I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 21 - Only Mostly Dead

Evangeline couldn't actually hear the heroic music that would play at this moment, but she heard it in her head as she reached up and caught her +1 knife out of the air and readied herself into a fighting stance. Valerian caught his as well, catching his first while standing, then his second knife in a frankly unnecessary, but stylistically cool, jump spin. The momentum brought him down onto the nearest skeleton, lending a damage bonus to his thieves' strike attack, and the first skeleton crumbled to the ground into a pile of bone dust, vanishing as the spell within it broke apart.

Kicking off the dirt in her bare feet, Evangeline did the same, moving to his other side as a second skeleton flanked him. Her attack didn't do quite enough damage and gave the skeleton the opportunity to follow through on its attack.

Valerian cried out as the skeleton's weapon impaled his shoulder with a weapon that looked like it too was made of a sharpened femur. Despite his new wound, he swiped at the thing's head. The blow knocked it clean off. The skeleton crumpled to the ground into dust in a puff.

"Are you alright?" Evangeline cried, grabbing at Valerian's wound.

"I'm fine, keep fighting!" he shouted and turned to slash at the next skeleton. But it was clear to Evangeline that they were going to be overwhelmed by the skeletons too quickly. They had been caught flat-footed and without the armor they had just acquired.

Scanning the battlefield, she saw Sigismund blasting radiant beams, blowing the skeletons to pieces, and Artmond swinging his own sword, trying to keep those that got past her blasts.

Hagor did a sort of Hail Mary, swinging his Tangling Thorns wand at the necromancer, but the undead creature only laughed as the spiky vines twisted up his legs. They held him in place, but Hagor didn't see the skeleton being puppeteered behind him. Shoved forward, Hagor stumbled into the Tangling Thorns, the vines turning on their summoner as they wrapped around his legs and waist.

"Come little fly, into my strap. Come little mouse, into my mouth," the necromancer sang out, then lunged for Hagor. Sharp teeth bared, it sank them into Hagor's arm. The large man screamed as his blood was sucked away. His face went pale, and his frantic attempts to pull away became listless and weaker in a matter of seconds.

"Hagor! No!" Evangeline cried.

The biting didn't last too long. The necromancer released Hagor on its own. It lifted its head to the sky, Hagor's red blood dripping from its puckered mouth. Its bone-pale face sported spots of pink on its cheeks, flush where Hagor was drained.

"Hold on Hagor, I'm coming!" Artmond shouted, rushing toward the fight.

"No!" Sigismund shouted after him, but a pair of skeletons blocked her way.

It was Valerian who blocked the nobleman's son from his suicide run. "We need to flee!" he shouted, pushing Artmond to the ground.

"But we can't leave him!" Artmond cried gesturing toward the poor, trapped Hagor.

"We are outmatched, and we're going to have a total party kill if we stay!" Valerian shouted.

Evangeline knew he was right. She could see it. The skeletons had action economy on their side. The mob of bones would overwhelm their attacks, no matter how many they destroyed.

"We can't leave Hagor like this!" Artmond argued, trying to stand once more. As he did, a skeleton came up behind him, raising its bone sword over its head to strike him mightily. Only it got blasted from behind by Sigismund, who rushed through the cascade of dust to push Artmond to his feet.

She gasped for breath. "That was my last spell for the day!" she shouted, looking terribly afraid now that she was out of her holy arsenal.

"What do we do then?" Artmond cried, turning to face another skeleton. His back faced Sigismund's and Valerian's, and Evangeline realized they were forming up a last-stand circle with skeletons all around.

"What an ass," Evangeline muttered, directing those words at the necromancer.

Meta Knowledge: Activated.

Suddenly, Evangeline remembered. She remembered fighting this specific scenario a few dozen times, working out tactics and strategies. Also, she remembered what was scripted. No matter what, someone from the group would be attacked by the necromancer and killed.

And there was only one way to win this fight at their current levels.

"They're right. We have to retreat!" she shouted, then looked to Artmond as he whirled toward her, ready to argue again.

"Back to the ruins!" she cried, "It's our only chance!"

The other two looked to her too, but she couldn't waste any more time arguing.

Turning on her heels, she barely dodged a skeleton attempting to slash its bony claws across her face. She ignored it though, disengaging from fighting and running toward the door that led out of their camp, knowing that they could still outrun skeletons who could only shuffle walk. It was only when she reached to pair of saplings bent over in a way that formed a door that she turned back to see if the others had followed.

"Don't stop!" Valerian cried as he came up right behind her, nearly tripping over her as he tried to pull up short.

"The collars! They're keeping us together with Hagor. We have to wait!" Evangeline cried, turning in his arms to look back.

"Wait for what?" Valerian shouted.

"For Hagor to die," she replied solemnly.

They watched with detached solemnity as the vampire necromancer went in, attacking the lethargic body still entangled in its own magic. Then there was a shattering feeling at Evangeline's neck as a chain of light appeared between the five of them, only for Hagor's to burst into nothingness.

Watching him die hurt. He had always been a character she had cared about, but to actually watch it happen in front of her, it felt ... too real.

No, he's okay. He's still going to be okay, she thought, pushing those feelings of realness down.

"Okay, go, go, go!" Evangeline shouted plunging through the door, dragging Valerian with her.

Sigismund came next, with Artmond bravely trying to bring up the rear, but one of the skeletons followed behind.

Then there was a flash, and they were all through the door and back into the main world.

"Where... where did the skeleton go?" Artmond cried, turning this way and that, attempting to locate the monster he had just been fighting.

Knowledge: Arcana.

"They can't follow us through the door," Evangeline explained. "They were created inside Hagor's sanctuary and their constructs, so they can't leave until their master leaves and that guy is still entangled. This is our chance, head back to the temple!"

"Back to the temple?" Sigismund shouted, even as she followed after Evangeline, who had taken off beating the ground with her feet as fast as she could.

"Yes! It'll be safe. We've already cleared it out, and the boss is here. This is our only chance!" she shouted.

Valerian ran up to be parallel with Evangeline. "Our only chance for what?"

"To save Hagor."

To be continued...

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