Chapter 26) Exit Plans. Or, Everything back to where it was.

I had used the spell before, several times over the last hour or so.

It took something out of me to use it, about the same as a [Mage Bolt] but it lasted a good minute or so. I just didn’t know what good it did for me since I hadn’t yet let one of them lay a finger bone on me.

I had also learned that using it, and a [ Mage Bolt ] right after each other left me feeling chilly, while another [ Mage bolt ] would leave me shivering, dizzy, and my eyesight going all blurry.

Only for about five minutes, then the chills went away, and I warmed up completely after ten, but I didn’t want to find out what would happen if I did a third Bolt after putting up my Guard.

And I had to wonder if my limits were from the body I was in or my own. Come to think of it, had I even used a spell while floating around as an orb?

Oh yeah, here comes the Lurkers. Action time.

“[ Power Strike ]!” I laid my club upside the head of a gal dressed in a stained toga like dress, sending bits of her face, teeth, and then her jaw flying off to the side.

“Gross!”

I learned two things right then.

One, [ Power Strike ] drained me, but not in the same way as one of them spells. The spells seemed to suck the heat out of me, while the Fighter Ability felt like I was feeling the effect of working hard.

But I don’t think it mattered that they took something different out of you. Felling both at the same time would be just as bad as the same number of uses of the same thing.

Assuming three uses of [ Power Strike ] got near to putting me down as three spells that is. But it might be worthwhile to figure out if a Fighter ability cost and a Mage one came back at different speeds which could make it worth having and using both to get the maximum use at a minimal cost.

But now wasn’t the time to think about that as the two Lurkers in front of me made me miss the one that snuck up behind me and punched me in the back of the head.

It hurt, but not too bad. From my personal experience, it was more like getting hit with a baseball bat wrapped in a couch cushion, my cousin Billy, then a bat all by itself, his twin Robby.

The hit also made the transparent warping of the air all around me flicker on and off for a second or two before it came back, looking a little thinner somehow.

So it was good for two solid hits I figure. Not so much stopping them than making padding them into something I could handle.

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The one that hit me went flying past me as Matt and Drew closed in and we stood back to back, which gave me a moment to notice the blue letters floating off to one side above the Lurker I had put down.

[ Lesser Undead Slayer ]

Which faded away and got replaced with.

[ You have a Slight bonus when fighting Undead ]

I took a second to fish pump “Got Undead Slayer. I'm getting something out of this besides helping a friend."

From behind me, I heard Drew say something about "He meant Friends right?"

Getting there Skippy, but you ain’t earned it quite yet.

I think the Lurkers pretty much relied on tactics and planning rather than their fighting ability. Since they went down almost as easily as the walking bones we had been hitting all the way across the city. But just a little tougher since they had some padding in the form of their dried up bits to soften the blows.

In any case, they were going down pretty easy with the three of us, which meant I felt a bit guilty as I got a …

[ 10 ]

“Shoot. Matt I got a countdown.”

He cursed, which surprised me a little since he had been using pretty clean language all this time.

“Tex, I’m going to need you to bring me and Drew whatever you can gather up when you come in next time.”

[ 9 ]

Really? “You sure? We’ve been doing pretty good, you might make it all the way out.”

He took a step away from us and drove his shield into two of the Lurkers, driving them both back with a smack upside one’s head for good measure.

[ 8 ]

Matt stepped back into place. “Everything has been set up to screw us over. I don’t think that’s going to change. The closer we get to getting out of here, I think the worse it's going to get, and -"

[ 7 ]

“-even if we do make it, it’s not going to cost anyone anything for you to bring some stuff over here. Heck, if we do make it out, you can just leave it for the next Skippy that ignores your advice and comes here.”

I heard Drew protest “Hey.”

[ 6 ]

I hit a Lurker in the knee sending it off balance to where Drew nailed it in the back of the head with his club. "You did in fact, not listen to me. And it’s not like you’re stupid, just traumatized, so I don’t think you’re going to be the last.”

[ 5 ]

He grunted. “Fair.”

I took the chance to glance around. “I’ll be a skeleton next time, it will be the one with all the stuff with it so don’t kill that one. Four counts left, I’m going to draw some of them off.”

[ 4 ]

I broke forward in a run, taking some satisfaction in an underhanded swing upside the groin of Dead Drew, which made live Drew yell out “Hey!”, as it was struggling to finish standing up under the heavy load of loose gold coins spilling out of its backpack, and then I ran over to jump up on top of the low flat rim of the dry fountain.

“Really Drew? That’s why you wanted us to come this way was for the gold and not your stuff?”

[ 3 ]

Turning around I saw him glance over at his toppled over old body, still struggling to get up despite the way its one leg seemed all twisted around at the hip. He smiled at the sight of the tarnished gold coins scattered around on the stones of the crossroads we were fighting on. He glanced up at me for a moment. "Both."

Then he pointed past me with his club. “Behind you!”

[ 2 ]

Oh. Correction. Three Lurkers in the fountain. The one who had waited for a cheap shot took me over the edge of the fountain and onto the ground where it buried its face into my shoulder and tried to dig its teeth into me.

Only to make what was left of the [ Mage Guard ] flicker and vanish.

Yeah, two hits, and it only lasts a minute or so. But so worth it.

[ 1 ]

I swear it gave me a look of such annoyance that bits of its face broke away, and just as I began to yell [ Power Strike ] to get in one last hit before I left…

I was once again floating above my dungeon. Midway down the hall, right where I had started.

And once again there in front of a worn out, and highly annoyed looking Goddess.

“Carl? What in the ninety six Hells have you been doing?”