The ball of dark matter struck the parched earth around twenty feet from the pensive group. Waves of dusty air brushed against them from the aftershock. As Sally unshielded her eyes, her brow furrowed at the arrival.
A large armored figure, similar to Humphrey, had unfurled from the rounded shape that had coursed through the sky. Obsidian plates of metal barely reflected the looming sunlight. Their face was an exaggerated caricature of laughter painted in silver. As the figure stretched out to stand tall a second, more lithe one stepped out from behind it.
“Edward,” the zombie seethed. “What now?”
“Well,” the toll-collecting demon leaned against the larger figure and observed his fingernails, “seems you are reluctant to give over your… donation, so I brought one of my more convincing friends to help you change your mind.”
Sally knew well enough that she had just picked up some gold from the barbarians and would bet it all on the fact that Edward somehow knew this. Maybe even down to the exact amount. The excuse that Theo held all their money wouldn’t work…
“I suggest you hand it over,” Lucius whispered from behind, trying to hide away from the new entrants.
“Is that Lucius back there? My, you are persistent.” Edward chuckled and stood back up straight. He brushed some imaginary dust from his light purple suit. “Perhaps that should be your name, Lucius the Persistent.”
“We don’t all love cliches,” Lucius hissed back, accompanied by an angry-looking bubble.
Giving the bad guys the money would probably save them a lot of trouble. Sally scratched at her nose. Still, it was her money that she found - what right did they have to take it? They were rendering her no goods nor services, taxation without anything to show for it just sounded like a shakedown with extra steps.
“What if I refuse?” She crossed her arms.
“Then Brutus here will show you the sharp end of his weapons. Which is both ends.” Lucius gestured with his hand, and the large armored figure withdrew some kind of spear that had silvered spikes at both ends.
“Then what if I kill Brutus?” She kind of wanted that spear thing, actually. She had been using the same dagger for too long. Something with a little more reach would be a nice boon.
Edward’s glowing blue eyes twitched. “You cannot defeat him; why can’t you just accept the Inevitability?”
Sally shrugged and looked up at Humphrey. The Death Knight was mostly impassive, waiting to follow her lead on whatever the decision became. His eyes were narrowed at the new figure, possibly just trying to eye up whatever Level it might be. Even if it was Twenty, she thought she had a fair crack at it. They surely wouldn’t be able to send something tougher just to rough up a couple of low Levels for their meagre cash.
“Does he have a brain?” Her fingers slowly crept down her outfit and towards the sheathed dagger.
“What does that have to-? Oh, you’re a zombie.” The demon rolled his eyes.
“I don’t think this is a good idea, guys,” Lucius recoiled further behind the Death Knight.
Sally sighed. “You’re right. It would be unfair to get you in danger for such an insignificant reason.” She turned back to Edward. “One-on-one then? If I win, you leave me alone for a bit?”
She had some personal affairs to attend to, and giving money to this annoying demon ranked low on the importance list.
Her STAR bloiped.
[Archie: =OwO=]
“Well, at least the cat isn’t dead.” It wasn’t the ideal time to show up, but then Archie did always play to his own tune. “Let’s make this quick, yeah?”
Humphrey nodded and helped shuffle the emoting demon out of the way to give the fighters some space.
“Very well, we will just have to loot the gold from your corpse.”
Sally bit her tongue to stop herself from reminding them that she was already a corpse, technically. Instead, she withdrew her [Dagger of Luck] and wiggled the fingers of her off-hand in the air to limber them up.
She was about to ask when to start when the armored figure burst forward, slamming into her and knocking her into a roll across the dried earth. As she groggily raised her head, the Monster was already in mid-air, descending downward with the spear.
“One of the collector golems was signed out for a job?” The cloaked man ran his fingers down a large ledger. The sparse candlelight barely touched the walls of the stone chamber.
“Yeah,” a coarse voice responded. “A new Guild made it through the Swamps apparently.” The figure shifted on four large feet, a large mound atop their back almost scraping across the ceiling.
“Ah.”
“Hopefully, whatever idiot took it will leave them alive. We get more gold putting them to work this side of the storm; you know how Rubens feels about it.”
