The rain poured outside, thunder rolled in the distance and a low mournful whimper could be heard outside the barred door.
“What the tork is that?” whispered Janette.
“Arcaea.” said Raven as she nodded towards her rifle which lay up against her backpack.
Arcaea grabbed it and tossed it over to her and then handed Kurai one of the other two rifles. The three of them turned their rifles on and aimed them at the barred door. Janette, looking frantically at her friends and the door and pulled out one of the tablets from her backpack, almost dropped it and started going over her stored spells. Raven put one finger over her lips and nobody dared to say anything.
The whimpering was so low that it was almost drowned out by the constant drone of the rain but it was definitely there. It didn’t seem to be very close to the door, possible a few meters down the hallway. Raven got mad at herself for not doing the ritual sooner. Now she only had two nilshards to work with. She wanted to amplify her perception but that meant using a significant portion of her already limited capacity so she decided against it. Meanwhile, Janette feverishly scrolled through her spell list in an attempt to find something that might help. She had two different healing spells, Healing Touch and Greater Healing Touch. She also had her Stasis spell as well as her Fire Arrow and Frost Javelin. During her downtime at Keystone she had been able to gain access to two additional combat spells; Furious Speed and Blindness, both of which could be used in combat situations but did consume a lot of arcanum. The rest of her spells; Analyze, Arcane Refinement, Divination and Wall Climbing were not useful in combat situations. Well, she could imagine climbing down the outside of the ruin to be a useful way to escape but it could only affect one person and it required concentration.
The girls looked at each other, all of them waiting for someone to suggest what to do next.
“Do we check it out?” asked Kurai as quietly as possible.
“I’m not sure.” said Raven.
“Is it one of the void whispers from the woods? Do you think it followed us here?” asked Janette.
“They usually stay close to rifts and I don’t detect any rifts here.” said Raven.
They all waited, aiming their guns at the door. The whimpering now seemed to be getting closer. Janette’s eyes widened with fear. They could now hear uneven footsteps getting closer, feet dragging against the dirty debris filled floor of the outside hallway. The whimpering sounded like that of a young woman, her voice so sad and mournful.
The sounds got closer and closer and then they stopped. There was a moment of silence which seemed to painfully stretch for eternity. Then the door handle began moving up and down and they could hear someone pushing at the door, making the rusty door scrape and creak. They all looked at each other except for Raven who kept her eyes fixed on the barred door.
The door handle continued to slowly move up and down a couple more times before it stopped.
“Hello? Is anyone in there?” asked the mournful voice. “Please, I need help. I’m bleeding...I just escaped...there are things out here...please...I need help.”
“Is this one of the farmers who were taken?” whispered Janette to the others.
“It’s possible. What do we do?” said Kurai.
“Pleeeeeease...can anybody help me...I don’t wanna die…” said the voice, whimpering again.
Arcaea’s brow furrowed as she reached a decision. “Who are you?”
The whimpering stopped for a brief moment and then it resumed. “Oh please...I need help...they killed my family...we were just farmers...they came during the night...gods...I’m bleeding...I need help…”
“We can’t just leave her out there.” whispered Kurai.
“It might be a trap.” said Janette.
“It might not be.” said Raven.
“Pleeeeease…” cried the voice. “I don’t want to be dragged back.”
“Keep your weapons ready.” said Arcaea as she stood up and slowly walked to the door. “Please step away from the door.”
The whimpering stopped and they could hear the person drag their feet a couple of steps back. Arcaea looked at her teammates and they all nodded to indicate they were ready.
Arcaea removed the bar and slowly pushed the door open. The light from the bonfire faintly spilled into the outside hallway. Standing just outside the door Arcaea could see a sunborn woman, completely nude and covered in blood. Her body was covered in cuts and stitches and her left arm seemed mangled and disfigured. Her once blonde hair was now dirty and matted with blood and filth. It hung from her head, partially covering her face but Arcaea could see her piercing blue and blood shot eyes staring back at her, wide and frantic. The woman held herself and shivered.
“Please...help me…” she stammered.
The faint light could barely illuminate the hallway behind her but from what Arcaea could tell there was nobody else hiding behind her. Regardless, she kept her rifle aimed at the woman.
“Come on in. Slowly. No sudden movements.”
The woman nodded and then half walked, half stumbled her way into the chamber. It looked like she barely had the strength to carry herself. As she stepped into the room Janette put her hand over her mouth and Kurai’s expression became one infused with horror. Only Raven remained unphased.
“Gods. What happened to you?” asked Janette as she readied a healing spell.
The woman fell to her knees and started sob loudly. Arcaea quickly closed the door and barred it before turning her attention back to the woman.
“They...they tortured us...they killed my children…” she sobbed, her voice almost too hoarse and strained.
Raven and Kurai exchanged looks with Raven finally showing an ounce of sympathy for the woman.
“Hold on, I can help close your wounds.” said Janette as she rushed forward, traced a glyph in the air while muttering some arcane words. As she placed her hand on the woman’s shoulder they could see some of her wounds beginning to close but not all of them. A few seemed to be unable to close even just a little bit.
The woman started rocking back and forth, holding her mangled left arm.
“They tortured us...they tortured us…”
“Let me see your hand, I can help make it better.” said Janette as she tried to get a better look at the woman’s left arm.
