Summoned Again?

Anthony was incensed. Not only had his plan failed, everyone but his two companions and the head cleric had been killed and converted into mindless undead. They had been captured, bound and eventually gagged, and he couldn't help think that it was all Damon's fault. He had slept through the entire thing and hadn't moved, even as he and the others yelled and pleaded for his help before being captured.

Normally, being restrained for so long would have caused pain and lingering injuries; but, Anthony had pumped his stats up appropriately to ease those worries and fears. He hated that it was Damon's recommendation, though. After he surrendered, he questioned everything the man had told him.

Of course, he had lots of time to think about everything they had been through, because it took so goddamn long for Damon to wake his ass up. The only reason he knew he was awake, was because the undead blocking their view had moved aside and the bad guy... or girl... had waved to them.

Anthony cursed at Damon for putting them in this situation and as far as he could see, Damon was unaffected by seeing them hog-tied and gagged... and that just made Anthony's anger simmer and flare. He could almost make out what they were talking about, then suddenly he couldn't hear anything and then Damon and the undead woman disappeared.

That rotten bastard! He's taking her somewhere to... to... do what he did to that cleric! Anthony thought, his mind filled with disgust. He couldn't even finish the image in his head of having sex with a partially rotted corpse and he almost threw up in his mouth.

Anthony had started to suspect that Damon was some depraved sex fiend with how he had been acting lately, and now with proof that he would do it with anything, it cemented into his mind that his trust had been misplaced this entire time. He vowed that from then on, he would be in charge and he would strive to be the hero the world needed. As his first act, he would need to make the asshole pay for doing this to them.

“AARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!” A man's pained yell cut through the utter silence and then Damon appeared two hundred feet away and bounced on the ground and rolled. He looked half-dead and beaten to a pulp as he came to a stop on his belly barely fifty feet away from the captives.

“HUMMUM!” Lady Matricia yelled through her gag.

“You... have to do... better than that.” Damon said as he got up on his hands and knees.

“Making me invisible to sneak attack?” The undead woman said as she appeared. “Pathetic.”

“Worth... a shot.” Damon said and spit out a mouthful of blood. “That hurt.”

“So will this.” The undead woman said with satisfaction and then moved almost faster than the eye could see as she ran at the bent over Damon and then slammed her foot into the side of chest.

“UGH!” Damon grunted and managed to catch her leg as he took the hit.

The two of them rolled and tumbled from the momentum and Damon ended up on top.

“Finally!” Damon exalted and his hands glowed, then he rained punches down onto the undead woman's face. “I can't believe... I had to pretend to surrender... to get this close to you!”

That's my spell! Farrah thought as she watched Damon use it much more effectively than she had. Wait! He pretended to surrender?

Anthony, Ksenya and Lady Matricia had similar thoughts and couldn't believe it.

“Enough!” The undead woman said and swatted Damon's fists away, then she held her hands up and a red barrier started to form.

“I'm not falling for that again!” Damon said and rolled off of her as he grabbed her outstretched arms, then he flung her across the distance to slam her against the couch. The couch disintegrated into pieces and the undead woman tumbled to a stop soon after. “Dammit! That was a nice couch!”

The three heroes and the head cleric watched an epic fight, with both competitors taking and receiving blows so powerful that they couldn't understand how either person was still standing. They could literally hear bones breaking, see blood splatter from Damon, and black mana from the undead as she fixed herself. The fight went on for nearly ten minutes before Damon took flight and started to equip his armor.

“Nice try, you fool!” The undead woman said and raised her hands and cast the red barrier. “I have you now!” She let the spell go and just as it was about to hit him, another red barrier appeared in front of him to protect him.

“HUMMMMM!” The four spectators yelled their disbelief through their gags.

“I finally learned your spell, you undead witch!” Damon said loudly as his armor finished forming around him.

“I'm not a witch! I'm an undead Unholy Cleric, you idiot!” The undead woman yelled back.

“Of course you are! Can you guess what your ultimate counter is?” Damon asked as an intense white light ball formed around his hands and he pointed them towards her. “ULTIMATE HOLY LIGHT!”

A very bright light beam, that almost seared the eyes, blasted across the distance between them and there was an agonizing blood curdling woman's scream for about two seconds, then it was suddenly cut off. The beam stayed for nearly ten seconds, then it slowly faded as it lost power.

When the intense light completely faded, Anthony, Ksenya, Farrah, and Lady Matricia saw that the undead woman was gone and their undead cleric guards were collapsed around them. They weren't moving and there didn't seem to be any life in their eyes.

Damon slowly floated down to the ground as he slowly stored the armor piece by piece again. He dropped to the ground and collapsed to his hands and knees and spit up even more blood. The four spectators didn't say anything for several minutes or tried to move as they watched him slowly recover and cast several healing spells on himself.

“Fuuuuuck.” Damon moaned in remembered pain as he sat back on his heels and rubbed his chest.

