Ace laughed as Jasper stammered in defense. It was smart of her to change the subject, especially with Ace. Because she immediately went on to the next subject. "The queen is most definitely hiding something. Good or not. I think she's up to no good. But, I haven't known the queen as long as you guys have." To the guides, she added. "But you never know, she could be hiding stuff from you guys too."

Getting a little sneak peek at the life of Riley made her smile. It left room for her own imagination. Not everyone had some nice little home with a picket fence and a nice dog to accompany them, with a partner at their side. She wanted to know how they lived their lives on a typical day for them. But she didn't want to ask. Especially with some of them having sad and personal things going on. She didn't want to bring up any sad stories.

Hearing Songbird and Avian argue made her laugh so she turned around and stuck her tongue at both of them. "You're both buuurds! Deal with it." It was right around the time Riley called them mature and it only made her laugh again. Nice to have some upbeat energy despite such a dreary event.

Seeing the Stone of Sacrifice didn't phase her just as usual, and she continued forward. It looked like a regular stone- well minus the creepy backdrop addition. "I'm pretty sure if they were hiding the baby dragon, they would have him locked up somewhere. Or, in a pot. He's made of clouds so a simple cage wouldn't really work. I don't think he'd be in plain sight- but if he is... it's probably a trap. Normally when people are kidnapped, they're used as bait. From what I know, the last time someone was kidnapped it was a trap...As soon as the people went to retrieve said kidnapped- weapons! Weapons, everywhere-." She realized she had been rambling and not paying attention to the conversation at hand.

"Um. . . Basically we should be careful." Ace whistled softly and turned on her heel to keep walking. Hearing about Jasper's plan, Ace shook her head. "That's a terrible idea going off by yourself." Ace bounded to her side in a few quick steps. "We're a team. You should at least have some to help you. Always for just in case purposes. Maybe Avian since he's more experience orrr...well me!" She looked around at the scenery. "Besides, Fluff might be in the house over there." She offered her assistance, although she more than likely wouldn't take no for an answer.

The hut didn't look too large, so it would be easier to search through. Unless it was larger on the inside- which could've been possible with the work of witch magic. Her direction turned to the hut and she decided to walk that way. "Of course, it would be nice if one of our guides could tag along. You know, as our 'adult supervision'." She smiled. "The more the merrier?"

Lesley was quite surprised to hear that all the women and even men of the group were all single and had no special person looking for them back home. He himself got around quite a bit and wasn't one to settle. What's the point of staying in a committed relationship anyway. It's better the try all the Skittles in the bag rather than pick out just one flavor... if you know what I mean. Martini probably had a long line of Nobodies admiring her and Brandy didn't look half bad either. He would've hit on the bunny-eared guide if it weren't for the uptight feels he gave off.

Jasper then pushed the romance subject off the stage and brought in the mystery of Queen Delirium. She was such a fabulous individual and so kind too. It never really crossed his mind to think that all of it was a cover up of any sort. Though as the conversation about the Queen's true identity progressed, he began to develop his own worries and doubts. Everything that had happened thus far since stepping aboard the Midnight Train thus far, were all utterly out of the ordinary and didn't seem to have a certain point to it besides having humans retrieve items. The chance of death remained heavy in air, yet the Queen does nothing about it. And why send a magical train to Earth to fetch as item hunters? The more he questioned, the more unrealistic and mischievous it all seemed.

Catching Inadi walking beside Jasper did tick him off a bit, but in the back of his head he knew that Inadi was stuborn both in personality and more than likely, it included his sexual orientation as well. The man was straight and was clearly not up for giving the other side a chance no matter how much Lesley prodded and attempted to seduce him. But the chase was always fun. In the end, the person with the correct parts would triumph, but that piece of knowledge didn't mean he would quit playing with the frame-faced fellow.

As the following trailed on, the wisps suddenly vanished into thin air as the Stone of Sacrifice came into their full view. The scenery was haunted and spooky as usual and a tension fell upon the group. Caution was key and since the witches knew of their presence last time, it was more than likely that the back-bent grannies knew of their arrival this time around too. But just in case they did not, it was better to have the upper hand by spotting the child thieves first and that way they would be able to launch the starting attack.

Jasper then announced that she would split and look for the fluff ball and ace joined her as well, calling for one of the guides as extra support. A small group looking for the dragon while the others stalked for the witches was a good idea, but he decided to stick to witch hunting since he knew the extra magic user was most definitely needed for the task.

"I think it's a good idea for us to have 2/3's looking for the witches while the remaining 1/3 go and try to find the baby dragon," he suggested in a low whisper, just enough for the surrounding crew to hear. The deserted area was quiet enough that even one step seemed to amplify much louder.

The Stone of Sacrifice was an interesting sight to see considering the shape. Looking at everything around the stone however made him feel like he was suffering from a bad case of deja vu. The one house that was nearby was a burnt down wreckage and pillars were scattered around and busted like some kind of raid to destroy an old civilization took place. Inadi felt like this was probably what the ruined city of Troy looked like once the Greek army was done with it. Grabbing his spear in both hands, Inadi knew that he was going to have to keep his eyes open so he wouldn't end up like the Trojans did that day they accepted that giant horse.

Jasper thought it would be wise to go on ahead by herself, an idea that Ace showed concern with. Inadi agreed with the worried red head and placed a hand on the healer's shoulder as he tried to stop her from going too far with her idea. “If you want to go by yourself cause you feel you don't add much to a fight then why risk not being around others that are? You pretty much leave yourself as easy pickings for anything that may be out here Jasper,” He told her while his eyes continued to shift around the place. A few birds had decided to roost nearby and seemed to be following the group very closely. Their eyes almost as black as their feathers, Inadi didn't like the idea of being watched by these flying rats. Letting go of Jasper he shifted his spear and gave a smile. “No reason to lose one of our more useful members so early don't you think?” He asked Jasper as he gave a quick chuckle.

Hearing Ace's suggestion to go off with a guide to the nearby hut he felt a little concerned. The further they stretched their numbers the easier most of them would get picked off by these witches. They had no idea to what extent these hags had in regards to power. And the humans still had no idea to what all they could actually do with their magic. The best Inadi could still do was throw a lightening bolt at an enemy but the likely hood of that working on a witch was very small he felt. He wished there was a better way to know more about witches and what all they were capable of. Then again they were here to help the humans as best they could. Better to take help that was there rather than throw it away before you can have a chance to use it.

Inadi decided to turn to Avian, the guide that Ace had suggested earlier as the group went over to the burned down hut. Inadi didn't want to get to far away from the others, as the whole splitting up thing just struck him as a really bad idea. Reaching out to the guide, he began asking his questions. “Avian, just out of curiosity do you have any idea what kind of witches we may be dealing with here at all? And what all can witches do exactly,” He said while keeping an eye on the birds above them, which seemed to gather some more friends since he had last glanced at them. “Can they absorb other people's magic if its used against them? Like if I shot a bolt at one, would they just shrug it off like it was nothing?” He asked concerned as a few squawks began shooting down on them with some anger attached to them it seemed. Definitely didn't make the framed face of Inadi lose it's scowl.

Martini tittered at Riley's suggestion of suitors swarming around outside her shop. "Oh please, darling, you're exaggerating," she flicked her hand dismissively. "I mean sometimes there are one or two, or rather there usually are but-"

While Marti gushed, Brandu was busy trying to hold back from facepalming at Song and Avian's little argument, if it could even be called that. It was more akin to what one would see between two children- he would be sure to check the contents of Song's flask in the future.

Riley seemed to have given up on making sense of the mermaid's ramblings turned to Brandy, who had dragged Song away from Avian and was currently making sure the item hunter didn't trip over a vine and skewer himself on an errant branch somewhere. He blinked at her, tilting his head in thought.

"He's met many Nobodies without question, but as for juicy details... You'll have to ask him." He poked the drunken Song with a sigh. "Does him getting inebriated before fighting witches count as a story of some kind?"

"I kissed a frog once! It was squishy!" Songbird hollered, shaking his fist at the skies as several birds were startled out of their roosts by his loud voice. Avian blushed at having received both Ace and Riley's attentions, but he had to correct an assumption of theirs.

"I wasn't named after a bird! I mean... My name doesn't mean bird bird, it means dragon bird! You know, because I grew up in Aven," He gestured with his hands while speaking as if to punctuate his words. The soldier seemed pretty riled up at his name being mistaken for some petty fowl, although there really wasn't much difference. It was his creator's fault for not thinking up a creative name. She was probably a preadolescent weeabo when she first thought him up.

They arrived on the site and the Lost Souls brought their guards up. Avian moved on to the middle of the group while Songbird blearily looked at the surroundings. As the item hunter was searching through his pouch Leon approached him and asked a question. The nobody fished out an icky brown stick and bit half of it off, cracking sounds coming from his jaw as he chomped down on the substance. "Don't think so. Never looked for witches in the first place," He finally replied. This time, his speech seemed more coherent and he didn't look as dazed as he was earlier. Looks like that little stick was a medicine of sorts.

Harper inquired if anybody had ideas where the dragon would be hidden and Avian raised an eyebrow. "I don't have any idea. You don't hide dragons where I'm from," He replied with his arms crossed over his chest. "Snowflake, this is your expertise, isn't it? You tell them where to search," The dragoon turned towards Songbird and directed the attention to him instead. While he was waiting for the other nobody to respond, Avian felt someone approach him from his blind spot and immediately reoriented himself, only to face a human. Inadi started slinging a few questions that made the soldier stiffen up, as if he was nipicking details from a mission directive.

"Well, first of all... There is only one type of witch. A human told me that you have black and white witches in your games, but here it's just magic users and witches. When you say "witch", all everyone will think about are those evil old ladies. They're the worst," He scowled. "Asides from that, they live only in the deepest bowels of the Dark Side so there's only a few things we know about them, but I'm sure they don't absorb magic. Temeraire, that dragon from before, was my cousin's companion. They encountered a witch once and the only reason they escaped was because one of my cousin's spells hit the hag on the face," The dragoon sighed before shaking his head.

"Hey beefcake, go with the cleric. This group's the strongish one," The item hunter rolled his eyes before Avian glanced up, nodded and then trekked after Jasper and Ace. If that group ran into trouble, it would be a big hassle for everyone.

