He made his way past the benches toward the front of the church, stepping across the floor with more of those golden letters hacked into the stone itself. Images of men and women were painted upon the stone, lifelike, but twisted. They wore nice clothes in the paintings and a lot of jewelry and riches. Each of them was on their backs, staring up at the church ceiling, pious smiles on their faces. But the people in the paintings did not have eyes, just dark holes painted in their stead.

  Like with the Tutorial Dungeon, no lanterns or torches lit their way, but there was still light to see by. The butt of Mateo’s spear clanked against the stone as he walked, slapping it down on the stone with every couple of steps, the sound echoing off the walls and ceiling.

  The air felt stagnant, like it hadn’t moved in ages, and Luke found himself scanning the room for a window to open. To his surprise, there were none. No windows at all. Curtains hung around the sides of bare walls, another strange point of interest, seeing as there had been windows when they looked at the church from the outside.

  "What’s that smell?" Ray asked.

  Luke couldn’t smell anything specific other than the smell of an old building.

  "Smells like an old church," Penny said. "It’s beautiful, in a way."

  "No, there’s something," Ray said, inhaling through his nose. "Like a sweet smell."

  He cleared his throat and spat. "Tickling the back of my throat."

  "You don’t spit in a church!" Penny hissed.

  "It’s not a real church," Ray said.

  The group moved to the front of the church and looked around, surprised that they hadn't been assaulted yet. Hallways stretched out in both directions. They looked alike. Wide enough to fit them all, but with a low ceiling.

  Mateo pointed his spear to the left. "We shall continue down this path."

  "Why not the other one?" Ray asked.

  Mateo placed his palm over his heart. "Because I feel it is the correct one."

  Ray shot Luke a glance, gave a nervous chuckle, then shook his head, bemused, and fell back as they set off down Mateo's chosen path.

  The corridor proved shorter than they expected, and soon a wide room with a taller ceiling spread out before them. Old, rotting bookcases lined the walls, and tables dotted the space with a single chair by each of them, more books piled in heaps everywhere. Corpses slumped in the chairs, their heads and arms resting on the tables, like they'd fallen asleep during their studies and died there.

  "Love the ambience," Ray said as they continued into the room, but his voice was flat and without his usual dry humor.

  A barred metal door waited for them on the opposite side of the room. After examining the room's long-dead inhabitants, Colt stepped up to the door, removed a thick length of wood placed on the wall to keep the door shut, and pulled the door open.

  It swung open, but Luke couldn't see what lay beyond, with Colt's massive bulk in the way.

  "Oh crap," Colt said, slamming the door shut and backing away.

  "What?" Luke asked.

  "Trouble," Colt said.

  Luke returned the book he'd been leafing through to its place on the desk where he’d found it, and hefted his quarterstaff.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  The metal door exploded open with a loud crack that reverberated through the room as flames spread outward. A ball of fire hurled through the now-open door, crashing into Colt's shield before erupting in more flames.

  Colt fell back, crashing into a table. The brittle wood splintered under his weight, breaking in half. Books and pieces of wood showered down over Colt, who struggled to get to his feet as another fireball slammed into him, throwing his shield out of his hand.

  A shadow snaked away from Hannah. It reached the door and slammed it shut again, but it exploded open an instant later, and the figure stepped out. Skeletal hands stuck out from a robe the color of dried blood. A hood hid its face, but not the red glowing eyes. An undead mage, like the ones who'd emerged through the portal earlier. This one, however, was smaller.

  Fire engulfed both its hands as it regarded the group, licking at the fabric of its robe, the smell of burnt cloth filling the room. Luke was over at Colt, already helping him to his feet, and had to throw himself back and to the side to avoid gushing flames reaching for him in a raging torrent.

  Mateo's spear soared through the room and slammed into the undead mage's shoulder, pushing it back a step, but the mage didn't lose its balance. It held up its hand to the spear and enveloped it in fire, but it disappeared into thin air as Mateo recalled it to his hand before it could burn.

  Hannah's shadows stretched out again, hunting for the undead mage's legs, but fire met them, chasing away the darkness. Then Colt was up, having retrieved his shield. Hair singed but otherwise unharmed, he charged at the undead mage, who raised a wall of fire and stopped Colt in his tracks.

  The group swarmed forward, Luke at the back. He blinked and turned, seeing the many corpses on the tables. They stirred.

  "What the?" he shouted, but the wall of fire drowned out his words.

  Before he had the chance to react, he felt something cold grab his wrist and looked down. One of the dead scholars had reached out and held him firmly in its grasp. Luke pulled on his arm, but the skeleton, weighing almost nothing at all, just allowed itself to be pulled along. It didn't have any weapons, but its chattering teeth reached for his face, snapping.

  Luke pushed on it, but the damn thing showed incredible strength despite its lacking weight. Another one joined in, pulling Luke to the ground. He heard a low thud behind him, and Ray saying, "That's how I killed the other undead mage, too. Just take its head off!"

  "Friends! We have come under siege!" Mateo shouted.

  Then the others were among the skeletons too, fighting and struggling to get them off Luke, but there were too many. A third and a fourth skeleton joined in, piling on. Their powerful, bony fingers pressed into his arms, shoulders, and neck with enough force to make Luke cry out in pain.

  They reached for him, tried getting their fingers into his mouth and eyes. One bit down on his shoulder, and pain flared as Luke struggled to get out from under them. Another skull clamped its jaw shut around his calf. Luke cried out, grasping for the focus to activate The Healer's Moment.

  System Message: The Healer's Moment is still on cooldown (180 seconds remaining).

  Luke groaned, unable to move his arms. If he'd been able to pause using the skill, then he might have been able to think of something, but no dice. Instead, Luke reached for the only weapon available to him: his mana.

  With a cry, more from anger than anything, Luke brought his mana into the external world through the palm of his hand, relying on Weaver's Grasp. Activating Needle of Life, he gave it an edge that, so far, he'd only used to heal. Now it became his tool of destruction.

  He slammed the thread of mana into a skeleton's skull, and the monster lost its rigidness in that same moment, the bones falling in a heap. Another undead took its place. Luke didn't hesitate and killed that one too, slamming mana into its skull before withdrawing the thread of mana.

  The other skeletons weren't near enough to his palm for it to reach, but he willed the thread to appear at his shoulder instead, penetrating another skull. Killing in an instant.

  Luke broke them one by one, ruining whatever magic held them together, because there was nothing else inside those skulls, just an empty void, a darkness that Needle of Life pierced to bring an end to these horrific creatures.

  Soon, he emerged from a pile of bones with throbbing injuries. Weaver's Eye told him the bites were deep, but at least the skeletons hadn't torn anything off. Luke wasn't the only one injured, however.

  Penny had suffered a bite as well. Nothing too bad, but her voice shuddered a little as she chanted, voice crackling with power, and lightning streaked from her hands, her eyes sparkling like storm clouds.

  "I’m not down, I’m not done, feel the sky ignite!"

  "Pain in my chest, but I won’t lose this fight!"

  "Heart like thunder, I strike all night!"

  The words were sung to the melody of Kelly Clarkson's Stronger and lightning obliterated a mass of skeletons trying to reach her. Penny could take care of herself. That much was obvious, but Colt didn't fare quite so well against the massing undead.

  "Colt!" Penny shouted, then her eyes lost their magical spark and her knees gave out. She slumped to the ground, too tired to stand, but still reached for Colt with a trembling hand.