11.

The backdoor was blocked. Gregor had been right in that it was an oversized door. He had been right that it was used for loading too. Boxes and shipments of supplies were scattered about with little rhyme or reason. Corpses were stacked around the backdoor like cordwood, blood still wet and dripping off them to the floor. They were a mix of Adjudicators, Justices, and office staff, all stacked with little care or thought.

The crowd following him spread out like a wave, eyes locked on the doors that were melted shut to the stone. The soldiers had looks of resignation on their faces as they kicked and scuffed at the ground while Nevia stared at the doors with exhaustion tugging at her features.

Julius and Rutledge examined where the metal doors had fused with the stone, talking of what could have melted it. Erak thought of the heat from the Corrupted Justicar he had battled and had an inkling of what had melted the doors.

“Adjudicator…who is next most senior?” Nevia looked about the small knot of Adjudicators, growing smaller and smaller by the hour. They looked at one another like sheeps before the butcher, until one stepped forward.

A lean woman with iron gray hair and deep lines across her face. A scar traced the side of her face and her nose was crooked. When she spoke Erak saw several missing teeth that lent itself to a lisp.

“That’d be ma’am. I’m Gwendolyn.”

“Gwendolyn, where is the second exit out of here. The sewers.”

“It’s a maintenance hall ma’am. We can follow this back hall to the stairs, not far from here, and then down. Two flights of stairs, and then into the infrastructure, the heaters, pipes, electrical, stuff like that. The door is down there, somewhere.”

“You don’t know where it is?”

“Didn’t have much reason to be entering the sewers ma’am.”

“Fuck. Lord Bloodsworn, do we continue, or backtrack?” Nevia had hope glinting in her eyes that they’d be backtracking. Erak looked at his own long spear and thought of the claustrophobic depths beneath the building. He needed a better sidearm.

Erak pointed a finger down and Nevia deflated. She rallied herself so fast that if Erak hadn’t been watching, he’d never have seen it. THe energetic junior officer was growing weary as the day progressed, even with the few levels she had earned.

“Sergeant Polroy, you’re in the lead. Constance, you have the middle. Butik, you have the rearguard,” Nevia ordered. Erak noticed the third non-commissioned officer for the first time. A short and wide man with a florid face. It had been his squad that had been massacred by the justicar and the handful of survivors were being rotated out of likely combat.

The soldiers shuffled around as Erak started down the hallway. The light was weak and thin, balls of light drifting in place where lighting stips had once been. It was enough to soften the darkness to a pale gray, Erak straining to not trip over anything spilled on the ground.

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His senses were alert as he looked for anything that would come at him, heart beating a slow beat that pulsed in his ears. He hoped something would come and challenge him, to continue testing him as he worked closer to the basement.

Nothing bothered him.

The door leading to the stairwell was ripped free, torn and tangled metal strips still stuck to the hinges. The door lay in a balled up heap on the landing, the pale illumination of the fae light barely piercing the dark.

Erak didn’t hesitate as he choked up the hold on the spear as he tromped down the stairs. His heavy boots clanged with every step, the soldiers followed behind, their steps lost in the thunder of his march.

“Darker than sin in here. Lou, how are we going to see what to shoot?”

“If it’s eating you, shoot it,” Nevia’s voice sounded, ringing down the stairs to Erak.

“Told you Podzki, stop being a dumbass.”

“Julius, loan me your arm, my balance isn’t what it used to be.”

“Of course Professor,” Julius was ever so polite to the older woman.

Deeper they went. Until Erak used his spear as a walking stick, the butt of it leading ahead of him, tapping away as kept his shield ready to react. Curses and people staggering into things kept coming from behind him. The confines of the basement were tight, Erak forced to walk sideways so his shoulders wouldn’t scrape the pipes.

Something skittered. Movement in the dark, felt and sensed more than seen. Erak froze and someone walked into his back, bouncing back with a grunt.

“What’s going on?” Nevia whispered, her voice loud in the tight confines.

“Lord Bloodsworn stopped, ma’am. I ran into him,” someone’s nasally voice echoed behind him.

“Why?”

“I don’t know ma’am. He didn’t tell me why he stopped.”

More movement. Erak lifted the spear awkwardly, trapped as he was with his shield shoulder leading and the pipes preventing him from turning square to face whatever was there.

“Lord Bloodsworn, we are going to fire a blast past you to see,” Nevia said. She gave him a moment before a scarlet beam of energy lit the surroundings. Erak saw what it was that he was sensing.

Gray bloodless skin. Black eyes peering at him. It lunged with a grunt hands outstretched as Erak held his spear steady to stab it through the ruined Adjudicator’s jersey. The creature screamed, piercing in the tight confines, as Erak moved forward, driving the creature back.

Undead lvl. 7

More things were shuffling around him, cries rising up as panicked curses filled the air. Caster bolts started to light as the basement came alive with undead. Scores of the drained monsters came flooding around, only seen in the quick flashes of light.

A strangled scream and a body was being dragged away from the group, body disappearing under pipes. Another flash and another corpse was falling, landing in twisted and scorched remnants.

Rutledge standing proud, her cane flashing out as a blade sprung from the bottom, piercing a limping creature’s skull.

Julius was batting grasping hands away. Nevia stepped up behind him, her sword stabbing the undead grabbing at Julius.

Erak’s shield was tugged, pulling him forward. He turned it into a charge, crushing the undead back and into the wall, bones shattering. More screams, Adjudicator’s rods striking flesh with bone shattering force. More and more flashes of light as the soldiers began to fire faster and faster, the undead pouring out of every crevice there was.