Brandy and Martini watched Jasper, Ace, and Avian slowly make their way towards the run down hut, the latter having fallen silent when the stone came into sight. The bunny was also quiet, frowning as he stared at the hut. He had a hunch that what they were looking for would indeed be inside the building- perhaps in some sort of basement. Even juvenile dragons could fly, and it would be hard to keep them in any kind of cage if they didn't want to be there.

So where were the guards? The witches surely wouldn't leave prisoners just like that. He tugged at one of his ears, disliking the unnerving silence. Martini had gone back to clinging to Lesley, wincing as the sound of the door creaking open scratched through the silence.

"I- I guess we wait for them to... Huh?" A rustle behind them made the mermaid turn in fright, giving a small shriek when some small and furry shot out of the bushes. "Ahaha, it was nothing... Thank goodness." Martini pressed a hand against her chest, sighing in relief.

Brandu was less relieved, peering into the darkness of the forest. The rat almost seemed like it was running from something-

CRASH!

He swore loudly, tackling Song and another human down as something crashed through the group, narrowly avoiding being hit by whatever it was.

---

Meanwhile, Avian caught up to Jasper and Ace, the former of which was now in front of the cabin door. He grimaced at the rickety porch, more so at the darkness skulking inside the dubious one-room building, and told the two girls to stay behind him. The uneasy atmosphere was heightened by the fact that the cabin was nestled in a darker part of the area, with the gnarled branches and thorny vines snaking along the walls as if the wilderness had claimed the rundown structure eons ago.

Ace provided them with the smallest light source she could make as Avian opened the door. The aged wood swung open with an ominous creak and blurry outlines and shapes met their eyes. The soldier already had his weapons unsheathed and he was looking around, bewildered by something. Tiny portions of the room were revealed as she swung her light to and fro in an attempt to show them what they were dealing with. There wasn't anything in here, but the dragoon's instincts were screaming. Was it just him or was there something bubbling in the rafters? He tilted his head up and squinted at the shadowy ceiling, but even with Ace's light near there wasn't anything in there to be seen.

Still...

"Let's leave," As Avian turned around to see if they had left the door open, something dropped down from above, landing but a meter from the trio. The sound of squelching and bubbling liquid intensified and the figure slowly became visible from its rotting feet, protruding waist and massive torso to its stump of a head. Viscous pus ran in rivulets down its bloated body, and the creature staggered from side to side as it reached for the Lost Souls and their guide.



Thankfully the monster was as slow as it was big, so they had enough time to turn towards the exit."A magic cloak. That was why I couldn't see anything!" The soldier hissed as he covered for Jasper and Ace, crossing his blades over his face when the zombie spat out a glob of....

"Agh!" Avian snarled as he wrung his right hand up and down. Steam rose from his wristguard, and when he stayed still long enough the humans could see that a part of his armor had melted off, and the skin where some of the suspicious liquid had splashed was burning a warm red. "Don't let that hit you! Come on, you two, let's get out of this.... !?" When the dragoon turned towards the duo his eyes glanced on something happening outside the cabin.

Something that may just be worse than the one they were escaping from right now.

---

The unicorn-esque monster skidded to a halt, clods of dirt and grass crumbling beneath its sharp hooves as it turned to stare at the fearful group of humans and Nobodies, yellow eyes surveying the group before it tossed its limp mane, lips pulling back to reveal sharp teeth in a grin. A sound, somewhere between a whinny and a cackle rose from its throat as various foul smelling liquids oozed from the wounds and festers on its belly.

Brandy took a step back, tome open in one hand and fireball forming in the other while Martini gripped her trident tightly.

"Unicorns are pure beings," he muttered as he glared at the beast. "How could one have been corrupted like this? Where would the witches have gotten their hands on one in the first place?" The rabbit gritted his teeth tightly, not liking what this meant for them nor what it said about the witch they would have to face.

That's nasty. Songbird's face was twisted in an expression of disgust at the undead unicorn's appearance, and when he saw that his groupmates were getting ready he assumed a fight-or-run stance too. That is, of course, before muffled squeaks burst from within his bag and two fluff balls poked their head out. It was the fuchsia and orange duo he had brought along on the SSF, Fluffy and Stuffy. Upon zoning in on the threat they immediately bounced out and up the item hunter's arms, snaking up and around his limbs until both fluffs were perched across each other on his hat. Funny, they looked more like weapons instead of pets this time around.

"What do we do, then?" Songbird shook his head at the sudden appearance of his beloved babies, but it was hardly the time to focus on that.

A rotting unicorn was trying to skewer them alive...

Riley backed up into an equally shocked Hakuren. This time, even the smug ice mage couldn't stop a look of disgust and fear from creeping up on his face. He let out a shocked gasp before coughing. That thing smelled of earth and rotting flesh, it was absolutely revolting.

Leon, like most of the humans was left speechless. Suddenly, he was on the ground with Brandy and Songbird and the next thing he knew he was using a gust of wind to get him back on his feet. He stared at the thing, mouth agape, and knees shaking. He didn't want to die here, he wanted to run, to fight, but a paralyzing fear took over the young man's entire body, rendering him unable to speak or move.

"Oi, oi, queen Leon, now's not the time to freeze. Let's blow it away!" Haku forced a grin despite his own fears. His amulet lit up and snowflakes began fluttering around him. The temperature nearby dropped slowly and the humans felt a chill.

The unicorn prepared itself before it ran straight towards them. "Like Haku said," Leon's mouth was pulled back into a scowl. "Don't just stand there damn it!" There was no mistaking the desperation in his voice. There was a gust of air and before the unicorn could impale Harper and Leila, both humans were blown back and found themselves on the ground. Puffs of dust filled the scene.

Harper scraped the palm of his hand on a rock and he felt blood trickle down his fingers. Normally, he would have minded, but now, there was just no time. He pushed himself to his feet and in one swift motion, he grabbed onto Leila's arm and yanked her to her feet.

He could hear yelling. At first none of it made sense, but then he heard Riley screaming her lungs out. "Harper! Leila! Get out of the way!"

Without looking, he pulled Leila along. A loud crash, followed by the snapping of wood resonated inside his skull. The unicorn had barely missed them it's horn digging deep into one of the trees. There was a creak before the tree fell with a loud thud.

The unicorn shook its head only for an icicle to embed itself into the tree. The tree's trunk slowly began turning into ice, the frost eventually crept downward before it froze the ground beneath the beast's feet. "Move before I freeze you both." Haku yelled, the attack taking a strain on both is powers and his mind. The horse floundered about in an attempt an attempt to stay upright before hands tore through the ground and grabbed onto Hakuren's ankles. The ice mage lost his concentration and fell onto his back.

The same thing happened to everyone. Riley kicked at the hand that tried to yank at her foot and watched as it snapped off and rolled away. Fire flickered to life on her arms, but before she could shoot at the unicorn, an eerie laugh echoed throughout the forest. "Crap," she hissed. "Ace, Jasper, and Avian aren't back yet--!" She didn't finish the thought, she didn't need to, the worry was evident enough on her face.

Harper unsheathed his sword and hacked at the arms that were trying to claw their way out of the earth. More and more arms were reaching out, tugging at their ankles in an attempt to tear free from the ground.

A cold chill ran down their spines as an eerie laugh echoed throughout the woods.

"A tisket a tasket
there's blood in Lesley's casket."

Leon's eyes widened, "Lesley!" He could have sworn he had seen a flash of red eyes on the tree behind the man.

He didn't really know what to do, so he propelled himself forward with a gust of wind. Leon's shoulder slammed right into Lesley's chest and the force sent them both tumbling back into the cracked earth. The young man found himself lying on top of the other one, their faces barely inches apart. Had this happened anywhere else, he would have been a little flustered, but at the moment only fear ran through him. He looked up only to see a wooden spike sticking out of the trunk's base.

Had he not tackled his friend to the ground, the man would have been gutted on the spot. "UP! UP!" He yelled frantically as the tree's branches began to move. Slowly, it seemed as if it were gaining life. Leon scrambled back, grabbing onto Lesley's hands as he jumped to his feet.

Hakuren clenched his hands into fists, he hated it! Hated being the underdog, hated feeling afraid. The young man bit down on his lip, eyes flitting to and fro rather nervously. "Songbird, Brandy, what do you suggest we do?" Not many things scared him, but an ending, an infinite end, he hated to admit, but it scared him out of his wits. He stomped on the ground, freezing one of the hands solid. "What do we do?"



"Now," the voice sounded as if it were a thousand years old, and perhaps it was. "Only death awaits you..."

A woman in a dark hood appeared on one of the tree's branches. She took a bite out of an apple then held it her hand. Slowly, it began to decay and in a matter of seconds only a darkened core remained. She tossed it at the mermaid's head, her expression blank. "Melissa and Rianon told me about their run in with you at Sol." She leaped off the branch, turning into a dark crow. It fluttered around them before she reappeared behind the humans, arms crossed over her chest. "How nice of you to pay me a visit,I heard from a grumpy tree you'd be coming."

Her eyes snapped open and they lacked both pupils or colors of any kind.



Her lips curled up into a sadistic smile. "Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back..."

The ground beneath them shook as the dead began crawling out of their graves. One of the skeleton in particular, wrapped its bony arms around Inadi as its jaw clattered. Before the humans knew it, rotting corpses came from all directions, surrounding them and lurching forward. Plenty were lacking a limb and a few had their jaws knocked off completely. They lurched forward, dragging their feet behind them. They didn't look very strong, but what they lacked in strength, they made up for in numbers.

"Goodbye..." The witch turned into a raven. It flapped its wings then landed on one of the many tree's branches.

No...he didn't get this far to die! He didn't get this far to become zombie food.

Harper swung his sword in a downward arc, the tip embedding itself into one of the zombies' heads. He pulled it out, and a black-ish, foul smelling substance trickled out of the thing's head. It's jelly-like eyes rolled into the back of its head and it fell onto its knees, before crumpling to the ground. The contents of its head began spilling out and Harper felt a wave of nausea. He didn't say a word and swung his sword again, the next swing, burying it in one of the zombie's shoulders.

