Quarry

Quadarch 30 973 P.C.

Seethe’s ‘Chaos Bolt’ ended up hitting two of the ‘Decayed’ and because of that the entire group started to charge at us. The way they charged at us was eerie. Their upper body was too light to fully support itself so when they ran it was hanging behind lifelessly.

The moment they hit us though, Liz and I, they stopped allowing the whiplash of their hanging torso to scratch at us. Liz and I held the front lines, she raged and different from the previous time she gained massive bear-like teeth and gnawed at the one first one she could. I, on the other hand, after being hit by the claws of the undead was hit by Gale’s prepared ‘Enlarge’ and used my runes to make myself even larger. Though cramped I swung my halberd across the undead in front of us giving some space between us and them. Corrin then rushed in, jumped into the middle of them and used his ‘Arms of the Astral Self’ causing the two undead in front of him to be pushed against the wall. He then started to beat them up with the two spiraling dragons on his arms unleashing a ‘Flurry of Blows’. The two undead behind him didn’t like that and attempted to bite him in the back, one failed, but the other succeeded poisoning Corrin. Not liking that Monsoon came to the front and casted ‘Ray of Sickness’, opening a bottle splashing it in a forward arch before the liquid turned into a ray. The ray somehow, seemingly ended up poisoning the one undead it hit, then I remembered the villager who said these undead aren’t affected by holy magic. It would stand to reason that because of this anything usually ineffective against undead would be effective. The moment the thought of holy magic came into my head standing beside Liz and I was Kellen. Kellen then cast ‘Spiritual Weapon’ holding up her holy symbol of a shield and a hammer. The weapon that manifested was this ornate hammer radiating divine energy that went and smacked the other undead on Corrin’s flank, before the other one on his flank was hit by a ‘Sacred Flame’. I’ve seen a few ‘Sacred Flames’ before and usually they hit undead monsters harder than it did, but we knew that would happen.

Then out of nowhere NoName came rushing in from the back with Gale behind them, both with magic on their swords. On NoName’s armblade was a faint magic that resounded a bit and to they’re left Gale’s sword brandished in greenflame, both of them attacking a different pair of yet to be damaged undead. Gale’s rapier pierced through the shoulder of one of them and when the blade came out on the other side the flame jolted from the tip of the blade to the other one. NoName on the other side of the chamber did something similar, their armblade slashed upwards diagonally across the undead before doing a flourish with their blade bringing down the sword on the other one beside him in a downward leaping motion. The collective four undead that NoName and Gale attacked retaliated. While Gale was able to defend against the two she attacked by reacting with ‘Shield’, NoName got body slammed and kicked to the ground. Seethe seeing NoName’s struggle raised his lantern, black flames engulfed it and shot out a ‘Hex’ at the undead on top of NoName. They then followed it up with a ‘Toll the Dead’ and from the lantern the sound of a ringing church bell came out. When the sound hit the undead the black flames of ‘Hex’ raged more, killing the dead.

Liz rushed into the middle of the chamber trying to back up Corrin, she then started to shift into her bear-like form and leaped at the undead that bit Corrin. Liz then swung her greatsword from her back towards it cleaving into its sturdy bone. I charged into help and follow up, as I invoked the power of my ‘Fire Rune’ burning shackles appeared on the handle of my halberd and I cleaved into the undead that Kellen had hit earlier. The shackles that would usually chain my enemy down sizzled out as it hit the undead as it died. Corrin moved closer to the wall to create some distance then sent a backhand towards the undead that Liz attacked as it tried to claw at him. He then put his arms to his hips in a stance and winced in pain, as he launched both of the dragons on his arms at the two undead he pushed against the wall earlier. The poison made Corrin’s movements more sluggish so even though he launched three attacks collectively on both of them, only two hit .The two undead against the wall came charging forward, their skeletal torso’s hanging back, til they stopped launching forward and scratching Liz and I with their upper bodies swinging forth. Monsoon came running forth from behind Kellen, opened a bottle with her mouth and put its contents on her hand. Hastily Monsoon used ‘Lesser Restoration’ on the area where Corrin was bitten, curing his poison.

Kellen using her ‘Spiritual Weapon’ and her hammer ran beside Gale and used both to smack one of the undead, crushing its skull. NoName, noticing what was happening, disengaged from the two undead they were facing, and let out a whistling tune giving inspiration to Gale. Gale feeling empowered, swung her rapier behind her and from the tip formed an ‘Ice Knife’ that shot out killing one of the undead NoName was facing, the subsequent shockwave killing the other. The last undead beside Gale and Kellen in a last ditch effort swung and tried to bite Kellen, but she raised her shield just in time to block it. Seethe used the little black flame left from when he killed one of the undead, transferred it to the last one beside Gale and Kellen, and then again used ‘Toll the Dead’. The ringing of bells could be heard from their lantern once more and with the black flames of ‘Hex’ downed another undead.

