Raccoon transitioned to the Chronofield. One moment he was on the server and the next he was on an upper quantum layer.
The copy of Azerail floated motionlessly. As he closed in on the body a sense of unease washed over him.
He'd seen Azerail’s memory of how she had entered and it was extremely inefficient. The fact that she made it here at all impressed him.
There were lower levels to the Chronofield but this one was what humans could tolerate in small doses. The shell he'd made her was a quick fix that could be programmed into human implants.
Raccoon didn't know if what Kevin said was true about the Architects. Could it be as simple as them being on the lower levels?
He knew the Zix training would likely have that information but he wasn't sure it was worth the hassle. Especially if they stripped him of what he'd gained. Individualism and the freedom to do whatever he wanted.
His mind drifted to what he’d done to Azerail. He’d increased the pain she felt from her implant enough to knock her out. The guilt ate at him.
Her mind wasn’t accessible in whole to him and he’d assumed that she would kill him with the sword. What he had access to at that time, told him he couldn’t trust her and her thoughts were focused on getting her old Zix back. He was glad they had cleared that up.
Raccoon still didn’t have full access to all of her memories but he was sure she would share them with him if he asked.
Perhaps when Azerail decided to stop focusing so much on that game they could sit down and clear everything up.
He closed his eyes momentarily and relaxed.
Helping people had made him much happier than harming them. Every time he made a shortcut that helped Azerail he felt how grateful she was. Then the way that Molly reacted to him—
The curled-up Azerail twitched.
Raccoon waited and when nothing else happened he shuddered.
Whatever that thing was freaked him out.
He didn’t have to start his examination right away but he didn’t want to be near that thing for very long.
Raccoon’s whiskers twitched and he asked, “What are you?”
There wasn’t a response.
“Fine, we do this the hard way then,” he said.
***
It had been an hour since Lewis had demolished the Neutrals’ settlement. Almost everyone was sleeping so there was little resistance.
Night raids weren’t something they normally did. It took a lot of coordination, which Koffer and Lily had entrusted to him.
He saw a torch ahead and paused raising a closed fist. The three thousand men behind him slowly came to a halt. The fog made it hard to see but he had mages with him. Their spells helped him see much further than he would normally be able to.
A lone running figure closed in on them and he pulled his sword. Behind him, a wave of sound echoed the motion he’d just made. Twenty of his forty sing-swords stepped forward with their bows drawn.
“Friendly!” the person shouted.
It sounded like Sandra. He’d sent her to scout ahead. “Approach!”
The light sped toward him and he held his sword at the ready.
Sandra cautiously approached and Lewis raised his sword. He knew Azerail's crew had at least a couple of banshees.
“Password,” he said flatly.
The half-elf woman grunted, leaned in as close as she could, and said, “Turtle dove.”
“It’s her, stand down,” Lewis said. “Report.”
Her elven squad lowered their weapons and she nodded to them.
They saluted in return.
“Large group of Zombies ahead. Few hundred at most,” Sandra reported.
She had her vision boosted as well so Lewis trusted her judgment. Plus she was a half-elf and they naturally had better observation skills.
Lewis put down his fist, sheathed his sword, and pointed forward. “We’re almost there and those dead assholes are weak! Let's take them out at their base before they can all respawn!”
Cheers erupted from his men and a smirk formed. They finally had the advantage and they were going to press it.
***
“Why the hell is she sending them to Chardance? They Enlightened are Northeast!” Ponter complained. He tugged on his coveralls, his rotting flesh leaving a dark red stain wherever he touched.
Molly shrugged. “I don’t know. She just keeps repeating, “Take Chardance”.”
“That’s stupid. Even if we do manage to take their graveyard we can’t hold the city alone!” Ponter replied. “They have thousands of players!”
Raziel crossed his arms, his metal armor making a loud clank. “She has to have a bigger plan.”
“We always discuss this together, why is she being so secretive?” Tinky asked.
Molly sighed and her passive sent shivers down the spines of the gathered lieutenants. Damnit Azerail, she thought. “Shay Poppy was a spy for the Enlightened.”
“Gerardo? Got-damn, who’d-a-thunk?” Rufus said as he lifted his cowboy hat and scratched his scruffy face.
Another ethereal sigh drifted through the camp. It wasn't half as strong as Molly's.
It was Morgue’n the armored ghost Azerail talked to a lot. “Guys, taking the town might be harder than you think.”
“Why's that?” Molly asked.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Morgue’n faced Etherea, and then Bastion. They shared a look and then all three turned to Molly.
***
The whole of the battlefield was available to me. I'd heard what Morgue’n and the other two who knew about Vampires had told everyone.
Their feelings of disbelief spread and rushed over me.
I was worried that what they did was a mistake. Revealing such a thing at this stage…
When excitement replaced their doubt and they started moving, it made me smile.
The water I was standing in was nearly to my chest.
Midnight was closing in.
Between my lieutenants and I, we'd managed to pull around four thousand shamblers from the muddy banks of the swamp.
With me pulling three hundred out at a time it made the task much easier.
The swamp still glowed brightly with the dead.
Another thousand East then I'll start North, I thought.
***
“They were here,” Sandra said.
Lewis crossed his arms and sighed. They'd marched double time to get there. “How could hundreds of zombies disappear so—”
There was movement ahead and he equipped himself. His men did the same.
He'd heard that sound thousands of times. It was a hoard.
“To the North!” he shouted.
