Ty crouched behind his shield as the ghouls approached with alien screeches. A few breathless seconds passed before the hideous monsters revealed themselves in the light.

They were covered in hairless pale skin that looked more like dried parchment stretched over a pile of loose bones. Their bodies were severely misshapen, even affecting how they ran. While they still looked mostly humanoid, it was only in shape.

One had five arms and two jawbones that split apart when it growled and hissed. Then another was crawling forward on a single leg, two misshapen arms and a spike of bone. The third was trundling forward on all fours, except all of its limbs were mutilated and facing backwards. It crawled at the Camila with its chest facing upwards and its head hanging upside down.

The darkness seemed to cling to them as they burst out of the shadows. Thick black ooze clung to their many open wounds, none seeming to inhibit them in any way.

Allen watched as the monsters opened their mouths to screech again, showing rows of deformed needle-like teeth. Their hollow black eyes locked onto Camila, showing nothing but an unerring thirst for life. Her whistle from earlier had evidently drawn the ghouls to her, doubtlessly a new skill from her arsenal of annoyance.

“Well at least the monsters aren’t boring, only a little generic. If they’re Lesser Undead, then we just need to take out their heads.” Allen suddenly remembered to start charging Strike as he watched the ghouls rush at Camila. He smirked inwardly at the mistake.

Rather than let them come to her, Camila lunged forward at the first ghoul with a thrust of her claymore. The sword, long enough to reach the monster, struck it in its chest. Thick black blood flowed but the monster seemed unaffected. It forced itself down the length of the blade that impaled it, ripping madly at the Berserker. She was forced to rip her sword out and jump backwards when a clawed hand came too close to her face.

Ty jumped between the berserker and the ghouls. The sound of bone hitting the metal shield echoed through the cave as the three monsters piled up on each other in an attempt to push the Shield Bearer backwards. Ty stood strong against the three ghouls, his feet only sliding backwards a few centimeters.

“Any more coming?” Allen wondered, as he looked out into the darkness.

There probably were, but he had an opening then, so he took it. He jumped out from behind the stalagmite, took three running bounds towards the nearest ghoul, then slammed his knife into the back of its neck. The monster was so intently focused on Camila as she sliced at its clawed hands that there was no way it could have noticed Allen coming. His thirty strength and assassinate was enough to destroy the vertebra in its neck and separate its head from the rest of its body.

Still, Killer Instinct informed Allen that his attack hadn’t been fatal, yet he continued on to the next ghoul regardless. He stabbed the it the same place, only adjusting his knife to hit a little higher as per his skill’s vague suggestion.

The second ghoul was tougher. Allen closed in and pushed his knife through the monster’s neck and tore it out the side. Killer Instinct shouted at him, but not effectively enough. The ghoul spun around in a fury, inadvertently flinging its head off and going limp, but not before a claw had drug its way across Allen’s abdomen.

“Fucker,” Allen cursed. He staggered back and put a hand to his stomach. He applied more pressure after feeling warm blood rush out. He would have a few seconds before the pain would catch up to him.

Allen glanced at the ghoul he had failed to kill a moment ago. He only had an instant to shield his face before the monster thrashing around on the ground was smashed to chunky paste under Camila’s morning star. He then focused on the remaining ghoul illuminated by Christopher’s magic. Ty slammed it back with his shield, but the monster didn’t to fall over. It only became angrier and more frantic as it tried in vain to circle around the Shield Bearer.

Name: Shade Ghoul

Lesser Undead – Monster – Level 24

Allen sprinted at it when he found an opening. By then, just over a minute had passed since the fight had begun and, judging by the general vibe coming from Killer Instinct, Allen still had his Assassinate bonus.

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He circled around the monster with one hand gripping his knife and the other around his abdomen. As Ty held the ghoul in place, Allen leapt for its neck. He covered his knife in Mana Shroud, making the weapon glow with a dull white light.

His knife sunk into the monster’s neck, which was actually quite difficult to find. He had to rely on Killer Instinct to guide him to the point where he would deal the most damage. Strike discharged, sending mana into the creature that dealt just enough extra damage to sever its head in one attack.

Allen pulled his knife out as the ghoul fell limply to the ground. Then he winced in pain. No other ghouls were coming, so after a few moments of silence, Allen allowed himself to relax.

