I charged the spell while Ray held the little bugger off with his spear, stabbing and slashing at it whenever it tried to get close. Ronia pelted it with arrows as well but it dodged most of them with its ridiculous speed. Gobmi tried to attack Ray by jumping off the walls and going over him but Herald slammed him away with his shield. GAobmi went flying with a crunch as some bones definitely broke. I finished charging the spell and let loose.

"Encroaching Frost!" The spell looked like a ball of light blue crystal that launched at the undead with tremendous speed. The undead blocked with his dagger, the dagger instantly being covered with ice. The problem didn't stop there though. The ice started to creep down the handle and towards his arm, but the undead dropped the weapon quickly when It saw this. The ice creeped off the dagger and onto the ground, rapidly spreading. It spread out in a circle and made a large swath of area into ice. It started to spread towards Gobmi as I used mana to control the spread. This unfortunately left me unable to move so I warned the others.

"Cover me while I try to freeze the damn thing!" With that Ray stood guard near me and I kept encroaching the ice towards the creature. It kept hopping away while popping over to attack with its claws occasionally, but Herald and Ray fended it off. It looked like I would never catch the thing if I simply tried to chase it with the ice and I was rapidly draining mana with this spell. I had already drained 3,000 mana out of my 12,000 max. The only reason I even used this spell was because of my new mana capacity. It was still mana hungry though so I needed to be quick. I decided to change tactics and moved the encroaching ice, which now covered the centre of the room with ice towards the edges of the room.

I kept freezing the edges and getting closer to the centre of the room, removing space for the undead to move. It kept zipping forwards to attack but it was far slower now that it had injuries covering it. It still managed to dodge Ronia's arrows but sometimes got hit in the back or side. This went on for a few tense minutes until the undead finally slipped on the encroaching ice. It fell and I made the ice start to freeze it instantly. The ice started freezing its palms and the soles of its feet, sticki9ng it to the ground. I wanted to freeze it more but the damn thing just tore itself off the ground forcibly. Gobmi's left hand tore clean off, shattering into ice while the soles of his feet shattered. It stumbled off the ice and onto the wall, out of reach. Ronia didn't miss this opportunity and perforated its back with arrows. She used a spell that split 1 arrow into 5 and pummeled the thing full of arrows. It turned and hissed at us. I couldn't get the ice to go up the walls at my current level of mastery of the spell so I stopped using the spell and took a deep breath. I had used a grand total of 6,790 mana and was left with 5,210 mana.

"That spell is as mana hungry as I remember it to be. Well at least we finally got the damn thing." I prepared an ice shard spell but before I could fire it the undead launched itself at the ceiling, crawling along it using its clawed hand and what remained of its feet like a giant, ugly spider. It crawled and used mana to create a dagger. While Herald was adjusting his shield to block the creature in case it hopped down, it struck. The thing lept off the roof and grabbed the dagger that had finished forming in the air and dove down. Herald's shield wasn't up yet as it was rather heavy so Ray tried to flick impale the undead with his spear. The undead formed a second dagger in the airt and tossed the first one at Ray. He deflected the dagger but it was enough of a distraction that the undead sailed past his guard. The undead had the second dagger now and landed on Ray's back with a thud, sending him stumbling.

I tried to grab the thing and tear it off of Ray but before I could do anything, it screamed with fury and plunged the dagger it held into Rays now exposed back. It stabbed straight through his armour, the dagger tearing into his back. Ray screamed in pain and twisted, trying to get it off of him. The dagger was pulled out before swiftly plunging back in, causing Ray to roar in a mix of pain and anger. I grabbed the thing by it's legs and Yanked. I didn't use magic as I was afraid of friendly fire and accidentally hitting Ray with how much he was twisting around.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Ray screamed in pain as the dagger sank into his back an 8th time. "Y-you piece of shit! GET.OFF.OF.ME!" With that he yanked its arms while I pulled its legs away. The thing had a much stronger grip than we expected. It had looped his arm around Ray's neck with an exposed bone tearing into his armour for extra grip, while his hand was looped the opposite direction, repeatedly stabbing. It had originally dug its claws into Ray's chest armour but with me yanking, they didn't stay dug in for long. We pulled the undead off of Ray, sending it tumbling on the ground, where Herald immediately slammed his mace into it. The thump of meat being pounded into paste resounded as the undead was brutally killed. Ronia rushed to Ray, who was wheezing and had blood pouring out his back. He sank to the ground, sliding down the wall and leaving a trail of blood along it.

