It is amazing how much the presence of a map can fast track travel through a Ghost Domain. When everything is unknown the potential for danger and death soars, but as soon as the space is quantified, understood, made real, the danger too will shrink. While most will claim that Holy-type magic is the counter to ghosts, the true counter might just instead be knowledge. Unlike the prior Ghost Domain that looped endless repeating rooms, the presence of the map forced the Domain to cleave to Euclidean space and shrunk the infinitely sized Ghost Domain into the size of a normal mundane school/orphanage. This blessing also seemed to transfer to the inhabitants of the Ghost Domain, and there was very little obstruction on their way from the first floor classroom to the second floor on which the principal's office resided, besides the standard shadows at the corner of the eye, a few cold gusts of wind and something under the staircase that afflicted the trio with a nerve-wracking fear that led to the fearless Nevadie and the time traveler having to carry the normally quite brave guard up the stairs as his legs gave out.
"That was a close one," Eislock remarked as they slowly lowered Jakk to his feet, where he bounced unsteadily before catching himself. "Any idea what that big bugger beneath the stairs was?"
"Since when did I become the ghost expert," Banks grumbled, seeing looks of expectation from his two companions. "Don't think it was anything. Probably just a manifestation of the domain, nothing too serious. Of course if you had panicked and ran, I bet my last tin coin that the stairs would have extended and something unknowable would have chased you up the stairs until you collapsed out of energy and it dragged you off to a profoundly horrific fate. Just don't be scared, and you'll be fine."
"Easier said than done," Jakk admitted, still shaking despite the otherwise steady tone of his words. "I'm starting to feel envious of Rolf. I thought that I could be professional. That I could just stick to my training and I would be fine. That I could even possibly get out of here safe. I... I think I'm starting to lose hope that it may even be possible." His eyes seemed to swirl with greyness for a moment and Banks sighed before he walked up and socked him in the gut causing him to get bend over double, hacking and coughing.
"That's a bit extreme, is it not," Eislock said watching the confrontation going down. His face was grimacing, while the Nevadie liked conflict they weren't really the kind to take joy in other's misfortune.
"Maybe, I just didn't realize that I was assigned such a little bitch," Banks said, his face impassive as he knelt down staring into the guard's eyes. "Whine, whine, whine, oh I have is so hard, I just wanted to go into a little haunted house and show the commander how brave I am and then maybe she would like me and give me a little promotion." He curled his hands into a suggestive position and moved them up and down, evidently suggesting a more illicit reward the commander could also bestow on him. A flicker of rage entered the man's eyes as he drew back a fist and launched it right at his cheek.
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Banks casually stepped to the side as the fist whizzed past his face, giving a grin as he did so, before he lightly kicked the man back down.
"Hey, I can't let a loser punch me," he said. "Don't like what it will do to my reputation. Somebody who can't even handle a few baby ghosts is not someone l will allow to ever lay a hand on me. Wait until we're outside before giving it another go."
"I'm going to punch you in your nose when we get out," Jakk said straightening out, his breaths long and heavy. "And thank you," he continue, a slight amount of gratitude showing through his anger.
"Don't be a bitch about it, I don't care enough about you to drag your carcass if you get killed," Banks said mercilessly as he scrawled through the map before making a beeline for the principals office. It wasn't too far further, and the halls were empty besides a zombie that was swiftly skewered with his spear before being battered and hacked into oblivion by his comrades. The lack of entities in the hallways did not make him more relaxed, in fact the opposite. A Ghost Domain, especially of this size and potency, couldn't be resident to just two zombies. There was certainly worse in this school hidden, just out of sight. If he was more cautious and couldn't turn back time he would probably attentively search room by room, snipping off the hands of the looming evil before eventually confronting it at the core.
"Is that the door?" Eislock asked snapping him out of his thoughts, causing Banks to open his map and check it.
"Yeah, it appears to be," he said placing his hands on the doorknob, feeling icy cold to the touch. He turned the knob and found that it had a little give. "Not locked. I'm going in."
"Be careful," Eislock said, somewhat hypocritically for him.
"When am I not," Banks replied swinging the door open as he walked in. The room was a fairly standard office with a large wooden_____
His analysis was immediately cut off as he was forced to raise his arms as a force like a plane crash immediately landed on his arms and he was flung backwards and right out back into the corridor where his back slammed into the wall, before he slowly slid down.
"Banks," Eislock said moments before the thing was on him and he raised his gauntlets, the force sending the diminutive man similarly flying. A sword landed on then thing and glanced off, leaving only shallow cuts on the skin of the monster. The creature turned towards Jakk it's right arm landing a backhand that even blocked with the sword, nearly sent the man off of his feet. The thing leaned down trying to scoop out his skull before it was interrupted as a spear flew harmlessly past it.
"Man I'm really out of practice," he admitted to himself, wondering if he should send his mind back in time and attempt to do better. The thing leapt towards him only for a swipe from Jakk's sword to catch it's ankle mid pounce and for it to stumble. That barely stalled it as it was back on it's feet in an instant turning around to finish off the guard who still hadn't gotten to it's feet. It barely took a step before it raised an arm as a massive piece of metal slammed into it, and it screamed as the smell of burning flesh and rot permeated the corridor.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"That holy water appears to work," Eislock said as the chain of his flail seemed to retract back to his position a dozen meters away. "Any idea what this is?"
"Yeah," Banks said as he walked towards the creature that now seemed to be in a state of indecision, regarding the three viable targets. Although if it was intelligent then he would be far down the list in terms of targets, compared to the holy water doused flail of Eislock, or the sword of Jakk. "Douse your own sword in the water, Jakk." He commanded as he stepped into the creatures zone and it immediately lashed out at him with horrific levels of speed and force tearing into the left side of his chest.
