Dong, dong.

The loud chimes from the city bells rang out, signalling that it was noon.

"Where are those guys?" asked Zak impatiently. "We told them to be here by noon. I thought you said these guys were quick, Kath?"

"Don't worry," I laughed, "They'll be here any second. Treyhax isn't one to keep people waiting." Almost immediately after finishing my sentence we could see Treyhax and Swipe emerge from one of the large crowds around the northern gate.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Kathrall." Treyhax apologized. "We're ready to go whenever."

"Alright, let's get this show on the road!" shouted Zak, enthusiastically. "Come on Kath, let's lead the way."

"Actually Zak, you're going to be walking with Swipe back there."

"What?!" they both shouted.

"Is that a joke, captain?" Swipe asked Treyhax.

"No jokes here. Kathrall and I have yet to discuss a proper strategy of approaching Kulz. Him and I will be leading the way, you two try to stay quiet."

Swipe crossed his arms as a sign of disapproval, but reluctantly obeyed the order. Zak of course had a smile on his face; he could make the best out of any situation.

"I guess we didn't get formally introduced last time." Zak said to Swipe. "I'm Zak, glad to make your acquaintance." He smiled and raised his hand.

"I'm Swipe, I hope we work well together." He said, lifting his hand up and giving Zak a firm shake.

"Alright then," I said, "let's head out." Treyhax and I took the lead, discussing what possible strategies we could employ.

"A witch doctor, eh?" Treyhax said. "You're probably right guessing he'll spawn up some kind of zombie ads. How do you propose we handle that?"

"In my opinion it would make more sense for you and Swipe to go after the individual ads due to your high speed and damage. Zak and I are well equipped with armour, so we have a better chance of taking hits from Kulz than you guys do."

"Sounds like a plan. How far away is the village?"

"Not too far away. About a 35-50 minute walk north-west into the foothills. We're going to have to fight our way in though, there are several Forsaken Villagers lurking around the perimeter. Zak and I took one out fairly easily, they're quick, but they have remarkably weak defensive stats."

"Doesn't sound like anything we can't handle. We'll enter the village with caution and avoid as much confrontation as possible."

"If we accidentally stumble upon an ambush, the only plan we will have will be me using and you guys picking off the mobs one by one before they can finish me. My taunt can only draw their aggro for 10 seconds, so you'll have to be quick."

"Aren't I always?" Treyhax said, smirking.

I stopped and looked him dead in the eye. "Don't get too ahead of yourself; once a battle starts you can never know how it's going to finish. The last thing we want is someone getting hurt."

"You don't think I know that?" he said, clenching his fists with his eyes still locked on mine. "You personally know what happened to me, to the ones I was supposed to lead and what happened to them. The ones that I failed... the ones that I led to death. I have to live with that nightmare everyday... Every god damned day. You don't think that I prioritize safety? It's a fluke that I'm even here today to help with this damn quest, I'm not about to let this shred of life run out."

He turned his shoulder and stomped ahead, still clenching his fists. I was completely speechless and dumbfounded. I sat there motionlessly watching him until I heard Zak and Swipe bickering at each other.

"Would you cut it out!?" Swipe yelled at Zak. "I'm trying to focus on the battle we're about to have. The battle that's a matter of life and death. You shouldn't be so carefree."

"What are ya talking about!?" Zak replied, disgusted. "If we can't unwind before a fight then it's going to be even more tiring."

"Tiring? That's your first concern? Not the fact that you or any one of us could cease to exist in an hour?"

"Oh please, with Kath and I here there's no chance we'll fail."

"Cut the bickering you two." I interrupted. "We're getting close to the village." I pointed up to the hilltops and peaking over top of the hills several buildings could be seen. "Make sure all of your gear and items are ready for combat."

The two gave me a firm look and nodded their heads.

As we began to approach the village there was a drastic change in the atmosphere. Everything seemed darker, tensions grew higher, and the stench of death took over the air.

"What's the information on the monsters located in the village?" asked Treyhax. "Abilities, levels, weaponry. I want it all."

"They're undead monsters called Forsaken Villagers, but for some reason they move quite faster than regular undead."

"Are you positive it's an undead?" Swipe asked.

"I'm sure of it. It had rotting blue skin and was definitely not living."

"Odd..." Treyhax said, bringing his hand to his chin. "I've never heard of undead monsters that weren't slow moving. Stereotypically they're slow, but pack big punches."

"They're not just quick; they still pack a pretty heavy punch. I blocked a punch from the monster and it was definitely not weak."

"Speaking of which, did it use any weapons or abilities?"

