((OOC:

This thread is now usable for Takua, Raquar, Lyra and Kiwi.

:OOC))

--------Hour One--------


Takua had never thought that The World would give in to a simple zombie attack. Most video games went with something cliché of course, eventually doing something dumb and absolutely unremarkable. Typically zombie attacks figured into that equation, typically some massive apocalypse of some sort. He’d never thought that CC Corp would stoop that low, but it had. The perfectly black sky that played and twinkled with stars. A pall of evil and destruction hung over the town, perfect for the zombies that infested it. Takua hadn’t even known that the event was going to happen in all actuality. He’d just returned from the field and found that the town that he still called home had changed. The black sky had been his first indication, but the low moans from zombies had been the second. He’d turned around in time to see a zombie jump out of the shadows at another player, one who screamed and died as it was overwhelmed. Maybe it was the horror of actually being killed by a zombie.

The sense of impending doom had him glancing around to all sides before he actually figured out what was going on. It was a zombie invasion of Mac Anu, and he was stuck in the middle of it. First things first would be to find allies, and the level one Twin Blade that was being devoured off to the side wouldn’t be any help. He ran from the Chaos Gate platform, unwilling to be stuck there, where all the zombies would end up going to. A bunch of players were milling around below it, all of them confused as packs of zombies walked towards them. The Wavemaster watched as they all fell in a single hit. They were slow, plodding masses of moaning flesh. Hardly appetizing either, as the flesh and blood practically flowed off of them, like a river flowing somewhere. Whatever the level of the player, all it took was a single hit to cause the beast to fall down, dead. However, bigger, more scary looking versions of the zombies in front of him were standing in the back. A few of them were climbing around the walls, jumping from wall to street to wall as if there wasn’t anything stopping them. Even the laws of physics didn’t seem to apply here, the zombies jumped with such grace that Takua was looking for wings.

These monsters didn’t fall nearly as ready, blasting through the half-hearted attempts to stop them before finding their prey. He watched the special zombie rip through a level four in a series of strikes, moving past and dying to the coordinated strikes of several players. Much tougher to kill them. Several more of those monsters shrieked and started to run at the barricades. As he ran towards them he saw that they had names. Revenants. An easy way to differentiate between them and the regular zombies was the fact that they could move, and move quickly. Easy evading the strikes of a low leveled player it slipped past him with only a scratch. The player screamed and a status effect appeared on him.

Great…so they’re making it really cheesy here. If you’re hit they make you into a zombie? That just wonderful, a great way to take down the player count around here. Say…where did these crates come from anyways? I’ve never seen so many crates around here before. Some of them are broken and…that’s odd. A lot of crates are broken out there, vases and other things to. Hey, concentrate. You need to see if there’s anyone that you know here. Who would you know that would be here anyways? Anyone from the Eventide Crescendo? Nemera and Sidhe wouldn’t even be here, and if they were you could be sure that they wouldn’t need help. Raven? Doubt it for some reason, he doesn’t seem the type, and he also wouldn’t need help with this. Centrus? Maybe, but how would I find him anyways? I don’t even know where he’d be. What about people from the AoD? Bane? Maybe…doesn’t seem the type to be on during this fight anyways. Ko_Inuyasha? Well…he probably wouldn’t want or need help from me anyways. What about…Raquar and Sekai. Shit. If they’re in here…they’re trapped! Shit! What happens if they get infected? This must be hell for them, all of this rotting flesh here.

Think now…where would they be? Sekai…the bridge probably. I met Raquar down that side alleyway, so maybe he’s there right now. They’re close enough together that I could check them both from the same place or so. Actually, I can check the bridge from here. Nothing. No arrows, no spells, absolutely nothing but zombies moving over it in search of flesh. Hey…what the? That level one guy isn’t a zombie. He had an item given to him and the status effect went away. Does that mean that you can cure the zombie’s disease? Awesome, this just got a lot fucking better. At least you’re not screwed from a single hit. Wonder if you find them in these crates that are broken everywhere. Well…no time like the present when you have a bunch of people around.

From the looks of it the event had just started though. There were still a lot of people around, and most of the boxes in the area weren’t smashed up. People were still using them as barricades, and the zombies weren’t choking the streets. Given most of the zombie scenarios that had been played out over the years, the hordes gradually got bigger, until eventually the heroes nearly died under the stampeding throng. Either that or they actually died, one or the other. Walking up to a nearby crate that wasn’t part of the barricade he smashed it with one fist, wood flying up around his hands before it broke apart. The crate shattered, the planks falling to the ground with a clunk, a single red sphere left in the center. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew something was wrong. Curing items never looked like something that Vulcan would have blessed with his power, and they were usually medical looking. White was generally the correct color. Not fiery red, a color that looked about ready to explode. He picked it up and tucked it into his inventory all the same, noting that it read as a Rune Sphere in his bag space.

He gazed at the carnage surrounding him before smashing another box. The barricades were useless, he was merely getting rid of the trash to get the goods inside. The box came apart like the one before it, this time the item that was inside was a small white sphere, very much like what a healing item would look like. A small vial with a sloshing white liquid inside, it looked more like a curing item than a baseball sized sphere that looked ready to blow up at a moments notice. Perhaps that was what the sphere was for. He stuffed the vial into his inventory, noting that it was indeed a vaccine; and then he took out his rune sphere. He tossed it into the air above his hand for a second, scanning the crowds of zombies that were on the street. He found a group, a pack of five with a single Revenant behind them all. For a brief second it jumped into the middle of the pack, and Takua threw it. The sphere nailed the zombie dead center in the chest, and in the next second that small baseball sized item exploded. Fire poured over the monsters, immolating them in a second, the flash fire burning the flesh from their bones before dropping those bones to the ground. Rotten flesh sprayed everywhere, flying out of the Vak maelstrom as it wreaked havoc on the group. When all was said and done, the only thing left standing was the Revenant. Said monster was very pissed off, and was exceedingly hurt. Gauging health points with the amount of damage that he could do, Takua selected the appropriate spell.

”GiRue Kruz.”

The ice spell began to form around the charging and hoping zombie, who proceeded to attempt to evade the attack. To say that it didn’t succeed was an understatement. The ice cores sparkled as they drilled into the monster, blood and gore spraying the area as it cried out to the sky. With that cry even more of the monsters rounded the corner, and Takua figured that it was time to leave the area. With so many people there the monsters wouldn’t stop coming, and if the Revenants could call them it would be a very bad thing to remain in one spot. He ran for it, smacking another unbroken vase as he went. It was halfway down the street, and it was beyond him why nobody had crushed it yet. The baseball inside bounced against the ground before rebounding up to him, the pure black glow inside telling him what element it was. Ani. Exactly what he didn’t like. At least if he found Raquar he’d like it. He skidded to a stop by the bridge, a trio of zombies following him as he ran. He was lucky they were slow, but if they called more with their moans…he had to stop them.

The Rai Rom that exploded in their midst set the electrical energy rushing into their rotting bodies. At the first hint of damage the three dropped, the crackling tornado with nothing else to do than to annihilate their bodies. Rai turned back into nothingness as he ran forwards, leaving the bubbling corpses on the ground before they to vanished into grey code. There wasn’t anyone on the bridge other than a horde of zombies. Perhaps twenty of them. The largest group that he had seen so far, and they hadn’t noticed him yet. The moaning was probably distracting them. No spells and no blood came from inside the group, so Takua knew that Sekai wasn’t there, and neither was anyone else. He turned down the side alley to where he had seen Raquar before. Sure enough, the boy was there, with a group of six zombies in front of him. The Revenant that had been with the group was already on the end of the boy’s spear, the life having been taken from it. However, that still left a group of monsters in front of him. Remembering with a shudder the kid’s aversion to Rai he selected the correct spell that would get rid of them and keep Raquar from having a reaction.

The MeGan Rom sprang into being, the double tornado of earth energy encompassing all six enemies. Without the slightest hesitation the rocks began to whip around in a tight circle, the damage going up and up. However, all of the zombies began to drop, their living death taken from them forcefully by the Wavemaster. The rampaging Gan energies spent themselves upon the bodies, ripping them up as they stayed on the ground. He ran up to the Long Arm, noting casually the fairly large stack of bodies in the corner. Had the Long Arm been going on a rampage? It was probable. He grinned as he walked up, blood slicking the stones beneath his feet. His voice was little more than a whisper as he talked. He didn’t want the zombies to know where he was from his voice, and so he had to talk quietly.

”Hey dude…looks like we’ve got zombie trouble. Mind if I join you in this slaughterhouse? Given the way these things keep on coming, it’ll be a while before its safe around here.”

The boy woke without the usual feelings of nausea or without the usually sweat-drenched body. His nap had been actually refreshing. He didn’t know how long it had been since he had actually had a refreshing nap in the city of Mac Anu. His dreams hadn’t been haunted by the giant flaming behemoth for the first time in quite a while. And it felt rather nice. Maybe it was the fact that he was now comfortable within the shadows of Mac Anu. Maybe it was a sign that they were trying to comfort him. Either way, he awoke feeling refreshed and renewed. However, the abnormally eerie dusk that had been befallen the Aqua Capital bode to challenge those feelings.

He had awoken to a strange feeling, one that was vindicated by the purple twilight that the sky of Mac Anu. The sky was slowly darkening, but it didn’t provide the Long Arm with any comfort. The ink that had spread over the sky seemed to blot out all light. It seemed like whoever the hell was doing this wanted them to be blind for whatever the hell was going on. Oh no wait . . . He had to retract his previous statement as small slivers of light appeared in the sky, the very barest of stars twinkling out beneath the blanket of the night sky. Okay, so he wasn’t going to be completely blind, but still, it was pretty damn dark outside.

He stood up idly, wondering what it was that was going on. He hadn’t checked the Boards in quite some time so was ignorant to any new events or the like that might have been happening. Hopefully this was just an event, one sponsored by the CyberConnect Corporation, and not some ill-thought out and idiotic invasion by some member or group somewhere. Hope was essentially all he could do, as there was no real way to tell. He brushed himself off after standing, bits of dust that had settled on him while he was sleeping becoming disturbed. The normally bustling city was deathly quiet, another cue that something abnormal was going on.

He turned around in his ally, surprised to find that the usually . . . well cleared clearing was littered with crates and jars. What was this? He walked over to the closest box and gently probed it with his foot. The wood sank inward, the lightest pressure causing it to bend and twist. He withdrew his foot and viciously stomped down on the crate shattering it, splintering pieces of wood spraying into the air bouncing of walls and embedding in other crates. So these were those “breakable objects” so common to RPG’s. Oftentimes there would be a slew of these objects scattered around a dungeon or area. These were especially common in Special Events, so the presence of such things boded well for the whole IreallyhopethisisanEvent line of thinking.

He looked around the shattered remnants of the crate, hoping to find something, but alas, luck was not with him this . . . break; there was nothing revealed by this crate. It wasn’t a terrible disappointment, there were still two other crates and a quartet of jars in his little alleyway that were simply begging to be broken. Being the considerate and genial fellow that he was, how could he possibly not grant that wish? He grinned, this might actually be some fun. Immediately transporting himself into some old-fashioned horribly dubbed Kung Fu movie, the boy began to prance about, kicks and punches flying freely, strange noises echoing from his mouth with the lip movements not even close to matching. All too soon his little jaunt into the old Kung Fu world was over, the crates smashed and the vases broken. Amidst the carnage of wood and ceramics, there lay three spheres. Two were roughly the size of his fist. They seemed to exude energy, almost seeming to vibrate along with the swirling mass of energy visible through the translucent glass of the spheres. They were red and blue in color. He bent down to retrieve them both when his foot nudged something else, and sent a smaller, milky-white sphere rolling down the alley back toward the magic shop. He hurried after it, snagging it after a few steps. He picked it up, wondering idly what it could be as he headed back toward his little area. When he got back however, he was not alone.