Ty let out a breath and stood up. “That wasn’t too bad,” he said, cheerily nodding to Allen through the dim lighting. “You got that one in a single hit. Level seventeen… oh, you got a scratch there.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Allen replied, grimacing. “Amelia,” he asked, turning back to the two supporters. Sweat came to his brow as he made his way over to the healer a few meters away. His vision began to sway from the loss of blood, and the injury felt cold on top of very painful.

Amelia came to him instead. She quickly pressed a hand to Allen’s stomach. Her magic rooted around for a moment before she clicked her tongue in discontent. That reaction was never good when it was coming from a healer.

“No messages?” Camila asked. It was posed as a question, but she clearly already knew the answer.

“Indeed, I am still occupied,” said Christopher. He was still sitting in his wheelchair just inside the opening of the tunnel that had taken them into the larger room. His arms were stretched out ahead of him and he looked preoccupied with something in his own mind. “There are twenty-seven more of those monsters in here, and then another that seems roughly twice as strong, going by the mana. I’ve been distracting five of them that have come nearby but doing so is very taxing and… involved.”

“What’s wrong?” Allen asked Amelia, slightly concerned about her reaction. While the ghoul’s levels weren’t too far above their own, there could still be surprises. He couldn’t really focus on the question anymore because the pain was really getting bad. It felt his insides were frozen. Still, it wasn’t a piercing pain so he could manage it.

“Their blood has a blighting affect,” she said flatly, holding up a hand covered in black blood. It was Allen’s blood.

“That’s not good,” Ty said. “How strong is it?”

“I don’t know.” The girl turned to look back at Allen, “What’s your vitality?”

“Uh…” Allen watched the edges of his vision start to tunnel. He reflexively reached out and activated the Dead Calm skill despite knowing that it’s effects would take time. “…Nine, effective,” he said. “That attack took fifty HP and I’m losing about two every second, can you PLEASE heal me… please tell me you can heal me.”

“Less than a category one then,” Amelia said, looking at Allen, “you need more vitality.”

“Thanks for the advice, can you heal me now?” Allen asked as he ground his teeth through the throbbing pain in his abdomen.

The girl frowned. “I’ll have to remove the corrupted flesh,” she said, “It will hurt, even with Numbing at tier twenty… I have it at three.”

Allen groaned, “Just do it alre—AAAGH!” The pain was too much for him to even scream. He fell to the floor of the cave and Amelia went down with him, still holding his stomach and casting her magic.

“Can’t you cleanse the blight somehow?” Ty asked, seeming unsure.

“I don’t have any skill for that,” the healer explained. “I’m just using Heal, Dissect, and Numbing.”

“Oh.”

“Arcane Healers typically can’t undo curses like blight, only Purification Healers can do that at this level,” Christopher explained. “More importantly though, I won’t be able to keep the other monsters engaged for much longer.”

“I need another few minutes,” Amelia said back, her focus still on Allen.

Allen hadn’t been able to listen to anything the others were saying. All he could do was try and stay awake despite the pain. After some indiscernible amount of time, probably no more than a minute, Allen felt a mass of something slide out of the wound in his stomach. Blood came to his throat and he coughed, but he felt better. Amelia’s magic stopped inflicting pain and instead only spread a warm feeling over him. Within thirty seconds the wound was closed, and Allen’s HP was full again. His SP was down about a hundred points, but he much more of that resource.

“Well, that was exhausting, I’ve been through orders of magnitude worse though,” Allen thought, dusting himself off as he stood up. “So, how did I do doc?” he asked, sending Amelia a wry grin as he wiped the sweat from his face.

The girl eyed him for a moment. “Acceptable I guess,” she said with a smile.

Allen took a deep breath and shook his head. “Acceptable? Myself from ten years ago would have passed out just from the sight of that cut alone.”

Rather than argue, Allen got back into his hiding spot behind the stalagmite and began charging Strike. He also decided to try using Mana Shroud to cover his body. The problem with that, as he had found, was that doing so would also limit the amount of mana that he could use for other skills. With two-hundred and twenty-five MP, he only had enough mana for a single full-powered Strike before he would need to rest and recover. Covering his whole body in miasma wasn’t sustainable yet.

“I can hold them off for another few minutes,” Christopher began. “Rest now, I’ll let you know if any get by.”

The others nodded while the professor stayed diligent.