Mel really enjoyed the look of shock in a person’s eyes when they encountered a Revenant that they had known. Even if they knew it was coming, they never really believed it until they saw it. They thought they’d be able to tell the difference, some difference in skin tone, in their voice, or in the light in their eyes. They’d look at the monster, and they couldn’t tell it wasn’t the person they had loved.

  Then the monster opened its mouth, and they saw the teeth.

  Maris pulled back an involuntary step. “This isn’t… she can’t…”

  “She died in the dungeon,” Kelsey said. “She’s fair game, and there was plenty of time between then and now for me to spawn her.”

  “You’ve wasted resources in the hopes of appealing to sentimentality,” Lucian sneered. “This thing may have Aurelia’s memories and skills, but we have her core. Her skills are all with casting, and she has no magic.”

  He stepped forward and made a gesture. “Revenants may be high-tier, but they’re still corpses. We can just brush them aside with…”

  He trailed off. Aubey—or maybe Mel should start calling her Aurelia now that she was on their side—was still there, unaffected by whatever spell the young mage had cast.

  “Yes, it’s easy to destroy corpses,” Aurelia mused. “Such a simple spell. And simple spells are easy to ward against.”

  “That—that can’t happen,” Lucian stammered. “You don’t have any magic.”

  Aurelia smiled, making sure to show all her pointy teeth. “I don’t have my core, no.”

  She patted the fabric that covered her cleavage. “My gracious mistress has gifted me with a new one. I think it belonged to Veylan.”

  “Veylan was a storm mage, wasn’t he?” Cassian said.

  “Eh, he aspired to being one, maybe,” Kelsey said. Cassian ignored her, of course, since he couldn’t hear her, but Lucian and Maris glanced her way. “He might have had performance issues. All he did in Bures was make it rain.”

  “Indeed, he was. And you know what that means, Maris?”

  Aurelia didn’t wait for an answer. The jagged lightning bolt flashed from her to Maris faster than Mel could see. The crack and sizzle of it sounded while she was still blinded by the flash. Maris’s scream came almost instantly after.

  Aurelia cackled with laughter as the other mages swore and began casting spells on Maris.

  “Of course, I still remember who had the weakest ward against lightning!”

  She laughed some more as she backed away. Occupied with healing Maris, the other wizards let her disappear into the undergrowth outside the cave.

  “I’m going to kill her,” Maris snarled. “Again.”

  Her robes were burnt, but still intact. Her burns were healing under Lucian’s ministrations.

  “Don’t be hasty,” Lucian cautioned. “That was a Levinbolt. I don’t recall Veylan ever casting that.”

  “He was young,” Cassian answered. “He may have had the Mana for it, but he didn’t have a Trait to cast a true Spell. Only Charms.”

  “Aurilia is—was—much stronger,” Maris said through gritted teeth. “Does anyone remember what kinds of Mana Veylan had? Besides Air.”

  The other two mages looked at each other.

  “Not really,” Lucian said. “He was strongest in Create, but his Destroy and Control were strong as well. I don’t know if he’d hit his limits on any of his types.”

  “Just be ready, then,” Cassian said grimly. “Remember, we can cast three spells to her one.”

  “What’s out there?” Lucian asked.

  Maris stared at him, then shook her head to clear it. “She got me so mad I was going to go out there without checking.”

  Her eyes focused on nothing for a moment, and then she grimaced. “Nothing,” she said. “It’s warded.”

  “Hmm, these wizard revenants are proving pretty useful,” Kelsey mused aloud. “How would you feel about getting level-capped and serving as a boss for one of the upper floors? Larry the lich is getting a little predictable.”

  Apart from a few glares, the wizards ignored her, talking amongst themselves about their formation and tactics against an unknown enemy. Kelsey continued talking, undeterred.

  “No worries, I’ll ask again once you’ve turned. Of course, at that point, the answer will be enthusiastic acceptance.”

  The invaders didn’t rise to her bait. Concerned that more strange bullets might be coming their way, they conjured thick shields of stone and levitated them to surround the party. Then they cautiously crept out of the entrance cave.

