The fight had not gone unnoticed.

Rolly and Squirmie were not yet to the village when Suzette's first spell lit up the pre-dawn darkness. They raced back up the road and arrived as Layla was trying to keep Suzette alive. Rolly threw himself into the effort of healing her, pouring his own stamina into her, feeling her first healing, and then fading away as the poison and bleeding took their toll. The huge gash across her back slowly started to close as he fought against the bleeding. It was still touch and go because of the poison in the wound, but eventually, after three thousand points of healing were applied, it started to heal, and she began to regain some health.

Layla had cleaned the wound over and over, using strips of cloth torn from her dress to remove the blackened blood that kept seeping out. The cloth smoked and smelled foul. It also made her feel sick and she saw her own health going down slowly, but she kept at it. She was surprised when she got the announcement that she had gained the skill: Minor Poison Resistance. She asked Suzette about it when they got her to the ACME building and made her comfortable.

"I picked up minor poison resistance from helping you. Just touching your wound made me ill and I got the skill after a few minutes. Did you get it as well?"

Suzette giggled, half drunk at this point on 'Medicinal Brandy'. Billy had run to the tenth floor for a bottle, Ozzy having drank everything on the first floor. "I had the skill already at rank 7 from Rolly making me choke down sedge beast for lunches. You should try it - truly horrible. Maybe it was not dying to a stronger poison? And trust me, whatever that big ghoul had on his claws was strong. I was negating 40 points of poison damage each round and still dying from it."

Layla considered her own health. Even with the huge chunk ACME managers started with, she wouldn't have lasted so long. How the girl had managed to stand up and hurl spells at the end of the fight was beyond her. How much had that hurt?

Seeing the fight up close and personal had been an eye-opener for her. Things went much faster than she had imagined, and the violence had hit her emotionally as if it was real. And Ozzy had terrified her more than the huge ghoul. The Butcher had been radiating fear and intimidation in waves, making a little voice in her head advise: "It's a monster! Run!" At least they had been on the same side as the monster that won the fight.

Layla was recognizing that there were many types of power in this world. She and Billy had power from their position in ACME, and some growing political power as Baron and Baroness. But she was deeply jealous of the sheer personal power some of their 'underlings' were attaining. That monstrous ghoul had laughed at her and Billy and scoffed at them ruling the city. She hadn't been able to do a damn thing about it, except get angry and even more frightened.

And then Suzette had punched holes in it with beams of light and Ozzy had stood up from the dead and split the thing in two. She wanted that kind of power. She'd seen Suzette pick up the carcass of an animal that had to weigh a half ton and pack it over to be butchered. That casual sort of strength was intoxicating to her. No wonder some players would grind for hours a day to increase their skills.

Hanging from her belt were the two light cleavers that Ozzy dropped. She planned on using them every day she could to start the process of getting her own power. Billy could come along with her, or he could start polishing her boots.

Further proof that her contract workers were on a path to power showed up when she checked her notifications. She normally kept all the in-game messages turned off and only checked things now and then. That was going to change from now on. She was glossing over information, and information was a form of power. Hadn't Billy mentioned his suspicions about Ozzy and Suzette's backgrounds in other games? They were figuring things out in this world now. She needed to listen to them more. She wondered how bad sedge beast really tasted.

Being on the winning side against Bone Gnawer had certainly been beneficial. She understood better how the workers were attaining their special skills. But it certainly wasn't an easy method. How many things like this had they fought?

The Terrifying Power of the Carrion Ghouls has been dealt a Mortal Blow!

Long have the carrion ghouls controlled this part of Hungrytown, opening the oldest graves to free the undead, or to eat the corpses within. While other ghouls are slaves to their stomachs, Bone Gnawer was a crafty craven, hiding from Mama Laveau and preying only on those weaker than itself - especially when prey was weakened by its pack of lesser ghouls.

You may claim a Large Favor from Mama Laveau the next time you visit.

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Your group of heroes has slain Bone Gnawer, a Level 12 Epic Boss. Each member of your party earns 10 Enhancement Points and 1000 experience.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Each member of your group has also earned the option to buy the skill: Strike Undead for 5 Enhancement Points. This is a skill that increases your damage against undead with physical melee attacks, physical ranged attacks, and magical attacks that use force, radiance, or fire.

