Bob, most excellent ranger in Mork's service, took over an hour to ride around Heirisburg.

"You would think with a place like this, they would have some signage. But if there's nothing else around then there's no real reason for them to put anything up right? Who would question if this was the city they're looking for? I wouldn't. How many cities like this do you think there are? Not many around here," Stella said. "There's no sign indicating that this highway goes to any other spot, nor are there any helpful signs that tell you where the rest stops are. You really have to stop and ask somebody for directions."

"Then it is a good thing that we asked some locals for help," Bob said, moving his horse closer to the city. "It's too bad that they can't ride on our horses without crushing their spirits."

Nobody wanted to mess with the horses. There was no possible way for them to get new horses and given the situation in front of them, they didn't expect to find any more. Zombies ate horses. Any horse not freed during the event that turned just about everyone onto a zombie, hadn't made it far. Bob didn't want to think about how many half eaten dwarves they'd seen. There weren't so many pack animals, but the few that they had seen were very visible.

The goats from Arva didn't make an appearance that morning. It made him think that perhaps there was something about their Caravan that attracted animals.

"Yeah they would have enjoyed this," Bob said, "Not."

Behind the three scouts, a near-conga line of zombies followed them. They were luring the zombies to a setup that Sonia had made that morning. Sonya, a big fan of zombie games and Tower defense had decided that perhaps it was not the best idea to set up your Tower defense Network right next to where you slept. Slept. As such. She had taken several of the monks and moved closer to the town. She was looking for some easy wins and she had asked Bob to do something that he was going to do anyway.

Bob was looking for the low hanging fruit. All the doors that have been stuck outside of the city. If they could clear out any of the outstanding zombies outside of the city, then they could be sure that they weren't going to be followed easily. His secondary objective was to see if any of the doors were open that led inside. Their initial scout Fort had said that of the door they'd seen, the Portcullis was down.

Bob, Stella and Sophie had been moving closer and further away from Heirisburg, trying to draw out any zombies. Several had fallen from a second story drop, then gotten up and ran after them. Most of those that dropped, found that running was not a part of their repertoire anymore. But they still crawled after them with a single mindedness of purpose.

It was the final part of their circumnavigation of the near circle around the city and they could see Sonya's newest creation. The two meter tall walls had equally wide spaces in between.

"Ready for this next bit?" He asked the bay mare that he was riding. "Who's a good girl?"

She neighed.

"Ladies?" Bob said.

"I'll go first," Sophie said. "Stella next?"

"As you say," Stella said, moving into formation.

Sonya had promised them that they would have good access and that they could continue through. Their horses would not be spooked by what they're about to go through. She was going to leave them a wide enough space to go through the maze. Then they would emerge on the other side and wait until the conga line of zombies got into it.

True to her word, Sonya was waiting for them standing near the entrance. Further in, there was a very clearly marked pathway for them. Bob trusted Sophie to lead them through. He glanced over his shoulder briefly before heading into the tunnel.

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Once they were through, Sonya closed up their special entrances. She had left a grassy knoll on the back for the horses that had a small exit. Brandon and the monks lowered a ladder for the scouts.

Stella was first up and over. She paused to look at the design, then lowered a hand for Sophie. It was hard for her to keep from saying anything.

Sophie and Stella exchanged a few words, outside of her earshot. Bob came up, his bald head glinting over the ladder.

The girls came over to them. The monks had left a few spears for the girls and they took them up. Both of them already had a spear, but it was good to have an extra or two.

She was used to making decisions on her own. Also, due to her warlock ability, she was able to visualize the entirety of the tower defense maze. She had chosen a classic feminine design, one evocative of her years in college.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Hey Sonya, did you make this maze in the shape of fallopian tubes?" Stella said, running up to her

"You got me!" She replied. " I felt inspired."

"Hah!" Stella yelled. "You lost this one, Sophie! That's two uncommon pieces."

The two women came over.

"Where do you want us?" a jubilant Stella said. "Near the tubes or the entrance?"

"You can head to the front, Stella- Sophie you have those warlock powers, right?"

Sophie nodded. Stella saluted and ran off.

"I'm ready to drop some girl power on these zombies," Sophie said.

"Can you position yourself opposite of her, along that wall?" Sonya said, pointing to the opposite side of where Stella had gone. "You take overwatch with the Monks. As for Bob, I'm going to have him back up Stella and myself. Understood?"

"Gatekeep, gaslight, girl boss, aye ma'am!" Sophie said, saluting.

"Battle cry?" Sonya said, turning to go.

"Just trying it out, before Stella takes all the good ones."

