Sally’s eyes widened as the vampire continued to the bottom of the stairs. Had he always looked so cool? Probably - but having him turn up here unexpectedly had her undead heart aflutter.

“Who are you?” the fighter asked, some confusion across his face.

“Looks like a vampire,” the wizard murmured. The rest of the Party had all but stopped dead in their tracks, unwilling to make any movements that might draw the ire of the newcomer.

With a wide grin, his fangs catching the light, Theo swung his warhammer at the trapped zombie. The invisible cage shuddered before bursting, before sending the smell of spent magical energy through the chamber.

The fighter took a step forward, his weapon raised. “You can’t just-”

“Ah-ah.” Theo tilted his head. “Raise that blade against us and I will be force-feeding your pulped remains to the rest of your group.” The crimson electricity still sparking around his body added sincerity to his threat.

The group exchanged glances, but didn’t follow as he didn't wait around to start leading the zombie back up out of the Dungeon. Both of them were quiet and tense until they reached the outdoors, the morning sunlight bathing them with uncomfortable warmth.

“Theo!” Sally immediately jump on him and drew him in for a kiss. “Eurgh!” She pushed him back away. “I forgot how gross that is.” Arm out, she tried to rub the taste of his undead lips off onto her sleeve.

“It is a pleasure to see you, too.” He grinned and put the warhammer over his shoulder. “Thank the Architect they bought the intimidation act, as I am still only Level One.”

She stood back up straight and stretched out. “Really? Then explain… all the things. How are you here? What’s with the killer hammer? How did you find me?”

“You have friends here, right? Let’s walk and talk.”

“Gladly!” She looped her arm with his and she pointed them off in the direction of last night’s camp.

“Chuck has received a little bit of a power boost, you could say.” Theo grinned. “Classic stealing alien technology for our own purpose kind of deal.”

Sally pulled a face. “Aliens? Was there an invasion whilst I was away? That sounds pretty fun.”

“No. Just the one. He was kidnapping powerful people on Sanctuary for a living museum of sorts.”

“Oh.” She wrinkled her nose up. “Just the one baddie? I figured that’d be dealt with rather quickly. Guess you showed up and kicked their ass?”

“I had a hand in it, but Chuck did most of the work. You know how he gets if someone threatens the Outsiders. Didn’t see it myself, but Dent said he went full wrathful god on the cockroach.”

Sally whistled. “So now he has more bandwidth to send us both to the same place?”

“Better than that. Once his current project has finished, he’ll be able to send a full five-person group down to worlds.”

“A… whole Outsiders Party…” Her eyes went up to the blue sky. That was the dream, really. She had been feeling so empty without her pals around her, but being able to relive their greatest hits as a full team again would make taking worlds so much more fun.

Theo watched her as the excitement rose in her expression. “I saved a guy from my little world. Giant named Borin who had been stuck having to fight people forever. Dent set him up to manage a little plot of farmland a slight way off from the goblin village. Big guy was all tears. Makes this feel… worthwhile.”

“Soft sap,” she said, jabbing him with her elbow. “Wait till you meet my bunch of weirdos here. Explain the hammer now, Mr Punchblades.”

“We didn’t really have any blunt force damage sources in our Party, so wanted to diversify. My new permanent skill is overpowered when combined with [Novice Strike].” He lifted the warhammer down to hold it out for inspection. “About time I got a broken weapon, so I had Chuck make me this. It has an enchantment that dispels magic.”

“That’s why you could break me out of jail, huh? Does it strip magical buffs from people?”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“You know it. It’s the most broken he could get it without it being rejected by other Systems.”

She rolled her eyes knowing how much he must have pushed the Architect to get something like that made. Was difficult to wipe the smile from her face though - not only was the vampire here, but he had arrived to save her in such a cool way. Definitely earned a few points there.

“Oh, my messages are coming in now. Perhaps don’t mention that I ate a guy just yet.” She raised her eyebrows, not seeing where that zombie had gotten to. “I don’t know how I’m going to explain that.”

“I’ll take the blame.”

“Hush already.” She nudged him again.

[Poppy: Sally??]

[Poppy: Where are you?]

[Poppy: Messages aren’t delivering…]

[Sally: I am here.]

[Poppy: !! Are you safe?]

[Sally: On my way… will talk soon.]

[Sally: And Theo is here!]

[Poppy: !!!!!!!!!!!~]

“Ah nuts.” She deflated. “I forgot that I had leveled up, but have been saving it.”

“What for?” Theo tilted his head.

Sally shrugged. “I don’t even know. Sometimes the process is just… it’s nice not to be governed by numbers and stuff, right?”

“Is it?”

