They agreed to head down the hall opposite the ballroom before venturing upstairs. It felt too much like leaving the enemy at your back to skip it, even temporarily. The lighting was dim with just the candles on the small side tables. There were no windows or other light as they moved down the stretch of hallway.

  After a dozen feet or so, doors began appearing on either side of the hall. They stopped in front of the first one. Everyone looked around at each other.

  “Looks like we’ll need to clear each room. I’m not sure if triggering anything or anyone will draw more attackers from other rooms, so Izumi is on overwatch. Keep an eye down the hallway while we check the rooms.” Lilit began quietly organizing the party. “I’ll stand to the side and throw the door open. Awenda, you go in shield first. Then Rana will follow you, and I’ll follow her.”

  Everyone nodded their heads. Awenda and Rana lined up to the opposite side of the door. Lilit felt a little like a swat team getting ready to raid a house. The others seemed to have more experience doing this, because she hadn’t thought to not stand directly in front of the door, but it made sense. Everyone deferred to her decision making anyway, which was a little surprising and a pleasant change from her time on Earth.

  Lilit counted down on her hand so Awenda could see. Once she hit zero, she leaned forward, twisted the knob on the door and flung it open. It swung silently open. Awenda darted forward to dash into the room. She made it about a step into the doorway before she was thrown out of the room with a loud ringing peal as something struck her shield hard enough to fling her out of the room and put a dent in her shield.

  Lilit looked around the doorframe. Hanging in front of the door, and swinging back and forth was a log about eighteen inches across and several feet long suspended by a set of braces and levers. If Awenda had not gone in with her shield in front that would have very likely caved in her breastpte enough to crack her ribs at the very least. If anyone else in the party had gone through, it would have probably been lethal.

  Nothing else seemed to be moving in the room, which was shrouded in darkness. Rana leaned forward and assessed the situation before she darted into the room. Lilit followed behind once she saw Awenda beginning to gather herself to stand up. She’d take a look at her in a minute. First they needed to make sure there was nothing else threatening inside the room they were all standing in front of.

  It was too dark to really see anything but the vague shape of a rge bed was outlined from the light coming in the door. Nothing moved. All Lilit could hear was her own breathing and pounding heart.

  She turned back toward the door just as Izumi snagged a candebra off a small table in the hallway. She handed it to Lilit who nodded her thanks. Turning around, she held the light above her head in order to light up more of the room.

  There was a rge four poster bed, but the curtains were all pushed back. There were a few wardrobes and vanities around the outer walls of the room. Nothing else stood out to Lilit. Rana ducked down and checked under the bed. Fairly quickly she was back on her feet and shaking her head. The room was empty.

  By the time Rana and Lilit cleared the room, Awenda had struggled to her feet and was examining her shield. Lilit pced the candebra down on the table by the door and walked over and id her hand on Awenda. “Are you ok?” She asked.

  “Yeah. Nothing hurt but a little pride.” Awenda smiled shyly at Lilit.

  Lilit turned around to find Izumi on her hands and knees examining the doorframe. Rana was standing out of the way and rummaging in her pack. A moment ter she stood up triumphantly with a small, wrapped torch. She lit it with what looked like a small bic lighter. Thankfully the shops had had lighters and no one had to rely on flint and steel or anything else archaic for fire starting.

  “Here, Lilit you carry this. Awenda can see in the dark, and I want both my hands free. You should be coming in fast enough behind us that it won’t make much difference for me.” Rana handed Lilit the torch.

  “Thanks,” Lilit grabbed the torch.

  Izumi stood up and brushed herself off. “Looks like a simple tripwire trap. Should be able to disarm it by snipping the tripwire next time. It’s also set to sit flush with the door when it’s closed so the door doesn’t set it off.”

  “Ok. Let’s check doors for tripwires before opening anymore. Does anyone know if cutting the tripwire will activate the trap or disarm it?” Lilit asked the group.

  “Usually disarm, but I don’t think any of us have wire snips or even scissors. So, using either my axes, or Awenda’s sword would probably be fifty-fifty whether we disarm or set it off.” Rana informed everyone.

