TWENTY-NINE: REUNION

  “Blessings for allowing me to sleep,” Leto said as he straightened his back with a series of loud pops. Cassius and Vira had taken only a few hours to prepare before they had woken him, but he looked much better than he had. There was a flush to his cheeks and energy in his bloodshot eyes as cracked his neck and checked his sword.

  “You needed it, cousin. Now, let us find our stray lambs and return to full strength,” Vira said as she stepped around Leto and led them back down the hallway and into the lawns back area.

  “Across the lawn and to the next manor,” Vira said. She started to move forward but paused as she realized she couldn’t see through the thick mists. Cassius kept his laughter to himself as he took the lead, activating his skill for the first time in hours. The rest had been beneficial to his mana reserves and the strain it had put upon his eyes.

  No new corpses had come shambling through since they had crossed the grounds and Cassius led them quickly to the next manor gate. As they reached it though Cassius heard the clang of steel on steel from the front of the manor and a pained yell. He froze as he looked around, both Vira and Leto having heard it as well, stopping and looking with him.

  “No…no, we can’t go out there,” Leto whispered, his earlier energy gone as fast as it had appeared.

  “That was a woman. I will not leave another legionnaire alone,” Cassius said, stepping away from them and starting to run toward where the sounds of fighting were growing. A man’s voice roared with frustration and challenge, Titus announcing himself as the sounds of battle redoubled.

  Cassius began to sprint, long legs eating up the distance as he turned the corner of the manor and saw what it was that Titus and Valeria were fighting. They looked similar to the corpses he’d killed, dressed in similar clothes, but they held long straight swords covered in dark energy. With every flick they slammed into sword or shield with an explosion of competing mana. Valeria was trying her best to keep them in her sight, but from how she moved Cassius could tell she didn’t know where they were.

  Titus was locked in single combat, keeping so close to his foe that the mist couldn’t hide the corpse. The nobleman looked as if he was evenly matched, attacking and defending in equal measure, but he failed to see another of the corpses slowly circling behind him.

  “Titus, behind you!” Cassius called out as he ran toward the gate. A raised garden ran along the front of the gate, half the height of it. In a move of athleticism that shocked himself, Cassius sprang to the top of the garden and then leapt over the fence in a roll. He tucked his shoulder in and let his tower shield hit the top of the spiked gates, rolling over them to land in a clatter of armor and spike of pain through his ankle.

  “Cursed gates,” Cassius cursed through clenched teeth as he rose up, shield and spear ready as Titus was forced back under a flurry of blows from the two undead. Closer to them now Cassius could see how they were different from the others.

  There were no rotting black teeth with these ones, rather their teeth were onyx, clean and well formed. Clotted blood didn’t cover their faces, a hint of red colored their cheeks. Each of their eyes were scarlet, but it was not as if blood had filled them or madness, but rather their natural color.

  They smiled at Cassius as he cautiously stabbed at one of them, trying to force some of the pressure off of Titus. His target casually swatted away the spear and Cassius cursed as the spear was nearly ripped from his hand.

  “Use. Skills.” Titus spoke in quick grunts, his own blade shining with some skill as he battled his own foe, reclaiming his balance.

  “Valeria, to me!” Cassius called, not daring to look away from his foe. By the gate he heard metal clashing and clattering as Leto and Vira struggled to get over the gate.

  “Hold the line!” Valeria cried out as she started to shuffle toward him. Cassius realized again she couldn’t see him, only relied on the sounds of fighting.

  “TO ME! TO ME!” Cassius roared as he pressed his foe. [Reinforce] and [Thrust] blurred together like he had discovered in the manor, draining away his mana but empowering him beyond what either skill should be able to do. Red mana poured out of him the spear lanced toward his enemy.

  The creature’s eyes widened in shock as it burst into motion, faster than before as the dark energy around its sword strengthened. It swiped up to batter away the speartip, but this time its strength failed to stop the thrust.

  Black ichor poured out as Cassius’ speartip pierced the creature’s chest, piercing its clothes like they were paper and ripping out the back in an explosion of light as mana discharged. The creature’s mouth opened wide as black blood welled up and out of its mouth, pouring down its jaw, across his chest, staining the clothes.

  Cassius smiled as his fierce pride filled him, slamming his shield into the dying creature’s chest and ripping the spear out. It fell to his feet and the fight in the street froze as the other mocking creatures stared at their dead brethren. A chill crept up Cassius’ back as all of their swords suddenly blazed darker, mana wafting off of them as the six remaining creatures came together further down the road, standing side by side.

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  “Retreat back to the manor!” Cassius yelled, panic in his voice as his recently ignited pride fizzled out. These creatures were more powerful than he had thought, they had been simply toying with their food and were now enraged that their food had struck one of their number down.

  “Stand and kill these bastards!” Titus argued, the proud noble not understanding the futility in fighting them as the creatures formed a line and started to walk swiftly toward them.