A black Chaos Gate had appeared smack dab in the middle of his clearing, and along with it, a pair of rotting fleshy beasts, unoriginally tagged as zombies. His mouth dropped open, a giant ‘you have got to be kidding me’ look framing his face. He continued to stare stupidly as the things began to shuffle toward him, limbs hanging off in awkward directions and flesh dripping from their rotting limbs. He was still staring in amazement as he swung his spear horizontally, a pair of heads floating into the air before dropping to the ground next to the bodies. His eyes widened even farther in that first moment before collapsing to the ground in a heap of laughter. This had to be an event. There was no way in hell that somebody assaulting the River City would recruit a horde of one-hit killable monsters. This was an event, and it was going to be fun.

His chortles were cut off by the sounds of more shuffling, this time from behind him. He whirled around to find a double trio of the little beasts. Now, he couldn’t just go around beheading them all; that would take all the fun out of it. No, he had to come up with creative fun ways to kill them. Having come to this decision, he performed the poorest attack maneuver a man could perform on a jumble of flesh. He thrusted. Just as expected, the blade of the spear stuck in the rotted jumbling flesh even as the creature drooped lifelessly around the weapon. Now, it was time to initiate Plan FZBoD. He gripped his spear tightly as he snorted out his spell.

”Vak Repulse”

As the tip of his spear heated up, so did the dead zombie perched upon it. The lump of rotten flesh ignited, lighting up his little area. With a roar, he whipped his spear around his body and back toward the approaching zombies. The flaming mass that had once been an enemy flew through the air, crashing into the closest enemy on hand. The enemy struck crumpled before igniting as well. He continued to spin the spear around, watching as another enemy went down in a flaming heap, and another, and another before the last of the molten flesh dripped from the end of his spear and the metal cooled. He had managed to kill five of the zombies with his Flaming Zombie Bludgeon of Doom Technique. He didn’t miss a beat after the last whip of his spear, he simply switched up the direction of the spear, instead of side to side it went down to up cleaving the last zombie in the area in half. As it dropped with two distinct thuds, the grin returned once more to his face. That was the way to make it fun. He chortled to himself as he kicked at the lumps of bodies, slowly moving them into the corner. He stood back and admired his handiwork, an evil green on his face. All together the eight bodies made a very nice looking stack. He began to think that maybe he should take up interior design as a hobby. After all, everybody loved a little rotten flesh wallpaper or dried blood paint.

His reveling was once again cut short by the appearance of yet more monsters. It was now that the real meaning of the event kicked in, it wasn’t the monsters themselves that were hard, it was the sheer number of them. That’s what was going to make this even dangerous. He backed out of the corner toward the mouth of the alleyway, starting back toward the Magic Shop. The zombies this time it seemed, had brought a friend along. Their friend, a Revenant as it were, began to hobble along, much faster than its cohorts. It also displayed another talent as it leaped into the air, landing right in front of the Long Arm. The boy grinned and met the snarling creature with an outstretched hand and a couple of words.

”Rue Kruz.”

Shards of ice began to circle around the creature even as the boy slunk to the right to avoid a downward swipe. The icicles pierced its flesh eliciting a terribly loud gurgle, something the boy assumed would have been a roar of agony or hatred had a rather pretty looking shard of ice not lodged itself in the creature’s throat. He rolled around another swipe, this time getting into position behind the creature. His weapon lashed out, his spear chopping off one of the horrible rotten lumps that the thing was walking on. It twitched and toppled, before another slash severed what was serving as its arm on the opposite side of its body. He walked around to the front of the beast, accompanied by another supposedly life threatening gurgle. A sadistic grin plastered itself on his face as his spear slid through the monster’s chest, ending its horribly painful and gurgling life.

He looked up gripping his spear, only to find that a dervish of huge boulders was completely demolishing the lesser creatures that accompanied him. He stepped back in surprise as a whisper floated over to his ear.

”Hey dude, looks like we’ve got zombie trouble. Mind I if I join you in this slaughterhouse? Given the way these things keep on coming, it’ll be a while before its safe around here.”

The boy turned around to nothing other than the welcome visage of his good friend Takua. His eyes lit up at the sight of the Wavemaster. ”You’re company is more then welcome, why are you talking so – oh.” His question answered itself as the moaning and shuffling of more zombies came from the direction of the Magic Shop. Apparently the things relied mainly on their sense of sound to here, and his voice seemed to carry quite well. Quiet it was then. He turned around, and motioned to start moving backward, away from the zombies and toward the corner where Raquar had first awoken. There was a ladder there that would get them to the rooftops, where they could formulate a plan. He began to sidle backwards, not taking his eyes of the zombies for a moment. That was until, his world pitched upward as he tripped over a previously unseen crate.

He fell backward, landing on his back with an oomph that would most definitely point out his position to the creatures. He had attempted to raise his head when there was an impact on the lower part of his chest knocking the wind from him. He was looking up into the snarling face of a Revenant, one that used his moment of surprise to latch its moldy teeth into his shoulder. He gave a sharp cry as the teeth broke flesh. He used his right hand to beat the side of the thing in his head until it reared up, chunks of his skin hanging loosely from its mouth. He managed to stave off the things repeated attempt at a bite with his left hand as he called out to his fellow clan member. ”Keep the normal ones off of me, I’ll take this hungry little fucker.”

Takua froze as he Long Arm began talking in his usual voice. That of course wasn't the brightest course of action, as moments later the moans of zombies drifted towards them. He knew that the moment they got there it was going to be an annoyingly hard battle, but they'd just have to make the best of it. Raquar began to walk backwards towards a ladder that he hadn't previously seen, apparently planning to head to the roof. That was a great plan, especially because it was highly unlikely that the normal zombies could climb. He'd much rather take out the Revenants one by one than face the hordes of little guys in all actuality. Maybe a little foolish, and he might regret it later, but it was the right thing to do...for now. However, at that moment Raquar tripped over a box that was behind the boy. In the next second a Revenant dropped down from the building, beginning to attack the Long Arm. Takua watched as he was hit with the status effect, but in that moment he had more pressing concerns. A group of zombies rounded the corner in all their groaning glory, each of them hungering for his blood. After nodding to his companion's idea, he stuck his hand into his pocket, noting Raquar's status effect bar. It looked like he was infected, which means that he'd need to be cured.

He held up the vial, the white liquid inside of it swirling around. He quickly turned and chucked it with all his might at the Long Arm, watching it shatter over the bite wound on his shoulder, the medicine quickly sinking in. Now he was down his reserve though, he'd need to find another one once they were done. The seven zombies walking towards him though, they didn't want to wait. Conscious of the Long Arm's preference towards Rai not being used when he was around, the MeGan Rom swiftly found its use again. Targeting the middle of the moaning group, the rock element spell ripped into the group. It was positioned in such a way that the back half of the group would walk into it, and they did. The stone crushed flesh, sending the zombies into the ground. It was so easy to kill them when they were the easy guy. He turned then, trying to see what Raquar was doing.

His left hand had grasped the Revenant’s throat, successfully keeping the damn things teeth away from both his shoulder and his hand while his left hand searched for something, anything to help kill the thing. It was then that his hands found the red sphere that he had found a little earlier. Now was the time to see what it did. Grinning, he shoved the sphere into the things gaping maw. ”Hungry motherfucker? Eat this!” His free hand formed into a fist and he drove it into the sphere clutched in the monster’s mouth. His hand shattered the glass, and the energy erupted.

An explosion of fire broiled outward, completely obliterating the Revenant. The proximity of his body to the sphere meant he caught a direct backlash of the flames, but the sight of the Revenant literally exploding from the force made it well worth it. He clambered to his knees, charred face and sooty clothing. He muttered a Repth as he turned back to the Wavemaster, fresh from demolishing another group of zombies with more big rocks. He motioned for the boy to follow as he led the way back into the corner of the alley and onto a ladder reaching onto the rooftops of the Magic Shop. ”What was the deal with the whole thing you threw at me?”

Takua watched as the Long Arm thrust a Rune Sphere into the mouth of the hungry Revenant, watching carefully for the sign of the Vyrus that might pop up. He scrambled over to the boy as the thing exploded from the inside out. At least he hadn't been infected again. He ran as quietly as he could to the ladder, then stopped when Raquar asked him the question. "Ah, you didn't know? Well...it's a special antidote. The zombies, when they hit you, put a debuff on you. It’s a disease, and if you leave it alone and don't cure it with the vaccine then you turn into a zombie. At that point you have to be cured. You can cure it yourself before it takes effect though, which is helpful."

His eyes bulged at what the Wavemaster had spoken. ”Turning into a zombie?” He swallowed as he held up the white sphere. ”That what these things are for then?” He followed Tak up the ladder and onto the roof with his nod. Nudging the boy aside, the Long Arm clambered onto the roof to see what was going on below. Mac Anu was embroiled in Chaos. Throngs of zombies shuffled around the city, hunting players or straining those miserable lumps of flesh they called ears in an attempt to feast upon miserable hunks of flesh. His fingers twirled around his last “’Splosion Sphere” as he called it, watching flashes of lights and hearing the screams of players getting swept into the hungering monstrosities. He turned back toward his friend. ”I think, unless its absolutely important, the best way to communicate might be through the use of flashmails. If we stay close, whispering shouldn’t be an issue, but if we get even a sizeable distance from each other, we don’t want to risk the noise.”

After going up on the roof he looked down upon Mac Anu. Raquar was ahead in front of him, twirling a sphere in his hands as he looked down. Looking down himself, the streets below had small gangs of zombies everywhere. There weren't a ton...yet. That would come later, once the number of players had died down, once most of them had died. He listened to the whisper, then nodded, leaning backwards from the edge. Then he got an idea. "Hey Raquar...think about this. If they're attracted to noise...how much noise do you think a Vulcan Ch would put out? And if we used it at the right location...how much of a distraction could we make?" He sat down on the rooftop, lazily drawing his Starstorm Wand and putting it on the ground. "Also...I don't think that zombies can climb. Only the Revenants can do that. So we can nuke the shit out of them all day from up here."

The boy grinned yet again in this little event. This was getting to be a lot of fun. ”I think you may be on to something. If we launch a big enough spell . . . We could likely nuke the living shit out of some of the zombies and distract the others. I like it. Good thinking man. Oh, and incidentally, I’m at ten kills, you?”

"Well...it was seven back there, and I got rid of a Revenant and another five...so I'm at thirteen? Unlucky thirteen...unlucky for them. Say though...if we start getting swarmed by those damn Revenants? We take a hike and find some more destructible objects. Also...if necessary we could probably try hiding in a building, or finding more allies. Have you seen Sekai anywhere?"

That sounded like a sound plan to the Long Arm, though he started at the mention of the name. ”Sekai? No I haven’t and I hope that I don’t. Hopefully she has enough sense to stay away from this place. No need to put herself in any extra danger, who knows what this Vyrus would do to our bodies.”

Takua looked shocked at what Raquar said. He hadn't even thought about that. He had to keep Raquar uninfected from the vyrus. "Right....Good point. First off though, I'm seeing a couple more breakables over there. If there's a vaccine...I get it!" With that he made a mad rush towards the several crates that he saw. There wasn't much noise involved, there usually wasn't when a robe was involved in the running. He reached the crates and broke them all, staring at what they had gotten. Two of the crates had nothing in them, absolutely nothing. Takua felt about as robbed as a two cent whore when their customer leaves them hanging. The only reason that he didn't feel so bad was that in the third and fourth crate were two vaccines. Two rescues from a zombie fate. He looked at the final vase that he had broken, a single Gan sphere residing in it. Given that he would be the one nuking everything, he grabbed it, stuffing the items into his inventory. He made an inspection of the amount of zombies around the rooftop. They were heaviest out on the main street of course, and so he started his plan there. He waved Raquar over to him though, needing to tell him something. "The moment we start getting Revenants on here, let me know if I don't already know. If we get to many, we start moving along the rooftops."

