Pandora Unchained B1C39: The Burial Chamber

Sorin had never seen a zombie in person, or at least one with its head still attached. He'd handled human cadavers and had slain many demons and even a few humans. Still, nothing could compare to the sheer wrongness of the animated dead.

It wasn't just their group that fell under attack, but all six groups in the tunnel. Doors opened a hundred meters in every direction, pouring endless amounts of rag-covered, disease-ridden abominations empowered by death mana.

While Stephan held the front, Lawrence and Warren retreated to cover their flanks. Nale cut down two corpses with his sword, leaving the other two that had emerged from the wall to Sorin.

Even powered by death mana, they still need to follow basic anatomy, thought Sorin. He didn't even bother with poison and used Viper Strike to stab a zombie in the neck, cutting apart its vertebrae. He then retreated using Adder Rush and stabbed the second corpse in the neck as it tried to bite him.

"How many of these things are there?" complained Nale, impaling another zombie with his sword. This one didn't collapse immediately but pulled itself forward. A wind-powered arrow, courtesy of Gareth, blew its head off before it could reach the swordsman.

"Either cut off their heads or don't bother," Gareth shouted. "Don't you know the basics?"

"I know what I'm doing, thank you very much," growled Nale. He then charged at one of the three undead coming out from the wall, leaving their flank open to attack. Sorin was forced to maintain his position and block the two zombies, but he suffered a plague-filled scratch to his arm in the process.

Disease entered his body from the open wound and immediately began contaminating his mana and thickened blood. Sorin instinctually mobilized the poisons in his body to attack this foreign invasion – a poor move that would typically only deepen disease and corruption. But to his surprise, it worked extremely well and completely eradicated the contaminants. It seems it's not just poisons and corruption I'm resistant to, but disease as well.

Sorin was emboldened by the discovery and fought even more viciously than before. Scratches and shallow cuts were fine for him, given his rate of regeneration. Adventurers didn't fear zombies because they were strong but because they feared getting infected by them. Curing such infections costs life mages valuable energy.

"Sorin, our back's under attack!" shouted Gareth. He and his fellow archer, Lise, were busy sniping off zombies that threatened their neighboring groups. Both archers were poorly equipped to resist a flood of zombies and required steady protection. As for Collin, he was doing his best to repel them with his sword and shield but could only do so much, given that they were under attack from all sides.

"Lorimer, guard this place," said Sorin, grabbing the rat out of his pocket and tossing it to another approaching zombie. The rat burst into flames and launched himself at the zombie's head. Then, to everyone's horror, he dug into its brain and chomped down on a black crystal core.

"Sorin!" shouted Gareth again.

"Coming!" said Sorin. He used Adder Rush to rush past both archers and meet the first of three zombies. He kicked that zombie back, stabbed the second in the throat, and received the third zombie's bite just before an arrow took its head.

"They're endless!" shouted another adventurer not far away. Their flank was getting overrun. They weren't part of Sorin's team, but letting them fall would endanger the entire formation. Sorin tossed out his mithril string and used Python Coil to tie up unstable zombie legs. The zombies stumbled, opening them up to an attack from the wine-drinking swordsman, Haster. "Many thanks!" said Haster as he hacked off the last zombie's head.

Crisis averted, Sorin examined the battlefield. The zombies were no longer pouring out from the sides and were instead most concentrated at their front and rear. Orpheus was fighting alongside Stephan, but both of them had suffered several wounds. They were starting to show signs of fatigue.

"Sorin!" shouted Daphne. "I want to burn some of these down, but I need protection."

"Can't you just lob a fireball over their heads?" asked Sorin, running up beside her.

"There are many reasons why that won't work here, but I'm not going to explain the physics behind them," said Daphne. "Stephan! Duck! Fireball!" The bear threw himself to the side just in time to avoid a blast of flame that downed eight zombies. "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" Twenty more zombies fell, buying Stephan and Orpheus time to retreat and their groups to form a new defensive line.

The tanks in each adventurers group formed a circle. At the same time, the remaining melee fighters killed those that appeared between the cracks. Archers and mages took up positions at the center and fired between natural openings as convenient.

Then, as quickly as they'd come, the tide of undead dried up. All that remained were hundreds of diseased corpses, complete with useless, rusted equipment and rotted clothing.

"All wounded, receive treatment from your life mages!" shouted Orpheus, spitting blood. "Unless you're opposed to that as well, Stephan?"

"Don't create conflict where it doesn't exist," said Stephan, shifting out of bear form. He winced as he rolled his shoulder and stumbled over to Hellen, their group's life mage, who was currently treating Nale's injuries.

"Hold still," said Hellen, applying a healthy but controlled dose of life mana. It poured into Nale's flesh and blood, invigorating it so it could fight off infection.

I wonder,… thought Sorin as he inspected Stephan's injuries. "Stephan, come over here and let me take a look at you."

Stephan had grown used to receiving treatment from Sorin and took a seat. Sorin knelt beside him and looked him over in his usual manner. He poured a small amount of poison mana into one of Stephan's more shallow wounds, destroying a bit of flesh but also eliminating the disease, the wound, the surrounding flesh, and Stephan's blood.

"Looks like my theory was correct," said Sorin. "Give me a few minutes to treat you, and you'll be good to go." He looked over Stephan's body and identified no less than 14 cuts and bite wounds. By the time Hellen was finished, Stephan's treatment was complete.

"Let me take a look at you," said Hellen, holding Stephan back.

"He's fine," said Sorin. "I eliminated the disease, and his natural recovery is high. He's perfectly capable of fighting."

