“Thank you, Cedric,” Harry said, voice low.
Cedric didn’t look at him at first. His gaze slid to Stan instead. “It seems shame is more powerful than fear.”
Stan flashed a crooked grin and gave a loose shrug with his good shoulder.
Jo looked from Stan to Cedric. “What happened?”
Cedric laid a hand on Stan’s shoulder. “I had to grapple with this fool to keep him from charging in.” He lifted one eyebrow and shrugged. “How could I not try to assist?”
Harry smiled. “Whatever the reason, it was just in time.”
Toby stuck a pinky in his ear and wiggled it around. “Was that hit louder than the bell tower? I think my ears are still ringing.”
Stan snorted. “Heard it at the Lantern, I bet.”
Harry pointed toward the steps. “Alright, Stan. Please sit down. If you open that wound, we’ll have to wrap it again, and we only have so many bandages.”
Stan turned, exaggerating his limp so hard Harry almost laughed. “Alright, alright, I’m goin’. Don’t boil me nuts.” He thumped himself down on the bottom step and leaned back with a satisfied groan.
Jo watched Stan with a half-hidden grin. When he finally settled, she looked between Harry and Toby. Her voice sharpened. “Ready?”
Toby nodded quick, a grin curling up before he could stop it. “Only one more of th…”
Jo snatched his chin between her thumb and fingers and squeezed just enough to make his eyes widen. “Whatever you’re about to say… don’t.”
Toby bobbed his head fast. She let him go and stepped back, gripping her spear.
Harry rolled his shoulders, held his arms out, and did a couple of twists, earning stares from the others. He gave a sheepish grin, stopped, and went to pick up his spear. “Alright. This one’s wearing black robes. So expect anything.”
The room felt wider now, but not safer. One left. Harry took a slow breath and moved toward the final Desiccant.
Harry grabbed the sack of stones and moved to the foot of the last sarcophagus.
Before starting, he looked to make sure everyone was ready and blinked in surprise. Cedric was still out in the alcove. Not with Jo and Toby, but back by the stairs, watching them with the dwarven hammer gripped in his hands.
He gave a nod to let them know he was starting and tossed the pack onto the chest of the robed Desiccant. Dust puffed up around the fabric as he bolted back to the alcove.
He skidded to a stop on the stone and spun to fall in beside Jo and Toby. Jo had her spear planted, not wasting an arrow on a bow shot this time.
The Desiccant climbed out of the sarcophagus and began walking toward them, slow and deliberate, its robes dragging along the floor.
Harry muttered, “I like it better when they charge.”
The creature reached a dried hand into its robes and pulled out a narrow piece of wood.
Harry blinked. “Is that a wand?”
Jo’s voice jumped an octave. “Bloody hells!”
The robed Desiccant lurched forward, then broke into a sudden rush. Harry and the others snapped their spears up, bracing for impact. But just before it reached them, the creature jerked its wand up and flicked it toward the group.
A blast of cold slammed into them. Frost burst across the stone. Jo and Toby were swept off their feet and tumbled backward in a tangle of limbs and spears.
Harry staggered but held his stance, boots grinding against the floor.
:: System: [Willpower Check] successful.
The Desiccant reached him, ready to strike, and stopped dead. Its head tilted back, staring at him, looking as startled as a dried-out corpse face could manage.
Harry raised his spear in a two-handed grip and swung the butt end straight into the Desiccant’s head. The blow staggered it back. He pushed vitae into strength and followed, driving another hard strike that cracked across its skull and sent it crashing to the floor, arms splayed.
It tried to rise. Harry planted his boot on the arm holding the wand, pinned it, and drove the spearpoint down onto its neck. The thing heaved upward, only tearing its own neck wider.
One more stab, a twist of the haft, and the light in its eyes dimmed and winked out.
Harry turned and rushed back to Jo and Toby, but both were getting back to their feet, spears in hand, frost clinging to the ends of their hair. They were grinning.
Toby opened his mouth to say something triumphant, but Jo lifted one finger and leveled a glare at him.
He shut his mouth and nodded.
Harry caught his breath and looked them over. “You guys alright?”
Jo brushed frost off her sleeves, patting herself down. “I think so.”
Toby worked his jaw, tongue sticking out as he ran both hands through his hair and shook out the melting ice. “I think I might be. Yes, sir.”
Stan limped over from the stairs. Cedric beside him.
