The knight staggered back in shock. As one, every zombie in the area stopped their idle shamblings or slow consumption of the fallen Players and turned to stare at him with bright yellow eyes.
He ran, bursting through the side of the horde to stomp around on the soft sand, slowing his movements. A buff of pale light flowed down his legs and he increased to his normal sprinting speed.
Sally grinned widely, flame dancing in her red eyes. Watching him gain distance away from her and her zombie pals. Then she gave the unspoken command.
Together as a group, the gathered zombies moved after the escaping man. But not as a slow and awkward shamble… they sprinted. Exhibiting speed and mobility unlike their normal selves, the horde began enclosing on the fleeing knight.
She continued to watch. The man was fast, but with over thirty living corpses bearing down on him, he soon made a mistake and stumbled. As the first zombie, eager for a taste of his flesh, leaped into the air and knocked him to the ground, it was all over. With a smile, she turned and hopped to slide down the dune.
“Please… you-“ the wounded thief began, before she stabbed him through the head and used [Eat Brains].
“Always sours the meal when they beg.” She wiped the gore from her mouth and sighed. “I gave them the chance, and followed through with my word. That’s fair, right?” She turned to the Death Knight and crossed her arms.
“In a manner of speaking, yes,”
“It’s more a shame that there are so many still against us,” she continued, kicking some sand. “After all we’ve done, some continue to see us as evil.”
“Can’t think of why,” Humphrey said with a grin, as he watched the corpse of the thief stand up as a zombie. “Nice Ultimate, though.”
“It’s not as flashy as Theo’s, but being able to turn my slow pals into sprinting zombies for a few minutes is a pretty big deal.” The other options at the time had more pizzazz to them, were either more situational or didn’t fit the theme she was going for. Fast zombies were a whole new horror that was useful both for offence and defense - especially when her horde was larger.
“When you get to use [Zombie Apocalypse] again, then you will be unstoppable.”
“Yeah.” She smiled and looked up at the sky with her eyes closed. Even though it was over a year ago, it felt like two weeks given they had been in a coma. Summoning and controlling hundreds of undead had been amazing. The conditionals for the skill weren’t met, and she was pretty sure that the System also had a hand in when she could use it as well. Given to her in error, it was essentially an Invasion Event rather than a normal ability, even greater than a Boss Ultimate.
She worked her jaw as all those proper nouns became harder to chew the more of them her sentence became labored with.
“More elementals?” The Death Knight gestured back to the roving plain of boring rock Monsters.
“I have an even better idea,” she said as her eyes twinkled.
A skull of flaming green shot across the courtyard and knocked the guard from the top of the parapet. Zombies rose from the ground in the area as the figure crunch against the stone floor.
“Huh, for some reason, I expected the ruins to be abandoned.” She rubbed at her chin as her horde clambered around the buildings in search of the rest of the System-created. Sally kneeled down beside one that hadn’t turned yet. “Lizard-people, but these are more like… iguanas? Or geckos?”
“They are reasonably weak.” Humphrey wiped his sword off on his red cloak. “What is it you seek here?”
“Aww.” She stood up as yellow light pooled into the large eyes of the fallen guard. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten?”
The Death Knight paused, briefly panicked that he had forgotten some manner of anniversary or special occasion. “It’s… your birthday?”
“No! Well, probably not. We were in a coma for a year, so I must have had one at some point, but I have no concept of time past three days either way, sooooo… guess again.”
He rubbed a plated finger against the side of his face, a metallic scratching in contrast to the groans and yells of combat as the zombies took the area.
She went through her Inventory and brought out a small piece of paper. Holding it aloft, she cleared her throat to read it. “Within Walls, Lands Afar, Broken Ground, Crimson Mar.”
“Ah!” He grinned widely as his helmet flame rose higher. “The secret note from back in the crypt.”
“From when you chose to abandon your role as an Observer and saved my life.” She grinned and stuffed the paper into her pocket. “Took me a little while to figure out where it could be, but I think this is it.”
Humphrey looked around. Inside this small stone outpost of sandstone and pale wood, they were certainly ‘Within Walls’ as the gathering of buildings were encircled by a tall stone battlements. The second area could be considered ‘Lands Afar’ compared to the starting zone in the Forest.
“We just need to find the broken ground,” she said, filling in the continuation of his thoughts. “Even if the reward is trash, I figure this would be neat to tick off before we headed on to the perils of the Jungle.”
He nodded and gestured for her to lead the way.
Sally spun the STAR up as she walked around, bringing up her chat with Theo.
