A Monster Life Ch. 25-27

The first crack of stone came, then more, and within moments pieces of floor slabs shot up and a great number of skeletons in tattered rags crawled up from underneath the floor all around them.

'I think we need to tell Master.' said Kaui while her heart raced in fear.

'No!' said Iphigenia. 'He needs to focus on taking down that necromancer with Valdys. We just need to hold out long enough and when the necromancer's gone, so will these guys.'

'I agree.' said Elzbieta. 'He can't help us in any other way so we just have to trust in him and Valdys to succeed.'

Kaui looked at Iphigenia and Elzbieta, gripped the grenades in her hand, and nodded. 'Then we'll keep fighting.'

'Head for a corner to keep our backs safe!' said Iphigenia.

She and Elzbieta took point and cleared a path through the converging skeletons with the rest in tow until they reached a corner, and formed a tight line with the spirits and creatures. 'These skeletons are unarmed but tenacious!' panted Elzbieta as she slashed a couple reaching out to her.

Iphigenia kicked one away from her and deflected a blow from a floating armour mixed in with the skeletons. 'They get in the way of the armours and knights but that's not much of an advantage!'

Kaui handed out grenades to the creatures, who rushed in between the attackers and left them at safe distances. The blasts echoed through the hall and spewed bones around but the pressure of the numbers pushed the girls further back into the corner.

'We're out of grenades!' said Kaui, frantically searching her bag while an explosion rang and rained down more bones and pieces. 'That was the last one!'

***

'Valdys!' shouted Ulric.

A flash of bright red light blinded him, and violent tremors rushing through the floor threw him on all fours while every bookcase lost its contents and toppled over. He heard Demetrus's excruciating cry of agony and barely saw his vague shape shred to pieces and vanish.

The tremors died down and Ulric squinted while crawling over the littered floor toward the entrance where Valdys had been. His eyesight recovered enough to see the pure white scorch mark on the floor while red smoke drifted up and faded away. 'Valdys.' he whispered with pain in his chest.

Tinkling of glass sounded next to him and he gazed at the creature that crawled out of the rubble. 'You survived!?'

The squirrel skeleton shook its head, sat up to look at Ulric, then noticed its tail bones were immersed in the spirit image of its real tail. It squeaked and jumped up when it looked down and saw it possessed a spirit body with its own skeleton vaguely visible. It looked up at Ulric and chittered profusely.

Ulric laughed and held up his paws. 'I don't know. Maybe it's because of Valdys protecting you when Demetrus attacked you or it happened during the destruction of his book.

The squirrel chittered once.

Ulric's ears drooped. 'She's gone.' he said softly. 'Demetrus did say she would die with him.'

The squirrel slumped and drooped its ears as well.

Ulric looked up. 'Girls! Are you all right!?'

***

Iphigenia groaned while she pushed against the skeletons. 'I can't hold out much longer!'

Elzbieta pushed her sword with both hands against more skeletons. 'Kaui! Do you see any opening!?'

Kaui searched frantically for a weak spot in the crowd of skeletons and knights and armours around them from atop the stone pedestal in the corner and the rat on her shoulder chittered in her ear. 'The spirits and creatures are trying to create a breach but they can't reach the edge!'

'I always knew my end would come during a fight against overwhelming odds.' groaned Iphigenia. 'I just want you girls to know I'm glad I met you.'

'Don't give up yet!' groaned Elzbieta through her clenched teeth. 'You survived death once, you can survive it each time!'

Iphigenia chuckled once. 'I love your optimism.'

A chill ran through their spines when Valdys spoke to them. 'Farewell, my friends.'

A rumble rose in the distance and a moment later the hall trembled from the tremor hitting it. The rumble faded and the force pushing against Iphigenia and Elzbieta grew weaker. 'They're falling down!' said Kaui and hopped on the pedestal in joy.

The girls pushed the inanimate skeletons back and gazed at the floor filled with rag covered bones, stone bodies, and empty armours with swords lying next to them. 'They did it?' said Iphigenia. 'Wolfie and Valdys did it?'

'Girls!? Are you all right!?' Ulric asked.

'Wolfie!' said Iphigenia and her heart raced in happiness. 'We're all right! What about you!?'

Ulric sighed in relief. 'I'm fine.'

Iphigenia sensed his sadness. 'Valdys?'

'She, vanished when she destroyed the book.'

Iphigenia's chest tightened in the urge to hold him. 'I'm sorry.'

'I'm sorry, darling.' said Elzbieta.

'As am I, Master.' whispered Kaui.

Ulric looked at the squirrel. 'I'm just glad she could feel alive for a short while at the end. It could have ended for her the same way she had lived up until now.' He took a deep breath. 'Now we need to find a way to meet up again.'

The squirrel chittered and hopped towards the door.

'Our little squirrel friend knows a route to a hall with an altar and fountain.'

'Our guide knows the place.' said Kaui and stroked the rat's bony nose. 'It can take us there.'

***

Ulric had already arrived when the girls entered the round hall. 'Wolfie!' shouted Iphigenia and ran up as fast as she could, then jumped into his arms and kissed him passionately. Elzbieta and Kaui hurried closer and Iphigenia let go of him for them to kiss him with equal passion.

He smiled and nuzzled all of them. 'I'm so glad to have you by my side again.' he said and his stomach grumbled.

The girls laughed while he grinned in embarrassment. 'That's not the same kind of hunger that I feel for you though.'

Kaui sighed. 'I'm afraid we lost our packs during our fight.'

He caressed her cheek. 'Those can be replaced.' he said. 'Losing you would have been a disaster.'

She blushed and smiled up at him, then looked in surprise at the ghostly squirrel hopping onto his shoulder. It chittered cheerfully. 'The others are coming here with our packs? That's wonderful!'

Ulric chuckled and pat the squirrel's head. 'Where would we be without you and all your friends?'

The squirrel puffed up its chest and chittered once, and Ulric and the girls laughed. 'Yeah, obviously lost.' he said.

Soon enough groups of skeletal creatures and some spirits brought their packs and they quickly ate and drank their fill. Kaui stared at Ulric when a thought hit her. 'I just realised, how come we understand what our little friends say all of a sudden?'

Ulric gazed at her. 'Ah! Now that you mention it, I hadn't noticed because of the fighting.' he said and imagined his tally list in his mind. 'Maybe I received a new ability again.' He read the list and nodded. 'Parrot.'

Iphigenia chuckled. 'Parrot?'

'It's a bird species in my world that can learn to speak a few words in human language.' said Ulric. 'They're famous for it in stor-'

His eyes went wide when he read the rest of his tallies.

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