Tobian took his place ten feet behind the Professor, who had just produced a metal ring from a hidden pocket. He threw the ring towards Tobian, flying over the packwick's head and landing on the ground at his feet. With a flourish, the Professor also threw a cloud of copper-colored dust and spoke words that Tobian's brain struggled with.

Briefly, the air between Tobian and the Professor glowed, and the packwick was sure he saw arcane runes appear in the air. Thinking quickly, he shifted his gaze into the magical spectrum. Hovering in the air near the Professor's lips were multiple arcane symbols. Also hovering above the metal ring, copper dust was suspended around him.

Tobian reached out to touch one of the copper flakes.

“Stop,” The Professor said. “If the circle is broken, the spell will end. This will keep you invisible as well as deflect most projectiles.”

“Most?” Tobian said as he pulled his hand away from the sparkly wall.

“Anything less than a ballista or catapult.” the Professor said, furrowing his brow as if he remembered something. He turned away from Tobian and called out to the group ahead. “Darius, no throwing or knocking things back towards me.”

Tobian, taking care to stay within the circle, pulled out a sword and knelt. He kept an eye behind them and his vision in the magical spectrum to watch the Professor back.

Once the door to the next area was open a crack, Sirah disappeared behind it. Darius grabbed it with both hands and, using a foot against the wall, pushed the door the rest of the way open. The large stone door groaned and rumbled as it slowly opened. Bits of rock or dirt caught beneath it were ground into fine powder under the unyielding enchanted stone.

The room ahead was dim but not completely dark when the door was completely open. Dim magical lighting on the ceiling barely illuminated anything. A small four-legged form darted from one side to the other. Darius charged in. Tobian could see the afterglow of magic from Darius’s eyes as whatever gave him night vision activated as he charged forward.

Tristan slowly strode forward, holding a large mace in hand. Once past the doorway, she immediately moved to the left. The edge of her mace would sometimes be visible through the door as she swung at whatever unseen foe she fought.

“Corpse vandals!” Sirah’s voice echoed from in the room.

“Figured that out!” Darius said from somewhere deep inside. An unattached arm wiggled as it flew into Tobian’s view through the door. The limb clawed at the air before landing on the other side out of view.

“Corpse vandal?” Tobian said as he turned his full attention towards his friends.

Professors’ arura blocked a lot of Tobian’s view. The wizard standing there gathering magical power and occasionally sending a spell down into the room filled Tobian’s gaze with many auras as the spells left a lingering aura behind. No answer followed as the Professor concentrated on casting another spell.

A loud smack from near the doorway but outside of Tobain’s view filled the air, and a man's top half flew through the door, landing a few feet from Tobian. The taunt skin on the corpse looked like paper; the clothing near its abdomen was covered in dried blood, as was the stump of a neck where the head used to be. Its right hand was bloated, and its fingers bent in the wrong direction. Tobian couldn’t see the left hand and didn’t want to go over and get a closer look.

A wave of heat washed over Tobian as a fireball appeared and streaked into the room. The ball hit a mass of limbs and exploded, throwing bits of flesh and bone all over. Out of habit, Tobian raised a hand to cover his eyes, but even without the protective spell, it was too far away to get on him.

“Try to get them near the middle of the room where I can see them. I’m going to separate them from their hosts and trap them.” The Professor yelled.

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Out of the corner of his eye, there was a slight movement. Tobian glanced over, and the mass that had landed earlier had shifted a little; now both arms were visible, and it was trying to use its elbows to move forward. It moved only an inch but was still moving.

“Um, Professor,” Tobian said softly, hoping the creature couldn’t hear him. “There is one of those things crawling here.”

The Professor didn’t respond to Tobian; the wizard waved a hand, drawing an intricate diamond pattern and leaving little bits of glowing magic suspended as he crafted his next spell.

With a sickening crunch, the corpse stretched out of one of its arms, the bones giving a loud pop as if it fixed a dislocated joint. With one arm more functional, it moved several inches toward the Professor.

