Alejandra’s heart rate skyrocketed.

“Shit,” Mr. Anderson said, grabbing Derek, Rafael, and Tyler, pulling them behind him.

Rafael turned to his character, alarmed. “Ezekiel!”

The spiritual book rushed past them, missing the deer wildly. One deer stumbled toward the group, groaning.

“Get away!” Señora Florez shouted at the deer, standing in front of Hazel and Alejandra.

There was a howl, and the group turned. A zombie wolf stumbled forward, baring its rotten teeth. Its fur was matted and bloodstained, a deep, dull white glow in its eyes.

“Well shit. How many of these creatures did that wight turn?” Tyler asked. The wolf tried to snap at Tyler, but he jumped back. It actually tried to attack Tyler.

Mr. Anderson held out a hand, still trying to make himself the bigger target. Clarissa ran with her flame blade, ramming it into the wolf’s body. It shrieked, but not the usual shriek of a living animal. This was a groan escaping from a rotten esophagus.

“I have eyes on two deer and a wolf.” Tyler lifted his two arms to keep tabs on the zombies. “Does anyone see any other creatures?”

Alejandra shook her head, too terrified to say anything. Thankfully other people spoke in the negative.

Mr. Anderson grabbed Rafael and pulled him toward him right as something large landed where he once stood.

“Rafael!” Alejandra and Hazel screamed.

It was a mountain lion, zombified. The once golden fur was matted, rotting off at the joints of its shoulders and thighs. It turned, growling at Mr. Anderson and Rafael. Mr. Anderson gave it a firm kick with his foot. The mountain lion shrieked, some of the bone in its skull caving in, but it didn’t kill it.

Evelyn let out a scream that cut across the desert. Everyone turned to her as she scrambled back.

“Ev—” Mr. Anderson was cut off as she leapt onto his back to get off the ground. “Evelyn, what’s going on?”

“Tarantula! Tarantula! Tarantula!” She was flailing around too horribly as Mr. Anderson stumbled back. Tyler grabbed both of them to keep them in one spot. Evelyn covered her face and screamed. Alejandra noticed the large tarantula on the ground, zombified with the rest of them.

Señora Florez shuddered. “The wight’s been busy.”

Milo turned his cannon on the wight and shot. The wight barely side stepped the blast, turning toward Milo and giving a smile that inspired dread.

Faster than Alejandra could catch, the wight slashed Milo across the stomach. Milo gasped, trying to stop the blood when he reached to grab Milo’s throat. A golden protection knocked the wights hand away, causing a bit of its flesh to hiss. The wight growled at Ezekiel.

Time stood still, and Alejandra heard the chaos around her. There were zombie creatures coming after them, but they needed to kill the wight first. She chose her great axe and rolled. Six. A miss. She mentally chose action surge because they needed a hit.

The d20 landed on an eight, which made her hold her breath. Would it be enough with the +6 bonus she got for the great axe?

The d12 showed up, and she let out her breath. Ten. Ten was superb. The +4 would be what they needed.

Time resumed, and Hraktar came down hard on the wight’s head. The wight sidestepped it, but did not expect Hraktar’s second attack. Black liquid oozed from a deep cut, and the creature’s left arm hung uselessly at its side. The wight snarled at the fighter, and he snarled back.

Alejandra tried to focus on the fight with the wight, but the zombie deer gave a decomposed bleat as it scampered toward Hazel. She backed away, with Señora Florez pulling her away from danger. Señora Florez searched the dark horizon for the van. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

Derek shook his head. “Not with that wight still standing.”

Grizzizzik ran next to Clarissa and slammed his rapier into the zombified wolf. Despite its haunches getting a beating, the wolf was still alive, a gravelly pant coming out of it.

A zombified desert fox stumbled into the light, trying to snap at Señora Florez.

“How many of these things are there?” Mr. Anderson still kept a hold of Evelyn as she was in no state to be set down. Not until that tarantula was an unrecognizable pulp.

