3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

D ante, Khel, and Morty kicked back their chairs, leaving what remained of their food and snatching up everything else—most notably, their weapons.

"Wait!" Zen tried, but they were already gone, rushing for the door, whereas everyone else in the tavern had hunkered low to remain planted.

Zen should do the same. He had no weapon, only his prayers, but amidst such fearless reactions from real adventurers, his whole body shouted at him to move, go, do something , until seemingly against his will, he flung out of his chair to follow.

Chaos reigned in the street outside, which had been mostly empty when he'd hurried through it earlier, now filled with people running and several guards on watch trying to keep order.

Zen couldn't tell at first where his new friends had gone, but then he saw Morty's bright blue hair disappear down a side street.

"Hey!" a guard tried to stop Zen, only to recoil when he saw Zen's ashen face—just like Jorgen, like that priest from before, like those acolytes, and everyone else, even Rosie at times, save the three men Zen was chasing.

He ignored the guard and hurried on. The side street he arrived at was narrow, leading directly to one of the lesser used gates into the city that had clearly been overrun by sheer numbers, because the creatures Zen saw were a good dozen if not two.

They were vampires—the glow of their eyes and sharp, glinting fangs proved it—but Zen had been taught that vampires could blend in seamlessly with normal races, while these people looked lifeless like corpses, viciously snarling as if they were mad.

Guards were trying to fend them off at the far end where they were spilling in from the broken gate, but closer to Zen were the adventurers, keeping the vampires from bursting out onto the main street.

"The great wizard Yenora swore by this spell, if I could only find it," muttered Morty, closest to Zen, on the ground, but not thrown or injured, just digging through his books.

Further down was Dante, who's eyes seemed to glow like those of the vampires, totally enthralled in the fight despite only being able to swing his great-axe sparingly, given the close-quarters.

Khel was furthest away, at the start of the bottleneck from the guards, where more and more vampires were slipping through. He was defending more than striking, shield up, protecting a young pair of—the couple! It had to be the couple Zen had overheard courting in the corner of the tavern!

In that moment of realization, Zen watched Khel give a mighty heave with his shield, shoving a vampire back into two more behind it, and then he swung his sword with the extra room given and lopped off all three of their heads at once.

Zen tasted bile in the back of his throat and wished he'd left his stomach empty. He had never seen anything killed before, and the blood that flowed from the stumps of the vampires' necks as their bodies crumbled was black and oozed like ichor.

Dante's axe clanged into the wall with his next swing, pulling Zen's attention to him. No heads rolled this time, for several vampires broke past Dante, headed for Morty, who was still paging through his books.

"I know that spell's somewhere—"

"Morty!" Dante cried to warn him, and Zen knew he had to do more than just stand there.

" Light !" He shot out his hands, aiming for a burnt-out broken lamppost between Morty and the rushing vampires, which lit it up with a flash brighter than any flame, causing the encroaching monsters to rear back and hiss.

"No!" Morty shouted at Zen, much to his surprise. "Not Light! Daylight! Sunlight !"

The vampires had already recovered and lunged for Morty more fiercely than before.

Zen didn't know how to summon Sunlight!

" Mirror Wall !" Morty slapped his hand to the wall behind him, making it shimmer and glisten as it became reflective.

This time, when the vampires reared back, they continued to stumble away, holding up their arms to shield their eyes as if their reflections physically pained them to look upon.

Dante turned, took an orange glowing bottle of something that had been hanging from his belt—where Zen now saw there were many similar bottles with differently colored liquids inside—and hurled it at the vampires' feet.

Fire erupted up from where the bottle burst, enveloping the vampires in flames and causing them to shriek.

Alchemy . No wonder he'd kept going on about setting things ablaze.

"For future note, regular light just pisses them off," Morty said matter-of-factly and returned to his books as if nothing had happened.

Who were these men?

Zen continued to stare, having no idea how he could assist, and watched Morty—still muttering about the spell he was looking for and recounting the history of how this Yenora had created it—conjure water out of nothing and hurl it at the fire still raging once the vampires turned to ash.

The water flowed through the flames, causing a hiss of smoke, moving first past Dante's feet, and then toward Khel, who noticed and turned his shield at the wave.

" Bless !"

The sunburst on Khel's shield pulsed with silver light, and before the water dissipated, it washed over the feet of several vampires, now holy water that burned them with an audible sizzle.

They toppled and melted like pudding.

More were coming, but there was a path now from Khel to the end of the side street, and he urged the young couple to run.

"Go!"

They did so, not even pausing to look at Zen as they escaped past him.

That was when Zen saw that more guards had arrived, standing behind him, watching as amazed as he was at the adventurers protecting their city while their own men were falling. None of them were moving to offer aid, just watching.

Like Zen.

Rushing to one of the gaping guards, Zen pulled a crossbow from slack hands and whirled back around. The guards at the other end had indeed fallen, with a new swarm of vampires descending the narrow passage. Khel was soon taking on two, Dante three, and then one of the ones facing Dante ducked beneath his axe to head for Morty.

The Mirror Wall had faded, and Morty was still looking through his books.

"Let's see, if Yenora was from the second age—"

"Morty!" Zen howled, and the wizard's head flew up. As the vampire dove for him, he stood and punched it straight across the jaw without grimacing, as if he was made of steel. It crumbled like any person would, jaw broken and hanging visibly crooked.

Definitely also a monk, no matter what he said.

There were still so many more vampires coming, one or two taking the place of any Khel and Dante took down, but as the narrow street began to fill with more monsters coming from the far-off broken gate, Morty returned to a book he had open and hollered in triumph.

