Bound Evil

All around them, the air churned with malice and screeches from the surrounding crows. Emily could pinpoint the exact point at which they fell on their little party. When the specter flicked its wrist, and the murder of crows descended.

Emily Immediately covered herself in a half-dome of blood as a stream of bodies pressed in around them, clawing and pecking at their faces.

She could barely tell how the others were faring as feathers and bodies crashed around her screen.

Cupcake had to slow to a stop as the birds thickened and blacked out their vision. Up ahead Emily could feel Alex getting further away. Then the sound of the specter's armor grinding against itself tore through the air and a swish descended. What followed was the sound of the colossal weapon crashing into the stone, shaking the very tomb itself. When the crows had passed Emily got a better view of the situation. Kael had already arrived near the enemy but he hadn’t attempted to block the strike instead he had deflected it and dove out of the way of the remaining shock wave.

Kael shouted something to the others but Emily couldn’t hear from where she was. He kept moving as he ducked and dodged the incoming attacks, never remaining in one spot for long.

Such was the specter’s strength that its every swing seemed to disturb the air currents in the room.

Alex and Oscar hung back searching for an opening, even as the crows were making their way about again.

Their only saving grace was that the specter's speed seemed heavily inhibited. The chains made up of faint light draped off the thing with minds of their own. Whenever the specter moved, they attached themselves to the nearest section of ground or wall. Doing their best to inhibit its movement.

Nox had his crossbow raised but he was hesitating to attack with their allies in the way. Emily glanced back and shouted over the rustling wings.

“Nox fire into the swarm, take out as many as you can!”

With that, she turned in Cupcake's saddle and reshaped her half dome into a net. Adding a little more power to thicken the delicate mesh of blood as it expanded.

Nox began firing bolts into the flock, not concerned with aiming, and yet still causing crows to fall from the skies.

Emily could only cover a portion of the large room but the moment the crows crashed into her barricade she grunted as it warped. Their bodies were heavier than she expected. Almost as though made from the very stone they had come from. To top it off, their numbers were far from manageable, easily in the hundreds.

Using the net as a medium, Emily created spikes in the air and began reaping the crow's lives. They went down with a single spike through their bodies but even as she let their corpses crash to the ground, more arrived.

Chunks of stone shattered and chipped, as whatever skill was animating them, fell away.

Emily hadn’t expected it, but she felt a tide of life force crash into her. It took four crows even to equate one life but as more of them fell, the trickle became a flood.

A chill entered Emily’s body that began to run through her veins like ice. Frostbite set in and Emily had to stop killing them when close to twenty lives came pouring in. Normally, Emily would welcomed this energy, but life conduit was not working in her favor right now. It kept pulling in more vitality and seeing as Emily didn’t have a limit, the cold continued to progress into her extremities. Frost began to coil over her arms as the flock washed over them.

Stopping the remaining birds turned out to be impossible, so Emily pulled the net in and switched to covering herself, Nox, and Cupcake.

“Feathered fucks at you six o’clock” she called

Alex responded by ducking behind Mist who battered away a few before the sweeping shadows blocked Emily’s vision again.

All the while, Kael was fighting the specter. He hadn’t managed to get around it either way, but he was fast enough to keep it occupied.

It was becoming clear that they were heavily outclassed here. Even with the ward Alex had set up beforehand, Kael was only just able to keep pace.

If Emily could just kill a few more crows they might not be so pressed, but the cold was still beating in her chest as the life force mixed with her own.

The problem was timing. She wouldn’t have enough time to let the new vitality settle before the crow's next charge.

“Keep firing Nox!” Emily shouted

Ushering Cupcake forward she closed the distance to Mist. Alex was still taking cover behind his wolf as he sunk a dagger into a flailing crow.

“This won’t work! Their energy is like poison we need to come up with another plan!”

Alex looked up and to the Specter. He nodded and cleaned off his blade against his pant leg.

“Kael, I’m going to give you an opening! Use to get us past!”

Alex didn’t wait for a response from the man and instead covered the back of his neck while extending his dagger out in front of himself.

The tip glowed and he must have triggered some skill because suddenly he began to write in mid-air. The blade carved out glowing runes until the heat near Alex became sickening. A smell of fresh ozone filled the air and the hair on the back of Emily’s neck stood on end. Her eyes widened as she looked on at the glowing set of runes before they discharged. A column of lightning as thick as Emily’s wrist shot forth from the tip of his blade and crashed into the specter, causing arcs of lightning to coil from the metal armor before channeling into the surrounding stone. Kael had already backed off but he charged back in when he saw his opportunity.

Using the butt of his spear he cracked it into the left side of the specter’s huge body. The strike was powerful enough to send the creature hurtling a couple of steps to the right.

Seeing the opening, everyone made a run for it.