Hellen frowned. "And what about you? I see no less than ten wounds on your body."

"I'm immune to such diseases," said Sorin. "And these wounds are all shallow. But go ahead and examine us if you feel strongly enough about it."

"Pardon my rudeness, but this is my job," said Hellen, inspecting Stephan's wounds. Her eyes widened when she realized Sorin was correct. "Impressive. You damaged him slightly in the process, but the disease was expelled. How taxing was it on your mana?"

"It didn't require much effort," Sorin admitted. "I can't heal tissue damage like you can, but when it comes to killing things, I'm not half bad. I guess I can add killing disease to my list of specialties."

"It's unconventional on the battlefield, but I'm happy to save my mana," said Hellen. "I'll be sure to leave cases like this for you in the future. But please, come see me for more serious injuries. I see the reason why you'd try such a treatment, but in the end, it's a barbaric way to treat wounds that can potentially kill someone if mistaken."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Sorin. He knew perfectly well the disadvantage of using poison to fight disease. That same argument had been used by the Medical Association to oust poison users from their ranks all those years ago.

Only a few adventurers were gravely wounded by the zombie attack. Of these, one of them was too injured to continue and had to be escorted to the entrance. Those that remained quickly looted the battlefield by extracting black crystals from the zombies they'd slain.

"Are these demon cores?" asked Sorin curiously, holding up a crystal. The demon cores he'd seen before were all vibrant in color, not pitch black like those they found in the undead.

"They're about the same," answered Stephan. "The ones we usually hunt are aligned with Violence or Madness. These ones, however, are aligned with Death."

"They're worth about the same at the Temple of Hope," added Lawrence, tossing a pouch of them to Stephan. "How are we going to split this mess? Group loot?"

"Group loot," Stephan confirmed. "We captains already discussed it before entering. Whatever we find as a super-group will get split evenly. It's only when we split up that it reverts to finders keepers. Now quiet down – I think I hear something." Sorin looked around to see that other groups were hushing their companions. The rogues and archers were frowning while looking down the dark corridor.

"I think there's fighting up ahead," said one of the more powerful archers with mana glowing in her eyes. "I think… I think I see adventurers fighting zombies!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" shouted Orpheus. "Let's go help our fellow adventurers! Unless a certain coward doesn't want to rush in alongside me?"

"Don't insult me," said Stephan. "It's worth the risk if they're in danger. Everyone, move!"

They advanced at a brisk pace while maintaining their previous formation. The remaining rogues fanned out ahead, spotting traps that they walked around instead of disabling. Fortunately, there weren't too many traps, and they arrived inside a large ceremonial chamber in less than a minute.

"Reinforce our brothers and sisters!" shouted Orpheus. "I'll take top!"

"I'll take left!" shouted Stephan.

"I'll take a right!" shouted the greatsword wielder, Haster.

"Keeper!" answered Barbara, leading a group to the middle of the room, where they cleared out immediate threats.

The ceremonial chamber was a mess. Out of the 80 or so adventurers who'd gone ahead, 20 were already dead, and 10 were several wounded. They, too, were under attack from the undead. Still, unlike the rag-wearing weaklings they'd fought before, these undead were deadly and even wore armor and only partially corroded weapons.

Sorin's group arrived just in time to fight off two greatsword-wielding zombies before they could cut down a bloodied bard. Her companions had already fallen, and her mana was completely exhausted.

"Daphne, take out that bigger zombie in the corner!" shouted Stephan.

Daphne immediately smashed apart an armored halberd-wielding zombie with a fireball, slaying it before it could kill a retreating archer.

Sorin and Lorimer launched themselves into battle. Sorin's poison wasn't especially useful against the undead, but his knowledge of anatomy and his practiced hands more than made up for it. Every slash and stab of his dagger took down an empowered zombie.

As for Lorimer, he was a menace on the battlefield. Whatever he saw, he ate. That included rusted armor, zombie bones, and zombie flesh and cores. It wasn't long before he began to glow with a diseased light, indicating that he'd successfully absorbed their plague-bearing properties.

Great, thought Sorin, using his mithril string to pull back a zombie's sword long enough for an axe-wielding warrior to cut it down. I'm now the proud owner of a disease-ridden rat. He had no plans on coming forward with Lorimer's latest ability.

With their arrival, the battle ended quickly. There were no further casualties on the adventurers' side. Sorin immediately got busy treating the lightly wounded with poison. He left the more gravely wounded for the life mages to handle.

As for Stephan and the other party leaders, they approached the survivors to determine what had happened while the rogues looted. "Apparently, it wasn't Orpheus who triggered the trap," said Stephan when he returned. "Our rogues were feeling uneasy because of impending danger. Someone, now dead, stupid enough to touch a statue. The statue was apparently a switch to open up all the side doors where dead soldiers and servants had been buried to hold eternal vigil.

"Didn't you say this was supposed to be a sealing tomb?" asked Sorin. "These things were clearly animated with death mana. Why would that be worked into their traps when this place was built prior to cataclysmic emergence?"

"I didn't say it was a trap; I said it was a construction feature," said Sorin, shaking his head. "As for the zombies, that's just Death's influence that infiltrated the tomb."

"So what now?" asked Lawrence, returning with a gory bag of crystal cores. "Everyone's exhausted, including the life mages."

"Everyone's agreed to a two-hour rest," said Stephan. "Try and recover as much mana and energy over the next two hours. Those who wish to retreat can go back to the camp. I doubt that the survivors of those groups that were destroyed will want to stay."