  “Not so confident now,” Kelsey noted. Nobody responded. Mel was getting excited. She’d never seen magical Revenants at work.

  “That’s far enough,” a male voice called. Lucian peeked through a gap in the shields and cursed.

  “I’d really hoped that she was lying about the Stormguard,” he said.

  “I’m afraid not,” Kaelan Stormblade, or at least a version of him, said confidently. “We’re here to defend our benevolent Mistress against your unchecked aggression. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to stand down or retreat?”

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  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Lucian sneered. “We’re not going to surrender to a bunch of zombies." He pointed at Kaelan and then screamed with frustration. “She warded them as well!”

  “Seems we’re starting then,” Kaelan declared. He raised his sword and let lightning crackle along its length, building up a charge.

  Lucian didn’t let him finish charging. A spear of fire burst out from the mage's outstretched hand. It covered the distance between them and then burst harmlessly on Kaelan’s armour.

  Kaelan laughed. “It seems you haven’t heard about my armour,” he said, and lowered his sword to point at Lucian.

  Despite Kaelan’s ostentatious threat, it was another Stormguard who struck the first blow. Finnian Stonehammer came in from one side, using the stone shield for cover.

  “Let’s see about clearing this battlefield!” he yelled, and struck at the shield with his hammer. Golden light flared, and the stone shield, near six inches thick, shattered into a thousand pieces.

  Cas swore, but he was occupied with keeping the other three shields in position. Maris screamed angrily, and a jet of water shot out from her fingers towards Finnian.

  Finnian took it head-on. “A decent attack, but not sufficient for the likes of me,” he said through gritted teeth. Then Aurelia ducked out from behind them and cast a spell.

  “Ah! She dispelled my fire ward!” Maris screamed. “Help me, Cassian!”

  Cassian looked over, but before he could act, an arrow, made of fire, screamed out from the bushes and embedded itself in her side.

  It was at that moment that Kaelan unleashed his sword’s lightning attack. Jagged blue lines of plasma crawled over the party and their stone shields. It looked impressive, but Mel was disappointed to see that it had no real effect. It distracted the invaders, as all of them instinctively flinched, but they were all warded against it.

  At least until Aurelia popped up again and dispelled one of the wards.

  Maris screamed in pain, while Kelsey cackled with glee.

  “Now we’re cooking with induction!” she cried. Mel had no idea what that was supposed to mean. “Better than gas, since it’s zero emissions!”

  Mel wished Kelsey would talk a little less nonsense sometimes. She understood what zero emissions was supposed to mean, but Maris was smoking quite heavily.

  Cas snarled and sent one of his shields flying right at Aurilia. Mel didn’t think that would hurt the undead wizard. She had the same wards against rock that the others did, after all. They proved unnecessary, as Finnian jumped in the way and swung his hammer at the heavy stone slab. Golden light flared again.

  This time, the slab stayed in one piece, but reversed direction, flying back into Cas’s face like a ball struck by a bat. Of course, Cas had wards, so the stone just stopped in mid-air.

  At least it’s blocking his vision, Mel thought.

  Another arrow of flame shot through the air and impaled itself in Maris’s arm. Mel watched intently. The wizard’s robes had provided at least some protection from the first shot, and also from the ravages of the lightning. But they were looking pretty tattered now, and enchantments didn’t last longer than the item they were bound to.

  Maris wasn’t doing too well. She seemed to barely register the arrow in her arm and was slumping in Lucian’s arms. She wasn’t casting spells, and she looked like she was out of the fight for now, but neither Kelsey nor Mel would be satisfied with that.

  Lucian was casting spells that ripped the fiery arrows out of Maris’s wounds. He was trying to heal her as well, but the wounds were arriving as fast as he could close them. Cedric, the Frostfire Ranger, was sending a hail of arrows at her, fire mixed with ice. Lucian tried to block them with his own fire ward, but Cedric was uncanny at finding gaps in his protection.

