The stink surged, putrid rotting meat, and we were attacked. Shambling husks lurched out of alcoves. Animated corpses in various stages of decay, their bodies pulsing with demonic energy. At least a dozen of them. Sando was the first to react, a pair of knives whipping out to land in the eye sockets of one. I drew and loosed my arrow, hitting one center mass and it stumbled but kept coming. Jaskin lunged forwards to bash one with his shield even as he chopped into another’s neck. The things stumbled or fell, but a moment later they were moving again. I put arrows into heads, chests, legs, and only slowed them down. Shrya threw a few darts, and while those that hit slowed their targets significantly if the poison started eating away at a major muscle, they did not die.

“How do we kill them?” I screamed as I planted a foot into a husk’s chest and pushed it back a few steps. The skin burst like a blister and foul juices sloshed onto my foot. They were slow and uncoordinated, but relentless.

“Let them gather a little more!” Kim said around gritted teeth, a sphere of compressed mana between her hands.

Shrya scampered around to the back of the group, unnoticed, and started slashing the backs of knees and ankles with her short spear. Jaskin was at the head of the mob, using his shield to shove them back into a clump and hacking into legs.

Then Kim flung a hand out, the mana sphere racing out to implode with a slight rush of air. The husks were compressed even further, crushed together in a flailing mass of limbs, and then with a gesture of her other hand they all collapsed like their strings had been cut.

“What did you do?” I asked as I nocked another arrow, just in case.

“Severed the connection to the force that was animating them. Thank you for grouping them together, much more efficient than dispelling one at a time.” She took a few deep breaths. Those two spells had cost her more mana than my maximum.

I gave a cursory glance over the corpses. Most wore tattered clothing, and I didn’t spot anything of value. Glancing down at my wet foot I shuddered, and then rubbed some dirt over it to try to get off the corpse juice.

Jaskin in the lead, shield up, we entered the temple. The warlock’s scent was strong in here, stinking of fear. Demonic stench was even more so, a palpable taste of sulphur and ash. The short hallway opened into the cathedral. Much of the furniture had been pushed to the sides to clear a large circle roughly five meters wide. Symbols had been painted on the floor in blood, the warlock had used his own from the smell of it. He might be nearly dead from blood loss judging from how much had been used. The center of the circle was shrouded in darkness, even to my eyes.

“Think he summoned something already?” I asked, pivoting around to check the shadows.

“Not yet. Whatever comes through that circle will be a lot larger than an imp.” Kim gestured, touching each of us lightly. Another shimmering layer of force wrapped itself around us. [Lesser Warding of Fire Resistance, granting us +35% physical, and +25% fire, resistance. Duration: 00:05:00].

A pained howl echoed through the building, and the warlock stumbled out of a doorway on the other side of the room, clutching a golden chalice that seemed to be burning his hands based on the smell and smoke drifting up.

“No! Get away!” He cried.

“Absalom!” Jaskin roared, sprinting forwards, only for an animate tendril of darkness to shoot out of the circle and trip him.

I shot an arrow, and Sando hurled a pair of knives. All were deflected at the last moment, and then the warlock fell to his knees, hurling the chalice into the circle. With a thunderous crack the darkness split open. Kim thrust her hands forwards, a shimmering shield of force springing up in front of us just as a wave of darkness crashed against it. The shield shattered, but left us unharmed.

“Kill him, I will seal the rift.” Kim said as she touched her thumbs together and reached towards the circle.

The warlock pulled a wand out of his belt, waving it wildly with shaking hands.

“You will not take me!” and then started firing spells at us. I got hit by one, making the shadows warp and move around me and whispers spring up in the back of my mind. I rolled away, as a thankfully imaginary claw scythed through me to no effect. A burst of flame washed over Jaskin, deflected by his shield. Our wardings stopped the worst of it, but it was still unpleasant to have a burst of hot air in the eyes. I activated [Beastial Rage] and it helped a bit with the hallucinations.

“Go high!’ I hissed to Shrya as I ran to the left, not entirely able to trust my senses. She scurried up the wall out of sight.

Sando was crouched behind Jaskin, throwing a steady stream of knives to arc down towards the warlock’s head, some of which were flying back into his hands after being knocked out of the air by dark tendrils.