Riley was speechless, but soon enough she joined in the fray. The smell of singed hair and burning flesh filled the night air.

"That's a terrible idea going off by yourself."

The voice belonged to Ace and before Jasper even had time to turn around and look, the fiery red-head was already at her side with a worrisome pout.

"We're a team. You should at least have some to help you. Always for just in case purposes. Maybe Avian since he's more experience orrr...well me! Besides, Fluff might be in the house over there."

The albino wasn't planning on putting up an argument. She had hoped that someone would volunteer to tag along with her anyway. Going alone to some creepy shack wasn't exactly her definition of safe and she gladly accepted Ace as her partner. The pair slowed down a bit as Ace looked back at the the larger crowd and called out to the guides for extra support that Jasper knew very well they'd probably be needing. Feeling a palm press to her backside, she swiveled her around to face Inadi who was also speaking out in concern about her going off without asking for any companionship. It was never in her nature to ask for help because it made her think she was being a burden to others. But now it seemed that mentality had backfired on her since it seemed to have caused all this worry from her mates.

Jasper nodded, her face reddening from all the sudden care and attention she was being paid. Crows were cawing over head, circling them like predators eyeing down on a tasty meal. As Inadi shifted the conversation aim towards Avian, she too was curious about any information he knew about these monsters and what exactly they were capable of. Cautiously keeping track of the black birds perched around them, a creeping sensation of uneasiness settled in as she began to notice them doubling in numbers as more flocked in every couple of seconds. At this realization, the nervous female inched a little closer to Ace since she could feel a terrible aura coming on and it was increasing in threat as they spoke.

"Well, first of all... There is only one type of witch. A human told me that you have black and white witches in your games, but here it's just magic users and witches. When you say 'witch', all everyone will think about are those evil old ladies. They're the worst. Aside from that, they live only in the deepest bowels of the Dark Side so there's only a few things we know about them, but I'm sure they don't absorb magic. Temeraire, that dragon from before, was my cousin's companion. They encountered a witch once and the only reason they escaped was because one of my cousin's spells hit the hag on the face." Avian responded to Inadi's inquiries."

At Songbird's remark, Avian agreed to team up with them to search the shack a little ways away from where the second group was headed. Lesley's suggestions were fulfilled though they weren't split in exact fractions, she thought their numbers would suffice. As they arrived at the cabin's porch entrance, a stench that she had caught onto a couple yards away had now grown strong to the point that it made her eyes water and Jasper now had her shirt over her mouth and nose in attempt to filter the air she was taking in. The aroma was absolutely disgusting and she wished she had just stuck to the large group. The rotting home screamed germ-infested and she certainly wasn't too keen on going inside if the odor just at the front gave off such a horrid hint.

Hearing quickening footsteps behind them, Avian caught up to pace and approached the rutty building first, acting as a protective wall in front of the ladies. He commanded Ace to create a small light source for them just before he turned the knob to enter. Jasper stayed behind the line up, the girl looked like she was bawling by now since the stench had gotten so powerful it matched the affect of dicing up twenty onions.The inside wasn't much, just a bed with a worn out mattress and a couple other pieces of furniture. Knick-knacks and rusted kitchenware were placed on top of wooden shelving looking like they were just barely holding on at the hinges. Everything within the place shared one thing in common, they were dirty. Glaring at the mattress, she wondered what type of person would come home to that and manage to fall asleep. The brown stains had her imagining a couple accidents slip by on the poor thing, but wasn't cleaned very well. Upchuck shot skyward in her throat and she turned away as Avian suggested they leave now.

Since she was at the end of the group, she was closest to the exit and she happily obeyed his advice as she twisted around and grabbed the knob. At the click of the door, signaling that it was now unlocked, she jumped as the sound of wreckage erupted behind them. As all three turned their heads, a zombified buffet-regular was waddling towards them like some giant, slobbering baby, but it was ten times less cute, but ten times more repulsive. Jasper swung the door open and tugged Ace along to escape a germaphobes worst nightmare and was thankful that Avian had covered for them, but when he caught up to them on the porch, the puss ridden being belched out a substance that outright burned through the male's armor and seared at his skin underneath. Though she could have healed it there and then, the guide was so hurried and the fat zombie was still approaching that they continued to hustle for the larger group down the hill.

But what came into view was a true nightmare. Everyone was on the ground, undead beings littered about, clawing at them, some tightly grasped around her teammates legs. There was even a horse of some sort, but it too looked of rotting flesh and it's snot-like hue signaled that it was not at all well. As they got closer, a hooded figure appeared before the shaken crowd and the trio arrived just in time to hear her speech as she flew off, blending into the flock of crows up above. She had stated that the witches were told of their presence by one of the trees and Jasper knew exactly who it was. The girl was terrified beyond her wits, her heart palpitating rapidly, but this was no time to pass out. Skeletons rose up from the dirt beneath them and Harper took the first initiative on killing one. Black guts spilled out from his victim and Riley followed suite with his slaughter. Grabbing Avian's arm, she channeled healing wisps into his burned wound and she was glad for the thick barrier of armor that had previously covered the area for it fought off most of the damage and the injury was replenished in no time.

Clutching her staff tightly, she joined in on the zombie massacre, clubbing the heads off more undead attempting to pop up. Because of their softened flesh, it was quite an easy to task to get the skin to tear, their rotten bones couldn't hold up against energized blows. Though they were weak individually, they held advantage in numbers. Jasper continued to swing as fast as she could, knocking as many skulls as she could, throwing up a little everyone once in a while with a green face. Her head was disoriented and drunk from disgust and at the same time she was fighting off fainting from the crippling fear that had taken over her very soul. It seemed as if no matter how many she killed, double the amount would rise up to replace them. The bulb of her staff was covered in blackened, fetid liquid along with many flesh-like chunks she knew was pieces of zombie brain matter. Her body spasmed for a bit as she huffed from exhaustion, letting the zombies rise out of the ground around her as she rested momentarily.

"There's too many of them!" she hollered out as she smashed her staff-head down on a zombie's shoulder before it could claw out her eyes from its sockets. A hand from below dug its nails into the skin of her calves as her short words caught her off guard and the thing gnashed its hand down causing three bleeding gashes on her leg before she screamed in pain and anger as she caved its head in with a bash of her weapon. Jasper was crying, but continued her carnage all the same, just like everyone else. She had never felt more wild and out of control in her life, all the while, surrounded in the filth of rotting corpses and putrid emanation.

"Still a bird."

Ace whistled lightly, twirling the hilt of her empty sword around. The cabin looked pretty creepy and beat down. But so did everything else in this hellish place. "Stay close Jasper." She stayed behind Avian as he said, but watched his back. The fiery sword lit up only enough to see around. She didn't want to waste too much energy. "Be ready for anything." She whispered. Despite it being so small, she had an eerie feeling that something was there. She didn't know where, but something was...watching, and waiting. She kept her cool, not wanting to freak Jasper out anymore than she probably was.

At the mention of leaving, she nodded and turned to the door with Jasper, only for something to plop down in front of it. "...Gross." That was her first reaction upon hearing the gross bubbling and squishing- and then seeing where it came from. "That is...gross." Her flame grew brighter and larger, but stopped as Avian shielded the two. Seeing the steam off his hand made her step backwards. "Don't let the blobish guy touch us. Got it." When she turned to the door, her eyes widened in surprise to see.... well hell on earth outside. "Slow as the blob is, we can't let it out! By the looks of it, we don't need anything else attacking out- Duck!" She pulled Avian by his collar and pushed Jasper's head down as another glob of acid reflux poison was shot. It hit the door way and she watched as it melted away. Jasper took the initiative to pull them out of the cabin.

The redhead was too busy focused on the blob creature to get the exact details on what happened outside. It was still coming toward them, and she stayed weary of its puke shots."If everything that blob touches is acid, do you think we could lead it to those creatures? It may be slow, but it has some distance in its aim." It was a long shot, but it didn't look like the blob had much of a thought process so there may have been a chance that it would shoot at its allies- indirectly at least. That would get rid of some of the challenge. Jasper had already left to help, so Ace was at Avian's side. If Avian didn't think it was a good idea, Ace was prepared to slice the thing up.

Being outside also meant that the zombie creatures were attacking them too. Ace lashed out, using physical strength and using the empty hilt to break the skulls and bones of the creatures. She definitely didn't want to waste her energy too much. "Careful, they're on your right." Ace called out before stomping on one that tried to climb out of the ground. When she did, multiple cracking and crunching noises could be heard. "Heh, like Whack-a-Mole but with zombies and no hammer." She jumped again as another one tried to climb. That one was crushed as well. Of course, she couldn't keep doing that so she moved back to Avian and helped him get rid of the surrounding monsters.

"Do these things end?" She huffed as she continied fighting off the endless amount of monsters. Every now and then, she would check to make sure the blob didn't make any sudden movememts. At one point, she was surrounded and Ace frowned. "Get out of the way!" She swung the sword, and unexpectedly it lashed out similar to a fiery whip before returning to its sword state. "Whoa. How about that one... That took a toll on my amulet though." She hugged and looked down at the draining energy.

Ace and Inadi showed immediate concern over Jasper's announcement to venture off alone with out at least asking for someone to tag along with her. Lesley just bit his tongue as the others fussed over her safety. Like Thumper always said, "If you can't say something nice, don't nothin' at all." Though it did cause him to flinch involuntarily when he saw Inadi's hand snake onto the girl's back, he clamped his jaws together over his his tongue even harder just to keep himself in line. 'Don't sweat it Lesley. You'll get you're chance' he thought with a tough frown yanking down at his cheeks. As Inadi finally decided to turn the attention toward Avian, he questioned the fellow guide about the witches. It must be the most alarming thing on everyone's mind right now. What were they really going against here?

The dragoon didn't supply them with much knowledge since he too lacked the expertise on the subject. The old hags had always been locked away in the Dark Side it seemed and the mystery of their coming out still remained unsolved. At least now they knew that they were escapable, just hit one square in the face. Also, they didn't absorb energy from attacks so that was a definite plus factor as he remembered the giant orc they had previously fought at the forest. A shrieking caw caught him from the wells of his mind as he glanced up to see the black birds continuing to fly in one by one, their numbers tripling withing minutes.

