any time. You will be the defenders, and everyone else will go on the offensive.”

As Lady Yseult translated her orders in the language of the gods, the winged angel moved at the forefront alongside the elemental, with Gwen and the others behind them. They entered the next tunnel, although the elemental had to lower its head to get in.

“Where did you learn such a high-level spell?” Takeru suddenly asked the alchemist, voicing Gwen’s own thoughts. The princess was thankful for his bluntness.

“Practice,” the alchemist replied. “I have levels in [Battle Mage] and special Perks.”

“You fought in wars?” Morgane asked, curious. Mayhaps she already considered how he could be of use to Gwen’s political career.

“No, but I had to survive on the road,” the alchemist said, sounding old and tired in spite of his young age. “I just… I just wished I could leave all of this behind me. Do something constructive with my life rather than keep killing.”

Gwen felt a twinge of sympathy for him, before reminding herself of his unclear allegiances.

Luck check successful!

A strange sense of dread overcame the princess, as she noticed something on the tunnel’s walls. Rounded, complex symbols carved into the stone.

“[Explosive Runes]!” Annie panicked. “Run!”

The summoned creatures at the front ran forward as fast as they could, the group charging right afterward. The symbols shone red in the dark, gathering power.

Gwen heard the detonations behind her but kept rushing through the tunnel before it could collapse on them. She could only pray that her comrades could move fast enough to avoid being buried alive.

The second she reached the tunnel’s end though, a rain of poisoned arrows fell upon the princess.

The [Earth Elemental] and the [Winged Daughter of Balder] shielded her at the last second with their very bodies, but a projectile came close to hitting her in the eye. She managed to deflect it with her blade at the last second, but she remained on the defensive.

All her team made it through the collapsing tunnel, only to find themselves facing an army.

The cave they had entered must have been some kind of mining repository, according to the wood and iron pillars keeping the twenty-feet high ceiling above their head. Dozens of tunnels opened into this circular area, large enough to welcome an army… and it did.

For dozens of armed skeletons, zombies, monstrous slimes, and pale goblins surrounded them, each armed to the teeth. At the helm, Gwen recognized the three elite undead who killed Ser Sigurd. Hagen No Mercy had traded his previous weapon for a skullish flail and a shield, while the strange mummy’s claws radiated darkness; the elite zombie swordsman did some practice footwork as if relishing the incoming battle. None of them carried lights, the princess only capable of seeing them in the darkness thanks to her buffing spells.

And the masked necromancer oversaw them all from above a pillar of stone, safe behind his army.

“Kill them all,” the malevolent sorcerer ordered from his ‘throne’ while surrounding himself with dark energies. “But leave the princess to me.”

“You heard the chief,” Hagen No Mercy replied, raising his shield. “Action!”

A horde of ghouls and monsters charged at the adventurers, attacking from all angles. The summoned creatures moved forward to shield the group, while Annie and Lady Yseult set up magical barriers.

“He ambushed us with his entire army?” Morgane panicked, as she incinerated an undead with a fireball. Tye assisted her by throwing bombs amidst skeletal warriors. “That’s cheating!”

“Makes sense,” Takeru replied, aiming for the necromancer and firing an icy arrow. “I always wondered why other bosses never did that.”

The necromancer deflected the projectile with a wave of his hand, and retaliated with a mighty lightning bolt aiming straight at the [Winged Daughter of Balder]. The attack propelled the summoned creature against one of the cavern’s walls, disrupting the defensive formation. Takeru was forced to drop his current target and focus on goblins attacking him at close range.

“I’m taking the fight to their leader,” Gwen said, activating her magic items and boosting her stats. “Walter, Takeru, cover me. Girls, summons, protect our back.”

“Gwen, this is suicide!” Morgane panicked. “They’re too numerous!”

“Exactly,” she replied, casting the spell [Hasten] on herself. “Killing him is the only way we can disperse his troops.”

You will move and react twice as fast as normal.

Gwen charged forward, while hostile spells, arrows, and spears fell everywhere around her. As she had ordered, Annie and Lady Yseult provided protection by replenishing magical barriers, while Takeru, Tye, and Morgane went on the offensive.

As for the princess, she wreathed her blade in wind and light, before cutting her way through a skeleton warrior, then a green slime. She forged herself a path ahead, while the elemental smashed stragglers with its stone hands behind her.

Immediately, the necromancer’s elites surrounded the princess as they did with Ser Sigurd.

“You attack three on one,” Gwen said, adopting a defensive stance. “You fight without honor.”

