Chapter 15: The Battle
1111 Words
As he ran, Jonathan shouted at the top of his lungs, "We're under attack! Under attack!".
Lettie, in his arms, quickly understood. He was trying to wake everyone in the house to fight the monsters. She began to shout as well. Mrs. Melanie, however, seemed to be in shock, capable only of running along with him.
An elderly male servant opened the main door, yawning and shouting angrily at them, "What is all this madness? This isn't a war! Why are you yelling 'under attack'?".
Before he could finish, Jonathan kicked him through the doorway. He pushed the two ladies inside, then grabbed the servant by the hair and forced him to look at the rapidly approaching Ghouls. "Do you see them? Do you see them now?!".
"Aaaah!" The sight of the four-legged monsters made the servant lose his mind. "We're under attack! Under attack!" His screams were now louder than Jonathan's.
"Go scream inside!" Jonathan shoved the servant, letting him run shrieking deeper into the mansion. He slammed the heavy door shut, bolted it, and then pulled Lettie and Mrs. Melanie toward the kitchen on the first floor.
"Go! That servant will wake everyone up. I'll hide you two first!" Sensing Lettie struggling, he explained loudly as they moved. As he had hoped, she stopped resisting and ran along obediently.
The main door didn't hold the Ghouls for long. More accurately, the sound of shattering windows from behind them proved the Ghouls didn't need the door. By now, the rest of the household was awake. Screams and roars filled the air.
He slammed the kitchen door shut and pushed a cabinet in front of it to block it. Then he led them into the cellar deep inside the kitchen.
He slapped Lettie, then Mrs. Melanie, making sure they were both still lucid enough to understand him. He gave them his final instructions in a rush. "This is the kitchen cellar. I'm going up, you stay here. No matter what you hear, do not open this door. Not even if I tell you to. There's no guarantee these monsters can't imitate human speech".
"They're attacking in the daytime, which is a disadvantage for them. They don't have much time. Before long, the commotion will attract more people to rescue us. You just need to hide. It could be a matter of hours before someone comes for you. You have to hold on. Even if something happens and no one finds you for days, there's enough food here to last. Remember, do not open the door. Either someone will open it to rescue you, or you wait until you absolutely can't hold on any longer before you come out to escape".
With that, he climbed the ladder out of the cellar. Lettie grabbed his trouser leg, crying, "Mr. Jonathan, stay with us! You'll die!".
"No, Miss Lettie. I am going to fight. But you two must live." Honestly, Jonathan didn't want to be so heroic. But he would rather fight for his own fate than wait for an uncertain one hiding in a cellar.
He closed the cellar hatch and kicked over pots and pans to cover it with debris. Only then did he finally have a moment to think.
How many Ghouls? Ten? Twenty? Thirty? I didn't have time to count, I just saw a black mass. How many people in the house? No more than thirty. How many can fight? Five? Ten? Ten at most.
I can't just sit here and wait to die. I have to go on the offensive, use the terrain, and fight them. With the others in the house to distract them—even thirty idiots can serve as a diversion—I can win. But how many I can kill is another question. I'll probably die today, but if I'm going down, I'm taking some of them with me.
A fierce resolve hardened in his heart. He opened the cantrip list. He had three days and eighteen hours of magic left. He spent all three days at once, exchanging them for three new cantrips, leaving himself with only eighteen hours.
You want my corpse, Ghouls? It won't be that easy. He had burned his bridges. Now, either the Ghouls would kill him, or he would kill them and absorb their magic to live. There was no third option.
The kitchen had two exits. One led to the main hall, which he had blocked. The other led to the servants' quarters. Through that door and down a narrow staircase, Jonathan reached the back door on the first floor. Outside was the garden. Upstairs led to the second floor.
Can't go outside. Two legs can't outrun four. I have to fight them inside the house. He took the stairs to the second floor. The roar of a monster and the angry shout of a man drew his attention.
"Hold on, I'm coming!" Jonathan yelled, running toward a second-floor washroom.
A Ghoul was clawing at the door, locked in a struggle with the man inside. Through a large hole the Ghoul had ripped in the door, Jonathan could see that the man was about to lose his grip.
The Ghoul saw Jonathan, abandoned its target, and lunged at him.
Jonathan stood his ground, gripping the cane with both hands and raising it high. As the Ghoul closed in, he locked his eyes on it and cast a cantrip: Daze.
A wave of psychic energy confounded the target's mind, leaving it disoriented. It deals 1 to 6 points of psychic damage. If the target's will is low, they are stunned.
The Ghoul lost its balance mid-lunge and slid to a stop right in front of him. With a roar, Jonathan brought the cane down with all his might. There was a sickening thud as it struck the Ghoul's head. The creature collapsed, lifeless.
With no time to check the Codex, Jonathan went to the hole in the washroom door and yelled, "I killed the monster! Come out and fight with me!".
"No! I'm not coming out! There are more of them! I'm not coming out!" Through the hole, he could see the man holding the door shut was Lettie's uncle, Jacob Bennett.
"Useless," Jonathan muttered. He didn't linger and immediately moved on, looking for his next target.
As he moved, he opened the Codex to see if he could sacrifice the Ghoul's corpse to complete his mage level and increase his power.
But the Codex was unresponsive. The Ghoul's body could not be sacrificed. The magic countdown was increasing slowly, second by second, not the large jump he had expected after killing a mythical creature.
This doesn't make sense.
- Writer