With that, he prepared his wand, leaning over the edge. There was a swarm of a good fifteen zombies crowding around a fresh kill, and although Takua felt something about defiling a corpse, it was far outweighed by the sheer pleasure of slaughtering zombies. A moment later the Vulcan Ch came into action. He had the option of customizing it, so he did. Instead of the usual appearance he changed it, molding it to his will. Within moments it began to happen. With a bubbling fury the ground beneath their feet began to melt, the heat from the summon just starting to affect the area. A ring of fire surrounded the monster, the scorching heat killing the few that touched it. Power glowed from the disk, the edges crackling with solid Vak energy. Then it exploded, the Vak power slicing and incinerating everything within a sphere of its influence. With a sudden scream the monsters all died, their shouts and moans silenced by the power of Vulcan. All that was left were a series of black marks on the ground, a ground that was rapidly proving itself to be molten. The black was swiftly swallowed by the molten stone that surfaced, light reflecting up at the sky. Takua looked down as the explosion blew past him, the sound easily echoing in this part of Mac Anu. He grinned, the massive smile on his face looking down at the destruction that he caused. It would have been more beautiful had it been Merrows or Lanceor...but something just seemed right about burning zombies. He giggled, turning to Raquar with a massive smile on his face. "Uhhhh...maybe that was a bit louder than intended...shall we get away from here?"

The Long Arm had been prepared for Vulcan, but for this? The alley where Tak had cast his spell was completely torched, the charred remains of a huge chunk of zombies barely visible. The air was still warm and the boy wouldn’t have been surprised if every single thing, person or zombie in Mac Anu had heard that explosion. ”Probably not a bad idea.” He grinned rather sadistically once again. ”That was fun wasn’t it?” They had begun to creep along the rooftop of the Magic Shop toward the center of town, but apparently their festivities had attracted the attention of just a couple monsters. With the sound of breaking shingles, a pair of Revenants crashed onto their rooftop, one in front of them and one in back. He shot a glance at the Wavemaster. ”If Rai spells will make this easier, use ‘em, just try to give me some forewarning first.”

Takua began to regret using the loud spell once the two bunny-hopping monsters popped up onto the roof. Revenants were incredibly annoying, their movement made them hard to hit without a Rom spell. The best spell he had for this would be a GiRai Rom...but Raquar was there. He was afraid to use the spells of Rai after the last time that they had actually been in a group together, but if he said to use them...it just had to be a ways out of his way. "Well...it would make it easier really. I have a Stormlore, which increases my damage. So...if you really don't mind, as long as you aren't close to it I'll use it. So just don't get close if I've got the Wand of Storms out. I won't touch the thing with Rai if you're close by. So, you take one, I'm marking my target with a Ani Don, just for you." With that he did like he said he would do, the Ani Don falling on a Revenant. The thing screamed at him, as the ball of darkness had managed to hit it from above. It was with a cruel grin that he pulled out the Wand of Storms, watching to make sure that Raquar was out of the way.

The boy nodded his agreement, watching as Tak turned and hit the Revenant behind him with the marker. Wanting to put as much distance between the two of them as possible, he charged the rooftops, splintering shingles on his way to the Revenant in front of him. The noise would probably draw more attention, but, in such circumstances, he would much rather fight a few more monsters than face that again. The creature almost seemed to be expecting him, as it leaped, clearing the boy’s charged and landing with a crack onto the roof behind him. Without looking, he leveled his hand behind him speaking two words.

”Gan Don.”

He turned around just in time to see the creature crushed by a large boulder, bits of flesh splattering out from the stone. An arm flopped off to the side as he crept over to the pinned Revenant, driving his spear through its head with a sort of “glorp” sound. The rock was gone by now, but nobody could move well with a crushed chest cavity and a splattered face. He took a couple of steps forward, placing his feet on either side of the where the things ribs would be. ”Not so tough are we now pretty boy. Not so tough with various chunks of flesh missing, not so tough without a mouth that functions normally. Not so tough now that – YOU MOTHERFUCKER!” The last was elicited as an ear-shattering roar, something that had been caused by the set of teeth now shackled onto the boy’s nose.

The darkness rock crashed into the zombie, crushing against the ground for a second. It didn't kill it, instead it just damaged it, the darkness washing over it. How was a zombie damaged by darkness anyways? That didn't make much sense. Even still, it did damage, and it also put it off balance. A moment later he began the real spell. "GiRai Rom." Electricity exploded into movement around the Revenant, the Rai spell shredding it alive. Burning flesh crackled and hissed, blood burning in the heat of the electric power. The creature dropped to the ground, and he looked towards Raquar. He saw the teeth grab on, and he swore, running towards the two. He swapped back out for the Adian's wand, remembering Raquar's like of Ani. He didn't like it himself but if it helped the boy? He'd use it. "Ani Don." The darkness sphere warped space and time, the massive skull falling with a grin on its face into the ground. The darkness splashed up around the two, and he used his healing gear. "La Repth." That would take care of their injuries, but not the status effect. He snagged the vaccine from his pocket and used it on the Long Arm, watching as the vyrus went away.

The electricity crackling behind him was quite unsettling, but after a moment he managed to work through it. He scratched at his nose as the darkness vaporized the creature that had assaulted him.. The thing had grabbed onto his nose. What kind of attack was that? Granted, he had probably brought that upon himself with all the taunting, but still, his nose? He grunted as he nodded his thanks to the Wavemaster, tossing him the small white container he had found earlier. ”Here.” He turned around, footing carefully around the broken pieces of shingles on the rooftop. He crouched and slid closer and closer to the edge, stopping before a single vase at the edge of the roof. Down below him, there were a couple of straggling zombies shuffling about, looking for something to sink their teeth into. He would give them that something. He reached down inside the vase, hand scratching around until he found something circular inside. He withdrew the Sphere inside.

It was the same size as the blue one he still had in his inventory, this one containing a swirling brown mass. He now had a Rue Sphere and a Gan Sphere in his inventory. Based on the explosion that the Vak one had made when shattered, he imagined that they were best used in crowded clumps of enemies. He looked down, noting that a pair of zombies had stopped directly below him, and were looking around frantically for the source of the sounds that they heard. With a small nudge the boy tipped the vase. It tumbled downward, right onto the skulls of the two zombies, spraying them with sharp pieces of ceramic. He looked back at his partner and grinned. ”Oops.”

Takua watched as Raquar killed a few more zombies with a few stray ceramic shards. They were so easy to kill. It was like they had less than one health point. Like...anything could kill them. Maybe landing on them could do the same thing. He was brought back to reality when Raquar spoke, a grin crossing his face. "Something like that anyways. Say...while the masses of zombies are still relatively low...want to have fun? I'm thinking of dancing...on a mat made of zombie heads. Care to join me?"

”Why not? But I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you demolish this here building as we jump onto the crowd of Zombies. Let’s blow some more shit up. The more we blow up, the more we attract and therefore, the more we kill.” He hung his feet over the ledge of the roof. ”Ready when you are.”

"More wanton destruction while the night is young? I like it. We won't be able to do this later when the going really gets wild, because in every damn zombie invasion they start to swarm. So alright, sounds good. There's a crowd just over the edge to...looks to be a bunch of zombies. Awesome. Yarthkins." He chucked himself off the building, his wings unfurling as he did so. The demon bat wings flew towards the sky, slowing his descent for a second before he put them away. He slammed to the ground in the midst of a crowd of zombies, and then it was time to dance. Behind him Yarthkins took shape, what looked like a battle troll materialized on the roof. Barely clothed at all except for the loincloth that was on his waist, the bulging mountain of flesh and granite roared. It was almost as if Kirby had appeared in Mac Anu, as the troll drew a club from nothing but air. Utilizing the properties of hammerspace for his club, the toll smashed the granite slab into the buildings roof. With a thunderous crash the building's roof fell in, the walls exploding outwards or caving inwards from the roof's collapse. The flying slabs sliced through a crowd of zombies, the zombies either pancaking or just being cut in half. It was time for some fun.

The Long Arm leaped off the roof as the beast materialized where he had been a few moments before. Using a blatant rip-off of “HULK SMASH” the embodiment of Yarthkins slammed its club down into the building sending bits of wood and rotting flesh spinning through the air. He landed with a crunch on the skull of one zombie driving it to the ground as the summon disappeared. He looked upward to see the slowly downward spiraling figure of Takua his wings outstretched. Bastard even had to make falling look good.

It was an obnoxiously clear evening in Mac Anu as Lyra and Kiwi wandered the cobblestone streets, the girl's steel-toed boots echoing well above the footsteps of her boyfriend's beside her. The past few weeks since receiving the legendary (in her mind, at least) items from him had gone wonderfully, and she was extremely happy at the prospect of spending another day with him, doing what they did best: win Special Events.

Despite her clear smile, there was a certain note of sadness in Lyra's words as she discussed theories about the impending event with Kiwi. Her in character children had wanted so badly to join them for the hunt, and she couldn't allow them to. Her account was still under surveillance by the administration, ever since the (rather obvious) revelation of her status as a hacked character in the tournament five months earlier. The watch would supposedly be up within the next few weeks, but she didn't believe that for a moment; she never trusted staff members. So, Nekkiko had made a few calls and a few Flashmails on other people's accounts, and in the end she'd arranged for Xantos and Jeri to go do whatever that day's event was (she hadn't really been paying attention to the brief description on the BBS) with her new friend Sekai. Presumably, sooner or later she'd get a similar request in return, and so she'd warned Kiwi to expect some random players to be accompanying them.

He seemed far less concerned with the idea of extra teammates and far more concerned with the fact they needed to stock up on items. Resurrects were first on the menu (because Lyra said so) since neither had any reviving abilities to call their own. The Speed Charms were a relatively easy choice... they didn't really need them, since Lyra had Ap Do, but it was more of a convenience thing, what with the vixen's horrid tendency to use all her SP within the first fifteen seconds of battle. This event would be going on for seven hours (Nekkiko looked around the desk from beneath her headset... yes, there were plenty of energy drinks to keep her going) and so there was a very real chance she'd be out of SP at least once. Which of course prompted her partner to purchase a round of Mage's Souls, for both their sakes; SP was a precious commodity for heavy classes.

It was the Bloods they argued over. After the first ten minutes or so, Lyra became very glad that the game allowed multiple people to use the purchasing interface at once, or else they would have had an angry line forming behind them within that time. She'd never seen the point of using the stat increasing items, instead viewing them as a waste or source of money, depending on whether they were coming from or going to the shop. It wasn't that she minded having her attack stat raised even further, she just figured that time wasted using the items was time she could have been slaughtering something. The items had their place in PvP, but not in any monster battles. Kiwi, on the other hand, was rather fond of giving himself every advantage he could possible muster, and stat increases were definitely on that list. In the end they compromised (meaning that Lyra played the “it's my money, we'll spend it how I want to” card) and just bought a few each for magic and physical attack. It was obvious that Kiwi had stopped expecting her to remember which one did which after the fourth time she mixed the names up, and he just called them by their respective stats.

“That's what the damned game should have done to begin with. I mean, how hard is it to just label the item “Physical Attack Up” or even “Physical Attack Blood”? Or even call it the same name as the spell for it. Though I can't keep track of those, either, but they're nice enough to put the little description on the menu, so that's okay.” Lyra was rambling, and that meant that she needed something to kill, and the sooner the better. She checked her clock, sighing in frustration at the fact that they had over an hou remaining to wait before the event actually began.

Fortunately, her Flashmail icon beeped, saving her from the monster called boredom for a few precious seconds.

Lyra ripped the member addresses from the Flashmail and turned to Kiwi. “We've got our n00bs,” she announced, forwarding the mail to him. “'Look after'... Probably lower levels. You willing to have a go?” he nodded, and she replied, assuring Sekai that that would be no problem. For someone so bold in person, Sekai seemed horribly shy over mail. 'Maybe it was just that one way was her speaking aloud and the other was her typing?' she thought as she hit send. It was quite easy to be far more confident with your typing than with your speaking, so the stammering had a logical source.

“I'll drop them a line about fifteen minutes before the event,” she decided. They had basically one hour, exactly, to kill before then, so she started debating a trip to the Pawn Shop to fill up the time. Sure, she had this... well, there was no way to describe the Mimiru's Sword except gorgeous... so she had this gorgeous new rare weapon that apparently had uber critical hit points built in, but her armor was now far below her level. “Hey honey, do you have any armor I could borrow for the event?” she asked, wanting to save money for now.