“What Class did they give you, fangs?”

“Class?” He pulled a face. “I just ran from the open cage all the way here, pretty much.”

“You’re supposed to… there’s like a whole ceremony thing where you get assigned a Class. Back at the Fort?”

Theo shrugged. “There were a lot of people shouting at me, so I just ran. Was difficult not to eat them up.”

She gave up. It was enough that he was here. They could work out the finer details of things soon enough. With Theo, it would speed up the process of taking over the world by a lot - even if he had to catch up or go off solo. A long sigh escaped her nose as she considered the potentially tiring day ahead.

“Let me catch you up on all the exposition for what’s happened here while we have a montage of walking through these grassy fields.” She pulled him closer and began to do just that.

----------------------------------------

Claude stood with his arms cross as he watched the two approach. “We were starting to get worried about you. Well, some of us were.”

Sally grinned as Cross ran over to her, tripping on a clump of grass and landing heavily on his face. “Puh,” he murmured into the ground.

“Is this our adopted son, reincarnated arch-nemesis, and key to fixing this world?” Theo asked, plucking the undead goblin from the ground and holding him in the air.

“Puhhh,” Cross responded as the vampire twirled him around.

“Everybody, this is Theo, my undead soulmate.”

[Poppy: Hi! >>]

The knight sunk back, her hands clasped together, while the bard and healer gave their pensive greetings.

“Oh, Poppy can only talk via Chat, but she says hi. That’s Claude, and that’s Kristov - who can only talk in rhymes. Hmm. Does your hammer remove debuffs and curses too?”

The vampire shrugged and sat the goblin on his hip. “It’s worded as ‘dispel magical effects’, so if the curse is magical in nature, maybe.”

She nodded and narrowed her eyes at the bard. A quick knock to the head might cure him of his malady, or just give him a cracked skull. With no Class or levels, Theo was just asking for trouble following them around - but his hammer had a lot of uses. They just had a full Party already.

They were probably too far to send the bard back to the fortress on his own. Poppy and Claude were both important parts of the team composition, and Cross needed to stay put so that she could keep him safe.

“I can see that look on your face, Sally Danger.” Theo placed the goblin back down on the grass. “I’m going to go level to catch up anyway, so don’t worry about me just yet.”

“Always leaving me, punk.” She screwed her face up in response. “Bet you didn’t even bring me any normal daggers.”

“Sorry. Could only bring my hammer and a ring.”

“Oh, yeah?” Sally narrowed her eyes. “Something magical or you planning on proposing?”

“A little of both?” Theo grinned. “Did you want to get System-married?”

“Yeah, sure.” She clicked her fingers. “Claude, you can officiate it, right?”

“Ah, okay? Yes, I suppose so.”

Sally yawned. “Cool. That was relatively painless.” She pulled the vampire in for a hug before releasing him with a pat. “Go level up, husband. Bring me and little Cross some daggers home, okay?”

“Consider it done, dear.” The vampire gave them all a low bow before turning and running off.

She watched him for a few seconds, before looking back at the quiet Party.

[Poppy: Was I just a bridesmaid??]

Sally rolled her eyes. “Let me hit this level, and we’ll get back into saving this world.”

----------------------------------------

The rat sat by the corner of the building, watching the footsteps of others move across the street. Shadows washed over his gleaming eyes as he waited for the right opportunity.

There - a break in the crowd.

He scampered over the cobblestone road, glancing back behind to check nobody had seen his movement. Back into the shadows of the next alleyway.

An interesting smell radiated from the house to his right, but he had to avoid distractions. There was only a limited amount of time he could perform his duty, and it had almost come undone when the wretched vampire had grabbed hold of him.

But now he was forgotten. Assumed dead when the alien ship had blown up. Ash’var was gone now. He could sense it. But, he didn’t feel sad - this was just the nature of things. Perhaps it would be his own turn to scatter to the void soon. Well, hopefully after he had completed his function, at least.

Next house along seemed good enough. A back door with a slight gap that he could squeeze into - his whiskers twitched in smelling out a storeroom. Not a larder, but something old and dusty.

Perfect for lying low.

The rat squeezed through the gap before shaking himself off. No light in here, save for the barest illumination from a small and clouded window near the ceiling of the right wall. Damp wood filtered in through his nose.

Small paws took him across the cold stone floor in search of an open box or small hole he could nestle up in for the day.

A flash of bright light froze him in his tracks as the small storeroom burst into daylight. He blinked his eyes to adjust, before noticing the figure dressed in blue robes sitting on one of the boxes to the side.

“What?” Chuck said, a tired expression on his face. “You thought that I wouldn’t find you?”