Chapter 160
Hiding in the Stench
“RYLE! What’s the matter with you!?” Erin cried out in anger and shock. “Why would you say something so rude to someone you’ve just met!?”
“Well, it’s the truth, isn’t it!?” the blonde argued. “The only reason Sloan’s smell didn’t bother me was because my nose was getting clogged up by all the gases in the town, but I managed to catch a whiff of it when he walked past me! Besides, it’s not like you guys were exactly hiding your disgust either!”
The current argument between Erin and Ryle had risen up due to the blonde claiming that the man they were meeting had a similar smell as Sloan, along with the fact that she did nothing to hide her disgust. The others at least had the decency to try and keep a straight face, which was something Ryle was not even trying to do.
Just as the redhead was about scold the blonde again, a laugh came from the man they were meeting. This halted the arguing that was going on.
“No need to be defensive about it. I know better than anyone that I have a peculiar odor hanging about,” the man said with a smile. “Unfortunately, this town isn’t exactly the best when it comes to hygiene. No matter where you live or work, you are bound to catch some less than rosy scents from your surroundings alone. I’ve just gotten so used to it myself that I barely notice it anymore, which is why I sometimes forget to wash myself properly.”
“Maybe you should make it part of your daily routine?” Ryle asked, earning a smack to the back of her head from Erin.
“I’ve tried. The problem is that I tend to forget stuff that aren’t as important as other things,” the man said with a shrug. “Such as you guys meeting with a certain someone. Right?”
Erin and the others immediately knew who he was referring to. It seemed like either Rayleen herself or one of her closest aides had come to the town to meet them.
“That is a good point,” Erin said. “I thought that we were supposed to meet that certain person here, though. Has there been a change of plans?”
“There hasn’t been any changes. They just cannot afford to show their faces in public, meeting questionable characters. You probably understand what I mean, don’t you?” the man explained as he stood up. “If you want, I can take you to them right away. Unless you want to have a quick drink first.”
“No need for drinks. We can have those later,” the redhead said. “Show us the way, so we can go meet with our mutual friend.”
“Oh, son of a bitch!”
Everybody turned their gazes towards where the cursing had come from and saw Zeldana on her way to the bar. It seemed like she had wanted to take the offer of having a drink.
“Zel, have some patience!” Erin scolded the elf. “We can come back here later, once our business is done! Besides, we can probably find a better place for drinks anyways!”
“Hey, screw you guys, too!” the bartender shouted angrily. “I just let you walk into my BUSINESS, where people are supposed to spend MONEY, and let you lot just loiter around without spending anything! Now you want to go and throw my place under the bus like that!? Thanks a bunch!”
“...Alright, we’ll all have one quick drink, before we leave,” the redhead said with a sigh, feeling bad over using a business without actually paying. “But we leave right after that!”
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After having their drinks that were offered by the man they were meeting, who had introduced himself as Clifton, the group walked out of the bar and began to head towards the place they would meet their actual contact.
Where Clifton was leading them took them even deeper into the worse parts of Gasrick. Not only were there even fewer signs of life, but even the buildings and other infrastructure looked worse. The roads were cracked and filled with potholes, and the few street lights that were still standing didn’t shine any light. The building were also abandoned a long time ago and were showing signs of vandalism and breaking down over time. To make things worse, the gases were somehow even thicker than before, making wearing a mask an absolute necessity. It was clear that unlike the previous parts, this was the most contaminated and worst place in the town.
“And just when I thought this town couldn’t get any worse, it somehow does,” Ryle said while looking around at the surroundings. “What is wrong with this place? Is there some sort of a contest over which area is the shittiest?”
“Ryle, could you just…? Never mind,” Erin said in an exasperated voice, not even bothering to scold the blonde. “What’s the point, when you won’t even listen?”
“Come on, Erin, I’m sure she listens,” Arkay said in a comforting tone. “It’s just that she’s so quick to act that she forgets certain things.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure, Arnie,” the redhead muttered.