[Sally: Thanks for the special delivery, pup x]
[Theo: I don’t know what you mean ;) ]
[Theo: They were snooping about the town for info on us]
[Theo: Unacceptable]
She shivered and closed the Chat down. Theo had always been a bit of a dweeb willing to skirt the laws of morality, but, since becoming a Vampire Lord by accident, he had embraced the main character vibes - and it worked well.
“Hey, Humps, who out of us do you think would be the most likely to turn into a proper villain and go rogue?”
“Theo,” he stated without a moment of hesitation.
That would have been her guess, too. “Whaaat? Not Lucius, with how he was going to betray us, anyway? We’ve only known Norah for a few weeks, technically.”
The Death Knight said nothing in response, knowing that they both knew the vampire had it in him to become deranged - especially if he didn’t get enough sleep. That he seemed content to follow Sally’s ambitions rather than have a grand scheme of his own was probably their greatest boon.
Sally felt compelled to fill the silence. “I just don’t think I’d be able to beat him in a duel if he turned on us.”
“Could you defeat any of us?” Humphrey raised an eyebrow and grinned.
“You dare?” She huffed and scowled at him. “You forget your station. I have half the mind to - oh! Look over here.”
Sally hopped across the warm stone of the street and into a large building with an open doorway. Shaded from the sun, it took her eyes a little while to adjust to see what was inside. “Some kind of temple,” she murmured, narrowing her eyes at the floor.
Cracks ran across it, not from age or decay, but seemingly chiseled in some abstract pattern she didn’t understand.
“Just need the ‘Crimson Mar’,” Humphrey grinned.
“Well, I’m not bleeding on it. Remember last time?” She rubbed at her wrist in remembering the bugged Necroblast she had used in fighting the dungeon boss.
Humphrey looked around. The sides of the room had plain wooden benches between and beyond four pillars that held up balconies overlooking this middle area. “Maybe you don’t have to.” He raised a plated finger to point at one of the pillars.
Sally walked over to see that one of them had a red marking across it. Not even really like a splatter of blood, but perhaps paint or something chalky. Her gaze turned to the inert torch affixed to the wall. With hand outstretched, she held and pulled it - and with some resistance, it relented to clicking to the right. The sounds of gears turning proceeded with the grinding of stone as a doorway opened up on the back wall.
“Neat!” She walked over and stuck her head inside the opening. This short hallway leading to some stairs was lit nicely by torches. “Funny how long these can last, huh?” Sally raised an eyebrow at the flickering flames.
Humphrey shrugged and followed her down, the edges of his armor scraping down the walls as they descended.
Sally tilted her head at the small chamber at the bottom of the stairs. Perhaps expecting some sprawling subterranean dungeon, she was almost disappointed to find just a small room. Plain and unfurnished, except for a stone slab with a wooden chest atop.
“Hmm.” She narrowed her eyes. “Check for traps, Humps!”
The Death Knight sighed and pushed past her into the room. He stood, waving his arms around, before grasping the wooden container. The lack of any immediate repercussions from his diligent efforts seemed like he had done a good enough job.
He popped open the lid and Sally moved up beside him to look inside.
[Broken Shield] [One of three pieces of a legendary shield lost to time.]
“Can’t be that powerful if it lost to time,” she grumbled. “Now we have to find two more pieces to complete it, I assume?”
The Death Knight shrugged, and then looked up at the back wall, drawing her gaze to it to. In flickering crimson, words began to appear slowly across the stone, until they formed a phrase.
[Deepest Pit, Unending Night, Between Two Worlds, Eternal Sight]
“Ah, our next clue. Write that down, Humphrey.” She glared at the plated figure still grasping the empty chest. “Never mind, it’s gone now.” The last of the letters faded away.
She began to walk back up the stairs as he placed the container back to follow her. At the top, she waited by the torch-switch to flip it so that the Death Knight would have the briefest of struggles to get back through before it closed.
“Not the worst adventure,” she grinned. “Better than stabbing elementals.”
“Indeed. Not only did we receive part of a legendary artefact, but we also received experience.”
“Huh?” She looked down at her STAR to see it glowing gold. “We’d best get to the meeting place then, while I decide what to pick!”
She ran back outside to start to gather her zombies.
Humphrey stopped to narrow his eyes at the temple, pausing as if waiting for something to happen. His helmet flame illuminated the dark shadows on the peaked ceiling.
“Soon,” he grumbled to himself, and strode off to rejoin the zombies.
