Tom, Jay, and the Mastadonian had leaned the gate inward just enough to squeeze through and put it back in place. The Mastadonian was a huge help with his enormous strength in keeping the heavy wooden doors from falling inward while Tom and Jay entered and moved in after they had the gate held on the inside.
A series of partially completed buildings inside the walls made the place feel like a war movie scene. Sandbags were even piled up sporadically as though they had been used as a wall to hide behind. Barbed wire was strewn about as though it was meant to be a hindrance to something or someone. Jay pointed out a path through the barbed wire and buildings, but it led through a maze of make-shift traps and past spikes attached to buildings.
"We should try to go through without disturbing anything," Jay whispered to Tom.
Nodding once, Tom followed Jay as he carefully stepped over the barbed wire, his Mastadonian summons bringing up the rear. For being such a large summon, the elephantine creature moved with complete silence, as though its feet naturally knew where to step to make no noise at all. Continuing toward the main building in the compound, the three crept forward when from around the corner of a building came a hideously disgusting sight that almost made Jay and Tom cry out in shock.
A dessicated goblin and wolf rounded the corner walking slowly in a bit of a shamble. Pale green skin covered only about seventy-five percent of the goblin's body with its entrails dragging along behind it on the ground. The wolf seemed to be in better condition but still had several places where bites had been taken out of its flesh. Tom quickly tried to identify them.
Zombie Goblin:
While alive, goblins are some of the nastiest foes due to their willingness to throw themselves at enemies with abandon. Now awakened as an undead minion, these creatures do not feel pain and will attack anything they are ordered to until killed. Beware their poisonous bite.
HP: 50/50
MP: 0/0
SP: 150/150
Zombie Wolf:
While the intellect of this creature has been diminished, its ferocity has increased. It will obey its master's commands with complete disregard for its own well-being. Its bite is now also poisonous.
HP: 100/100
MP: 0/0
SP: 300/300
From behind them came a quick WOOSH WOOSH sound, and two shadowy daggers embedded themselves to the hilts in the wolf's temple and the goblin's forehead. Both creatures dropped to the ground with a thud. Jay and Tom were now hugging each other and turned to look at the Mastadonian in unison with shock and amazement on their faces.
The creature spoke in a deep bassy rumble, "Looks like you have a zombie problem here. You should attack their heads. There must be a necromancer at work."
"You can talk!?" Tom whispered loudly at the creature as his eyes became even wider with amazement.
Simply nodding, the Mastadonian affirmed the statement, "When I feel the need."
Finally understanding, the weight of what he said sank in for Tom.
"You mean, The Master may be a necromancer and that's how he is controlling people and why there are zombies here?" Tom asked becoming more concerned by the minute.
Nodding again, the Mastadonian didn't speak this time.
"What's your name? And are you the same Mastadonian I summoned last time?" Tom asked the large half-man half-elephant.
"I'm not sure that you have the ability to say my birth name. But I will tell you, for you seem honorable. My birth name is," And the creature let out a rumbling noise with a click and squeak at the end that sounded like the noises heard on a nature documentary about elephants. "But you may call me Bron. And yes, I was the same warrior you summoned last time. We formed a pact of sorts when you first summoned me. And now that you know my name, you may summon me at will instead of randomly."
"That's why I haven't been able to summon the monsters I want? I need to know their names?" Tom asked.
"Yes. Every time to summon a creature, you make a pact with it. As long as they don't die, you can summon them again with their name. If they die, you must create a new pact." Bron explained.
"Can all summons talk?" Tom asked.
"No. The more basic of creatures had simple minds and cannot give you their name." Bron explained. "You can still choose the creature you summon you know right?"
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"What?" Tom said in a much lower octave.
"You can select between random summons or specific summons. When you set the specific summons option there is a list of creatures you can summon that you can focus on when summoning the creature."
Tom immediately pulled up his menu, navigated to the skills page, and looked at his Summon Demonic Creature skill. Focusing on it brought up a new menu he hadn't seen before and sure enough, there was a drop-down with two options. Summon Random and Select Summon. Tom facepalmed at the finding.
"This is all well and good, but we need to keep moving and watch out for more zombies so we can get the hell out of here before anyone notices us," Jay interjected in a loud whisper to get Tom's attention.
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. We should get going." Tom agreed reluctantly.
How many more things had he missed because he didn't know about the System? Before closing the menu, Tom quickly scanned over the list of creatures he could summon. Abyssal Chicken, Dretch, Demonic Mastadonian, and something called an Usiku. Completely unable to control his intrusive curiosity, Tom summoned an Usiku right there on the spot.