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He blocked with his left arm, which held up against the horrifying force for a moment, before his entire arm snapped.
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He drew mana into his left arm, this time attempting to not only have it sit there, but to actively increase the resistance and power of his arm. It didn't even last a fraction of a second more.
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He drew huge amounts of his mana pool into his left arm, but before the blow even landed his arm shattered under the strain.
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Less mana was drawn, but the effect caused his arm to fracture, moments before it was fully snapped by the creature.
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He went slower this time guiding the mana, more precisely layering multiple shields of mana throughout the fibers. He wasn't finished before the blow landed shattering the weak, flimsy shields and then moments later the same thing happened to his arm.
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He repeated the process but quicker. This time as well as layering mana shields he also injected mana into his muscles, which caused them to rupture. Again his arm broke.
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Focusing only on injecting mana into his muscles he managed it with a small clump of muscles, reinforcing cell walls, strengthening connective fibers and hardening everything that could be hardened. Again his arm broke.
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Again and again, failure after failure struck him until at the end, after no time passed at all, he caught the blow on his arm sliding backwards, safe for a brief moment. Before he was forced to raise his right arm in time to catch the second swing...and he slipped up and his arm broke before the hit even landed.
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Pushing the arms to the side he stepped in close and swung at the chest of the creature. Carefully forming mana into his left hand, his fist hit with the sound of metal screeching smashing against metal and for the first time since five seconds ago, the creature was forced to take a single step back. A moment later the flail caught it in the shoulder and it screeched in pain, crouching to leap towards Eislock only for Jakk to attack it from behind. It whirled to defend only for Banks to slam his foot...
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...into it's back after only a couple of attempts.
The thing barely fell before it whirled to it's feet with minimal damage, backing off towards the office, keeping an eye on all three of them. Off to the side Jakk was casually dipping his sword in holy water and Eislock was twirling his flail inspecting the creature.
"Is that really a zombie?" Eislock said looking at the thing that looked like a normal human if it wasn't for the light grey skin and swirling dark grey eyes. It's body was standing stock still, except for it's head that was darting about eyeing each one of them with a calculating hungry look. It's mouth hung wide open revealing razor sharp teeth and all four of it's fingers possessed matching razor sharp claws. Lastly each and every inch of it's body seemed to bulge with muscle, like one wrong move would have it's very thews bursting out of it's skin. It wore a cheap yet clean suit, un affected by the dust and decay of the rest of the school and hanging from it's neck was a lanyard with a familiar half of a key.
"Remember when you asked me what happens when a ghost possesses a zombie," Banks said.
"You're fucking with me," Eislock retorted.
"I'm afraid not this time," Banks admitted. "It's called a possessed corpse and this appears to be what is known as a perfect possessed corpse, which is what happens when a ghost possesses it's former corpse. They are incredibly hard to actually kill."
"So what's the plan," Jakk said as he finished coating his sword and stowed the remaining half-bottle of holy water, on his belt, presumably for later. "How do we kill it."
"Oka___" Banks started before he flinched as the creature leaned back and screamed, a horrific howling sound like the winds of the netherworld. Heat seemed to leech from the air, as the howl permeated through every cell in it's body, and every door in sight slammed open and zombies crawled out, gradually standing up and sprinting over.
"Shit," Jakk said turning around to defend himself against a leaping zombie, and the perfect possessed corpse took that moment to lunge at him, skewering through his bac___
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Clawed hand's were knocked off course by a curled fist and Banks launched an uppercut at the chin of the corpse nearly getting his hand bitten off in response. The second hand nearly took of his head and he ducked to avoid it in time, before kicking out with his foot and...
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... landing a punishing blow on the kneecap, sending the perfect possessed corpse stumbling backwards.
"While we take out the zombies, can you hold off the PP corpse," Eislock said as his flail took a zombie's head straight off its shoulders. Already two more had rounded the corner, and Banks felt a brief worry that they were committing to fighting a endless horde, before he ruthlessly crushed that smidgeon of fear and doubt.
"Don't call it that," he said, attempting to crack his knuckles and failing...
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... and giving up the attempt. I'll take down this bugger, and you two can handle your sides. Last person to do their job treats the others to lunch.
"I'll hold you to that," Jakk said, fighting defensively against the increasing horde.
"Let's go," Eislock said cheerfully facing the horde.
"___" Banks started to say something, but was forced to defend as a flurry of blows swung at him, the perfectly possessed corpse lashing out like a rabid animal and so he played defensively. Raising his arms and waiting for the break in the rush. One or two slipped past his guard and so he simply sent his mind back a half second, avoided it and lashed out, before he saw a brief window of weakness that passed too fast for him to take advantage of.
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A right handed jab, struck at that moment of weakness catching it in the nose and extending that window enough for his left hand to land punishing haymaker straight to the solar plexus, causing it to howl as it fell to it's knees. Instantly, it recovered and slashed upwards with a retaliatory claw that would have mutilated his face, if he hadn't moved his head back at that precise instant, and his recently issued standard guard helmet was the only victim, being caught by the claw and landing into the hands of the perfectly possessed corpse.
The thing slowly, languidly rose to it's knees, lifting the guard helmet, before it grinned and crushed it, the mostly metal headwear posing no defense against that superhuman strength, before it stepped back into the principal's office as if daring him to follow.
"What, you think just because I've lost some armor that I'm suddenly weaker," Banks said as he followed behind the corpse, walking into the lair. "Newsflash dipshit, armor is for those who actually get hit. I assure you I won't need it."
