He could feel Morks hand, empowering his skill in animal handling. These odd card Powers combined with the holy card he had been given had worked in so many strange ways.
The caravans front axle had turned enough that they could see the area clearly.
"Is that a man riding a horse in our direction, followed by a herd of horses and-" Finley squinted. "a horde of zombies?"
"As I have never seen such a thing and I don't think that zombies ride horses, or that horse zombies exist in this world, I'll accept your assessment. Now, what are we going to do about it?"
Finley pushed the bay mares to turn onto the beltway around Dunnamore. Without any rivers, it was simple to ride around the bluff that the city occupied.
"We ride. Can you get some of those zombies from here with your holy bolt skill?"
"We can-whoever that is-is coming towards us. If he changes course then..."
"If he can ride a horse then he is among the living. If zombies are chasing him out of Dunnamore, then it's overrun."
Finley left his thoughts about how the town had to have been before they had arrived. He had to live in the here and now if he was going to survive, and the cloaked rider was approaching. their direction has changed. As they moved towards the beltway, the rider changed to an intercept direction, looking to cut them off or join them ahead. That at least made him intelligent.
"Finley! He is waving! Maybe he's not undead!"
"Well, save him for last, then. Do what you can with the horde behind him."
The horses had clearly changed direction as well as the horde behind them, who moved as a noticably slower pace.
"Do they have any weapons?" Finley said, eyes glued to the dirt. "That seems super relevant right now."
"What? Who? The horses? The zombies?"
"The lone rider."
"He is slinging a crossbow and-"
Thwap
"-is close enough to hear the action of the bow string being snapped."
---
The chosen ranger closed in on the caravan. One elf and one human sat in front of it. He could see the elf, spurring their horses on.
Three horses had paid the ultimate sacrifice to get him out there.
It was a very light push to his skill that had allowed him to pull off that maneuver. It had driven the horses to become shields against the zombies and he would find a way to honor their sacrifice later.
Using the horses to push off the zombies and trample them, he was able to ride to the north of Dunnamore. That was when he realized it had finally become Twilight, and that he wasn't alone. The bonfires lit up the area for nearly half a mile away, much of it a flat grassland.
His pathfinding skill was paying hard dividends as it showed a beeline towards the approaching caravan. He could feel the caravan move and he felt a strong prediction for which direction it was going and how far it could go.
Shortly after he emerged from the interior, the caravan changed direction, he followed suit. He pushed his horse to catch up. Instead of coming straight at him, they had turned, away from the last remnants of light from the sun.
They waved at him, he waved back. He wasn't sure exactly what they knew but when one of them started firing light bolts into the Horde, he knew he had made the right decision.
He finally pulled up his horse alongside them. He kept pace with caravan blowing slightly. With two mares pulling, they kept good speed but he did not know for how long. Once again, he wished that he had leveled some of his ranger skills, rather than having to lean on a temporary boost.
"Are you boys looking for some help? Because I definitely could use some right about now. I'll even make it worth your while."
"What do you need, Stranger?" A man with a bronx accent said.
"Just a bit of help. I think the thing they need to understand is that I'm working here. I have things to do and these guys are just raining on my parade."
"Well we're trying to avoid being eaten by that horde over there. So long as you're not on their side, what do you need?"
"I'm planning on leading the horde around the city a few times in order to give me a chance to whittle them down. Without a death knight to control their movements, they are all mindless. They'll seek out the closest form of sustenance in front of them. Or at least the closest one available to them. That would be you guys, me and all of our horses."
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He hadn't failed to notice that the wild horses were now congregating around the caravan in a pack. All the horses and he hadn't known what to do with them. The horses, it seemed, had the right idea already. The ran behind the path that the caravan was taking, with a single minded focus.
The beltway around the city had been built to carry large loads of rock around. Able to afford a wide berth to dozens of travelers at a time, it was wide. The ranger found that the caravan was now pushing to keep up with the horse he was riding bareback.
"I see you have a crossbow," the man with the Bronx accent said, "are you any good with it?"
The ranger smiled.
"I only have so many bolts, but I have not missed a shot all day."
He left out the part where he'd only shot once.
"Impressive. My friend here is whispering that he has more bolts for you. Would you like to be part of a friendly wager?"
"Why my good sir, what are your terms?"
"Let's see who can take down more of the horde."
"You're on."
---
Anthony scrambled into the back of the caravan. The quiver of crossbow bolts was exactly where Finley had told him it would be. He wondered if he would be able to toss it to the cloaked man.