  “As long as the door is closed when it happens, that should mitigate some of the impact, depending on the type of trap I imagine. And, next time we’re back, I’ll look into picking up some wire snips or something for next time. I’m sure this won’t be the st time we run into traps.” Lilit straightened up. “Let’s check the next room,” she pointed across the hall.

  Everyone nodded in agreement. Izumi remained in overwatch, the others stacked on either side of the door. Rana crouched down near the bottom of the door and ran her hand up and down, trying to detect any tripwires. She didn’t seem to find anything down at the bottom, so she slowly moved her hand up the door toward the top. About two thirds of the way up she stopped. She ran her fingers around in a circle a few times. Rana stepped back drew her axes and ran one of their edges along the door near where she seemed to detect a trip wire.

  She leaned in and shook her head, “Have to do this the loud way. Also, this way is more likely to set off the trap. Stay back.” With just her arm in front of the door, Rana reared back and hacked into the door.

  Everyone froze, listening for sounds of a trap going off. Though no one knew what to expect. Rana leaned around the doorframe again and took another look at the door. She turned to Lilit and gave her a thumbs up along with a goofy grin and stepped back behind Awenda.

  Lilit took a fortifying breath, leaned forward. She turned the knob and threw the door open. Awenda once again rushed through the doorway, shield first. This time she made it into the room. Immediately there was shouting and the sound of metal on metal rang through the air. Rana was next in the room, and Lilit came in hot on her heels.

  Inside the room were two vampires engaged with Awenda in a dark corner of the room. Lilit moved forward to add light to the situation while looking around to make sure nothing else was going to jump out at them.

  The rest of the room was arranged simirly to the room across the hall. Large four poster bed in the middle of the room, a few wardrobes and such. Hanging above the doorway was a weird set of pipes set up with a rge container of some kind attached to the other end. Lilit wasn’t sure what would have come out of the pipe, but she was sure they wouldn’t have liked it.

  Lilit turned back around as Rana drew one of the vampires away from Awenda. Her axes were once again afme since it seemed to be a good deterrent against the creatures. The vampire was barely keeping ahead of her flurry of blows. A few charred lines across her shirt indicated where Rana had already gotten close.

  Lilit circled around. She caught Rana’s eye and hoped she’d realize what she had pnned. Lilit forced magic down into her mace once again. When the vampire leapt back to avoid a reckless swing from Rana that left her temporarily open, the vampire seemed to zero in on the ‘mistake’ and lost her focus on the rest of the room.

  Lilit stepped forward before the vampire could strike back at Rana. Her mace sliced through the air as she aimed for the vampire’s head. As she struck a bright fsh of light lit up the room. It staggered the other vampire in front of Awenda. Allowing her to shove her sword into his chest. Lilit hoped it got him right in the heart. Like before, the smite seemed to add extra oomph to Lilit’s strike. Instead of simply smashing a deep dent into the vampire’s head, it tore completely through it, spraying blood, brains, and pieces of skull across Rana. There was nothing left of the vampire’s head above the jaw. And that was currently on fire as the body dropped like its strings were cut.

  Looking over, Lilit saw Awenda’s vampire slide to the floor off the end of her bde. Just as she was about to celebrate their quick victory, Izumi called out. “Vamps in the hall!”

  Everyone rushed out of the room to join Izumi. One of the doors from a little further up the hall was hanging open and several vampires had apparently rushed out. Lilit could see one was littered with several arrows sticking out of his torso. Izumi’s phantasm was holding back the three vampires while Izumi drew yet another arrow from her quiver.

  “Awenda, take over as tank. Izumi be prepared to switch your phantasm to fighter mode. Let’s focus on one vamp at a time.” Lilit shouted hurried orders.

  Awenda nodded her head and stepped around the mob of vampires. With a deep, sweeping cut across their backs she drew two of their attentions away from Izumi’s phantasm briefly. She roared to pull their attention full onto her.

  Izumi shouted at her phantasm. Rana rushed forward. Lilit hung back to see where she would be needed most. Awenda was easily keeping the attention of the two vampires with quick jabs of her sword around her shield. She interspersed it with hitting them with said shield. It wasn’t a full shield bash move, but it was still effective in keeping the vampires engaged and enraged as she backed away from everyone else. Rana and the phantasm were keeping their vampire spinning in circles shing out as he took attacks from all sides. Izumi helped out by firing arrows into his back when he turned away from her.

