Nearly tumbling down the stairs, the Ostlander leaped and over the last set of stairs to land at the bottom of the stairs. He slammed the door behind him and locked the door, turning to see himself nearly at the precipice of a cliff overlooking the river that Camilla no doubt had fallen into. The gloom was deadening, and the cavern loomed about like a great maw fanged at every orifice of its mouth. A lair of beasts from man's instinctual nightmares. It brought a cold chill to Cyrdic's spine, but he willed himself to continue. Most men wouldn't have. He felt the tug to simply just leap over the cliff to end the terror that awaited. 

But Cyrdic was not afraid of beasts. He'd had one lurking within him since Middenheim. Idly he gripped the hilt of his runic blade, and turned to navigate the cliff face he found himself on, spotting a ruined shack of a building that seemed built into the far wall, across a narrow stretch of the rocky outcropping. Slowly, he thinned his gait until he nearly walked sideways, feeling the free flowing air carried by the river merely a stride in front of him. 

A sudden howl and a crash echoed out of the building he was navigating to, and it nearly pitched him over the side. Briefly he thought going that way might not be the best idea anymore. But then he realized only one person would be down here to fight these aberrations, and he picked up the pace, whimpering like a hound at bay until he made it to wider ground. He unsheathed his sword and sprinted until the ruined building practically vomited an undead horror out of its door, flailing and trying to right itself. The cuts on its arm were unmistakable. 

"Camilla!" he called, trying to make his way around the strange beast, a parody of a bat and a wolf infused by unholy magic. He didn't make it five feet before its bestial head snapped to look at him, snarling with a guttural voice that sounded as if it could break stone. Like a dog yanking on a leash, it scrabbled forward toward Cyrdic even before it regained its footing. The big Ostlander would no doubt have been devoured if he stayed idle, but his sword was out and slicing across the hideous maw of the beast without a second thought, Cyrdic snarling back at it. 

It managed to strike Cyrdic in the chest with its claw, bloodying the man and knocking him to the ground. But he never lost grip of his sword, hacking into its chest and ripping into a rib. It buckled as Cyrdic sliced into another arm, but its next claw swipe wwas steadier, and Cyrdic had to roll out of the way before it hit. The patch of stone where Cyrdic had lay was cut. The Ostlander didn't stop to continue his fight with the thing. He instead turned and ran into the building it had fallen out of, knowing it would recover from his cuts within the minute. 

"Love! I'm here!" he yelled into the building, vaulting over broken ornaments and stonework to reach where he knew she would be. He could smell her scent. Within moments he could hear the breaking of the wooden door behind him, and as Cyrdic passed room to room the hacking apart of wood and stone grew louder. His breathing was growing shallow from the running and the wound he received. He didn't even have time to look at it. 

Making his way up another set of stone carved stairs, breathing labored, he crashed through the door in front of Camilla, her sword raised as if to strike whatever came through the door. Her face wide with shock. 
[@Penny]