“Well, it looks like you’re going to get plenty,” Arlo quipped, readying himself. He hoisted the shield, raising the torch in an offensive grip. “Get ready for contact.”

  I performed Kinetic Overload, enchanting another arrow at 67% as the crowd of skeletons emerged from the darkness around the bend of the corridor ahead. Tobias put it in his inventory with a murmur of thanks, before drawing ordinary arrows from his quiver and loosing three in rapid succession.

  Two of the arrows found their targets, embedding into the skulls of two of the skeletons. The impacts staggered the monsters, which fell back as the other four advanced.

  Arlo slammed his torch down onto the first skeleton as it got within striking distance. The flames raced down the skeleton’s matted hair, igniting the sinew that bound the bones together. He shoved the flaming monster back with his shield, pushing it into the other approaching skeletons.

  The flames spread as if the skeletons were made of dried kindling. A wave of heat washed over us as the advancing abominations were consumed in a raging inferno of fire. We backed up, shying from the heat. It lasted only a few seconds. A pile of scorched bones was all that remained.

  “Well,” Arlo intoned, “that explains why it is just a Copper ranked mission. That was a lot more effective than I expected it to be.”

  “No kidding,” I agreed.

  “I feel like those arrows were a waste,” Tobias remarked with a small laugh. “Got my Rapid Fire skill up to five, though.”

  “I’m surprised it’s a group mission, with how easy that was,” Hannah mused.

  “The other two forms of undead are not weak to fire,” Elsetha replied. “The records said that groups of skeletons was the first indication that we are approaching a damaged seal. We should be close.”

  “Hm,” Arlo considered. He was crouching, a charred bone in his hand. “They look different, being burned, but they are still just regular bone chips. Same split?”

  “Sure” Elsetha said.

  “Works for me!.” Abernathy agreed.

  We continued deeper into the catacombs, entering an area of different construction. The corridors began to be sectioned off with archways of stone that housed raised portcullises. Rather than branch into different paths, the doors that lined this portion led to burial rooms.

  We encountered several more groups of skeletons. Arlo made short work of them with brutal efficiency, clubbing them with the torch and bashing them backward. It felt like he could have taken on this mission alone, until we encountered the first burial chamber with a broken protective rune.

  Four red dots appeared ahead on the mini-map, occupying one of the burial rooms to the right of the hall. They stood around our first quest indicator. Arlo glanced around the opening and spoke back to us.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “These aren't skeletons,” he cautioned. They seemed to hear him, because they all charged the door right after he spoke. “Back up!” he shouted. Tobias and I were both standing close and backpedaled. Arlo tried backing up, too, but tripped on his own feet and fell backwards.

  The first two enemies leapt from the room, falling upon Arlo with gnashing teeth. They were more fleshy than the skeletons, and had the smell to go with it. Arlo shoved one of the ghouls off of him and back into the room, while the other sank its teeth into his neck. His health plunged at an alarming rate.

  An arrow pierced the ghoul’s temple, and Arlo shoved the motionless corpse aside, scooting away from the door with one hand held against his neck, as the other three ghouls emerged.

  The monsters moved in frantic bursts, erupting from the doorway and leaping towards Arlo. Tobias took two more down with arrows as I ran forward, grabbing Arlo under the arms and pulling him back. Elsetha stepped forward, kneeling beside Arlo and chanting. Radiant energy sealed the wound at his neck. Wisps of smoke rose from where the wound had been.

  I glanced at the last ghoul in time to see a dagger materialize from the air beside it, plunging into the beast’s skull as it advanced. Hannah emerged from the shadows, standing behind the ghoul. She yanked her dagger free with a satisfied smirk.

  “You should be cured of any Ghoul Rot infection, Arlo. Check your stat screen to confirm.” Elsetha directed.

  “Ghoul rot?” Abernathy squeaked.

  “Nasty debuff that weakens and causes increasingly higher damage the longer it lasts,” Elsetha replied. “Their claws and mouths are infected.”

  “I’m clean, thank you, Elsetha. And Tobias. And Chanter. Thanks for pulling me out of there. Can’t believe I tripped, how embarrassing. Great teamwork, though.” He stood, pulling a cloth from his inventory to wipe the blood from his neck.

  “There’s a stone in this room — it’s broken,” Hannah observed. She stood in the doorway, looking into the room.

  “Let’s loot the bodies, then investigate the sigil,” Arlo directed.

  The ghouls dropped vials of Ghoul Rot, which Abernathy, Hannah, and Tobias split three ways. They could be used to inflict a lesser version of the infection to enemies. Abernathy suggested he would be able to synthesize it into a more powerful variant with proper equipment and time.

  The broken sigil-stone stood on a narrow stone pedestal at the center of the circular room. Each burial chamber had one such sigil sitting atop a pedestal that protected those buried within the chamber from necromantic magic and mana seepage, the two main causes of undead.

  This sigil stone was broken cleanly in two.

  “It looks like someone hit it with a chisel,” Abernathy said, standing inches from it and peering intently. “The cut is clean. This was tampered with. I brought a mana conductive binding agent that should work to repair it.”

  He pulled a small vial containing a milky gray substance and a small brush. He also pulled out a bit of twine and offered it to me. “Once I apply the mixture, put the parts back together and tie them with this. It will hold the sigil in place while the mixture bonds the stones back together.”

  “Alright,” I agreed. Abernathy brushed the liquid on both sides of the sundered stone. He returned the vial and brush to his inventory and pushed the two stones together.

  “Okay, good.” He nodded. I wound a length of twine I had cut loose, tying it together with a quick and simple knot.

  “Uh, guys,” Tobias whispered. He stood in the hallway. “I can hear more things coming. I can’t tell if they are skeletons or ghouls, though.”

  A sound echoed from the distance. It was difficult to make out, but it was different from the sounds the skeletons and ghouls had made. A light tapping of numerous small things grew louder. A mass of red dots appeared on the mini-map as we emerged back into the tunnel.

  “Pi-pi-piecelings!” Abernathy wheezed.