Wooden chair legs scratched against the stone floor as the vampires threw themselves out of their chairs. They threw themselves at the nearest paladin, swords hastily grabbed from scabbards at the waist, wearing only their dining vestments. This lack of protection didn’t seem to bother them, and if anything they displayed greater speed and reflexes than Alistair had ever seen before. He counted almost two dozen of them—too many.

Before things went too far, he activated his Inspire ability to support his partner. The magic exploded out of him and wrapped around the Shadow paladin like a warm embrace. Even if it was only a small buff to her abilities, they would need every advantage against these foul creatures. On that same vein, as the vampires closed in on him, Alistair used his first charge of Adaptive Armor to help him resist the evil weapons. No sense in waiting around this time.

Alistair felt the magic in his shield begging to be let out. He still had the power from the previous battle stored up, and it was a heavy sum. It felt wrong to use it on anyone other than Arkaz, but there were too many enemies in his way. As the nearest vampire thrust its sword forward at him, the Aegis threw its shield arm out and released the built up pressure. A deafening explosion rocked the room as pulpy remains impacted the wall across the room, still smoldering.

His body still surrounded by smoke, Alistair swung his pike out at the next closest. The vampire parried it expertly with a single arm. It held the full strength of the attack without a tremor in its undead body. Meanwhile, two more came at Alistair from the opposite side. They were relentless.

When he could get a strike off in-between their relentless and lightning fast assault, the wounds he caused would sizzle and pop on their gray skin. After a few moments, the gashes and cuts would close completely. These vampires had a stronger regeneration to the ones outside, and they were much less likely to overextend themselves to suffer a wound in the first place. They were cautious, even in their vengeful anger, and worked together to surround the red giant.

Alistair’s shield could only block one at a time. Even using his pike to threaten a wide area, the vampires were too fast and too numerous to track. Before long he felt the familiar and unpleasant feeling of a blade slice his back. More nicks and glancing blows would hit him in the thighs and arms, as if the vampires sought to disable him. Unlike a normal human, he failed to bleed from wounding attacks like these, so they continued to wear him down by dancing in and out, each taking a turn.

Across the room, he could see Brianca struggling. Without the advantage of her invisibility, she only had her armor’s natural lightness and skill with her sword to keep the vampires at bay. Still, the Shadow form was a natural fit for her dueling skills. He watched her pull off parries, flips, and pirouettes he could only dream of mirroring. When they would back her into a corner, she’d disappear in a puff of smoke and appear in another dark corner of the room. An effective method to survive, but neither of them were making much progress in clearing the room.

He hissed in pain as another attack got through his guard, slicing him on the arm. Alistair reached out with his pike for a counterattack, but this allowed another to come at him from his exposed side. They were picking him apart piecemeal. Almost like a pack of wolves.

Suddenly, Alistair felt the icy cold tingle of something wrap around his body. A dark spectral arm had grasped him by the waist. On the far side of the room, one of the spellcasters had their arm outstretched, the magic extending from the palm of their hand. He felt his own vitality be sapped from him like a leech would suck blood. His body grew weaker as the swordsmen around him moved in for the kill.

Alistair needed a plan and quick. He started to run forward, straight for the magic caster. This threatened to have him run right into the vampires already surrounding him, and he felt the leeching spell intensify the more power he exerted. The first vampire to stand in his way got a blast from his reflection shield, not enough to kill but it sent them flying into the nearest wall. Two more came at him from the sides, flanking him.

Before their blades could land, Alistair transformed into Wind. This made their attacks go wide, as they aimed for a giant red suit and instead missed the shorter green body that remained. Alistair flicked his wrist and open-palm struck one on the chest, at the same time channeling an elemental blast of energy. A sudden powerful gust of wind, enhanced with an unnatural force, sent this second vampire flying, their fancy clothes shredded by the whipping blast.

Wind’s sword came flying out of its scabbard into his other hand and with it, he twisted and caught the third vampire’s counterattack. They were even for a mere moment before the Vampire slowly pushed him back. This form lacked the Aegis’s sturdiness and he felt himself still growing weak from the leech.