  “Back! Now! They are more dangerous than you think,” Cassius tried to warn him, but Titus stood his ground. Cassius wondered what it was the man saw as the line of undead came from him, if he felt a flicker of doubt as seven darkly illuminated blades rose up in front of him.

  “Cursed gates!” Titus roared, but the man leapt at his enemies, blade singing forth as he blazed like a beacon with mana. More than any man of his rank should be able to channel forth.

  “Cassius, I am here. Let us run now while the fool holds them back,” Valeria panted and Cassius looked over to see his fellow legionnaire standing next to him. Behind them Vira had landed on their side of the street and had started moving cautiously toward them, but Leto had stayed behind the gates.

  “Vira! Get back to the manor side!” Cassius yelled at her, grabbing Valeria’s arm and dragging her away from the fight. Titus wouldn’t last long, not even as he burned away his life force in a mad attempt to kill his enemies.

  “Where is my cousin?” Vira demanded. She could undoubtedly hear the scream of battle, the quick flashes of mana detonating and the roar of Titus as he held to the last.

  “He’s dead,” Cassius said as he ran past her. He dropped to a knee and put his shield up, braced against his shoulder as Valeria ran up it and he shoved upward, propelling the other legionnaire up the wall with ease. That was something they had trained with in the camps.

  “Vira, either leap over the gate, or die here with your cousin,” Cassius barked as he lowered himself again. The noblewoman paused, conflict evident on her face until Titus screamed in pain, a wet gurgling sound that no man who could live would make, not for long at least.

  Vira cursed but turned and ran, leaping on his shield and expertly pushed off at the apex of Cassius’ push. He threw his spear and shield through the gate in a hurry before leaping up and grabbing the top of the spikes and shimmying upward, feet sliding across the mist slick iron rods.

  Cassius landed in an awkward crash of armor as everyone scrambled away from him, letting him hit the raised garden bed and crush the wilted vegetation. Valeria had grabbed his shield and spear at least so he wouldn’t land on them.

  “LOOK OUT!” Valeria screamed and Cassius moved on instinct, rolling away from the bars and off of the garden bed to land with a pained grunt on the flat lawns. Dark blades slid through the gate, wreathed in fell mana, right where he had been laying. Cassius had no doubt he would have been filleted without any skill running.

  “You slew one of them?” Leto asked, voice wavering as he came close to Cassius.

  “Yes, I had to combine skills to kill it though,” Cassius explained as he got to his feet, taking back his shield and spear from Valeria as he watched the undead warriors. They patrolled the gate like feral dogs, enraged but unable to vent their frustrations upon him.

  BELLATOR IMMORTUI

  LEVEL ELEVEN

  INFORMATION: RESTRICTED

  “It was beyond a level ten,” Cassius muttered as he looked at the fallen figure in the street. Vira sucked in a breath as she looked over at the creatures, her face suddenly pale.

  “We are all lucky to be alive. Stepping past that threshold creates a powerful warrior, there is a reason it is restricted in the republic.” Cassius hadn’t known any of what she had just said, but he kept his face blank as he looked over the dead creatures that stalked the wall.

  “Then killing the rest of them is beyond us?” he asked instead.

  “Unless we ascend ourselves, then yes. If you caught one of them offguard, that makes some sense. But they are no longer playing with us,” Vira said.

  “How can we ascend?” Cassius asked.

  “We can just avoid them. There is no need to battle through them,” Vira said, waving away his concerns.

  “There are only four manors on this side of the street. I saw that when we were on the side. There are four more on the other side. I would be willing to bet a week’s wages that we need to clear all eight manors before we can get free,” Cassius said. Vira spat a curse, but Valeria spoke up.

  “Titus and I each cleared one of the manors, is that helpful?” the legionnaire asked.

  “Did you collect the watches?” Vira asked, which only confused Valeria.

  “The gold circles,” Cassius said. Valeria’s confusion cleared and she nodded as she shook a shoulder to rattle her pack.

  “Titus made me carry his as well. I have no idea what it is though,” Valeria admitted.

  “Let us retreat back into the manor or advance to another. I feel ill with them watching us,” Leto pleaded. Cassius looked at the man and saw that he spoke the truth, his features had become waxen with sweat sliding down it as he shuddered beneath the baleful flare of the undead.

  “Let us push forward if we are as united as we can be. You have my condolences to your cousin. He fell like a warrior,” Cassius said, trying to remember how Antonius used to speak.

  “He fell like a proud fool,” Vira said, but there was no rancor in her voice, just pain as she looked through the gates as if she could pierce the mists and see Titus' hacked apart corpse.

  “Over this gate and to the next manor then. We still have to clear the one that Leto passed as well, but after that, you will have to tell us how to ascend past level ten,” Cassius said, looking at Vira. He didn’t know where he pulled the courage forth to talk to a member of the first strata as if he commanded her, but his voice didn’t waver.

  “I do not know the exact way to do so, but I believe we can manage it in this dungeon. That is what they are for after all.”