The knight staggered back in shock. As one, every zombie in the area stopped their idle shamblings or slow consumption of the fallen Players and turned to stare at him with bright yellow eyes.
He ran, bursting through the side of the horde to stomp around on the soft sand, slowing his movements. A buff of pale light flowed down his legs and he increased to his normal sprinting speed.
Sally grinned widely, flame dancing in her red eyes. Watching him gain distance away from her and her zombie pals. Then she gave the unspoken command.
Together as a group, the gathered zombies moved after the escaping man. But not as a slow and awkward shamble… they sprinted. Exhibiting speed and mobility unlike their normal selves, the horde began enclosing on the fleeing knight.
She continued to watch. The man was fast, but with over thirty living corpses bearing down on him, he soon made a mistake and stumbled. As the first zombie, eager for a taste of his flesh, leaped into the air and knocked him to the ground, it was all over. With a smile, she turned and hopped to slide down the dune.
“Please… you-“ the wounded thief began, before she stabbed him through the head and used [Eat Brains].
“Always sours the meal when they beg.” She wiped the gore from her mouth and sighed. “I gave them the chance, and followed through with my word. That’s fair, right?” She turned to the Death Knight and crossed her arms.
“In a manner of speaking, yes,”
“It’s more a shame that there are so many still against us,” she continued, kicking some sand. “After all we’ve done, some continue to see us as evil.”
“Can’t think of why,” Humphrey said with a grin, as he watched the corpse of the thief stand up as a zombie. “Nice Ultimate, though.”
“It’s not as flashy as Theo’s, but being able to turn my slow pals into sprinting zombies for a few minutes is a pretty big deal.” The other options at the time had more pizzazz to them, were either more situational or didn’t fit the theme she was going for. Fast zombies were a whole new horror that was useful both for offence and defense - especially when her horde was larger.
“When you get to use [Zombie Apocalypse] again, then you will be unstoppable.”
“Yeah.” She smiled and looked up at the sky with her eyes closed. Even though it was over a year ago, it felt like two weeks given they had been in a coma. Summoning and controlling hundreds of undead had been amazing. The conditionals for the skill weren’t met, and she was pretty sure that the System also had a hand in when she could use it as well. Given to her in error, it was essentially an Invasion Event rather than a normal ability, even greater than a Boss Ultimate.
She worked her jaw as all those proper nouns became harder to chew the more of them her sentence became labored with.
“More elementals?” The Death Knight gestured back to the roving plain of boring rock Monsters.
“I have an even better idea,” she said as her eyes twinkled.
A skull of flaming green shot across the courtyard and knocked the guard from the top of the parapet. Zombies rose from the ground in the area as the figure crunch against the stone floor.
“Huh, for some reason, I expected the ruins to be abandoned.” She rubbed at her chin as her horde clambered around the buildings in search of the rest of the System-created. Sally kneeled down beside one that hadn’t turned yet. “Lizard-people, but these are more like… iguanas? Or geckos?”
“They are reasonably weak.” Humphrey wiped his sword off on his red cloak. “What is it you seek here?”
“Aww.” She stood up as yellow light pooled into the large eyes of the fallen guard. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten?”
The Death Knight paused, briefly panicked that he had forgotten some manner of anniversary or special occasion. “It’s… your birthday?”
“No! Well, probably not. We were in a coma for a year, so I must have had one at some point, but I have no concept of time past three days either way, sooooo… guess again.”
He rubbed a plated finger against the side of his face, a metallic scratching in contrast to the groans and yells of combat as the zombies took the area.
She went through her Inventory and brought out a small piece of paper. Holding it aloft, she cleared her throat to read it. “Within Walls, Lands Afar, Broken Ground, Crimson Mar.”
“Ah!” He grinned widely as his helmet flame rose higher. “The secret note from back in the crypt.”
“From when you chose to abandon your role as an Observer and saved my life.” She grinned and stuffed the paper into her pocket. “Took me a little while to figure out where it could be, but I think this is it.”
Humphrey looked around. Inside this small stone outpost of sandstone and pale wood, they were certainly ‘Within Walls’ as the gathering of buildings were encircled by a tall stone battlements. The second area could be considered ‘Lands Afar’ compared to the starting zone in the Forest.
“We just need to find the broken ground,” she said, filling in the continuation of his thoughts. “Even if the reward is trash, I figure this would be neat to tick off before we headed on to the perils of the Jungle.”
He nodded and gestured for her to lead the way.
Sally spun the STAR up as she walked around, bringing up her chat with Theo.
