Storming the Castle Part 2

Everyone made their way through the castle doors, and once inside, they got a good look at the interior. Just like the outside, it had been overtaken by plants and old age with no one to tidy it up. There were lights, but they were mainly from candles, torches, and holes or cracks in the building which let the light from outside into the building. Straight ahead of the entrance was a grand staircase which seemed like where it wanted us to go, but the stairs were blocked off by the same red barrier that Shalene had used previously. There were alters to the left and right side of the stairs that looked as if they required an orb of some kind to be placed on them. There were also two hallways on both sides after entering the castle doors. It seemed kind of obvious that it wanted us to clear out both sides and return with something that would let us progress to the next area.

"We'll split up here. Longevity and anyone below level fifty will go to the right, and everyone else will go left."

"Got it"

"Okay"

"Alright"

We did just that, and since I was of course with Longevity, we made our way down the right hallway and eventually found ourselves in what looked to be an old ballroom. There were no candles or torches like in the hallway or near the castle entrance and all the light in the room came from the broken parts of the building that allowed sunlight to shine through. We looked around and there was only one figure in the room; its skin was dark red, it seemed as if it should have two horns that protrude out of its head which curl upward, but half of its left horn was broken off, so only the right one was fully intact. It also had sharp teeth and claws as well as it had to have been at least seven or eight feet tall. The final noticeable feature of it was that it had a shiny red orb about the size of my hand embedded in its chest; the orb looked magical as the inside of it swirled around and moved.

The demon noticed us and gave out a loud roar which caused a large crack to be formed in the ground, and demons soon started crawling out of it. More and more of them came out of the ground, and if this kept up we would soon be overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. We started rushing toward the large demon, and Mike spoke to all of us.

"If we kill the main demon, they'll probably stop spawning, so try and kill the big guy!"

"Yeah, I already got that."

"It was pretty obvious."

"Thank you for telling us."

We pushed our way through the nonstop horde of enemies and found ourselves face-to-face with the large demon. The lower leveled players seemed to be focused on the nonstop demons which kept their numbers in check enough to not overwhelm us, plus, I don't think they would be able to help all that much against an enemy such as this.

The demon swung its hands at us trying to hit us with its claws. Most of us could dodge the attacks properly, but some with low agility couldn't and quickly took large amounts of damage. The tanks in the group quickly got the demon's attention and did their best to keep it while everyone else attacked. We swung our swords and other weapons at it, but its skin was too tough, so they didn't do the damage we were hoping for. Knowing our bladed weapons wouldn't help us much here, most of us swapped them out for blunt weapons like hammers and gauntlets. Sadly, even after trying different weapon types and using multiple elements, it wasn't taking enough damage to kill it in a timely manner; the lower-leveled players seem to be being killed off by the hordes of demons, and every time one dies it makes it harder for the others to pick up the slack of an extra player. They would soon be completely annihilated, then we would surely lose since we can't fight the large demon and the hordes at the same time.

One of the hammers swung down on the demon's leg which made it fall to its knees. It didn't relent with the attacks and continued swinging at people while trying to get back up. We couldn't let this opportunity go and have multiple heavy upward attacks on the demon's head. This caused it to fall on its back, and before it could get up or really attempt to do anything, three people started trying to grab the orb out of its chest while everyone else continued their attacks and kept him on the ground. The demon gave a blood-curdling cry, and the hordes of enemies started coming out faster, but it was too late; the three of us pulling the orb out succeeded, and all of the demons started disintegrating into red ember-like particles.

We looked around and had lost most of the lower leveled players, leaving us with five of the thirteen left. We didn't have time to waste on recuperating and started running back to the altars near the stairs. When we got back, we noticed the other group had already succeeded and placed their orb on the left altar.

"Oh, we were getting worried here."

"We got the orb."

"Yeah, us too."

We placed the orb, and once both were in place on the altars the red barriers stopping us from going up the stairs vanished. We all then quickly made our way up and to the next section of the castle. Two of the low leveled players were lagging behind quite a bit and cried out for us to slow down a bit so they could catch up, but we didn't and left them behind as we moved forward.