Pixie lead us out of the trees and into a lake of fog. Scott hid behind his shield, tucking his arms tight. Graves poked out around us in jagged angles. This is a perfect place for a skeleton to show up, not a boar.

"You sure this is the right way?" I asked Pixie.

She stopped, turning. She smiled. Then turned back. Kept on walking. Does she expect me to take that as an answer? Still, I can't see more than foot in front of me in this fog. She must be unable to see, too. She's still walking forward.

Flynn said something about this, right, don't go too far south, because death. I opened my mouth, about to say, this is a bad idea, let's turn around, but by then it became too late.

Zombie moans and skeleton rattles, out of the mist I turned to see outlines of bodies poking out of the fog, surrounding us. That's unfair. Make noise before I can see you, damn sneaky skeletons. I drew my dagger, weighing my chances of stabbing through bone. They drew closer, rotting flesh and jagged bones piling together.

I wish sledgehammer bandit were here. And on my side. I turned the dagger handle around in my palm. "Scott!" Swiveling my head, I saw Scott crouched low to the ground, shield over his head.

Hey. He needs to use mental effort for [Combat Log Management]. He has to be looking at the fight. I kicked him, a little harder than I thought was reasonable, then crouched next to him, shaking his shoulder.

He wouldn't budge an inch. Nose hair curling stench clogged my nostrils, bones clinked and rattled in my ears. I put my back towards Scott. The undead choked in on me. A pink blast rocked the ground. Dirt and stone strewn up between the gaps of the undead closing in. Body parts arced into the sky above, fog tinging pink.

The wave of undead grasped me, pulling at my clothes and limbs, tearing them. Caught in their root like grip, failing my feeble attempts at daggering. Another pink explosion rocked the ground, knocking zombies and skeletons loose. I struggled free, backing off.

Pixie ran in front of me, grabbing my hand, she pulled. I ran with her pulling me as the earth shook in front of me, pink tinged lights and corpses scattering through the obscuring fog. Pixie hand held out in front of her, a magic circle appeared. I saw a pink ball emerge in front of her. It spun off from her hand into the fog coloring the distance pink exploding with a thunder of dirt and stone.

Yes, this is magic. I thought of the dead knights and the bandits, this pink ball blasting princess sat behind Scott's shield in her carriage when I first saw her. My feet pumped into the ground, passing by reaching dead limbs as I heard Pixie's gasps and my own.

A stone structure loomed out of the fog. Through two pillars straight into a pitch dark center Pixie and I plunged, her hand summoning a pleasant pink light. We stopped, gasping. Pixie's light revealed a main chamber with small rooms to either side, and a in a corner lie a turned over stone table. I turned to see Scott running towards us.

He slowed down his gait as he entered the main chamber, turning to check for chasing undead. I looked too. Nothing there but fog. Scott approached close to Pixie, "What, what was that?! What were those? What did you do!" He jabbed a finger towards her pleasant pink light. "What are you doing!"

I couldn't tell by the low pleasant pink light, but, I think she's smiling.

"Hey, Princess." I said. "You can't just smile and say nothing."

Her face relaxed. Then, she looked at me. She smiled. She said nothing. I moved toward Scott, checking the entryway again.

"Scott. You see any boars here?"

"What is, is this magic?" Scott yelled at Pixie. "You can use magic?" Scott moved closer to Pixie, I gripped my dagger as he loomed over her pink light. "What about when Bardun got squished by Slime King?" Pixie's foot tapped against the stone as she backed off from Scott. "You didn't think that blast whatever magic would help? And this!" Scott raised both hands as if to cup her pleasant pink light. "How many torches did we go through? When we traveled through that cave, with the frogbeasts... and..."

My concerns are currently, rising. Scott's really close to Miss Princess Pixie, magic user. Also, checking outside, I can see the outlines of what I believe is an undead army. Then, on Pixie's face, the usual.

Choices are... I scanned the room. There are massive stone doors to main chamber. Pixie's pink light revealed them. Undead outside. Stone doors. Scott's yelling at Pixie about the bandits and Gilandris's death now.

He looks like he's about to shield bash her. And, thinking of Pixie, she might just blast him with a pink ball and smile over his corpse. Yeah, right, these two, they have history traveling together, so, they wouldn't, right? I grabbed Scott's shoulder.

