After drifting a while we could see a torchlight and a small wooden dock. I whispered, “How many Tamsa are supposed to be here anyway?” I never bothered to ask because it changed nothing but now that I'm here I wanted to know. “Our estimate is around thirty sir.” A small rowboat was tied to the dock and no one was standing guard. We climbed onto the dock as quietly as two heavily armored people could be and hugged the north wall avoiding the door. We sat there and dried off a bit while seeing if anyone was going to come out the door.

The door was a simple metal door with a small window. I quietly walked over and took a quick peek inside. There was a long stone hallway with seven doorways. Three on each side and one in the back. I headed back to Tory and whispered, “You ready?” She nodded. The door was locked. “You know how to pick a lock?” She just shook her head. I grabbed the handle and slowly started turning it applying more and more strength until it groaned and then eventually broke. I pulled it open some. It wasn't too loud but we decided to wait a minute to see if anyone heard us. “K Tory there's three doors on each side of the hallway. We each go in one and clear it then repeat until the door at the end of the hall.” “Yes sir.” “As quietly as we can.” We nodded to each other and headed inside the hallway.

I opened the first door and headed inside. A bed and dresser, it was otherwise empty so back into the hall I went where Tory emerged as well. “Clear.” I said. “Clear.” The second room was more of the same and empty. Tory’s clearly wasn't. Two men screamed for a second. I made it back into the hallway and looked into her room. “Clear sir.” She whispered as we looked at the two nude men who were clearly dead now. “Clear.” We went into our third rooms. The room I entered was much larger than the last two and had many more beds like a barracks and another door on the other side. All the beds were empty but one at the far end near the other door. As I stood over this young human woman with my knife out I thought about what I was about to do. She was Tamsa and she probably killed people but she's still a person. I thought as I ended her life with my knife. I started to tear up as I held her as she woke up struggling to breath. After composing I closed the girl's shocked eyes and made sure the rest of the room was empty and it was.

The stone walls muffled noise really well but I could hear yelling and clanging of weapons and armor. I went to help Tory. Her third room was much like mine. But she was fighting and winning against five Tamsa. Two were already unmoving on the ground, one was down but not out, and the other two were yelling and trying to flee. A male voice next to Tory said, “Warn the others!” as he threw himself at Tory. The other made it to the door before noticing I was standing there. With a solid left hook to the face he dropped instantly.

Tory made sure her four were dead before walking over and stabbing the one I dropped. “Clear sir.” “He was running out into the hall meaning most of the Tamsa or at least their leader would most likely be in the door at the end.” “Agreed sir.” She was a little winded and her armor had scratches and lots of blood on it but seemed uninjured.

I opened the door at the end of the hall. It's an oval room with no doors with walls of solid stone. In the back of the room there's a large statue of a robed woman. In the center there's a shrine of some sort with writing on it. In front of that there's some sort of torturers table and that's all.

Tory tapped me on the shoulder, “This is where the demaging happens.” “We should take a quick look before continuing.” She nodded. I mainly wanted to give her and me a break for a minute. After a few minutes Tory gasped, “The unnamed god is a goddess named Kalypso.” I looked over to her. “What do you….Tory look out!” She moved quickly to the side but was too slow. A large being stood there.

It was the stuff of nightmares. Dark red scaly skin with spines everywhere. Eyes like hot coals and a mouth full of viscous looking fang like teeth. One of its arms was like a sharpened spear which was wedged deep inside Tory's side.

I charged the demon at full speed. It flicked Tory off its arm and at me. I caught her and cast “Heal.” It barely did anything because I couldn't concentrate or know the real damage done. A deep terrible hideous laugh came from the creature. It charged me. I leapt back and set Tory down next to the oval wall.

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As another wave of that laughter filled the room we both charged each other. We were about even in speed but his many weapons to my knife gave him the advantage. My evasion training with the Murichi was paying off. It was all I could do with its clawed hand, spear arm, mouth full of teeth and even spiked feet flying at me.