Cedric dipped his head to Harry. “The ice blast didn’t reach far enough to hit me. You did well, Sir Harold.”
Harry shook his head. “It was luck. I got a notice I made a willpower check.”
Cedric waved that off. “Not just luck. Anyone with a user interface has a better chance to resist. If you don’t mind my asking, what is your willpower score?”
Harry flicked his eyes over his Info Screen to confirm. “It’s ten.”
Cedric, Jo, and Toby all stared at him, wide-eyed. Stan let out a low whistle.
Harry frowned. “Is that a lot?”
Cedric gave a short nod. “High for a level zero user would be five. Maybe six.”
Harry shrugged. “Well, good. Hopefully it helps again in the future.” He glanced back at the freshly killed corpse and drew his dagger. “Hold on. Let me make sure of this guy.”
He walked over, knelt beside it, and sawed off the head. When he dragged the body toward the growing pile, something inside the robes gave a light tink.
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He stopped, patted the robes down, and found a satchel tucked against the ribs. Inside were several clear glass vials, three empty, three full. One of the full vials held a deep red liquid. The other two glowed a sharp, vibrant green.
Harry carried the satchel back, picked up the wand, and joined the others. He handed both to Cedric. “What do you make of these?”
Cedric passed the wand to Jo, opened the satchel, and pulled out the red vial. He held it up to the torchlight, a grin tugging briefly at his mouth. “This is almost certainly a healing potion.” He set it in Harry’s hand and drew one of the green vials. “And this… could be remove poison. But given what we’ve faced so far, I would wager cure disease.”
Harry held the red potion close to his face, turning it slightly to catch the light. His brow furrowed. “What does a heal potion do?”
Jo blinked at him, then scowled. “It heals. What would you expect?”
Harry stared at the vial again. “You just drink it and… poof, whatever ails you is healed?”
Jo shifted her weight. “Well… to a degree. There are different levels to potions. Same as everything else.”
Toby pointed at Stan with the confidence of someone connecting two obvious dots. “Even if that’s just level one or two, it would heal Stan up, wouldn’t it? Fix his arm and everything.”
Harry looked from face to face, genuinely baffled. “Seriously?” It was clear they did not understand his confusion.
It’s magic, Harry. Get over it.
Harry turned to Cedric. “You said almost certainly?”
Cedric shrugged. “It could also be a strength or rage potion, as well as several others.”
Toby sounded excited. “Or a poison.” Everyone turned to look at him. “Well maybe. I heard a story where the lovers got tricked into taking a poison that looked like a heal.”
Harry sighed. “Wonderful. How are we supposed to tell what it is?”
Cedric tilted his head. “You do not have an identify ability?”
Harry raised his eyebrows. “I don’t think so. Hold on.”
System, do I have identify of some kind?
:: System: Negative. However, you may select [Identify: 1] when you next level.
How close am I?
:: Class: Vampire Level 0 (331/500)
If we finish this level, how much would that quest bonus be?
:: System: Typical experience bonus for clearing the first levels in a Level 0 Dungeon is one hundred X.P. each.
Harry looked back at the group. “System says I can get identify when I level. I’ll be close when we finish this floor. I don’t think anyone should take a magic potion without knowing what it is.”
Cedric nodded once. “A wise decision, barring any emergency.”
Harry gestured to the green vial in Cedric’s hand. “True. If someone gets bitten again, we’ll think about using one of those.”
Harry turned to Jo. “What about the wand?”
She flicked it through the air a few times and shrugged. “Worthless to us. It takes mana to use a wand.”
Harry frowned. “What exactly is mana?”
Stan snorted. “Where’s these lands ya hail from, then?”
Harry twisted his mouth. “Very far away. Would you believe another dimension?”
The four of them traded glances and nodded. Stan shrugged. “Aye, that explains yur odd way o’ speakin’ and yur general lack o’ education.”
Harry blinked, caught off guard by how casually they took it, but he shrugged and let out a low chuckle.
Imagine the things they must have seen growing up with magic.
Jo lifted the wand. “Anyway, mana is magical energy. Some people with a user interface have it, but not all. You use it to cast spells and for magical items.” She waved the wand. “Like this.”
Harry nodded toward the fallen Desiccant. “So that last one had mana?”
Cedric answered, “Yes. The winged one also, to use the bow.”
Harry blew out a breath. “Alright then… what’s next?”