“HUM!” Anthony said loudly, impatient to be free from the gag and binds.

“Right. Just a second.” Damon said and stood. He staggered a little and stood still for several seconds, then walked over to them. “I'm sorry. I couldn't risk setting you free during any of that.” He said and untied Lady Matricia first.

“DAMON!” Lady Matricia yelled and kissed him passionately. “You did it. You did it.”

“No, we did it.” Damon said. “If she had just killed you all, instead of saving you for me, I wouldn't have had anything to fight for on this world.”

“She what?” Farrah asked as Lady Matricia untied her and I untied Ksenya.

“She wanted me to suffer as I watched you die while being consumed.” Damon said and untied Anthony.

“You... you're telling the truth.” Lady Matricia whispered.

“Unbelievable, isn't it?” Damon asked. “It drove me to...” He shook his head. “I refused to let that happen, of course.”

Lady Matricia put her hand on his cheek. “Of course.”

“I'm sorry my forced sleep made me miss so much.” Damon said.

“Forced?” Anthony asked and doubt filled his voice.

“I've been awake for over 35 hours on this world as I tried to get things done. I actually forget how long I was awake on my own world before coming here, so my body and my mind shut down to let me rest.” Damon responded and rubbed his face. “I still need sleep, though. That wasn't enough.”

“No, it was.” Lady Matricia said, her face both happy and sad. “We lost the clerics that decided to stay.”

“I... I know.” Damon said and sighed. “She told me she only needed to resurrect ten of her own undead clerics to handle you, because she would gain more when the holy clerics died.” He looked at the bodies around them. “That reminds me.” He held a hand out to them. “Holy Light.”

A minute later, the corpses of the undead clerics dissolved into black ash.

“Thank you.” Lady Matricia said. “I'll inform their families that they died helping to take down the head of the undead scourge.”

“I think their families would like to know that truth.” Damon said and gave her a hug. “We've still got work to do.” He waved at the piles of undead off in the distance that had collapsed like the undead clerics.

“Hey! What's that?” Farrah asked and pointed.

They all turned to look where the remains of the couch was and the undead woman had met her end. They walked over to see an arm that was cleanly severed at the elbow beside a pile of black ash and Lady Matricia gripped Damon's hand tightly.

“I believe that's the last bit of her left.” Damon said, his voice hard. “Step back. I need to power the spell again.”

“I can do it.” Anthony said, finally admitting his trump card. “I have the Holy Light spell, too.”

Damon reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for the offer; but, you'll be needed for those things.” He pointed to several large masses of fur. “I need to rest again, so it's all on you.”

“They need the Holy Light spell?” Anthony asked, surprised.

“They're too big for Holy Cleansing Fire to fully encompass.” Damon said and yawned, then took a deep breath and let Anthony's shoulder go. “I can handle an arm.”

Anthony thought about protesting, then sighed and looked at the other two heroes. “Let's get to work.”

“We'll be done in no time.” Farrah said and waited for the other two to walk away before she whispered to Damon. “You need to show me some of those fighting moves.”

Damon nodded and waited for Farrah to turn away before he held his hands down towards the arm. “It'll be bright this close.”

“I'll step back.” Lady Matricia said and let him go, a tad reluctantly, and then she turned around.

After a bright blast of light for ten seconds, the light faded and a smaller pile of ash was on the ground. A bed appeared a second later and Lady Matricia's face flushed red.

“Just sleep.” Damon said and climbed onto the bed. “I really need another nap.”

Lady Matricia only hesitated for a few seconds before she climbed onto the bed and cuddled into him. She felt a little awkward doing something like this in the middle of the battlefield and then she felt the time distortion shift slightly and heard Damon's breath even out as he fell asleep. She lifted her head to look at his peaceful face and kissed his cheek, then she snuggled down into his chest and fell asleep herself.

*

It's all on me, he said. Anthony thought a bit happily as he unleashed Holy Cleansing Fire on the mass of undead people and creatures to get close enough to one of the large undead beasts. He knew Damon was dumping the cleanup on him, and for some reason, he didn't mind it. He had been put in charge of it and given actual authority, even though he resented Damon for having that authority over him.

“That was an awesome fight.” Ksenya said as she cleansed a pile of undead nearby. “I've never seen anything so... so...”

“Inspiring?” Farrah asked.

“Yes! I want to fight like that!” Ksenya said. “No one would mess with you if you could fight like that.”

“Yeah.” Farrah said, a smile on her face as she moved off to clear away more of the undead corpses. She couldn't wait for Damon to show her a few things. She glanced back to where he stood and saw him asleep on a bed. Maybe a few other things, too. She thought and her excited thoughts during the next spell caused it to have a bit more of a kick to it, because it cleansed a third more undead than normal.

The three summoned heroes let their fourth member sleep as they proceeded to cleanse all of the undead that had been felled from losing their leader in the final battle for the world.