The drunken Song, who had just recently proclaimed that he had once made lip-to-lip contact with a toad, was now in a more sober state of being as he was given a medicinal thing to chew on. He adviced Avian to join the two girls on their quest to hunt down the baby dragon and he was off without hesitation towards the cabin uphill. Feeling two arms wrap around his own, he looked down to see Martini holding onto him again and he didn't mind. Lesley absolutely adored the mermaid.

Martini: "I- I guess we wait for them to... Huh?" A rustle behind them made the mermaid turn in fright, giving a small shriek when some small and furry shot out of the bushes. "Ahaha, it was nothing... Thank goodness."

The moment of relief was short lived as a sudden thing charged through the group causing him to wrap Martini into a hug as he yanked her out of its path. "Woah.. what the..." A unicorn stood in the center, but it wasn't just any old regular unicorn. It was a zombie-corn. Its body oozed green puss and blood rimmed its mouth like it had just feasted on something. A putrid smell rose out from the creature with made Lesley want to puke as he coughed into his collar in attempt to breathe in some clean air.

Brandy: "Unicorns are pure beings," he muttered as he glared at the beast. "How could one have been corrupted like this? Where would the witches have gotten their hands on one in the first place?"

Just the idea of having some wicked witch turn such a magnificent animal into this piece of *bleep* caused his blood to boil up. Everyone else appeared to share similar looks of disgust and it made him want to destroy the witches even more. This thing was once fabulous and now here it was, representing the complete opposite of how it was normally portrayed, dead. Haku and Leon hashed out a quick plan to freeze the thing and it seemed to comprehend the danger as it charged. Harper and Leila were knocked off their feet, a smog of dust clouding up around them. They had successfully doged it attack as the unicorn plummeted its weapon straight into a tree which ended in the trunk's collapse.

As they watched the unfolding of events, hands began to claw out of the ground underneath them, taking hold og their ankles and Lesley yelped in surprise in fright as he started to kick violently at the zombie fingers trying to pry at him. "Ew, ew, ew,ew!!!!!" he shrieked as he performed a little jig with brittle bones crisply cracking under him. After he made sure that the grabbing had stopped, a deep cackle turned heads and a little chant aimed at him erupted from nowhere. The next thing he knew, Leon was sailing towards and the pair landed away from a the tree with a sharp point jutting out of it. Imagining how he would look if that had stabbed through him, he paled and struggled to catch his breath as he looked up into Leon's face with a look of utter thanks. Getting hauled up to his feet, a hooded woman with pure white eyes made her presence known.

Witch: "Now," the voice sounded as if it were a thousand years old, and perhaps it was. "Only death awaits you..."

She began, telling them how she knew of their coming. 'Aw man. That darned senile tree couldn't keep his flapping trap shut!' he cursed with a scowl on his face. A perfectly ripe apple shriveled up from her bite and it was sent at Martini's head. Lesley reacted quickly, pulling the Nobody into his chest and slapping the rotten fruit to the ground. The newcomer momentarily mutated into a crow and landed in front of them to continue her speech.

[b]Witch:[/i] "Welcome to the grave. Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back..."

The soil rumbled below them and hordes of undead began to appear and rise up. Foul fragrances caked the atmosphere around them and the the sight of decaying flesh wasn't very pleasant either. Jasper, Ace, and Avian had returned as well and Lesley caught sight of the dragoon's damaged arm right away. Behind them he saw the fattest zombie ever, puss gushing out of giant cysts implanted all over its body. The witch left them wit her welcome present and Harper initiated the first throw as he chopped into the skull of a nearby zombie head emerging from the flooring. dark blood streamed and sputtered out of its head and Lesley shuddered and gagged as he turned away to regain his composure. Riley, Jasper, and Ace all joined in seconds after and soon enough, everyone was bashing zombie guts.

Sending rainbow rays from his hands, it caused zombies to slam into the many pillars scattered about the area. This was only enough to disorient the things, but luckily it helped the others to finish them off. His amulet was draining steadily and he eyed the zombie-corn who was now thrashing wildly a couple feet from him. He knew he had the ability to purify things, but he wasn't sure if it was enough to turn the poor thing back into its original state. Then that's when it hit him. W=I he could combine the healing wisps from Jasper with his purity essence, then maybe they had a shot at getting this unicorn on their side. Zapping zombies away from Jasper, he tumbled to her side just as she brought her staff down on the head of a rotting freak. Her leg was bleeding and tears were pouring down her gut smeared face. They all looked pitiful he had to admit and they were being immersed knee-deep in fetid innards of Nobodies... or humans that had died long ago.

"Jasper, I need your help. I want to see if we can bring that unicorn back from the dead. If we blast it together, I think we can get it to turn good again," he explained while he rainbowed zombies to ground, allowing Jasper to bash them off. "I'll catch its attention and once it goes for us, we can send a wave its way after the count of three alright? I think it's worth a shot!"

Knocking a pair of mindless figures down, he shot a colorful light into the magical horse's butt in order to perk its attention. As it turned to look up at him, its nose flaring in rage, he sent another wave of multi-coloured light smack dab onto its snout which caused it to rear back and hoof at the ground. "Ok Jasper. Its coming! 3! 2! 1! GO!" Rays of red, orange, yellow, blue and all hues that could ever be seen sprung out from his hand, combining with Jasper's medical wisps. He had bet all his remaining essence on this stunt and if it didn't work, he was screwed for the rest of the fight. He hoped it didn't drain the healer too much because he'd be needing some reserves from her for sure, but having a unicorn on their side couldn't hurt.

The unicorn charged at them at everyone flew to the side in an attempt to dodge its sharp horn. The wind Leon had conjured up whipped past Songbird’s face, blinding him with the dust that flew along with it. Thankfully the others kept the creature busy with their magic as he staggered up, only for a bony hand to pull him down at the exact moment that the item hunter regained his footing. Fluffy and Stuffy dropped down like missiles from his hat, the two fluffballs squishing the hands they came in contact with before spinning around like whirling blades to get rid of the ones pinning Songbird down.

“Do you really need to ask, pretty boy!?” Songbird snapped in response to Hakuren as he righted himself off the ground. “Stop with the ice, you’re going to tire yourself out!” He yelled and jumped away when the witch appeared behind their group.

"How nice of you to pay me a visit,I heard from a grumpy tree you'd be coming."

Oh, just that tree wait. Songbird would personally turn him into a bunch of good dry firewood once they get out of this mess.

Undead rose out of the ground and pieces of earth flew everywhere. The item hunter shielded his eyes from the dirt, and he had to rely on his ears to sense where the zombies were coming in from. One sound in particular alarmed him and he grabbed on to Fluffy. That strange rattling sound… It reminded him of those bone chimes the alchemists in Razlthar had. The white-haired nobody whirled around and saw that a skeleton had itself wrapped around Inadi and then stepped back before throwing the pink fluff ball at the undead minion. Bones erupted everywhere and the rock-solid fuchsia orb crashed into another undead, braining the thing into its second death before scurrying away.

“Are you alright?” The item hunter asked Inadi as the boy defended himself with his spear. Unlike everyone here (bar Martini), Songbird’s skills in war was negligible. Still, he could try, right? The nobody took off two scarves and hastily wrapped each around his fists, panicking even more when he felt that more undead was headed his way, then punched a zombie in the face. The monster flew back and fell on top of his friends. “Looks like I really pack a punch,” Songbird blinked in surprise before moving outward, attempting to create more space for everyone to fight in.

Jasper healed his wound and for that Avian felt thankful. However, the girl seemed far worse than he was; she would puke every now and then and the dragoon sincerely thought that she was more apt to die from hurling her guts out rather than anything else. He suddenly wanted to go in the fray to guard over the cleric instead of trying to lure big fatso over here. Ace’s idea was good, but since it was just the two of them they had to face the horde by themselves.

" Get out of the way!”

He ducked when the girl swung a fiery whip over her head, bringing down several undead and effectively thinning their numbers. The stout zombie was so slow… Avian growled and then cut his way through to the target, sidestepping the slow creature and then using his momentum to kick it on the back. The massive monster flew forward a few steps and then landed on its fellow minions, its stomach quivering and flattening from the impact. Since his nearest stunt brought him closer to the cabin porch, the dragoon had a split-second decision to make and he turned towards the others, gauging that what he would do would probably affect them as well.

“Ace, can you get the people in front of the blob to go away?” He called out to the girl and she complied energetically. Avian ran up the slope leading to the porch then ran down again, slicing down zombies in irritation when they tried to block his path. Using the speed he had gained, Avian jumped up and used all of his weight to land on the stout undead’s back just as bright rainbow beams were aimed at the cursed unicorn.

Projectile vomit and a healing beam, what a perfect combination.

It might be weird to say, but Leila actually sort of liked the place.

Leila walked amongst the group, slowly - she probably wasn’t aware of the tension and fear in the rest of the members that caused their drop in pace, but Leila slowed her footsteps because she wanted more time to admire the scenery. Crooked, leafless trees. Howling wind. Clouded skies and moonlight shining through.

Absolutely beautiful.

Aside from the wind, Leila also believed that she heard speak - voices, some belonging to their group, some otherwise. One of them was laughing and humming a tune. Closing her eyes and immersing herself in the atmosphere of the place, she sang calmly along, repeating the song after the foreign voice:

“A tisket a tasket, there’s blood -”

“HARPER LEILA GET OUT OF THE WAY”

Before Leila could finish the line, she felt a sudden impulse against her chest. She was knocked right off her feet, and along with Harper they tumbled aside to the nearby ground.

Leila had the wind knocked out of her, and the sudden change in atmosphere induced panic. What was going on? In pain she struggled to stand back up, looking around in search of the source of the sudden assault, only to piece together from the various parts of this incoherent scene - a rotten unicorn with its horn stuck in a tree, an apparently temporarily relieved Leon and an irritated Haku - that the gust of wind wasn’t an assault, their lives were just saved, and if she wasn’t mistaken, and if they were to live -

”Now only death awaits you...”

- their lives will need to be saved several more times this night.