"The doors." I tugged hard on his shoulder.

"The what...?" Scott walked with me as I pulled him to a stone door. I jammed myself against the door at once, it started to move. I saw Scott take a glance outside before he dropped his shield and joined me. We pressed the first door shut, running to the other one, moans and rattles filled the tomb as we shut the second one. I got a good look at some zombie intestines and began thinking about how I, also, have that many guts inside me. I got the chills thinking about my guts as Scott bashed the stone door with his hand.

He then took off straight for Pixie. My dexerity is Cat, whatever that means, so I rounded between the two of them with cat... cat levelness. Cat dexterity. I held out an open palm to Scott.

"Wait."

"This isn't!" He started but I interrupted him with, "Wait, just wait."

I approached Pixie's pink light, lowering my voice. I'm sure Scott could hear, but I didn't care. "Let's check the other rooms. Together."

Pixie nodded. She looked around the chamber we were in, sweeping broadly with her pink light. Looking for traps, I thought, so I did the same. I followed her through the main chamber, making a circle route around the fuming Scott who stared Pixie down and breathed heavily.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I heard some unkind remarks and various adventures of knights dying and such. I ignored those. We entered a side chamber. Pixie looped around me towards the door, leaving me a moment alone inside, her head aiming her face towards Scott.

I took a cat dexterity speed look around the room Pixie's light guiding my eyes. Caught a sparkle of red almost immediately in the corner.

Ruby bracelet next to a golden candelabra. Mine. I swiped it so quickly I forget it even existed. Had to double check my inventory just to see it wasn't a dream. If we get out of here, when, I will [Upgrade] this dagger in hopes that next time I run into an army of the dead, I can dagger it without Pixie's help. The door snapped shut, and I whirled in place.

Pixie walked straight in front of me, past me, picked up the golden candleabra and lit dwindled candle wicks with her pink light. She closed her hand, making a blue magic circle squeeze down and out of existence. Placing the candleabra back down, she turned to me.

"What's wrong with him?" She asked.

I gaped internally, thinking I could easily be an idiot and say what's wrong with you, but, I didn't end up saying that out loud. Then, I let out a startled "err..."

"I defended our lives with my magic. You only have a dagger. Scott cannot fight. Did I make some mistake?"

My hand and my forehead met each other and relief came over me like a rain cloud drifting in over the Irish... Irish peaks, cliffs, and there's a sea. Where is Ireland? Oh, yes, another world. I am in another world. This is a princess. This is a princess, I told myself.

"Pixie, um, are you, did you ever use magic with Scott around?"

She thought. Her eyebrows creased. "Why would I use magic? My knights protected me with their very lives."

"Well, it's just that I saw those explosions, the pink ones before, and they were pretty huge. Did you ever offer to help the knights in combat with that magic of yours?"

"My magic?" Her face is blank in the pink candlelight. "Me? Fighting? Fighting like a knight fights? Did Scott expect me to assist in a battle to the death, when I have no combat experience at all?"

I resisted several urges as I sheathed my dagger.

"Neither did I, before I came to this world."

Pixie gasped. "You mean, that terrible fighting, with only a dagger, you slew all those men with only a dagger in your first fight to the death?"

"I had to, they were, they had weapons. Plus Scott's skill—"

"But I saw you. You ran straight at them from out of the bushes. You had this wild grin on your face as you, as you stabbed them. Killed them," Her eyes looked down. "You killed them all. One after another. They all kept dying."

The gulf is wide here. Is it, wait, did I have a smile on my face? Am I the bad guy? Yes it was an ambush, but. Hey. Stop. Let's think about important things, like the undead and the tomb with the zombies outside. And, and Scott! Oh, Scott! And I didn't steal anything while you weren't looking, Princess Pixie, so don't ask.

Explosive thuds cracked our ears. Pixie snatched up the golden candlelabra, wrenching open the door dashing straight into the main chamber. I followed at her back, heart pumping.

The stone doors lie smashed. Scott held his shield up. I drew my dagger again, Pixie ran to his side.

Undead sauntered in like they owned the place. This thug like posse held great safety in numbers.