Then he noticed something interesting. An almost invisible layer of wind had wrapped itself around his own blade, and he noticed it had made a crack in the vampire’s sword. The further the vampire pushed to overwhelm his guard, the deeper the crack grew. By the time the undead duelist noticed, it was too late. Alistair waited for him to ease off, if only a little, and then pressed forward with all his might. This shattered the blade and with this momentum, the sharpened wind extension sliced through the vampire’s chest. Before the monster could pull back, Alistair took his sword in both hands and went for another heavy attack, this time decapitating it with a clean strike through the neck.

There was no time for celebration as the vampires he’d disabled were dashing forward back into the fight. Foul utterances came out of their mouths and their bodies grew a dark aura around them. Some sort of strengthening ability, not unlike something he’d expect a paladin to use. He didn’t want to come to blows with them while they were powered up like that.

So instead, he summoned Wind’s natural ability of flight and took off over their heads. They reached for him with their swords and barely missed as Alistair got up off the ground and angled himself forward. His sights were still set on the caster that had stolen a chunk of his vitality.

This vampire now wore a look of panic as this green suit of armor came flying right at him. It dropped the leech ability and instead summoned more of the sphere projectiles, flicking them with his arms like he were a conductor of an orchestra. There were simply too many to dodge, and he was going too fast. Palm out, he launched another elemental blast in a last ditch attempt to send the ones directly in front of him out of the way.

The two spells met in the middle and somehow the wind managed to deflect a few of the balls, some into the ceiling and others into the walls and floor. Chunks of shattered stone crumbled to the floor and there was a sickening cracking sound as if the whole building threatened to buckle.

Alas, one managed to snag Alistair in the side and he felt the plates of his armor begin to melt. Still, his speed and angling was such that he managed to hit the vampire square in the chest with his own body. They went tumbling onto the floor together, a tangled mess of limbs, and Wind’s sword fell from his hands in the confusion.

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When they finally came to a stop, it was Alistair that managed to get to his knees first. He reached for his sword just as the vampire tried to do the same. His fingers wrapped around the hilt, finding purchase. Alistair sighed in relief and tightened his grip, careful not to let go. The vampire, not ready to give up yet, summoned a familiar black tentacle and wrapped it around the paladin’s sword hand.

“Sod off!” Alistair shouted, and fired another wind blast at the still prone vampire just feet away.

The effects of his elemental attack had two outcomes. He successfully hit the undead creature and sent it flying, but the tentacle remained wrapped around his wrist, and after an awkward moment he too was yanked across the ground and skidded along the cobblestone floor like a ragdoll.

If not for the suit and his enhanced resistance, this sudden jerking motion would have made him lose his dinner. It felt like his whole stomach was wrapped in a knot as he was sent careening into the vampire a second time. Their impact staggered the both of them. Disoriented but eager to finish things, Alistair let go of the blade in his restrained hand and deftly caught it with his other arm. With his non-dominant hand it was an awkward grip, but he attacked anyway, his confidence buoyed by adrenaline and pain-fueled tenacity. Using the wind extension, Alistair managed to cut into the vampire before any of the steel even touched the undead. The vampire howled, but was soon cut off as the sword sliced through the rest of its chest, chopping the body into two pieces.

There was no time to savor the victory as he knew there were many enemies left. He wheeled around from his fallen foe to see the rest of the dining vampires had formed up around Arkaz. Brianca flitted over to him, disappearing and reappearing through more puffs of smoke, traveling through the shadows until the paladins were reunited.

The master vampire glanced over the remains of his fallen comrades. It looked as if he were silently judging them all. His offered look of disgust, punctuated with a deep scowl and narrowed red eyes, gave Alistair a small hint of satisfaction even through all the pain and exhaustion.

“Enough of this roughhousing,” Arkaz said, his tone having lost the playfulness from before. He took two fingers and placed them up to his mouth. A sharp whistle came from his toothy maw, and his scowl was replaced with another smirk. “Let’s see how you fare against the beast.”

Brianca shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

From the opposite side of the dining hall, near the double doors, a low growl could be heard.

Alistair tightened his grip around his sword. “Neither do I.”

The doors were pushed open with such force that they came off their hinges this time. A deafening screech echoed throughout the room as some hulking, hairy monstrosity made its entrance.