[Sally: Thanks for the special delivery, pup x]
[Theo: I don’t know what you mean ;) ]
[Theo: They were snooping about the town for info on us]
[Theo: Unacceptable]
She shivered and closed the Chat down. Theo had always been a bit of a dweeb willing to skirt the laws of morality, but, since becoming a Vampire Lord by accident, he had embraced the main character vibes - and it worked well.
“Hey, Humps, who out of us do you think would be the most likely to turn into a proper villain and go rogue?”
“Theo,” he stated without a moment of hesitation.
That would have been her guess, too. “Whaaat? Not Lucius, with how he was going to betray us, anyway? We’ve only known Norah for a few weeks, technically.”
The Death Knight said nothing in response, knowing that they both knew the vampire had it in him to become deranged - especially if he didn’t get enough sleep. That he seemed content to follow Sally’s ambitions rather than have a grand scheme of his own was probably their greatest boon.
Sally felt compelled to fill the silence. “I just don’t think I’d be able to beat him in a duel if he turned on us.”
“Could you defeat any of us?” Humphrey raised an eyebrow and grinned.
“You dare?” She huffed and scowled at him. “You forget your station. I have half the mind to - oh! Look over here.”
Sally hopped across the warm stone of the street and into a large building with an open doorway. Shaded from the sun, it took her eyes a little while to adjust to see what was inside. “Some kind of temple,” she murmured, narrowing her eyes at the floor.
Cracks ran across it, not from age or decay, but seemingly chiseled in some abstract pattern she didn’t understand.
“Just need the ‘Crimson Mar’,” Humphrey grinned.
“Well, I’m not bleeding on it. Remember last time?” She rubbed at her wrist in remembering the bugged Necroblast she had used in fighting the dungeon boss.
Humphrey looked around. The sides of the room had plain wooden benches between and beyond four pillars that held up balconies overlooking this middle area. “Maybe you don’t have to.” He raised a plated finger to point at one of the pillars.
Sally walked over to see that one of them had a red marking across it. Not even really like a splatter of blood, but perhaps paint or something chalky. Her gaze turned to the inert torch affixed to the wall. With hand outstretched, she held and pulled it - and with some resistance, it relented to clicking to the right. The sounds of gears turning proceeded with the grinding of stone as a doorway opened up on the back wall.
“Neat!” She walked over and stuck her head inside the opening. This short hallway leading to some stairs was lit nicely by torches. “Funny how long these can last, huh?” Sally raised an eyebrow at the flickering flames.
Humphrey shrugged and followed her down, the edges of his armor scraping down the walls as they descended.
Sally tilted her head at the small chamber at the bottom of the stairs. Perhaps expecting some sprawling subterranean dungeon, she was almost disappointed to find just a small room. Plain and unfurnished, except for a stone slab with a wooden chest atop.
“Hmm.” She narrowed her eyes. “Check for traps, Humps!”
The Death Knight sighed and pushed past her into the room. He stood, waving his arms around, before grasping the wooden container. The lack of any immediate repercussions from his diligent efforts seemed like he had done a good enough job.
He popped open the lid and Sally moved up beside him to look inside.
[Broken Shield] [One of three pieces of a legendary shield lost to time.]
“Can’t be that powerful if it lost to time,” she grumbled. “Now we have to find two more pieces to complete it, I assume?”
The Death Knight shrugged, and then looked up at the back wall, drawing her gaze to it to. In flickering crimson, words began to appear slowly across the stone, until they formed a phrase.
[Deepest Pit, Unending Night, Between Two Worlds, Eternal Sight]
“Ah, our next clue. Write that down, Humphrey.” She glared at the plated figure still grasping the empty chest. “Never mind, it’s gone now.” The last of the letters faded away.
She began to walk back up the stairs as he placed the container back to follow her. At the top, she waited by the torch-switch to flip it so that the Death Knight would have the briefest of struggles to get back through before it closed.
“Not the worst adventure,” she grinned. “Better than stabbing elementals.”
“Indeed. Not only did we receive part of a legendary artefact, but we also received experience.”
“Huh?” She looked down at her STAR to see it glowing gold. “We’d best get to the meeting place then, while I decide what to pick!”
She ran back outside to start to gather her zombies.
Humphrey stopped to narrow his eyes at the temple, pausing as if waiting for something to happen. His helmet flame illuminated the dark shadows on the peaked ceiling.
“Soon,” he grumbled to himself, and strode off to rejoin the zombies.