Kiwi seemed highly distracted by something behind her, though, so she turned to see, ready to make some joke about needing to make her character model hotter. “C'mon, it was just a simple question. What's so interesting you can't even answer me?”

“Isn't the event supposed to start in an hour?” He was pointing to an approaching hoard (troupe? band? there was only a dozen or so, not hundreds...) of what could only be construed as zombies.

Oh. Shit. Maybe she should have checked the time zone on that event notice; it was clear that now was zombie-slaying time, not an hour from now as she'd previously thought. “Don't they have some sort of warning system for these things? You know, an alarm or something five minutes before the event begins?”

“Apparently not...”

She frowned, then grinned with a shrug. “Guess it's time to start killing things, then!”

“Not so fast.” His hand was on her shoulder, holding her back and making her pout. “I'm willing to bet there are other people who didn't realize the event was starting now, if at all. Let's head back to your apartment and wait it out. We can take advantage of the confusion to hide without being spotted. Players will group together and hide in specific areas, so the zombies will tend to gather in those areas, and away from us.”

“But whyyyy?” She really, really wanted a fight.

“We have better chances of winning if we avoid contact with the zombies, rather than fighting them head-on. Combat is only a means of survival, it's not a way to win, because they have practically infinite numbers.”

Grudgingly she agreed, looking off in the direction of the ever-so-slowly advancing crowd of decaying hominids. “Well, if the top floor's not safe from zombies, I don't know what is.”

They worked their way through the street and across the bridge back toward the Elf's Haven, which was the closest major landmark to the fox's in-game apartment. It had some form of address, but for the life of her Lyra had never remembered what it was. Instead she just knew the way and lead Kiwi along behind her.

The zombies erupted in front of them before they knew what was going on, which meant that Lyra's Moumokuteki had been out and through the first one's torso before she even knew what she was attacking. The fact that it fell so easily both alarmed her and made her grin at once; one hit K.O.s were a fun thing. Kiwi stared for a second, as if to ask what had just happened, then raised an eyebrow at her. She offered a grin as she turned around and quickly took out two more within a couple yards of her, then decided the next closest group was a few too many to launch in to.

“Come on, let's go.” Kiwi urged, now being the one to lead the way.

The group they ran into soon after, about a block away from the bridge, wasn't made of monsters. The minor flood of lower level players that charged past was an obstacle all of its own. For a moment Lyra lost sight of Kiwi when no less than six enormous Heavy Axe avatars got between them, which, coupled with the noise, pissed her off enough to raise her voice past the limits her microphone was willing to tolerate. Whether it was her outburst or the accompanying static noise that made the closest newbies part and let her through, she wasn't sure, but part of her hoped she could use the trick on the zombies later.

There was another eyebrow raise waiting for her as she met Kiwi at the edge of the mob and took his hand. “Can I have a new microphone for my birthday?” She smiled, fluttering her eyelashes, and then dragging him on down the alleyway that started beside the Elf's Haven.

Once in her apartment, she popped open the main window and hung out it, looking down the river toward the main square. “There's a slaughter and I'm missing it,” she whined, plopping down on the big purple couch that filled most the wall. “How are we gonna kill time here, anyway? Can we plot zombie death? Can we make bile bombs?”

Kiwi came over to look out the window as well, standing next to her. “The announcement said that the zombies rely on their sensitive hearing. I suggest we stay down, avoid letting them hear us, though I should go find the rest of our team first.” He stepped back, pulling her back with him and closing up the window.

“Rest of- Oh, right. The n00bs Sekai's sending over.”

"Right. I'll go find Takua and Raquar and bring them here. Send them a Flashmail and ask them to go to the apartment, maybe figure out where they are. You asked me about armor before. I don't have anything that would really make a difference here. We need to evade, not fight. Equip your Time Headband, it'll raise your physical evasion considerably."

She nodded, composing the Flashmail quickly and sending it off.

“Sent,” she announced, looking up at Kiwi. He nodded, pausing in a way that let her know he was checking his items before he ran out the door and on outside.

Now she got to wait, which was just her favorite thing in the whole world. She sighed, turning around and leaning back out the window to watch the action.

The Heavy Blade gazes into the sky, witnessing the surrender of the final remnants of day to the expansive night. The time has come for another event. Kiwi wanders in the company of Lyra, quietly mulling over details and strategies. The atmosphere carries the sounds of frenzied preparations and last minute alliances. She briefly draws him from his thoughts as she nuzzles his shoulder and glances aside. He smiles, her presence welcome at his side, then goes on to share his perspective on everything. He knows her enough to sense the subdued sadness in her responses, but decides not to mind for the time being, focusing on the present. On that thought, he reminds her of the need for items.

Kiwi guides her through a list of items he cooked up. She immediately pipes in, giving Resurrects the greatest priority. He agrees, mostly because he overlooked the chance of being disabled and unable to do the job himself. The rest of his choices revolve around their limited SP. The Speed Charms are their escape route in case they need to save on magic and run. He dedicates more than half their money to the essential Mage’s Soul. Their SP falls dramatically beneath their needs, in his opinion, but the administrators saw fit to burden them. Kiwi sulks, though the frustration soon subsides. Instead, the two players argue over the last of his recommendations. The series of Blood potions are supposed to ensure that they have strengthening spells even if they run out of magic. Certainly, she has a point. The BBS announcement assured players that the zombies would be relatively weak. Even the stronger Revenants would be no match for them, so the Bloods would seem unnecessary. Still, he suspects that there could be surprises in store for them. Minutes later, the bird and the fox manage a compromise of sorts. That means he gives in without further questions, and she does him the favor of buying some of the controversial potions.

“That's what the damned game should have done to begin with. I mean, how hard is it to just label the item “Physical Attack Up” or even “Physical Attack Blood”? Or even call it the same name as the spell for it. Though I can't keep track of those, either, but they're nice enough to put the little description on the menu, so that's okay.” rants Lyra. He got used to pairing item effects and names by now. Or so he thinks, going over them one more time. The Wizard Blood strikes him as the elixir that would increase magical attack power, but as he finds out, the Hermit Blood covers that role, and the Wizard Blood raises magical accuracy. Of course. At least spells have an obvious pattern.

“We've got our n00bs.” she announces, forwarding a Flashmail to him. Kiwi blinks, briefly confused by the statement. It takes a moment for its meaning to register.

“'Look after'... Probably lower levels. You willing to have a go?” He nods. The two names sound familiar enough, his mind churning through memories of various players. Inside, it’s like a librarian is riding across the length of a vast corridor on his wheeled ladder, rapidly glancing over the titles before his eyes. The search finally comes across the two names. Kiwi met both of them in another event in the recent past. Raquar was assigned to his team and seemed to be an effective player, while Takua joined them later. A Long Arm and a Wavemaster respectively, if he remembers correctly. This definitely benefits the team.

“I'll drop them a line about fifteen minutes before the event.” says Lyra. Enough planning for now. He nods and gives his mind a rest, leaving the rest of the strategizing for later. His eyes follow the distant movement of players apparently sparring with one another. Slowly, he freezes in place, his gaze fixed on the activity.

“Hey honey, do you have any armor I could borrow for the event?” His jaw clenches unconsciously and he suddenly shifts a little closer, eyes moving from player to player.

“C'mon, it was just a simple question. What's so interesting you can't even answer me?” Kiwi physically hears her speaking, but his brain delays the translation of her words to concepts for a few seconds. All of its resources were devoted to other affairs. He indirectly answers her question.

“Isn't the event supposed to start in an hour?” he remarks, pointing at the first of many waves of zombies they would see today. More importantly, his mind struggles to explain the mismatch between their expected starting time and the current situation. Time zones, perhaps? It doesn’t matter, Kiwi concludes, shoving such concerns away. The reality is the zombies are here.

“Don't they have some sort of warning system for these things? You know, an alarm or something five minutes before the event begins?”

“Apparently not...” he states dryly.

“Guess it's time to start killing things, then!”

“Not so fast.” He reaches for her shoulder, knowing the vixen could rush into the fray on a whim. It’s hard for him to do this to her, but they have to carefully balance their instincts against success. “I'm willing to bet there are other people who didn't realize the event was starting now, if at all. Let's head back to your apartment and wait it out. We can take advantage of the confusion to hide without being spotted. Players will group together and hide in specific areas, so the zombies will tend to gather in those areas, and away from us.”

“But whyyyy?” She whines and pouts. He feels guilt spread its tendrils in his chest.

“We have better chances of winning if we avoid contact with the zombies, rather than fighting them head-on. Combat is only a means of survival, it's not a way to win, because they have practically infinite numbers.”

“Well, if the top floor's not safe from zombies, I don't know what is.” says Lyra, longingly watching the zombies still in the distance. She guides him to her apartment, weaving through the streets and crossing the river to reach its area. As they move, he takes care to observe the surroundings, searching for distinctive buildings or features that might guide him back to the apartment later. Along the way, an undead figure leaps towards Lyra and brings them to a sudden stop. Kiwi barely has enough time to register the beast being impaled, raising an eyebrow at her lightning-fast reaction. The creature falls, fortunately, because otherwise it could have struck right there. She grins and swoops ahead, taking out another two that stand in the way. Then she glances to a nearby group dispensing a larger wave.

“Come on, let's go.” Kiwi urges, leading her along now. He works off the directions she mentioned earlier during their wandering. Soon after, they face another obstacle, in the form of players stampeding either into or away from battle. Pushing through, he wonders which of the two answers could be the case. Lyra disappears among the players, though he reasons she can handle this on her own, a conclusion instantly confirmed by the shriek of her voice and static fused together. He sighs under the noise, needles encroaching on his ears. The novices let her through, and frankly, who wouldn’t? His eyebrow arcs naturally as she nears him and he takes her hand.

“Can I have a new microphone for my birthday?” She smiles, fluttering her eyelashes. Clever as always, she certainly knows how to erode his defenses. The two retreat between some buildings near the Elf’s Haven and find her residence. Kiwi paces slowly through the rooms, taking in the feeling of being in her personal space. He spots her opening a window facing the town and considers the risk of being noticed. Another dilemma of the mind versus the heart, he decides to leave her be this time.

“There's a slaughter and I'm missing it.” she whines, dropping onto a big purple couch. He remains quiet as he looks around the room, knowing he has to leave again soon. “How are we gonna kill time here, anyway? Can we plot zombie death? Can we make bile bombs?”

Taking advantage of her window, Kiwi studies the situation outside, gauging the atmosphere. He composes his thoughts and responds: “The announcement said that the zombies rely on their sensitive hearing. I suggest we stay down, avoid letting them hear us, though I should go find the rest of our team first.”

He parts from the window and pulls her back carefully, closing the window. Leaving it open could permit their sounds to spread out and attract zombies.

“Rest of- Oh, right. The n00bs Sekai's sending over.” Kiwi wishes she wouldn’t call them that, given his experience with them. It’s not a personal matter, though, just the manner she expresses herself. He could hopefully change her perspective on them soon.

“Right. I'll go find Takua and Raquar and bring them here. Send them a Flashmail and ask them to go to the apartment, maybe figure out where they are. You asked me about armor before. I don't have anything that would really make a difference here. We need to evade, not fight. Equip your Time Headband, it'll raise your physical evasion considerably.”

“Sent.” she confirms a few seconds later. Kiwi smiles, assured that he can depend on her to help his through this event. Lyra definitely deserves the rare equipment that he strived so long to find for her. A series of menus appear in his view. After considerable practice, the interface is almost an extension of his very consciousness. His mind commands his fingertips into pressing the various shortcut key sequences that he has inscribed in memories. He follows his own advice and switches his head armor to the Time Headband, then inspects his equipment one more time. Lastly, he checks the current time and configures the interface to clock the time elapsed since the event began.

The timer reads: 0:11:03

“The seven hour siege…” he thinks, waving at Lyra before heading out.