Ezekiel once again clasped his medallion and said a quiet prayer. His hand warmed with light before flying out of the medallion and smacking into the undead earth creatures. She tried to see where they had all gone, to keep track of the zombified earth creatures, but there were too many. To her delight, once the light hit, many of them shrieked and tried to get away. The mountain lion still eying Rafael stumbled back.

The spiritual book zoomed back into Ezekiel’s hand. “Leave them to us.” He brought it down against the wight’s head. It shrieked again, more black liquid streaming from its wounds.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Clarissa slammed her flame scimitar against the wolf. “We’ll start with this creature.” The wolf shrieked, but as soon as Clarissa brought the scimitar out, the creature snarled at her, no longer trying to escape.

Milo pointed his cannon again at the wight. The blast of energy sparkled past the creature, and he snarled with delight before slashing at him. Milo thought he got out injury free until he noticed the nasty cut across his arm. Alejandra winced as Milo’s hit points dropped to three. Once again, the wight tried to grab the mana fusor’s throat, but another shield of light knocked the wight’s hand out of the way.

Alejandra grabbed the d20 as soon as it appeared. She shook it good, hoping for a nice number. It landed on a fifteen, and she let out a sigh of relief.

The d12 landed on a one, and she grabbed it again, pumping her fist as it landed on eleven. The +4 was always a welcome relief.

Time resumed, and with a final grunt, Hraktar slammed the silver great axe into the wight’s throat. It didn’t have time to shriek. The ghostly eyes went out, and Hraktar pulled the axe out as the wight collapsed to the ground, dead.

“Alright, everyone focus on those earth animals.” Ezekiel pointed to the creatures surrounding Alejandra and her friends. “We cannot let them escape, and they must be destroyed! Does anyone else have spells that do radiant damage?”

Milo patted Ezekiel’s shoulder. “It’s all on you, buddy.”

“We’ll get them down enough for you to bring their souls to peace,” Clarissa said.

Alejandra noticed Evelyn, still sobbing and hyperventilating. Tyler and Mr. Anderson were trying to comfort her, but she was in a bad state of panic.

Grizzizzik tried to hit the deer zombie but missed. Ezekiel held out a hand toward the wolf, and a beam of white fire exploded out of his palm, completely missing the wolf. Ezekiel raised his hand, blinking. “Right. Um… my bad.” He lowered his hand again and tried again, this time smacking the wolf in the stomach. It let out a growl before collapsing to the ground, dead. “Got it.”

Clarissa slammed her flame sword on the tarantula, and Evelyn’s feet finally touched the ground. There were about four people between her and the arachnid, but she refused to look. The zombie spider was cut in half. It stilled before half of its body crawled toward Clarissa, the four rotten legs trying to function without the other pair.

Milo stepped forward with his cannon, pointed it right at the spider, and gave it a blast of so much energy, it should have killed the thing. Instead it shuddered, more of its exoskeleton shredding away before again crawling toward them. Evelyn shrieked.

“You’re alright. You’re alright,” Mr. Anderson said.

“Oh my god. I can’t watch.” Evelyn kept her eyes closed, clutching Tyler’s shoulder.

“It’s focused on them. It’s not coming toward you.” Tyler tried to pry her fingers off his shoulder, but he struggled against her grip.

Time slowed down, and Alejandra chose the great axe. The die landed on a seven, and the +4 had to mean something.

Hraktar lifted his axe and brought it down on that tarantula. It mushed it to a pulp, and Hraktar lifted his axe, giving a nod of approval. Until something cracked, and part of the pulpy spider snapped back to place, continuing to crawl toward Clarissa.

“Are you serious?” Derek shoved his hands in his hair. “That thing will not die!” Evelyn whimpered, covering her ears as Mr. Anderson shot Derek a dry look. Derek’s eyes widened. “It’s going to die. It’s absolutely going to die.”

