Cyrdic battled ferociously, his sword slicing into the rotted meat of the beast's flesh with every ounce of the Ostlander's strength, ducking and parrying as best he could, though the loping claws of the Varghest made it hard to judge when and where a claw would get close enough to strike him. But he was like a wall, keeping the large, dangerous predator at bay with his runic steel to guard Camilla's back. It was a formation they were used to, by now, though now they were in opposite positions. 

Cyrdic was usually the one to hammer through the lines while Camilla parried, riposted, and sliced into whatever was trying to lay into them, dancing around a larger opponent to keep them off of Cyrdic's back if she could not outright slay it immediately. It was a grim sort of humor, though neither of them were laughing at the moment. Old, ruined timber was splintered and shorn as the monster howled, growing frustrated at being unable to simply devour the big man. 

Cyrdic was a trained soldier and warrior, and he believed Camilla had learned much from him. But she had taught him a few of the finer ways of dodging an opponent, and with a deft spin under a claw swipe, he gave a backhanded slash that sliced through what was now the stump of the creature's back leg, causing it to buckle under its own weight. Camilla and Cyrdic's wounds together had greatly reduced its combat ability, and before it could recover, Cyrdic's blade flew overhead to chop into the thing's thick neck. The blade's magic aided in the cutting power of his strike, and he cut clean through meat and bone. 

The ugly head thudded into the wooden floor as the creature flailed its death spasms. It's extended claws whipped out, elongated by the terrifying anatomy, flying over broken furniture to sweep across Camilla. Cyrdic quickly tackeled her to the ground as the claw swept overhead, knocking aside a ghastly Knight. Camilla squeaked, but her head poked out of Cyrdic's bulk and she kissed him on the nose. "Grazie" she said, and sprang out of his arms to block the following strike from another skeleton. Glancing back, the undead abomination was now dead and still. 

Cyrdic suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to break bone on his sword, and standing tall, he waded into the melee with Camilla, fighting beside her as they always did. Camilla's elven blade parried and hacked while entire Skeletal bodies were sundered by Cyrdic's blade, and together no single Knight, or two for that matter, in the bottleneck of the corridor could stand against them for more than a few scant moments. 

By Ranald's luck, they might actually make it out of the catacombs. At the end of the hall, they could see a door that led upwards into another stairwell, the door hanging open limply, having been ripped off most of its hinges by the advancing Knights minutes before. It looked like their salvation was at hand, with only a half a dozen of the skeletal monster's left, still funneled through the stone walls, unable to properly surround the two mercenaries. 

Cyrdic's sudden cry of pain pierced the room, and Camilla would see a deformed, fang filled mouth clutching to Cyrdic's shoulder as a ghoul gripped the man from behind. Another would grab onto his arm, and she would see more trying to scramble over the dead Varghest, pushing its heavy body away from the entrance to the room. "Cyrdic!" she screeched, doing her best to retreat to him while keeping the Knight's back. Cyrdic's cry turned into a roar, and he slammed his back into the wall, nearly crushing the ghouls latched onto him. Over and over and did it, until his sword arm was free and he could stab the bottom one through the chest. It fell in a heap, and while the other was dazed he knocked it off his back and finished it. 

Blood poured freely down his muscled back, his lack of armor unable to protect him. Great claw marks and jagged wounds ran down his upper and lower back, but he did not seem to tire or notice. Instead he ripped the rest of the garment off his torso and readied his sword to meet the next ghouls that prowled at the edge of the darkness.  
[@Penny]