I grabbed my poisoned steel arrow, taking a second to let my eyes clear, and then fired. A wave of darkness flared up again but it cut through at an angle, sinking into his arm, but not the one holding the wand. He turned my way, madness in his eyes. I grabbed another arrow in panic, a normal one, and fired just as he cast a spell. The arrow was knocked aside by tendril just as a shadowy spear formed on the wand and lanced out towards my heart. The wardings deflected it slightly, probably the only thing that saved my life, and the spear still punched through the iron plate, leather, and cloth, on my chest to cut along my ribs and send me tumbling.

I knew when I was outmatched, and dived behind a pile of debris. Still, it was enough of a diversion for Jaskin to close the distance, Sando right behind, and then the two were flanking the warlock. They fought well together, one using his shield to weather the storm of dark tendrils, the other dancing with impossible agility and unleashing a whirlwind of blades the whole while.

Shrya shrieked from above, and I rolled over to look, somehow knowing exactly what she had meant. The imp had revealed itself. It had crept up behind Kim and driven a cruel looking dagger into her back. I launched an arrow at it, forcing it to dodge away from the mage, and then another, which it avoided by stepping through the shadows to reappear much closer to me. With my arrow halfway nocked it leaped at me, intercepted in mid air by a blur that dropped from the ceiling.

Shrya and the imp thrashed around, clawing and biting and stabbing in a frenzy that took them tumbling into one shadow and out another. They were moving too fast to even think about shooting at, and Kim was standing again, though still bleeding. I turned back to the warlock, grabbing another steel arrow. Again it cut through most of the shadows, deflecting only slightly, hitting him in the chest this time. Jaskin seized the moment and bashed his shield into the warlock’s face, stunning him for just enough for two long knives to sink into his back. He staggered and dropped to his knees, head thrown back and howling.

Another colossal wave of shadow erupted out from him, knocking us all back, shattering Jaskin’s shield as he somehow twisted to intercept most of it. The rift yawned wider open, distant screams echoing through it and getting louder. An alien atmosphere started blowing through the widening rift.

I didn’t even waste time standing back up, I stayed sitting and launched arrow after arrow at the wounded warlock as fast as I could. Tendrils batted them aside, or deflected them, but every one was getting a little bit closer. Then Jaskin stepped in, sword in both hands, and brought it down on Absalom’s head. The warlock fell limp, head split open.

Shrya gave a hiss of pleasure, and I turned to see that she had gotten onto the imp’s back and was stabbing it repeatedly as it shook and foamed from the poison.

Kim was gasping, but the rift was slowly closing as she poured mana into it. I stumbled over.

“Can I help?”

“Just need time. Stop them.”

Four more imps were clawing their way out of the rift. I hit one with my last steel arrow, which impaled its chest and pinned it against some debris. A pair of blades flew across the circle to kill another.

I fumbled for another arrow, finding my quiver down to only two more arrows. The first one grazed an imp, and my last one missed as it blinked through a shadow to rush me. Jaskin caught it in midair with a powerful kick that sent it sprawling back, and then nearly chopped it in half. Shrya caught the last one with a dart to the abdomen, and while it was stumbling a knife from Sando appeared in its neck.

While I was scrambling around to retrieve a few arrows, the others took up position around Kim. Another wave of imps was coming, larger and stronger than the last. The one I picked still came at me even with a steel arrow I put into his chest, until Shrya jumped out and hamstrung him before slitting his throat.

With a creak and snap, the rift shut and the shadows vanished. I groaned and sat down, my side aching and chilled where I had been cut. It didn’t look too bad though, and had already stopped bleeding.

Kim looked like she would survive, a potion already helping to numb the pain and boost vitality. Jaskin was a bit rough around the edges, and his shield had been smashed into splinters. Sando looked pristine, not even breathing hard as he went around the room retrieving the knives that hadn’t flown back to him.

“That was something.” I wiped a bit of blood off my face. When had something cut my head?

“Damned fine work, everyone. Let’s take a moment, and then ensure there’s no other surprises in here.”

Now that we had a few minutes I got into the meditation pose to recover some mana, I could vaguely sense that Kim was doing the same behind me. An unexpected giggle broke my concentration and I looked over.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Kim tried to hide her grin as she leaned against the wall. “I just haven’t seen anyone do that since I was a child.”

“Not all of us went to fancy wizard school. If there’s a better way to do it, share with the rest of the class.”

“The pose isn’t necessary, it’s just to help the state of mind, that your body, mind, and core are inter connected and visualize the flow of energy. Meditation is all mental, you can sit however you’d like, or stand. With mastery you can do more.” She stood up, and then after a moment of concentration I could feel her gathering mana even while walking slowly. Each step was careful and measured, but she was breaking what I had assumed was an inviolable rule. “It’s all about feeling the connection.” Then her concentration faltered when she had to step around a bit of debris. “I’ve still got some more to learn.”