“Huh? Did you guys say something?” Ryle asked, proving Erin’s point and causing her to let out a deep sigh.
Meanwhile, Clifton had finally reached their destination, an old abandoned warehouse. He walked up to the front door and opened it, before turning to look at the group he was leading.
“The person you’re looking for is inside,” Clifton said. “Come on in.”
As everybody began to move in, Ryle once again picked up on a strange smell. With how thick the gases that loomed over the area were, it was a miracle she was able to smell anything even with her heightened sense of smell. However, the smell was so strong that it managed to break through not just that but her mask, as well.
What puzzled the blonde was that the smell was somehow familiar, but she couldn’t exactly point out where she had first come across it. It wasn’t until they stood in the middle of the warehouse and the door had closed behind them that did she remember what it was. She had picked up on it with both Sloan and Clifton, but most importantly it was a stench that she had become familiar with from her work as a bounty hunter.
It was the smell of rotting corpses and it was surrounding them. Ryle’s eyes went wide with shock as she realized this.
“IT’S A TRAP!” the blonde shouted as she got her whip out and got ready for a battle.
Ryle’s warning had taken the others by surprise, but the soon readied themselves for battle, too. Almost as if in response to them taking their stances, figures began to emerge from the surrounding darkness. Once they were close enough, everybody except Ryle was shocked by what appeared before their eyes.
The things surrounding them numbered in dozens, easily over a hundred. They were all humanoids of different races, ranging from humans and elves to orcs and even demonfolk. It took only one glance to tell that these people were not normal, as all of them had sickly pale gray skin and their eyes were pure white. To make it even worse, they all had parts of their bodies that were torn or cut open, yet no blood was flowing out.
It was obvious to everyone that these were zombies, the most basic of undead creatures that one could encounter in the world. Much like in popular media from Erin’s world, they were slow and had very little in terms of intelligence. While one zombie wasn’t an issue, having dozens come at you all at once was not something you could take lightly. Even if you didn’t get infected with a sickness that would turn you into one if they managed to bite you, you would still suffer from all sorts of infections, as their whole bodies were covered in filth and bacteria. Once you were slowed down by one, then the others could easily overwhelm you.
Upon seeing the numerous shambling corpses, Erin was quickly reminded of the times when she and her friends had met an unfortunate end due to underestimating zombies. She knew well enough that this was not something to take lightly, but they now lacked the weapons to fight these foes to the best of their abilities. This was a perfect trap and they had walked right into it.
Feeling angry over the betrayal, the redhead turned her furious gaze towards Clifton, only to find their guide laying on the ground in pieces. It was then that she understood that whoever was behind this ambush had even been the one controlling their contact in the town. He had been just another zombie like the rest.
“These things are everywhere!” Durge shouted as he pushed one of the undead attackers at a few others, knocking them all down. “We need to find a way to get out of here, before they manage to crawl all over us!”
“Easier said than done!” Lexton yelled in a panicked tone as he was looking around for a way out, only to find zombies everywhere. “This whole place is filled with these damn zombies! We’re going to have to fight our way out of here!”
Preparing for combat, Arkay began to ready a spell to throw at the surrounding zombies, only for Zeldana to stop him.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Don’t! Remember what they said to us when we came to town!?” the elf said. “If we us things like fire or anything else that could ignite the gases, we could blow ourselves up!”
“B-But what am I supposed to do then!?” the cat boy asked.
“Just stay behind us!” Ryle said as she pushed Arkay into the middle of their group, so that everybody was now covering him. “We’ll keep you safe, so just let us handle this for now!”
Despite feeling ashamed over his inability to help, the cat boy simply nodded and accepted his role for now. He knew that the spells he had in his arsenal wouldn’t be of any use now and might only make the situation worse.
“Alright, let’s stick together and move back to the door!” Erin instructed the group. “As long as we don’t let these guys break us apart, we can get through this!”