"Princess. Use, pinkball!"

"What?"

"Use the magic to kill the undead!"

I heard some fumbling behind me, then what I thought, it sounded like a whack. I turned, and Scott stood over the princess, shield in hand. Pixie lay on the ground, holding her head, a line of red streaming over her hand.

Scott raised his shield. I looped my dagger straight for his neck, ticking the side of his neck, throwing my arm around him to hold him back.

"Do you have eyes? Are you using those eyes?!"

My awkward phrasing reached his ears. Scott stopped struggling. I released him, crouching down to see to Pixie. Moans of the undead called from my back. My hand brushed against the Princess's cheek, I positioned her face to look into mine. Her eyes are swimming. This isn't good.

Why would you, this is, you don't bludgeon the mage! Not before an area of effect fight! Are you serious! I have a dagger, you know?!

Because I am angry at both of them for being very stupid, I whirled around.

Skeleton, zombie, zombie, skeleton. Inching in, faster than I would expect, slower than I like. I aimed for the slightly faster skeleton freeing itself from the pack.

I plunged my dagger into it's forehead. The forehead shattered. I skipped back as bones reached for me. Checking over the skeleton's body, it's, bones. Yes what was I expecting. I cutt away some fingers heading towards my throat, noticing a zombie closing in on me I kicked.

The skeleton crashed back into zombie, causing both to tangle and fall. Poor balance. I charged forward into the undead. "Pixie! Magic! Scott! The skill!"

I can't see behind me. There's two people there. Either one of which who could save my life right now. I am too busy saving theirs at the moment. I'll have to trust for the magic to come.

Until the support supports me, I'm going to kick. I kicked a zombie in the thigh, unbalancing it, it stumbled into a tangle with the advancing undead. I kicked a skeleton right in the center of it's cervix. I think. It fell to the ground, squished under the advancing undead horde.

My speed picked up. The fragile movements of the dead looked more like dolls to me, and a grin spread across my face as I bounced around the edge of the undead mass, kicking them over. Until a small skeleton ran at me.

I would say it's a midget. Half the size of the rest, big thick bones, it lunged from out of the tangled masses looping around my legs. I fell over, looking down. A broad flat thick skull. Thick bones. Small.

A dwarf. A dwarf skeleton. A speedy dwarf skeleton. Big square teeth filled the dwarf skeleton's jawline, as it opened up wide, ready and willing to bite at the center of my waist. I am not happy about this.

Then, I was on my feet. Remembering Scott and his skill exists, I saw the dwarf skeleton speeding towards me again out of the mass. [Combat Log Management] saved me. This time, I dodged to the left, watching the dwarf skeleton miss its tackle, I stomped on its head, crushing it.

"Run to me!" Pixie's voice called from behind.

I stabbed the dwarf skeleton in the spine then bailed. Scott stood there, bashing back another dwarf skeleton that must have slipped past me. Pixie stood up, holding onto her head, she held out a hand.

A magic circle, blue, wider than Pixie's whole body, appeared whirling in the air in front of her. I stabbed the dwarf skeleton's head from behind, cracking it. Then kicking it away from Scott, ducking back as wind started to blow. I dashed towards a turned over stone table, Scott running with me, we sheltered our bodies behind its tabletop. I peeked out, seeing a massive pink ball forming in front of the princess, blood running down her face with one eye closed, she aimed.

I ducked back down. Pink light filled my vision. Then a torrent of wind poured over me. For a second, all quieted, then the blastwave hit, rocking us as we tightened our muscles. Heat poured over my body, and for some reason, I felt warm and pleasant as if I had walked into the garden when I was a kid and it was all coming back to me now how the carnations smelled—

Then the body parts rained down on us. I got intestine on my cheek. Scraping it off, I pulled my shaky self over the top of the table, surveying the damage.

Throngs of tangled and splattered corpses lined the walls, and outside, more outlines in the fog appeared.

"We..." I tried to stand, failing, grasping the edge of the table. "We have to go." Pixie snatched my hand, looping my hand around her shoulders, she jammed her body into mine, pulling me up. Scott got up somehow, taking the lead with his shield. I sheathed my dagger, afraid my shaking hand would drop it.