  Lilit sidled closer to the middle between Awenda’s group and the lone vampire. Lilit kept an eye on everyone, looking for anyone getting hurt that she could help. Or someone she could put a ward on to give them some breathing room. She pulled her prayer book from its pocket after putting away her mace and switching the torch to her other hand.

  One of the vampires attacking Awenda managed to reach around her shield and raked his cws across her armor. It didn’t penetrate the armor, but the blow knocked Awenda off bance. Lilit flipped open her book and quickly chanted a ward around Awenda. She took a few more hits, keeping her unbanced in the increased ferocity of the attacks. When the ward sprang up around her, Awenda was able to reset her stance and reengage her vampires.

  Lilit looked over to Rana and Izumi. She was just in time to see the phantasm ssh through the vampire’s spine. He stumbled to his knees and Rana was quick to remove his head. The body dropped over to the side.

  Everyone looked up at Awenda just in time to see her breath a jet of fire onto the two vampires in front of her. They both went up like dry kindling. One threw itself on top of Awenda’s shield, cwing toward her as it withered in the fmes. The other took off at a dead sprint and ran directly into the wall a few feet away. It bounced off the wall and Rana rushed forward to remove its head.

  The final vampire had been quickly losing control of its limbs as it slumped over and slid off Awenda’s shield. It colpsed onto the ground and burned for another few seconds before all the fires seemed to wither away at once, leaving nothing but the loot bags around the circles burnt into the stone.

  “Wow,” whispered Izumi. And Lilit couldn’t help but echo the sentiment. That was definitely new. Lilit assumed it was Awenda’s new move she’d received when leveling up. It was quite powerful.

  Lilit did a quick check on everyone. Rana had gained herself a small but deep ssh across her thigh. She seemed to barely notice it until Lilit pointed it out. She quickly healed it and the group collected all the loot and moved on.

  Everyone took a look at the trap that Lilit had noticed in the room. After a little experimentation, they managed to safely trigger it from several feet away down the hallway. Turns out the pipe had been designed to siphon oil out of the reservoir above it. It was ignited as it passed the end of the pipe, creating a very hot burning fire trap. Everyone was happy to have not found this type of trap the first time.

  The next few rooms were empty. No booby traps, no vampires, just empty guest rooms. All the checking made for slow going though. The hall wasn’t as long as it had seemed at the entrance thankfully. It took a sharp turn to the left and continued for another few doors. Before ending at a set of double doors.

  The first door they came to after the turn in the hall was booby trapped. This one armed with a rge stone set above the door. They set the trap off before anyone would walk under it into the room. Thankfully it was clear of any vampires.

  The next room contained another three vampires, this time without a booby trap on the door. Awenda rushed in first as always. It had been agreed beforehand that in the small rooms, Awenda would not use her breath weapon move. She engaged all three vampires with her sword and shield.

  Lilit watched in awe as Rana suddenly sped up and was able to match the vampires’ speed. She dipped as her vampire tried to dodge, managing to slice right through one of his arms. This was apparently distracting enough that she was able to quickly remove his head. She moved onto her second vampire and nded her first strike before Rana staggered and returned to normal speed. All told, her increased speed had sted maybe ten seconds.

  Lilit noticed her stagger as the vampire looked like it was about to lunge at Rana. So, Lilit took a page out of Rana’s book and threw the torch she had in one hand right at the vampire’s head. Since she was throwing left handed and she was right handed though, the torch only gnced across the vampire’s hip before sliding further along the floor. Thankfully it was enough to distract the vampire long enough for Rana to wade back into the fight.

  Lilit continued to hold back as a reserve. Without the other vampires to force her attention to constantly shift, Awenda was able to quickly dispatch her own vampire by shield bashing her into the wall and stabbing her through the heart as she rebounded. The vampire let out a little whimper as it slid off her bde. That allowed Awenda to turn and assist Rana.

  Lilit wasn’t sure if it was because the rooms were smaller and therefore the vampires didn’t have as much room to maneuver, or because of their own increase in level, or their adjustment of tactics, but fighting these vampires was proving much easier than the vampires in the ballroom. It wasn’t much longer before the group was going through loot bags again.

