Ghost seemed surprised by the blind frenzy with which wolf attacked it. The two clashed against each other and turned into a pile of bites, stabs and roars. From time to time a cry of pain resonated through the room- sometimes it was wolf’s but sometimes it was ghost’s- and very quickly a puddle made out of two shades of blood formed beneath the two. One was dark red, like you would expect a living being to have, but the other was incredibly pale, almost appearing pink instead of red.

It is to this bundle of chaos that the couch hurled by Rayo came flying. It was hard to say who took the brunt of the hit, the wolf or the ghost, but the painful cry came from both before the room went quiet. The couch was lying over the two so Sonia and Rayo couldn’t tell in what state they were.

So, what will the two still standing do now?

OOC:
Orion’s status is unknown for this update. Sonia and Rayo can either lift the couch and see what’s happening or just ignore them and bail :D

Oh, and Rayo has unlocked achievement: Journeyman of Friendly Fire

Similarly like before, once you entered the sad-face passage you went through a barren, stone corridor. Again, it didn't take you long before you were at the other end. The only major difference was that this time the stone slab which blocked the way into the next room didn't sink into the ground as you approached. Instead, it forced you to wait for several minutes before it finally began opening the way.

The room you stepped into once the stone door were gone was, like the one before, made in rectangular shape, but this time there were only two passages, excluding the one you came in. The one to your left had a sorrowful mask above it while the one to your right had the teleport symbol. The wall across you didn't have a passage while the one through which you just passed had a neutral mask. In the middle of the room were two egg-shaped objects made of stone.

After observing the door another detail which made this room different from the one before comes to your attention. The ground, the walls, and even the ceiling were filled with red stains. It didn't really take a genius detective to figure out what it was. Some blood stains looked really old and dry, but there were a few which looked eerily fresh. As if it was spilled less than a minute ago.

Once you hear the door behind you close the two egg-shaped objects began to stir, morphing into two vaguely humanoid forms. Gems located at the top of their bodies turned to you like eyes and the couple began a charge which was surprisingly fast despite the apparent clumsiness of their movements.

Once the couch is lifted you could clearly see the state of the two beneath it.

Orion, still in his wolf form, growled angrily as a sword was sticking into his side. The sword didn’t appear to have pierced the wolf’s body too deep, but he was losing a lot of blood anyway. However, that didn’t stop him from biting firmly into the ghost’s neck- and yes, he did manage to bite it.

Ghost face was halfway between fury and agony as it couldn’t free itself from the firm grasp of Orion’s jaws. It wiggled, trying to break away from the deathly embrace, but with each second its effort was losing vitality. You would expect a ghost to be able to phase through things, but this one didn’t seem to be able to do that right now.

A large puddle of blood was already around the two- the bright red of Orion and the pale pink of the ghost were mixed together.

Eventually, the ghost stopped struggling. It let its limbs fall lifelessly next to its body and began crying.

“Traitor… you promised… find… mother…”

You saw tears unmistakably flow from its eyes before it began fading, gradually becoming more and more see-through within Orion’s jaws. In a few seconds it was completely gone, together with the pale-pink liquid and the sword in the wolf’s body. The only thing left of it was the sword Sonia held.

Feeling the absence of his pray, Orion lost consciousness and returned to the humanoid form, his body pale due to the amount of blood lost.

---

Several hours later

You weak up to the sensation of every part of your body, but especially the lower left area of your torso, hurting like hell. You quickly grasp that you are in a horizontal position, lying on something soft. Quick inspection reveals that it is a familiar looking couch. It also reveals that you look like a mummy, with most of your body covered in bandages. You feel lightheaded so you aren’t really capable of processing information very well yet, but you manage to grasp that you are still in the apartment where you fought the ghost earlier.

“-urse those blasted Anathema!” The voice reaching your ears sounded angry. As you look around to find its source you notice Sonia and Rayo speaking to a creature that looked like a very fat leopard standing on its back legs. “It’s not enough that they blight the honest folk when they are alive, now they come back and make life hard even after they’re dead! Can you imagine how much my business will suffer after people hear that not only was Anathema found and killed by the guards in one of my apartments, but it came back to haunt it as a ghost!? Oh, Meya help me get through these trials!”

“Anyway,” his voice quickly changed from self-pitying wailing to a more flattering tone, “as I was saying, I will grant you this apartment, free of charge! It is only fair, after you solved such a mighty problem for me. And I’m certain that the very knowledge that mighty warriors capable of defeating Anathema- and ghost Anathema at that!- staying in this building will reassure customers of its safety, hehehehe.”



LEVEL UP
Everyone +3
NEW ABILITY
Everyone +1
CURSE LOST
Orion
ITEM FOUND
Ghost Katana- a seemingly ordinary katana, the only thing left after the ghost disappeared.

One of the orbs hit the golem closer to you into the leg and made it helplessly fall to the ground. It immediately tried to lift itself up but apparently it was unused to standing with only one leg so it immediately fell to the ground. Naturally, during this time it was unable to dodge the other sparks and one more hit it and blew away a piece of stone in the upper part of its body, disabling it.

The other golem, probably seeing the fate of its compatriot, raised its left arm and blocked the orb flying towards it, losing it in the process. The fourth orb missed both golems entirely.

Unperturbed by the loss of one arm, golem stopped its charge when the tengu took you into the air and raised its right arm towards you. Uh-oh, this looked dangerous. The gaps between the joints in the golem’s arm expanded and its hand grabbed your leg. You couldn’t dodge because up in the air you didn’t have control of your movement, and the tengu boy was unable to move away because the combined weight of the two of you was too much for his wings to properly manoeuvre.

With incredible strength the golem pulled you out of tengu’s grip and smacked you down to the dungeon’s stone floor, sending flashes of pain through your body.

No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, and although you planned to take care of only the largest one- a silly proposition in itself because no wolf could stand out as being larger than the others- all wolves charged at you, completely disregarding the rest of the party. Charging at a bear, not smart these wolves…

First wolf to come in the range of your paws was quickly sent flying with one hit. It made a familiar squeaking cry as it hit the wall of the cave, before falling down to the ground, unmoving. Whether it was dead or just unconscious was hard to tell for you, and you didn’t really have the luxury of checking. The other two didn’t hesitate one bit after what happened to their pack member and the second wolf attempted to bite your front left leg, only to be crushed into the ground by you.

Third wolf stopped its charge after getting hit by a rock sent by Gabriella. It shook its head, disoriented by the impact, and that left it wide open for you.

After dealing with all three wolves their incapacitated bodies turned into blue particles which flew into the orb on the pedestal in the middle of the room. After particles from all three wolves were absorbed the orb lost its glow. The area got somewhat darker but surprisingly it didn’t turn completely pitch black.

Now that the wolves were gone and you could observe the area at leisure, you noticed that opposite from the entrance through which you came into the room there were two other corridors. If you inspect the orb which was glowing a moment it would appear like it was made of cement and showed no magical properties whatsoever. It was glued tightly for the pedestal it was on and resisted any attempt to remove it.