Or maybe it was a site of pure destruction. Corpses littered the once-empty plaza and buildings were destroyed all around its perimeter. The tower in the middle still stood tall and proud, emitting a light glow on the surroundings. The light fog was repulsed by the light just like the thick version had been and the undead seemed to take on a one-second delay as they stepped into it.

The rest of their caravan, or at least what was left of it, was fighting around the steps leading into the tower. She was too far to see perfect details, but it looked as though only thirteen of the flamboyant mercenaries were around the tower. Five more people were ingrained into the mix.

Their destination was obvious. The problem was the hundreds of corpses in between her group and the caravan. They were mainly human, but there were quite a few animals in the mix. The rotten animals moved with slightly more agility and grace than their human counterparts, though they were still slowed by the light of the tower. Or more accurately, the warding stone if Quinn had to guess.

“Well… this is going to be fun,” Atamai said, full of cheer.

Willa simply nodded and flicked her rapier behind their group. Instantly the two closest buildings collapsed as the silver aura cut through the stone like butter, blocking the path behind them and the still-approaching zombies. Atamai threw a vial over the wreckage and a familiar-looking slime coated it. “Just like that time in Vermen, no?” Willa simply shook her head, her tight ponytail flopping around as she did.

Quinn was able to convince her raging heart to slow down as she heard how calm and relaxed the two women were. It was as though a couple of hundred zombies were no big deal. And maybe it wasn't. She had heard about the dangers of the world a couple of times from Ada, but this was her first true encounter with it. Though she had been near the fog, she was never truly in danger since she was always safe in the aura of the warding stone.

The undead weren’t far in front as Atamai began to lay out a plan. “Here’s what we are going to do.” She paused and shot a wolf in the head. Its fur fell off in clumps as it collapsed to the brick floor. “We are going to move clockwise around the major groups and push through the minor clumps. Always stay in motion to avoid getting caught.”

Quinn felt that the last part was directed at her, so she nodded along. It was a fairly simple plan. Just train the big groups while fighting where they could until they reach the caravan. It was just like she used to do in video games, except the stakes were much higher. They just had to move quickly enough that it wouldn't matter if a group of zombies came up behind them.

And then they started to move. Willa led the way, thrusting twice and taking out two zombies. Atamai provided covering fire as she took out a deer charging in their direction. Quinn pulled an arrow from her quiver on the first try as they moved past a group of twenty. She felt bad about how slow she was, but she really hadn't been prepared for a battle. She swore should practice drawing arrows if she made it out of this.

They ran through a gap in two groups as Willa took care of the stragglers in the way. Quinn just barely dodged a lunge toward her, ignoring the fallen zombie as they reached a large patch of space. Quinn pulled her bow back and fired a powerful shot. The thing's head proved to have no resistance as the arrow flew through its brain and hit another one behind it, taking out two zombies that were blocking their path forward with a spray of blood.

They raced forward, nearly halfway to the tower. The space they had was slowly shrinking as the undead moved in on all sides. There was nowhere to go as not even a gap was present. So they simply had to make a path. Atamai threw a round object into a group of the undead freaks that were blocking the path forward. As soon as it made contact, it exploded in a ball of blue flames, incinerating the corpses in a blast of heat.

Willa led their group through the new gap as she stabbed the few still struggling to move. Quinn was quick to follow, ignoring the squelches as she stepped on flesh falling off their bones. "Gah!" She cried out as a bone stabbed into her foot. The other two glanced back but didn't stop moving. Not that she could blame them as their space for movement was rapidly closing up behind them.

She followed behind the duo, slightly limping as she struggled to keep up the same pace. They moved around a group of thirty as a wolf launched itself toward Willa’s legs. She simply flicked her silver-coated sword and the animal’s body was bisected from head to tail. Its momentum was entirely stopped as it separated into two distinct chunks of black meat.

That attack slowed their group down long enough for three zombies to stagger in from their side. One targeted each of them. Quinn pulled free an arrow and used it like a dagger as she stabbed it into the thing's eyeball with her left hand. Due to the proximity, she failed to dodge the undead’s last attack as it clawed up her right arm and left side. "Fuck!" She grunted as she could feel its nasty hands falling from her sides.

