The sound of feet marching towards the hunting grounds evokes a mental image of going to war. The difference is that everyone else seemed to think defeating the enemy was an easy task.

The chatter from the other groups came in snippets of conversation of prior outbreaks of undead.

"... It's going to be a bunch of skeletons and zombies..."

"... Mindless but a lot."

"... It's more tedious work than any real danger..."

Arthur frowned when he heard those fragments of conversation. He told his people to pass the word to everyone that was going with Camelot. "Do not underestimate the enemy. One mistake is all it takes to be alive or dead. Protect each other."

As the word spread to the adventurers traveling with Arthur, a shift in attitude followed. Everyone else had treated the situation as a minimal threat, but Camelot remained vigilant.

The first sighting of bones walking toward them caused a surge or roars of attacking adventurers. Arthur raised his hand to signal his people to hold the line.

Bjorn was already about to sprint forward when he saw that signal. Arthur looked back, "If the enemy is coming to us, we don't need to waste our energy going to them. Resume at our normal pace. We don't need to rush. And keep your eyes and ears peeled. This might be the first time I'm dealing with undead but they don't attack unless someone controls their strings."

The recklessness of the mob incurred injuries from simple mistakes that included tripping, accidentally hitting an ally, or the fear finally setting in when they saw the sheer numbers of undead. Fleshless bones surge ahead of a slower lumbering army of zombies. The skeletons were faster, lighter, and agile but they didn't possess any tactical strategy.

The Camelot group slowly moved up to the vanguard. The organized offense waded through the skeletons and was the first group to reach the zombies. The stench that followed caused a few to feel nauseated.

Shane's exo suit had speakers built in and she yelled out, "Wind casters, get some ventilation going. Blow the smell away from us." The action allowed the group to engage without the need to throw up.

Arthur hung back as the group continued to move forward. He would fire his lightning arrows aiming at the heads of the zombies. Electricity wouldn't do anything to the zombies because they were dead, but Arthur found out early and by accident. The lightning arrows could still fry the brain until it was unusable. This caused the zombie to collapse in a heap. He had tried electricity on skeletons and that was as ineffective as throwing lint at someone.

The main goal was to clear the outbreak that was outside the labyrinth. As the day progressed, the news slowly spread that some of the zombies were eating the adventurers who died. Valkyrie was the one who called out a fast-moving zombie and it was taken down fast. The thing had an arm it's in its mouth that it was gnawing on.

Moonglow frowned, "It's a ghoul isn't it?"

Arthur walked up and used his boot to open his mouth to see the sharp teeth. "Yes, it's a ghoul. Past the word, fast-moving zombies are an increased threat and to be careful."

"Your gut is correct. Something is directing the undead. Most of the attacks were focused on us, which I guess is a good thing because the mob out there would have less to deal with. I'm concerned that if the mind directing this is not in the labyrinth, we might not be able to push back," conversed Valkyrie to Arthur through the circlet.

The thought that the enemy was being directed wasn't causing him concern. He was thinking back about the program that his grandma stole. What if the intelligent undead were already living on Earth? He shook his head and focused back on the fight. One thing at a time.

As night fell, Arthur ordered a halt and to do a camp so people could rest. Bjorn set up watches and patrols to safeguard the camp.

Shane was tinkering with her Exo suit when Arthur found her. "Got a sec?"

"Sure," replied the scientist with her voice echoing from inside the suit.

"You ever joined any of the old undead outbreaks?"

"I did a couple then I was exempt when I was working at GM. What's up?"

"Did you ever run into ghouls or any intelligent undead?"

"Ghouls on one of the occasions, so I think that might just be par for the course. Why?"

"It's a nagging feeling like we are being watched and the enemy was directing more against us."

"It's your first mission engagement, could it just be your nerves?"

"I want to say it is, but I feel like..." He paused and stopped talking when he saw a drone hover nearby. He waited until the drone flew away and patted Shane's leg to get her attention.