Leila stomped the ground and shook her leg until the skeleton hand, barely covered by a remaining layer of dry, rotten skin, gave way and fell the the side, snapped. Her heart for scenery and laid back admiration receded and was replaced by a sense of imminent crisis - weird, she rarely feels like that. She noticed her amulet was glowing - not at full intensity, but brighter. She wondered -

- there was no time to wonder. Without thinking she stepped aside, while reaching back with both hands to draw both her bow and an arrow. She could clearly feel the influence of the amulet this time - just like that time back in the caves, or on the mountain. She could feel her muscles snap into synchronization with her nerves, her thoughts. She could feel that her thoughts also seemed to be that bit less her thoughts, and that she was only co-commanding her body.

Save me.

She didn’t have time to think about where that thought came from, or to whom it was directed. The dead rose through the ground from beneath them, muscles decayed somehow managing to drag the skeletal bodies along the paths that all led to one of the members of the group of humans and lost souls. They weren’t fast - that plus the fact that their path-finding methods were consistently to follow the straight line to the target - made them nearly static targets. The short distances meant that the archer had a larger acceptable margin when she gauged her aim, which in turn allowed her to do it faster. In quick succession she fired two arrows, one at the head of an approaching zombie and the other at another one that just broke through the ground - both on target, and efficiently knocking them over and motionless.

Go for the brains. Dead, this time hopefully permanently.

And so, arrow after arrow. She almost felt like she didn’t need to think. She was mildly amused she didn’t feel sorry for their deaths - or perhaps it was because she already decided that they were already dead anyway. What’s the difference if you could move but all you could do was drag your feet along towards the nearest living thing…

...how did all this work? She told herself that when this was all over she needed to recover one of them and take some samples...

The premise was “when this was over”. Only then did it strike Leila that state was what they’d probably end up in if they didn’t get out of this. Either that or the actually dead she was thinking about, depending on how much you believe in zombies. And it didn’t matter because they needed to get out of this.

More arrows embedded in aged, slightly crispy skulls. What concerned her more, however, was that there was no surjection from her arrows to the number of zombies emerging around them. Her amulet was also draining quickly.

She plucked an arrow from a skull on the nearby ground, loaded it onto the bow and took aim at one of the closing undead. Yet as she let go of the bowstring she was pulled back by the shoulders, the arrow flung upwards, aimlessly into the sky. Quickly recovering and pulling free from the grip of the decayed fingers - the dead weren’t especially strong physically - in a panic she resorted to bashing the zombie on the head with her bow, which proved efficient as the creature dropped to the ground, with a layer of greyish slush remaining on the wood.

Their numbers were great and she wasn’t fast enough. Neither did she have enough ammunition. As she continued firing, she look around frantically for higher ground, for a gap in the swarm, and for her human allies. That slowed her down even more, and she could feel the circle closing in. And then for one moment she glimpsed the movement of a figure some distance away that differed from the army of corpses. A sword.

“Harper!”

She cried out without thinking, and it must’ve been the loudest thing she ever uttered in a long time. She didn’t know the purpose of that signal, nor how she expected Harper to respond. She wasn’t entirely sure it was Harper. It was another one of those times you feel like it wasn’t you voice that yelled what you just yelled after you yelled it. But she just felt...kind of relieved to see him there.

Which was a silly emotion because she already had no space to draw the bow, and was now down to using the bow as a very inefficient blunt weapon a bit clumsily just to keep the clawing hand off of her. She had three arrows left - she reached for one and stabbed it straight through the socket of one of the closer zombies. Two.

No time to think anymore, but she didn’t need to think to know that she couldn’t hold this for long, and if something was to happen, it had better happen soon -

- and then, a cascade of bright light in all the colours of the rainbow, the the background, behind her.

It was pure chaos as corpses rose from the leaf litter, grabbing onto ankles wherever they could reach. Brandy gritted his teeth, shooting fireballs at the arms that swiped at his legs and setting the wrinkled dry skin of the zombies on fire and filling the air with the scent of burnt flesh. Martini had floated to where they couldn’t reach her and her bubble, poking her trident as she fought the urge to turn tail and flee. She felt bile rise up in her throat as the golden trident pierced through the skull of a nearby monster with a particularly wet squelch, the shining golden metal quickly covered by oily grey slime that smelled absolutely horrid.

Seeing a fully emerged zombie rise up behind Harper, Brandy sent a fireball his way, smacking the monster in the face and sending it screeching down into a patch of limbs that promptly burst into fire. He backed up towards Song who was now wielding scarves wrapped around his hands like a pair of boxing gloves while Fluffy and Stuffy ran about, body slamming any monster that got too close to the item hunter. One of the poor fluffs was grabbed momentarily by a bony hand, only to be sent flying cracking into another errant skull as the hand was shattered by a tome.

Martini was now darting everywhere, trying to avoid pieces of flesh and grey matter flying through the air, biting back sniffles as she jabbed haphazardly at another crowd of arms trying to break through the surface. She hated hated hated this; she certainly wasn’t meant for battling and was quickly tiring, suffering only a few small gashes on her tail from being so high up. She floated up higher for a short break, panting as Lesley shouted something only to be momentarily blinded by a flash of rainbow, followed by a loud animalistic shriek and groans from the monsters Ace had managed to herd into the beam with help from Avian.

The light died down and Brandy shook his head, quickly trying to find his bearings before a zombie could sneak up behind him. What he did see, however, had his eyes widen and jaw slacken momentarily.



The majestic beast stood tall, staring down at the humans. Contrary to what Brandy had expected, this unicorn was not the common pure white breed- instead its mane was feathery and held a design similar to the peacock while its pelt shone a deep mossy green. Its horn glowed from within, and the acid that the blob monster had spewed shone a pure silver around the unicorn. Where the liquid sunk into the ground the hands grew still then disintegrated and a few flowers even peeked through the rotten leaf layer and rocks underfoot.

It tossed its head back with a whinny, rearing onto its back legs and stamping its front hooves into the ground. Where its bronze hooves touched the ground, a ring of light rippled out, stopping the corpses where they spread. It turned back to the humans, trotting up to Jasper and Lesley before stopping a few meters in front of them. It stared for a short moment before bowing its head, as if to thank them for releasing it from its torment under the hands of the witch. The beast radiated a sense of safety and calmness, soothing the panic and fear of those who were near it. Raising its head once more, it turned around, feathery tail swishing, to stare down and whinny at the globule dripping monster.

Inadi watched as Ace, Jasper and Avian went into the cabin, but it seemed like they began having some trouble inside. He was about to go in and check out what was going on, but hands started coming up from beneath him and tried grabbing a hold of his feet. Rolling his eyes he spun his spear around and started slicing the hands away with his halberd. “Undead, just what the nightmares ordered.” He said sarcastically as another creature, an undead unicorn joined the fray as well it seemed. While the guides were shocked to see a creature so pure turned into something so hideous, Inadi was just focused on preparing for whatever else was about to come out and join the dance they were about to become a part of.

Hearing a very dark laugh from above him, he saw that his concern for the birds from earlier was warranted. Now along with the crows was a hooded woman who apparently had a very bad reaction to apples, or rather apples had a bad reaction to her. Kicking away hands that were still shooting up at him he gave a quick scoff at the woman. “Should have stayed as a crow lady. At least then you had a decent sized beak.” Inadi joked, feeling a bit more confident at the whole situation. It was surprising to him that he wasn't freaking out at this point, though he supposed fighting a dragon made legions of the undead seem like a bit of a breeze by comparison.

However his joke didn't sit well with the witch as now suddenly skeletons shot from the ground and one in particular jumped onto his back. The thing seemed like he wanted to take a bite out of him, and with the new sensation of having something out of the blue jump on him Inadi began panicking. Luckily though it seemed that the guide he had questioned earlier was on the look out for him. Looking over at Avian as the guide continued clearing out the dead he gave him a quick thumbs up to show that he appreciated the save. Yet he had to quickly get his attention back on another bone walker that was coming up on him quickly. Yet just like the zombies, these things seemed to have a really bad one track mind, just running head long at him. Spinning the halberd in his hand again Inadi shoved the spear into the forehead of the skull. Smiling, thinking he had taken care of the bag of bones, the framed face suddenly began to sag as the skeleton picked itself up. The pointed tip was still locked into the skull. Inadi quickly pulled it out and began biting his lip in frustration.

From the corner of his eye there was a large and bright light that seemed to shoot out from the last part that the boy remembered seeing the unicorn at. Looking over to the sight he was able to get a bit of a smile back on his face. Seemed like Lesley and Jasper were able to team up and get the unicorn purified from where it was before. Good thing for them, both in beating the witch and the two of them alone. The two of them seemed to be on shaky ground for a while since the discussion they had near the dragons. Inadi wasn't sure why. Returning his attention to the skeleton he was facing he noticed that it was jumping to him. Using the handle of his weapon as leverage he threw it to the side and watched it explode on the ground into a pile of bones.

Inadi felt somewhat victorious for the moment and decided to regroup elsewhere. He saw Leila was nearby and screaming for Harper. While she did that it seemed like she was unaware of a zombie coming up from behind her as well as some that were approaching her from the front. Deciding that it was time to lend a helping hand Inadi began charging after the zombie behind her. Thrusting the pointed tip into the skull of the zombie, the creature quickly dropped to the floor and Inadi threw out a smile.

Giving a quick look to Leila and noticing another zombie nearby, Inadi sliced out the legs from underneath it and quickly stabbed the head again. This time he was able to at least see the quiet girl's profile and he gave a chuckle. “Definitely would like to see these things stop popping out like rabbits right?” He joked as he quickly shot back up to his feet and gave a quick look back up to the old witch that was still looking down on them. She seemed to be enjoying herself up there, a little too much in his opinion. Deciding it was about time to try and get that smile off her face, Inadi began charging up a quick bolt in his hand and began looking for a good target to get.

Rather than go straight at the witch herself, he saw bird that was sitting pretty close to her. Throwing his right hand out like a straight jab, a quick bolt shot out and blasted the bird into a pile of feathers. Inadi laughed as he continued going back to work on the zombies nearby. “Sorry about that, was she a favorite of yours?” He asked with a chuckle while still swinging away at zombies and a few other skeletons that seemed to be becoming more frequent. He stuck close to Leila for the time being, figuring that the ranged archer needed to have someone watching her back in case she ran out of ammunition or the creatures got too close.

