James was on the back of a huge monster. It was a real life game of bucking bronco, Teddy had lasted four minutes before being thrown off and trampled slightly, Kyra had healed him up in two shots. They were all cheering James on as he clung on as hard as he could. Teddy had stumbled on it by accident, the monster was a stealth expert, a mix of a chameleon and an armoured dinosaur complete with a boulder-like protrusion from the end of its tail. It had stood up when Teddy was on top of it and naturally seeing no danger the adventurer had made it a game.
James was thrown off eventually, having lasted just longer than Teddy.
“How did you manage that? I have the swift essence! It’s agility in a bottle, a cube, whatever.”
“Animal instincts bro, I can sense its movements before it makes it.”
Wumph. James got sent flying into a tree, transforming his torso into a turtle shell just before he hit and tightening up his arms and legs as tight as he could. The creature had spun, using its tail to smack James flying and was now shambling away. Teddy stepped forward and Kyra put her hand on his arm.
“Do we have to kill it? That seems a little barbaric.”
“You know we do K, It’s docile now but what about in a few weeks when it goes mad and starts attacking the road nearby.”
The team were taking a meandering path back up the road that went in and out of the thick jungle and the coastal areas. Kyra nodded and Teddy moved towards the slow retreat of the monster that was the fastest it could manage. Kyra went to see that James was ok.
“Still with us you big oaf?”
“Oww, I have a stick in my arm.”
He had a very large tree limb puncturing his upper right arm, they all knew if it had been Teddy then he would have been sufficiently dramatic and called it a tree through his arm. As he pulled it out Kyra hit him with a life bolt straight into the wound. The green light obscured the wound from everyone and as it dissipated new skin could be seen where the puncture had been all the way through.
Looking back over to the monster they saw what looked like a semicircle of light over it. Like it was walking through a tunnel of light that was slowly ripping chunks of its hide off. Once the monster gave up trying to shamble away as slow as it was and slumped onto the floor Teddy stopped the light show. Walking away from the grievously wounded creature he muttered.
“The Reaper comes for us all but when you do not hold your hand out for him then he will still reach out with his.”
The words had the slight reverb that all spells did. Shadow hands burst from underneath the monster and with a flash of light they all recognised as transcendent damage the monster was dragged into its own shadow with nothing left.
You have defeated [Bean-tailed Crispsaur]
[Bean-tailed Cripsaur] has been wholly annihilated, it has been automatically looted.
[Mace of Change] has been added to (Theodore Mitchells) Inventory.
1 [Monster core (iron)] have been added to (Theodore Mitchells) Inventory.
10 [Iron] spirit coins have been added to (Theodore Mitchells). Inventory.
“What were you doing to that monster?”
“I need to push my less damage dealing abilities but still in a combat environment, I was using Winged Feet, Wraith Dash and my Thousand Cuts to use really low strength attacks to chain them as quick as I could.”
“Followed by the creepy puppet show.” James chipped in, walking back over, fully recovered but brushing wood chips out of his hair and beard.
Teddy swiped the air and a small rift appeared, reaching in he pulled out a short mace, two foot long with the end looking like the end of the tail of the monster.
“Want another trip?” Teddy joked, waving the short, boulder tipped mace at James.
Just as the team were laughing at James putting his fists up in a comical boxing pose at Teddy’s offer they all sensed the surge of animalistic fear coming towards them. They settled into a formation to counter it. The two boys up front, spread wider with the two girls in the middle and behind. They would get shots off from between and Kyra could manipulate the battle space more with her earth shaping powers. Teddy summoned his dimensional blade and James pulled his vambraced right fist up, ready for whatever was coming. The creature was in full rage.. Just as they were about to attack it as it came out of the trees Kyra shouted.
“STOP! Don’t attack!”
Just after she did a small child burst out of the trees and barrelled straight at Teddy, it attacked him with all the ferocity of a cat facing a bath, mindless survival. However, it also had the strength of a kitten that had just been bathed. Teddy scooped it up and held it out as Kyra ran forward, she cast her Life Aura spell on the child.
“He’s exhausted, malnourished, some minor infections. No telling how long he’s been out here. Lost child?”