The sharp spines like a rose more than a cactus made it hard to attack. After a minute of trading blows I finally found an opening and slammed my knife all the way to the hilt into its chest where a heart should be. It jerked away, breaking my knife off at the hilt and then I felt pain in my lower back. “Oh! God essence for Kalypso.” Came an impossibly deep voice. I couldn't move. The demonic creature I had stabbed was now recovering. I started feeling weaker. I imagined the gravity behind me getting a thousand times stronger, “Gravity!” The entire oval room became gore.

Before I could see what I did the injured creature attacked me. I evaded but we were both sluggish. I evaded and my foot hit Tory’s sword and so I grabbed it and quickly gained the upper hand. It started evading more but didn't like that and went back to aggression. I used that aggression to let him stab me and I chopped its head off. Once its head hit the ground I turned to Tory, “Tory!” forgetting my own injuries I ran to her.

She was conscious and she had propped herself against the wall. “Sir…It was an honor to see you fight.” “Stay with me. Detect injury.” Seeing her injuries clearly now I cast “Heal” once healed I asked, “Tory?” No response. She still had a pulse but it was faint. I could only assume blood loss since she's fully healed. Exhausted and injured, I know I can't rest yet.

I stand up and see the damage gravity did. It took out most of the altar and torturers table and whatever being had stabbed me. I slowly headed back to the barracks room where I had killed the woman and entered a new room. An empty mess hall or cafeteria with two doors. On the far side is clearly a door to the kitchen area and there are people in there so I head there.

“Hello.” I say as I open the door in case they were slaves or something. “Alert…” I punched him in the throat and pushed him into another then charged the third into the counter breaking his lower back. I grabbed a knife from the counter and killed the man with the broken back and the mostly uninjured one had recovered and was trying to scramble out the door but I caught his foot and dragged him to me and quickly ended his life. The last one was coughing up a lot of blood so I let him be.

One had a nice looking short sword that I took then headed to the next room. As I opened the door a crossbow bolt hurled towards me and I evaded but it still got me in the shoulder and punched through my armor and dug into me all the way to my shoulder blade. On the other side of the room was an older man in black robes holding a crossbow. I closed the distance before he could start reloading.

Once my short-sword reached his throat he started begging, "Wait wait wait!” “What are you doing here?” “Helping the Goddess Kalypso be remembered!” “How?” “Feeding her magic from others. Once she is free she can give you anything.” I ignore him. “Is that what demaging really does?” “Yes!” “When will the princess arrive?” “Two days ago, Last I heard.” “Is..” “No more questions! The demons will kill you!” “Is there more than the two I killed?” Shock ran across his face but he smiled quickly. He was done answering questions. “Good bye.” I whispered as I swung my sword and cleaved his head from his shoulders.

I started looking around. I was clearly standing in the leader's office. The stone walls had generic pictures of people I didn't know. I checked his pockets for eighteen gold and some silver. The desk in the back center of the room facing the door had another eighteen gold and a bunch of letters and other written things. Almost all of it was either written in code or not important. There were a few potions as well but I had only seen them in passing and had no idea what to do with them. A silver jeweled dagger was on display behind the desk so I took that and the coins and potions.

I almost made it back to Tory when I heard people talking. It sounded like they were in the oval room. There were two Tamsa standing outside guarding the room. I charged and shouldered one with everything I had, crushing him into the wall and then landed a solid left hook on the other but received another wound.

Looking down I saw a poisoned throwing knife in my hand. “So tired…Can't stop” was all I was thinking. I opened the door and a volley of poison knives came at me. One gets caught in my mail armor, another sticks into my calf. The rest are deflected by my armor or miss. There's seven of them and one is standing over Tory. I pull the knife out of my hand and throw it at the one standing over Tory. They evaded but it would have missed anyway. I cut the one nearest to me down as another volley of knives came at me. So tired… I fell to my knees. The six rush me. I swung my sword and got another but that was the last thing I saw.