The Ghoul lords had seen enough. The two smaller ones moved forward. Captain Willop and his team moved to intercept. With the plague ghoul threat eliminated, I decided to accompany them. We were far enough out in front of the choke point that if someone was injured, they would not be able to get to the fortification for healing.

  Captain Willop’s team broke into two groups of three and each attacked a different Ghoul Lord. I watch the boss Ghoul Lord to see if he would engage. It did not move. I pulled out Balmung just in case.

  Captain Willop and his team were holding their own against their Ghoul Lord. The other team was also doing well. If things continued as they were, they would win their fight. Slower than I would have like, the teams gained the upper hand. One of the Ghoul Lords had lost an arm, but it didn’t seem to bother it too much, as it still put up a fight.

  The boss Ghoul Lord was ten feet of decaying flesh and bones. Torn and grimy robes cover very little. Stringy, oily long black hair covered his head in patches. His face was missing its nose. Red embers blazed where his eyes should be. With no lips, his teeth were expose; dirty, strained, and missing. Chunks of his stomach was missing, exposing his slime covered guts. One intestine was partially hanging outside his body. Blood dripped from its end. It was by far the most horrific creature I had ever seen.

  The boss Ghoul Lord pointed at the armless Ghoul Lord and casts the spell Corpse Explosion. The armless Ghoul Lord exploded. Literally exploded. A massive fireball was created in the center of the explosion. The three members of Captain Willop’s team fighting him was instantly killed as their bodies were torn to pieces. Bits of bone and other shrapnel hit me, but my armor stopped any penetration or injury. I was too far away for the fire to do any damage either. Then I saw the boss Ghoul Lord start to turn toward Captain Willop while preparing to cast.

  I ran toward the boss Ghoul Lord. I couldn’t let him cast that spell. As I ran, I cast Mana Dart, rapidly followed by Fireball, and then Wind Blade. All in an attempt to interrupt his spell. The Boss shrugged off my efforts and continued with his cast as if nothing happened, even though his remaining bits of clothes were burning from the fireball. Desperate, I activated Nullification. The odds were slim, but it was my last hope to save Captain Willop and what remained of his team. The skill hit the Boss like a physical force. The Boss staggered back two steps. It worked, the Boss’s spell fizzled, and before he could begin again, I was on him.

  Slow Time automatically activated as soon as I came within melee range. I swung my sword at the Boss, aiming to slice open its abdomen. The Boss moved fast enough to block my swing with its staff. After the block, the Boss quickly hammered its staff straight toward my head. I dodged to the left, making the Boss’s staff hit the ground instead of my head. I now had the Boss’s undivided attention.

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  We exchanged blows. Me with my sword, and the Boss with its eerily sparkling clean white staff. The Boss was an accomplished fighter. It wasn’t an untrained Rouge. It was also much better than Jaster, the duelist I had fought. I was much faster, which was evident as he continued to struggle to block my sword. The Boss used a two-handed grip on the staff while it fought, so it couldn’t cast magic. While I, on the other hand, was casting Mana Dart at every opportunity. It may not do much damage for a single dart, but the damage was accumulating. My sword swings would also be interspersed with Wind Blade. Again, no single spell of mine would bring down the Boss, but that wasn’t my plan anyway. I just needed it to concentrate on my until Captain Willop and his team finished off the lesser Ghoul Lord and came to rescue me.

  The Boss stepped back after one blocking my sword’s attempt to cut off his head. It then vomited a wretched liquid toward me. I jumped back and to the side to get away. The liquid missed me and hit the ground, where it started to bubble and sink into the ground. Acid, or something like it. I was distracted long enough for the Boss to hit me with its staff. I heard my arm crunch where it hit, and was thrown head over heels 10 feet away. My arm was broken and the Boss was headed over to finish me off. I cast Heaven’s Heal on my arm, fixing it and regenerating my life points.

  I rose from the ground, pretending my arm was still broken. I was acting defensively and casting Mana Dart in a pretend panic. The Boss gnashed his teeth and stared at me. Making me think it wanted to turn me into a ghoul. I held my ground, pointing my sword at it. Then it lunged at me face first trying to bite me. I stepped to the side and brought my sword down on its neck as it passed by. Chopping its head off. The blood was vile as it seeped out. It was clotted and oozed out. Once again, the stench reached a new level. I got a notification asking if I wanted to loot the Boss, I accepted, and the stuff went into my inventory. I was too tired to even look at what it was.

  I kicked its head further away from the body, just in case. The body then turned to smoke. Then I looked over to see that Captain Willop and his one of his men were restraining the last member of his team. He must have been bitten, so I ran over to them, cast Diagnose on him. Yep, he had the disease. I cast CureAll and Heal. The man passed out, but he was clean of the disease and was in no danger of dying. I told Captain Willop as much.

  The battle was done. There was some clean up going on, but the ghouls were destroyed. The dead ghouls turned to smoke when the boss Ghoul Lord died. There were tied to it, and would have resurrected if he had survived. A few straggler ghouls were all that remained, but had to be hunted down. We all left together to return to Forest Glen. Today’s battle was done, but the wave was not over.