“Thanks.” I relaxed into a more comfortable posture, and then tried to meditate. It took a few tries but I got it working. She walked over and lightly touched my forehead

“Think deeper. You only have half of it, it’s a cycle. There is more than regaining mana faster, you can also develop how much mana you have.”

“Doesn’t that happen by spending mana?”

“Yes, of course, but it is not the only way. It would take a lifetime to develop the mana reserves I have if you only did that. Close your eyes, imagine that your core is like a well, an opening to a deep pool. Your mind is like a bucket, and your spirit is the water within. The act of meditation is like a rope lowering into the well, dipping into the deep waters of the ambient flow and then raising it up to nourish your body. You have a strong spirit, if you practice with dedication you can learn to harness that strength. There are many ways, you can get a bigger bucket, or you can pull on the rope faster, or hold more within your own body. There’s merit to each.”

“Oh, thanks.” It made a bit of sense, but it felt more like trying to suck the water out through a very long straw. When I relaxed it flowed back down. Maybe different types of Cores had different techniques.

Then she was walking away, and I had regained a bit of mana. I groaned and stood up, going to chase down my arrows. I found all four steel headed ones, they really did seem better in every single way, but several of the ordinary ones had broken, though the broadheads could be salvaged.

“At least he wasn’t a load-bearing boss.” I was actually very grateful the place hadn’t started to collapse onto us.

“What do you mean?” Jaskin was wiping blood off his sword, after having decapitated the warlock and cutting out his Core. He held it up to the light, squinting at it. I thought he was holding it out to me, so I started forwards, and then he dropped it to the ground and smashed it with the pommel of his sword.

“Nevermind, it’s nothing.”

“You did well. As did your partner. If you hadn’t been here that imp may very well have killed Kim, and then whatever Greater Demon was being summoned would have killed us.”

“I am just glad we’re alive.”

“Indeed. Come on, let’s check the rest of the place.”

Absalom’s clothes were torn and stained. The last few weeks of his life hadn’t been pleasant ones. Even his wand was a fairly rudimentary one, not all that different from my own.

Definitely not the epic loot you’d think would come from a runaway rich warlock. Nearly being murdered and the unexpected advice had however resulted in some progress, bringing Meditation up two ranks, and one more treat.

[Shadow Step(Evocation, spell, movement, shadow), casting time 0.25 seconds. Cost: 20 mana per meter to teleport. Entrance and exit must be in shadow but do not need to be connected]

That must be what the imps had been using, and [Shadow Tendrils(Conjuration, spell, area, duration, shadow), casting speed 1 second, cost: 25 mana, duration: 15 seconds. Tendrils of solid shadow appear in a 1 meter radius around you to snare anyone they touch, slowing movement speed by -50%, and providing 75 Armour]

Lastly, I had discovered an Abjuration spell

[Lesser Warding(Abjuration, spell, touch, duration)

Casting speed: 5 seconds

Cost: 25 mana

Duration: 00:10:00.

Increases physical resistances of target by 2.5%]

Though it appeared my version was significantly weaker than Kim’s at the starting rank.

Cautiously we swept through the rest of the ruins, which were two wings dug into the hillside. There was no indication of why this place had been seemingly abandoned. We did find the warlock’s supplies in one of the side rooms, and the crypt underneath where he had pilfered the older corpses, as well as bloodstains from a few of the fresher ones. Nothing remarkable.

When we were satisfied that no demons would appear behind us, and the warlock wouldn’t cheat death with some hidden spell, we set out back towards the town. I couldn’t help but keep glancing back.

“Don’t worry, he’s dead for good.” Kim said, misunderstanding.

“I know. I’m just freaked out.” Not really, I just couldn’t understand the waste of a good Core. Was it just because Humans didn’t eat them? How could I ask about it without mentioning that I ate them?

“Will you return east?” I asked Kim.

“Yes, I will join a new Covenant and continue my education. Where will you go? Will you join a new tribe?”

“I’ll probably stay around here for a while more, do a few other jobs around the town. Something easy.”

We got back to the town shortly before dawn, and I called Abe over to join us at the table. Jaskin bought everyone a meal and drinks, toasting another successful bounty. Then he passed me a chunky sack of gold coins, and the quest was done.