  The rest of the rooms were empty. There was only one more trap, this one another log set to swing down into the doorway. It was set off when Rana tried to disarm it, cracking the middle of the door and sending splinters flying into the hallway. Finally they came to the double doors. This time they would all go through together. Lilit would more easily be able to focus on the overall tactics of the group and keep an eye on everyone during the battle. She hoped it would be enough.

  Throwing open both doors at once, Awenda strode into the room like she owned it. Shield high, with just the top of her head from the eyes up peaking above the top. Rana dashed in behind her and immediately spread out to the side. Izumi and her phantasm spread out to the other side. Lilit brought up the rear.

  Inside the room was a set of baths. The air smelled coppery and it took a minute for Lilit to notice that the pools weren’t full of water. They appeared to be full of blood. The room was eerily silent. Nothing moved.

  There were three pools, two smaller ones fnking a rge center pool that stretched for several dozen yards. Lilit’s head was on a swivel. She kept looking around the room, looking for the trap that they were obviously about to trigger. There was no way this rge, seemingly important room was going to be empty and clear. But there wasn’t anywhere for anyone to hide that she could see.

  The rest of the group slowed down and started looking around as well. They had the same instincts that she did. Something was off about this pce.

  Rana kicked at the ground in frustration. Something small went flying from under her boot. Lilit didn’t track its flight, but she heard it hit the liquid in the center pool, sending out ripples across its surface.

  No one said anything. They all just looked at the blood rippling in the pool. So, they all noticed the addition of a new ripple further away. This one moved and began slowly tracking toward the front of the pool. It looked like the bow of a boat or something pushing water ahead of itself as it moved through. As the ripples neared the close end of the pool, everyone gripped their weapons in tight fists. They tried to prepare themselves for what was coming.

  Lilit took a moment to look around the other pools. Thankfully they were both still. She looked back in time to see a head rise out of the blood. Red running down his face and clumping together his hair. The body continued to rise from the blood as he apparently mounted the steps leading out of the pool. Behind him the ripple continued and more heads broke the surface.

  A moment ter, five vampires were thigh deep in the blood pool, climbing out in a wedge formation with bck, hungry eyes. “Awenda, light ‘em up!” Lilit called out. This was not the time to save up abilities. That was more vampires than they’d had to deal with at once before this point. She didn’t want to take any chances.

  Instead of answering, Awenda simply breathed in a deep breath and then breathed out a swath of fire. The first three vampires immediately went up in fmes. The final two, fnking on the outermost edges of the wedge managed to avoid the fmes long enough to leap out of the way. Awenda kept the fmes up for several seconds as the three bodies writhed in pain. They tried to rush out of the water toward the group, only to fall several feet away, barely out of the pool.

  The final two seemed to think better about coming for Awenda, implying that the mob rules from her video game days wasn’t entirely faithful. One vampire targeted Izumi and rushed toward her, jaw hanging open, cwed fingers extended. He was met by the phantasm before he could get close. The other vampire lunged at Rana, who met him head on with fming axes.

  Awenda turned toward Izumi, presumably to assist. Before she had taken more than a step, the phantasm and Izumi had fought the vampire to a standstill and were backing him up toward the smaller pool on her side. Awenda turned around toward Rana just in time for her to witness Rana remove the arm from her vampire at the shoulder. His neck and torso caught fire.

  Awenda turned to look at Lilit and shrugged. Their team members seemed to have everything well in hand. Lilit shrugged back unhelpfully. She was used to it. But she kept an eye on both fights. They ended a few seconds ter. First Rana buried her axe in the center of her vampire’s chest. Fmes shot out of his mouth and ears as her axe seemed to light his insides on fire. He colpsed moments ter as she pulled her axe out of his chest. Izumi not too long after shot an arrow through her vampire’s eye while her phantasm held him still in a bear hug. He dropped like a bag of bricks as soon as the phantasm released him.

  Because Lilit was paying attention to everything around them, she was the first to notice the ripples start up in the other two pools. “Ladies, back in formation. Movement in the outer pools,” she called out. Making a quick decision she ordered, “Everyone shift right, let’s move closer and focus on this one first. It’ll give us an extra few seconds before the other pool reaches us.”

