Several suits sat around a large meeting table, their eyes glued to the streaming video.

"Where did those things come from?"

"Do we have anyone that can take them down?"

"Camelot seems to be spearheading, but start preparing six fighter jets with missiles."

Steve McClaren silently watched the screen with folded hands and resting his chin on them.

Councilwoman Helena was fiddling with her phone as she sent a text. One to inform their airfield to prepare six fighter jets. The other to her contact, "I want that giant mana crystal that Camelot is hiding. Send a red to go get it."

Helena looked up and informed the council that she had sent the message for the airfield to prepare.

Steve glanced over and nodded then looked back at the screen. He never liked Helena, she was overly ambitious with a big craving for power. There might have been a time when he could have worked with her more cooperatively, but she has picked up a serious power hunger since she suffered a stroke two years ago. He has been minimizing his need for a face-to-face with her unless necessary. This included the recent fad of wearing thick heavy perfume which not only irritated his nose but also his predisposition toward her.

"I think we can say that we have conclusive proof that intelligent undead exist and they are commanding this outbreak. Our three-day time assessment was off the mark, we might need more days to clean this mess up before the government gets impatient and steps in," commented a councilman with a prominent widow's peak.

Steve picked up a message tube that was about two inches in diameter with a screw on top. He took a pad and wrote something down and placed it inside. He sealed it with a simple lock spell so that no one could just open it. He waved a messenger over, "Have a drone send this to my niece Valkyrie who is in the field."

"What did you send her?"

"Just told her that they have til sun up before we send bombers."

"Why would you give her a message that would strike fear in her?"

"On the contrary, Valkyrie has been known to rise above the occasion when she knows what the stakes are."

Helena narrowed her eyes and mentally thought, "You got lucky with the trap of assassinating your sister so that you would mourn her death. Even the secondary trap failed which would have caused a scandal that you couldn't ignore. We did manage to weaken your position at least when we took away your scientist, but now she's working with your niece. There's a bullseye on your back Steve. And I'm patient enough to wait centuries for the opportunity to have a foothold here. I'm patient enough to wait until I can end you permanently."

The messenger walked past and closed the door, hurrying to get the message to a drone.

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The loud explosion followed a rain of flesh and bone. The cloud cleared and half the face of the behemoth was still intact. The thing didn't even make a sound of pain but retaliated by grabbing a bunch of trees and launching them like a pile of pick-up sticks.

Adventurers dove for cover and a few got crushed under or faced the leafy javelins head-on. There was no doubt that injuries were suffered.

Arthur glared at the remaining eye, "Shane, hit it again, that the damn thing out."

Shane fired and detonated when the rocket was in place. The resounding boom came with elated cheers. The first behemoth was falling.

"ON GUARD, that thing isn't dead yet!" yelled Valkyrie.

Arthur was about to look at the next target when he heard the yell. He looked back and saw that the back was opening up and out came rotten spiders. "Where the fuck did they learn to play trojan horse?" He yelled.

"Fire casters and users, exterminate the spiders!" announced Shane from the speakers in her suit.

"Ice and Sound, freeze the legs together to bring them down. Ice the torso and don't let it open!" barked Shane.

The mixed fixing all around as adventurers fought skeletons, zombies, and rotting spiders.

Arthur raced over to Bjorn and Moonglow and waved for the illusionist to come over. "Make it look like I'm just standing guard." The illusionist complied but not sure why.

"Moonglow cast the healing spell and I'll cast mine."

For everyone else, it looked like only Moonglow was healing. The only other person who knew that Arthur could heal was the illusionist and his eyes were wide in surprise.

Bjorn rubbed his head. "Get up big guy, we got some mountains to topple."

Bjorn groaned, "Dad, can I have five more minutes?"

Arthur slapped the big warrior on the back, "After we are done. Now get up. Those big things have spiders in them. We got one down but it's causing a mess. We have two others to deal with."

Moonglow handed Bjorn the two potions that she hadn't used yet. He nodded in thanks grabbed his axe and rushed back into the fray.

The illusionist let go of the illusion and just stared at Arthur. The leader looked back at him, "Find me later, I'll tell you about it."

Arthur rushed back and noticed that the green eye went to the right side and the red eye went to the left. Are they flanking? "Prepare for flanking!"

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The screaming behind Arthur made him focus his efforts on the green eye. It was coming closer and the two casters attempted to bring it down with no effect.

"Shane, use the last two drills. Take out this one's legs!"

Shane complied and the sound of two detonations blew off the giant undead's feet and it collapsed in a heap. The back started to open. "Ice, get the back. Don't let it open!"

Ice focused his spell and was gritting his teeth. He was running out of mana and he was getting more desperate until he felt a hand on his shoulder and a flood of mana rushed in. He didn't ask and just focused on his task, he wouldn't have the time to talk if he was dead. The ice walled off the back and froze the spiders before they could come out.

"That's not going to last long." he huffed and tried to catch his breath.

"By then the fire users might already be close to using their flamethrowers."

"How?"

"Camelot secret. Talk about it later. Good job," said Arthur and ran back towards where he thought the red-eyed one would be.

Valkyrie ran towards Arthur, "It didn't stop. It's going back to our camp."

Arthur frowned, "You keep the fight going. Don't forget the iced one to the right. When you clear these two spider nests, keep going to the labyrinth. Pave the way for me to run back, love."

"Of course my king," she winked and yelled a battle cry as she waded into a rotten spider, hacking away with her axe and defending with her shield.

Arthur chased after the behemoth with the red eyes. He didn't engage it but followed it wondering what it was trying to do. He saw it turn and diverted toward the mana crystal battery setup. "Now why would it go after that?" thought the lord of Camelot and slowed down to watch.

