A gout of blue flame lit up the third level as they reached the bottom of the bridge. A moment later, one of the knights screamed. They had reached the second level of the strange fortress that Severin had built here and they were scurrying across the stone as they made a bee line for the nearest stairway.

“Over here,” Calista whispered as she spotted the stone railing.

Running, with Lefty behind her, they hurried toward the stairs, but then a massive shadow appeared, looming over them. They both stopped dead in their tracks. The thing had a weapon, a huge axe held high over his head, ready to strike. However, before Calista could pull out her Emberblade, another blast of blue flame lit up the cavern and the figure before them became a statue of a troll. Well it’s good to know Narene has been busy.

They passed a dozen more of the trolls, all in various states of violence. Some were wounded, shot by the arrows, while others were hacked or burned or even half eaten, while others yet were armed and healthy and in mid-swing.

They reached the stairs. However, just as Calista was about to climb, Lefty grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Wait,” he said. “I don’t think we should be going up, I think we need to go down. Look.”

He pointed and then she saw. The fallen angels were circling near the buildings on the lowest level. Flaming arrows flew down like rain as the winged women were obviously targeting something very, very dangerous.

“It’s my guess that whoever is controlling those women is in charge of this place since we’ve never seen those mobs before,” Lefty observed.

“Right,” Calista said. “But do they work for Severin, or for someone else? Because these trolls here have arrows in them.”

Lefty shrugged, “Who knows? The only thing we can do is go look.”

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That meant the bridge. They turned around. They had to go down to go up, descending down another set of stairs, they found the first level where they had to run around more petrified trolls. One of them had clearly been painfully disemboweled by the dragon and his stone intestines were spilled all over the floor.

Then it was up. A winding staircase with no rail took them to the top of the strange bridge. It was a structure within the fortress, almost as if it had been a walkway built to service a circular wall that was no longer there. They followed the bridge around until they came in view of the three fallen angels who were maneuvering on a long, rectangular structure build next to the cavern wall. It was a strange building, dark and shining with no windows. Wait, that’s no building, Calista realized. That’s a tomb. Near the halfway point of the bridge, Calista slowed and held Lefty back. “We need to be careful here, or we’ll be spotted.”

“Say no more,” Lefty said as his eyes glowed gold and his hands made a signal in the air and in a blink they were both translucent. “I augmented my invisibility spell when I last leveled up. We can see each other now.”

Then a wash of flame shot out from the second level, striking one of the winged women and she fell, burning. Her two fellows shrieked in anger and flew away, one left and one right. Calista turned to look up and saw that Vevic had fought her way to the ledge on the third level and was shooting fire at the fallen angels.

Well that might answer one question, Calista thought as she hurried across the bridge. Sure enough, as they neared the end of the bridge, where it broke off in the middle of nowhere, she looked down and there behind the sarcophagus was the broken form of Narene. She was in full medusa form now, her legs replaced by a slithering tail. Arrows protruded from her side and her breast as she lay against the edge of the tomb, while in her hands was a compound long bow made of white ash.

A pair of trolls came running around the corner at her, swords in hand. However, as turned the corner, Narene turned her head and let out a horrifying shriek as both trolls turned to stone. As the medusa smiled at the two petrified trolls, Calista spotted the scabbard that was slung across her back.

There it is!

Narene had her Emberblade.

They had reached the edge of the bridge now and here Calista found a broken pillar of rock to tie her rope to. Down she and Lefty climbed, and when they reached the ground they took off and ran for the other side of the sarcophagus.

Lefty readied his staff. “Okay, I’ll run around front and hit her with a darkness spell while you flank around and stab her in the back.”

With a nod they both took off. Calista jogged as she pulled out her short sword. It wasn’t a flashy weapon. It had never been enchanted. It was just a simple light short sword she had bought from a weapons dealer near Hilltop back when she first started the game. Calista usually didn’t even use it when took a job as she usually only took on contracts where there was at least one or two fighters to do the heaving lifting for her. However, this time she needed it.

As she rounded the corner, she saw the backside of the medusa. Narene had drawn back her bow and was taking aim at one of the fallen angels. However, before she could loose her arrow, a blob of darkness fell over her face and covered her from the neck up. Nice job Lefty. With a hop, Calista launched herself into a run and with a thrust, she shoved the blade through the center of the medusa’s back. There was a soft, wet sound as Narene gasped. The monstrous woman’s body shook once, then twice, and was still.