Not that Anthony had resurrected a dragon. Sonya was now realizing that all the zombies that were trying to climb over the wall had stopped. Usually, when the zombies stopped doing something, it was important to take note and to figure out why. However, the dwarfs’ attention is absorbed by the now-living dragon surrounded by several resurrected dwarfs. Boyfriend that was going to get the more preoccupied so Sonya decided to check out what was going on the wall. She could feel a little of what was happening based on the amount of contact and movement on the ground over there. But she couldn’t really get an impressive picture. All she wanted was to be safely away from the zombies, but she rocked towards the wall. As she ran, she realized she was probably the only one heading that way. There were front-line fighters on top of the wall, but and they weren’t talking.

“Hey what’s going on over there?” She said.

“They’re heading away?” One of the legion said.

This caused several more dwarfs to recognize that the constant beating against the dirt had stopped. Sonya was hoping beyond hope that this meant that Sophie had taken down the death night or that Bob had or that somebody had because this was very unusual and she was not expecting this. The zombies were predictably dumb monsters. And she wanted them to stay predictable and dumb. That’s why she killed the intelligent ones. Bob might be mad at her, but they weren’t there to rack up scores of how many death nights they killed.

They were there to finish a job. She quickly created a set of stairs out of dirt, each step rising in front of her as she stepped, leaving her just enough from to get to the top of the dirt wall that was keeping out most of the zombies. Well, at least it had been. Now it seemed as if all the zombies were about to dash madly towards the capital’s interior.

“Well fuck this,” she said.

Anthony was going to be busy dealing with the dragon. Sonya needed an airship. Something was going down, and it was probably the death knight calling in all of its reinforcements to save itself at that exact moment.

---

“You promised me a one-on-one duel. I’m a man of honor. It just took me a while to get here,” Bob said, strolling towards the girl. “Do you think I care you took the form of a girl? I know you’re trying to get me off my rocker, but look at me. I’m fucking crazy. I stripped down here because I did not want to have to deal with my clothes burning up.”

He extended his spear out. It was just the right size.

“Everyone thinks that this is a trap. No one thought to ask me about this. This,” he said, lifting his spear into position. “Is a trap for you. If there’s no way that both of us could live. Do you think I fucking care about living or dying? No. I already died. Now you get to experience what I did coming here.”

The death knight drew a bloody iron sword from the ground. Behind her, the undead dragon stood quietly.

With both hands on it, the longsword was larger than her and unwieldy.

Bob feinted and then slapped the sword out of her hands.

“But you threatened me,” he said, placing the spear tip at her neck. “You enacted this unholy covenant between us. I was wondering why there are so many constructs.”

“Kill me,” she said, her horse's voice standing out to him. “And you will learn nothing... ack...”

He slid the just the tip of his spear into her neck. Smooth like butter, it went in far better than he had expected.

“I don’t care to learn anything anymore,” he said, pulling her in. “I’m fucking retiring, bitch.”

Holding her in place with his spear, Bob immolated the death night. Though she looked pissed and tried to escape, before she could run, he swept her legs and she was down, one hand holding her throat as she tried to re knit self together.

Bob looked to the side and saw that his Eldritch summons had neatly dispatched several key tendons in the undead dragon’s upper torso. Those tendons being the ones important for it to fly and keep upright. The dragon was now something on Instagram. In a world where cats could fight dragons, a dark enemy forced Bob to kill it in the body of a teenage girl.

He knew he was only going to have one chance. If she had the power that everyone thought she did, then she could knit together undead flesh.

Bob was through.

He took his spear and thrust its hand into the girl’s chest.

She gasped.

He thought she was done. But she healed over it, and instead of shrinking back, she reached out to grab him.

“Well fuck you too,” he said, dancing backwards and tossing two fireballs her way.

Behind her, the dragon appeared to laugh black flame into the air. That was his cue.

He could feel his skill in wanting to copy the black flame. It was time.

“Is that all you have?” The death knight said, with the voice of an older woman now coming through the rapidly disappearing flames.

“No,” he whispered.

He unleashed a torrent of black flame at the girl, tapping into his card thief skill.

“Get. The Fuck. Off. Of My. Continent!” He bellowed, the beam of his black flame undeniable. He slammed mana into the construct, leveling a path of destruction larger than a Winnebago at a family reunion. No one was prepared for that, much less the death knight.

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For ten long seconds, Bob poured everything he had into it. All his hopes, all of his dreams, and everything that had taken him to this point in his life.

He hoped Stella will be proud.

When he could finally feel the quest updating him, he fell to his knees.

“Oh thank fuck,” he said.

Someone had clear-cut a tunnel for miles and miles and that direction based on the amount of black flame that he had lost. It had just poured out of him, and he knew it was partially Mork helping him to do as much as he could. Of course the God would wait until the 11th hour to come in with something else helpful. But he wasn’t mad. If anything, Bob was happy that he was going to finally rest. But once stood a death knight, there was only Ash in the wind.

A happy Bob smiled.

---

Stella, Sophie, and the monks arrived to see that Bob had done the most Bob thing possible. Of course, it was making a big mess that no one was going to do anything about. But they weren’t the cleanup crew. They weren’t going to have to think about that.

Sophie held back, looking around to see if any zombies were approaching, while the rest of the team all took their time to get into a circle around the couple.

