Jim opened his eyes and carefully pulled himself into a sitting position, Trick Knife ready to defend himself from any lesser undead that had managed to get into the tree he was strapped into before logging out. When none appeared, he breathed a sigh of relief and reached down with his knife to cut through the length of rope that he’d knotted together to hold him in the tree. Once it was cut, Jim sheathed his knife and pulled out his bow, stringing it before jumping down to the ground.

Landing more heavily than he meant to, Jim stumbled and then cursed as his foot crushed a fallen branch beneath him and sent an echoing crack through the sparse trees that he was moving through.

Crouching low to the ground, Jim pulled an arrow from his quiver and had it nocked in one smooth motion as he scanned the area for any undead that might have heard him. When none came charging toward him, he sighed in relief again and placed the arrow back in his quiver before rising to his full height and looking around once more.

Seeing nothing, Jim pulled his journal that held the map of the area he’d been through thus far and his compass from his pack, orienting himself the correct way before setting off for the Ubarion Peninsula.

“Maybe I’ll make it before night falls,” he muttered to himself.

“Why do there have to be so damn many of you?” Jim shouted as he ran from yet another roaming pack of lesser undead, these armed with clubs and swords.

As he ran, Jim made sure to pull ahead enough to have the distance he needed to fire an arrow at the shambling zombies. So late in his journey, many of those he fired were plain and unenchanted, hardly slowing the undead as they impacted torsos, shoulders, and legs. Those few that were enchanted were almost entirely Glyphs of Freezing, Explosion, or Shattering.

Turning back from shooting his latest volley at them, Jim prepared to run from the undead once more when he saw a flash of misty gray light wink out to the side of him.

“Dammit!” he shouted, taking off at a sprint, as he reached back into his quiver, hoping that he still had another Light Arrow that he could use to kill the spectral scout that would continue alerting groups of undead to where he was.

The longer he ran, the more desperate he felt as his first several arrows, many of which he dropped after looking at them, failed to be anything more than mundane arrows. Finally, as he approached a large rock, Jim managed to pull a Darkness Arrow from his quiver.

“This’ll have to work,” he muttered to himself as he scrambled up the rock and turned to face the chasing undead, eyes searching for where the specter would appear. Eventually, Jim saw a small gap in the undead that was perfect for the scout to hide in without being touched by the building horde of undead.

Without wasting a moment, Jim pulled the arrow to his cheek and released it in one smooth motion toward the gap. Just before the arrow arrived, one of the zombies pushed into the area and forced the specter to appear. As the arrow reached its target, the specter let out a loud, high-pitched screech that nearly forced Jim to his knees, screaming in pain at the feeling in his ears.

Barely managing to keep his footing, Jim was able to watch as most of the undead stumbled from the force of the dying specter’s scream. Before they were able to recover, he was treated to the sight of an utterly massive undead forcing its way into the clearing the rock he stood on was in.

Towering nearly four feet above its shorter kin, the large undead spied Jim on his rock and bellowed toward him, knocking many of the gathered undead to the ground. Absently, awed as he was by the grotesque nature of the skinless giant before him, Jim Examined the creature.

Meat Puppet: A Common Undead that is characterized by its recognizable size and lack of covering skin. Necromancers capable of creating these undead often do so to use as mobile siege engines or walking walls. Extremely difficult to kill without using fire, Divine intervention, or Life Magic.

“That’s a nope!” Jim yelped to himself as the Meat Puppet reached down and grabbed two lesser undead in its hand before throwing them across the distance at him. Ducking to avoid the flying undead, Jim reached back and pulled an arrow that he’d enchanted from its place strapped to the outside of his quiver. Examining it for damage and to make sure that he had the right arrow, Jim prepared to fire it.

Arrow of Life Explosion: An arrow that has been enchanted with a Glyph of Life Gathering and a Glyph of Explosion. Both Glyphs have rendered the arrow unstable and are likely to cause one another to fail. Upon failure, the arrow will burst into flames and crumble to ash. Upon successful impact with a target, the arrow will send a large amount of Life mana into the target causing rampant, unstable growths that will explode in fire to form on the target.

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“I hope this works,” Jim said to himself as he was forced to give up his, relatively, safer position on the rock by another volley of undead flying at him. Rolling to absorb the impact of the ground, Jim managed to come to his feet quickly and took off at a sprint away from the undead that were chasing him, avoiding the ones the Puppet had thrown at him as they tried to push themselves to their feet.

Arrow in hand, Jim opened as much distance as he could between himself and the Puppet that was still throwing its lesser companions at him. Feeling that he had as much distance as he needed, Jim nocked his Arrow of Life Explosion and pulled the fletching to his cheek before releasing it to fly across the distance and impact the Meat Puppet’s arm.