The others nodded in agreement as they formed up and began to move in unison back where they had come from.
It didn’t take long for the zombies to get to their prey, as they moved in to grab, scratch and bite Erin and the others, who were trying to fight their way out of the surrounding undead horde. With most of their weaponry having been confiscated, they were forced to use the bare minimum they had left to defend themselves.
Erin only had a few knives on her, which she used to slice off hands from zombies and stab them in the neck. She also used her hand to hand combat skills to keep the undead creatures at bay and especially utilized her artificial hand to deliver powerful blows to the surrounding enemies. She left her hand’s flame mechanism unused, though, for obvious reasons.
Ryle had better martial arts skills that the redhead, so she was able to deliver powerful blows to the zombies that broke necks and crushed skulls, which brought an end to the creatures that were hit. Even when she didn’t deliver a killing blow, she managed to break limbs which made it harder for the zombies to pursue their prey. She also used her whip to throw some of the undead creatures around, thus helping slow down the horde.
Durge was using his impressive physical strength to simply throw and push the zombies around, which sometimes resulted in killing them upon hitting the floor. The orc was at the front, leading the group to the exit, so his job was to clear the way. He couldn’t use it on killing the zombies, as he didn’t have his hammer with him.
While Zeldana didn’t have anywhere near the raw power that Ryle and Durge possessed, she still had some skills when it came to unarmed combat, along with numerous scalpels she could use with lethal efficiency. What was especially helpful for her was her medical knowledge, especially when it came to the structural weaknesses within the body. Using this to her advantage, she could easily dispatch numerous zombies by hitting them in places that killed them immediately. Even if the undead creatures didn’t feel pain or fear, nor did they have functioning organs that really mattered to them, they could still be killed through damaging the brain or the spinal cord. This wasn’t the first time the elf had encountered such monsters, so she was more than aware of what she needed to do.
However, while everybody else was able push back against the undead horde surrounding them, all Arkay and Lexton could do was hide behind the others and try not to get in their way. The cat boy’s spells were unsuited for the town they were in, as he could easily ignite the gases. As for the kobold, he didn’t have his trusty pistol on him for the same reason and most of the vials he had were confiscated upon entering the town. He did have two of his golems on him, but he couldn’t just use them right away. They needed to be saved for a moment where they were absolutely needed.
After what felt like an eternity of fighting against the zombies, the group finally reached the door that they had come through. Durge wasted no time in opening it and simply tore it off its hinges and then proceeded to bash a few of the nearby zombies with it. With their way outside now open, the group quickly got out of the warehouse they had been trapped in.
However, just as they were about to cheer in relief, their hopes of having escaped their ambush were immediately crushed. What was awaiting them outside was an even larger horde of zombies surrounding the warehouse. There seemed to be no way of getting away from these creatures.
“...What the hell?” Ryle asked in shocked as she was breathing heavily from the battle so far. “How are there so many these freaking things!? Did all the fart gases covering this goddamn place suddenly turn all the inhabitants into zombies or something!?”
“I doubt there’s anything natural about what’s going on here! Nothing like this has ever happened without some form of interference from actual people!” Lexton said in a horrified tone, ignoring the blonde’s fart gas comment. “The only logical explanation for this is that there is a very powerful necromancer here! They’re probably one of the assassins that have been coming after us!”
“And the kobold gets it right!” a voice suddenly called out from the roof of the warehouse, followed by the sound of someone clapping their hands.
The group looked up to see a person standing on the roof. From what they could tell, he seemed to be a young human male and was wearing a hooded jacket that had no sleeves. He had black gloves on his hands that were adorned with blue gems at the back. He also had a shaved head and a tattoos of centipedes coiling around his arms. Theses tattoos seemed to join together at some point and move up to his face, where they circled around his left eye. Speaking of said eye, there was something odd with it, as it was completely yellow and its surrounding area was dark purple in color, making it look like it was diseased.
image [https://i.ibb.co/YBKQprx/Ch-160-Pic-1.jpg]
“I’m going to take a guess and say that you’re the one behind this whole mess!” Erin said as she glared at the assassin.