“We fight to win,” Hagen replied, attempting to crush her head with his flail. She moved too fast for him, but not enough to avoid the zombie swordsman.

The edge of the monster’s rapier was invisible, but Gwen could see it thanks to her [Amulet of Pendragon], parrying it with her own sword. She had lost count of how many times the priceless royal artifact had saved her life.

“Mmm, what level are you again?” Hagen asked casually, trying to distract the princess while he flanked her.

“As if I would tell,” Gwen replied, having been taught to hide her true abilities since she was a child. Truth to be told, she hoped that this battle could push her all the way to level forty.

“Fine, I was just trying to make conversation. I do not care either way.”

“You talk too much, Hagen!” the zombie snarled, attacking with a flurry of incredibly quick strikes. The princess guessed that he must have levels in a swordsman class, enough that his attacks forced her on the defensive.

The mummy assassin exploited her distraction to flank her, his claws narrowingly missing her neck. Gwen could feel its killing intent, his raw, primal desire to see her bleed. Instead of being afraid though, she felt her blood pumping.

This. This was the kind of righteous battle that she had trained her whole life for.

“Get away from my cousin!”

A mighty fireball hit the zombie swordsman, blasting the monster in half and killing him in one blow. Morgane and Walter Tye abandoned the formation to join Gwen. The witch summoned a wall of flame between Hagen and the princess, pushing the Dullahan back, while Tye attempted to skewer the mummy with ice shards. The creature deflected the projectiles with its claws but was forced on the defensive.

“We will take care of them, Gwen!” Morgane said while Hagen started moving around the wall. “Go forward!”

“But—”

“Do what you have to do!” Walter Tye snapped angrily, back to back with Gwen’s cousin as the remaining undead elites surrounded them. The mummy powered through the projectiles and forced the shopkeeper in close combat, Walter barely dodging a neck strike. “Get on with it!”

The princess nodded thankfully but quickly glanced at the rest of her team. Annie and Lady Yseult kept maintaining barriers but had started using them offensively. They pushed their magical shields against the incoming monsters, forcefully dividing the enemy army into separate groups. Takeru had managed to rescue the Daughter of Balder, firing arrows at painted goblins while she cast pillars of flames on the zombie packs.

Unfortunately, the [Earth Elemental] fared worse, having collapsed under the weight of dozens of skeletons stabbing it in the back and leaving the spellcasters exposed. Gwen didn’t have much time left before the front line collapsed under the enemies’ overwhelming numbers.

And so, she turned to face the necromancer. She half expected a knife in the back from Walter…

But nothing of the sort happened.

Could she have been mistaken? Had she been too paranoid?

“To think that it came down to this,” the necromancer said, as Gwen gathered momentum to leap at him. “You make me regret my class choice, and my lack of [Mind-Control] spells. This would have been so much simpler.”

“[Holy Might],” Gwen called upon her [Paladin] abilities. “[Cleansing Aura].”

Your strength has increased by two stages. You gain +5 to all checks against [Undead] and [Demons].

“I told you there would be carnage if we were to continue fighting,” the necromancer argued, as she reached him. “Why will you not turn back? If it is power and fame that you seek, I could create monsters for you to fight. Do you truly wish to die for nothing?”

As if she would accept such an obvious deal with the devil.

“Even if you kill me, the Kingdom of Avalon will find and destroy you,” Gwen stated plainly, leaping at him with her sword raised. “If you wish to spare lives, then you should surrender.”

“There is no fate worse than Helheim, mortal,” the magician replied, before raising his hands and channeling ancient magic. “I would rather take my chance fighting all of Avalon than go back there!”

Gwen’s sword lunged for his throat, just as the necromancer’s body exploded into a cloud of purple smoke. The blast propelled her back, allowing her to witness the sorcerer’s shadow form grow, grow, grow! As she landed on her feet, the pillar below the sorcerer had already collapsed.

For the creature that now faced her was huge.

Not as big as Utgard the Jotun, but mighty all the same. A serpentine, undead beast more bone and sinew than flesh, with four tiny clawed limbs and a clean golden skull for a head. Its teeth were gems, its eyes fiery pits of hatred. Its sinuous neck reached the ceiling, and its wail made its army tremble in terror.

An undead dragon.

The necromancer was an undead dragon of the [Linnorm] class. No wonder it had managed to survive the purge! Had this foul creature been behind this necromancer order the entire time? No, he was definitely an [Ankou]; a polymorph spell?

Gwen decided these questions would wait until after she survived this fight.