“Yes!” he said with a quick fist pump before resuming his retreat from the undead, not staying to watch as the arrow burst into flames and crumbled away.

As he ran, Jim dodged the undead that had been thrown in front of him, greeting many of them with a quick arrow that he drove into their skulls. Running further away, Jim was confident that he’d managed to severely wound the Meat Puppet with his special arrow, if not outright kill the creature.

“Now to find somewhere to hide away from the rest of these and work on making more arrows,” Jim said to himself just before something crashed into his back and heavily knocked him to the ground, striking a protruding tree root with his forehead.

In pain and bleeding, Jim forced himself to his feet rather than spend time moaning and groaning as he tried to resume running. Kicking back with his feet, he was able to knock whatever had hit him away and pulled himself to his feet to lurch into a stumble away from it. Throwing a desperate glance over his shoulder, Jim saw the towering, skinless Meat Puppet in the distance behind him, arm pulled back with another wriggling undead in its hand as it prepared to throw it at him.

“Dammit!” Jim shouted as he stumbled through the thickening trees. “I need to actually kill it or it won’t leave me alone!”

Dodging around the closest tree, Jim broke line of sight with the Meat Puppet and watched as the thrown undead flew by him as he searched his bow for potential damage. Finding none on the limbs or string, Jim pulled an arrow from his quiver and noticed it was one of his few Freezing Arrows left. Without giving himself time to question and second-guess his choice, he nocked the arrow and stepped out from behind the tree to loose the arrow across the distance toward the Meat Puppet that was winding up to throw another undead at him.

Seeing the arrow fly toward it, the Meat Puppet flung its arm up and blocked it from sinking into its chest. Roaring in defiance at Jim, the Puppet threw the undead in its hand at him as its arm became encrusted in frost and lost its ability to bend. Ducking behind the tree once again, Jim pulled another arrow from his quiver, a mundane one, and fired it at one of the much slower lesser undead that was trying to sneak up on him.

As the lesser undead fell, Jim managed to grab another enchanted arrow, this one with a Glyph of Explosion, and fired it at the Meat Puppet that was trying to grab another lesser undead with its frozen arm. Distracted as it was, the Meat Puppet was struck on its unfrozen shoulder, which exploded into a shower of gore and dropped the large, skinless arm to the ground as it roared in fury and was unbalanced by the force of the explosion.

Swinging its remaining arm wildly to catch itself, the Meat Puppet impacted the ground heavily and its frozen arm fractured, breaking into three pieces, as it fell to the ground.

Seeing his foe unable to stand or maintain its ranged attacks against him, Jim quickly broke into a sprint as he charged the Meat Puppet that raged pitifully on the ground and nocked another arrow.

Seeing their prey come toward them, the few lesser undead that were still close to the Meat Puppet moved to intercept him as he raised his bow and fired in quick succession at each of them.

As the lesser undead fell before him, Jim readied another Explosive Arrow and approached the Meat Puppet that gnashed its teeth at him as he came closer. Stopping outside its range, Jim raised his bow and released the arrow into the Meat Puppet’s head.

Upon impact the arrow didn’t detonate immediately and Jim was able to watch as the Meat Puppet looked confused for a moment before its head exploded in a shower of gore.

“Gross,” Jim said as he shielded his face from flying Puppet parts. “I should have stood further back.”

Looking around at the scattered undead that were still shambling toward him, many of them with mangled legs and arms, Jim raised his bow again and pulled out an arrow.

“Life Gathering and Explosion didn’t work that time,” Jim muttered to himself as he examined his notes on Rune combinations and Glyphs while a small fire flickered behind him. “Was it their compatibility? Or am I just not that skilled yet? Should I try to use Freezing and Shattering at once? Or maybe just Life Gathering?”

As the dark of night gathered like a blanket around his campsite, Jim kept his attention on his efforts to create more of his enchanted arrows as he kept a watch and prepared for the next day.

“I hope that I don’t run into any more of those Puppet things,” Jim said as he carved the Runes for a Glyph on an arrowhead. “If I see another one then I’m running unless I have the drop on it. That wasn’t worth all the trouble it caused me.”

“Should have brought some of those clay plates that they said were used to learn Rune Carving,” he said as he examined his latest work for flaws. “Then I could use them to make traps. Mines and claymores or whatever whenever things step on them. Maybe I could have used one to make an alarm system for me.”

As he muttered to himself, Jim looked up from where he sat, back to his fire and peered into the looming shadows of night that surrounded him.

“Wonder if I should look at getting a pet like Axel has?” he asked himself as he looked around for any creeping undead. “Then I’d have some company and someone to keep watch with me.”