*Tap Tap Tap*

*Tap Tap Tap*

Perideen’s whisper-silent footsteps are matched by the sounds of my own child-sized boots knocking on the stone floor. I want to light up the Mausoleum with Burn, but that would not only make our presence more obvious to the things in the darkness, but also use up the precious mana that I need to conserve to slay the Bloodfiend. Simple spells only. Be disciplined! Remember what Romy taught me! I stay behind Perideen. He splays open his fingers just enough to let the blue gemstone show us the path. Hopefully that won’t attract any more Blood Rats, but I doubt it. My luck isn’t that good.

Go…keep going…all we need to do is find the Bloodfiend before it matures.

“Wait.” Perideen stops, his hand reaching back and finding my chest with unerring accuracy without turning around. I peek around his right shoulder, trying to see what’s stopped us. More Blood Rats?

“See something?” I whisper. He shakes his head, the dog mask smiling into the darkness as his blade winks in the gem-light. Please don’t let there be anymore rats…I don’t want to blow up!

“No…but something’s not right. I can feel it. There-!”

What? What do you see?

I don’t dare speak aloud as Perideen closes his hand over the gemstone completely. All but the tiniest sliver of light from in-between his fingers, disappears. Just as the darkness grows to cover almost everything, I see little orbs of reflected light hanging just below the ceiling. These horrifying red circles wink open in pairs, all beginning to appear at the same time.

Eyes…so many eyes…

In their very center, there’s a thin yellow ring around a black pupil. Different from the Infested Blood Rats. As they stare at us, Perideen hastily throws the gemstone into his coat, trying to snuff out the light. But it’s too late for that. We have awoken some evil. Many evils. A series of clicks start to echo around the Mausoleum. Abruptly, I feel a burst of wind as Perideen jets forwards.

“Blood Bats! They don’t explode, but do NOT get bitten or it’s over!” He yells out a warning before taking the fight to the enemy. As the assassin lunges into the fray, he brings the gemstone out again. Releasing all it’s blinding light at once, the full scale of the enemy becomes visible. Up on the ceiling, dozens of hideous looking furry black bats open their wings wide and begin to chitter at us. Their awful voices are like teeth gnawing on a chalkboard. I want to cover my ears, but I remember what Perideen said. Avoid the bite!

*Scree Scree Scree*

The noise is terrifying, all-encompassing, and the fluttering of countless wings completely destroys any chance of understanding the situation as the Blood Bats drop down and enter flight as one chaotic swarm. If I was on my own, I’d try probably try to combine fire and wind to burn the awful things out of the sky, but I need to conserve my mana. I understand what Perideen is signaling by stepping forwards. He’ll deal with these. I just need to focus on keeping myself safe. Carefully, I back up. Though I want to stay close to the assassin, in such a chaotic melee, there’s no way. I’ll just have to hope that they go for him instead of me.

*Tsss*

At least three of the damn things latch onto my presence as soon as I take a step back. Crap! Okay, don’t move…moving is a bad idea!

Holding my dagger out, I am wholly unconfident as the dark shadows swoop past Perideen and angle towards me. At the last second, the assassin slashes over his shoulder without turning around, and cuts down two of the Blood Bats before they can get to me. However, the last one is beyond his range!

“Kill it, Kid!” He shouts before reengaging the swarm. The man is a killing machine. He doesn’t need magic to create a tornado. His blade weaves around and around, carving through anything that gets close. I notice that he’s being cautious however. Only defending the immediate area around him. He’s definitely afraid to take any risks against these things. The bites must be extremely dangerous!

*Scree*

In my vision, the shadow rapidly grows larger as the escaped Blood Bat homes in on me. Its great leathery wings are large enough to cover my chest, and my dagger feels way too small in comparison. I’m not confident enough to take this thing on without magic!

Even if uses up my mana, it’s better than dying right here and now-

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

I howl my cast out loud, shouting each word since I’m not comfortable omitting words in a life-or-death situation. Though my voice is fierce, in reality, the sliver of wind which I create is just a small, fast puff of concentrated air. I aim it at the thin, vulnerable skin of the Blood Bat’s wing. My hope is to disrupt its flight first. However, since I focused primarily on the speed of the spell rather than power, what ends up coming out of my fingertips is not so much a tornado, but a concentrated burst of air. It’s so condensed, that the very atmosphere emits a huge pop!

*Tuk*

Both Perideen and I are surprised, and I see him turn around ever so slightly as he battles it out with the swarm. However, even more surprised is the Blood Bat in front of me. It abruptly screeches and wobbles midair at the sound. I observe its flight towards me becoming unsteady. Wait, is it affected by the sound? It’s a bat with sensitive ears, right? If it’s the same as Earth, then it’s possible! Taking the chance while it’s disoriented, I run in the last step and swing my dagger forwards, leaping off the ground and putting all my weight into an upwards thrust.

*Puchi*

*SCREEEEEEE!*

The weight of the Blood Bat’s writhing body on my blade almost makes me drop it, but the instinct to hold onto my weapon has been beaten into my bones!

Thank you, Romy!

I use all the muscles in my forearm to turn the dagger sideways so that the mortally wounded bat slides off. The terrifying blood red eyes twitch as the yellow bands around its pupils rapidly lose their color and become milky and white. Looking up, I see Perideen still locked in an inescapable hurricane of flying monsters. They cannot penetrate his defense, but neither can he break free! Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I catch a flicker of movement. It’s lucky that I do. A rotund, mangy rodent darts out of the darkness, making for the battle!

Crap!