Wooden crates have been raining down on Mac Anu since the zombies first made their appearance. The boxes occupy two feet to each side, a perfect cubic shape. It’s a live action Tetris game throughout the city, and the mysterious forces at work have no respect for doors or streets. Kiwi witnesses the problem firsthand as he leaves the apartment, only to find the entrance cluttered with boxes. Rather than reduce the four-foot barrier to splinters, which would be loud, he takes a moment to climb onto and walks across the top.

He peeks around the corner cautiously, once certain that there are no zombies nearby, runs counter to the center of the city. As Kiwi explained earlier, the zombies will tend to cluster where the players are causing the most noise. The center presents an open area with no cover, an attractive target, and the flood of naïve players searching for action will be drawn there to fight zombies, which in turn attracts more zombies in a vicious circle. He intends to loop around the center by moving east, then south to the river, and west to avoid leading zombies back to the apartment as he would if he walked straight into the battle. The extra effort should save him trouble in the end. Squeezing between buildings, he comes across an open square devoid of zombies. He would usually avoid going through such a place, but a specific feature draws his attention: crates, everywhere.

Kiwi draws on his imagination and pictures blocks sliding together to form curious works. The opportunity is too good to pass up. The assignment to find Raquar and Takua can wait just enough for him to complete his grand scheme. He thinks big and surveys the area for building materials, a grin forming on his lips. Besides, it'll be easier to find them when there are fewer people in the way. It's not long before he has an inventory of every block at his disposal within a comfortable radius. Three nearby buildings provide an alley about three meters wide in which to work and add support to the structure. A large amount of crates had already accumulated there, adding to the convenience.

“Ap Do” whispers Kiwi. It's a calculated move on his part. The spell lasts exactly four minutes, allowing him to expend every second more efficiently. Each block is heaved into place deliberately to create an alternating pattern for greater stability. Words like bunker, tower, fortress, and headquarters run through his mind as he ponders the final design. A proper name is absolutely critical, too. By the time his speed returns to normal, his SP is back to its peak and he simply repeats the chant.

The building starts to take shape under his meticulous guidance, developing into a solid pillar with no windows. Three layers of consecutive crates render the wooden front resilient against attacks. Boxes inside the structure are stacked into a staircase to simplify the process of carrying them to higher levels. Assembling the tiers to hold the stairs and a ceiling proves to be more difficult. He pushes away any thoughts of heights as he climbs the stairs with container after container, though accidents are inevitable. Shattered remains litter the center floor. Dwindling supplies slow the construction.

“Ap Do. No... bunker won't do. Too bland...” he mumbles, lifting another crate to his chest. Slowly, the pained droning reaches his ears. It begins as a dull murmur and steadily rises to a groaning chorus. He should have realized the noise would bother his neighbors. The first rounds the corner into the alley. Kiwi comes upon the monster of approximately human proportions, though the resemblance ends there. The flesh shows open wounds in random areas, a slew of primitive bites and cuts, exposing thickened blood like molasses that hardly oozes out. Its limbs are stiff, rigid, well on their way to dysfunction. He glances back towards the wooden fortress and eyes his sword and jacket resting on some crates. They had to be put aside earlier so that he could work more easily. His first visitor nears him and his entourage of disfigured friends starts to appear. Sighing, he swings the crate in his arms into the Zombie's face.

“Look at what you made me do...” he remarks, mourning the loss as the container shatters while brutally collapsing its skull. It's evident that these creatures lack in durability, though their numbers certainly pose a threat. Kiwi steps over the crumpled body and analyzes the situation. They have him essentially boxed into the alley, but the narrow space limits the number of Zombies that can attack him at once, and reduces the importance of their sheer numbers. He doesn't see any weapons on them, so their only means of infecting him would be at close range.

He steps briskly towards his trusty Moumokuteki, taking the weapon firmly in his grasp, then calmly meets the approaching wave. The blade slices in a sideways arc that enters through the ribs and leaves at about the stomach. The second Zombie collapses and becomes a brief obstacle to its brethren as its data fades. He swings rhythmically, back and forth, restraining the horde to an imaginary line denoted by the reach of his sword and the dead. Five, ten, fifteen... the last of the surge march to the foreground. One of them seems to improve upon the performance of its peers by waiting instead of lunging blatantly into Kiwi’s weapon. It notices the period of his swings and dives forward the moment the obsidian blade is moving away. Its mouth opens abnormally wide, ragged hands grasping firmly at his right bicep.

Kiwi immediately steps back to put some distance between himself and the remaining undead. The monster attached to his arm refuses to surrender its catch, even pulling back against his movement. The others sense the opportunity and desperately stagger closer. He stays cool and drops his sword, tucking his right arm into his chest and reaching over with his left arm. He grabs the Zombie hard by the shoulder and pulls fast, turning while his left boot catches its leg. The creature drops with a thump and groans loudly, joining the deafening clatter of his sword bouncing on the cobblestones. The full weight of his boot slams down an instant after and its skull pops, leaving a wet splatter. Innumerable arms seem to explode into the scene. They shove each other aside in an effort to reach him.

Had he been wearing his jacket, they would have had an easier time catching him. Fortunately, Kiwi chose to leave his jacket behind for this very reason. He steps back and hastily reaches under the numerous limbs, taking his weapon back, feeling rough fingertips grazing his back on the way out. Unleashing a roar (a mistake in retrospect), he plows through the Zombie ranks with his blade. The results are both spectacular and horrendous, dark red globules splashing out in the ensuing moments. The monsters fold over at chest height and strike the ground. The view across the narrow corridor becomes clear. Although the battle is won for now, the noise is bound to attract attention.

He begins to stride back to the tower when the city gives signs of life. The gentle sound of boots nears the corridor at a casual walk. It contrasts the obvious discord produced by his previous guests. Kiwi reaches for his jacket this time, knowing that he needs to leave soon. The presence comes close enough to be within sight. He turns and instinctively tightens the grip on his sword, feeling his blood turning frigid for a second. Gazing upon the contorted features, he recognizes the bipedal grotesque as different from the generic undead meat. Another player stands before him, donning an armor made of a smooth iridescent green undergarment and dark leather plates strung to cover his chest, shoulders, and arms. His legs show a similar style down to the knees, and he wears matching green anklets near his bare feet and steel knuckles. Though twisted by his infection, the player retains a trace of his humanity amidst the distorted flesh. It's this that leads Kiwi to lower his weapon and extend his right hand.

“Hey, can you hear me? Let's get out of here and I'll find you a Vaccine.” says Kiwi, his voice calm. The player stares at him momentarily, his head listing at an unnatural angle. The possessed creature, endowed with surprising agility, strikes him with enough power to throw him into a pile of crates behind them. His eyes widen for a moment and the system registers the resulting damage. He lifts himself quickly and clutches his side. The player wastes no time in charging in for another blow. He thinks, reaching out to grab the gruesome arm and heaving the monster head-first into a crate with his own momentum. A jarring howl echoes through the city as Kiwi pins the monster down under his boot and drives his sword into his back. The armor muffles the crushing blows and he flails wildly, clawing around in desperation. He somehow twists his body under the foothold and slides out, leaping back onto his feet.

Kiwi jumps back and puts some distance between himself and the undead, who provides a hint as to the source of his flexibility. The creature presses on his left limb with the right, ushering a soft pop as the shoulder locks into place, then performs an encore with some of his vertebrae. Kiwi raises an eyebrow at the whole ritual. The howl was no doubt heard by other monsters, he suspects. Another strike rushes towards him and he sidesteps, giving the Moumokuteki a fluid swing through the air. The conclusion is disgusting, if not elegantly morbid, cold metal slicing through numerous muscle groups and ringing at the touch of bone. The walking corpse slumps against his shoulder, its forehead hanging into his chin with half the base of its neck slashed clean through. Behind him, the red brick wall cries as fissures spread out. In front of him, a crimson streak lines the ground, small droplets trickling from his blade. He can see a pulsing violet scratch just above where the armor ends, perhaps the site of the first infection. Finally, he pushes the player just enough for gravity to take over. The body buckles at the knees and forms into a heap. Kiwi waves the Moumokuteki to clean the blade before sheathing it over his shoulder.

Rapid keystrokes raise the clock in his interface: 0:54:17

Out of time. He remembers that Takua and Raquar are still somewhere in the Water Capital. The amount of zombies that prowl the streets will only increase every hour. Unfortunately, the tower will have to stay incomplete, its ceiling halfway done and no battlements to decorate the top. In light of meeting a zombified player, he opts against setting up a makeshift flag or sign outside. It could draw their attention. A few more minutes and he has the entrance closed, sliding a crate into the last opening from outside.

Hour Two:

Kiwi peeks around a corner. His body presses against the bricks beside him, concealing itself in the narrow shadow cast by the moonlight. He double checks his every move to avoid the slightest sound. At the smallest sound, he crouches and checks his rear. No shadows staggering about means no zombies. The journey to find the others is tense, but it could be worse. The zombies seem to be gathering in other areas. The boom of distant explosions rolls across the streets and bounces off walls. He glances across the river again and feels strangely certain the bridge is empty, even though bridges present some of the most prominent choke points in the town. His ears tune into the familiar dull droning. The groaning is coming from somewhere, regardless.

A topaz brown light washes over the buildings near the center. Kiwi spies the source, an intricate glyph, just before the underlying structure collapses into the ground with a massive roar. Zombies surrounding the base are shot in every direction by flying rubble, impaled by wooden shrapnel, or simply crushed under the remains. A few splash spectacularly into the neighboring river. Two players, one with black wings and another with a spear in his grasp, stand near the disaster. Night descends over the scene again, bathing everything in a silver blue hue. Even so, more silhouettes march towards them from every side.

“P.S. Please especially watch out for Raquar...” he thinks, reviewing Sekai’s message. Kiwi remembers the boy as slightly reckless, perhaps loud, during their previous encounter. Without a doubt, Sekai meant to caution them about his habits, he infers. Following that line of thought, the demolition just now is probably his doing. He decides to take his chances and dashes across the river, then runs straight for the pair. The sound of his boots against the cobblestones reveals his presence to every starved undead lurking around.

“Takua and Raquar, right?” he asks, slowly approaching them.

“Hey. Oh! Kiwi, yea, it’s us.” says Takua.

The other player turns suddenly and utters his own response: “Mister Kiwi sir!”

As if sensing the presence of another meal, the zombies begin to descend on their turf, cutting any greetings short. Kiwi resumes his tactical role in the group.

“I've already told Lyra... The more zombies we attract, the higher the chances of us being infected. Combat should be a last resort, because they have practically infinite numbers.” he notes, hoping they can admit to the idea that fighting is actually counterproductive this time. The zombies are numerous, closing in from the front and rear, which cuts them off from all but the most inconvenient escape routes. The street is cluttered with rubble, though, which provides a bottleneck that impedes the hordes. He formulates an easy strategy for the others: “I’ll help you through this, but if you’re coming with us, it means no unnecessary risks. Raquar, help me protect Takua while he clears a way out.”

Raquar nods in silent agreement. Takua, on the other hand, feels the need to review his place in the scheme: “Right... so I’m the guy on the mass clear? Raquar... don’t get close to the spells, or else tell me to change it. If you need healing, I’ll get to it when you need it, hopefully you won’t.”

At this point, Kiwi has already swung his blade across the incoming menace and scored the first three kills. He listens to the others, their voices nearly drowned out by the pained moans surrounding them, and catches Raquar sighing. The Long Arm speaks, a hint of dread in his voice: “Just give me a heads-up if you fire any my way.”

The relentless undead, uninterested in their conversations, pour in continuously. Kiwi waves his sword as before, using a narrower arc and pushing the monsters back through the street. The instinctive urge to look over his shoulder gnaws at him. It would be just to ensure that the creatures haven’t engulfed his teammates and are nearing him, but doing so would leave him vulnerable. Judging from the sounds, the others are holding their own, especially since Takua occasionally utters the words for a thunder spell.