***
“How far off are we?” Koffer asked as he stared at the zombie named Gerardo. Koffer still didn't like putting so much trust into someone who would betray their people so easily.
Its face was half gone and its voice came out with a lisp as it spoke, “It's—” he scanned the landscape. “I think it's this way.”
“What do you mean you think? I thought you knew where it was?” Koffer asked.
It gargled as it faced him. “They must have doused all the lights. It's hard to tell where it's at.”
Koffer placed a palm on his forehead and took a deep breath.
“I-if we find the swamp it should be easy to locate the camp from there,” the zombie said.
The men next to Koffer parted and Lily appeared in the gap. “Why are we stopped?”
He let his hand drop and gazed at her.
“Don't look at me like that,” she responded.
Koffer crossed his arms. “Your informant doesn't know where the hell he's going.”
“I swear to fucking everything, Shay, if you don't—”
The zombie put up a hand and said, “I-I'm sure it's this way.” and pointed westward.
Lily gestured in the direction the zombie did. “Do I have to do everything?” She then stomped back into her ranks of men.
We're going to die out here, Koffer thought.
***
The Wight that was me skipped along the water's surface as she repositioned herself.
We'd led a brigade of Enlightened far off to the northern part of the swamp. We'd cleared the area of shamblers the first night we were here.
Admittedly, they were closer to our camp than I liked but they didn't know the area like we did.
From the brief encounters we'd had with them we'd found out quite a bit about their equipment and capabilities.
They were all heavily armored except for the half-elf and her sing-swords. If they had any mages with them they were well guarded and deep in their ranks.
Either way, they'd backed us into the swamp. We slogged through it and the Wight that was me danced across the water till she found solid ground.
My body jerked up and down and I held in a yell. I struggled to control the shamblers and fell to a knee. Only a little longer.
The Enlightened were stronger than us and quickly caught up. My back seared with pain as one of us was struck down by an undead slayer sword. Our spine had been severed and the shambler screamed as it died.
***
Lewis and his brigade chased and slaughtered the trapped zombies till there were fifty or so left.
The shamblers shuffled in the black nighttime waters. They were so close Lewis could only see the backs of them.
Then, out of nowhere, the ones in front of him dropped straight down as if they had plunged off a cliff.
He barely got his hand up before they too fell into the deep waters.
They were alone and Lewis had an overwhelming feeling that something was wrong.
Splashes of water came from behind him and he turned.
Several of the soldiers were bent over with their arms plunged shoulder-deep.
“Report!” be commanded.
The particular man he was talking to was kneeling with arms flailing through the muck. “He's gone!”
“Who's gone?” Koffer asked.
“Meyers, Sir. He fell into the water and I can't find him.” the soldier yelled.
Lewis took a step toward the man and turned just in time to see several more of his men fall into the water.
What the hell? Lewis thought. “Help them!”
One of the men next to him bent over and fished around in the soupy liquid.
He seemed to get a hold of something and pulled. “I can't—” then he too sank into the muddy mess.
Suddenly Lewis was hit by a barrage of notifications from his people.
He opened his interface and tapped on one of the rapidly scrolling messages.
It read:
They're under us!
More of his men tipped over face-first into the water.
Then new notifications started rolling in.
A member of your raid has fallen.
A member of your raid has fallen.
A member of your raid has fallen.
A member of your raid has fallen.
A member of your raid has fallen.
Dozens upon dozens more streamed through his vision.
“It's a tra—” he barely got out before he too was dragged into the murky depths.
***
“Where did they go?” Keriz Thornfoot asked.
Keriz was a halfling, with a wizard's hat almost as wide as he was tall. It was a ridiculous thing but Keriz liked it.
Drow, Keriz’s elven war mage companion, watched the still waters of the swamp. “If you would allow me to carry you we can join—”
“No! I'll not suffer the indignity of such an endeavor,” Keriz responded.
The elf deflated and faced the halfling. “Then let's use hover and catch up with them.”
“How many soldiers does it take to screw in a light bulb?” Keriz asked.
Drow sighed. “How many?”
Keriz’s mouth dropped and he didn't respond.
Drow slowly turned back to the swamp. Two dozen zombies were barreling down on them at speeds neither of them had seen the creatures move at before.
Keriz screamed and ran.
His companion did the same.
***
The Wight that was me swam through the water keeping low. Not always, but occasionally to train the skill, I would use Drain while the rest of us held the Enlightened underwater.
They would drown long before Drain could kill them but training was training. It had advanced into the Adept ranks quite quickly.
Half the time I would have to play a game of wack-a-mole holding down the shamblers when they started moving in the water. It was intense. But when the time was right with the help of our shared strength, the dense mud, gravity, and the soldier’s heavy armor, it was easy to hold them down.
They had tried swinging their swords at us and all manner of other tactics but they couldn’t see us.
Most of the sing-swords, after seeing their battalion disappear one by one, decided that it wasn’t worth it to stick around. They must have used the same tactics I had because one moment they were there and the next they were gone.
We ate all three thousand of them.
By the time we were done my rank of Undead Domination had tipped into expert then blew past it and went deep into the master ranks. The grappling counted toward Unarmed Combat and increased that ability pushing it into the first rank of grandmaster.
I fed the excess experience into Concentration raising it five points.
After a few quick tests, we found that our number had increased by two hundred totaling Five hundred of us shambling together at once.
The Wight that was me grinned and then we got back to work pulling more of our kind out of the depths.
***