Teddy was struggling to restrain the child without letting go so James answered.
“I wouldn’t think so, missing children should get found pretty quick, it’s an essence user world. Surely they wouldn’t take long. Lu, any chance you could distract him?”
Lucy used two of her powers in quick succession.
“Forget. While the left hand waves the right makes the move.”
Her Kansas City shuffle power conjured small illusions to distract targets, they had found that when used on allies the effects were not unpleasant but still distracting illusions. Her Amnesia power made the target temporarily forget the last 30 seconds or so for a short duration, long enough for the child to forget the adventurers it had run into and focus on the illusion. Teddy put the child down and Kyra used the opportunity to hit the child with a life bolt, tip a vial of crystal wash over it and start inspecting it for injuries. Lucky was released, Kyra’s hair going from deep golden blonde to silky ashen blonde. He trotted forward happily and lay down in front of the child belly up. As the illusion finished the child saw a playful but calm dog in front of it and grabbed his head with both arms in a hug.
“What the hell is going on?” James wondered out loud.
Lucy was distracted, her eyes glazed as she was when she was sharing Lechuza’s sight. She snapped to and looked to the others.
“We’ve found a village east of here, looks pretty run down but there are people there. There’s something not right about them though, they’re moving funny and there are a lot of injuries.”
Teddy suddenly looked a little wary.
“Ruined village, crazy abandoned child, lots of injured adults in a slow shuffle I assume? Anyone else getting an ‘I am Legend’ vibe from this?”
“Zombies?” James asked in surprise. “That would suck.”
“Let’s all move up on the village and see what we can find, What do we do with the child?” Teddy asked.
They all looked at the child who seemed to have gone slightly catatonic, stroking Lucky in stunned silence.
“I think he’ll be ok here with Lucky, if there’s lots of injuries in the village I think I should be there to see if I can help. Lucy, could you leave Lechuza here to let us know if anything changes? James if you could leave Koda somewhere nearby incase they need backup?”
They moved off into the jungle towards the village. They found a slight rise and started crawling up on their fronts so they could peek over. They could see a small mud hut village, it was approaching twilight and they noticed that no lamps had been lit with the creeping darkness. The only light source was the embers of a burnt out hut that must be at least a day old. Around the huts shuffled the unfortunate population. They shambled in an awkward gait, drunkenly stumbling around each other. They made odd snapping movements with their teeth at each other when they bumped into other people, buildings or heard anything in the jungle. The four Mitchells were in a row on the rise looking down.
[So definitely zombies then.] Teddy said on the group chat.
[Looks like, seems like the whole damn village. Seems to make sense this is what the kid was running from. Kyra, can you get any more out of this?] James was staring down with angry eyes.
They knew what he wanted, a way for Kyra to be able to heal everyone in the village. They knew the stories though. These things were put down hard by the adventure society, stopping the infestation and clearing the area before it can go any further. The likelihood of it being reversible was slim to none.
[I can try, if we can we get one by itself to see if I can diagnose what’s wrong with it.]
[Them. Get one of them by themselves to see what’s wrong with them.] James corrected.
Even though conversation was silent on the group interface Teddy turned to look at where James was lying. He could tell that his brother was desperate to fix the situation but he knew Kyra was almost certain there was nothing she could do, dehumanising the villagers was a coping mechanism for what they had to do next.
[I can try teleport one here, it won’t be harmed. Bring it down the bottom of the hill, I imagine it’ll shamble straight though.]
James met Teddy’s eye as he was still looking at him. They knew each other well enough that they both knew, that Teddy knew, what James was struggling with and Teddy was backing his wife, not to be against his brother but they both knew what was happening and James didn’t want to admit it. Teddy looked over the village, trying to find a villager who was walking straighter than the others, he tore a rift that was a silent shimmer in the air. It’s destination appeared just inside a hut that they knew was empty, the villagers all still having a normal rank aura with a corrupted taint. He had chosen his moment when the villager was most isolated, he silently ghost sprinted up behind it, when they were a hairs breadth away from each other he dug deep into his mana and used his newly bronze ranked teleport.
Teleport
Ability: [Teleport] (Dimension)
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Special ability (teleport, dimension)
Base cost: High mana
Cool-down: Varies with distance travelled.
