[center][color=lightsteelblue][h3][i]Shiara Cazarin, bone mage[/i][/h3][/color][/center]

Shiara let her shielding fall once it was clear the dismembered thing before her was no longer a threat.  A glance behind her indicated the three fighters had the battle well in hand, so she turned her attention back to the disfigured corpse.  It was easy enough to remove a finger, and her little knife made quick work of the meat, leaving her with just the distal and intermediate phlanges.  Shiara tucked them into an oiled pouch.  She'd need to clean them more thoroughly later, but for the moment it would do.

If she didn't know the nature of their opponents, the sight of the knights butchering their targets would have been sickening.  Even so, it was not an easy thing to watch.  When at last the deed was finished, Shiara allowed herself a soft sigh of relief.  "So these are Cursed," she said softly.  "The rumours did not hold the entire truth.  Raised dead would be far simpler to deal with; these are something else entirely."  She paused as the older knight doubled over in pain, his veins turning black.  Whatever was in the vials was powerful, but the power clearly came with a price.

"We should return above," Shiara commented, after the third fighter introduced herself.  "I'm sure the crypt has an exit into the church."  And perhaps on the way the male knight would deign to tell her more about the Cursed.  She'd need to learn everything she could about them to be effective against them -- and more importantly, to find out if there was any hope of putting a stop to them for good.