The vampire he'd punched twitched upon the ground, so he clubbed it with his heavy tome, before opening it again to the page he had marked. He knelt beside the smear of ash and blood on the ground where the other vampires had burned, sticking his hand right in the thick black substance and using it to write symbols and runes on the ground for his spell that he slowly began to speak in a whisper of Magic Tongue, until he thrust his bloody hand outward with a single clear decree.

" Massive Clot !"

Dante and Khel flattened themselves to either side of the walls as a haze of red fired down the street, striking every vampire in its path. At first, the vampires looked unaffected, but then their rushing movements turned to slogs, their limbs stiffening and eyes widening.

Vampires were fast because, unlike normal undead, their blood worked differently. It was sludge-like to be sure, at least in these creatures, but it flowed and clot and acted like normal blood, it just needed to be replenished.

Morty had just caused every ounce of blood in their bodies to clot all at once, rendering them immobile and then dropping them to the street like moths after being drawn to deadly firelight. Dante and Khel began mowing through them with swings of their axe and sword respectively, until the street was riddled with headless bodies.

"Knew I'd find the right spell," Morty said, clapping his book shut again and looking back at Zen with a grin. "Pity that only works on ghouls."

Ghouls . That's why they were crazed and looked like corpses. These weren't full vampires.

"Ah!"

Morty crashed to the ground as the ghoul he'd bludgeoned grabbed onto his ankles and pulled. The book flew from his hands, and he was too far from the others, winded and flat on his back, as the ghoul recovered and leapt to its feet. It fell upon Morty, who was helpless and prone, its nails looking as sharp as a wolf's claws that it swung back to slash across his throat.

Zen raised the crossbow and took a breath to pray. " Holy Fire !" he cried, and just as the bolt loosed, it and the entire crossbow lit up with a glow so bright, Zen squinted as though it were the sun.

The bolt soared like a falling star right through the ghoul's head, its hand frozen mid-strike as crackles like jagged lightning shot all throughout its body, and it fell forward, almost landing atop Morty, until he shoved it to the side.

Khel and Dante were nearly all the way down the street now, taking care of stragglers, but they saw what had happened and came rushing back.

"Not bad," Morty said, climbing to his feet and dusting off his clothes.

"More like glorious!" Khel called. "Brilliant, Zen! Remarkable!" As he reached Zen and shifted the weight of his shield, he hissed. He had several cuts on his cheek, but many deeper slashes on his arm.

"You're hurt," Zen said, much as the words surprised him, since he felt like he was in shock.

"It's nothing," Khel said with a shrug.

Zen let the crossbow hang from his left hand, reaching forward with his right to touch the torn fabric above the cuts at the edge of where Khel's bracers had protected him. " Heal ," he whispered, feeling his amulet grow warm on the skin of his chest as Khel illuminated and his cuts began to fade.

In moments, it was as if he'd never been hurt at all.

"Remarkable indeed," Morty said, seeming to finally notice that his one hand was still sticky with blood and trying to wipe it on his shirt. "You're downright useful."

"Thank you." Khel smiled. "Dante makes potions, but that can get cumbersome on the road, and my skills have never been honed that direction other than with mild blessings. We could use you."

"Do you mean that?" Zen felt like he'd caused more harm than good up until the end.

"Why, want to tag along?" Dante called from behind the others, kneeling over that last ghoul. "You got this one right in the eye!" He plucked out the bolt, bringing the ghoul's milky eye with it, that he appraised as though looking upon a gem.

Zen still felt nauseated being around so much blood and death and… parts.

"We're leaving in the morning," Khel said, none of them seeming at all bothered like Zen was, but then, they must be used to this sort of thing. "We'd welcome another servant of the Sun God should you choose to join us. You are a priest, after all. Can't you request leave for worthwhile missions?"

"Um… of course," Zen lied. Full priests could, but he hadn't mentioned yet that he was a mere acolyte and not allowed to leave the city.

"If you decide your calling is for something grander," Morty said, "meet us at the west gate at dawn."

They were inviting him along, truly, on a real adventure to slay a vampire lord.

Zen would have happily joined them to hunt a rabbit for stew.

But he couldn't.

He couldn't…

"Coming back to finish your ale?" Dante stood in front of Zen suddenly, blood-smeared and sweaty and looking very pleased about it and the carnage behind him.

"I… I should get back to the temple. It's late."

"Your loss." Dante smacked Zen's shoulder with a firm clap. He seemed so large and imposing, yet his height meant he and Zen looked each other right in the eyes, and Zen felt no menace from him, only comradery. "If we see you tomorrow, bring a real crossbow." He nodded at the one in Zen's hand. "That one's shit."

They were leaving. Zen turned to follow their exit, seeing the same guards from before still gaping in wonder, while more were finally starting to arrive, getting the luxury of cleaning up the mess.

Zen had to go back to the temple. He had to. At this rate, someone might mention having seen him here to the wrong people.

"Thanks for the rescue!" Morty called before he and Dante disappeared around the corner.

"I'll not say goodbye yet," Khel lingered to add. "That way you have to see us off tomorrow. ‘Til then, brother."

Tomorrow. Zen had considered running away so many times, but the same thought had always stopped him: Where would he go?

If he had a party though, if he was with… friends , then no one would ever have to discover he'd never become a full priest.

Zen dropped the crossbow and purged what little he'd eaten against the wall, thankful that only the guards remained to witness it. He'd face worse than this if he accepted their offer, but he'd be free. He could learn, adapt, and finally become something more than he could ever be here.

Perhaps this was how the Sun God finally answered his prayers.

Hands seized Zen from behind before he could push from the wall, and he worried the guards were angry he'd taken the crossbow or because of what he was, or maybe it was a ghoul they'd missed, still alive and hungry. But when Zen's attacker spun him, the truth he discovered was worse.

Father Lewis.