Desperate Measures

At some point, everyone suddenly stopped running and I accidentally slammed into one of the students. It took me no more than a moment to understand why we had halted so abruptly.

An endless ravine yawned before us, a crack in the ground so wide and deep that I could almost see the bubbling lava awaiting us beneath. 

Silently, we turned to face the army of death closing in on us from all directions. Their numbers had swelled from hundreds to tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands by now, a veritable ocean of unlife. 

Through gritted teeth, the teacher growled a command. 

"Stall for three minutes, by any means necessary. Once the cooldown for Enhanced Group Blink is up, I'll use it… hopefully we'll end up on the other side of the chasm." he said.

It was little more than a death sentence. It was nigh-impossible for all of us to keep the bloodthirsty tide at bay for even half a minute, much less three whole minutes. 

However, there was nothing else to be done. Summoning all the remaining strength in our drained bodies, we began to cast all the useful spells we could. Some summoned temporary barriers to hold back the tide, while others (myself included) started accumulating offensive firepower to keep them away from us for a few precious seconds. 

There was only one problem… they were coming from all directions. If all of them were attacking single file, we might have been able to hold them off for some time, but with the current situation, our odds were approaching nil.

Apparently, the teacher had the same thought as me, because he started forming a thin bridge of rock that we slowly tread backward along. Unfortunately, the speed of the structure's growth was unbelievably slow, likely because he had to reinforce it to prevent it from collapsing under our combined weight. As we slowly backed up, the tide rushed toward us like an unstoppable force of nature. Well, it was unstoppable, just not natural…

We waited for as long as possible to let the spells loose, careful not to let it impact the fragile stone bridge. For nearly half a minute, the spells were released one by one, blowing them away each time they tried to step onto the bridge. 

However, we soon ran out of firepower. Our teacher was completely drained and now we had to stay alive… for two minutes.

The clock was ticking. I silently took a staff from one of the students, holding it out like a club. Then the first of the dead were upon me.

The remaining time was a blur. I swung the stave with a menace, sweeping skeletons off the bridge with startling ease. Somewhere in the back of my mind, it dimly registered that their overwhelming numbers were likely held in check only by their extreme weakness.

However, their lack of magical or physical prowess aided me little at the moment. We were engaged in a deadly contest of whether we could hold out until we could safely be teleported out - either to safety or to certain death - or until all of us met our demise.

We were doing surprisingly well, even lasting two whole minutes against their endless numbers. The Enhanced Group Blink had been cast, and all we were waiting for was the teleportation… but then it happened.

The first casualty happened in the blink of an eye. One moment he was next to me, fiercely swinging away. The next second, a bone cutlass sliced his staff in half. Before he could retreat, a bony hand dragged him into the crowd.

That was the last we saw of him.

One fighter down, the next death happened in mere seconds. One particularly brave skeleton launched itself at me, and I barely managed to sidestep it. However, it slammed into another student, the momentum carrying both it and her off our precarious perch.

All we heard was a fading scream, then she too was gone.

Perhaps encouraged to survive by watching the gruesome death of our compatriots, we summoned the last of our fading strength and held them off long enough for that blinding glow to shroud us once more….

Then there was darkness.