However, the specter recovered quicker than any of them expected, flipping its blade to the flat side and swinging it recklessly, aiming to crush anyone who dared to approach.

The swing alone came with a wave of air pressure that lifted their clothing and when Emily saw it coming she pulled on Cupcake’s reins. The Rime wolf saw the attack coming and vaulted backward, the same could not be said for Mist, who tried to abandon his charge but was far closer to the specter.

Alex was only partway on the saddle when he saw it coming.

Emily grunted and vaulted from Cupcakes back in the direction of the incoming blade.

She crashed into Alex and shot a cord of blood to the nearby wall of the chamber. Pulling them both flush with the stone.

When the strike came it narrowed missed them. Oscar fell from the saddle before a pained yelp issued forth from Mist, sending everyone backward.

Emily used her blood to endure the terrifying wind pressure, but then she noticed that in its effort to stop them all, the specter had been forced to take a step from the exit.

In doing so, it had given her the perfect opportunity to bypass it.

Emily didn't hesitate and coiled the remaining blood around both herself and Alex, shooting them through the gap. The specter noticed them right away and swung its blade around to cut them mid-leap, but Kael arrived under it and knocked its horizontal swipe off target. Just enough that it went right over their heads.

Recovering as she landed Emily and Alex looked back. Everyone else found themselves pushed back to where they were a few seconds ago, unable to progress. Mist was clearly hurt as it limped away, while Oscar was climbing to his feet.

Alex looked worriedly at Mist but then Kael's call bounced through the room.

“Run you idiots! I’ll hold it here as long as I can before retreating!”

Emily saw that the specter was already turning toward them as though it wanted nothing more than to erase them from existence.

Their little maneuver had gotten them the specter's undivided attention.

Alex tore his eyes away from Mist and cursed.

“GO! We’ll deactivate the control ward, just hang on!”

Then without looking back, he tore toward the staircase. Emily sent Cupcake instructions to be safe before she ran after him.

The specter called it crows and they descended on Alex and Emily. Kael stabbed his spear into the specter's ankle but the thing barely noticed. Its icy gaze solely locked on the two of them.

Emily threw up another net as they crossed the threshold of the room. Delving into the spiraling corridor, taking two steps at a time.

A glance back saw the hundreds of crows pushing their way through the net to get to them. Emily’s blood only held for a second before tearing and falling apart, but by then, they were already a good way away from the flock. Emily thought they would catch up to them in no time but they must have reached some skill boundary because they started falling from the air without rhythm or reason. The remaining crows squawked at them from afar before turning back to go assist their master.

A scream of rage echoed out of the chamber above followed by the sound of earth-shacking impacts.

Neither of them slowed as they hurtled their way down the staircase.

Adrenaline pumped through Emily’s veins as they got to the bottom. Panting and gasping for breath she turned back to make sure nothing was following them. Now that they had stopped running the quiet of the tomb had returned in force, not even the battle above could be heard.

Alex was already investigating the next door. It was a simple affair, almost concerningly so. If this was really the type of place that Alex said it was. She expected more decoration and fluff, but the door ahead was completely blank with no runes running along its perimeter.

Alex hesitated before turning to look at her

“Emily… listen to me. No matter what you see in here. You can not bend the knee.”

She wrinkled her nose.

“You mean kneel? I've never done that before I don’t intend to start now.”

Alex looked more serious than Emily had ever seen him before.

“No, Emily, you don’t get it. Once we enter you’re going to want to. I’m afforded some protection, but you are going to be on your own. No matter what you do, don’t bow. Or you’ll become his.”

Emily's brow twitched.

“His?”

Alex nodded and Emily glanced at the door. Yet another question to add to the pile. He knew exactly what was behind the door.

“So all I have to do is not bow? Got it. Now we should get moving.”

Alex took a moment to compose himself before he pressed his hands on the doors.

They slid open of their own accord revealing a throne room.

The chamber itself was undecorated, though Emily saw signs of tatter tapestries that had once hung from the ceiling and decorations that had rusted into obscurity.

Their eyes moved to the end of the chamber, where Emily felt a sense of awe overcome her. her eyes fell on a grande throne that stood at odds with its surroundings. It was made of stone, yet it carried countless cuts and slashes, as though torn into by a bladed edge.

Emily felt an inviting call into the room and as Alex stepped into the chamber, so did she.

It was as though they were entering a sacred hall and an unfamiliar reverence began to take hold in her mind.

As Emily looked around, the lost and damaged halls had been restored to their once great glory. Ornaments hung from the wall and bright colors filled out the room. Purple and gold swaths of cloth hung from their place on the ceiling, but none of this could be compared to what currently sat on the throne.

Emily had expected another specter, but instead, a human male relaxed into the unblemished throne a look and welcome flashing across his face.

“Greetings my subjects. You may take a knee”

Blood points: 142