Talia smelled salt on the wind.

She had long since lost track of how far she’d traveled. To her, the only thing that mattered was the next sign. A bone here. A hunk of necrotic flesh there. Sometimes, there were miles between each clue, slowing her search to a crawl. When she was forced to cover so much ground, it didn’t matter how fast she could run.

But still, she continued, never stopping even for a moment. She didn’t rest, and fortunately, her undead body didn’t require it. Nor did she need to eat or drink. Starving was uncomfortable. So was dehydration. But she could endure it all the same. Her body had progressed to the point where biological processes were irrelevant. So, she didn’t allow herself to be distracted from what really mattered.

The hunt continued.

Follow that trail was frustrating, but her commitment would not allow her search to be derailed. Not by something as simple as tedium, at least. More difficult to overcome were the various monsters she had been forced to fight along the way. From murderous wasps to hulking lizard creatures, she had killed them all. And over that time, she’d reaped her rewards, gaining a handful of levels that progressively pushed her closer to the peak.

But her journey was coming to an end.

She could feel it in her still heart, and she could sense it in the clues she’d found. Most notably, the still-moist piece of rotted flesh that was the most recent indicator that Micayne and his undead thralls had come this way. She jabbed it wither her clawed finger, listening as it squelched. Talia had no idea what sort of creature it had come from, but she could feel the necrotic energy it held.

After a few seconds, she stood and looked around. The latest biome was that of a coastal plain riddled with marshes. That came with its own problems. Not only was the terrain difficult – one wrong step would see her mired in the thick mud – but many dangerous creatures lived in such an environment. She’d already had to kill many such monsters, and she didn’t want to draw any further attention.

Glancing at the overcast sky, she tried to determine the time of day. It was almost impossible. Ever since arriving in the bog-ridden lowlands, the thick cloud-cover had obscured the sun, moon, and stars. The days were gray, but the nights were pitch black to the point where even she had difficulty seeing her way.

Worse, with that darkness came a series of truly terrifying monsters that preyed on travelers. Characterized by floating lights, the things were otherwise obscured by shadows so thick that they were impossible to see. Even Talia couldn’t make out their shapes. But she’d seen them at work only a few days before, when one had fallen upon a hairy creature she’d identified as a swamp ape. The thing wasn’t a person, but it sounded disturbingly human as it was wrapped and darkness and dragged into one of the bogs.

Since then, Talia had kept her eye out for the unidentified hunters, but fortunately, they’d left her alone.

So far.

She didn’t think that would continue, so she resolved to get through the area as quickly as possible. With that in mind, she continued on her way, searching the region via a tight grid that would have taken months for a normal person to cover. With her speed, she managed it in days. In that time, she caught sight of the bog lights on multiple occasions, though she’d never gotten close enough to identify them. From afar, the gently bobbing globes of illumination were mesmerizing, but she could recognize that was the point. More than once, she saw other swamp creatures wander toward the lights and pay the price, cementing in Talia’s mind that there was some sort of skill at play.

Either way, she had no interest in experiencing it, so she stayed far away.

She almost managed it, too. She was kneeling beside a bone that was teeming with necrotic power when she felt a tug on her mind. Before she even realized what was happening, she followed it. The moment she turned her head, Talia’s thoughts went fuzzy, so she didn’t even react when she saw one of those lights bobbing in her direction. For a long few moments, she just stared as it drew ever closer.

In the back of her mind, she knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t through the fog to figure out precisely what the issue was. Gradually, the thing came closer until a mass of darkness hovered over her.

“Come…”

It was a sweet, unthreatening voice, and Talia could see no reason to refuse. She pushed herself to her feet and followed. One plodding step at a time, she staggered after the thing until her feet sank into the bog. In seconds, she was up to her knees, and a few moments after that, she’d managed to mire herself up to her chest.

That was when something latched onto her leg.

Pain lanced up the limb, followed by a numbing sensation that should have overtaken her in seconds. However, due to her unique nature as one of the undead, it wasn’t nearly as impactful as it should have been. In fact, it ended up jarring her out of the malaise, and even through the lack of emotions that clung to her mind, panic set in.

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Because she could finally see one of the creatures.

It was thin. Unnaturally so, reminding Talia of a wight, though without the bulbous belly characteristic of the undead variant. The arms were a little too long, and the legs rose a little too high, creating a shape that was too far removed from the norm to be truly humanoid.

But that wasn’t what sent a chill up Talia’s spine. No – she had seen many oddly shaped creatures over the course of her life. What truly disturbed her was the thing’s face.

Perched on a long, spindly neck was the face of a beautiful woman. With pale skin, wide, innocent eyes, and plump lips, it was the sort of visage that would have drawn attention even among the notoriously haughty elves. Yet, it was all wrong, and not just because it sat atop such a monstrous body. The hair – long and lustrous – floated about the face like the thing was submerged, and trickles of bright red blood emerged from the corners of its mouth.