“My, what an absolutely obvious observation! You truly are a wondrous mind above others!” the necromancer said mockingly as he laughed. “Just as you said, these little lovely puppets of mine were all brought here thanks to my abilities. The name is Desmond and I’m one of the top assassins under the service of Lord Golorath!”
“Keep laughing, pal. It will make it easier for me to knock your teeth out!” Ryle shouted. “How about you come down here and face us yourself!? I bet you won’t be all cocky then!”
“Now why would I do that? It would make no sense!” Desmond said in a mocking tone, like he was talking to a toddle, which irritated the blonde. “Besides, I believe in corporate world, managers don’t do the dirty work themselves. They simply make their subordinates do it for them!”
“I’ll admit that you’ve got numbers on your side, but you might not want to be so sure about your victory just yet!” Erin said. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but we’ve taken on quite a few of your colleagues already! You might have a lot of zombies with you, but if that’s all it will only be a matter of time until we get to you! How about you quit while you’re ahead and get out of our way!?”
What the redhead was hoping for was to intimidate the necromancer by bringing up their accomplishments so far. The way necromancers fought was by summoning as many servants to their aid as they needed and then letting them do the actual fighting. Their own fighting capabilities weren’t often all that great. If she could make him think that they would be able to tear through his horde of zombies easily and get to him, he might grow fearful and become easier to scare into running away.
Unfortunately, this didn’t seem to happen, as Desmond simply began to laugh.
“Do you think that’s supposed to scare me!? That’s the best joke anyone has ever told me!” the assassin said while laughing uncontrollably. “I know that you’ve already beaten six of the other assassins, but so what!? They were all fools! Nothing but maggots beneath me! The fact that you beat them doesn’t mean anything to me at all!”
While Erin was worried over her threat not working, what the necromancer had said had brought up another question in the mind of one of her companions.
“...Did he just say six?” Ryle asked. “When did we beat six assassins?”
“Now that you mention it, I can’t help but wonder about that myself,” Durge said thoughtfully. “I was there with four of them, so were the other two before I joined the group?”
“We did face one of them before meeting you, but that’s it,” Lexton said as he began to count down the assassins they had faced. “Let’s see… There was the guy who controlled animals, the muscle lady at the arena, the guy that controlled puppets and those two elf siblings. That’s five, so where does the sixth come from?”
“Maybe he counted the two elves as one, since they worked as a pair?” Ryle suggested.
“...Then he would have said we defeated FOUR, you gawking goon,” the kobold said.
As the others kept wondering about the mystery of the assassins they had supposedly faced, the one in their group who knew the truth snickered to herself. Zeldana wondered how the one assassin that had gone without notice by everybody else would react if she knew this was going on.
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“ACHOO!” a certain elf sneezed at her current job at a burger place, as she was in the middle of flipping the hamburger patties.
After getting arrested at the hotel Stacey had been staying at, Zena had been released from police custody, after high-ranking official with direct ties to Golorath’s court had recognized her as one of the Overlord’s direct assassins. Even though people like her would have normally been considered traitors facing a death penalty, Zena’s image within the court wasn’t seen in high regard. It was decided that executing her would have been a waste of time and resources. Because of this she had been released with the condition that she would never go to High Rock Peak, where Golorath and his closest retainers lived.
These conditions were more than acceptable to Zena, who didn’t feel any desire to go back to her former place of employment. All she had of that place were bad memories of being mistreated and ridiculed. Feeling relieved over not facing immediate death at the hands of her former employers, the ex-assassin had gone out to find a new way of life for herself.
However, this had proven to be more difficult than she had ever imagined. Writing on her CV that she used to work as a government killer wasn’t something that she could exactly do, which left her with a large empty spot on her employment history. This wasn’t looked at favorably by potential employers, which led to her being rejected from interviews many times. The only reason she had been able to land a job at Goldjoy’s hotel had been due to them being desperate for willing employees during an important time.