A brilliant amber rune appears on his side, right on cue. Kiwi takes a few steps back to clear its radius, as the distinctly electrical spell would be very unpleasant for him. The dark turns aglow with golden sprites emerging from the ground, gathering along the edges of the inscription. A column of air propels them upwards at varying heights and a powerful wind surrounds the zombies. Lightning races between the sprites, through the center of the enchantment, piercing the monsters as they try to pass. A lucky one succeeds, only to see the Moumokuteki tear into his chest once on the other side. The howling winds subside, revealing numerous corpses that stay dead, eventually fading as grey forms. Among them, however, is one that withstood the attack.

Kiwi analyzes its unique features, the most obvious of which is the name. The Revenant seems to have faired better than its generic relatives. Its limbs lack the sorts of wounds that the other zombies carry, and although somewhat stiff, the monster manages to move swiftly. Its flesh is strange, blackened and purple, with yellowed eyes and a grin attesting to its insane state. A few scorch marks line its clothes, already composed of tattered dark greys and browns and reds, the colors undead peasants could identify with. He watches the beginnings of a strange ritual, its head rolling back and chest expanding full of air. He grits his teeth and dashes in, watching its mouth opening wide into the sky. Before the cry can ring out through the city, he swings with practiced precision and knocks its head off. The wind leaks out of its torso like a slimy balloon. Kiwi exhales and returns to the others, tightening their formation.

“Hey, what’s up with him?” he thinks aloud, spotting Raquar shying away from the electrical glyph swirling on the other front.

“You don't want to know, you really don’t.” states Takua. Kiwi nods and leaves it at that. He eyes the two players to examine their conditions and, satisfied, returns to guarding his side.

“It’s a good thing that Sekai paired us with these two. The normal zombies only need one hit, so Takua has the advantage of clearing them out with large area spells. Raquar has range, and can protect Takua if any of zombies manage to slip through.” thinks Kiwi. The monsters are slow to regroup, leaving him to consider a hasty retreat during the lull in their attack. Two forms swoop straight before he can even voice the thought. One even vaults over the rubble that would have obstructed his slower counterparts. He brings his sword to his right, following the two Revenants closely.

The one nearest to the river jumps across the path of its partner and leaps against a building, climbing its height by hopping up windowsill, while its partner jumps to take its place on the ground, rushing in on all fours. The seemingly senseless maneuver is meant to throw him off just before their assault. He focuses on the one on the ground, driving his sword straight between its shoulder and neck. The wound tears down its body, but it merely slows for a moment. Kiwi throws his weight into the thrust, bringing the zombie to a stop for a second, allowing him to spot the other on top of their nearest edifice. Taking his right hand away from his sword, he points his open palm towards the creature. The monster back flips off the roof and drops towards Takua before he can even pronounce a warning. He quickly lets his current target go, turning on one foot and booting its face in, dashing to meet the other Revenant as it lands just short of the wizard. Its arms outstretch to catch Takua, mouth yawning open to embrace him with teeth. Kiwi slams his elbow into its throat and hooks its legs behind the knees with a kick, causing the creature to flip end over end and crash into the floor. Undaunted, the undead grabs his arms instead, searching for the least bit of flesh to caress with its claws. He beats down with his boots and shoves the sickly limbs away, scanning around for the other monster and his sword. The other lies on the ground, flailing on its back, unable to pull the embedded blade out without the use of its barely functional arm.

“Ani Don” he shouts, pulling himself away from the monster. An amethyst violet rune glows beneath its body, drawing a dark form overhead. Skulls materialize out of the shadow and pour down, flaring with dark flames before starting their descent. The avalanche forms a scorching heap on the zombie, filling the air with thick hollow knocking as skulls pile upon each other in a morbid rain, then abruptly cease their attack. The fire burns a little longer and fades, turning the bones into a violet wisp, leaving a disfigured being in their wake. Its features quiver slightly; the hunger overcomes any pain or damage. Kiwi darts to the other zombie, planting his boot firmly on its body and prying the Moumokuteki back. A swift downward swing finishes this one off, severing its head from the rest of its mangled body. Disgust swells in his stomach. Kiwi turns to find the other zombie charred on spots, its yellow eyes peering out in a starved trance. He swings instantly, almost instinctively. The words Critical Hit celebrate the unusually powerful blow which cleaves the Revenant across the waist. The body bends back and hits the ground with a whump.

Suddenly, Kiwi finds his view obstructed by a blur. He comes crashing down onto his back, his legs wriggling madly as a walking corpse slams its knees down on his shoulders. The unfriendly sight of an infected player looms over his head, teeth showing and ready to strike.

“RAQ-” he shouts, interrupted by the need to move his head aside under duress. He reasons anxiously, searching for a way out, using the limited options available. The zombie shrieks abruptly as a spear carves into its side. Stab, the metal pries into its body with a chink against ribs, followed by a stab stab stab stab. Ruthless and efficient, the onslaught cuts the puppet off from its life strings. Kiwi jerks the bloody mannequin off his chest and stands, allowing it to slump into some rubble. He rubs his shoulders over and dusts himself off, scouring the ground for his sword.

“Thanks, and very good work, both of you.” says Kiwi, grinning a bit. Lyra should be very pleased. He checks the surroundings, noting a brief respite in the attacks. Signaling with his hand towards the side where he came from, he adds: “Okay, it’s time to go.”

The order sets off an eager retreat from the area. Glancing back, he discovers the minor downside to his cadre which had been previously overlooked. His pace slows enough to allow the others to remain near him, as over time a gap would begin to develop in their line. Heavy Blades run a little faster than Long Arms, and Wavemasters are one of the slowest classes. He pushes them hard, regardless, weaving through the sluggish zombie advance. The team approaches the bridge to the east of the Elf’s Haven, past all the shops, essentially treading the edge of the central area. The bridge comes and goes.

“Keep going. We’ll cross at the next one. We need to throw them off or they’ll follow us home.” explains Kiwi. He shows no hesitation in the decision, even though the apartment could be as little as a minute away through that route. Takua replies: “Alright, sounds good. I’ll take out the little guys, you guys take out the biggies.”

Kiwi leads them further along the riverside, taking care to keep the line together while encouraging them to maintain a steady pace. The droning carries on in the distance, to their rear and in adjoining areas. He decides on a precautionary note. “If we meet any zombie players, though... spread out and meet at the apartment. I'll steer it away and take it out to prevent our hideout from being found.”

“Copy sir.” says Raquar. Except for the ones long behind them, it’s not certain whether the zombies are following them or moving on their own accord. Even if they can hear them running, he hopes the next step might throw them off the team’s trail. They arrive at the following bridge, this one unoccupied for the moment. He guides the others silently into crossing swiftly, stepping with the utmost caution. The wooden bridges could groan under the weight of their paces if treated carelessly. Once across, he directs them to the narrow gap between two buildings, squeezing his way in and slipping into a hidden space with a backdoor. The door is firmly locked, but the opening gives them a place to stop.

“Ap Do, Ap Do, Ap Do…” whispers Kiwi. The chant imbues each of them with increased agility for the final run. So far, the zombies could have traced their steps by watching them or listening and, having followed them persistently, would have to work off estimates of their speed and location upon losing sight of them. He honestly doesn’t know the range of their senses, but the players were out in the open until moments ago. He assumes that they were being watched until they crossed the bridge. Even assuming the worst case, doubling their speed and traveling behind the buildings now will confuse the zombies. Hopefully, that’ll get them home safely. Kiwi pauses for a second to check the time, then resumes the journey.

They run in westward, ducking between buildings whenever convenient and clinging to the darkest corners. The relief of success is practically at his fingertips. He banishes those thoughts reluctantly, his features calm, knowing that he has to remain focused. Two zombies stagger around a bend ahead of them as if to confirm his decision. Without a second thought, he puts one undead down with his blade, hearing the other suffer a similar fate at the hands of his allies. He recedes and melts into the shadows with the others. Though he wants to elude the creatures, killing stragglers is equally important. Allowing just one to escape or trail them could eventually draw another hundred, like ants following a scout.

Minutes later, the team stands before the coveted door, six floors beneath Lyra. Kiwi glances back towards the crates littering the alley. Most people might instinctively grab a few of them and barricade the door from the inside. Instead, he leaves the door alone, hoping that the unsecured entrance will allay any suspicions the zombies might have. He leads the others into the building. His eyes ache briefly as they adjust to the lighting indoors. The lobby shows a bulletin board to the left, a corridor to the right and a wooden door on the far left end with a symmetrical shape carved into its surface. Beside the door is a panel with an up arrow inside a glass button. Kiwi presses the six and the door slides sideways into the wall. Inside, another panel with numbered glass circles commands the elevator to the sixth floor. The three players rise steadily as a pair of Grunties on a treadmill performs the work to lift them. Finally, they emerge from the machine.

Kiwi takes the time to step into the miniature pen where the Noble Grunty and Iron Grunty are housed, at the top floor beside the elevator. Their movement on treadmills drives a shaft that turns various gears, raising the elevator as necessary. Without them, the elevators would be unable to run. He eyes a slim green vegetable hanging just near the Grunties, the focus of their attention. The Mandragora squeals its name and wiggles on a string. He grabs the food, palm over its mouth, and carries it off. The Grunties follow his grasp away from their posts. He rewards them by holding the noisy food down while they take a few bites.

Kiwi raises an eyebrow the second he walks into the apartment. Bits of the ceiling litter the floor and an obvious hole crosses through the roof. A coffee table sits under the opening, seemingly a makeshift platform, and general disorder rules where he had been less than two hours ago. He spots Lyra near the troublesome window, holding onto a couch cushion with the surprised expression of a fox caught raiding a chicken coop plastered on her face. It’s hard enough to come up with something to say.

“...By the way, we’re fixing that after the event, right? What happened h-... what are you doing?” says Kiwi, blinking. He struggles to understand the situation.

“Um...” Lyra trails off. She quickly offers a better response, grinning noticeably: “Hi?!”

“Nothing, honey!” The cushion flops back onto the couch and she moves away from the window. He leaves the others to mingle amongst themselves. He busies himself with examining the damage and gathering his thoughts on the matter.

With the amount of noise they had just made, it was likely that every zombie in Mac Anu would be heading for them. Sure enough, the sounds of shuffling and moaning that emerged towards them a few seconds later confirmed his thoughts. The creatures slowly sifted onto the street, from the front and the back. They had picked a poor choice of buildings it seemed, as beside the rubble, there was no other form of shelter nearby; they were left completely exposed on the main street. And fairly quickly, there were bound to be zombies everywhere.

He backed away slowly from the encroaching zombies, and ran into Tak. A quick glance behind him revealed that the same predicament existed behind them. They were about to be surrounded by zombies. He sighed and readied the grip on his spear. ”Looks like we’ve got a little bit of a situation. Do whatever you have to in order to keep that back half off of us. I can keep these guys off of us from this direction. But we need to find a way out of here.” He was forced to shut up as the creatures drew within range. And as they did so, his arm swept across the air horizontally, the spear an extension of it. The zombies fell in a fleshy, rotten heap, an odd assortment of limbs and extremities beginning to pile up. That in itself presented an idea to the boy. If he could pile up enough dead bodies around them . . .

”DOWN!”

The command was directed at Takua, the only thing he really cared about sparing in the general vicinity. The ensuing Vak Repulse would sail over the Wavemaster’s head if he obeyed, through his chest if he didn’t; something he would have to apologize for later. The flaming spear now whipped completely around his body cutting a blazing swath through the rapidly encroaching crowd of zombies. Rotten flesh melted, oozing along with the blood and random gibbets of flesh onto the ground at their feet. Small embers flicked off into the air as his spear went around and around, before quietly settling down leaving a huge pile of goop around them.

The zombies’ approach had slowed, the heaps of dead bodies and junk was proving to be a very useful inhibitor to the rest of the enemies so far. Of course, it was as soon as he thought this that a handful of Revenants decided to simply leap the wall he had spent the better portion of the last chunk of minutes setting into place. Bastards. A frantic pull at the sleeve of his robes shifted his attention from their new foes to the outstretched arm of his companion. He was pointing at a . . . He got the message. His legs propelled him in the indicated direction, just out of reach of an impending claw. He raced up the small rubble ramp, thrusting off with all of his might as he reached the edge. He leaped through the air, hand whipping into his vest and flinging one of the two orbs behind him.