"Do they use drones on all mission engagements?"

"Yes, they use that to track how many a person might have taken down."

"Is it only visual or do they record or transmit audio?"

"Well most drones have memory onboard so if they lose coms they would record, but most of the time they stream. HQ usually has someone watching the feed. Most likely the council people might also be watching and directing some of their people."

"Bare with me if I am being stupid but, Does GM have any way of detecting undead? In specific, undead that might be hiding in a human body?"

Shane got out of the suit and stared up at Arthur, "Are you asking if there is a way for intelligent undead to infiltrate GM?" She looked at the ground in thought. "As far as I know, I was never asked to do anything that can detect intelligent undead and I haven't met any so I wouldn't know what to look for."

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"Ok, keep this between us. I want you to start working on a way to detect undead energy if that even exists. Even if it doesn't work for the situation, it might help us identify labyrinths that might have possible undead outbreaks in waiting."

"Good point, but yes I'll work on that after the mission among the other things you wanted me to do," quipped the purple-haired scientist as she dove back into her suit.

Arthur approached each of the core members of Camelot and told them to watch what they said around the drones. He told them he just didn't want any of their secrets revealed because someone was eavesdropping.

The night didn't give them much respite as the skeletons and zombies would wander in at odd times. Halfway through the night, Bjorn instituted an active perimeter watch. These people would be on watch and actively fight anything that comes. The remaining people rest and try to sleep. There was a caster that had sound magic, and Moonglow asked them to set the center of the camp as a silent area for sleep.

By the sunset of the second day, they encountered more opposition. The mob of allies had thinned and many had withdrawn from their injuries. Camelot was one of the few groups that was still moving forward.

Shane grumbled about her suit didn't have any more power. She was going to leave it when Arthur asked if he could charge it up for her. She thought about it and then jury-rigged a power storage device that Arthur could pump electricity into so that it wouldn't damage her unit. It took Arthur three hours to max out the storage device and they plugged Shane's suit in to charge overnight.

Valkyrie nestled close, "I don't think we'll make it on the deadline. Normally, it means that the GM would call for an airstrike but I doubt they want to do that with the settlements nearby. An airstrike would make it national news."

"I don't know if we'll reach the labyrinth at this rate. We might need to send a smaller team ahead just to recon what is going on," he responded after thinking and holding her close. "I hope Dani's mission is going better than ours."

"Try to get some sleep love, we'll make the additional plans when you have rested some," she said and nuzzled his neck.

Arthur whispered, "Vex, got a question."

"Go ahead," came the uncharacteristic soft reply, probably because the giant knew that they were trying to sleep.

"Is there a way to detect undead or figure out if there are intelligent undead among this mass of rotten flesh and bones?"

"There are a few. Some have gems for eyes, those are intelligent. Glowing eyes that are red, green, or blue are dead giveaways. Most intelligent undead are either incorporeal or just plain powerful. The energy also has a quality that seems to claw at your life force. It would be like a cat clawing at your skin but not hurting you. It just annoys you."

"Any advice with the mission?"

"Well, I would look for elemental summoners that can do earth and wind. Send them as troops to make way for you guys to get further in. That's just me not wanting to waste my energy with the grunts of the enemy army and try to find what is leading them and take it out."

"Thanks. That's a good idea, I'll try to get some sleep and look for those people tomorrow."

The following morning, Arthur asked for elemental summoners. They found three. He asked them how many can they summon. They all said the same thing, if they have unlimited mana they could summon until their bodies tire out. They guess that each one could potentially summon around thirty medium-sized elementals an hour. All three would be ninety an hour.

Arthur told them to prepare and he'll need to get something. He ran off to Shane and asked if there was an illusionist in Sentinels. Shane arched an eyebrow, "And what are you trying to do?"

"Fool three elemental casters into thinking with have a boulder-sized crystal when in truth they are pulling mana from me."

Shane laughed, "Ok give me half an hour and I'll have a few people bring it over."