"None that we saw. Considering we took it out with only one attack they can't be much higher than level 7. It was unarmed and mainly attacked with punches, but we only saw the one monster. For all we know there could be more with weapons or even skills."

"I guess we'll have to learn from experience." Zak chipped in, smiling.

"Alright, that's all the information we need." Treyhax stood up and clenched his fists. "Let's take down Kulz."

We climbed the final hill and the village entrance was in plain sight. All life around the village had been decimated. The trees were broken and leafless, the grass was dead and returned to dirt, and the smell of death took over the air.

We all readied our weapons and slowly began to enter the village. Strangely, it looked more abandoned than haunted. The houses and stores were still intact, though most of them had broken windows or boards.

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"Two monsters, ten o'clock!" yelled Swipe.

We all turned to face our opponents. Sure enough, they were identical to the monster that chased Zak, though certain disfigurements could distinguish them.

"Kathrall and Zak, take the one on the left. We'll handle the one on the right." Zak and I shook our heads and took off.

As we were closing in on the monster I could hear a flurry of footsteps behind us and in a flash Swipe and Treyhax blew past us towards their target.

"Woah... you weren't kidding, were ya?" said Zak.

"Focus on our monster; you can drool over their speed later. We'll do the same as before."

Once we were about ten meters away from the zombie it began running towards us, raising a fist. Closing the gap, I jumped into the monster's attack face first, blocking it with my shield. I pushed the monster back, staggering it. While the monster was off balance I brought my mace up from my side, striking the zombie's chin upwards.

I shouted the command for my shield skill while spinning to gain momentum.

"!" I yelled, directly smashing my shield into the face of the monster. "Now, Zak!"

Before I could even say anything Zak was already in the air. He came flying down towards the monster with his axe held high above his head.

"!" yelled Zak. He brought his axe down and sliced the monster vertically in half, bursting it into pixels. The force from the skill carried through to the ground and left a large crater where the monster was standing.

"I didn't know you were keeping something like that away from me." I said to Zak.

"Ha, pretty cool, huh? It's a skill I picked up a while ago." He smiled. "I figured it was my turn to show off."

Huah!

I looked over to see Treyhax and Swipe taking out their monster. With a series of lightning fast attacks, Treyhax pierced his spear through the monsters chest, bursting it into pixels. The speed and synergy that they operated at made Zak and I look like kindergarteners. I guess that's the benefit of always training with the same person.

"Wow, you guys are awesome!" Zak yelled, excited. "I guess that's why you don't wear any real armour."

"It's not like not wearing armour automatically makes you fast, we had to train for this type of combat." Swipe replied. "Dodging over blocking, fast attacks over heavy ones, this is the way we prefer to fight."

"Man I wish I knew it was so OP, I've definitely been levelling up the wrong weapon." Zak laughed.

Swipe looked unimpressed with Zak's enthusiasm, but Treyhax didn't seem to mind.

"What do we do next?" I asked.

"We need to find Kulz while avoiding as many of these things as possible. A minor scrap like this might not seem like much, but after a while it starts to wear you down and that's definitely not what you want during a boss fight."

"I agree." I said. "What do you propose we do?"

"I'm assuming that Kulz is hulled up in the middle of this place, so the Town Hall is the most likely area to find him. We'll get off the open roads and travel through the houses and alleyways until we have a visual on where we may find him."

We all nodded in agreement to the plan. I guess this is why Treyhax was appointed to captain, his instincts and leadership skills are amazing.

"Follow me. Make sure to be as discreet as possible." Treyhax said, taking off into an alleyway.

We travelled through a system of alleyways and eventually had to cut through one of the abandoned houses. Thankfully some of the walling was damaged so we could slip inside quietly. The house lay in front of the marketplace area of the village. We could hear the zombies moaning outside.

"How do you propose we cross the street undetected?" I asked Treyhax.

"I have an idea, but I'm not sure whether or not it'll work."

"If there's a chance it'll work you may as well go for it."

After saying that, Treyhax stood up and began going to the upper floor of the abandoned home.

"You guys sit tight, I'll be right back."

I started looking around the house out of boredom. Everything was covered in dust and dirt, most of the furniture was broken, and the home looked uninhabitable. I walked over to a cabinet in what used to be a living room. On the cabinet I found picture frames of a family. A mom, a dad, and a daughter. They really gave backstory to this place, didn't they? I thought to myself. I couldn't help but think that the daughter looked familiar... Who does she remind me of?

BANG!

My train of thought was interrupted by a loud crashing noise in the alleyway behind the house. A few seconds later I heard a rush of footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Well, that ought to keep them busy." Treyhax said, brushing dust and dirt off his hands.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Pretty simple, really. I just threw a handful of bricks out of one of the windows upstairs."