  The group shuffled to their right. The stopped in front of the pool as vampire heads began to rise up out of the blood. This time only three vampires were coming out of the pool, but with a quick gnce Lilit confirmed that the far pool on the left also had three vampires emerging. Unless they evened the odds quickly they’d be facing six vampires at once.

  “Awenda, can you light them up again?” Lilit called out.

  Awenda shook her head, “Nope, still in cooldown for another few minutes. ‘Breath Weapon’ has a five minute cooldown.”

  Well shit. “Izumi, swing your phantasm around and kite the other group away from us if you can. We’ll join you as soon as these three are dealt with.”

  “Got it, boss,” Izumi saluted and with a sharp command hurried away with her phantasm in tow. Lilit threw the torch behind them. It wasn’t doing much good in this lighted room and she was needed now as more than a light source and leadership. It was time to once again wade in mace first.

  As an added precaution, Lilit cast a quick ward around Izumi who would be the most isoted and hard for Lilit to track. She moved up behind Rana right as Awenda lunged forward in a perfect strike that speared the first vampire on the end of her sword. She withdrew her bde and leapt behind her shield too quickly for Lilit to see if it was a killing blow.

  The other two vampires rushed past the leading vampire to attack Awenda. The third vampire stumbled for a few more steps and then seemed to gather itself to join the fray. So, not a killing blow unfortunately. It was enough though to allow Rana to close with it and draw it to the side. Lilit followed after them as quickly as she could. They were moving very quickly though and with all the space it was hard for Rana to corner it so that Lilit could be helpful.

  Lilit decided that instead of chasing them, she’d focus on her own vampire and pull some of the pressure from Awenda. Sending another smite into the end of her mace, Lilit strode forward and swung with all her might at the back of one of the vampires’ heads. She didn’t know if the vampire saw her and tried to dodge, or if it was naturally moving to get a better angle on Awenda, but the results were the same. Lilit’s strike wiffed through the air. Her smite faded from the end of her mace.

  Lilit found herself turned away from the fight from the force of her swing. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that one of Awenda’s vampires noticed her and jumped straight at Lilit.

  Lilit crouched and threw her shield arm in front of her face as she tried to turn her body in time to intercept the vampire. She didn’t see it, hiding behind her shield, but she felt it as the vampire sailed over her, only the smallest part of him smming into her shield as he did. It was enough to bowl her over though.

  She did her best to try and roll with the blow, but she’d never even practiced the move. She ended up stuck on her back, sliding along the floor for another foot or two. Before she could gather herself and get up, the vampire was on her.

  He picked her up by the sides of her leather breastpte, and then smmed her down onto the stony floor. Her head bounced off the stone and she saw stars. He bounced her once, twice, three times before he left her dizzy and very concussed on the floor.

  Lilit waited for the killing blow to come, for him to tear out her throat with his fangs. Drink her blood and drain her like a caprisun. But it never came, and Lilit couldn’t in her rattled state figure out why. She also couldn’t figure out how to get any of her limbs to work and to get the room to stop spinning long enough for her to stand back up. Her friends needed her.

  Funny how now, with an obvious concussion that had left her reeling, as she waited to die, that she realized that Awenda, Rana, and Izumi were in fact her friends. They weren’t just a party delving dungeons together. When had that happened?

  Suddenly a shadow cast itself over Lilit. Several Awenda’s were standing over her. And all of them were pissed. She couldn’t see any of their faces through their helmet, but all of their bodies radiated their rage so clearly. They were also practically coated from head to toe in blood. That just made them that much scarier.

  “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” Awenda’s voice echoed eerily in her mind.

  Lilit couldn’t find words, so she tried to nod her head. That was a mistake. She found herself a moment ter, on her side, clenched into the fetal position as she emptied her stomach once again today. Awenda would never want to kiss her at this rate was the only thought that seemed to make it through all the pain and dizziness.

  She felt Awenda pce something over her body before she stomped loudly away. There was the sound of roaring, yelling, then the wet sound of metal leaving a body, followed by screaming, and finally silence.

  Lilit didn’t know how long she waited there, but eventually the darkness that had been creeping in around the edges of her vision caught up with her. She was pulled under the darkness where the pain couldn’t reach her.