“Blood Rat!” I immediately alert Perideen to the new potential danger. Then I realize that distracting him right now may not be the best idea since he’s already on the brink of being overwhelmed. Somehow, even while fighting for his life, the assassin manages to find the strength of mind to nod in the middle of the cyclone. I can barely make him out in the melee. There’s a flicker of metal and a thin throwing knife appears in his hand. He draws it back to aim at the Blood Rat and I realize his intention. He’s waiting for me to tell him if it’ll explode! I pull so hard on the future that my sight quadruples, splitting down the various paths like a computer calculating probabilities. Pictures of possible futures flash through my mind faster than a human brain can keep up, and I see the assassin’s throwing knife spinning through the air, right into the rat’s brain-

Stop!

Too much, too far…

Focus, conserve your mana-

“This one won’t explode!” I yell out and Perideen withdraws his throwing knife. Evidently, if the Blood Rat isn’t one of the dangerous variants, he’s not going to waste ammo on it. With my Foresight on, there’s a constant drain on my mana. Realizing that I can’t afford to keep this up, I deactivate it. However, at that exact moment, a dozen pairs of red eyes step into the rapidly flickering light of the gemstone. I watch in horror as over ten Blood Rats spew out of a side tomb. They squeal in delight spotting the whirlwind of flying bat parts and lunge to join in the bloodbath. DAMN! There’s no way we can handle this. “Perideen! There’s too many!” I pray that he understands my meaning. With so many Bloodrats at once, even if I turn on Foresight, trying to distinguish which one will explode and communicate it to him is a fool’s errand. By the time Perideen understands which one I’m talking about, it’ll be far too late.

“I can’t break free or they’ll go on you! Do something, Kid!” He calls out. The assassin’s blade flickers, becoming a meatgrinder. Perideen uses his own strategy to buy time. As the grotesque and deadly rats close in on the melee, I see dismembered bat fangs and claws being shot out of the bloody cloud. One of the rats is struck by the entire head of a dismembered flying rodent and sent tumbling back. He’s improvising. “Damnit, Kid! They’re getting too close!”

Crap…what do I do?

Should I just give up on the mission?

But if I use a spell with enough mana to kill that many rats, it’s all over.

Can I find one that will explode and start a chain reaction?

I have to decide now…

There’s no time…why is there no time…!

CRAP CRAP CRAP!

Every little itch and annoyance sucks my concentration away from the problem. The rats are almost within Perideen’s sword range. I can see him trying to edge away, put Blood Bats between him and them, anything short of actually attacking them. He flicks his eyes to me desperately, and I see the strain, how close his focus is to breaking between avoiding the bites of deadly bats and staying away from the rats.

Goddamit, they’re going to get him!

Uhh…uhh…

In my panic, my hands brush against my pockets. There’s a clink as I touch something hard. Then I remember that Perideen gave me holy water. My pockets are full of vials. Can I use these somehow? But the enemy isn’t undead, right?

“MYRR HELP OR DIE!” Perideen’s last agonized cry is so tense that I can hear it tremble as he whirls and cuts something out of the air. He kicks one of the rats as it leaps up, and the Blood Servant is abruptly torn to shreds by one of the bats in the air. The assassin flinches but fortunately that rat does not explode. There’s no time to think anymore. I reach into my pocket. Use my fist to grab as many vials as I can hold. Focusing my concentration on them, I silently chant a simple spell and toss them into the melee-

[Flaming Ember of My Desire, Burst Forth-Burn]

“Dodge!” My warning causes Perideen to ghost backwards, flickering out of existence. I realize that the only reason he didn’t do this sooner was because as soon as they lose track of him, the beasts will turn on me! The vials glint as they tumble end over end in the air. My silent spell superheats the liquid inside to a great pressure, the specially treated glass tubes begin to deform as the explosion builds…and builds. Bubbles build in the glass. They’re about to blow! Perideen appears to my left somewhere, his sword out, watching the flying vials with anxious eyes-

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

*SHUAAAAAAA*

The amount of mana I used was minimal. Just pure energy converted to heat. Holy water, so hot that half of it turns into caustic steam, spews everywhere in a cloud. I throw up my hands in terror because the explosion is devastating, burning drops are even coming my way!

*Shing*

Perideen appears in front of me, his blade swinging in the manner of a true Rainstopper. Slicing the drops out of the way, I just barely make out what happens amidst the confused Blood Servants.

*BOOOOOOOM*

The water lands on the squealing mess. One of the rats explodes. Things are sent flying. I’m fairly certain I don’t even want to know what they are. Before the ringing in my ears can even subside, Perideen turns around and shouts in my face,

“There’s an opening!” And then he reaches back and lifts me up effortlessly by the legs. Instinctively, I latch onto his back, hooking my arms around his chest. “HOLD ON!” I can barely hear his words. The wind of the explosion hasn’t even subsided. My mouth closes so that Blood Rat juice doesn’t come inside. Hot steam and holy water mixed with decaying fetid tomb air, blows back my hair as Perideen accelerates. He takes us right through the center the exploded Blood Rat, where the chaos is greatest. Behind us, I hear chittering as whatever managed to survive picks up on our trail. However, the bats which are actually fast enough to keep up, seem to have been disoriented by the explosion. None of them follow us as we race deeper into the Mausoleum. Instead, little footsteps continue to chase us, more and more coming with each side-tomb we pass. Soon a train of Blood Rats follow on our tail, and I realize we might actually have a shot at this…and that if we mess up, we are definitely going to die! Holy sweet Jesus, I’m so scared!

“GO GO GO!” I scream in Perideen’s ear like some sort of demented jockey. Even if it’s unbecoming, right now, there’s only one thing on both our minds, “GET TO THE BLOODFIEND!”