Rune Seeker

“This is your fault, Yanily,” Seena said into the party chat as the group turned their attention to the dozens of paths between the mausoleums, waiting for whatever was coming next.

They didn’t have to wait long.

Sinewy hands with inch-long claws gripped the bars of the closest crypt, and an emaciated body emerged from the darkness. Gaunt like the wights were, this thing wasn’t the same—it was feral. The clothes it’d been buried in hung halfway off the thin body where they hadn’t been torn off completely. Glowing blue flames sat where the eyes would be, streaming luminescent tears down its cheeks. It leaned back as if to shake the metal gate.

Iron bars each thicker than Hiral’s thumb bent beneath the strength of the undead’s pull, chain-links popped apart, and the hinges screeched. All throughout the necropolis, the sounds repeated, an army of the new type of undead waking.

A second longer of staring, and Hiral’s View brought up information on the monster.

(Elite Undead) Restless Ghoul – Mid-D-Rank

Elite, but at least it’s still D-Rank.

With more of the ghouls emerging and thrashing against the gates sealing them within the crypts, Hiral raised his RHCs and began pulling the triggers. Unlike the zombies or skeletons, the ghoul actually ducked beneath the first shot, though it took the second in the jaw. Teeth and bone exploded sideways, the lower half of its mouth completely blown off, and it stumbled backwards. Two more shots, another hit to the chest, and a blocked fourth shot in its arm, then it was back at the gate, heedless of its injuries.

“They’re at least partially intelligent,” Hiral said into the voice chat, aiming lower and blowing out the ghoul’s knee. As soon as it dropped down, still propped up by where it held on to the gate, Hiral lined up his next shot and put a searing bolt of Impact through its forehead. That put it down just like any other undead—so far—and he turned his attention to the next crypt.

Huge gouts of flame erupted from a pair of mausoleums further to Hiral’s left—Seena’s work, no doubt—but he stayed focused on the ghoul in front of him. Like he’d done to the last one, he first crippled it by taking out one of its legs, then finished it off with a blast to the head. As long as the ghouls were trapped behind the gates, they weren’t a threat, but the sound of rending metal deeper within the small city of tombs told him they wouldn’t be that lucky for long.

“Start forming up,” Seena ordered while she tossed another fireball into a nearby crypt. “We’re about to have company, I think.”

No sooner had she said that than glowing blue eyes appeared down the long path between buildings ahead of Hiral and came rushing forward.

Hiral put two shots into it, a lucky one scoring a critical and outright killing the ghoul, but he didn’t have time to celebrate. More eyes were appearing in the darkness.

“Got incoming over here,” Nivian said.

“Here too,” Yanily said. “Lot of incomings, actually.”

“Same here,” Seeyela said.

“Keep them away from the Urn at all costs,” Seena said. “Sis, put up some walls.”

As if following her own advice, Spearing Roots burst from the ground in front of two of the paths. Shooting straight into the sky, the spiked, flaming roots completely cut off those two paths, and Seena was already turning her attention to two more paths.

With easily twenty small trails leading into the central courtyard, that still left way too many avenues of attack. Literally.

Two more paths got plugged with Gravity Wells—along with the hydras spitting death—and then the first ghoul made it into the courtyard. Snarling and frothing at the mouth, it leapt at Wule from twenty feet away, leading with its claws. The healer didn’t even turn towards it, but Nivian slid into the line of attack. Then, instead of the usual block and toss he’d do with most charging attacks, he instead brought his shield up in a violent uppercut.

The long claws almost reached the tank before the thorned shield caught it in the chin. Shattered teeth exploded outward while the thing’s spine twisted awkwardly, all its forward momentum stolen by the titanic blow. Then, while the ghoul still seemed to hang in the air, Nivian dropped his shield down and brought his empty right hand up and over, piledriving the creature straight down into the ground and bending it in half.

Limbs still twitching despite the empty health bar, Nivian took a step forward and mercilessly stomped on the top of the skull.

The twitching stopped.

Eyes wide at the tank’s decisiveness, Hiral was forced to turn his attention to the ghouls running down the paths ahead of him. With Killing Spree+ nicely stacked up, his hits tore ghoul bodies apart with every shot. One path only had a single charging undead, and he got lucky enough to put it down in two shots, then turned to the next path, where easily half a dozen of the monsters ran towards him.

His first shot blew a leg off, sending the ghoul flopping to the ground where it tripped up the two behind it. With those three delayed, Hiral blasted the next one square in the center of the chest. His shot tore straight through to hit the ghouls behind, slowing them all down enough for the cooldown on his other weapon to reset. Another pull, and he shot the legless ghoul in the head where it lay in the ground.