It had a body that almost made Alistair think of a werewolf, a creature he’d imagined as a child from fairy tales, but instead of the head of a wolf this creature had the visage of a giant bat. On the backs of its muscly arms there were leathery wings, though they were much too shriveled to be used for the flight of something so heavy. On its feet and hands were giant claws, long enough to impale a man off of a single digit.

The large, almost bug-like black eyes locked onto Alistair and Brianca and the monster howled again. In its snout, the chattering teeth foamed with an otherworldly hunger. Muscles bulging, it threw itself forward at the paladins. Despite its size, the thing was fast—too fast. They were already up against the wall, trapped.

“This way!” Brianca ran for the nearest alcove. Hidden there was another door, a second exit from the room. Alistair followed after her, still in his Wind body. They swung the door shut behind them and ran into the next room which seemed to be the attached kitchen.

Scattered throughout were more thralls, humans too far gone to help. These chefs and servers saw the paladins and tried to intercept them with simple knives and cutlery. Their determination notwithstanding, it would be a simple matter to push through them to the exit. The room shook and Alistair struggled to stay on his feet. He looked behind them to see the beast had shattered the door and toppled parts of the stone archway. It was clawing its way through even now, chomping at the bit to get at them.

One look at the monster took his breath away. They had to get away and fast!

“We don’t have time for this!” Alistair stepped in front of Brianca and launched another blast of wind, scattering the thralls unlucky enough to be in front of them. He ran forward, straight for the next door, the supplicant close behind him.

There were more sounds of stones cracking as the wall buckled. Alistair risked a glance over his shoulder and saw the monster had fully gotten into the kitchen through some insane display of strength. Perhaps distracted by the sensory overload, it hesitated for a moment and looked around at the people gathered inside. Then, like a rabid dog, it launched itself at the nearest thrall, literally tearing the poor man apart. The worst part was, the speed at which it happened was so great, the human didn’t even have a chance to scream or shout.

As horrifying as this wanton violence was, it offered the paladins a chance to escape unimpeded. They ran as fast as they could through the next set of doors and somehow ended up back in the empty halls of the keep. This felt like an appropriate moment to catch their breath, but only for a moment. The wet crunching sound behind them was faint but unmistakably still there. It was a simple math equation that there were only so many thralls to keep it occupied before it would be back on their trail.

“How the hell do we fight something like that?” Alistair asked out loud, body hunched over. One hand held his sword, the other grasped his side where the magical wound still burned.

The Shadow paladin shook her head. Despite her face being obscured, Alistair could tell Brianca was struggling to maintain her composure. “If it’s anything like the vampires, it must have some measure of regeneration as well. And with its size, I have little doubt the monster will shrug off any sort of basic attack.” She sighed, frustrated. “They must have some sort of weakness, wouldn’t you think?”

Alistair took another deep breath and tried to calm his beating heart. He had to think of a way out of this. Swinging around his pike and blocking with his shield would only get him so far. At this moment he was reminded of Ilvara and how they still didn’t know where she went. He hoped that she hadn’t fallen prey to the beast already. If she were here, surely she’d have an idea of how to take it down. She was always the one with a plan.

For some reason, his thoughts drifted to Bredon. To the last time he’d fought the undead, and to the time he’d been forced to put the villagers to rest. At the time he hadn’t thought anything of it, as the tradition of burning bodies had been ingrained into him since he was a boy. It was just the way things were done in Isen. Of course, there was a practical reason behind the pyres, as the undead weren’t capable of raising ashes to join their armies. Armed now with the knowledge of relic mantles and magic, Alistair wondered if there was an elemental disadvantage to be found there.

Something between the undead and open flames. He almost wished Kevin was there with him. If he still had his flame powers, they could test Alistair’s theory out easily. As it were, it was just him and Brianca now.

Behind them, the pounding thuds of the monster were getting closer. They were out of time. Brianca hurriedly glanced at the door behind them and then back to Alistair, urging him to hurry. Then it came to him.

Outside! There were still some lit braziers.

It was just crazy enough to try. He again transformed into his Aegis body and gestured toward the exit.

“If we’re going to beat this thing, we ought to try luring it to flame. If it’s got a weakness, that’d be my bet.” The door behind them splintered from a heavy impact. “Come on!”

They took off down the hall, toward the courtyard. He prayed to the Lady, knowing full well she probably couldn’t hear him, that this would work. Otherwise, this might be the end of the line.