Arthur went back and sat with the elemental summoners. Thirty minutes later a cart was rolled towards them and the people used pegs and ropes to secure the cart to the ground. On top of the cart was a mana crystal the size of a boulder that was around six feet in diameter. The crystal has metal bands that cage it and are linked to the base where cables extend out. One of the guys handed the elementals a bracelet that had a cable that led to the base of the crystal. He made a loud enough comment that the extraction machine needs a little electricity and Arthur was going to supply that, and the speaker was going to regulate it so that the mana doesn't overwhelm them.

The casters were a little surprised and doubtful but they put the bracelets on and started to pull. Arthur felt the mana tugging and released the mana through the cable and watched. The speaker sat beside him and winked when the other three were not watching. He was the illusionist and he was there to maintain the facade.

It didn't seem like much but as each hour progressed more elementals moved to the front line. Camelot was feeling less pressure. By the fourth hour, Valkyrie pulled Bjorn, Argent, and Moonglow and had the elementals make a path for them to recon ahead.

Arthur kept the summoners going for eight hours. They had a total of seven hundred twenty elementals. Around two hundred were destroyed during the fight leaving five hundred to help with fortifying the camp and allow people to rest.

The illusionist covered the crystal and sat beside the cart to guard it. Arthur told the summoners to rest and sat with the Illusionist. "I'm Arthur by the way."

"Daydream, at your service," he grinned.

"Get a couple more people here to guard the crystal. This way you can sleep."

"I already texted Shane. She'll send them over.'

"Arthur! HELP!" yelled his girlfriend through the circle.

"Where are you?" responded Arthur telepathically.

"Near the labyrinth, we need everyone!"

"There are six undead monsters twenty feet tall and one of them took out Bjorn with one hit. Moonglow is tending to him. We need everyone NOW!"

Arthur jumped up and yelled, "PRIORITY ONE, TO THE LABYRINTH! MOVE MOVE MOVE."

He didn't wait as ran towards the labyrinth. He noticed that the elementals had kept the path open and didn't retreat to camp and was thankful that he hadn't given that order earlier.

He felt the ground shake when a tremor came through. He looked up in the darkness and saw the six behemoths. Three were heading in his direction and the other three were going to three different areas. Whatever doubt he had that Camelot was being targeted went out the window. This was a coordinated attack.

He stared at the behemoths coming and noticed that one had glowing red eyes, and the other two had glowing green eyes. "Fuck me, they are intelligent."

"Watch out for the behemoth's love, they are intelligent," sent the young leader through the circlet.

"I know, we've withdrawn as fast as we could to regroup with you. Argent is carrying Bjorn," came the concerned response.

"Shane! Did we bring any dynamite or gunpowder?"

"No, but my suit has a few things that are the equivalent of around ten sticks of dynamite. Would that work?"

"How many do you have?"

"Four."

"Do they detonate on impact?"

"No they are designed to drill in and I trigger the detonation."

"PERFECT. You are coming with me."

"Aye Aye boss."

"And find me an ice caster and bring the sound caster!"

Shane arrived with the two casters and all of them stared in shock at what was arriving. "They don't even care that they are stepping on their skeletons and zombies."

Arthur looked at the casters. "Ice, how does your magic work? Does it only target small parts or can it take on something that big?"

"Something that big might take me too long and it or the foot soldiers would get me. "

"OK, the two of you work together. Find a way to bring them down. When you ice them, sound can try to shatter them and hopefully, it doesn't just shatter the ice but also whatever's in it."

The two casters looked at each other and nodded at Arthur, "We'll try."

"Shane, fire one into a head. I want to see if it's fast enough to defend against it."

Shane aimed a drill rocket and fired at the head of one of the green-eyed behemoths. The rocket bore halfway in and the thing didn't bother to stop it. It did turn its head to look in the direction of the rocket and started to lumber that way.

"Detonate," ordered Arthur.

BOOM!