Everything pretty much went to hell, and Harper hacked away, the liquid inside his amulet decreasing with each slash.

In movies, desperate situations usually triggered a slow motion moment, but unfortunately, none of that was true. Things were moving at a ridiculously fast pace and there wasn't even enough time to think. At one moment he'd be raising his sword and at the next he'd hear a sickening crack and find his sword buried into one of the zombie's necks. Despite how pale he looked, the boy's expression was blank. Harper didn't seem to notice all the zombie blood that had gotten onto his clothes and skin, or maybe he was just beyond caring.

At one point he recalled something grabbing him. He felt its bone-like fingers on his arms, and felt one of the zombie's revolting breath on his face. He didn't understand what happened next but he found himself standing over the thing. He stabbed it again and again and again, until its insides were pouring out of it and onto the cracked earth.

“Harper!”

He was snapped out of his thoughts and for the first time, he realized he was covered in black, tar-like blood. A horrified expression crossed his features but before he could feel sick about it, his eyes landed on a distressed looking Leila, and the zombie that was right behind her. Thankfully, Inadi appeared just in time. Harper scrambled forward deciding to make this way towards his friends. It didn't matter that there were zombies in his way, for once in his life, he was going to take charge! He rammed into one of the things with his shoulder, sending it crashing into a nearby tree. The force knocked him back a little and when another zombie tried to reach out, he cleaved its arm clean off with a panicky upward slash.

The liquid in his amulet was down to half now. So the next zombie the appeared got a hilt of the sword to the face instead.

Funny, how fear could force even the most timid of people to battle. Jasper, Inadi, Leila, none of them were warriors, but here they were, knocking zombies to the ground. The absurdity of it all almost made him want to laugh and scream at the same time.

There was a bright light and suddenly a loud and majestic neigh echoed across the forest.

"I guess we have an ally now," Harper couldn't help but smile and for a moment a feeling of peace washed over him. It was things like this that made Nowhere a beautiful place. The unicorn easily began to toss several of the undead aside and in a matter of moments, the ground was littered with corpses who couldn't even pull themselves to their feet. "Leila, we'll cover you." He snatched up a nearby arrow and handed it to her. "Do you think you can aim for that crow?" He pointed to a particularly sinister looking bird with blood-red eyes.

He turned to Inadi. "This is all just a distraction, she's trying to keep us away from the real threat." He tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. If he was a mage, he would have tried blasting that bird to bits. The unicorn was doing a mighty fine job at keeping the zombies at bay, now was their chance. "Hey guys..." he didn't exactly sound like we was there. "Let's go for the witch."

The black bird cawed from it's place on a branch. Smart boy...whoever these humans were, they were amusing. Maybe she'd be kind enough to give them a quick death? Nah, that wouldn't be fun, wouldn't be fun at all.



"Lesley, you are a freaking genius!" Riley practically tackled the man into a hug. She noticed the sick looking Jasper and pulled the girl into the hug as well. "Damn, you two are just amazing." She watched as the now good unicorn kicked two zombies' heads clean off their shoulders.

They needed this, they needed all the help they could get. This was like their trump card.

Untangling herself from the hug, she ruffled Jasper's hair then gave Lesley a tap on the back. This was far from over, but this sudden miracle was just the break they needed. The thankful unicorn had both power and speed and it easily plowed through the witch's rotting friends. It was the equivalent of using a machete on butter or a Pikachu on a Magikarp! Super effective to the freaking nth power!

She turned to look at how the others were holding up. Avian had taken care of a bloated thing she had never seen before and Ace was standing not too far from him. Harper hacked off a zombie's leg before he cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Leon! Whip up a storm so the birds can't fly."

Suddenly it hit her. It was the witch who was doing all this, so if they took her out then they wouldn't have to deal with the zombies. Riley grinned from ear to ear, "The black bird with red eyes! If we take that out we can rescue the dragon and go get out of this spooky forest."

The wind mage closed his eyes and poured out his energy into whipping up a chaotic breeze. The normal crows flew off in fright and the only one that remained was the one with glowing red eyes. "THERE!"

Hakuren smirked, "perfect!" The air around him went cold and he soon he had an icicle in his hand. He took aim and threw it right at that ugly bird. It sailed right into the thing's chest and the animal plummeted to the ground. It was frozen and as soon as it came into contact with the earth, it shattered into several tiny pieces. Was it over? The simplicity of it stunned even Hakuren, but soon enough he was grinning confidently. "Now, now, no need to applaud." He kicked at the shattered bird on the ground when something froze him in place.

Riley's expression was one of disbelief and Hakuren understood that something was terribly wrong.



The shadow underneath his feet slowly began to take form and soon the witch appeared, her lips against his ear and a hand on his shoulder. "Prideful," she dug her nails into Hakuren's shoulder, causing him to bleed.

For a few moments, he didn't move, simply froze, eyes wide in shock. This was the most frightened they had ever seen Hakuren be. The ice mage wrenched free, grabbed a rock then spun around to smash it into the witch's head. But something wasn't right...

Just as the rock was about to connect with her skull, she vanished into a puff of dark mist and Hakuren stumbled forward.

She reappeared behind him and with a snap of her fingers sent him tumbling back. The ice mage let out a surprised yell as he was tossed across the forest like a rag doll. The witch turned to face the royal dragoon and the remaining humans. "You wanted to see me?" Her lips quirked up into a smile. "I'll make you regret it..." and suddenly the skeletons began dropping one by one.

"Haku!" Leon dashed forward, in a rush. His friend looked pretty out of it and had slammed into a tree. He ran, but suddenly one of the tree's roots snaked around his ankles and he fell face first into the ground. The witch lifted him up by the collar of his shirt, as if he weighed nothing. The next thing Leon knew, he was thrown right into Avian at a tremendous speed.

For a few minutes, Ace relied on physical strength in order to get the amulet to refill. Luckily, she had enough fighting experience to defend herself from the oncoming zombies. This wasn't anything compared to the more advanced level of the 'game'. The unicorn was still at large, though when she turned she saw Lesley and Jasper doing some magical and colorful spell. The acid blob was still alive and when she looked in its direction, she noticed Avian handling it. "Careful! You've already been burned once!" She called out, starting to move toward him in assistance.

She paused when she was given orders and then quickly turned on her heel. "Get everyone out the way. Got it!" She saluted and then ran over to the crowd. Fighting or not, she whistled and moved to their aid. "Hey! Out of the way, to your left! Or right if it's far enough." If they didn't move fast enough she would end up dragging and pulling them from their battle to a safe side. She ended up pulling Brandy off to the side by the back of his shirt and then dragging Inadi away from his battle. When everything was all clear, Ace whistled to Avian and then gave a thumbs up.

"All clear!"

She waited for Avian's actions before once more going into battle. Seeing the unicorn, she laughed and patted its side when it passed. "Good job you two! And it doesn't look very happy about being turned into an ugly monster." She turned back to the multitudes of zombies until Harper brought up the idea of attacking the witch. "Now or never I suppose." Though, before anything could happen the witch practically toyed with Haku. "Uh, guys? Let's not attack one by one. That's a sure way to die."

She kept her eyes on the witch, though fully prepared to watch the backs of her friends. All of the zombies dropped dead so their only opponents were the blob and the witch. "And we need to get rid of that thing before we go into any type of boss battles. No need to weaken our numbers in splitting up to do it."

She looked between both enemies, sizing them up. "We may have to take a long distance approach for the witch. Get too close and who knows what might happen. The blob thing may be easier to take down." She looked over at Inadi and Riley, then pointed at the blob. "You two think you can make that thing explode?" It wasn't the best idea, considering the acid might fly everywhere, but who cared, it would've gotten rid it. Couldn't be a consequence to that right?

Allowing her tears to dry up, she had cried to the point that her body could no longer waste anymore water through her eyes and she sniffled and hiccupped like baby who had just recently stopped bawling. Thankfully, her puking ceased as well since her stomach emptied itself completely and she was trying to force out nothing but air. Her whole body and inside were in pain, but she had no time to even acknowledge that. Swinging her staff like a bat, she bashed it into the side of an approaching zombie's head before letting it fall down at her side. The weapon was absolutely ruined. Examining the bulb at the top, zombie insides of all parts caked every inch of the wood it could stuff itself into to the point that the brown of the natural grain could not be seen at all. Basically, it just looked like a black sphere of mush hanging at the end of something that had once been her staff.

Strangely enough, the attacking of the mindless beings slowed down and she noticed some flashes of rainbow light throwing them off course from her.

"Jasper, I need your help. I want to see if we can bring that unicorn back from the dead. If we blast it together, I think we can get it to turn good again. I'll catch its attention and once it goes for us, we can send a wave its way after the count of three alright? I think it's worth a shot!"

Lesley brought a couple of undead to the ground and she easily brought the head of her staff onto the things skulls, killing them instantly. "Ok, sounds like a plan!" she agreed without hesitation. If this scheme worked, it could just be the advantage they need to win this fight. Watching as the pink-haired man caught the zombie-corn's gaze, she glared in alarm as it took a position to charge straight at them.

"Ok Jasper. Its coming! 3! 2! 1! GO!"

Dropping her staff, she focused her essence towards the ramming beast, hands side by side with Lesley's as they blasted the thing with their amulet given powers. The array of colors was beautiful, like a rainbow encircled in a whimsical white mist that spiraled around it. Neighs and the beating of hooves could be heard as they continued to shroud the creature in their efforts. Any zombies that ran into the ray crippled instantly which served as a big help to the others. Jasper quickly glanced down at Lesley's amulet and she decided right then that they needed to stop whether they were successful or not. Halting her healing, she grabbed Lesley's arms and pulled them downward begging him to cease his actions. "You're amulet! Please stop!" she cried desperately. After he complied, she was finally able to calm down. Taking his amulet into her own hands, she shook it lightly and saw a couple of droplets pooled at the bottom swish around with her rotating hand motion.