She could feel her blood trickling from the wounds as she pulled free the arrow with a sickening crunch. Bits of the zombie’s face splattered over hers as the arrow wrenched free.

Pain wracked her, so much so that she was having trouble focusing as she turned to the side. She turned in time to see Willa dodge and return an attack, silencing her zombie. Two more moved upon her before she could turn to help their third teammate. Atamai was having more trouble as she used her long rifle to hold back the creature’s swiping claws.

Quinn placed the arrow on her bow, putting as much strength as she could into her injured arm. She could feel more of her sticky blood oozing out of her side as she pulled back and released the arrow. It flew true as it pierced the undead in the head, dropping it right as Willa finished off her two.

Atamai didn’t have time to say thanks as they were on the move once more. Quinn struggled to keep up as she could feel the gouges on her sides opening further with each step. Her vision was starting to darken as they rounded yet another group and arrived just short of the tower. Only one last group of thirty separated the two human groups.

Quinn tried to summon her mana and cast Cleanse on the wound, but her mana felt like it disappeared. It was rapidly fading out of the wounds and wouldn't stop no matter how much she tried. It was quite sickening as her mana all just flushed away. What replaced it was a chilly air. Her body felt like it was beginning to die as the amber flowed into her in place of mana.

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She faintly saw a brilliant light as a four-circle magic appeared in the air. Its mana was dark silver as it formed in just a few seconds. As soon as it fully formed, shards of metal shot out of the circle like a shotgun, desecrating the entire group of undead. They didn’t need even a second as they took advantage of the gap and rejoined the caravan.

Her brain was starting to hurt once more. It felt fuzzy as the blood issues from her side. Like someone had replaced her brain with a teddy bear? But where had they gotten the teddy bear? Who would do such a thing to her? And that poor teddy bear. It would be all bloody and gooey. It would take forever to wash.

The people of the caravan looked worse for wear, but their position was exceptionally good. Someone in the group must have gotten good at tower defense games. What fun! What fun! She wondered if she could play too.

They held a staircase leading up to the bell tower. The staircase was rather steep, and there was a deep moat-like ridge surrounding the entire tower. It was just missing the swamp stalkers. Scale-swimmers would make the moat sooooo much better. Although she was bummed to see not a single snappy face, she was happy that the tower defense was set up in a funnel. The only way to reach the defenders was to attack through the staircase.

The flamboyance of the thirteen had been diminished quite a bit as they all took on a shade of red. Or was it green? The colors were kind of hard to tell apart as everything turned grayish. They looked tired as they leaned on their weapons and caught a breather for the short minute that the trier four magic granted. They were in a formation of two lines. Seven sword wielders on the front, five halberds, and one spear in the back. Was she seeing segregation based on length?! What had the world fallen to? If she was even in a world. Maybe this place was just a plane and not a complete planet?

The dark-skinned man was absolutely coated in brain matter and his robes were a gray mess. He actually looked perfectly calm and peaceful even though he was absolutely filthy. She would hate to be that filthy. Thankfully, she was only red and not gray. She believed she looked much much much better in red. Had she stolen Mikeal’s shirt? She could’ve sworn hers was blue.

Mikeal looked drained to death - she chuckled to herself at how funny she was - as he held his arms out and kept up a tier-four magic circle of which Quinn had no clue its purpose. She could guess though. Based on how the zombies were clumped into groups and not all rushing them at once like a fucked party, she assumed he was upkeeping an illusion to stall them. What a good boy.

Arnz, the caravan master, was breathing heavily in the back of the group. He was quite far up the stairs in the perfect spot to lead and provide support with magic. She decided; he must be the olay in charge of the tower defense! No one else had that suave power that he did.

His grandson stood just below himself. He was surprisingly clean as he was shooting with his longbow. It just wasn’t fair! Not only was he clean, but he never ran out of arrows. She was already missing… She tried to count the arrows in her quiver, but they kept trying to fly away, so she couldn’t. Why did she have to have the dumb birds by her side?!

