A few more swings of your blade cut down the next couple zombies, but then the blade skipped off of a bone and became wedged in the ribcage of the next undead monster. You were forced to leave it in place, jumping back to avoid a fatal strike from claw-like fingers nearly tearing your throat out. A few more hops back the passage behind you and you had opened up a little bit of space and found that the cave-in had indeed sealed the way through, maybe if you weren’t fighting off the horde, you might be able clear enough to get through, but you had no time now. Without your sword and no way out, it was time for your emergency trump card. You turned your attention inward, focusing down into your body for the little spark of magic within. Clamping down on the little bit of magic with both muscle and mind, you felt it start to blaze into life. Briefly turning your attention to the undead creatures, you saw that they continued their slow march towards you, though the pile of their fallen comrades had slowed them down slightly. The little bit of magic became a swirling tempest, barely contained within your body, but you still had to hold on, you were only going to get one shot at this so you had better not waste it. Your body and mind trembled as you tried to contain the awesome might within yourself.
The stench of the rotting flesh rolled over you and you felt their grasping hands reaching out for you, so it was finally time. Releasing your hold on the magic, you let loose with a tremendous roar and a torrent flame that slammed into the zombies. The impact knocked those closest to you back, while the heat roasted all of them. The smell of the burning rotted flesh was horrendous, but you continued to pour on the heat, making sure you got every last one. You only hoped that you wouldn’t bring the whole building down with such an outpouring of energy. As your magical reserves ran out the flame died down, leaving mounds of blackened and shattered rotted flesh behind. Now completely drained, you dropped to your knees before falling face first into the grimy floor. Too little energy remained in you for you to do much else then lay there and hope that you had gotten them all; you were in no condition to defend yourself if you missed even one.
You come to some time later, your nose filled with the stench of the burnt rotted flesh surrounding you. A puddle of putrefied and liquefied ooze had leaked across the already dirty stones and almost reached you. Your throat was still sore and it hurt to breath, but you weren’t dead, so that’s a bonus. Shakily getting to your feet, you found that you had apparently succeeded in destroying the zombies, not a single piece had moved since you fired your last attack. Dodging most of the goop, you made your way to one of the corpses, and pulled your sword free, the flesh around the cut crumbling as you did so. Your katana was blacked and scorched a bit, but had actually been protected from the worst of the inferno by the zombies. Now armed again, you listened intently for signs of anything else in the ruins, but heard nothing except for your ragged breathing and the wind mournfully wailing through the cracked and broken stones above. Satisfied that there wasn’t any further immediate danger, you cautiously move forward, and spared a glance up the hole that you made earlier. Only a pale glow leaked down through the broken fort, the sun having long dipped out of sight, in its place only a pale sliver of the moon cast its light, and this was partially obscured beyond wispy clouds that shrouded the sky.
Now that you had the chance, you could certainly try climbing out that way or clearing enough of the debris out of the way to see about getting out, but you weren’t going to give up on this job, not after everything else you had gone through. Focusing on the task at hand, you adjusted the dented and dinged plates of armor strapped around your body and wiped off some of the foul ichor that still clung to you, staining any exposed patches of midnight blue scales a noxious shade of greenish-yellow. After that proved only mildly successful you moved on, taking one of the passages that the zombies welled up from. The darkened passages further down were barely lit by half-functioning magical lamps, but they still provided enough light that you didn’t have to rely on a torch or anything else that might attract more attention. The stench of decay still lingered in the dark dank corridors, though now it was overlaid with a bit of smoke due to the flames that you expelled. You continued walking on and on, the hidden passages much larger than the surface ruin might suggest, eventually going beyond where your flames seemed to reach, though there was still no sign of further zombies or anything else lurking and waiting to attack you. After continuing down a very long passage, you came across a large door that was inscribed with magical runes. An electric tingle caused the hair on the back of your neck to stand up and made your scales itch, a sign that there was almost certainly powerful magic beyond. You had no ability to read the magical symbols across the door, but it looked like they were inactive, some of them were even smudged and broken. Pressing against the door did little, but it did budge slightly. Gritting your teeth and slamming your shoulder into the stone slowly but surely caused the portal to creep and creak open.
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