I placed my hand upon his shoulder. “My friend, I am afraid darker times are ahead. I pray that we are wrong.”

  “As do we all.” Tanithil bowed. “I will return to my duties. Find me if you need anything.”

  I bowed back. “Thank you.”

  We pushed deeper into the dungeon. The place was well-worn from years of use and abuse.

  “Through here,” said Sai. “This is the room they spoke of.”

  I followed Sai through the doorway. Before us lay the skeleton of a Dwarven-born warrior.

  “He has been here a while,” said Sai. “I also do not recognize his armor.”

  “Neither do I. It definitely has not been used in the last several centuries.” I frowned. “What would a Dwarven-born be doing in a random dungeon in Evermore, of all places?”

  “I’m not sure,” said Agamor. “At this point, it could be for any reason, to be honest. Although, if I had to guess, I would say he was hunting for treasure.”

  Red scratches in the stone next to the Dwarf’s hand caught my attention. “Look.” I pointed. “There is a message next to him.”

  Sai knelt beside the skeleton and examined the message. “It is written in blood.”

  Agamor knelt next to him. “I think I can read this.”

  “What does it say?” asked Sai.

  “Let’s see here… Hold the light a bit higher?”

  I raised my torch, dispersing the shadows.

  “Standing atop the twins, follow the dying light to the city.”

  I frowned. “Whatever could that mean?”

  “Standing atop the twins…” Agamor scratched at his stubble for several moments. “Could it be the mountains?”

  “Perhaps,” I said. “Then the dying light could mean…”

  “Sunset,” said Sai. “We need to head west from the mountain’s peak to find the lost city.”

  I grinned. “It cannot be that easy, can it?”

  “Why not?” asked Agamor. “It seems as if our Dwarven friend here has put in all the work and paid for it with his life.”

  33

  Ulrich

  “There are rumors of attacks,” said the barkeep.

  “Attacks?” asked Katrina. “Here?”

  “Yep.” The barkeep frowned. “Strange whisperings in back alleys. Things like that.”

  The front door of the tavern burst open. Everyone turned their attention to the newcomer. A shadow stood in the doorway backlit by the torchlight just outside the door.

  “The advance force will attack at sunrise. The main force in two days,” he said as he walked in and shut the door. The sound of screeching chairs and blades sliding against leather sheaths rang through the room. He looked around the room surveying everyone. Satisfied, he nodded. “Good. If your reaction time is this quick when you are tired and hungry, you may yet stand a chance against the oncoming horde.” He walked to the bar and took his seat. It looked unnatural for the man made of shadow to sit on a barstool.

  The barkeep arched an eyebrow expectantly but seemed unsure of what to do.

  The shadow placed a handful of silver coins on the bar top. “I will have your best meal. Ensure that the meat is as rare as possible.”

  The barkeep looked confused, but he nodded once and rushed off to prepare the order.

  I took a step forward. “Who are you? Why are you warning us?”

  He grinned. “Please sit with me.” He gestured at an empty stool to his right. I shrugged and took a seat next to him. “You may call me D’rorthar. As for why I am warning you, let us just say that it could be very beneficial for me if you were to survive. And possibly beneficial for the rest of society as well—if things were to go in our favor.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “That is something I will not reveal until after the battle is won. Too many lives and variables and paths hang in the balance of that very specific pivotal point. Should the battle be won, many new paths, which were not available to us, shall be revealed.”

  “I see.” I turned to Katrina who had taken the seat to my right. “What do you think?”

  She shrugged. “If he’s telling the truth, we might stand a chance if we begin to prepare now.” She looked him over. “I’ve never heard of shadow Demons trying to help humans before; however, I suppose, at this point, nothing would be out of the ordinary.”

  “I have,” I said. “But only once. And it was back home.”

  “I will admit that it is rare,” said D’rorthar. “But not unheard of.”

  She nodded. “Fair enough. So, what do you want to do, Ulrich?”

  “I’m not sure yet.” I turned to Cristof and Oswald. “What about you guys?”

  Cristof frowned. “I’m not sure what to make of it.”

  The barkeep brought out a plate of food and set it before D’rorthar. He thanked the barkeep and picked up the steak, studying it for a moment. He took a tentative bite and nodded in appreciation. “This is excellent.” The barkeep grinned and returned to cleaning dishes.

  Oswald nodded. “We have only ever fought them. We’ve never worked with one before.”

  Cristof stood and stretched. “Decide what you will. Oswald and I will take the advance force in the morning at sunrise.”

  Oswald stood as well. “We should be able to hold them off. The rest of their army, however—for that, we will probably need some help to survive.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “What about the friends we made at the last two stops?”

  Katrina nodded. “That might very well work. I’ll grab the fastest horse and head out immediately.”

  “Take friends you can trust,” said D’rorthar. “They are expecting you to go for help. They will attack as soon as you are out of sight of the town.”

  “How many?” I asked.

  D’rorthar hesitated mid-bite. He looked off at nothing as if looking a great distance away. “Two, perhaps three, of their necromancers. They will have a host of undead as well as their magically enhanced spiders.”

  I nodded. “Cristof, Oswald, are you sure that you can handle them on your own?”