He landed rather roughly behind the rubble, as an explosion rocked the ground behind him. Spires of ice blossomed outward, the frozen flower blooming in the middle of the Mac Anu night. A rush of cold air splintered out around him, the residue of the Rue orb fading very gradually. In the midst of the noise and the ensuing confusion that it granted him, he ducked inside an overhanging piece of rubble. He was otherwise silent except for the pounding of his heart that he was sure could be heard from the darkest corners of the city. He could hear his breath ringing in his ears, and each subsequent one brought another glance of anticipation. But no zombies came to attack him or Tak a little ways across the rubble.

He stood there, attempting to be completely silent, listening and waiting for the slow shuffling and groaning that would announce the approaching presence of the creatures. But none came. It appeared that at least for the moment they were safe. Of course, it would be completely moronic to expect the two of them to stay cooped up under some overhanging piece of rubble for the next six hours or so. So it was cautiously, very cautiously that the Long Arm’s head extended warily around the side of his little hidey-hole. And it was then that he noticed that he had a message. The pinging had long sense worn off, implicating that it had been there for quite some time. He opened it hastily, hoping for possible information.

That name was familiar. Lyra. He couldn’t place it, and as of such, decided to turn his attention to something different. The name in the flashmail. Sekai. Hopefully she was going to stay out of this event. Hopefully. Maybe he could keep an eye out for her. Make sure she really wasn’t here. He poked his head back out, and upon seeing nothing, gestured to Takua to follow him. He crept quietly back out onto the street, moving slowly, looking around cautiously. There were zombies around, but they seemed to be concentrating on louder noises. That was until a voice behind them spoke up.

The Heavyblade that had appeared behind them was rather familiar, the boy having worked with him once before. Kiwi appeared just as ready to lead as ever, maybe it was just some in-born trait of his. His advice, however sound, didn’t exactly provide the air of slaughter that the Long Arm hoped for. He had opened his mouth to voice a small objection when his orders received and he proceeded to shut the thing right after.

He moved off to his post, spear ready against the oncoming zombies. Any lightning spells should be called out with fair warning, so there hopefully wouldn’t be anything to worry about. His spear slid through the first zombie that he drew close enough to. And you know, once you go undead . . . There should’ve been an “insert witty comment that rhymes with undead here” sign but there was a huge lack of materials. He supposed he would just have to go on killing them until he came up with something. And that he did. He stabbed a few, cleaved a few, slashed a few, and simply beheaded the rest. Luckily for him it seemed that the Revenants were more attracted to Kiwi than he, and that probably made their progress forward a bit quicker than had the situations been reversed.

He shied back from the GiRai Rom that sprung up in front of him, temporarily halting their progress for a moment. The Revenants took that opportunity to assault Kiwi as Raquar was focused on fending off the zombies that had gotten within range. He whirled around, assisting Tak with the ones that had drawn to close to the Wavemaster for comfort. He had beheaded the last one within striking range when he caught something in the air that sounded suspiciously like his name. He whirled around to find Kiwi, though not in his usual position. He was currently pinned down by some sort of zombie. Raq didn’t take the time to judge, his army instinct kicked in. The order to protect the Commander overrode everything else as his running charge took the creature through the ribs. He withdrew the spear as it thrusted forward again. He thrusted more times than he kept track of, until the thing rolled limply off of his fellow comrade.

There was a small break in the beasts, and the trio used that to force there way through, dodging swinging claws and gaping maws to boot. They managed to burst through the crowd of shuffling undead and sprinted off toward the direction of Elf’s Haven. The leader led them through a twisted alley and eventually they arrived at a door. It was locked, so any shortcut that it might’ve been was erased, but it did give him a time to catch his breath. This was likely harder for him than everybody else; he could only hope he wasn’t slowing everybody else down. With the enhancement being settled into place, they were off again, tearing along the streets.

The fragments of undead they found on the way their final stopping point were dispatched with ease, and it wasn’t long before they had reached their destination. They followed Kiwi inside, stopping at some sort of glass box. By god . . . was that an elevator?!? The box descended slowly, and his suspicions were confirmed. The elevator ascended, and as he stepped out, he dissolved into gales of laughter. There were a pair of grunties in a pen, and a treadmill. The idea of a grunty-powered lift had never occurred to him, and it was apparently incredibly hilarious. His chuckles dissolved as he followed the Heavyblade into the designated room, an air of seriousness returning once more.

Takua landed on the ground, staff swirling in an arc as he crushed a few zombies that were too close to him. A few parts of the staff jolted in shock as the heads were crushed, but the Wand of Storms continued onwards, cracking skulls until he had a clear area around him. The wand itself wasn’t the best choice for fighting, Wavemasters weren’t renowned for their physical fighting prowess for a reason. But when the monster had less than zero health to begin with? Well…obviously not less than zero, but it was around point one health. Just the right amount for a staff to take off without significantly impairing his swing. His SP was seriously diminished at the moment…hovering somewhere around…twenty since his jump off the building. Whatever it was, it wasn’t that great really. As a result, he was conserving his energy and letting his staff do the talking for him. Granted, that wasn’t what he came down here for originally, so he thought about what he really wanted to do. However, as he thought Raquar bumped into him from behind, and his ally and friend began to speak.

”Looks like we’ve got a little bit of a situation. Do whatever you have to in order to keep that back half off of us. I can keep these guys off of us from this direction. But we need to find a way out of here.”

It was time to do his first plan then, the whole reason that he had even wanted to jump down was about to come into play. Gathering energy to his legs he jumped, his feet coming all the way up to his chest before slamming back down onto the heads of the horde below. In moments that zombie head caved in, and his foot moved to the next one, crushing that one in as he moved. The masses moved in, and he activated his only real hope to get out of this without being infected. His wings uncurled from his back, launching him into the air above the horde for a second before he fell back, and then it was dancing time. His feet flashed out, keeping a steady rhythm going on the zombie heads in front of him. He kept one eye on the SP meter, watching it slowly fill back up. His feet kept on nailing the zombies in front of them as they slowly reached for him, and then he backed away. He touched down on the ground, reaching for a staff when he heard the voice.

”DOWN!”

He didn’t argue, he just obeyed, his body dropping to the floor as the flaming lance flew by overhead. The blazing spear shredded and began to melt zombie parts, a vast wall being built around them as the zombies died. That would never last if the monsters figured out how to push, or the Revenants figured out where they were. The Wavemaster glanced around, trying to find something that would allow them to get out of this mess. There wasn’t much…except the building that he had destroyed. One side of the wall, the one that they were facing, was in ruins. A big section had been blasted out, its side currently drenched in blood and lying against another building. That meant though that they could climb into the building itself and take refuge inside of it. He turned to the Long Arm just as a couple Revenants jumped the barricade, pulling on the boy’s arm. At least the guy could feel it and understand.

Indeed, Raquar did understand, and in the next second they were moving, the zombies right behind them. As he ran he noticed something odd. He’d had a flashmail from someone…but he had never even heard of them. He opened it up as he ran, his legs pounding into the blood strewn ground, careful not to lose his balance and fall as they ran to the rubble pile. He ignored the mail for a moment, instead opting to pay attention to where he was going so that he wouldn’t fall down and get caught by zombies. A Rue Rune Sphere flew past him, impacting the Revenants right as he leapt, flying right behind Raquar into the ruins of the building. Ice blew past him, crystalline shards shredding the robe that he had on. An instant later he crashed into the ground, a snow storm blast overhead.

In a few more seconds he had himself orientated, scuttling over to where there was an overhand of rubble. With any luck the zombies wouldn’t look in here for long enough to get all of his SP back, which also meant that they didn’t have to stay in there for that long. It was dark enough under the rubble that he couldn’t see much, but there were a few Rune Spheres that had popped out when whatever had been carrying them was crushed under the collapsing building. He checked his inventory, two vaccines, Gan, Ani, Vak and one Rai Rune Sphere. That last one couldn’t be used anywhere near Raquar unless it was do or die. The rest though…Takua thought, then put the Ani Rune Sphere at the top of the list. That would be the least harmful to the Long Arm, the kid seemed to be entirely Ani affiliated. He thought about the rest of the equipment that he had while he was at it. He had a second level spell of every tree, even if one of those was a summon and thus cost over half of his SP, he still had it. Rai was by far his most effective element, even if he loved Rue more. He wanted the next sphere that he found to be a Rue one, that way he could at least make up to Merrows that he had used a few Vak attacks.

If they got out of this alive that is.

Then he remembered the flashmail that he had gotten but never really looked at. The name was still completely unfamiliar, but the second name mentioned was completely familiar to him, in fact he had tried finding her an hour earlier. However…if Sekai had told this…Lyra about them then did she tell her about Raquar’s condition? Thinking back to the last time he had seen her, that was an obvious no. He hadn’t been told if anyone had, and he already knew about her and Raquar. So that was a given that this Lyra wouldn’t know about Raquar being comatose unless she could have known from some other source.

However, that still left the main body of the message, which said that they had to meet her in her house on the other side of the river. That meant another trip back through zombie infested territory…with two people. He looked up to see that Raquar was looking around cautiously, probably having just had the chance to read it like Takua. That meant that they were actually going to try and do this then. His SP was full, both Raquar and he were at full health…it was time to see if they could do this then. He clambered out of the space where he was and managed to get out of the ruins right behind Raquar. He starts looking around as they move down to the bridge…only to find another Heavy Blade in front of them. There weren’t that many zombies around, the attraction of the players having vanished…until now. The player looked vaguely familiar…and he couldn’t place it until he spoke. It was Kiwi, from the absolutely massive quest that had around sixteen people in it.

It seemed that the Heavy Blade was used to instantly taking charge, quickly organizing them and getting them together. Apparently he was working for this Lyra and was to take them to her. One more high level person for their team. Takua grinned, hoping that Kiwi would put the hurt on the zombies so that he didn’t have to abuse his SP like he had been. Of course, the fact that he was now on mass clear, using his GiRai Rom to annihilate the little zombies mean that he’d be using a fair amount of SP, but that didn’t really matter. What did matter was that he could take out a massive amount of the undead freaks at once with a single spell, which was his purpose.

The Wand of Storms crashes into the ground, an amber rune swirling into being as the GiRai Rom explodes with power, several of the regular zombies falling to the onslaught of the electric tornado. Sparks skipped across the ground, the twin tornados shattering flesh and blood as they showed their power.

The rest was a blur, the entire way a constant casting a spell and hiding behind the two melee classes. The only thing that stood out was when Kiwi asked why Raquar didn’t go anywhere near a Rai spell. Then they were in front of elf’s haven…and Takua blinked. He didn’t really remember how they had gotten there. He entered the apartment complex, wondering just what he was getting himself into.

Whoever had done the texture mapping for The World was one hell of a genius. Or at least, whoever had done this particular ceiling. Lyra had been studying the surface for at least twenty minutes now, and she still hadn't found a repeated section, making it at the least far more fascinating than the tiles at the dentist's office. The digital stucco, or whatever dirt building material historic Venice had presumably used, had been done so masterfully that she figured it must have been made with one of those 3D scanners, rather than by hand by a programmer.

“Why the hell aren't they back yet?”

Nothing, especially texture mapping, could hold the fox's attention for very long. This half hour had been particularly trying; even with the task that had filled the first few minutes still going, her hands deftly moving the fabric in her hands, it was just repetitive motion. She needed some entertainment.

She sat back up, the couch squeaking beneath her as she moved. At least the time had given her a new appreciation of the detail the staff had put into the game. She shook her head, studying the length of cloth in her hands, tugging at it, testing its stability.

Very early on, she had dubbed it necessary to escape and kill a few zombies while she waited for the boys to arrive. Just to warm up, of course, not because she was impatient or anything. But she knew that if Kiwi returned and found her gone, she'd be a dead woman, and if their other teammates came back without Kiwi, then they'd be unable to get into her apartment. Obviously, this meant that she needed a way to get out and back in without being noticed, and preferably it would be a way to move faster than the boys so that she could get back to the room at the first sign of them.