Grizzizzik poked it with his rapier, and the tarantula lost another rotten leg, but it still tried desperately to get to Clarissa.

“Seriously? That’s all you could do?” Milo asked.

Grizzizzik kept an eye on the tarantula, a slight smile crossing his lips. “I’m absolutely fascinated by the thing’s tenacity.”

“Now is not the time,” Ezekiel said. “People of this realm get behind us. I’m about to wake them all up from their trance.”

Alejandra didn’t need to question it. All of them clambered behind the characters as Ezekiel walked forward, a pure white light gaining in power. Ezekiel lifted his head. “Peace.”

The light smacked all the zombified animals, some of them getting hurt worse than others. The tarantula finally collapsed, no longer moving.

“It’s dead,” Tyler said.

Evelyn shook her head. “It’s still there, though. Isn’t it?”

“Um, yeah. But definitely dead,” Tyler said. She whimpered, moving as far away from the others as possible.

Ezekiel lifted a hand at the mountain lion, trying to hit it with sacred flame, but the zombified creature dodged it. From the remaining light, Alejandra could see four zombified creatures left. Two deer, a mountain lion, and the desert fox.

One deer tried to slam into Grizzizzik, but he dodged the creature. Clarissa drove her flame blade into the deer’s rotting flesh, and it shrieked. The mountain lion tried to take a bite out of Ezekiel, but he dodged it well enough.

Milo aimed his cannon and his crossbow at the deer and the mountain lion. A bolt stuck into the deer, as a blast of energy smashed into the mountain lion’s face.

Alejandra grabbed the d20 and gave it a roll, disappointed when it landed on a three. But then completely surprised when a d12 popped up. These guys had a terrible armor class.

Once Alejandra rolled nine damage, Hraktar grabbed his axe and slammed it into the second deer. It shrieked, but the broken rib cage snapped back into place.

“This is getting insane,” Mr. Anderson said.

Derek shrugged. “It’s always been insane.”

Despite the deer getting smacked by Hraktar, it instead bowed its head and shuffled forward, smacking into Ezekiel. Whatever intelligence these creatures had, they could tell Ezekiel was the guy to take out, though his hit points remained the same.

Grizzizzik dove his rapier into the fox, who let out a bark. The fox took the hit before slamming into Grizzizzik. Which is when Alejandra noticed no one had touched Grizzizzik. The eight hit points he got from Clarissa ages ago finally flickered to three, but he did not look hurt at all.

Ezekiel grabbed his medallion again, closing his eyes. “Peace.” The light glowed, pushing toward the creatures. The first deer slammed into Ezekiel. His hit points dropped to eight. Ezekiel started gasping, blinking as he touched his head.

“Ezekiel?” Clarissa asked.

He didn’t answer. Clarissa strode forward with her flame sword, giving a wide swipe and completely cutting the deer in half. The two halves collapsed, no movement. Another zombie dead. Clarissa touched Ezekiel’s shoulder. “Answer me. What’s wrong, my cleric?”

He didn’t answer, simply moving his other hand to massage his forehead. With a pounce, the mountain lion whacked Ezekiel, causing him to fall over.

“NO!” Clarissa shouted.

The zombie mountain lion took a bite out of Ezekiel’s neck, and the cleric sputtered, blood pooling.

“Shit!” Rafael started backing away, panting. “I rolled a three. The last time they asked for a nature check and I rolled low—”

There was an unearthly, guttural growl, and it was coming from Ezekiel. The cleric kicked the mountain lion off him, and the creature went flying. Alejandra gasped, backing away with everyone else.

“Is… he still a cleric? Can he still cast radiant damage?” Hazel asked.

“No.” Rafael stared at his character with wide eyes. “No, he can’t.”

Ezekiel’s eyes gleamed green. His nose was more pointed, his front teeth longer, but sharper. A chunk of his hair came out as he snarled at the mountain lion.

“Well, shit,” Derek said.