A wave of blue energy flooded around the four of them, and a sense of vertigo shifted them deeper into the third area.
Sally blinked away the blur in her eyes as she tried to adjust to the new lighting. There was always the lingering thought that it could have all been a trap—there was no way of knowing whether the Blue Team truly knew Chuck or was just trying to ply some trust onto the Outsiders for the reveal that they wanted to kill them off too. Theo had said Rachel seemed genuine though, and she trusted his judgement.
She furrowed her brow at the surroundings as the other three got their bearings. It certainly wasn’t a trap, but it was unexpected. No longer was a dense jungle surrounding them on all sides, but instead something more tropical in appearance blocked the horizon. Taller palm trees, and more sparse vegetation on sandy dirt. There was even the sound of lapping waves in the background.
Three wooden houses stood on stilts to their right, the pale wood bleached by the warm sun that sat overhead in the blue sky.
“Well,” she eventually said, “this is a lot more pleasant.”
Humphrey grinned. “Yes. To think we were so excited about jungle warfare that we have now avoided.”
“Excited.” Sally rolled her eyes. It was tropical enough, without needing to drown them in thick leaves and tripping-hazard vines. “I’m sure there’s plenty of mishap and malady we can smother over ourselves in this area.”
Lucius had his hands on his hips and was staring out behind them. “I feel good about this area already.”
She turned her head around and looked to where he was indicating. There were Monsters. They slowly clambered around an area of damp sand where it looked as though the tide had gone out some time recently. Four legs and squat bodies. She would have thought they were crocodiles if not for the gray scales and short, round face like a seal.
“They almost look too cute to kill,” Norah said as she tilted her head to the side.
Humphrey grinned. “Almost.”
Sally wasn’t too convinced. Were they supposed to just kill the first thing they saw, or was there a Quest… or… whatever Players were actually meant to do in this world? It had been so long since they had a normal adventure that the whole process felt foreign. She brought up the Map and wrinkled her nose up.
“Let’s mop these up to get our footing,” she started, “and then move closer inland. Just try to get as much experience before nightfall as we can.”
The Death Knight withdrew his sword and nodded to her. “Agreed. Seeing as we are under-leveled for this area, we should have no issue gaining levels.”
“Don’t jinx it, Humps.” She rolled her eyes, and a screaming face appeared beside Lucius.
She withdrew her dagger and dropped down from the wooden platform they were on, landing on the soft sand. “More sand,” she murmured. Although the breeze from the coastline washed away some of the heat from the sun overhead, so she couldn’t complain too much. It was almost pleasant.
Into her left hand, she plucked a skull from her belt and it burst into green flame. As the other three dropped down beside her, she lobbed the attack into the air at the closest animal. With a burst of light, it struck them, leaving a scarred patch across their thick neck and shoulders. As four zombies began to rise from the ground, it turned and immediately mulched one with wide jaws, lashing a tail around to brain a second.
Sally pouted. Her zombies didn’t do too well with the Level difference, even buffed with all their auras. As the weird Monster bit through the head of the last zombie, a sarcophagus smashed down into its skull, the bandages that had swung it going limp and returning to the Mummy.
“Sorry, hun. Hate to see a good underling go to waste.”
She smiled up at Norah. “No problem at all. It’s more fun when we fight together!” Turning her eyes back to the creature, it hadn’t moved, still laying with its head stuck into the bloodied sand. The handful of groups of other Monsters didn’t seem to mind the murder of one of their own.
“Humps, what are these called? I can’t keep using generic terms in my inner monologue, and you do not want me to name them.”
“Snubtaurs.”
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Sally exhaled through her nose. That was worse than what she was thinking, but it was too late in the day to question whether the Death Knight was pulling her leg. Either that or the Architect truly didn’t know what they were doing. She turned to Norah. “Launch me.”
Bandages wrapped around her and drew her in closer, before she was lifted up into the air. The rush of sudden vertigo washed over her as she was flung overhead and above the group of Monsters. As she went to land, she cast [Endless Dead] again, to bring up her horde of zombies. They may be weak, but they served well as a distraction and bogged down the Snubtaurs to make them easy pickings.
Humphrey stomped through the sand in his heavy plated boots, illuminating through different shades of his combat buffs. His greatsword flickered with a crimson flame as he barged through the throng of zombies to sever the head of a Monster. Lucius vanished as he shadowed Norah, and the Mummy weaved her bandages through the horde to tie up and slow down their opponents.