Choose either RAD or STR as the governing stat for this skill.

Additional Damage: 10 points per rank of Strike Undead + 5 points per point of RAD or STR.

Cost: Stamina or Mana equal to half the amount of additional damage done.

Billy was having similar thoughts. Being laughed at by a pile of rotten meat had infuriated him, and there hadn't been a damn thing he could do about it except stick cross-bow bolts into its tough hide. He bought the skill Strike Undead without a second thought. Hungrytown took up a quarter of his city, and it wasn't the only area with undead roaming the streets. He wasn't going to be laughed at the next time he ran into a ghoul. Or at least, not as hard. He had seen Layla pick up the Butcher's cleavers and suspected he wasn't the only one who felt that way.

Suzette swirled the brandy in her glass, smelled it, and poured it down her throat, "Dammit, this stuff is weak as fruit juice."

Rolly covered his face with his palm, "Squirmie, you weren't supposed to let her know, dammit."

Suzette collapsed back into her chair, "Piss off bug, Rolly is right, I don't need more alcohol. It won't help. He'll either be back in a day or so...or he won't. The last time we walked back from death it was quick, but Hades warned us it wouldn't always be that way."

Rolly was relieved that he didn't have to try to dodge her spells. They burned, and she hardly ever missed, no matter how much he dodged, "Don't worry about Ozzy, he's tough and he seems to get along with Hades. He'll be back quickly."

"Not quite what I'm worried about. He's been training in Smoke Magic with Joe, and in that fight he looked like he was made of smoke and fire. He didn't so much die as he just blew away. I'm worried he's off somewhere now trying to learn his magical smoke ring spells or whatever Joe has been teaching him. How long does that take?"

"Something to ask Joe, maybe? I'll go talk to him. It could take Ozzy awhile if he has to do a whole semester and he makes the smokeball team. " Rolly got up, and Squirmie flew to his shoulder.

Billy stood up, "Why don't we all walk you home? Layla and I could use a bit of tavern food. And you could use some days off, Suzette. You had one coming from the Sphynx job, and your normal day off. Grab two more and relax a bit. Hopefully Ozzy is back by then. Layla and I will stay at the inn and help out." Billy was actually happy for a chance to walk down to the village. He needed to take a look at it with fresh eyes - not blinded by the city.

Layla helped Suzette out of the chair, steadying her, and taking her by the arm, "Or, as an alternative to taking time off, you could throw all of your anger and frustrations into chopping up meat and killing things. We can drink up all of Billy's alcohol while we earn some butchering points and gain some muscle." Layla had enjoyed the day of hacking and slaughter, but was hoping for more people than just herself in the group.

Suzette considered that. She wasn't going to sleep well at night with Ozzy gone, and had planned to spend some time working on Hermetics. But there was no reason she couldn't do butchering for 8 hours and then a night of practice in Hermes realm. Training hard felt like a better idea than just moping around waiting for Ozzy. "Sure. Let's do that. And I'm in the mood to do a little hunting in the Beastwoods. We can hold off on the Menagerie until Ozzy gets back. I don't relish taking on a tier 3 dungeon without him. The lesser chimera will be good for you and Billy to practice your skills on."

"But does our illustrious Baron have anything left in his wine cellar?"

Layla laughed, "Not a drop at this point, but we can send our friendly local courier on a booze run to the keep."

Rolly was a quieter than usual, "I want to kill some ghouls. Maybe we'll get lucky and that big one will come back somehow. He needs more killing." Billy and Layla shared a slightly panicked look but didn't back down when Suzette and Squirmie agreed to a ghoul hunting trip.

Billy was immediately interested, as was Layla, "We're in. Call it our sense of civic duty to clean up the town. And if someone owes me a favor, I want to go collect. Who is Mama Laveau?"

No one knew. Squirmie had an idea though,

Everyone looked at the bug,

Rolly scratched her head, "That's why they made you Fearless Leader."

The five of them walked back to Sedgewick as the sun was coming up, each acutely aware of the heavy bag that no one could lift sitting in the middle of the road.