The first figure slowly closed the book and gently drummed wizened fingers on the burgundy leather cover. “It was Edward. The Inevitable, Edward.”
Something akin to a long sigh escaped the mouth of the large shadowed creature, responding as they slunk across the floor to rest.
Sally staggered backwards and clutched at the gash in her side with broken fingers. Comparatively, the plated foe was not very damaged. She screwed up her eyes as the dust burned them. Perhaps she had been going about this all wrong. Necroblasts didn’t seem to do anything other than scuff the matt armor, which reminded her briefly of the large Swamp Toad. But surely he couldn’t be that powerful.
Then what? His Magic Resist could be pretty high, certainly, if he was a few levels over her. It had been difficult to get close to him with his size and reach advantage, and she couldn’t rely on luck to get an easy brain-eat as it was likely they didn’t have one. It seemed more like a robot or golem than a functional, thinking person.
“Almost got me there,” she winced, the warm blood flowing down her hand a testament to her lies.
“Aren’t you going to do something?” Lucius prodded the Death Knight, practically gnawing on the edge of his armored plating as he nervously hid.
“If she asks me to. It would be rude to interfere without permission.” Humphrey stood with arms crossed, a furrowed brow constantly over his burning eyes.
“Did you need permission when you saved her life that one time?”
“Nobody likes an active listener, Lucius.” The Death Knight looked down at the cloaked demon. “Sally makes her own choices, and I believe in them.”
Lucius emoted a sweat drop and looked back at the battle.
Flipping the dagger around in her hand, Sally ran forward at the golem. Her broken off-hand raised as if to cast another Necroblast, her opponent readied in a defensive stance.
[Endless Dead]
Thirty zombies pooled forth from the ground, grasping at the thick obsidian legs of the Monster. Slightly caught off guard, it began to stab out at the walking corpses. Sally emerged from the horde and slammed her dagger into their knee joint.
Sparks flew up from the impact, and she rolled past, back into the group of zombies clambering atop the plated figure. Even with [Hex: Slow] on the golem, it had no trouble striking down the zombies one by one. With every other hit, Sally would dodge into range, level a slash of her weapon, and then almost vanish into the crowd. But the horde was thinning already.
With the golem’s back turned, she leapt upon it, groaning in pain as her broken fingers tried to get a grip on the various plates. The obsidian figure tried to shake her loose, but the remaining zombies hung from its arms and weighed it down.
Making it to the pinnacle of the mountain, the zombie Boss tried to jam the dagger into the back of the neck of the golem. Sparks again, as her blade just slid across. In frustration, she grabbed forward, wrapping her arms around its head. She tried to gnaw down on the plate, to no effect.
“Just die already, unfair!”
“How about now?” Lucius asked a question bubble next to his head. “Running out of all those zombies you just farmed up.”
Humphrey sighed. Relaxing his arms, he looked over to Edward, who had been standing and watching the proceedings with a wide shit-eating grin.
“Hey, Eddy the Untenable?” He growled out, flames at the back of his helmet flickering wildly.
The demon turned his gaze away from the fruitless attempts of the zombies to chew into the golem. “Yeah, what is it? Want to relent?”
[Compelled Duel]
Humphrey whipped his greatsword from his back and stormed over to the toll collector, who was now frozen in brief fear.
“Looks like, blah blah-“ Humphrey’s sword blazed brightly as it swung downwards, cleaving the demon in half down the middle. “I won the duel, blah-blah.” Dark crimson and chunks of gore splattered out in a long line across the dusty ground.
The golem paused in place, jostling Sally who was trying to wrestle its head off, and she fell forward back onto the floor.
“Humphrey, you broke it.” She whined, crossing her sore arms as she looked up at the now inert Monster.
“You clearly just won. Can we go now?”
She rolled to the side and pushed herself up with a groan. “It’s much nicer with Theo’s regenerative Aura, huh?”
“It says sixty-three percent now. Maybe it will go down.”
“Unlikely.” Archie shook his head, despite the vampire being unable to see it. “I’m not changing my mind. This is for your own good.”