"Ray! Ray hang in there! You're going to be alright! Zane give him a healing potion while I heal him!" I quickly took out one of the few healing potions in my inventory and gave it to Ray. He was having trouble drinking so I just tipped his head up and poured it into his mouth. He managed to drink most of it, only coughing up a small bit of it. Ronia meanwhile was working her mana to heal Rays wounds. The mana was covering Ray and healing his wounds while the healing potion also healed him. The injuries covering his back and neck started to close and slowly stopped bleeding. We kept working at it and I gave Ray 2 more healing potions during the process.

"Shit! Not now! I'm running low on mana due to the battle. Zane do you have a mana potion?" I gave Ronia a mana potion and she downed it quickly. It wasn't enough as the potion wasn't regenerating mana fast enough. I got an idea and turned to Ronia, who was trying her best to heal the large amount of injuries on Ray's back.

"I'll transfer my mana to you. I have plenty of mana so don't worry and focus on healing Ray!" Ronia looked surprised but bit her lip and continued to heal Ray after giving me a nod. I put my hands on her back and focused on my mana. I had to be careful to not lose control of my mana or it would go wild in Ronia's body and would hurt her. I made sure to keep a steady mind while the occasional thump of Herald's mace could be heard in the background. Slowly at first, I pushed my mana through my arms and out of my hands, just a trickle of mana. It leaked out of my hands and washed into Ronia's back. I made sure to watch carefully how the mana was acting. I turned on my mist vision to get a better look. I saw Ronia's vitality slightly fluctuate. It wasn't much but I knew I was screwing up a bit.

I doubled down on my concentration and left my safety in Herald's hands, completely focusing on mana transfer. This wasn't nearly as dangerous in the game, damn real life making shit more complicated.

I pushed more mana into Ronia and saw nothing change. so I pushed more mana. The vitality in Ronia was fine so I amped it up further, pushing more and more mana into her. Soon I had transferred over 2,000 mana and kept going. I heard Ronia panting in exhaustion it seemed as the toll of using the healing spell for so long affected her. The mist vision showed nothing wrong with Ronia and I moved my eyes to Ray. He had a shakey vitality, with a lot of it drained out of him or leaking out. I saw something odd though. It was very faint and almost nonexistent but I saw something strange. It looked like there was a small trail of pitch black mist floating through Ray, wreaking havoc with his vitality. I was confused before I realized what was wrong.

I turned off my mist vision and called out "Ray's been poisoned! That nasty piece of shit must've had poison lacing his claws. I don't have any antidote potions, what about you guys?" I had stopped the mana transfer as I was losing concentration and asked the others. Ronia shook her head and said "No, I don't unfortunately. Herald! Do you have any?"

We turned to Herald and saw the remains of the named monster and Herald standing guard. It seemed that several monsters had attacked and Herald had killed them all. There were only a few undead hobgoblins and some undead goblin warriors. Herald replied with "No, I don't. We'll have to rush him to the surface quickly to get him healed. Lets go now." I nodded and helped carry Ray. I put his spear in my inventory and tossed the bodies of all the undead and the remaining loot into my inventory real quick and then head off. I draped him over my shoulder and Ronia used the remaining bit of mana she had left over from the transfer to keep healing Ray. The poison was slowly making his condition worse. It wasn't fast but it would eventually kill him if left untreated. We quickly made our way to the entrance of this floor to use the portal to get to the first floor. I was only hoping we got there fast enough.