Then, it locked its wide eyes on Talia’s, and the second it detected that she was no longer under its spell, the thing opened its mouth to reveal sharp, shark-like teeth.

It screamed.

Talia’s eardrums burst as her mind went blank. By the time she recovered only a second later, the thing had already latched its teeth onto her neck. It ripped a chunk of flesh away, then seemed confused when no blood gushed out. Talia wasn’t going to let that moment of confusion lapse without a response, so she lashed out with her claws. She swiped a half-dozen times in the space of a second, but her claws were incapable of penetrating the thing’s rubber skin.

But that was okay.

She had other tools at her disposal.

Her Will surged forward, and the thing once again shrieked as Talia spewed [Bone Rot] from her gaping mouth. [Flood of Death] came next, slicing into the creature with pure necrotic energy. It tried to retreat, but even as Talia’s mind struggled to piece itself back together, she moved on instinct.

The thing couldn’t escape, and she buried it beneath a tidal wave of death. Her claws were still incapable of getting through its rubbery skin, but her other abilities were more than up to the task of bringing it low.

Soon enough, the thing went down in a heap of too-long limbs. Talia yanked herself out of the bog, pulling herself free one inch at a time until she finally found dry land. There she lay for a few minutes until she saw the glow of another light.

Then another.

Before she could react, she was surrounded by dozens of the things. Before they could act, she yanked a vial from her pocket, pulled the cork, and downed the contents. A surge of vitality enveloped her, healing her mind and body until she felt entirely intact.

A second later, she was on her feet and ready for a fight. Talia wasn’t certain if the creatures suddenly recognized the danger or if they were only reacting to her attacks, but they immediately tried to flee.

They didn’t get far.

Normally, they were the predators, but now Talia was the hunter. And she didn’t rest until every single one of the things had fallen. It was a curiously dry battle. Aside from the muck that came from the bog itself, there was nothing to suggest she’d just slaughtered a dozen monsters. No blood. No guts. Their rubber skin prevented that kind of thing. But she had the kill energy to prove that they were all dead.

However, Talia had no interest in sticking around to fight more of them. So, without further delay, she continued her search. The only difference was that when she saw any other creatures, she no longer adhered to the live-and-let-live philosophy. She ruthlessly hunt the things down without pausing in her search.

And eventually, she found her way to the edge of the bog-strewn region. It took her another few hours before she found an additional clue, which led her to another. And two days later, she finally reached what she suspected was her destination.

The sound of crashing waves heralded her arrival at the coast, which she confirmed only a few minutes later when she crested a hill and saw the edge of a cliff. Beyond that was the roiling ocean.

The body of water looked like it was under the effect of a hurricane, and Talia had the horizon blurred in the distance, making it difficult to distinguish between the slate-gray sky and the similarly hued water.

However, Talia’s attention was firmly locked on something else. On a craggy island a mile from shore stood the ruins of an old castle. It was still mostly intact, its tall spires reaching high into the gray sky, but there was enough damage to establish that it had long stood abandoned.

At odds with that impression was the certainty that it was occupied. Even if she was incapable of feeling the deathly energy enveloping the structure, she couldn’t miss the ambulatory skeletons patrolling the walls and manning the turrets. One, in particular, drew her focus. It was larger than all the rest, and it practically glowed with power. She didn’t need an inspection ability to know that it was a peak-level creature for the realm.

Then, she saw another.

And another after that. In only a few moments, she noticed nine such entities standing guard against an invasion they had no reason to expect.

The island was connected to the mainland by a long, crumbling bridge. It stretched from short to gate, playing host to even more skeletons, though these were the lower level sort.

Finally, around the tallest tower swirled a cloud of wraiths. From such a distance, it was difficult to distinguish between individual entities, but Talia had enough experience with the creatures to recognize that there were at least fifty of them. Probably many more than that number.

For a long time, Talia stood on that hill and watched as she searched for an answer. Her instincts told her to rush in, kill Micayne, and be done with the whole thing. Yet, she was self-aware enough to recognize just how bad of an idea that would be. She could fight against a peak-level monster, but against so many? She would die if she attempted that battle.

On top of that, she didn’t really know how to kill Micayne. According to everything she understood, he would possess a phylactery that housed his soul, but there was no guarantee that it was within the castle. For all she knew, the necromancer himself wasn’t even there. She only had the necrotic trail to point her in that direction.

So, after observing for a little longer, she retreated. Now that she knew where the trail led, she would report back to the tower, gather her allies, and, with Zeke beside her, come down on Micayne with the full force of their armies.

Fortunately, the journey back would be much quicker. Familiarity helped, but not needing to search for clues made the biggest difference. She poured on the speed, racing across the landscape and dreaming of what she intended to do to Micayne.