The edge lord was sitting on the steps behind the color guard with his eyes closed. Eight daggers gently floated in the air around him. He was truly a lucky guy to be able to just sleep through everything.

Wait! Maybe he had the superpower to sleep! What a fun idea! She wished she had such a power. But it might be horribly overpowered. And she knew well the consequences of having something OP in a game. What would happen to her dreams and nightmares if she had such a power though? Would she just skip REM?! How boring.

The not-so-colorful group in the front wordlessly made way as they walked through them and up the stairs. She felt like a princess in a fucked up version of the games she played in her childhood. If children were in their childhood, did that make adults in their adulthood? But she didn’t remember getting an adult hood… she wanted a hood too! This rain was just everywhere!!

Arnz's eyes lit up, the fire covering his face, as they approached him. Was he the final boss then? Right! He was the player! “Glad to see you three made it! Thank you for the flare, Atamai. It made grouping up quite easy.”

“Don’t mention it. Where do you want us, sir?” Atamai asked as she pulled a stone from the bottom of her gun. Before Quinn could see much of the inner workings, another stone was shoved into the gap.

“Atamai with me. Supporting fire. Willa, replace the mercenaries in front as they tire. Keep a rotation up.” Arnz took a deep breath as the zombies began to approach once more. Looked like he was about to follow his player duties. “Listen up! We just need to hold it until dawn! At daybreak, the zombies should slow to a crawl! We make our getaway then.”

“Aye aye!” “Yes sir!” “For glory!” Several people shouted, but Quinn was too tired to notice who. The blood loss was getting to her and she began to lose her senses slightly.

“You alright, girl?” Arnz grabbed her shoulder with a steady grip. He reminded her of her grandfather. She hoped Arnz remembered to bring his oxygen tank. It would be no good if their player went down before the next wave struck.

Quinn faintly nodded as the pain ruined her attempts to not laugh. She started chuckling as the colors of the world shifted. Everything was a dead gray. Was she part dog? Was this how dogs saw the world? She wanted to be a husky... or maybe a wolf? No, a husky. "Bark! Bark! Howlllll!!!!"

Oh, the next wave already struck! Someone must've rushed the wave for a bit more money. The guards, who looked much worse in shades of gray, were fighting to the best of their abilities, flinging blood and gore about like it was their hobby. Truly a weird hobby... unless they were painting a picture?

Arnz looked her over like she was a wounded teddy bear. Was she the wounded teddy bear? She thought the teddy bear was in her brain… He shouted to the front of the group. “Sangomas! Serious injury here!”

Ahhh… that sucks. Poor injured person. She would hate to be them. Instead, she was… she was… who was she again? Eh, it’s not like it mattered. Knowing who you are sucked! Yay, amnesia!

The dark-skinned man fell up the stairs and approached Quinn. She followed his directions and sat on the upward stairs. He spoke with a heavy accent; every R almost rolled off his tongue in a hitching way. Maybe he was a hitchhiker? “Where are you hurt?”

She burst into laughter at his ridiculous question. What made him think she was hurt? What a silly guy… He looked kind of funny. His face seemed to drip like water. Or maybe that was the dark gray spreading in their direction? No, his face was definitely drooping.

Speaking of the dark gray, it was quite funny looking. It was wispy like fog as it took over the whole town. There were heavy concentrations of the gray fogginess around each of the attackers. Although she could barely see it because the game's view distance was trash, thin black strings led out of the attackers and back further into the town. That must've been their power cables! So the attacker was a player too?! What an interesting game! She couldn't wait till it was her turn.

Quinn heard the man without his oxygen tank yelling from the front. "Beware any injury! They seem to have poison in their attacks!" What a good player! He was definitely going to win this tower defense game! Go, team!

Sangomas snapped his fingers in front of her eyes, drawing her attention back to him. Since when had his face turned gray? Actually, why was everything gray? She could've sworn it was supposed to be something else... She looked back to the man as he grabbed some rolls of fabric from inside his flowing robes. His lips waggled like a fish, but made no sound. So she started to make the sounds herself. Flappity! Floopity! Droopity! Ah, what fun! What fun!