  Oswald nodded. “If the town militia is helping, then yes. We will have trouble stopping all of them, so they’ll have to make sure to get any stragglers to get past us.”

  “What about that big metal guy?” asked Katrina.

  Cristof shook his head. “I don’t know if he’ll join. Hells, we don’t even know if he can fight or if he’s willing.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” said Oswald.

  “Perfect.” I turned to Katrina. “Let’s get moving. Between the two of us, we should be able to make it there and back before the main force arrives.”

  “Agreed,” she said. “Let’s get going.” She grabbed her gear off the table and made her way to the door. “I’ll get us a pair of fast horses.”

  D’rorthar turned to me. “May the hand of fate guide your path. I look forward to speaking with you once again.”

  “Likewise.” I turned back to Cristof and Oswald. “You two get some rest. I have a feeling you’re going to be fighting for some time.”

  “We figured as much.” Cristof offered me his hand, and we exchanged grips. “Take care of yourself. Dinner’s on us next time.”

  “Yeah,” said Oswald. “Don’t go dying on us before we can bring you home for the reward.”

  I laughed. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” As I exited the tavern, Katrina was already outside waiting for me.

  “What took so long, pretty boy?” Her face was set hard in the torchlight. “Come on. We have a long way to go.”

  We had been riding hard for about an hour when a strange feeling of dread came over me. I reached for my sword. The moment my fingers touched the pommel, a large mass slammed into me, throwing me from the horse. I tumbled with it in the sand for several minutes while our momentum bled off. As our roll came to a stop, I used my legs and kicked upward, throwing the mass away from me. It screeched and landed several paces from me on eight spindly legs. Glowing red eyes stared back at me.

  “Ulrich!” screamed Katrina. She was circling around when something took her from her horse as well. She swore as she hit the ground. I pulled my sword out of its sheath and willed flames to it. Brilliant blue flames engulfed the blade, bathing the area around me in cool light.

  More spiders approached the ring of light around me. Just out of sight, I could hear Katrina wrestling with her assailant. “Are you all right?” I yelled.

  “No, not really!” she yelled. “I’ll make my way to you. Just don’t die on me, you hear me?”

  “No promises,” I hollered. Two spiders jumped forward. I slashed horizontally through the air. A screech. A sizzle. Four thuds. My blade parted their bulbous bodies with ease, sending individual pieces tumbling through the sand.

  I turned in a slow circle, my blade held out in front of me. The group of spiders took a hesitant step away from me. Then I heard the moans. The undead stepped into the light. Their grasping hands stretched toward me.

  I willed power into several streams of lightning and hurled them at my enemies. Spiders and undead alike exploded. There was a curse off in the darkness somewhere. I hurled a bolt of red lightning toward it as well. A scream answered. Somewhere in the distance, a body crumpled to the sand.

  There were several more curses, but they were muted. It prevented me from getting a bead on them. More undead shambled toward me. Spiders jumped over their heads. I jumped out of the way, narrowly dodging globules of spider webbing. The sand where I had stood hissed and sizzled.

  I fired a blast of kinetic energy in one direction and ran in the opposite. I cleaved spiders and undead, trying to make my way toward Katrina. I could still hear her grunting and slashing away at whatever came near her. Despite being completely in the dark, she was holding her own quite well. Likely years of military training coming to her aid. She was fine, for now, but I had to get to her before she was overwhelmed.

  I sent out more lightning. Spiders dodged. They were quick learners. The undead, however were not so lucky. They were the least of my concerns. Although the one necromancer was down, there were at least two more of them out there—somewhere.

  I’m not sure how long we had been fighting for. It could have been minutes; it could have been hours. By the time I realized I had lost track of time, my brow was covered in sweat. It dripped down my back as if I had been showering. Even in the cold desert air, I was burning up.

  A green bolt of lightning flashed through the night. I caught it on my sword and deflected it into the nearest spider. It exploded, tendrils of green energy arcing everywhere.

  I fired a blast back in the direction it had come from. Another bolt of green lightning flew at my face. This time I deflected it back where it came from. There was a momentary scream followed by the sound of something wet exploding. No more lightning bolts came from that direction.

  Movement to my right caught my attention. I whirled, a bolt of red lightning balled in my hand. Katrina slid to a halt with her hands in the air before her. I fired the blast past her shoulder. The undead shambling toward her exploded and showered her with bloody ichor. She cringed as the coagulated blood dripped from her clothing.

  “That is seriously disgusting.” She looked around. Blood dripped from her shortsword. “Did we get all the necromancers?”

  I shrugged. “I think so; however, there’s no way to tell for sure.”

  Katrina clapped me on the shoulder. “Not bad, pretty boy. Now, let’s go find the horses. They shouldn’t have gone too far…”

  34

  Cristof

  Undead stretched across the horizon as far as the eye could see. They had crested the small cliffside at some point in the night and attacked with the sunrise at their backs.

  “Someone’s coordinating them,” I said to Oswald. “I’ve never seen undead use tactics like this before.”

  “Your assessment is astute,” said Zero.

  “Yeah.” I turned toward the militia leader. “Are your men ready?”