Within a short minute, they had destroyed the packs. Although Sally had lost a dozen zombies, half of them had been replaced by undead versions of the Snubtaurs. It didn’t do much to improve their appearance, but she wondered if she could use them to travel across water like skis. Probably not.
“There’s some more packs further down the beach,” the Death Knight said as he tilted his head. “Or we can head further east and into the more difficult parts of the area.”
“These were pretty easy.” Sally wiped the blood off her dagger. “Perhaps we can just be a mini apocalypse and kill our way through everything with the horde?”
Humphrey scratched his chin as Lucius popped back out from the Mummy’s shadow. “Yes. That does seem quite efficient now that we are in an area more populated.”
While she had been sad that Endless Dead had an apparent cap of fifty zombies, that was still plenty to get the ball rolling. There wasn’t actually a limit to how many she could create, only store away. The Wasteland had been so devoid of anything living that it hadn’t been worth keeping the shamblers around for the most part. But now… they ran the risk of becoming a threat to everyone.
And that made her smile.
“Onwards!” she commanded the undead, and they started walking slowly toward the East.
She would save [Quick Death] for a time it was more important. Slow zombies were a chore, but she didn’t want to get caught unawares with her Ultimate on cooldown. Not until they knew how threatening everyone around here was.
With a short stumble, she paused and spun around to look past her horde. Her eyes narrowed in a glare. She scoured the treeline before the shore.
“We are being watched,” Humphrey nodded as he came up beside her. “Care to investigate?”
Norah followed their gaze. “I could bring the trees down, but it wouldn’t be quick.”
Sally shook her head. She couldn’t see anyone there. Perhaps it was someone from Last Word, but perhaps not. “No, just be wary. I don’t want anyone else with a death counter.”
“About that…” the Death Knight continued as they turned to continue with the shambling undead. “Are you sure he is not making that up?”
“I am sure. It’s not his kind of humor… and we discussed it before the outpost.” She gave the sand a glum expression as they walked.
“There’s still something I feel you’re not telling me.”
Sally looked up at his empty eye sockets. “I can’t lie when you give me those eyes.” She sighed. “Remember Marius?”
“The Cleric… there are more like him?” Flames flickered around the back of his helmet.
She shrugged. “Seems so. At least that would-be assassin was.”
They walked on in silence for a moment while Norah and Lucius exchanged looks.
“Is there something we should know, Humphrey?” The Mummy placed her hand on his arm.
“Yes. It is probably ideal that we are all on the same page?” He raised an eyebrow toward the zombie to see if she approved. After she gave him a quick nod, he continued. “In the first area there was a Player who had somehow corrupted their STAR System to allow them access to things that Players shouldn’t.”
Lucius rubbed his misty chin. “Not like how Sally and Theo are part Monster, though?”
Humphrey exhaled. “It is similar, I will admit. The method to get there is different. Sally and Theo got that way through… honest mistakes of the System, where it has smoothed off the edges of their odd existence. The Corrupted have forced the change against what the System would normally allow.”
Sally nodded. There were similarities, but ultimately her zombieness and the vampire were accidents that they had to live with. The Corrupted were making the choice to steal some kind of power from the System. Usually, that sort of thing didn’t end too well.
With a shrug, the Death Knight continued. “It’s likely the poison that Theo has was part of that corruption—there isn’t supposed to be anything that deadly. Not at this stage.”
The horde ran into a group of Monsters. Large bird-like creatures with long necks and sharp beaks. While the first zombie into the fray immediately had its brains blown out by the darting mouth of the first Monster, the bird was then surrounded by four others.
Ultimately, it wasn’t that difficult for the group. Even with the level difference, they shredded through three packs of the animals. Zombies were lost, but soon topped up with Mortis Bomb or the fallen Monsters. Sally was growing quite the menagerie now. They swung through the last pack and then came to the mouth of a valley that led downward. Different Monsters moved around down at the bottom, but the sign just at the mouth of the decline caught her attention.
[Quest: Clear the Valley of Gnolls]
“Ooh, Quests—I remember these. We used to do things like this for a whole five minutes, huh?” She turned to grin at the Death Knight.
“Yes. The experience gained should put us over to the next Level.”
“Great,” she returned a wide grin. “I don’t have any good gnoll puns to use as a one-liner, so, uh…”
She wrinkled up her nose and shrugged. “Let’s go kill things?”
Lucius paused as the other three started down the slope. Turning slowly, he narrowed his crimson eyes at the surround trees. Ellipses trailed beside his head before he turned and went to catch the others up.