by Leona Jarnefeldt 19th June 2021, 12:18 am
-Twenty minutes later-
Leona had waited for Amberlin to remember the way to the basement and lead them to it for the past twenty minutes, but her patience was starting to wear thin. Amberlin had been staring at the ground for the past twenty minutes and they were no closer to their goal. Leona was hoping to find the Lens and take it back to the Order of Lightbringers headquarters some time tonight, but it seemed like they were not going to find it any time soon. Maybe a gentle reminder was in order.
"Um, Amberlin? Are you OK?" Leona asked her partner, who was still deep in thought. She was so deep in thought that Leona concluded that speaking to her would not get her attention, so the blonde gently tapped her on the right shoulder. Amberlin jumped straight up into the air and shrieked.
"Um, sorry about that, Amberlin." Leona meekly apologized for startling her partner. She then looked around for anything that might have heard the cleric's shriek and was heading for the source of the noise. So far nothing had heard them, but that might change soon.
"It's no problem, Leona. I think I remember the way to the basement now!" Amberlin accepted the apology and gave the Wizard Saint some good news. Leona's face brightened at the prospect of finding the Lens and getting out of here.
"Really?" Leona asked in a hopeful voice.
"Yeah. I remember where it is now. Follow me!" Amberlin exclaimed before jogging off down the hall and towards the entrance. Leona, not wanting to be left behind, quickly followed behind the cleric.
-The first floor, three minutes later-
The cleric had led Leona past the entrance and down the hall towards the art room, then turned right and led her back down the side hall. The pair traveled down it and just before they reached the bend that would take them back to the main hall Amberlin pointed out an open stairwell that led down.
"There they are! The basement stairs! I forgot to point them out earlier!" Amberlin pointed with her right hand. Her face then turned red in embarrassment.
"I didn't see them either, so you're not entirely to blame." Leona stated that the cleric did not deserve all the blame for not seeing the basement stairs. The Wizard Saint did not see the stairs that led to the basement either, so half of the blame was hers. Both mages looked at each other, then the stairs.
"Well, at least we found them. Before we go down there, let me conjure an orb of light so that we can see better." Amberlin said. She then raised her right hand above her head, channeled golden magic into it, and conjured a ball of light the size of a tennis ball. The ball floated at her side and provided enough light to easily cut through the gloom upstairs and cast some of the light down the stairs.
"I'll lead the way, Amberlin." Leona declared and drew her Silver Longsword. She had no idea what was down in the basement and wanted to be ready for it. Amberlin nodded and let the Wizard Saint start going down the stairs first, then followed behind the taller blonde.
-Down in the basement of Sombras Manor-
After a brief two-minute walk down the stairs Leona reached the bottom. She looked in front of her and her natural night vision mode took effect, cutting through the gloom and letting her see the basement. It was a long and wide hallway a lot like the one in the Haunted Guild. However, Leona did not have much time or inclination to compare architectural features of the two places because she spotted some human forms lurking about twenty meters in front of her.
After taking a closer look Leona found that she was facing A LOT of human forms. Thirty-five was the ballpark figure, but there could be more. She had to let Amberlin know what they might be going up against. The cleric had just stepped off the last step when she began speaking to the blonde.
"Hey Leona, what do you see-" Amberlin started asking Leona a question about what she saw before the blonde motioned for silence with her left hand. Amberlin quickly caught the meaning of the gesture and went silent. Leona then walked over to the cleric and leaned down to whisper in her ear.
"I'm seeing a lot of human forms ahead. They might be-" Leona started to whisper before they heard a lot of moaning and the sound of feet shuffling towards them.
"Zombies!" Amberlin finished the sentence for Leona in a loud voice. The Wizard Saint turned around and saw that the undead were on the move towards the two mages. She readied her Silver Longsword and Amberlin raised her hands in front of her, then began chanting. Moments later the cleric glowed gold and fired a wide beam of Holy magic that hit a lot of the zombies and disintegrated them instantly. Leona counted twenty-five zombies that had been disintegrated by the spell, leaving her ten more to deal with.
Once the spell had been cast and the golden glow of the Holy magic beam faded Amberlin shouted a warning to Leona.
"I'll need some time to charge up for another spell. I'll let you know when it's ready!" Amberlin informed Leona. The blonde looked towards the cleric and nodded. She then went on the offensive to buy her partner time to prepare another spell.
Leona started off by raising her left hand and channeling silver magic onto the tip of her left index finger, forming a Wind Bullet. She aimed towards the head of the nearest zombie, a burly man in full steel plate who was missing a good chunk of the left side of its neck, and fired the spell, hitting it in the head and causing it to explode. The decapitated zombie crumpled to the ground and Leona then raised her left hand and pointed the palm towards another zombie. She channeled silver magic into the palm and once the spell was ready thrust the palm forward, firing an Air Pressure spell at the head of a female zombie dressed in chainmail armor and dragging the head of a steel mace along the ground in its left hand.
The second zombie's head burst from the force of the Air Pressure spell and it fell to the ground with a series of rattles followed by one final and dramatic CLANK. Leona looked ahead of her and saw that she had eight more zombies to deal with. They were roughly twelve meters away. There were no signs of reinforcements arriving behind them, so she could easily handle the rest of the current horde in time to be prepared to fight a second wave of zombies if one arrived.
[Post Word Count: 1,150]
[Total Word Count: 5,188/11,000]