Seeing how her hopes for future employment weren’t looking all that great, Zena had decided to go to college in the hopes of finding a new career for herself. The issue was that studies were very expensive to the point that even a former assassin under the service of one of the Overlords couldn’t easily afford them. With no other choice, it was time to get a part-time job, which is why she was now flipping burgers.
“Goddammit… Don’t tell me I’ve gotten sick from this place,” Zena said to herself as she wiped the snot off her nose. “Unless someone is talking about me behind my back…”
“Hey, rookie! Quit daydreaming and keep the spatula moving!” the manager of the burger place shouted angrily. “We’ve got a lunch hour on our hands and there’s dozens of people waiting for their food!”
“I-I’m sorry, sir! I’ll get back to it right away!” the ex-assassin quickly apologized as she got back to work. “Do you want me to get rid of the ones I’ve got on the grill? I did accidentally sneeze on them.”
“Hell no! We don’t have the time for that!” the manager shouted. “Just send them out like you normally would! They won’t notice a difference! And if they do, we’ll just call it a new mayonnaise or something!”
“...The fact that this place is still better than my last job is honestly depressing,” Zena mumbled to herself with a sad sigh. “At least I don’t have to worry about my life constantly, but I still need to get my life together. I seriously hope I can find something way better, once I graduate.”
image [https://i.ibb.co/pb4jLK3/Ch-160-Pic-2.jpg]
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Back with Erin’s group, most of them were still wondering about the mystery of the sixth assassin they had supposedly defeated. Annoyed by their lack of awareness with their situation, Erin was starting to get more and more annoyed.
“Would you idiots mind and FOCUS!?” the redhead shouted angrily at her companions. “Who cares about how many assassins we have or haven’t faced!? We are facing one right now, so let’s forget about everything else and take him down!”
Realizing their mistake, the others quickly dropped their conversation and apologized to their enraged leader. With all of their attention back at Desmond, they prepared themselves for the battle ahead.
“You should have let them have their talk. After all, this is going to be the last time any of you will be able to talk to one another,” the necromancer said in a mocking tone. “Soon you will all be dead and depending on the condition I leave you, I might just turn some of you into my special puppets. How cruel of you to not let your friends share their last words with each other…”
“I’m pretty sure all the other assassins said similar things before they got their asses kicked!” Ryle said. “You’re about to become number nine on that list! Or was it eight? Seven? Who cares! We are kicking your ass!”
“Good job, Ryle. I’m sure he’s shaking in his boots right now,” Lexton said sarcastically.
“Shut up!” the blonde shouted back.
“Before we start this, can you tell us one thing?” Erin asked, ignoring her two bickering friends. “Were you sent by someone else than Golorath? We were supposed to meet someone that had ties to a person we’re working for. Did they send you instead?”
“None of us were ever sent after you. We rarely ever are,” Desmond replied with a smirk. “All we were ever told were the basic details of you all and how to deal with you. Basically, kill the others and take the redheaded leader alive. After that we are left to tracking you on our own.”
“Then how the hell did you find us?” Durge asked.
“Just a very lucky coincidence,” the necromancer said with a wide smile. “The two people that you met? They were actually known rebels that had been on our bounty board for quite some time. I did observe them for some time, which allowed me to learn that they were going to meet someone here. Sadly, before I could get them to talk, they both managed to kill themselves, leaving me in the dark about whatever operation they were taking part in.”
“So that means you had no idea we were coming,” Erin summarized. “And that you don’t know who we are connected to. Is that it?”
“Exactly! But that is going to change very soon!” Desmond said happily. “All I need is just one or two of you alive to squeeze the information I want! The rest of you can face the same fate as your contacts!”
“...We’ll see about that,” the redhead said as she narrowed her eye and pulled out a new knife.