“Professor,” Tobian said loudly.

Ahead of them, through the doorway into the room, another mass of limbs and flesh moved into Tobian’s view. This larger mass had multiple arms poking out from it. One of the arms threw another arm at the Professor. As the limb sailed through the air, the Professor ignored it and kept drawing in the air. Right before the limb would have hit the Professor, it stopped as if hitting a wall. Briefly, it hovered in the air before it burst into flames.

The Professor’s arcane geometric shape started glowing, a brilliant blue as it hovered in the air. The wizard thrust out both hands, grasped the air, and pulled as if tearing the air apart. A little red creature still covered in dried blood and bits of flesh was pulled from the mass of flesh in front of the wizard. The demon cursed and sputtered as he hung in the air.

Four more demons joined the first in the center of the room. All were covered in dried blood, and one was still holding onto a hand from one of the corpses.

Tobian had never seen a Corpse Vandal before, and he started to take a step forward but remembered the protective spell. He looked down at the ring and saw it was still there, the magic glowing with power. Nearby on the floor, the corpse was not five feet from the Professor and was trying to lift itself up with one arm so it could swing with its other.

“Professor, something behind you,” Tobian said.

“Can’t,” the Professor said through strained teeth. He had his hands out as if holding onto a ball but struggling.

Tobian stepped forward, seeking to place himself between the corpse and his friend. He wasn’t sure how to fight it, so he took another big step, then swung his right foot out, kicking the mass of flesh and limbs away from the Professor.

The kick was solid, hitting the mass square in the center. As Tobain's foot lifted it up, the creature managed to swipe with a clawed hand, tearing the packwick's pants and leaving four scratches on his leg. The kick threw the corpse a dozen feet from Tobian.

“Fff,” Tobian stopped himself from cursing. He stepped toward the corpse and swung his sword down. The blade easily cut through the dead flesh, and so many of the bones were already broken it left a large wound that now oozed a dark, thick liquid.

It tried to swing an arm at Tobian, but he quickly stepped back from it. Bringing his sword down again, he sliced into the heart of the corpse. The blade stopped as if it hit a stone in the center.

From within the hole in its chest, a small demon emerged. It’s right arm hanging limply on its side. Black blood seeped from the wound in its shoulder. The eight-inch tall demon seemed to struggle to stand, its good hand covering up its right shoulder.

“Can you get it into the trap?” Sirah’s voice called out from far away. Tobain looked toward the room and saw where the other demons were hovering in the air. Sweat dripped from the Professor’s brow as he struggled with the invisible ball.

With a tiny snarl of pain, the demon pulled a little dagger from somewhere and waved it threateningly toward Tobian. Tobian took a step back to keep his feet away from the sharp, pointed object. Remembering a childhood game, he turned his sword sideways so the flat of the blade was presented to the demon. He pulled back and swung!

Swinging down, he angled the blade toward the little demon. The little thing moved out of the way. Tobian pulled back and swung again. The creature kept moving out of the way. After the third miss, the packwick turned his hips sideways and pulled back, then before he swung, he summoned a small rock out of his pack to land on the demon.

A fist-sized rock appeared and flew toward the demon. The creature stood and looked at it briefly before moving to dodge it. With the creature's attention diverted, Tobain swung again; this time, the blade's flat caught the demon close to its legs. Lifting the beast up and tossing it toward the other trapped demons.

Once the creature was within the Professor’s field of view, some unseen force plucked it from the air and pulled it over to where the other demons were trapped. As it joined its brethren, the invisible sphere they were contained in shrank until a tiny ball of demon flesh and ichor was squeezed out of existence with a Pop!

“What are Corpse Vandals?” Tobian said as he checked his sword to ensure no blood or ichor was on it before he sheathed it.

The Professor dropped to a knee and took several long breaths. “Nasty little demons, they feed off necrotic energies and can inhabit corpses and animate them. Tough to kill as they’ll play dead and if a corpse is nearby, they tend to revive and continue to cause mayhem.”