She managed to get a grip on in but as she pulled it into view what she saw baffled her. Instead of regular fingers the woman had long sharp claws that seemed to be made of some sort of chitinous material. But this shell was fused into her flesh. The light of the bonfire gleamed on the sharp claws.
“What the…” Janette said and then there was a flash of pain and splash of warm liquid on her face, shoulder and neck.
The others saw the woman suddenly twitch and her left hand was now outstretched as if at the end of a swinging motion and then Janette fell back, blood gushing out of her throat. The woman jerked her head towards Kurai and beneath her wild eyes she could see an unnaturally wide mouth filled with rows of teeth.
The woman screamed a terrible raspy wail as she lunged at Kurai. Instinct kicked in and all three of them fired their rifles at her. Blasts of blue arcane energy burst for the barrels of their firearms, hitting the feral woman and leaving scorched impact craters where they hit her.
The woman threw herself back and flailed around on the floor, swinging her clawed arm frantically, gurgling blackened blood from the massive cavity in her face left there by one of Kurai’s shot.
“Janette!” shouted Arcaea as she rushed over to her bleeding friend.
She placed her hands over the deep cut, which luckily hadn’t managed to nick her artery, in order to stop her bleeding.
“Can you heal yourself?!” she asked frantically.
Janette opened her mouth and tried to speak but no words came out. Arcaea quickly deduced that the woman had managed to damage her vocal cords. She needed someone else to cast the spell. Raven was a valkyrie and therefore couldn’t cast spells and she herself didn’t know the first about casting spells. She looked over at Kurai who had a thousand yard stare at the woman she had just shot.
“Kurai! Can you cast Janette’s healing spell?”
Kurai shook her head, as if she was being pulled out of a trance. She looked over at Arcaea, tears in her eyes. “What?”
“Janette’s healing spell! Can you cast it?”
Kurai’s eyes darted down to her injured friend and fear began to set in.
“I think so.” she said as she reached out and grabbed Janette’s blood stained tablet and one of her own canisters of arcanum.
While she flipped through her spells Raven walked up to the motionless corpse of the woman and kicked it. It twitched for a moment and then went limp.
“Raven, what the tork just happened?” asked Arcaea. Her heart was still pumping adrenaline through her entire system and she could feel her muscles tightening with anticipation.
Kurai traced a glyph in the air and uttered the incantation but something was wrong. “Drim, sorry, I’m not really used to casting these types of spells.” She tried again and this time it worked.
Raven knelt down to inspect the body. “She’s been altered. Fangs, claws, a stronger frame. She’s a chimera. Clearly meant for infiltration.”
Janette started coughing blood after her wounds closed leaving clear lines across her throat. Once an open tear now healed over scar, untouched by blood. Soon she managed to get the blood out of her airways. “Thank you, Kurai.” she said in a hoarse voice. “You saved my life.”
“Does that mean they know we’re here? Or why we’re here? Was this an accidental meeting?” asked Arcaea.
“Yeah, you-you-you’re welcome.” said Kurai who was still shaken and shocked but relieved that her friend was at least not bleeding to death. Unbidden tears began to streak down her furred cheeks. “Sorry it took so long.”
She handed Janette the blood stained tablet. Janette, her body shaking, accepted it and looked at the motionless body of the woman.
“I think it’s safe to assume they might know we’re here and following the blood mage’s orders.” said Raven who was easily the most steady of all of them. “We’re gonna have to set up heavy defenses. There might be an assault incoming.”
Just as she said that there was a heavy impact on the barred door. All four of them turned to look at it, weapons at the ready. The door was bent in a little but it still held.
“Kurai.” said Raven without taking her eyes off the door. “Can you reassemble that turret of yours?”
“Bailey? Of course, but it’ll take a minute.” said Kurai who already started rummaging through her backpack for the right components.
“Janette, you okay? Can you fight?” asked Raven, her eyes still fixed on the door.
“I’m good. I can…” said Janette before...
There was another heavy impact on the door. They could hear the sound of multiple, shuffling, bare feet outside of it and a low wheeze.
“Everyone, get ready!” said Arcaea as she aimed her rifle at the door.
Raven did the same while Janette prepared a Fire Arrow spell. Kurai was almost done assembling her turret.
The door got bent in more and more with each impact. They could hear gibbering voices crying, shouting and laughing on the other side.
“Once that door breaks give it everything you’ve got.” said Arcaea.
Kurai turned to announce that her turret was ready when she caught a glimpse of something past the three girls. Something rising up through the collapsed opening of the wall. Something perfectly silhouetted by the rain and lightening outside. Something was climbing its way in from the outside and they hadn’t heard it because the rain and the heavy banging on the door. It looked like a dozku man but his features were twisted and deformed. A demented, twisted smile curled onto his face, his blood shot eyes staring at her her, unblinking.
“Look out!” she shouted as she turned the turret to attack the new target.
And just then the door was flung open and in through the opening stumbled a hulking behemoth. A creature with multiple arms, legs and heads. A conglomerate, an unholy union of at least four different people, some were dozku, some were sunborn or moonlet, all were fused together into a disgusting display of bodily horror. All of the monstrosity’s heads wailed maddeningly, as it rushed forward and reached out to them with its seven hands.
“Fire!!!” shouted Arcaea with sheer panic and terror in her voice.
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