There were only two more undead but before I could act the undead beside Gale and Kellen jumped over to the wall where Corrin had pinned the other one, it leaped and as it did opened its jaw. When it reached the last undead it bit into its revealed skeletal structure and started to consume it whole, like it was being absorbed into itself. The same thing happened with the six bodies of the other felled undead, as they were being sucked into the maw of the last one standing. When it finished consuming them all we all backed away in horror. All of us started to back up towards the tunnel once again and took a defensive formation, with Kellen, Corrin, Liz, and I in the front. The sight of the undead that had absorbed its brethren(?) was more horrifying than it originally was. The upper body was mainly an exoskeleton of bones from the other undead, but some parts were covered with falling pieces of rotting flesh. While any leftover flesh and muscle leftover reinforced its lower body. Then whatever it was, the monster, it screamed, and screamed, each scream more blood curdling than the last, and as it did words in chorus came from its mouth.

“We ARE the DEcayED… WE arE thE DeCaYed, wE shaLL cOnSume hEr giFt.”

At that moment, all of us shrank and shivered in fear. It was like a cold wind had engulfed the room and none of us could move, except Seethe. Liz tried to move forward, but all of her fur stood up, like her body was telling her to flee. I tried, I swear I tried to hit it with the head of my halberd but, as I brought it down, my body stopped. Corrin tried to do something similar, but nothing happened, the dragons on his arms missed its head, by a lot. Monsoon also shot wide as she tried to fire a ‘Acid Arrow’. Kellen tried to do her previous combo of physical hammer with spiritual hammer, but she couldn't reach with the first and missed with the second. NoName, tried to step forward, but as their boot tried to come down, they stood in place. Gale tried firing another ‘Ice Knife’ but ended up hitting the massive undead exoskeleton.

Even though all of us were struggling to even look in its direction, Seethe, they stood proud looking it dead in the eye and their lantern was engulfed in flames. Seethe, despite what you would assume from the timid man at first glance, doesn’t fear easily. They’re one of the bravest people I know, because they were forced to endure so much hate, but that's not my story to tell. Their expression was stone cold, ironic I know, as they stared down the monster with no emotion on their face besides anger and determination. He looked it dead in the eye, moved the black flame of ‘Hex’ to it once again, and cast ‘Toll the Dead’ twice. Using the power of their father, they twinned the spell, breaking the normal laws of what Ethora says magic can do. Forcing themselves like this is normal for any sorcerer, but they struggled, and as they did fire engulfed their eyes like a mask. Apparently when that ‘Decayed’ thing fused? Absorbed? The other ones didn't heal fully, it just temporarily repaired what was broken, because of that it couldn’t withstand the force of Seethe’s twinned ‘Toll the Dead’ and ‘Hex’ combo.

⠂⠂⠂

After it…died? After it was destroyed, the ‘Decayed’, we all decided to take a short rest, because that fight, while short, took a lot out of us mentally especially Seethe.

Kellen spoke up while we were resting. “Seethe are you okay man, you looked real grim after killing that ‘Decayed’ thing”

“Yeah I’m fine, just a bit tired, a bit out of practice with my uh…‘Metamagic’ tricks. Not like they're super hard, just requires a bit of force on my part so it can be tiring.” Seethe replied.

“Yeah I remember when you first learned you could do that and you tried to make a spell faster? Or something and ended up fainting out of exhaustion, fun day.” Gale reminisced.

“Those things were pretty fucking terrifying though. The ‘Decayed’ or whatever they called themselves. Itselves? Itself?” Corrin said, trying to change the subject to the horrific monster we just fought.

“I have been alive for many years and have not encountered nor heard of any monster like that.” NoName added.

“Well we killed it and now we get paid, or whatever, so let’s all just go back up to the entrance of the mine and tell Luca or whatever her name was we finished the job.” Liz said

“I’m gonna take some of the bones off of that thing real quick before we leave.” Monsoon said as she pointed to the giant decaying corpse of the ‘Decayed’.

“That’s a smart idea, we’ll probably need some proof of killing those things good thinking Monsoon.” Kellen complimented her, not knowing what they were actually for. Hint, it's experiments, it's always experiments. Monsoon just gave a blank smile before walking over to the pile of bones and rotting flesh to collect some materials,... and proof probably.

During the entire short rest I was almost entirely silent, it's not that I was too tired to speak or anything. I just had a lot on my mind. Disappointment was one thing I had in my mind, I’m a trained soldier, yet after that thing screamed I couldn’t even take a step closer to it. I also thought about what its garbled, jumbled and chaotic words meant.I decided though that worrying about that is something I should save for another day. Gale poked me, gave me a look of worry, I raised my hand signaling I’m fine, then stood up. After walking over to Monsoon to help her with the bones and anything else she wanted to loot. We soon finished our short rest and we headed back up the mine, Liz in the lead again using her keen senses to find our way to the surface.