He got up and wanted to rush past the stone golem but it blocked the way. Any opening would allow it to punch him and send him flying again.
The golem shifted when Arthur tried to bolt for an opening. The stone fist slammed into the ground in front of him, creating cracks that weakened the structural integrity of the floor he was standing on.
Time was ticking and the more he delayed the more time Paul got to wreak havoc on the team. He swung his sword and it clashed against the stone torso leaving a groove but the thing didn't react to any pain. It lashed out again and clipped his shoulder when he dodged out of the way sending tendrils of pain through him. With clenched teeth, he backed up to a corner and looked at the situation as his nerves started to cause him to panic.
"Use the soften stone spell, it will cause the floor to give," advised Kelrick.
He quickly put his hands on the ground and released the mana to use the magic words to cause the stone to turn muddy. The effect caused a hole in which the golem fell through, the weight of the golem slammed into the floor below. The floor gave from the impact and continued right into the basement where it shattered into pieces. Gravity won the battle.
Arthur hugged the walls of the hallway and ran to the door. He reached for the doorknob when Kelrick yelled in his head, "Wait!" The impatient host already grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door open. A glowing symbol pulsed in the air on the other side detonated, sending him flying towards the window that they had originally entered the building. The window frame held but the impact against his back caused him to expel his breath as he slumped to the ground in a daze. Blood trickled out of his mouth.
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Valkyrie led Tela and Ema down the stairs. The three made short work of the defenders coming at them and took position around Kestrel. There were more enemies than they expected.
Tela quickly warned the others, "The ones we took down are still moving. I thought we killed them."
Ema looked around and saw the two robed figures coming out from the door. They rose into the air and walked on invisible steps. Dark light emanated from their hands as they pointed at the fallen. Each one they pointed at started to twitch and rise. This was turning into a battle of attrition. The longer they fought, the harder it was going to get.
"Destroy their brains or take off their heads," barked Valkyrie as she cracked her neck and got ready for the incoming enemies she had already dispatched earlier.
The two floating figures held hands again causing Ema to frown in concern. "They are doing something bigger. Tela, Valkyrie can you handle the incoming? I need to try to disrupt them."
"We both got a chance to cut loose and see what we can do," grinned Tela as she released a wave of energy that slammed into two of the undead approaching them. The mindless didn't even resist since they had no will of their own and started to shrink to eight inches tall.
Valkyrie giggled at the sight of the mini undead in between cutting off two heads off the human-sized ones.
The Kitsune released her form and let her tails out. She didn't care if anyone saw her because of what she was about to do. She released missiles made of fire from her tails, sending seven flame darts toward the two robed figures. In the middle of the trajectory, the darts swerved and targeted one of the two people. The flame burned through the robe and inflicted burns onto the undead mage underneath. The man glared with blue eyes down at Ema as his hooded robe fell off to reveal his rotting body. Several flame darts caused a sizzling noise and cooked the otherwise rotting flesh, leaving an unpleasant odor behind.
Paul hissed, "Concentrate, we have a chance to show our worth and kill the leaders of Camelot!"
The undead mage gripped Paul's hand but flung mana out to create a bubble of protection around them.
Ema flung another set of flame darts but they bounced off the protective bubble and disappeared. She listened to the words that they were intoning and her eyes narrowed into a fierce stare. She focused her concentration as her hands formed a triangle in front of her. Reaching deep into her new well of mana, she released a torrent that formed into a triangular shape. The burning triangle slammed into the bubble burning a hole through it. As the triangle disappeared, a stream of flame followed behind it and filled the interior like water into a fishbowl. The flames singed Paul's robe revealing him to the rest of the people.
The bubble collapsed when the other undead mage's life force was burned out. A badly burned Paul glared at Ema.
The muffled sound of floors falling, caused Paul to glance over and saw his stone golem had fallen through the floors. The door with his trapped glyph had detonated. This wasn't going as he planned. He looked and saw that there were some casualties from both sides but mostly on his. He will remember this and plan accordingly.
Ema was ready for another volley of fire when she saw the remaining green-eyed undead gripping a glass bauble. He shattered it releasing the spell contained within. There was a feeling of a quick and sudden vacuum and he was gone.
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Tela giggled as she kicked the two diminutive undead like they were soccer balls and sent them flying to a splattering end against a wall.
Valkyrie looked around, watchful for any other attackers. "Ema, free Kestrel. Tela, go invisible and check on Arthur."
The faery nodded and flew up, turning invisible along the way.
The rest of the fight finished not too long after. Three of the men who followed Kestrel were gunned down, one of whom was the man who told the group that she was taken. The survivor was unconscious but Moonglow was able to keep him away from death's door.
Tela yelled down from the door, "Moonglow when you are done, we need you up here. Arthur's hurt."
Arthur walked up behind her, "I'm ok..." then slumped onto Tela. The faery was pinned to the ground by his sudden collapse, "Helppppppppp!"
Valkyrie rushed up and pulled her king off Tela. She quickly checked his pulse and breathed a little bit easier when she felt a pulse.