Checking on her own essence count, she had enough to give him so she closed her eyes and channeled a sufficient amount into his, about one fourth and she too remained with a little more than that much. As she then turned to look back up at the monster, or what once was a monster, she came face to face with the most elegant creature she'd ever seen in her whole life. She instantly noticed the peacock feather's that protruded out from its facial features and body, signalling that it wasn't a regular unicorn, well at least not in earthly standards. Her mouth dropped open as she basked in its beauty, forgetting about the terror she was experiencing in that moment. Then it galloped towards them, bending its neck downwards in a thankful gesture for what Lesley and her had done.

As it turned away, she let go of the breath she was holding and looked up at Lesley. The two of them shared a look of happiness for a moment before Riley came in pulled them into a big bear hug.

"Lesley, you are a freaking genius! Damn, you two are just amazing."

Jasper was smiling ear to ear and for once time in a long time, she felt at ease and even giggled a little when the female rubbed her head, messing with her white hair a bit, but she didn't mind. Her entire body was a mess anyway and the sign of affection was well received. Observing the unicorn they had just saved, she admired it in awe as it disabled hordes of zombies before her eyes and very soon the undead numbers were dwindling and giving the others a much easier time than before. The group was now focusing their attention on the witch who was in charge of the entire corpse army. Normal crows were sent flying away and they were left with a red-eyed one, the witch. An icicle shot its way and it froze, falling to the ground, the ice encasing her breaking into a million ice cubes as she made contact with the ground.

Both humans and guides just stood, stunned at what just happened, at how easy the task appeared, but of course. A witch couldn't die so effortlessly. The crow mutated back into her original form, sinking her long sharp nails into Haku's arm. Jasper winced and remembered her own leg. The three gashes hadn't healed much, but she wasn't willing to use up any more of her energy, especially only to heal herself. Hakuren swung to hurt the witch, but she vanished and reformed just behind him, causing him to fall to the ground with a mere snap.

"You wanted to see me? I'll make you regret it..."

She killed off the rest of her undead soldiers, the soulless forms collapsing in unison. Leon dashed for Haku, but was held up by a tree root then sent sailing towards Avian. Even with her injured leg, the albino reacted quickly, limping as fast her feet could carry her. Diving onto Avian with all her might as she pushed off of her legs, the two tumbled to the ground before Leon could collide with the dragoon. It was better to have one get hurt than two. Her bad leg didn't take the jump to well as it opened up even more, blood streaming out of the wounds at a much stronger flow. wrapping her hands around the rips in her flesh, she surged a bit of energy in to heal it just enough to allow functionality, but not much for comfort. She could ignore that and she had to. Yanking Avian back up, she saw that Leon had been caught by the unicorn and it she was glad no one got hurt.

The witch was obviously much stronger and more powerful than any of them, they were a measly task for her. Jasper racked her mind for any ideas, before the witch could perform any real damage that every was well aware the witch was wholly capable of. Running to her group she sent out one of her damaging wisps to try and injure the witch for the time being while to give herself some time to collaborate with the crew. "Her power overrides any of us, but I think if we can somehow get that power to aim for her, then we have a chance. Think of Medusa," she explained as she tried to paint a picture for them. It was one of the ideas that popped into her head, but of course the others probably had plans as well.

Meanwhile, the witch grabbed the snaking wisp that Jasper had sent her way and crumpled it into nothing with just the palm of her hand.

Seeing Jasper start to freak out and force his arms downwards, he stopped blasting rainbows out and that's when he realized how exhausted he had gotten. Placing his hands in his knees for support, he panted a bit before standing upright again. Jasper reached out for his amulet and he let her. Smiling tiredly as she refueled his power piece with much needed essence, he finally got the chance to look at the zombie-corn. To his surprise, his plan had worked perfectly and a magnificent creature stood before them. Noticing the peacock feathers fanning out from its body, he knew this particular unicorn was special. As it approached them, he instantly felt at peace and bowed after it too ducked its head down in thanks. Once it turned away to help them kill of the zombies, he looked down to meet eyes with Jasper, pleasantly grinning at her. He felt accomplished, but the biggest threat still remained.

Right then, Riley jumped on him enthusiastically, yanking Jasper into the embrace as well. As the hug parted, it was then Riley stated was should have been obvious to everyone at the start. Since the witch was the mastermind of all this, if they somehow knocked her off the playing field, then all the fuss with the skeletons and undead army would be over. The only thing that would be left to do was look for the baby dragon and head on out of there.

Hakuren and Leon got the witch to come down, but the prying only led to Hakuren with a bloody arm and Leon being chucked at the dragoon. Luckily, Jasper intercepted by pushing Avian out of the way and Lesley helped with the rescue by asking the unicorn for permission to mount it as he galloped towards the flying Leon just in time to catch him at the receiving end of what could've been his possible death upon crashing into a giant pillar.

Seeing that Ace, Inadi, and Riley had split up to work on taking down the fatso zombie man who surprising wasn't under the spell of the witch herself, Lesley decided on joining up with the rest of the group to take care of the most threatening problem here, the witch. As each individual gathered in to share some ideas, Jasper took care of distracting the witch for the time being with one of her offensive attacks. He hoped it would hold up just in time for them to settle a plan that they could all agree on. Hearing Jasper's take on it, he wasn't sure how they would be able to accomplish that, but he had an idea as well.

"Sounds good. Here's may take on it so far. Haku, if you can keep her frozen in place it would be a huge help in dealing some damage on her since she has the ability to teleport. Once we've got her in one spot, Leon can help you keep her cool and the ice from melting too quickly. Martini, you can create a bubble dome of some sort to trap her as extra back up so she has no way of escaping. Brandy, Song, Avian, Harper, Jasper, Leila, and me, we'll be the ones inside the dome with the witch and from there we can try to attack her as much as possible. With all of us continually playing the offensive, I'm sure there is no way she would even have the chance at fighting back." finishing his speech plan with an exhale he looked at everyone with a serious stare that held a sense of both determination and fear.

Unfortunately, the witch behind them was now free of distraction.

Everything was happening so fast. At one moment, they were making amazing progress then at the next Hakuren was bleeding.

Jasper tried to buy them some time and it actually worked, though a part of her wondered if the witch was giving them time, toying with them the same way she had done with Hakuren. She grabbed onto the healer's damaging wisps, turning them into nothing.

Ace, Jasper, and Lesley tried throwing together a quick plan and Riley nodded. "Yeah, you can leave the bloated guy to us." She turned to give Inadi a determined nod. "We'll jump in to help you guys ASAP, stay safe okay?" Riley gave her friends a worried look. That bloated thing, it wasn't anything compared to that witch. Oh well, at least they had the guides with them and they had Avian too, so that was a bonus. He was really good at what he did. The girl locked eyes with the dragoon for a moment as if silently asking him to watch over her friends. Riley gave him a grin then nodded. "Well, time's a wasting Sparky, let's go."

She grabbed onto a pointy fallen branch then began wielding it like it was a baseball bat. "So, zombie games...have you heard of left 4 dead? That thing kind of looks like a boomer, doesn't it? Same principle too since we really, really don't want to get any of that sludge on us." The bloated zombie was still struggling to get up. Meanwhile, Riley tried to think up a smart plan but she drew up blanks. Their number one priority would be to take that thing down fast then help out with the witch.

Riley tightened her grip on the stick and grinned as it grew hot to the touch. Suddenly, it became engulfed in flames and she ran to meet the zombie that had just gotten to its feet. As it turned to look at her, she slammed the stick right into its face, pressing it deep into the thing's half open mouth. It let out a surprised squeal before a black-ish bile began dribbling down it's chin. The acidic goop ate right through the wood. It snapped in half and Riley who was still pushing forward was betrayed by her momentum.

The girl flailed her arms like pinwheels but luckily managed to keep her balance.

The zombie looked very, very pissed off. It spat in her direction and she leaped back, narrowly avoiding a handful of acid. She watched as the ground merely a foot from her bubbled up. If it ate through rocks then hell, it would easily eat through their flesh. Riley leaped back before an idea struck her. The girl made sure to get some distance from the blob before she chucked a rock at its head. It was a good thing it had a one tracked mind, it had practically forgotten Inadi.

"Hey Inadi, think you can gut the thing from behind?" The girl grinned from ear to ear as she motioned for the zombie to follow her.

---

Hakuren pressed a hand onto his shoulder and used a little bit of his power to numb the area, the ice felt good on his skin. Sure, he liked feisty women but this witch...heh, they were going to make her pay. His eyes glazed over as a smirk tugged on the corners of his lips. "Inadi-chan, Riley-chan," he mustered up on of his Izaya-like grins. "Take care you two."

"Eh?" Leon arched an eyebrow, whenever Hakuren was this sweet it was usually an act of mockery or a jest. "Thanks again Lesley," he still looked rather out of it. "That's a good plan, we should be able to pull it off. What do you think our odds are Hakuren-san?"

The ice mage snapped his fingers. "The odds of dying my dear queen are roughly ninety percent."

"Thats very reassuring," he threw his friend a glare then nodded at Lesley and the others. "If we survive this, Martini better prepare her most fabulous suits for a party." The mermaid wasn't looking very relaxed so he mustered up the courage to flash her a smile.

The witch was actually waiting for them to finish talking? What kind of villain was that? Haku turned to look at Brandy. "Hey rabbit, you can shoot fireballs with that tome of yours, right? You can help Ace out with that fire of yours." His eyebrows furrowed in irritation but he turned to look at the witch with a smug smile. "It's pretty disrespectful to keep a lovely lady waiting..." Frost began creeping up his arms. "Oh too bad, you're one of the ugliest women I've had the displeasure of meeting!" She'd pay for scaring the daylights out of him. She'd pay for it tenfold!

He raised both his hands forward and the frost that had began to surround it, crystallized and shot towards the witch. She caught it within her own hand and crushed it. Everything within a ten meter radius of her froze solid, and the only thing that didn't freeze was the witch itself.

Black wisps began to materialize around her and she sent them flying towards the humans. Leon didn't know what they did but in the nick of time he created the strongest gust he could and sent the black wisps spiraling back and into the ground. The parts of the ground the black wisps had touched immediately began turning to stone and Leon suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Was that how Vincent had died? It seemed very possible. "Don't let those things touch you!"