BOOM!

The ghoul exploded in a sphere of black, tearing energy, shredding the two on the ground with it—killing them both—and throwing back the next three. That blast bought him a few more seconds as the wounded monsters staggered around, and he sequentially killed them off one at a time.

“Right, back up Yanily—too many on that side,” Seena barked through the party chat, and Hiral spared a look in the spearman’s direction. Despite the bodies piled around him, ghouls poured out of the paths ahead of him by the dozen. Even with Right there, would it be enough to…?

Four fireballs exploded in front of one of the paths, completely incinerating three monsters in a heartbeat, and then another wall of Spearing Roots cut off a second path. That just left two more for Yanily and Right to hold.

“You missed one,” Yanily said, jerking his head towards where the flames faded to reveal a single remaining ghoul.

Something about it was different, though. Red flames, rather than the standard blue glow, danced in its eyes and ran in twisting lines along its body.

“That one is on our side,” Seena said, and the flaming ghoul leapt onto the back of one of the Restless Undead and quickly began tearing into it with its sharp claws. “Hiral, pay attention!” she snapped at him.

“Sorry,” Hiral apologized, tearing his eyes away from how his party was dealing with the enemies. Rookie move. Ahead of him, ghouls filled the narrow pathways wall to wall, and he raised his RHCs and pulled the triggers as fast as he could.

Most of his shots didn’t kill, but it wasn’t like he could miss—they were just packed in too tight. Packed in…?

Hiral fired another shot off with his RHC, then lifted his right arm above his head, and the Ring of Amin Thett followed the motion. A sharp jerk of his hand unleased the Annihilation of Amin Thett down one of the paths, and every single undead in that direction simple fell over, their top halves gone. And, powered by Killing Spree+, Hiral was instantly recharged from the kills. He could literally keep this up all day if he had to.

“They’re through!” Wule shouted, a hint of panic in his voice.

Hiral fired off one more shot before spinning to look.

Ghouls crawled over the roofs and leapt into the central courtyard, quickly surrounding Wule and Left where they’d pushed ahead to block off the paths.

“Boss?” Nivian asked, bashing another ghoul to the ground, but he took a raking claw across the chest in his distraction. If it even hurt him, he didn’t show it.

“Hiral, Right, protect the Urn,” Seena ordered, more fire tearing through whole swaths of undead. “Nivian and Yanily, get Wule and Left out of there. Sis, secure those rooftops.”

The way she’s burning through solar energy—literally—she’s going to run out at this rate.

But Hiral had his own problems, as many of the ghouls were completely bypassing the surrounded healer to charge straight for the Urn. Both weapons up, Hiral let fly into the mob, his first shot not doing anything other than slowing the ghoul it hit. The second was a critical hit, though, outright killing the ghoul and triggering another violent explosion of black energy. A sphere almost ten feet in diameter cleared a hole in the charging ghouls, and it bought Right the time he needed to intercept the rush.

Fists swinging and purple fire flaring, it wouldn’t be long before he was overwhelmed himself. And with the sheer number of enemies, any cooldown was too long, so Hiral sheathed his RHCs and threaded solar energy into the Emperor’s Greatsword.

Launching himself forward with a Rejection-empowered leap, Hiral laid into the horde of ghouls with his massive sword. Six feet of razor-sharp blade—even at less than a quarter of the normal weight—cleaved through ghoul bodies with every swing. Thanks to it weighing next to nothing, he was able to keep the weapon whipping around him at a ridiculous speed, and between him and Right, they held the line against the rush of ghouls.

Except, that was only in one direction, and as Hiral spun to cut down yet another undead, he saw blues eyes rushing from the other side of the courtyard.

“More coming!” he shouted into the party chat, an edge of panic leaking into his voice.

He could go and blunt the charge, but that would leave Right to get surrounded. Sure, the double would hold for as long as he could, but even with the both of them there, they’d taken minor wounds. Killing Spree+ had taken care of the scratches Hiral received, but Right was leaking solar energy from a dozen places without Wule there to patch him up.

No choice. I’ve got to…

“Got it covered,” Seena said, and Hiral cut down two more ghouls before looking to the other side of the Urn. Where he expected to see four fireballs racing out to engulf the rushing horde, he instead saw three of Seena’s flaming ghoul pets dart out to meet it.

What can they do?

BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM!

The three ghouls exploded in house-sized explosions of fire and force. Ghoul parts sailed into the air like fireworks, heat washed across the courtyard, and when the flames faded, all that was left were three craters.