Current rank: bronze 0 (00%)
Effect (iron): Teleport self over a moderate distance, increasing with minor threshold advancement.
Effect (bronze): Teleport over a wider distance. For a significant mana increase can teleport a target over the iron rank distance with the caster.
He had been working on the teleport in the jungle as much as he could, using short burst mixed with his rift portal anytime it came off cooldown had pushed it over the edge to bronze rank. The bronze rank power effectively emptied the tank to bring the man. It was sad that it didn’t even notice what had happened to it and that it wandered off, shuffling as if nothing had happened.
Whilst Lucy kept an eye on the village James and Kyra turned to look at the villager. Teddy by this point had zipped away. The villager was very malnourished. His eyes, nose and mouth had yellow gunk around them and his eyes were cloudy. His clothes were tattered and hanging off him. Kyra used the same spell she had used on the child, the Life Aura spell wasn’t to do with her aura but the aura of the target, giving her a detailed run down of the condition of the target, it also imbued a mild healing effect for a short while. They watched in horror after the spell hit as the man started rapidly deteriorating in front of heir eyes. Patches of skin seemed to dissolve into dust that was carried away on the breeze. One ankle seemed to crumble in its boot and it caused the villager to fall over, its arm raising as it fell forward. The hand to the elbow crumbled away and it hit the floor hard. The effect didn’t last long and the villager started crawling around, mostly in a circle. Kyra put a hand on James’ shoulder in commiseration.
[Even before we saw what life energy did to him the read back came through as a negative, there is nothing alive in that body.]
One of the tell-tale signs of whether or not this type of infection was treatable was its reaction to life energy. Such a strong reaction meant that it was far too late to try anything else other than extermination. Teddy finished it by creating a wide dimensional sword that annihilated every last scrap of the man in three swift strokes. The whole process had been silent and when they rejoined Lucy lying on the rise facing the village nothing had been noticed.
[So it’s extermination rather than saving now. The next question is Max Brooks or 28 days later?] James wasn’t letting his feelings get in the way and was ready to do his job.
“So, we are ready to push on now no? You have made your investigations and have made a conclusion we must cleanse this place to allow the villagers to rest?” A strangers voice said.
All four Mitchells peered to their right. Lying on the rise next to Teddy was a man looking down into the village with them. He wore dark greens and browns with long tassels and multiple bag pouches on cords. He had painted his skin in natural, mottled colours in perfect camouflage. None of the adventurers had sensed him arrive and he looked perfectly at ease lying next to them as if he had always been with them. Their internal chat exploded with a message from everyone.
[Well shit, where did he come from?]
[Who the hell is this?]
[Anyone sense him?]
[Random dude!]
It took a moment for Teddy who was closest to remember to talk out loud.
“Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?” He whispered in a low voice, trusting that the man was an essence user he spoke quiet enough that normal ears wouldn’t pick it up but iron rank essence users would.
“I, I’m, I am…” the man stuttered, apparently taken aback by the question. “I have a name. I have not used it in so long I do not remember it!” He seemed to find his lack of recall very funny and started looking over his arms and hands. “Who is a man who cannot remember his own name, what is a man who finds this unimportant to remember?”
[Crazy alert, be careful guys.] Lucy added to the chat.
“I suppose you should call me Green, for that is what I am.” The man said, looking at his forearms stained green. “So much words, I have not used so many in so long, it is exhausting, and repetitive, we are to the village? To send the good people to their final rest?”
[I did an astral projection sweep of the area, unless there’s more that are as good at hiding as he is then he is alone. The kid is fine by the way, Lucky is getting lots of attention. The villagers are all sticking to the main streets of the town, a few outliers but they seem to make their way back to the middle.]
[One of our main concerns is the infection itself, we need to make sure that it doesn’t spread, especially not on us. My Clean Living power isn’t guaranteed to keep us safe, so it’s easier to avoid it in the first place, no direct contact with the infected. The flesh needs to be completely eradicated, the disease will live on in any tissue remaining. No explosions.] She looked at Teddy to reinforce this point. [Dimension blade worked well, your rift and execute power will be ideal, Lucy it’ll be flamethrower time for you, James I think you’ll have to be ranged attacks and running interference, I don’t trust transmuted parts to attack them, there’s a chance you can still get infected.]
