“Well, this isn’t good,” Hypatia said.

“Fall back!” Jeanne said as they rushed back out of town. The ground, soaked in blood made it hard to gain a good purchase as they raced back. Jeanne felt the wind of one of the fiends try to slash at her back. The scent of the creature hitting her nose as she pushed herself forward. She heard a sharp whoosh of the wind as the arrow flew past her and struck one of the undead in the head. The other two stopped as Jeanne saw the rest of The Wolves arrived to the fray.

As Jeanne turned to face the creature behind her, she felt its claws dig into her stone skin, ripping through and cutting into the flesh. Another of the undead sunk its claws into Benkin’s armor, ripping some of the armor off and slashing into his skin. “You right bastard!” he cried out as stepped away from the fiend.

Gabriel lunged forward with her spear in hand, the first thrust missing the creature near Benkin, landing the spear tip deep into the shoulder of the fiend, twisting hard and pulling the weapon out. Benkin, blade in hand, swung towards the fiend’s head, striking the head on a second strike, cleaving the skull into two.

Jeanne noticed the fourth undead rushing up the side of a house. “Someone get that bastard!” Jeanne shouted pointing towards the climbing undead.

“On it!” Silvius replied, firing his crossbow towards the creature. He loosed a bolt into the fiend’s shoulder, it stayed on the wall, turning to him and hissed menacingly. “Well that’s not good,” he said, sinking his head into his neck.

Leonidas training his staff towards the undead near Jeanne, cried out, “Get away from her!” As a stream a green fire shot out and engulfed the creature in flames. It screamed as Kveldulf slashed deep into the side of the undead. Cid cleft deep into the left shoulder of the undead, the side now hanging loose from the rest of the body.

Maeryn notched her arrow and loosed it towards the one climbing up the building. It struck the creature in its arm, sticking the limb against its torso. The third undead rushed to the building on the other side of where they all were. Sinking its claws into the wall and preparing to climb it.

Jeanne could see the undead attacking her beginning to heal up as took a moment to regain its strength. “Oh of course you would,” she said before it swung its claws at her.

The second undead slashed at Gabriel, the claws sinking into her skin through her armor. She cried out in pain before she returned with her own attacks. Striking the undead with terrible fury, tearing the flesh from the bone. Benkin slashed much of the undead’s right arm off, the creature recoiling back to avoid getting hit by his second strike. But a quick bolt from Silvius’s crossbow struck it in its cheek, piercing it through its mouth.

Leonidas unleashed a terrible storm of emerald fire towards the undead near Jeanne, singing much of the clothing and skin off of it, leaving almost only burned flesh over bone. As his fury grew, his eyes growing white and filled with murderous rage, Kveldulf quartered the enemy, their pieces falling to the ground. The undead standing next to Benkin and Gabriel now frozen in fear as it sees its companion now fallen and The Wolves moving closer to it. It was snapped out of its stupor as Cid landed a blow squarely into its side, cutting deep into the rotting flesh.

Hypatia swung her blades into the air and the undead before them shook in pain as it heard the shrieking cries of her blades. It continued its escape but stumbled as Gabriel lanced its leg with her spear. As it bowed down in pain the undead barely missed the swings of Benkin’s blade, a bolt flying from Silvius’s crossbow, and a stream of green fire from Leonidas.

It slammed into Kveldulf who with a single swing of his blade, cleaved the creature into two. “Wily little bastard,” Benkin said.

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“Certainly was fleet on their feet while they had two to work with,” Silvius followed.

“Where are the other two?” Cid asked.

Maeryn loosed another arrow into the skull of the undead on the roof. “One’s still there, and their friend is trying to bugger off proper,” Maeryn said as she turned back to the others. Silvius fired another bolt, knocking it off the roof and over the other side of the building.

“Kel, Doctor, Hy, Maer, go kill that one, the rest with me,” Cid said as they raced off to find the other undead.