  He scoffed. “Do you honestly think a bunch of adults will take orders from a couple of kids and a metal giant?”

  I shrugged. “I couldn’t care less what you do. We aren’t here to boss you around.”

  He frowned. “Then why are you here—in the way.”

  “Simple,” said Oswald. “We’re going to go thin the herd for you. Your job is to kill anything that gets past us.”

  I locked eyes with the man. “Listen. Ulrich and Katrina have gone for help. We have to hold off the undead until they get back. No matter what. That’s when the real fight begins. If we fail here, there will be nothing left of your village for them to reinforce.”

  The man stood there, mouth agape. “You—you can’t be serious.”

  “Protect your town,” I said. “Don’t worry about us.” We turned away from the crowd and headed toward the oncoming group of undead. “Don’t die. We will need all the help we can get tomorrow.” Behind us, several of the militiamen were still hung up on our age.

  “They’re just a couple of teenagers!”

  “Why are they going toward the enemy? Don’t they know it’s dangerous?”

  “Someone stop them before they get themselves killed.”

  I shook my head. “Let’s go.”

  “Affirmative,” said Zero.

  Oswald drew his dagger and took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

  “Don’t forget to top off your talismans,” I said. “I’m sure we’re going to need it for tomorrow.”

  Oswald frowned. “We’re going to need some live targets for that. I don’t think these thralls have enough life energy to count.”

  “Probably not.” I checked the level in my talismans. One was full, and the other was just over half. Not bad but not great. “Well, where there are undead, there are necromancers.”

  Oswald grinned. “That gives me a wicked idea.”

  “Oh?” I asked. “Do tell.”

  “Let’s get the big construct built up first. We’re going to need it for tomorrow.” Oswald turned to Zero. “Are you ready?”

  “No. Shall I initiate battle mode?”

  Oswald nodded. “That would be a good idea, yeah.”

  “Acknowledged.” A loud hum built up from Zero’s chest. Blinding red lightning engulfed both of his arms. They melted and began to take on a different shape. His left became a large tower shield as tall as I was. And his right turned into a large axe with two blades. Zero’s eyes glowed a deep red, lightning arcing around his pupils. “Battle mode activated. Targets designated. Awaiting confirmation to engage the enemy.”

  The undead broke into an all-out run heading straight for us

  “Engage,” said Oswald.

  “Acknowledged.” Zero took a step forward and knelt. Two half-circle panels slid open just below his backpack; a blue glow began to pour out of them. There was an explosion of force and blue fire as he stood and began to run, a trail of blue flame shooting out of his back. The ground shook with every bounding step.

  Oswald and I looked at each other, shrugged, and chased after the metal giant. Even with our magically augmented muscles, it was a struggle to keep up with him. He reached the enemy before us. With a swift move and a roaring swirl of blue flames, he spun like a dancer, his axe beheading twenty undead in the time it took us to take one step.

  I focused bloodmist around me and began blasting legs from the undead. I did not want to completely destroy their bodies as we needed them for the construct. Oswald seemed to have the same mindset. Although instead of fire, he was just using raw force and severing heads left and right. With enough parts lying around, we cast both Necrotic Armor and Bone Shield. Spiders rushed forward, piling on top of us. A quick blast of flames turned them all to ash.

  “Think we have enough bodies?” asked Oswald.

  I looked around. “At least for starters, yeah.”

  “Let’s do it.” He turned to Zero. “Keep them off of us for a few minutes, will ya?”

  “Understood,” said Zero. “Complying with request.” He smashed a group with a wave of energy from his shield and swung the other arm around, cleaving a mutated spider as large as he was in two.

  I felt our consciousnesses merge as the spell completed.

  “That feels so much better,” I thought.

  “Agreed,” thought Oswald. “Life feels so much simpler when we are connected like this.”

  “That’s because talking is so much slower than thought. That, and most of the time we understand a thought the moment the other has it. There are no barriers.”

  “Wow,” thought Oswald. “Deep.”

  “Thanks.” I brought my mental focus to defense as he steered us toward the next biggest blob of undead. “What do you think? Those bone spear launchers were pretty incredible last time.”

  “Sure,” he thought. “And we can probably get the Bone Shield spell going as well.”

  “So, what was your big idea anyhow?”

  I felt the pulse of necromantic energy explode from us just as I’d finished forming the thought. I understood instantly as I became aware of three hundred undead requesting commands.

  Seething anger and murderous intent rolled across the battlefield in reaction to Oswald’s theft of the undead. A bolt of green lightning shot across the battlefield. I raised the bone shield just in time to catch it and deflect it into the crowd of undead.

  Zero stopped mid-swing. “Allegiance change detected in enemy undead. Strategic change recommended. Initiating defensive measures.”

  “I think you pissed them off,” I thought.

  “What makes you think that?” Oswald snickered in our shared consciousness. “Hey, here’s a thought. We could create an organ that can relay commands to the undead. That way we can increase the number under control.”

  “Do it,” I thought. I could feel the organ growing rapidly. I wasn’t quite sure what it was. It was a cross between a brain and I didn’t know what. Even though we were connected, it didn’t make much sense to me. “How does this even work?”