The ball of dark matter struck the parched earth around twenty feet from the pensive group. Waves of dusty air brushed against them from the aftershock. As Sally unshielded her eyes, her brow furrowed at the arrival.
A large armored figure, similar to Humphrey, had unfurled from the rounded shape that had coursed through the sky. Obsidian plates of metal barely reflected the looming sunlight. Their face was an exaggerated caricature of laughter painted in silver. As the figure stretched out to stand tall a second, more lithe one stepped out from behind it.
“Edward,” the zombie seethed. “What now?”
“Well,” the toll-collecting demon leaned against the larger figure and observed his fingernails, “seems you are reluctant to give over your… donation, so I brought one of my more convincing friends to help you change your mind.”
Sally knew well enough that she had just picked up some gold from the barbarians and would bet it all on the fact that Edward somehow knew this. Maybe even down to the exact amount. The excuse that Theo held all their money wouldn’t work…
“I suggest you hand it over,” Lucius whispered from behind, trying to hide away from the new entrants.
“Is that Lucius back there? My, you are persistent.” Edward chuckled and stood back up straight. He brushed some imaginary dust from his light purple suit. “Perhaps that should be your name, Lucius the Persistent.”
“We don’t all love cliches,” Lucius hissed back, accompanied by an angry-looking bubble.
Giving the bad guys the money would probably save them a lot of trouble. Sally scratched at her nose. Still, it was her money that she found - what right did they have to take it? They were rendering her no goods nor services, taxation without anything to show for it just sounded like a shakedown with extra steps.
“What if I refuse?” She crossed her arms.
“Then Brutus here will show you the sharp end of his weapons. Which is both ends.” Lucius gestured with his hand, and the large armored figure withdrew some kind of spear that had silvered spikes at both ends.
“Then what if I kill Brutus?” She kind of wanted that spear thing, actually. She had been using the same dagger for too long. Something with a little more reach would be a nice boon.
Edward’s glowing blue eyes twitched. “You cannot defeat him; why can’t you just accept the Inevitability?”
Sally shrugged and looked up at Humphrey. The Death Knight was mostly impassive, waiting to follow her lead on whatever the decision became. His eyes were narrowed at the new figure, possibly just trying to eye up whatever Level it might be. Even if it was Twenty, she thought she had a fair crack at it. They surely wouldn’t be able to send something tougher just to rough up a couple of low Levels for their meagre cash.
“Does he have a brain?” Her fingers slowly crept down her outfit and towards the sheathed dagger.
“What does that have to-? Oh, you’re a zombie.” The demon rolled his eyes.
“I don’t think this is a good idea, guys,” Lucius recoiled further behind the Death Knight.
Sally sighed. “You’re right. It would be unfair to get you in danger for such an insignificant reason.” She turned back to Edward. “One-on-one then? If I win, you leave me alone for a bit?”
She had some personal affairs to attend to, and giving money to this annoying demon ranked low on the importance list.
Her STAR bloiped.
[Archie: =OwO=]
“Well, at least the cat isn’t dead.” It wasn’t the ideal time to show up, but then Archie did always play to his own tune. “Let’s make this quick, yeah?”
Humphrey nodded and helped shuffle the emoting demon out of the way to give the fighters some space.
“Very well, we will just have to loot the gold from your corpse.”
Sally bit her tongue to stop herself from reminding them that she was already a corpse, technically. Instead, she withdrew her [Dagger of Luck] and wiggled the fingers of her off-hand in the air to limber them up.
She was about to ask when to start when the armored figure burst forward, slamming into her and knocking her into a roll across the dried earth. As she groggily raised her head, the Monster was already in mid-air, descending downward with the spear.
“One of the collector golems was signed out for a job?” The cloaked man ran his fingers down a large ledger. The sparse candlelight barely touched the walls of the stone chamber.
“Yeah,” a coarse voice responded. “A new Guild made it through the Swamps apparently.” The figure shifted on four large feet, a large mound atop their back almost scraping across the ceiling.
“Ah.”
“Hopefully, whatever idiot took it will leave them alive. We get more gold putting them to work this side of the storm; you know how Rubens feels about it.”