Outside we could hear the monsters running towards the back of the house.

"And they took the bait. Hurry up, the diversion won't last long." We ran through the house, grabbed Swipe and Zak, and sprinted out the front door of the house across the empty marketplace.

"Good job, Captain." Swipe said as we entered the new system of alleyways.

"Alright, shouldn't be much longer before we make it to the Town Square." Treyhax told us. "Make sure you're all on high alert."

The alleyways seemed like an endless maze. One turn after another, it continued on with no end in sight. The only real distinct separations between the houses were how badly or mildly the houses were destroyed. I couldn't get my mind off of why the game developers put so much extra work into these houses. Why they contained fictional families with fictional stories. I understand game depth, but this seemed like a lot.

"Hold!" Treyhax commanded, raising a hand. The Town Square is at the end of this alleyway. I can see the Town Hall from here. It appears to be guarded."

"What!?" Zak interrupted. "Guarded by what?"

"Come take a look for yourselves."

We peeked our heads forwards to see what could be guarding the entrance. Sure enough, it was another Forsaken Villager, but this one was drastically different. It was a lot larger than the others, probably around three meters tall. It was also armed. All over its body was iron plate armour and in its right hand it wielded a large sword, which was most likely a two-handed sword to a normal person.

"Holy shit, that thing's huge!" Zak said. "That's not even the boss?"

"Not only is its name Forsaken Villager, but it looks nothing like a Witchdoctor." added Swipe.

"Well either way, we need to get through it." I said.

"Kath is right, we have to get through this monster to finish the quest." said Treyhax, finally. "Kathrall, do you think you can tank it alone?"

"I should be fine, but I don't think my Crowd-Control abilities are going to work on it."

"Maces are heavily utility based, correct? I'd imagine you have some form of de-buffing him."

"Yeah, there are two skills I could use. I have which reduces the targets armour for a short period of time and which make one of his limbs immobile."

"Okay, that should work. Zak, you'll be in the front with Kath. Whenever you see an opening, make an attack. Swipe and I will flank from his sides and rear, we'll also take out any mobs that might stumble by. Is everyone ready?"

"Yes!" we all shouted.

"Alright, let's take this big fucker out. Kathrall, lead the way."

I nodded my head and broke from the alleyway, charging towards the massive zombie. As I approached it I noticed something different about this monster... it had two health bars.

"Trey-"

"I see it, Kath." Treyhax interrupted. "Continue with the plan."

I continued to charge at the giant. Eventually it let out a roar that shook even the ground and began charging towards us.

"Swipe, split!" yelled Treyhax, as him and Swipe dashed to the sides of the monster.

The zombie swung its giant sword towards me. I raised my shield and braced for impact. The blow was heavier than anything that had ever come into contact with me. It felt like a mountain was running into me. I tried to hold my ground as the monster unleashed a barrage of attacks on me. With each blow I could feel myself being pushed back more and more. The chain of attacks began to repeat itself over and over.

Three... two... one... NOW!

I jumped to the side, dodging the monsters sword, and readied my mace to use a skill.

"!" I yelled, as I dashed towards the monster. It swung at me again, this time horizontally. I jumped into the air and swung my mace sideways into where the monsters ribcage would be. Shortly afterwards the armour began to crack and an icon of a broken shield began hovering above the monster's head, signalling the de-buff.

"Treyhax, Swipe, Zak, now!" I yelled.

In a flash, Treyhax and Swipe dashed towards the monster and they both began to activate skills.

"!" Treyhax yelled.

"!" followed Swipe.

Treyhax flipped into the air and drove his spear right through where the heart of this monster should have been. Immediately afterwards, Swipe came flying in. Spinning in mid-air, he slashed apart the monsters ribcage where I cracked the armour.

The monster fell to one knee, clutching its side.

"Don't forget about me!" Zak yelled. "!"

Zak jumped into the air and lifted his axe above his head.

"!" he shouted, activating his skill.

He began to bring his axe down with the same deadly force he had last time.

CRASH!

Dust and dirt scattered everywhere from the force of the impact. It was impossible to see anything that was going on. After a couple of seconds the dust settled and I could see Zak and the monster... it was standing there holding the blade of Zak's axe between its hands.

"No way... it caught my attack." Zak mumbled to himself.

I could see the monster begin to wind its leg back, readying for an attack.

"Zak, run!" I yelled.

He sat there, stunned. He must not have been able to believe the strength of the zombie. It finally launched its attack on the motionless Zak. The monster swept its hefty leg into Zak's side and sent him flying into the wall of a building.

"ZAK!"