Moonglow arrived to check and noted that he had a few bruises and broken bones. "Let's get him to safety with the rest of our people. If I can't heal him enough, we'll need Shane."
The group quickly left with Kestrel, taking their fallen allies with them. Bjorn nodded to Valkyrie and stayed back. Valhalla had a specific way to deal with the undead. Bjorn was going to keep that tradition. All the bodies would be beheaded before the whole group of corpses became a bonfire.
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Arthur woke up in a tank with what felt like hardened jelly. He looked around and noticed that the tank was sealed and his head was just above the jelly. There was oxygen being fed into the tank. Outside of the tank, he could see Shane's back.
"Shane, what's going on?"
The purple-haired scientist turned around and smiled, "Well it's about time you woke up. You've been asleep for five years."
"Fi fi five years!!!! You got to be kidding me!"
"I am," laughed Shane. "You should have seen your face. I am going to get a clip from the camera feed and send it to your core group. You've been asleep for a couple of days. I put you in the tank with ballistic jelly so you don't move around and hurt your bone injuries. You did suffer some fractures and breaks. Luckily they didn't hurt your internal organs much, between Moonglow's healing and my expertise. We were able to mend you. I'll take you out on another day and we need to put a brace around your chest. Your ribs and back took most of the damage," she explained.
"It was an ambush and their target was Valkyrie. They were using Kestrel as bait. I saw Paul but he's turned into an undead. He had glowing green eyes."
"Paul?"
"The bully that pushed me into a crevasse during a dungeon run a while back."
"Oh that Paul. Interesting. The official GM database marked him as deceased."
"Then he must be working with the undead somehow. I know Valkyrie ran into him when they were freeing the Morlocks from the underground prison."
"Also Kelrick's new body is ready. I'll have you transfer your elf to the new body when you get out."
"That's cool. Thanks," yawned Arthur. "Is there something in the air that's making me sleeeeepy..."
Shane removed her finger from a button and whispered, "Yup, you need to sleep some more. I need to analyze your blood a little more before I let you out of that tank."
She had pulled two test tubes. One was to test for mana concentration, and it was through the roof. The other test tube was for a surprise. She knew that Arthur's blood enhanced Tela and Ema. She wondered if she could create something that would act as a catalyst for others.
She took a drop and put it under a microscope. She transferred the slide into a device that analyzed the sample through her program.
The results showed that the mana concentration was significantly higher than the last time she tested him. A fact that made her worry about her leader.
When Arthur woke up, Shane told him her findings. She warned him about enemies who might accidentally know about his blood and could try to take advantage. She also asked if he would allow her to make some test pills with the other test tube of blood. The experimental enhancer pills might prove useful to candidates who are worthy of the enhancement and loyal to Camelot.
Arthur listened and agreed to the test pills. He pondered and conferred with Kelrick. They devised a spell that would control the blood in such a way that the mana concentration wouldn't leave his body unless he consented to it. Crafting the mana containment spell took a day. They had to use the spell several times with adjustments until it finally gave the correct result with Shane confirming that the mana concentration was gone from the samples she was taking. They decided to stay in the tank one more day and retested the blood sample. It turns out the spell runs 24 hours. He would need to renew it each day.
Shane took the spare samples from the spell experiments and incinerated them. She took the remaining test tube and mixed it immediately into a multivitamin mixture and created ten capsules.
Arthur told her to take one. Shane refused and said that she wanted someone else to use it. She needs to observe and see if there are issues. It would be difficult to repeat the process if she accidentally got impaired mentally.
Arthur nodded and thought about it, then gave Shane two candidates to test the pills with. The two people were the illusionist and the ice mage during the emergency mission against the undead. They had kept the secret when he revealed it was something unique. They haven't told anyone and there was no gossip among the people of Camelot. This made them trustworthy to Arthur.
Shane got Arthur out of the tank and slowly worked on setting a medical cast around his chest. She showed him where the fractures and breaks were on his x-ray.
"Let me guess, you put me in the jelly so I don't hurt myself?"
"Valkyrie ordered me to do that so that you don't accidentally paralyze yourself. See that fracture on your spine, it was worse a few days ago."
He blinked and thought about what it would mean to be paralyzed and decided not to think about it.
Shane pulled two capsules from the bottle and set them aside from the two candidates. She will let him know about the results after they have taken them. Arthur told her to keep the rest of the bottle until they knew how the experiment came out.
"What would happen if someone drank from my blood directly?"
"I would guess a much more advanced enhancement, like how it affected Tela and Ema."
"So the pills you made are to test if it works on adventurers?"
"That's correct. If a minute amount works then a normal dose like what you gave Tela or Ema would have a higher effect."
"Besides it would be morbid to ask someone randomly to suck my blood."
"Unless you are asking a vampire," Shane grinned.
"Yeah, I'm glad Kelrick helped me create the mana containment spell. I don't want an accident with regular humans."
"Now sit down and wait for Valkyrie to pick you up. She's taking you over to her place to have a chat with Kestrel."
Arthur sat down and tried to get comfortable with the chest cast. "This is going to take getting used to."
"Do you want me to send you a ballistic jelly bed?" teased the purple-haired scientist.