Chapter 189: A big, beautiful wall
Cass watched as Lord Ridgewood and Fiona sliced through the beginnings of the horde like it was nothing. They were circling around Lady Ava who was holding onto the chest as if her life depended on it. Vespertine was shouting, trying to make sure that none of the undead got through but his magic wasn’t strong enough to outright kill them. Only slicing through them got them down enough that Lady Ava could finish them off.
Lucian rushed in, huffing and puffing, pulling a sword out of his own magical pocket to slice and dice the undead. Cass couldn’t see their faces, but he was glad that for the most part, these creatures didn’t have blood that would splatter on everything.
All in all, the room that Cass found himself in was almost a mirror in size to the room that they had camped out in. It felt like they had gone from one mini boss to another, and Cass hoped that wasn’t indicative of what the rest of the dungeon was going to be like.
Especially since before these most recent interactions, the group had been saying that this dungeon was relatively easy. Cass caught up to the others, a wake of sliced twitching corpses behind the more...physically inclined trio.
Cass did his best not to look down, or step on them as he made his own, more slowed pace towards the group. By the time he was with everyone, the others had made their way into the circle that Lady Ava had summoned and were debriefing with Vespertine since Lady Ava looked practically unconscious.
She looked like she was using all of her energy to preserve so large of a circle, and Cass knew that it wasn’t sustainable. A slight sense of guilt filled him, only because he remembered something from the book.
It was about two dungeons after this that Lady Ava collapsed because she had been over-extending her holy powers. She hadn’t been using them properly, and it was during that time that she was being taken care of after her collapse that ruin fell on her birth family.
Ruin by his grandfather’s hands.
Fiona looked ill. She was glancing between Vespertine and Lady Ava, clearly wanting to run to her, but the horde had swarmed around them again. They were in hot water, and at this point, it didn’t make sense to give up on the chest.
Cass swallowed, making a small small gamble.
"Let me take Lady Ava’s place on the chest." Cass said as soon as he stepped into the semi-circle that had naturally formed. He was short of breath, his hair askew, but he just pushed it out of his eyes and looked at everyone. "She needs a break, but she’s also the only one who can kill these guys for good. Let me take her place. I need to be from a distance anyways, and if Vespertine joins me, no one has to worry about us. I won’t keep my eyes off of it." Cass turned his gaze to Fiona specifically.
He was practically willing her to read his mind, get what he was trying to say between the lines. If he was also a hero, there was a chance, a small chance...
It took Fiona a minute for her to understand what Cass wasn’t saying, but when she did? Her whole expression widened, looking almost comically shocked, before she tried desperately to cover it up.
Thankfully, this happened rather quickly, so the other men didn’t even notice the change. She cleared her throat.
"I agree. You should go, but I just have one concern. Ava is going to have to drop the protective circle. Are you going to be okay?" Cass felt a slightly devious smile cross his lips.
There had been a spell he’d read about that he wanted to try. Now seemed like the perfect time, and with the words Lucian had said recently about his magic pool, he wasn’t too worried about being able to hold it for a long time.
"Don’t worry. There has been a spell I’ve been wanting to try out. I think it will be perfect."
~
They shouldn’t have trusted Cass.
Not because what he did was bad, but because what he did was insane. Even Lucian agreed.
Cass had created a full wall of stone, protecting those inside of the circle that Lady Ava had already created. He basically just layered it on top of what was a metaphysical, intangible barrier and made it a rather real one.
Before Cass did so, he moved towards Lady Ava. She was barely conscious, pushing herself to her near breaking point for what Cass thought was a rather pointless reason. She could have made a smaller circle, controlled her magic flow better while still keeping herself and Vespertine safe. Instead, she’d gone big. Showy.
Now she was paying the cost for that.
Cass marched over to her, after getting the go ahead from Fiona. He wasn’t going to wait for the approval of the others, not when he was dead set on making sure he didn’t trade another soul out for his/Lord Blackburn’s. He wasn’t going to stand for it.
So, he practically yanked Lady Ava off of the chest where she had collapsed like a perfect heroine, draping herself over it. Cass placed his foot on it like he was going to stand on it, using his slightly elevated leg as a boost to pull her up and off of the chest.
She let out a worried cry, clearly upset and not wanting to do so. Cass didn’t care.
"Ava." He bit out, the words harsh from his mouth. "You’re killing yourself. Stop it." He snapped. Angry at her for her not knowing her limits, and for her putting himself in this position. "Pull back your barrier. I’m going to put something else up to protect everyone. Rest." What didn’t help his mood was the fact that the longer he was in this barrier, the more his skin itched. Crawled, actually.
He felt like insects were underneath his skin, and his legs weren’t as strong as he was making himself out to be. He had to put on a brave face to get her to stop doing this.
He could hear the others protesting behind him, clearly upset with how he was manhandling her, but Lady Ava was staring up at him, her eyes barely open and Cass wanted to smack her.
"If you die, who is going to deal with all of these undead? We’re sitting ducks without you, Ava. Pull yourself together and drop. The. Barrier." Cass hissed out and Lady Ava finally gave in.
Cass could breathe for a few, brief seconds. He let himself bask in the feeling before he reacted.
He wasn’t about to let her faith in him falter because he didn’t uphold his end of this bargain. He’d convinced her to hand over the weight of what she was doing, it was only right, from his honour’s perspective that he met her expectations.
Cass looked around him in a circle, noticing how the undead were slowly realising that there wasn’t a barrier and how they were beginning to move forward. Cass stomped the foot that was on the chest, unable to do his other foot since it was what was grounding both him and Lady Ava.
From his stomp, magic radiated out. A slow, even circle that had Lucian snapping his head towards Cass before the wall even went up. The circle he created was only slightly smaller then Lady Ava’s, for magic upkeep sake, and also because a few of the fuckers had already begun to sneak into the circle she had made.
With a loud rumble and some shaking, a rigid stone wall began to rise, exactly how Cass had imagined. Sharp, grey stones like pointed fence posts rose, stabbing several of the undead, spearing them as the helpless raised up with the wall.
He tried to make it tall, tall enough that Lucian couldn’t peek over the edge easily. He tried to make sure it towered over everything, keeping the others out. It ended up being roughly around 10 feet tall. Did Cass really know what that meant? No.
He’d never had to care about the heights of fences before.
Lucian’s laughter filled the air when the ground stopped shaking and the sounds of the undead were slightly muffled except for those who were speared on top of the fences. It was an almost shocked, joyous laugh like he hadn’t expected himself to do it.
"That’s my Cass!" He shouted, loud enough that Cass could hear it and Cass felt his face warm as a bead of sweat formed between his brow. Now it was concentration time.
As soon as Lady Ava dropped her barrier and stopped using her holy powers she was doing much better. She became a bit more lucid, and now it was time for the others to come and get her. She was slurring her words, trying to speak to Cass but Cass wouldn’t have it.
"Save your energy. You need to focus on yourself right now, not me. I’ve got this." Cass turned as the others approached. "She needs some food and water." Cass called to the group and Vespertine was the first to get his shit together enough to do what needed to be done.
Lucian, instead of rushing over to them, leisurely went around and began to slice down the undead that Cass had caught in the middle of his spell. If he had been whistling, it would have completed the casual way he was handling this situation.
Cass wanted to shake his head, but instead, he had to deal with the situation that was before him. And focus on maintaining the new barrier.