20. Reunion

It took them a tiring while to reach the end of the corridor. There was a big double door which they opened with effort. The opened way revealed a corridor that surrounded a sprawling arena with a cheering audience and a ring on the opposite side with two fighters. Caoilainn and Isabella walked from side to side trying to understand what was happening. That was when Caoilainn said:
- "Isa! Look!" - she pointed to the ring - "It is Mazanlold, on the ring!" - Isabella was very scared:
- "And it's Richard on the ground" - they watched terrified as Mazanlold approached Richard to strike him on the ground. Caoilainn hesitated, unbelieving, but breathed in and shouted:
- "Mazanlold! Stop right now!" - even Isabella was caught off guard at her sternness. Mazanlold stopped, confused, and looked around. The organizer, who was close to Mazanlold, said:
- "Come on Mazanlold! Do it, finish the fight!" - hearing that, Mazanlold focused again and prepared to strike.
- "STOP IT!" - Caoilainn shouted even louder, and Mazanlold again stopped. Seeing no solution, the organizer disappeared in a puff of smoke. As he did that however, the audience turned into a horde of small armed skeletons, most of them turned to attack the girls. Worried, Caoilainn and Isabella started to fight, trying to reach the ring, but there was an awful lot of skeletons and at each sword strike and flame explosion, more skeletons appeared and they advanced very slowly.

On the ring, Mazanlold felt the drink's effect wearing off and used the stick to support himself. As he did that, four skeletons jumped at him using clubs and knocked him on the ground. During the confusion, Richard was able to get up and now it was him who saw Mazanlold on the ground. In a split second, inside his mind, he could see it: Mazanlold unable to defend himself, the skeletons striking him, his pain, his fear, and a sense of cruelness. To him it felt fair, Mazanlold was willing to strike him down. "However" - Richard thought to himself - "that's not how I roll" - he got his stick, jumped and in two blows destroyed two of the skeletons. The other two went at him. Richard defended three hits from each, being able to parry a last one and strike them down.

Caoilainn became impatient and unable to see what was happening on the ring she shouted:
- "Isa! Jump!" - Isabella instantly jumped and Caoilainn set her staff on the ground, creating a fire explosion which hit a big radius on the ground, burning more than 20 skeletons. Isabella fell to the ground and started to advance. Caoilainn took a minute to regain her breath and was able to see Richard protecting Mazanlold.

The following moment, Isabella started opening a way with her sword strikes and Caoilainn followed closely, throwing some fire to the sides and back to protect Isabella. Using this movements, they swiftly went down and reached the ring to meet Richard, who was defending himself and Mazanlold from five skeletons. Mazanlold still stunned, slowly got up. Isabella quickly dealt with the skeletons and asked:
- "Richard, Mazanlold, are you alright?" - Richard noticed Caoilainn was really annoyed and said:
- "Well, yes we are alright." - Mazanlold said:
- "I am dizzy, not sure what is happening" - Caoilainn crossed her arms, and Isabella replied:
- "Well, we fell into a trap and have to leave as soon as possible" - as Isabella talked, more skeletons appeared. - "Let's try to leave through this way!" - Isabella pointed at the ring's backstage. Richard consented and they started moving. Isabella went on front, opening the way and Caoilainn protected their sides and back. Richard protected Mazanlold more directly as he was slow and clearly unable to fight.

They entered the backstage and Richard said:
- "This is not the backstage I knew, this is just a castle corridor" - Caoilainn replied:
- "This place is some kind of illusion, don't care and push forward" - Isabella continued:
- "Keep pushing!" - as Isabella said that, she slashed through two skeletons. As they continued, there were not so many skeletons on front, but many trying to follow them and they became more and more numerous. Richard started to help Mazanlold to walk faster and Caoilainn focused on the back to throw lots of fire on the skeletons. With that, they started gaining a little bit of advantage and Isabella kept pushing. Isabella was fierce and slashed at the skeletons before they could attack. Even the ones with spears had no chance.

They advanced for quite a few minutes. Caoilainn and Richard started getting tired and the skeletons were getting closer. Isabella kept going and said:
- "I see the exit, come on now!" - with that Caoilainn sent two streams of fire and started running and Richard did the same and even the confused Mazanlold was able to pick up some pace. Together, they ran through the city gates and continued running. A minute later, Caoilainn looked back and said:
- "The skeletons stopped" - and they also stopped. They could see the skeletons stopping right at the town gate. However, before they could celebrate or go on, Duke Moninose appeared in front of them. He looked the same, but he had a threatening aura and a piercing gaze. In a low pitched voice he said:
- "It's such a shame that you failed today." - Isabella stepped up and said:
- "Who are you? What do you want?" - he replied:
- "I just wanted to have some fun." - he gesticulated - "You know, create some fuss then watch you jump at each other's throats" - he laughed - "but I underestimated you, and now you spoiled the fun" - he laughed loudly now - "it was fun for a while though" - Isabella tried to keep her composure:
- "I ask again, who are you?!" - the man replied:
- "Just remember me as the Duke for now" - he smiled - "we will meet again" - then, with a puff of gray smoke, he disappeared, and with him the entire town. The four watched bewildered, as where the town was, only a pale green field remained.

As they went on, they could not be sure how long they stayed on Neggenegg, but it was still or already the beginning of the night. And yet again, they were tired, specially Mazanlold. Isabella said:
- "Comrades, let's find a place to camp and rest, there is nothing else we can do now" - they simply agreed. The four walked for a few minutes until they found a decent place to rest. They prepared a little camp with a bonfire, small tents and futons. Caoilainn drew a circle around the camp and said:
- "With this circle, we will be able to sleep soundly. If anything comes near, there will be an alarm, no need to sleep in turns." - Mazanlold said:
- "So, I will go to sleep already." - and so he did. The other three first cooked a few beans to eat with fermented vegetables. They ate with very little talk, they still didn't want to discuss what happened at the town. After eating, they finally went to sleep.