Jo squared her shoulders. “The Bone Shamblers. Twelve of them, right?”
“Yeah,” Harry said. “Two in each passage.”
Jo turned to Cedric. “Any thoughts on how we should deal with them?”
A flicker of surprise crossed his face, but he nodded and gestured toward the stairs. “We should go up a landing. The scrolls say Shamblers are quick and strong but move without coordination. The stairs will hamper them.” He looked to Toby. “Do you hear the same in your tales and songs?”
Toby blinked, caught off guard. “Me? Umm… yeah. Yes, in a lot of the stories you can get away from skeletons by climbing and jumping over things.”
Harry clapped his hands once. “Alright. Let’s move everything up a flight and kill some skeletons.”
They set the two torches back into their sconces to light up their kill zone, gathered their gear, and hauled everything up one level, Stan included. Jo and Toby took position at the top of the landing, spears leveled. Cedric stood a step behind them, fingers tight around the dwarven hammer.
Harry left his spear with the group and drew his mace.
System, anything else I should know about the Shamblers? And diseases?
:: System: Negative. Although any bite may become infected.
He retrieved his sack of stones and slipped into the first passage. He tried to toss it onto the first Shambler but bounced it off the wall above the niche. He took a deep breath, shrugged and inched forward, watching the green thread move quicker and quicker.
Three things happened at once. The thread spun and locked onto him, the Shambler started to rise, and Harry turned to run. As he fled he caught movement farther down the hall. The second Shambler was climbing out of its niche as well.
He pushed vitae into speed and sprinted for the stairs, using his arms to bounce off the wall and drive himself up the steps. He reached the landing, swung into place on one end, and turned to look down.
The first Shambler was there, clattering up onto the landing, the second one right behind it.
They tried stepping up the stairs but flailed their arms and stumbled back. One finally dropped to all fours and scrambled upward while the other kept stubbornly trying to walk.
The one on all fours reached them first, claws scraping stone. Jo and Toby braced and shoved their spears into its path. The points didn’t pierce bone, but the pressure held it long enough for Harry to step in and swing his mace. The blow cracked across its skull and sent it tumbling back down the stairs.
By then the upright one had made it almost to the top, but one hard jab from Toby’s spear knocked it backward. It went rattling down after the other.
As it hit the landing below, two more Shamblers came around the corner and started up.
Harry muttered, “Uh oh.”
Cedric’s voice stayed steady behind them. “They are as likely to impede each other as overwhelm us.”
True to his words, the Shamblers clawed and shoved at one another in their climb, just as likely to drag the one in front down as make progress upward.
Which was a good thing, because more appeared, two at a time, until twelve were crowding the stairs, climbing over limbs and skulls in a tangled heap to reach them.
Jo and Toby held the line with spear and shield, shoving back anything that got to the top steps. Harry darted in and out beside them, swinging his mace whenever a skull or ribcage rose high enough, knocking Shamblers back into the crush below.
Eventually four of them reached the top at once, with two more clawing up right behind. Harry felt his pulse spike. He was about to pour vitae into raw strength, trying to keep up, nerves tightening in his chest…
That’s when Cedric stepped forward on the opposite side of the line.
“STEFANYA!”
He brought the hammer down with devastating force. It hit a Shambler square in the skull, the impact shattering bone and sending head, arms, and torso flying back down the stairs in separate pieces.
After that he became a madman. He swung the hammer in wide arcs, clearing the steps whenever too many surged upward. “Stefanya!” tore out of him with every long overhead strike, bringing the hammer down on any Shambler that reached the top alone, blasting them apart in bursts of bone.
Jo and Toby shifted beside him, spears darting in to keep the swarm pushed back so Cedric could focus entirely on killing blows.
Harry stayed ready to jump in, but held himself back, watching the way Cedric moved, the precision in every strike. The hammer flowed from one motion to the next with terrifying grace.
He’s so young, System. How long has he trained to kill like this?
:: System: His whole life, Harry.
In a surprisingly short time, the fight was over. The stairs were littered with bones, and a low pile had formed at the bottom where the rest had fallen.
Cedric stood at the top of the stairs, breathing hard, the hammer still in his hands. He didn't look triumphant. He looked empty.
Toby opened his mouth. Jo raised one finger. He shut it. Harry almost smiled. Almost.
Jo looked around at them. "Alright. What's next?"
***
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