[Ok so we need to involve this other guy, how do we coordinate with him?] James asked.
[Lucy, you’re our main coord for team tactics, can you form a telepathic connection with him and then relay onto this group?] Teddy asked.
Lucy took a beat before answering, unusual for the conversations that happened at the speed of thought.
[I’ve got him, he’s incredibly quiet, telepathy isn’t mind reading but the few people I’ve tried it with have very busy conversations when it’s in their heads, this guy is extremely concise and focussed. I don’t think he’s crazy, just not been around people in a long time.]
Teddy took a knee looking over them all. [Good, right, lets split this down, I’m going to be the biggest damage dealer here as its the most definitive damage, Lucy has the best mop up so if we can corral the targets into the centre and immobilise them then they’ll be easier to clear. James can you do some baiting? Something that’ll grab their attention, my teleport is off cooldown now, if they’re more ‘28 Days Later’ than shufflers when roused and you start to struggle then I’ll come get you. Lucy can you ask where our new friends powers lie?]
[Ok a ‘conversation’ with him is like trying to hold a bag of snakes, can’t get a decent grip on it. He says he is the jungle? He can’t be more specific than that apparently, I guess that puts him more in line with James’ power set than yours, no big flashy explosions from him.]
[Try and coordinate him and James to lure them into the centre, I’ll cut off any stragglers, Kyra you do overwatch from up here and overall coord. Keep an eye on the interface to see if anyone has an infection notification. James, you kick us off.]
James curled up into the foetal position where he lay and his body shifted. His arms and legs shrunk and slimmed before paws emerged. His clothes looked like they vacuumed onto his body then grew thick black hair. His head extended from the nose forming a long snout with huge teeth. The giant dog gave a sudden twist and was on its feet. The monstrous black dog was something from a nightmare, its shoulders were the height of Teddy’s chest when standing, pitch black fur that was long and straight, paws the size of dustbin lids with long claws, large ears stood straight up and locked on like radar dishes. It’s eyes were somehow even darker than the fur and terrifying in the fact they had human intelligence behind them, they were sat over a long muzzle that was filled with huge white teeth that were a stark contrast to the dark creature.
It stood looking, panting at the row of Mitchells. James could completely transform his body once a day into an animal, it was a transport power they were hoping would give them a conjured vehicle but turned out to be a very versatile personal travel power. He gave a small chuffing bark and ran down the hill to the village, as he got past the first few houses he started barking loudly. Most of the zombies in the village all slowly turned, orientating towards the noise. Their pace didn’t change and they started shuffling with purpose towards the noise.
[Slow shufflers, thank the god of small mercies.] James said, still able to use the interface in his transformed state.
Green looked delighted, he shuddered and started to transform, instead of the neat animal form that James took he changed into a lanky almost hairless creature, long arms and legs which he used to run on all fours, his jaws extended and ears grew. He bounded down the hill to join James in the game of being chased, snarling and yapping instead of the deep bark. They worked together like sheep dogs, corralling the zombies. Part of the difficulty was that they had to work out how to move the entire mass of a hundred or so villagers, if they worked one side then it pulled them all, if they wanted to move a single zombie then they had to work out how it affected the rest.
As they were doing their part Teddy helped, if a single zombie wasn’t playing ball and making life difficult for the baiters then he would make a small rift at head height, he would then dash in and ‘clean up’ the body with his dimension blade. On one of his attacks in an uncharacteristic mistake he sidestepped at speed into a sharp plough leaning up against a wall to avoid running into a zombie that had popped round a corner, normally he wouldn’t bother avoiding targets, the speed doing more damage to an enemy than it would to him but he remembered at the last moment that the infection spread by touch. He suddenly had a gash from shoulder to elbow. Kyra had been keeping an eye on the team status on the interface and instinctively threw out a life bolt at Teddy. Also uncharacteristically, she missed. The life bolt shot past Teddy and hit the zombie in the chest. It appeared to melt a hole straight through, like a cannonball had shot straight through. The life energy was so destructive to it that it met almost no resistance. Comically the life bolt splashed against the hut wall behind and didn’t effect it.
