This isn’t happening… this can’t be happening. People don’t just come back from the dead. Not without being infected or cursed. And those goblins didn’t have time for either. Is it something in these ruins? Fuck… I hate old ruins.

  Kiyui: “What… what do we do?”

  Agaroth started walking slowly towards us. As he stepped forward, I saw that he was holding his flail. Fuck… was that being kept in here with his body? If he has his flail… then that means… shit.

  Dwynfel: “We need to run.”

  I grabbed Kiyui’s hand and went to run for the door, but Keith had drawn his throwing knives from his belt. We switched direction, ran through the cracked wall, and across to the other side of the other room. Agaroth swung his flail at us, it grazed my shoulder, knocking me slightly off balance

  Kiyui righted me as we continued to run through a large wooden door. Feiffer hopped through, we closed the door, and barricaded it with a sarcophagus.

  Kiyui: “Why didn’t we run for the door?”

  Dwynfel: “He has throwing knives. He could have killed us both before we even got close to him.”

  Kiyui: “Well, what do we do now? There’s no other way out of this room.”

  The sound of Agaroth’s flail started smashing off the door was deafening. The wood started to splinter and crack.

  Dwynfel: “We need to use something divine.”

  Kiyui: “And how are we going to do that? Agaroth was the only one in our party who could do that.”

  Dwynfel: “Don’t you have any divine spells?”

  Kiyui: “I’m half demon, do you seriously think I’m gonna have divine spells?”

  Okay, fair point, I’m an idiot.

  Dwynfel: “Then we need to get Clive.”

  Kiyui: “Who?”

  Dwynfel: “The little priest.”

  Kiyui: “HOW?!”

  Dwynfel: “Stand in the shadowy corner, near the door. Have Feiffer stand by me… the glow will focus them in my direction. When they get in, I’ll distract them and you run for help.”

  Kiyui: “Are you insane? They’ll kill you.”

  Dwynfel: “He’s big and slow… and Keith only has a couple of throwing knives left… as long as I can dodge them, I’ll be fine.”

  Kiyui: “I don’t like this plan.”

  Dwynfel: “Got a better one?”

  Kiyui let out a scream of frustration before backing into the darkened corner as I had asked. This room wasn’t illuminated like the previous one. The only light in here is coming from the cracks in the door… and Feiffer, obviously. But it is steadily getting lighter with each blow from Agaroth’s flail.

  Do I move the sarcophagus to speed things up? Or would that make them suspicious that we have a plan? What am I thinking… they’re undead… do they even have the intelligence to think like that? Then again… they did have the intelligence to place Keith by the door to prevent us escaping… so they must have some kind of intelligence. Shit… I’m overthinking again. He’s almost through… just leave it.

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  The light from the door was suddenly blocked. Agaroth was stood directly in front of the broken door… looking inside. He looked at the sarcophagus briefly, before smashing his flail down onto it hard… splitting it in two and causing a horrid crashing sound.

  He kicked the two sides of the sarcophagus away and stepped towards me. Keith advanced into the room as well. I was right that they would both advance towards me. I drew my daggers, ready to fight… but why is Kiyui not moving… why has he not left the room yet?

  Dwynfel: “Kiyui… go!”

  He isn’t moving… he’s frozen in place… shit… shit… what do I do? Why is he suddenly frozen? Do they have an aura of fear or something? No… cause then I’d be affected. Shit… shit… what do I do? Feiffer isn’t moving either… what the fuck is going on with them?

  Shit… okay… hold their attention… get them out of the room… get them away from Kiyui. If I can draw them back out into the other room and run for the door, I can get help… okay… okay… try that… gods… I hope this works… I need this to work.

  When Agaroth was almost upon me, I darted to his side. I made sure to make my exit via the opposite side of the room to Kiyui. Agaroth swung his flail at me again… but since I wasn’t holding onto Kiyui this time, my mobility was much greater and I was able to dodge him easily. Keith was stood by the door… he had sheathed one of his throwing daggers and was simply holding the other one in a standard combat fashion… maybe due to poor visibility in this room he is opting for close combat. Whatever, I just need to get past him.

  He saw me approach and I saw his knife move towards my stomach. I deflected in with my parrying dagger and slipped through the door. Shit… shit, shit, shit… he’s got hold of my sleeve. I shook my arm vigorously whilst continuing to run… he wasn’t letting go and he was running with me. What the fuck is going on? The undead are supposed to be slow… he’s right by my side now… oh gods… I can see his face… his horribly mutilated face… of gods… I feel sick… I think there is a worm or something where his eye socket should be… bits of charred flesh are hanging off his face… oh gods… Keith… I am so sorry.

  Suddenly he swung himself round and grabbed my other arm with his. He planted his feet firmly on the ground and stopped me from running. I headbutted him… I felt his skull crack as I did… oh gods… the noise… why is this happening?

  He was unfazed by the headbutt. His right arm… that’s the weaker one… I put all of my strength into my left side and pulled it away… I succeeded in breaking away from his main body… but his right hand remained attached to my arm… the flesh had torn as I pulled away… the bone must have already been broken by the explosive flask earlier… oh gods.

  With one arm free, I brought my dagger down on his other arm… cutting myself free entirely. Unfortunately, I had not been quick enough in my escape and Agaroth had caught up to me. He picked me up from behind and threw me down against the floor.

  As I hit the ground, I felt it give way beneath me… then I was falling again… for longer than I expected… before once again smacking off the ground… fuck… my back… urgh… I can’t see a thing… that fall has kicked up so much dust in the air… fuck… I can’t stop coughing… have they followed me down here? Are they here? Shit… Kiyui… I need to get them to follow me down here.

  Kin’Ayesha: “We meet again, Dwynfel Vesidia.”

  Dwynfel: “Oh, Fuck off!”