  Finnian was harassing Cas, smashing at his stone shields and at the man himself. The wizard was warded against flesh, against stone and against steel, but every golden flash from Finnian’s hammer had him flinching. Kaelan joined in, attacking with steel, lightning and howling wind. None of it could touch Cassian.

  Then Aurelia dispelled Lucian’s fire ward. He felt it almost instantly as another fire arrow punched through his robes. It was followed by a steady stream of more.

  “No!” Lucian shouted. He managed to recast the spell, drawing a circle of protection around Maris and himself. It didn’t look easy for him, Mel thought. On the ground, unable to see the Revenants that were attacking him, he put a spear of flame into the back of Finnian.

  Mel winced at the scorched hole it made in his back, but Finnian was too strong to fall to that. Revenants didn’t feel pain, anyway. Lucian didn’t get a chance to follow up because Aurelia dispelled his fire ward again. Another arrow slammed into him, and he went down.

  “Wretched creatures!” Cas roared. He swung one of his shields like a club, the impact of six inches of stone sending Kaelan flying. With his other hand, he gestured at Finnian.

  “Return to dust, maggot!” he yelled, and Finnian rose up in the air, struggling against an invisible grip.

  “No!” the zombie cried. “Have mercy, in Butin’s name!”

  Cas cared not for the pleas of a monster. The force that held Finnian started pulling at his limbs. With a scream of anguish—completely faked, as far as Mel was aware—his limbs detached from his torso. Dead again, for now, he dropped to the ground as Cassian turned his attention to Kaelan.

  “They could really use some guns right now,” Mel said to Kelsey.

  Arrows of fire and ice rained down on Cas, somehow curving around his shields, but they didn’t serve as anything more than a distraction. A furious storm whirled around him, keeping him from making progress or seeing his target, but none of it could touch him.

  “The thing about Revenants,” Kelsey said. “Is that they come with the skills they had when alive. Which means they don’t get to learn any new skills.”

  She frowned. Kaelan was against the cavern wall, and it was only a matter of time before Cas pushed through and found him.

  “I did give him one thing, though,” she said. “He can’t fire a gun to save his life, but anyone can throw a rock.”

  Mel glanced over, but Kelsey’s face was unreadable.

  The barrage of ice and fire ceased. Cas cried out triumphantly, but he was distracted before he could finish Kaelan off.

  “Cassian!” Aurelia screamed. He glanced over and saw her, crouching over Maris. She was still alive, if barely, but Mel wasn’t sure if Cas could tell that. Aurelia was smiling, with all her teeth out. Her face was inches away from Maris’s skull.

  “You filth!” Cas yelled. “I’ll erase you!”

  With a flick of his wrist, he sent a heavy stone slab flying at her, faster than an arrow. It didn’t work, of course. He’d forgotten how easy stone was to ward.

  Mel didn’t notice when Kaelan threw the grenade. It wasn’t one of the ones that blew up. She only noticed it at the same time Cas did, when the yellow smoke started rising around him.

  “Smoke? You think this will—ack!”

  The smoke didn’t spread out like smoke should. Kaelan’s sword could control the wind as well as lightning. It was less flashy, but a stiff breeze was all it took to keep the fog contained. It only took a moment before Cas was lost in the yellow smog.

  It only took a moment more before Cas realised the danger and managed to craft a spell to push it away. But the damage had been done. When he returned to visibility, his eyes were bloody, and he had started coughing. He could barely keep his head up.

  “Lightning,” Aurelia said, as she dispelled his ward.

  Kaelan loosed a bolt of lightning. It smashed into Cas, sending him staggering, but his robe protected him… for the most part.

  “Fire,” Aurelia said, and Cedric hit him with a fire arrow. It penetrated the robes, eliciting a scream amid all the coughing.

  “Steel,” Aurelia said. Kaelan finished him off with a flashy decapitation.

  “And that’s it,” Kelsey said, as Cedric finished off the wounded. “Invaders gone!”

  With a gesture, she made the corpses disappear.

  “Hey!” Kaelan protested. “We were going to eat those brains!”