[Change of plan, Kyra is the big damage dealer! I’m right in thinking those life bolts are low mana right? Get down here and join me in the clean up.]
Kyra joined Teddy in taking out the outliers. Her life bolts took big chunks out of the zombies then she afflicted them with Life Aura when there was just a small amount left to burn away. After a while there was a stampeding mess of ex-villagers in the centre square of town. James was bounding around, hitting the walls of the surrounding buildings to collapse them inwards. The zombies didn’t have the intelligence to climb the rubble so it effectively trapped them. Lucy hadn’t been attacking the villagers, she’d been busy setting up a ritual circle in the centre of town, using a combination of chalk, Rune Lore, spirit coins and mana lamps she had set a grand ritual taking up most of the village square. When they were completely corralled and couldn’t get away she got the final piece and activated it. The lines flared, the coins sunk into the floor like it was lava and the mana lamps glowed. The ritual was a very complicated ritual of grand healing. Expensive and tricky to get right it was seldom used at their level. This was the perfect time to try it as there was no one relying on it to work, getting it wrong when a patient was involved could cause more harm than good. The zombies caught on the ritual circle started to melt into it like the coins had, their flesh was disintegrating and wafting away where the light hit it. The mana lamps dimmed and went out when most of the villagers were little more than chest, head and stumps of arms. With the grand ritual being so expensive Lucy switched to a flamethrower variant of her magic missile. Between Lucy, Teddy and Kyra they magically stomped out the rest of the zombies. Green and James went into the nearby jungle to try and bait out any that might have got away from the village, any breach in containment could cause another outbreak. They all met in the centre and Lucy went to pick up the child and the familiars.
“I have not had a people in a long time. But there was a woman here who understood me.” Green was staring at the empty space where they had herded the villagers. His eyes were distant and he reflexively opened and closed his hands. “We were not together but she wanted a child to raise and I was who she wanted. She held me to no obligation but I kept coming back to see them. I did not see her here which gives me hope they may not have been here.”
“If you had been here a few times did you know if there were any adventurers? We found a few with adventurer gear and some local badges.” Teddy asked, not knowing what to reply and trying to distract the man from his obvious pain.
“No. There were no adventurers here, some villagers had essences, most were found when out in the jungle by chance. No one in the village really had any ties to the society.”
“How about you? Are you an adventurer?” Kyra asked.
“…I know the society exists but I am not with them.” He answered slightly cagily.
Before they had the chance to pull that thread Lucy turned up with the kid and the familiars. As soon as the child saw Green he ran towards the man and leapt into his arms. Green looked shocked, overwhelmed by emotion they could all feel on his aura it was so strong.
[Whats going on? This kid knows Green? He said he only came in the village to see that woman and…]
Communicating at the speed of thought Teddy had caught up with his own chain of thinking. The child was evidently the man’s son. The waves of emotion and the look on his face was of desperate joy at seeing the child alive and deepest regret at seeing him but not the mother. This all but cemented her fate with the village. There had been too many for him to have checked every shuffling zombie and their method of disposal was so complete there was no trace of the population. The team had been very thorough, every man woman and child was beyond saving and the heartbreak of disposing of any and all in front of them was worth more than letting it happen to another village. What they had done today would stay with them forever.
Leaving Green and his child to their reunion in the ruins of the town Lucy waved the others over.
[Seems that Lucky might be useful in clearing the rest of the village. I noticed something on the way in.]
She waved him on and he trotted around the square and tiny flashes of fires appeared around him. The dead flesh was reacting to the life aura that Lucky produced to heal in an area around him. They didn’t know how strong it would have been against a whole intact zombie but it was easily burning the scraps that were left, any scrap may be enough to cause it to spread again if someone came by the village too soon before they could get the magic society to come and do a thorough specialist magical clean. Kyra set him to task sweeping the village street by street as they checked every building for any sign of the infection or what caused it. Kyra was constantly monitoring all of them to ensure they were not affected by the affliction. Once they were content the village and surrounding jungle was as scrubbed as they could make it they headed back to the centre to find Mr Green and child and were surprised to see that they had vanished.