Finley reached a hand to hold it. With one hand on the reins and the other on the quiver, he directed Anthony to resume his post at the back of the caravan. That was when he really understood how many horses were following them. If he had time he would have counted them but he didn't. Behind the horses, the zombies ran.
"Finley, I need a shot. Make the horses do something so they're not in the way."
A loud grunt from the front later, and the horses split like someone had dropped a bomb in the center of the herd. And now Anthony had a clear shot.
If you've never seen the parting of a horse herd, you're probably not missing out on much. As far as animal movements go, it's not very noteworthy. But when they do it as one as if controlled by hive mind, that feeling in the back of your brain that something is slightly wrong goes on Red Alert.
So the itchy feeling that Anthony had when he sat down was entirely normal. He just had no idea that it was supposed to be normal.
He took aim at the first zombie with his finger, close his left eye and shot.
----------------------------------------
If there was any question in the ranger's mind if there was another death knight in the area, it was put to ease when the zombies did not react to being shot in the face. Oh sure, the ones that got shot fell down. They were gone. There was no return policy in the world that was going to account for this kind of normal everyday wear. No shopkeeper would accept a facsimile of a dwarf, except maybe an Undertaker, and return any amount of money.
Zombies gave you store credit.
The chosen ranger had decided that he was going to get as much zombie cash as he could. And to do so, he would need to use all the bolts that his new friends had just given him.
There had to be at least thirty zombies in a horde behind them. Feeling the quiver he had at least that many bolts.
It was too bad that he didn't have a mounted archery skill to work on. That would have come in clutch just about now. Then he saw one of the humanoids go to the back of the caravan and begin to shoot pulley bolts out of a finger gun.
"Is he slaying zombies with the power of finger guns? Mork, why didn't you give me that power? Don't answer that."
He could hear chuckling from the ether. At least his God had a sense of humor.
He strung the first bolt. Time to work on his archery skill.
He pulled away from the caravan trying to get the zombies. If nothing else, split their attention. The bonfire on the other side of, gave him a proper sight picture.
He could see the faint glow then marked a card appearing from a corpse. It was enough to give him a clear picture of a zombie he was tracking and he make his first shot. The glow made him smile as he nudged the horse back in the direction of the caravan.
This horse was used to mounted combat, or at least archery. Three corpses dotted the ground. Did he have enough time to swoop in and grab their cards? Surely not their card pieces.
If they were going to lead the zombies around the town, he would have a chance to reclaim those cards. That was a big if. He wouldn't have the glow to mark their location.
His horse picked up speed as it trotted towards the herd.
The mage in the back of the caravan kept firing, hitting something every third or fourth attack.
He was going to have to pick up the pace if he wanted bragging rights.
---
Finley kept to the well lit path. The moon rose over them with its green glow, the red of the bon mixing with it.
The rider that had appeared with a herd of horses seemed impressive enough initially. Then he saw how the man had to load each crossbow shot and it looked like he was getting more and more tired. He was also missing two out of three shots.
By that time they had circled the city once. Finley kept checking in on him as he scored it after hit, but he too was getting tired. He was missing more and more and there were still more zombies. About a dozen or so still chased them, their movements slower in the dark.
If only Finley could give him another hit of that refresh, he might be able to pull it together. Or if he had any skills in riding horses, he might do so. He didn't want to leave the safety of the caravan come hell or high water.
It was the only thing between him and certain death in the dark.
And he aimed to keep it that way.
The rider came within talking distance.
"I might be able to start grabbing some of the cards. I can go ahead and grab some."
"There's still too many of them. I can hit them for sure but they have to be close now. And without the fire we would be shit out of luck," Anthony said. "Why don't you go to the front and ask the elf if he has any bright ideas?"
"Will do."
Then the Rider was gone once again.
---
Swinging around the front of the caravan, Finley and the rider got close enough to talk.
"There's only about a dozen of them left. I'm out of crossbow bolts but if we go around Dunnamore once again we should get all of them. Then we can harvest their cards. Oh and the guy in the back asked if you had any bright ideas."
"I have a few ideas. Once I don't have to hold her to the horses so tightly, I can make a mage light to help us see."
"I'm less worried about finding these things. I have a skill that points me in the direction of things that I'm trying to find. Mork actually helped me find that card as part of a quest."
"First Yil, now Mork? I suppose you've just been summoned here recently then. Hmmm."
Behind them, the other man booted and yelled.
"Eight more!"
"Also, seriously I am out of crossbow bolts. I don't have any other ranged skills so I don't know what I can do to help you out here."
"Can you be the bait?"
"I'm not sure if they'll follow me instead of you and the horses. They're just looking for something warm that they can gnaw on. Let's try to avoid that being you."