Bob looked absolutely spent. Sophie had seen it before and today, she was seeing it again and again. She didn’t want to see Bob this way, but he had decided something. For Bob, this was his lot in life, and she was proud of him. She could be both proud and mad at him and she was because once again baba done something stupid. Stupid scaring Stella and probably was going to be expecting to be welcomed back into their graces.

Stella wasn’t dating. Bob. She didn’t care, but she was angry on her friend’s behalf, and she was. But she felt overwhelmed by their finally completing this godforsaken quest. Just being there. Felt so odd to her, she did a double take that she was actually awake. Sophie pinched herself.

Of course, it would be Bob that ended the war.

It had been a group project through and through.

Around them, the zombies closed in. Sophie grunted and figured out a way for them to get out of there. It was just like a man to get them stuck in the middle of an Elven Capital City surrounded by zombies. And it was definitely just like a man to leave it to the women in the group to bail them out.

Stella and Sophie had done it before and they would probably do it again. It was to be expected. So as Sophie sent out Vine after Vine, crushing the elves around here into dust, she really hoped that the Goat Lord would give her one last blessing.

“Oh goat Lord, please hear my plea. If you could just do me the smallest favor and help me resurrect some of these elves so I don’t have to kill them. I would be so appreciative. Just a couple dozen. Maybe. Anything to take the edge off. And I would really appreciate it if, when you did that, you figured out a way to resurrect a hot elf girl that might be interested in a chosen lady?”

It wasn’t the best speech you’d ever had, but there were some differences there and some things lost in translation that perhaps the goat lord would not falter for. But once again, she threw herself at the hooves of the goat. Lord. It would all depend on one god to do the right thing.

She wasn’t selling you, but she had trained with Sonia and she created little moats to trip out the elvish zombies. As they fell in, more of them came across the other ones, crushing them in that process. She couldn’t have designed a better trap than Sonya did, so she did her best imitation of Sonya’s work, letting it speak for itself.

“A good girl borrows her Tower Defense strategy, a bad girl steals it,” she said.

At that moment, she felt like a terrible girl. Nothing was going to stop her now. With three monks backing her up and potentially the dream team of her Stella and Bob back in the action, it was a done deal.

---

Anthony walked to another dwarf, dripping out mana as he arrived. He felt like a bag of wine that had just been tossed to the wrong person and had finally started leaking. It was definitely not a done deal. There was a bit of a change in how the horde was working, but mostly, they were still there, really, as were all the chosen and the legion. The dragon that he had befriended was just sitting there scratching itself and no one really knew what to do with it. In fact, Anthony had just let it do whatever it wanted because really, who was going to say otherwise?

Not Anthony.

He had way too much on his hands. When he heard Cedric yelling, He looked up. Thankfully, the commander of the 76th Dwarven legion was just looking at Sonya and trying to get her attention. Sooner or later somebody would come and tap them on the shoulder and update him.

He was surprised to see Finley.

“What are you doing out here, you old elf?” He said.

“I’m the cavalry,” Finley replied. “I come with treats. Unfortunately, no cake, but the rest of it is pretty damn good.”

Anthony got up and realized that he had been working straight for 2 hours healing people. They had won. Or at the very least, he couldn’t see any zombies. Also, the son appeared to be on his way towards the setting for the night. Behind him, Finley had a tray or two of baked goods and meat sticks for him, and he was so happy to see all that.

He cried.

“This whole battle has gone on forever,” he said, accepting a hand to get up.

“Why don’t you come over here? We’re going to have some food and then I think Sonya’s going to send us all back to Gloucester for a rest.”

“I think I would really like that,” Anthony said.

“I think we all would like that.”

Finley lead him to the table and practically shoved a spoon into his hand. Anthony ate mechanically, not tasting anything.

“Have you seen Sonya?” Anthony said.

“She’s the next one. I’m going to get over here. You all have done so much,” Finley said. “We need you to rest.”

Finley handed him a drink. He didn’t even know what it was, but he chugged it.

“Beer?”

“The strongest I could find.”

“You just went on a cross-country beer run for me?” Anthony said.

“I got to get my homies what they need,” Finley said. “That’s how you say it, right?”

“Yes. Another,” the human said.

---

Cedric and Sonya were standing on the wide wall. All the zombies were now just milling about.

“I think we can call it a day here,” she said. “We can come back.”

“No more death knights?” He said.

She shivered. When had it gotten cold? Cedric made a move to offer his cloak, but it was too small and bloody.

“No more death knights. Thanks, but no thanks on the cloak.”

Though there were a lot of elves there, none were really making their way towards them, any more than a few at the front. Sonya had reason to believe that as soon as they got out of sight, they would definitely be out of mind. A small group of dwarves continued to rain down arrows and stones upon them, though, as eventually they would have to clear out the city.

“You know what I miss?” Cedric said. “That cat summon. This is going to be a lot of bloody work.”

“That’s my fault. I’m sorry,” she said. “We might have won the war, but we lost Bob. I’m absolutely sure that he is fine. I don’t think he’s coming back to us.”

As they stood there, Sonya regained her strength and extended out the tower defense maze a bit. Eventually, the dwarfs would make their way here and root out any remaining zombies. But for now, she just needed to keep the legion safe. After making two layers of maize, she returned to Cedric.

“Ready to head back home?” She said.

“I think we can start that.”

He turned to his three runners and began issuing orders. Within five minutes, Sonya was walking back to set up the gate for the first company to leave. They would leave the way they returned and then the airships would continue to do the good work over night.

Zan would gate in the night shift once they were all snug.

But for Sonya? The fight had left her, and she was just ready to go home..