Bolting around the corner, they quickly saw the undead villager racing into a wheatfield. Silvius fired a crossbolt, striking the undead in its neck, it stumbled from the strike of the projectile long enough for Cid and Gabriel to reach it. Both them now hacking away at the undead, now forced to the ground on its stomach. Jeanne, Silvius, and Benkin reached Cid and Gabriel, who turned the undead over with the backend of her spear.

“Oh no,” Silvius said, putting a hand over his face.

“It’s the reeve,” Benkin said, wincing at the sight.

“I can’t believe we didn’t spot him sooner,” Silvius said.

“He was charging at as with an undead face, slathering with teeth bared and trying to kill us,” Jeanne replied. She turned to Gabriel, “No offense.”

Gabriel shook her head, “I’m right there with you.”

“We should get back to the others and see what our next move is.”

“I’d say getting as much distance between us and here is a good idea,” Silvius followed.

“And the unburnt bodies,” Gabriel said, pointing to the reeve with her spear. “You don’t burn them, they’re bound to reform and come back to life.”

“So …,” Silvius said, recoiling slightly, “we have to burn them?”

“You want them coming back?”

“Not particularly, no.”

“Then burn the bodies,” Gabriel said to him.

Jeanne bent over to lift up the body. “Shepherd have mercy, he’s heavier than he looks,” she trying to lift him up.

“And you’ve been through enough already,” Cid said.

“Hold on,” Benkin said, holding his blade up, “there’s one way to lighten the load.” With one swift swipe severed the head of the halfling from the body.

“You … you know we could’ve just lifted him together,” Jeanne said to Benkin, “taking his head really wasn’t that needed.”

“I heard you needed to take the head off before burning the body, keeps the vampyre from doing that rebuilding stuff with its body,” Benkin replied.

“He’s not wrong,” Gabriel followed.

“Jeanne, take the head, Ben see you can grab the body and get moving,” Cid said as he moved back into town. They arrived to the outskirts of town, where the others reached them, looking worse for wear as they dragged the body of the dead villager behind them.

Jeanne moved towards Leonidas, his clothes torn and with deep cuts across his chest. “What happened?” she asked him.

“Things got a little hairy for a while,” the doctor replied.

“I certainly don’t feel fresh or fancy,” Kveldulf followed behind him.

“A could a strong drink right now,” Maeryn said, “and a warm bed wouldn’t be bad, either.”

“We should probably stop by the Lorthan farmstead,” Cid said to them, “make sure that—”

Before he could finish, a group of villagers began standing upright. “Oh that’s not good,” Benkin said, slumping his shoulders forward.

“No!” Leonidas cried out, “we are not having any more of this nonsense.” With one hand he conjured a orb of emerald flames, engulfing arm all the way down to the elbow before lobbing it towards the undead, immolating them until only ashes remained.

Jeanne turned to him. “You couldn’t have done that when we were fighting the other bastards before?” she challenged.

“That’s a massive fireball of death and I have no control over where the flames go. There’s no guarantee you and Kveldulf would’ve been hit by the blast.”

Jeanne looked at Leonidas with a narrow gaze. “I hate it when you make sense,” she said, continuing her way to the others.

“So back to the farm then?” Kveldulf asked Cid.

Cid nodded. “Before something else decides to come back from the dead and kill us.”

“Uh …” Leonidas said with hesitation. “We can’t exactly leave the bodies here.”

“Oh shit,” Jeanne said, “I forgot about that.”

The rest of The Wolves looked out to the decimated town and the bodies strewn around the area. “This is going to be a nightmare,” Hypatia said, running her fingers through her hair.

“I don’t suppose we could wait until the morning doctor?” Cid asked.

“I mean … not everyone comes back at the same time. And if the rest aren’t getting to their feet, there’s a good chance they’re not going to.” He then turned to Gabriel. “I reall am not trying to be curt about this.”

Gabriel waved it off. “You are fine,” she said, leaning her weight against her spear.

“Well, let’s get back then, and we’ll come back when the sun to see what on earth happened.