The giant undead smacked away the defenders and picked up the cart, snapping the ropes that tied it down to the ground. The tarp covering fell away and it saw that only the cage and wires were left. The thing looked around to see if it could find the missing crystal. When it didn't see it, it ignored everything, and everyone else, it started to lumber back.

Arthur raced back towards Valkyrie, "The giant went after the fake mana battery. Someone watching is directing these things. We might have an undead mode inside the GM." He mentally informed his girl.

"Holy... shit... that's... huge... can't talk... too many enemies..."

"I'm on my way back. Time to test out the dragon breath idea."

"I'm ready."

Arthur worked through the crowd until he was back-to-back with Valkyrie. Argent and Bjorn fought closer and started to give the couple a little reprieve. Arthur stood and braced himself as he focused on his tabard. Valkyrie stood beside him and the wings on her crown started to vibrate.

A roar echoed out across the battlefield, followed by intense heat as the ouroboros head faced forward on the tabard and exhaled fire racing forward. The wings on Valkyrie's head fanned the flames forward, extending the distance of the fire breath by another fifty feet.

The flames died down after a minute and the dragon's head returned biting its tail.

"Holy crap that worked!" yelled Arthur.

"It should, our custom equipment was all made by Shane. I just gave her some ideas."

"Bjorn, Argent, Moonglow, follow us!" Arthur yelled as he raced down closer to the labyrinth.

Several ghouls came to defend and the red-haired Viking rushed past to engage. Argent was next to follow and gave the other three a way through.

The red-eyed giant was coming closer to the gates of the labyrinth.

Arthur looked at the gate and then at the floor. He looked at the archway and tried to find the pedestal or controlling statue.

"It's getting closer!" yelled Moonglow.

"Valkyrie, take my bow. Shoot down any drone that comes close. I don't want them to see what I'm about to do."

She grabbed the bow and kept a keen eye on the sky.

Moonglow pointed, "In the tree to the left."

Valkyrie spotted a movement and fired a lightning arrow. A drone sizzled from the electricity and dropped to the floor.

Arthur nodded and started to feel around until he found a small rock that was out of place but part of the stone in front of the archway. He touched it and sent mana into his eyes to try to peel away the layers.

"Welcome bearer of the Doll's Heart. Have you come to claim this labyrinth?"

"I don't have a key."

"Silly human, you have been bestowed the Guardian key since you were a baby. The Guardian key takes precedence over a labyrinth key."

Not wanting to waste time, Arthur left the questions unasked and responded, "I claim this labyrinth."

"What would you like to do with the faery labyrinth?"

"I want to consolidate it to my labyrinth."

"We can see what you have started to create. You may add our labyrinth to your keychain. The queen of the faery will wait for you to visit."

Arthur focused and repeated the creation of a key from the anchor of the labyrinth and added it to his keychain.

The gate vanished leaving an empty archway.

"I'm done, let's head back to clean up the stragglers. Where's the giant red eye?"

"It went past the labyrinth and disappeared. We saw two others moved into the threes and disappeared."

"The undead didn't use the labyrinth, they already have a foothold on Earth and hiding somewhere else."

They regrouped with the other two and began to fight the leftovers of the outbreak. With the behemoths gone, the intelligence that was driving them seemed to have stopped giving orders. They were able to clear the skeletons and zombies before the sun rose.

Arthur told Shane to get some trackers to chase down where the giant behemoths went. They came back in less than an hour. Someone must have used magic to wipe away the tracks. They were heading in one direction then the tracks disappeared.

The lord of Camelot walked through the group as they had a mandatory GM regulation to get checked by triage before they headed home. They recorded the repairs needed for their equipment so that GM would reimburse them for their effort in the last three days. While there were casualties from other individuals and groups, Camelot suffered injuries but no casualties. Even the friends who came along were surprised by the result of the mission that they already started to fill out applications while they were being seen by the medical triage team.

Arthur knew that most of those would end up on Jethro's desk.

"Bjorn, do you mind taking my car and dropping Argent and Moonglow home? I'll ride with Valkyrie."

"I'll bring the car to the Camelot estate tomorrow, my bike is there anyway."

The red Maserati drove at just a tad over the speed limit. Arthur placed his hand on her lap, "My family wants to meet you. They kinda wanted to meet you before my birthday, so I'm officially asking you to come to my birthday party that they are holding."

"No problem love. I wouldn't miss it for the world. When is it?"

"Tomorrow afternoon."

The car screeched to the side away from traffic. "And you are telling me today! I haven't even gotten you a gift and choose what to wear!"

He leaned in close and kissed her to shut her up, "You are the only gift I'll ever want or need."

She gave up and lost herself in the kiss. She pulled away and slammed the gas pedal speeding home like it was on fire.

They gave a wave to the butler and headed for her room.

They both jumped into bed. As tired as they were, it still took a little over an hour before they chose to go to sleep.

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The giant behemoth put down the machine that was supposed to have a mana crystal. Without the crystal, they hoped that the machine would still accomplish what they saw happening on the screen.

They checked it for mana residuals. They took out a fist-sized mana crystal and placed it on one of the metal rings.

They put one of the bracelets on their caster and applied electricity to the one they saw Arthur wore.

"Do you feel anything?"

"I feel an electric current but not the mana from the stone."

"Increase the electricity."

The caster begins to convulse as the current was electrocuting him.

A scientist walked up and looked at the whole thing. "Do you folks even know the basics of running an experiment? All this is a metal conductor, there are no capacitors or resistors. There's not even a spell that regulates anything. If you keep this up you are likely going to bbq someone with electricity. Get this guy to the infirmary."

Helena watched from a video feed and slammed her fist on the side table. "The brat must have taken the real one with the crystal. This is a fake," she growled in her mind.

"Get me everything on Arthur Crown and Camelot."

"Yes, Councilwoman Helena."