A dark purple summoning circle appeared on the ground and Jay groaned at the delay. Black mist billowed out of the portal and sounds of the jungle could be heard in the distance as a large cat with fur as black as the night stepped through. It growled low and predatory as it looked around to take in its surroundings. It had two very large tentacles coming out of its shoulder blades that moved around protectively as its bright yellow eyes took in the scene with intelligence evident in its gaze.
It looked at Tom, cocking its head slightly to the side in curiosity, then saw the Mastadonian standing near him and moved to rub against his side with affection. It purred deep in its throat as it pressed against him, almost knocking him over with its weight. It was giant. Tom could easily ride the creature. Its long black tail swishing back and forth as it walked.
"Alright, I'll admit it. That was worth it." Jay said after seeing the beast appear.
Usiku:
This night time hunter is extremely efficient at killing its prey. Its long tentacles hide hooked barbs to hold onto its opponents while it uses its claws and teeth to kill them. It also has a psionic attack that can confuse its enemies for a short period of time.
HP: 500/500
MP: 250/250
SP: 750/750
"Damn, that's cool. He's really an adorable murder furball." Tom commented while stroking its sleek ebony fur.
The big cat's ears moved as it turned its head toward another building and began to growl. Turning to see where it was looking, shuffling could be heard coming their direction.
"Get ready. Don't let them sound the alarm." Bron instructed the pair as he readied for what was coming.
Tom equipped his greatsword, and Jay got into a fighting stance against the wall of the building they were hiding behind. He moved toward the end of the building with Tom behind him and the Usiku behind him, Bron bringing up the rear. Bron reached down carefully, pulled his daggers out of the other zombies, and prepared them for the next batch.
As they rounded the corner, the team saw that this time it was a pack of four goblins. Jay struck out and sunk daggers into the eyes of the first one, killing it instantly. The Usiku pounced on another one and tore its head off with its teeth. Tom swung at the last two, bisecting them at the waist. The two pieces of each monster fell to the ground and the top halves began to crawl using their arms toward Tom.
Bron was there a moment later stomping their heads in.
"I said attack the heads," Bron said looking at Tom.
"Sorry. I forgot. I just reacted." Tom replied sheepishly as he looked down at his sword.
"It is okay. You are still a young warrior. You will learn with time how to react. Focus on your opponent and their weaknesses every time you fight, and use this knowledge to defeat them as quickly as possible and you will grow." Bron instructed Tom as though he was teaching his son.
Tom nodded and he and Jay dragged the bodies into one of the buildings to not leave an obvious path of death to their location. Moving on, they continued to creep toward the building, getting a better layout of what was in the compound. When they reached the building they moved around trying to see inside the windows to get a peek at what they were in for.
All of the windows were covered though, so they decided they needed to sneak inside to get a glimpse. As they slowly opened the front doors, they saw a large number of zombies moving about in the entryway with a glimpse at more in other rooms. Jay silently closed the door again and looked at the others.
"No way we are going in there unless we are ready for a battle. There are too many zombies. We might be able to kill them and The Master, but there's no telling what would happen to the people he controls. It's too much of a risk right now." Jay whispered.
Frustrated, Tom agreed and they decided to head back to the guild building. Making their way back through the compound, they reached the gate and slipped back through.
"This isn't good. He's amassing an army. And anything dead is his plaything. Which in case no one noticed means there are minions everywhere." Tom said angrily after they had left the compound. "Not to mention he can control anyone with those collars on and make them do what he wants. He might use them as human shields. We can only hope he doesn't want to damage his puppets."
"It's not an ideal situation, but if we can figure out how to handle the collars we should be able to kill this fucker." Jay replied thinking about what the next steps should be.
"We need to get back to the center to figure out if there has been any progress made with the research. I'm sure it will take a few days, but hopefully, they can find something we can use." Tom said.
A caw let out from the sky as a raven was circling overhead. More and more birds began to join it as Bron looked up to inspect the strange sight.
"I think we have company," Bron commented still looking up.
"What, the birds? They are probably just looking for more corpses." Tom said dismissively.
"Take a closer look," Bron said pointing at the birds and following one's flight path with his finger.
Looking at the creature, Tom saw what Bron meant. The birds appeared to have rotting flesh and patches where feathers were missing. They looked sickly and green foam showed in some of their mouths.
"Shit, they're zombies," Tom whispered as he looked up at them.
"Well, well, well...what do we have here?" Said a voice from above them.
Looking up they saw a face smiling maniacally down at them from the top of the wall.
"Have you come to play with me?"