Hold the line!

"Fall back and warn the other's" I call back to the guard who immediately starts to run back up the narrow staircase.

I follow him up a couple of steps, but turn as I raise my shield and draw my mace. The undead try to come after me two at a time, but the narrow stairs makes them move slowly. I charge up the holy power in my shield and it shimmers and hums. I swing my shield forward and it smashes into the first undead's face and erupts with a holy explosion projecting outward and rippling into the undead behind him as he falls backwards down the steps knocking a few others off their feet.

A few slip past the falling undead...corpse and continue to climb towards me. I swing with my mace and although he attempts to parry it, the heavy weight combined with my natural strength overpowers him and connects with his shoulder knocking him off balance and tumbling back down the steps.

I catch a glimpse of the mage standing behind the small group of undead unleashing a frost spell. I raise my shield and lower my center of gravity as I feel the impact against my shield and the air around me chills as the ice scatters around me and onto the steps. The undead are back on their feet and coming back at me and I see the mage prepping another spell.

I infuse my shield again, but this time with a quick burst of light and shoots out searing some of their skin, but more importantly blinding the majority. I charge up my mace with holy energy and swing it at the mage allowing the hammer of justice smash into his head knocking him back and interrupting his spell.

I was severely outnumbered and could feel my mana draining with each attack. With the undead blinded and the mage stunned I turn and run up the stairs. I see a guard waiting for me and he closes the door behind me as I see the rest of the men with their shields up and ready for battle.

"Fall in line. We make our stand together." One calls out.

"No. Flank them. two groups, one on each side of the door."

"They have numbers. We need to stick..."

"They have a mage. If we stay together we will get burned down together." I interrupt. A banging on the door means we're short on time. "Both sides, now! I'll draw their main group's attention. Pick them off and put pressure on the mage." I command and the men spread out and duck behind the pillars. Another bang makes me spin and raise my shield up and prepare for the coming ****.

There's a brief moment of silence before the wood door bursts in an explosion of fire and wood splinters. I crouch and raise my shield, but can feel the heat sweep around into the air around me. I feel myself slide back a couple of feet, but maintain my stance as I peer over my shield to see several undead charge through smoke towards me.

I focus holy energy through my body and into my feet. With a stomp the ground around me is consecrated with pure holy magic that quickly radiates upwards through the legs of our attackers. They immediately focus their attention on me as the holy energy burns them and charge. I charge up my mace and throw a minor holy attack that hits the first undead in the chest and shatters into smaller fragments of holy energy and ripples to the others behind him.

They finally reach me and I start to block and parry while using my heavy mace and shield to throw them off balance. I feel their blades glance off of my armor as they start to overwhelm me, but I hear them cry out as the guards start picking them off and taking some of the attention away from me. As they turn away from me I take advantage and knock a couple of them in the back. I see the mage in the back near the door launch an arcane spell, but I'm unable to get my shield up and it hits me hard in the chest sending me back off of my feat. I look up to ready for his next spell, but a rogue slips in front and the mage is caught up in a flurry of quick strikes and kicks. The undead start to fall and the mage calls for the retreat as they start to flee back down the stairs, casting spells to slow and knock the guards back as they go.

I'm slow to my feet, but I give myself a minute to breath. "You all right?" I hear the rogue say as he comes over to check on me.

"Yeah." I say, but still struggle with my balance and catching my breath.

"You don't look it. Take a minute to recover. Let us secure the basement. Okay?" He tells me as he hands me some water.

I admittedly was hurting and could see some blood trickling out from under some of my armor, but the undead were tricky and I was a little worried about them going downstairs without me. I also didn't want to come across as weak during my time in trying to prove myself. But in my current state I may very well end up being a handicap.