The first figure slowly closed the book and gently drummed wizened fingers on the burgundy leather cover. “It was Edward. The Inevitable, Edward.”
Something akin to a long sigh escaped the mouth of the large shadowed creature, responding as they slunk across the floor to rest.
Sally staggered backwards and clutched at the gash in her side with broken fingers. Comparatively, the plated foe was not very damaged. She screwed up her eyes as the dust burned them. Perhaps she had been going about this all wrong. Necroblasts didn’t seem to do anything other than scuff the matt armor, which reminded her briefly of the large Swamp Toad. But surely he couldn’t be that powerful.
Then what? His Magic Resist could be pretty high, certainly, if he was a few levels over her. It had been difficult to get close to him with his size and reach advantage, and she couldn’t rely on luck to get an easy brain-eat as it was likely they didn’t have one. It seemed more like a robot or golem than a functional, thinking person.
“Almost got me there,” she winced, the warm blood flowing down her hand a testament to her lies.
“Aren’t you going to do something?” Lucius prodded the Death Knight, practically gnawing on the edge of his armored plating as he nervously hid.
“If she asks me to. It would be rude to interfere without permission.” Humphrey stood with arms crossed, a furrowed brow constantly over his burning eyes.
“Did you need permission when you saved her life that one time?”
“Nobody likes an active listener, Lucius.” The Death Knight looked down at the cloaked demon. “Sally makes her own choices, and I believe in them.”
Lucius emoted a sweat drop and looked back at the battle.
Flipping the dagger around in her hand, Sally ran forward at the golem. Her broken off-hand raised as if to cast another Necroblast, her opponent readied in a defensive stance.
[Endless Dead]
Thirty zombies pooled forth from the ground, grasping at the thick obsidian legs of the Monster. Slightly caught off guard, it began to stab out at the walking corpses. Sally emerged from the horde and slammed her dagger into their knee joint.
Sparks flew up from the impact, and she rolled past, back into the group of zombies clambering atop the plated figure. Even with [Hex: Slow] on the golem, it had no trouble striking down the zombies one by one. With every other hit, Sally would dodge into range, level a slash of her weapon, and then almost vanish into the crowd. But the horde was thinning already.
With the golem’s back turned, she leapt upon it, groaning in pain as her broken fingers tried to get a grip on the various plates. The obsidian figure tried to shake her loose, but the remaining zombies hung from its arms and weighed it down.
Making it to the pinnacle of the mountain, the zombie Boss tried to jam the dagger into the back of the neck of the golem. Sparks again, as her blade just slid across. In frustration, she grabbed forward, wrapping her arms around its head. She tried to gnaw down on the plate, to no effect.
“Just die already, unfair!”
“How about now?” Lucius asked a question bubble next to his head. “Running out of all those zombies you just farmed up.”
Humphrey sighed. Relaxing his arms, he looked over to Edward, who had been standing and watching the proceedings with a wide shit-eating grin.
“Hey, Eddy the Untenable?” He growled out, flames at the back of his helmet flickering wildly.
The demon turned his gaze away from the fruitless attempts of the zombies to chew into the golem. “Yeah, what is it? Want to relent?”
[Compelled Duel]
Humphrey whipped his greatsword from his back and stormed over to the toll collector, who was now frozen in brief fear.
“Looks like, blah blah-“ Humphrey’s sword blazed brightly as it swung downwards, cleaving the demon in half down the middle. “I won the duel, blah-blah.” Dark crimson and chunks of gore splattered out in a long line across the dusty ground.
The golem paused in place, jostling Sally who was trying to wrestle its head off, and she fell forward back onto the floor.
“Humphrey, you broke it.” She whined, crossing her sore arms as she looked up at the now inert Monster.
“You clearly just won. Can we go now?”
She rolled to the side and pushed herself up with a groan. “It’s much nicer with Theo’s regenerative Aura, huh?”
“It says sixty-three percent now. Maybe it will go down.”
“Unlikely.” Archie shook his head, despite the vampire being unable to see it. “I’m not changing my mind. This is for your own good.”