Hakuren scowled and this time he slammed the palm of both his hands onto the ground. Ice began creeping up on the witch and it snaked around her ankles. He would have continued but instead the ice mage let out a loud curse. He was running out of energy. "Damn amulet. Hey, I would really appreciate backup right now." He snapped before Leon saved him from a dark wisp that was headed his way.

"I'll ward those wisps off. Someone, we need to get a hit in!"

If they kept missing they'd eventually run out of energy, and if that happened well, they'd be fish in a barrel. "Whoop de freaking doo."

" Haku, if you can keep her frozen in place it would be a huge help in dealing some damage on her since she has the ability to teleport. Once we've got her in one spot, Leon can help you keep her cool and the ice from melting too quickly. Martini, you can create a bubble dome of some sort to trap her as extra back up so she has no way of escaping. Brandy, Song, Avian, Harper, Jasper, Leila, and me, we'll be the ones inside the dome with the witch and from there we can try to attack her as much as possible. With all of us continually playing the offensive, I'm sure there is no way she would even have the chance at fighting back."

Songbird looked pensive but the fluffs were screaming for blood. “Okay, let’s do that then! Great going, Lesley!” The item hunter beamed- *gasp* his first obvious smile!- at the pink-haired human who looked both terrified and determined. “I’ll do my part, and so will Brandy and Martini!” The mermaid, true to Songbird’s words, was starting to create a huge bubble dome to trap the witch under with. She must’ve been inspired by the beautiful and fabulous unicorn because she didn’t seem as grossed out about everything unlike moments earlier.

“Please heal yourself before your wound gets worse,” Avian wiped his mouth on the back of his hand as he worriedly glanced down at Jasper’s gashes. The young lady had saved him earlier, but she didn’t pay much attention to herself in favor of getting him back to the group. He knew firsthand that wounds left untended had a way of haunting you in the most inappropriate of times... Many a good comrade of his fell in battle due to having ignored a previous injury and then aggravating themselves during a fight. She sent a lot of zombies back to their graves; he didn’t want her to follow suit.

“We’ll cover you. Really, miss Jasper…” He truly was concerned about her welfare and was wondering if she felt stable having had retched the remains of today’s and probably yesterday’s meals earlier. The dragoon then turned to face the witch as Hakuren began working his magic. He remembered the silent conversation he shared with Riley earlier, and the promise he made in lieu of being assigned to be a guide. Protect them at all costs. The dark-haired nobody shifted into an aggressive stance as he twirled his weapons and reaffirmed his grip on the hilts; the daggers in his hands gleamed as if acknowledging the strength of their master’s resolve.

Those black wisps seemed like trouble and it was a good thing Leon sent them back before anybody could get hit. “Miss Leila!” The dragoon called out to the archer. “Could you try to see if those wisps can be physically destroyed? At least one try would do!” Back in the War, one of his troop members was able to dispel a wisp by shooting straight through it. Maybe they could do it again now? It would make things easier for those who needed to get in closer to the witch.

As the hag was rooted to the ground by Hakuren’s ice, Avian rushed forward, his blades at the ready. He just needed an opportunity to hit the enemy, and this was the perfect one.

"I'll ward those wisps off. Someone, we need to get a hit in!"

“Harper, Ace!” The soldier sought out the melee fighters in their group and called on them to follow as he neared the witch. The ice began to crack and she took a step backward, earth erupting in an upward spire from where she gestured her withered hand. In response to this sudden elemental attack, Avian used his speed to launch himself in the air where he met the soaring large jagged chunk of earth with his blades. He sailed right over the dark mage’s head as the giant boulder ripped in two.

The very earth shook as the remnants of the earthen spike fell down, the witch herself being the first victim of her very own creation. She staggered back as the end of the other half of the boulder grazed down her face. The new wisps she had summoned to replace the ones Leon blew back flickered before returning to their original intensity.

“Now!” Once Avian fell to his feet gracefully, he issued the command and everyone capable of melee combat rushed at the witch.

"Sounds good. Here's may take on it so far. Haku, if you can keep her frozen in place it would be a huge help in dealing some damage on her since she has the ability to teleport. Once we've got her in one spot, Leon can help you keep her cool and the ice from melting too quickly. Martini, you can create a bubble dome of some sort to trap her as extra back up so she has no way of escaping. Brandy, Song, Avian, Harper, Jasper, Leila, and me, we'll be the ones inside the dome with the witch and from there we can try to attack her as much as possible. With all of us continually playing the offensive, I'm sure there is no way she would even have the chance at fighting back."

Jasper felt relieved after hearing Lesley's plans since they sounded much more hashed out than hers. Nodding in agreement, everyone began to set out on the task set out for them to carry out. Ace, Riley, and Inadi headed off to handle the obese, acid-spewing zombie, while they focused their energy on the witch. Hakuren mentioned how their chances of survival was about ten percent only and it sure was a great confidence booster for all... not.

Hakuren initiated the first step of Lesley's idea by attempting to freeze the witch, but it didn't work out as they all hoped. Though most of the area surrounding her iced solid, she didn't even look the least bit chilly. watching as dark wisps gathered around her, she sent them their way and Leon cast them off with an energized breeze. Haku pressed both hands to the ground and managed to keep the witch anchored to the ground, but his essence levels weren't doing too well. Martini had created a bubble dome around the momentarily paused witch as well.

Running to the ice mage's side, she refueled his amulet to one forth and she was only left with quite a bit under that mark. This wasn't looking too good for anybody.

“Please heal yourself before your wound gets worse. We’ll cover you. Really, miss Jasper…”

Avian's concern was appreciated with a warm smile, but she knew that they'd be needing the healing more at some point in this battle. "It's alright. Don't worry about me," She had a hand swatting the air dismissively as she eyed the witch. Glad that the dragoon had rushed into battle along with the others, she used her wisps conservatively, using the good white puffs to destroy the witches black ones. Beads of sweat were streaming down her forehead and her amulet continued to drain steadily, even to dangerously low levels.

“Now!”

Hearing Avian's war call to attack the witch with all they've got, she cried out forcefully as she surged achromatic, electric-like streaks out of her hands and the white wisps that were previously being killed off by the dark matter the witch had summoned, were now crushing the enemy. Pressing every single droplet she could to its peak capability, the lights zig-zagged up the ice and striked the witch's legs.

Inadi watched as the witch dispersed her little hoard of zombies and undead and decided to face off with them in person. He wanted to throw out another quip her way but decided it was best for focus his energies on taking care of one of the major threats. One being the witch obviously, the other being the large fat zombie that apparently didn't get the memo to disappear with the rest of the trash. Rather than deciding for himself, Ace decided to turn to him and Riley to take the thing out. Riley and him began sizing up the the thing and he didn't like the match up at all.

This big one seemed to have a serious advantage none of the other ones from before had. That damn spit it had was not something easily avoided and it was similar to those slimes that the group had fought when they first arrived from the cat bus. Now instead of slow moving piles of acid, it was a stream of flesh eating acid being shot at them from something that clearly had eaten too much during its time alive. Riley began talking about attacking soon, but Inadi was still nervous about the whole concept of charging at the thing.

The fire mage began talking about an old game he remembered playing a bit back home. This thing was a bit like a boomer in the sense that the sludge needed to be avoided. Except in this case the sludge was actually damaging rather than a calling card for other zombies. And the other thing that was concerning was that if this thing was anything like a boomer it may explode if it suffers too much damage. No telling how volatile that mixture of acid was inside that thing's gut. Riley began charging it with a stick she had set ablaze and seemed to just make it pissed. Inadi smiled and looked at her as she asked him to gut the thing.

“Well I'll try and hopefully I can keep my balance a little better.” Inadi joked with her, referencing her windmill like state she had trying to stay on her feet. The monster seemed to calm down from the agitation it had felt and now turned to the two fighters that were staring it down. A gurgling sound was beginning to form the thing's gut and it made Inadi a little uncomfortable as the rumbling made its way up to the throat. Quickly pushing Riley out of the way and rolling to the side, the two escaped another helping of bile that was shot at them. Was this thing trying to separate them and make them fight it one at a time? Surely this thing wasn't that smart. Then again, Inadi had been wrong before about things in this world.

Looking at the others fighting the witch and seeing how the nasty old hag was still having her fun now with dark wisps that were turning things to stone as they touched ground. Inadi began thinking back to Their colleague who was turned to stone in Vincent. Needless to say Inadi didn't want to join him in that kind of hell and quickly picked himself up off the ground. Putting his spear forward he watched as the monster in front of him followed the tip's every move. Testing the reflexes of the beast, he shifted it every few seconds, only to find that the monster was very attentive and quick to react to the moves. Clearly this thing was good at using sight, which was surprising considering how heavy its brow looked with all the fat it had. Suddenly Inadi had an idea that struck him as genius. He quickly began building up his flash bomb he used back at the cabin again when the lights went out. “Hey big guy, let me ask you a quick question if you can answer,” He told it as it tilted its head in curiosity. “Do you know how bright the sun is?”

Throwing his hand up to show the large collection of bolts he had made, Inadi turned his head and closed his eyes as he crushed it in his hand. The monster screamed in pain it seemed and began rubbing its eyes furiously. Inadi looked and was happy to see that part of his plan worked. He quickly began running to get behind the thing like Riley told him to. As he waited for the thing to stop squirming, he quickly shoved his spear into the thing's back and heard it screech in pain. Inadi laughed and looked over to Riley. “Let's get to work on that witch then, shall w....” Inadi suddenly began feeling a bit of a tough tug on his spear as he couldn't rip it out of the zombie's gut. Trying to get an idea of what was going on, it looked like the hook on his spear had caught a rib on the way back out and he was now stuck onto the thing. Groaning in agitation, he tried pulling again on the spear only to have the big guy walk with him and wave his arms in agitation. Not only was he stuck to the zombie, but it was still alive. Lucky for him he couldn't do much with him directly behind him and the acid was slowly spilling out since the spear was still inside it. Inadi looked at Riley hoping she had an idea. “What do you think? Should we use big guy here as some kind of shield?” He asked with a bit of agitation growing in his voice as he continued watching the others fight the witch and how it looked like things were getting dire.