She ran off sprinting towards her station. Sonya had her ice mage in position across from the goat powered warlock druid. She would need to speak to Stella about getting some more useful card skills. Of course she could always get Andrew to make something for the rogue?

The zombies finally arrived. Bob held his bolts. Each bolt was far more useful than magic power. They had near endless cosmic card power to fuel their magic, but only so many bolts.

The first one to attack was Stella. Sonya guessed that she would do her special ice flooring attack. Sonya's affinity lay with the earth, a gift from her patron. Sure she could cast a basic ice spell but it wouldn't do nearly as well as a specialist like Stella.

Across from them, tiny bolts of lightning streaked out touching several prone zombies. They hit the ground, slid and then got shocked. Where Stella began to work on the upkeep of her ice, Sophie sent out a burst every five seconds. By the time they got past Sophie, most of the zombies were icy and hot. It was a potent combination for those they were once dwarves. Beards lit on fire as Sonya considered if she needed some elemental water.

Or perhaps she could just lose a bit of dirt over the flaming Dwarven zombies. Fire needed air, right?

She would rob them of the air they needed.

A light dusting of earth fell onto the flames zombies. The monks across the way whooped as their spears finally got a kill. The purpose of the defensive position wasn't to advance their skills though, except perhaps Sonya's tower defense skills.

It was all falling into place now. Stella refreshed the ice, extending it down towards the fallopian offshoots that lead to dead ends. Sophie and the monks cleared up the ones that got up again. Bob kept his head on a swivel, looking for anything that threatened to break away from the crowd.

Sonya launched another thick dusting of earth, trying to see past the cloud that was being kicked up by her efforts.

"Ah fuck me," she said, pushing the earth forward with her mana. She accelerated it to a staggering degree, aiming down the line. She hadn't even thought about that. She was going to have to change up her tactics, or work on her air affinity.

Perhaps Cara had something about the air affinity that she could lean on. She was after all the god of overland travel. If she didn't think that was related to airtime then perhaps that wasn't her patrons' problem, not hers. She would choose to believe whatever she wanted to believe about it.

Sonya really wished that they could make quick work of the zombies but they went on much slower than she expected. Perhaps it was something degrading their capability. Every single zombie that came into their tunnel I had been one for at least a week or so. The days were starting to blur in her mind.

She had to wonder what was keeping them going. And at what point would they run out of that? Actually if ever. Something had to be making them do what they did. The current theory and the most dominant one was that whatever card what card pieces were inside of the zombies was what was happening to them and then perhaps breaking down the cards into card pieces was a part of the magical fission that created Zombie energy.

Of course this was the theory that had been only run through a group of their peers, which is to say all the casters had this general idea that that was what was going on.

Once the tail of zombies finally arrived, Sonya could finally relax. Bob summoned his eldritch house cat and set it off.

Sonya walked around to get to Sophie.

"So, Warlock Powers; how do you feel about them?" She asked.

"Oh you know the drill. I suppose that having a patron that doesn't really speak to you so much as yell at you and an intelligible language should be a blessing but I'm not exactly sure but he wants me to do? Is that a thing that I should be thinking about? He's not unknown and unknowable. He's just a goat.. It's like he's just raging at the world."

"I totally get where you're coming from and yeah that sounds very interesting. My patron can speak to me which did not until this conversation seemed like a thing that was not on the table. Even when Finley talked about the Goat Lord, I expected him to be able to make coherent sentences. If not just mentally; he should be able to give you an idea of what he wants. I'm not sure what's going on with that myself. At least you didn't get a patron who looks like she's still in high school," Sonya said. She raised some of the dust up, leaving access for Ca'at. The dust was on her mind. She was going to attempt something new.

"High school? You know what, I don't want to know."

Sonya walked over a little bit closer to Sophie. She held out her hand, expectantly. They clasped hands, both giggling a bit. The macabre setup of her defensive position had made the past ten minutes feel like a video game, and if that was what she needed to do to cope, then so be it.

"Let me show you a spell," Sonya said, tossing her hair with a flourish.

"Please do."

Sophie clapped, leaning in. They were a few paces from the edge of the wall, just where both could easily feel like they wouldn't be falling. That was good enough to start.

She demonstrated her air spell, quickly showing the motion she used with her hands. Using some of the dirt that had covered previous vanquished foes, she made a tiny dirt tornado, before letting it peter out.

The tiny eldritch beast pawed at the tornado, playfully trying to catch it.

Sophie gave it a shot, making first a gust, then leading the dirt around on a front of air. She did the same thing that Sonya was doing, creating a mini vortex. The vortex looked like more of a solid mass, but didn't feel as strong. Sophie had excellent magic control. Sonya was going to have to ask her about how that worked for her, and probably take some notes.