Enter her bedsheets. Why exactly they were actually removable to begin with, she wasn't sure, but she was damn glad they were. She'd stretched them out and started tying them together, until all three were securely attached together – a harder task than it sounded, given the remote control Nekkiko had to do it all with. Now Lyra threw back open her living room window, tossing one end out and holding onto the other. Her empty hand shoved against the window jam, testing its sturdiness. Finding it satisfactory, she tied the corner she still held around it and looked down.

It barely reached the window two stories below. She frowned. It was good for helping her down, sure; after a certain point, she'd take no fall damage at all. She cared more about getting back up though, and fifty feet was very likely out of her jump range. Sighing she plopped back down, yanking the window shut again and trying to find an interesting patch of wall to study.

Whoever coded the wall was much less attentive. She found the edge of the tiling rather quickly.

And then there was a noise. She grinned. 'They're back. They're back!' She didn't have to be bored anymore. Lyra rushed to the door and opened it, popping into the hallway.

“Oh.” No, they weren't back. “So what was that-” the sound came again.

She looked up, which was the general direction the sound seemed to be coming from, now that she actually paid attention. She would have said “what in the world”, but that pun had gotten old years ago, and at any rate she had a fairly good guess what was wandering around on her ceiling. She was on the top floor, and so had no upstairs neighbors, which meant that what was on the roof could only be company. And given the state of the city outside, it was very, very likely not friendly company.

She grinned even wider.

For the first time since she'd gotten it after the tournament, Lyra brought out her brand new toy from her inventory. It was true that the Moumokuteki was a beautiful, powerful weapon and all, but she preferred raw size and power to elemental nonsense, mostly; the thoughtful attacks were Kiwi's job, brute force was hers. And for that, she had her shiny (and shiny it was, with that sparkley sheen only rare weapons had) new Mimiru's Sword.

Now, she had no idea who Mimiru was, other than hopefully a chick with a name like that, but whoever the hell she was, she had nice taste in weapons.

She moved to thrust the weapon through the ceiling, then stopped short. This wasn't right... she couldn't destroy her ceiling like this. “You poor thing,” she said aloud, petting her new sword, mentally squealing in glee that Kiwi had agreed to trade winnings with her. “You deserve much better than to be used as a saw. I'll make sure your first hit is one meant to kill.” She nodded and put it back away, retrieving one of her lower-level weapons instead. “There we go...”

She slammed the blade into the ceiling, wiggling and shoving until she was sure it had penetrated all the way through. There was a barely audible response from whatever was on the roof, some form of alarmed scream. 'So much for the element of surprise,' she mused, chuckling, as she pulled the weapon back, letting a narrow strip of dark sky show through. She repeated the action a few times, carving out a roughly triangular hole, just over three feet on each side. The fox then backed up, her sword still lodged in its final position, and slammed it upwards at an angle to dislodge the piece.

Not only did the three by three foot triangle come tumbling down, more or less intact until impact with her tile floor, but another good four feet of drywall and plaster leading between the hole and her came tumbling down as well. Rather dustily so, at that, leaving her coated in a fine white and blue powder that she was sure would have itched if it were in the real world.

“Well, that explains where the beams are in the roof...”

She didn't have time to finish her thought before one of the zombies came charging – well, more like lurching – in through the hole, landing in front of her and looking dazed for a moment. She swung the sword in her hands baseball style, knocking the zombie's head clean off its body and out through her window, raining flesh and glass on the riverside below. “Oops,” she muttered, hoping once again that her apartment would return to its normal state after the event. If not, she at least had one hell of a story to tell.

But oh. The zombie was still walking toward her. “Like a chicken with its head cut off,” she grumbled, swinging again, this time slicking the body clean in two and causing it to drop to the floor, dead. Again. Presumably, since zombies were undead to begin with.

After putting the sword away back on her key chain and re-equipping her new sword, she kicked the body out of the way and dragged her coffee table over (why the stools went ignored for her intention, she'd never know, because she'd never even wonder to begin with) and used it as a step to clamber out of the hole.

Something was flying at her before she could stand up again, and so Lyra drew and swung in one motion, using the momentum of her swing to bring her to her feet. Whatever it was – a zombie, obviously, but she hadn't gotten a good look at it yet – was sent tumbling back, less one chunk of one arm, but still alive.

“Oooo, something a bit more challenging!” she cheered, launching herself over the hole and over it. If she had read the announcement, she would have known that this monster was only level 10, and so still not going to be much of a challenge for her, but anything was better than nothing for her at this point; one hit KOs lost their appeal really quickly.

It was on her second strike on the zombie, which the letters on the screen revealed to be called a Revenant, that she noticed something very, very happy: the words “Critical Hit!” hanging in front of the monster in the wake of her blow. Giggling in a manner far too giddy for someone engaged in a life or death battle, she slashed again, leaving her foe minus most of a leg and causing the words to flash across her screen again. The next blow, which easily finished off the screeching mass of decay, had the same.

“Ho-shit!” She was grinning ear to ear, looking around for something more to kill. She hadn't expected “high critical hit percentage” to mean “damn near every time”, but she wasn't about to complain.

Her next victim climbed over the edge of the building, apparently drawn by its fallen comrade's (she wondered briefly if they felt any comradeship, actually... did zombies know how to team up?) cries, and this one was served a smack that sent it onto the next building over. It came leaping back right away, though, and so she slashed it a couple more times, each blow taking large chunks off its HP, or so she presumed since it was deteriorating fast, though there was no actual bar to go off of, only the numbers flashing over its head. The fourth hit killed this one, and she stood there relishing in the power that was being higher level than your opponents, before once more searching for something to destroy.

There seemed to be nothing, so she stepped to the edge of the roof, staring out over the darkened city. Most the street lights seemed to be out, and the lights in shops and apartments were dying as she watched. The black chaos gates themselves, which she noticed now for the first time, seemed to cast a glow almost akin to a black light onto the area around them, causing the nearest zombies to almost glow, lit by flashes occasionally when new ones spawned. She shook her head, whispering to herself as she watched. “I should have read the description more quickly... I had no idea that they themselves kept multiplying too, and didn't just add on the infected players...”

Lyra glanced at her on-screen clock... it was already halfway through the second hour. She needed to get back inside to keep waiting. She decided that leaving the hole in her ceiling so clearly showing was probably a bad idea and, after returning the Mimiru's Sword to its place on her back, started shuffling around crates that she found on the roof until they formed a rough pile around the hole and in another location on the roof, so that it didn't look obvious. Or at least, so she felt. The vixen clapped her hands and hopped on up and over the stack, ready to jump back down into her apartment, accidentally knocking a couple smaller crates down into the room in the process. “Damn't,” she muttered, shaking her head and dropping down. “So much cleaning tomorrow,” she sighed.

But cleaning would come later. Now she got to go back to being bored. For a few minutes she sat on the couch, sorting her trading cards; they were only gathering dust for right now, and so she thought she'd give them a mild amount of attention.

That only occupied her another eight minutes. And that was after reorganizing them by hand. Twice. She didn't have very many cards.

Finally she got back up and swung the broken window back open, eying the drop. “I can make it from there, I think,” she muttered, looking around for something to soften her landing. She grabbed one of the couch cushions, leaning out the window and taking aim for the narrow strip of land between the building and the river...

The door opened. Behind it was one Kiwi, who stopped midway through whatever he was about to say and instead stared pointedly at the hole and mess in the middle of the room. “...By the way, we're fixing that after the event, right?” he sounded somewhere between amused and alarmed. It took him a few more seconds to notice the fox herself. “What happened h-... what are you doing?”

“Umm...” she blinked back at him, and the guys behind him, then him again, almost as though they were communicating in binary for a moment. Promptly her face lit up with the biggest fake grin she could muster. “Hi! Nothing, honey!” she assured, dropping the cushion back onto the couch and sitting down, smiling innocently. “Just a little cleaning.”

One of the boys with him spoke up next. "Well...this is all quite interesting. I take it that you're Lyra? Nice to meet you, I'm Takua and this is Raquar." She nodded, squinting at them both. A WaveMaster and a Long Arm. Okay, that would work. But why did the one look so familiar.... He must have had a common character design.

As if he was thinking the same thing (it wasn't her fault she had liked a design so close to default) his eyes narrowed at her, examining for a minute... To him, the name was familiar. And so was she. But he couldn't quite place it. He muttered softly under his breath, barely audible from her end of the room, "Lyra... Hmmm..."

“Loud and Broody, got it,” she muttered in return, coughing afterward, quite obviously trying to cover up her words. "I mean, hi guys, you must be Sekai's friends I guess this is a fair trade!" She smiled a little too happily. Two for two was fair, even if her kids were far cuter than this duo.

Broody glanced up at the name. "Sekai? She isn't doing this thing is she?"

Kiwi started wandering the apartment as they talked, examining the damage and clearly trying to piece together what had happened. He made a face and pushed at the body of the zombie on the floor with his boot; hopefully he'd just assume that there'd been a sort of break in, and not that this had been intentional. He had told her to stay put.

Loud cut in with his own reaction before she could respond: "Fair trade? Well...you got it right about the friends bit, but what do you mean by fair trade?"

She just nodded in response, watching Kiwi from the corner of her eye. "Yeah, Sekai's taking a couple friends of mine out because there was some complication with me doing so. You two don't seem that far off from them." Oh, the lies, the lies. Though perhaps the lightning-adorned WaveMaster (what was with her luck and lightning mages?) might prove to be at least halfway as entertaining as her son.

Takua's response seemed out of left field, halfway proving her theory on the spot. "Well...technically, thats true. We just need to watch out for Raquar a little bit more than me...and no letting him get infected.” He then chuckled, giving her a “hint, hint” look between amused and nervous. “Don't hit him with Rai either.”

...At least she wasn't the only one with a bad track record with that element. Yep...

Broody jerked his head toward Loud, almost pouting in her opinion. "You're just as bad as ever. Ignore what he says. I'll live."

"Ignore that? Its true and you know it."

"I don't need any sort of handicap. I'll be fine." He finished his sentence and tried to finish the arguement, but apparently Loud wasn't about to let Raquar have his way.

"I didn't say handicap, I know you can take care of yourself. Oi vey...I just meant that...whatever."

He pointedly ignored him, looking over at Lyra instead, examining her once more. "I think I know you from somewhere. Do I or am I just completely out of it?"

'Completely out of it.' she thought, ignorant of the fact he'd once been in her clan of all coincidences. "I don't...” she looked him up and down, frowning, “recognize you. I think. Maybe?" She made a face, casting a look at the window as she searched her memory. "...Did I kick your ass in a tournament?"

"Tournament... I don't think so..." Realization crossed his face. "The DUEL! It was you and . . ." His brow furrowed. "The guy with lots of weird letters and numbers."

"...Huh?'

"Ummm... The guy... With Gargoyle wings. And there was two others with me. Dien and . . . Taro?"

Dien and Taro... she sort of knew those names... But didn't know from where. "Doesn't ring a bell." She shrugged and sighed. "Doesn't mean it didn't happen, just means I don't remember." She grinned and rubbed the back of her head nervously... she had to work on her memory.

He shrugged too. "I dunno. Maybe I'm just out of it."

'Which was my original theory.' She rolled her eyes and shrugged again, glancing back at Kiwi to see if he had anything to say yet....

--------Hour Three-------------

After he had said his piece about Raquar’s condition the Wavemaster let his mind wander, his gaze flitting over the walls as he looked for something, anything, to keep his mind occupied. They were there in the room, yes, and that was good, but if they didn’t want to fight hordes of zombies they had to have something to keep them occupied. To that end, the boy was searching everything that he could see for anything to do. Just sitting around talking, or in this case whispering, would turn into something really boring really fast. Granted, he was used to sitting and introspecting for hours on end…but that was when he had Gwyneth to help him through things, help him concentrate an talk to her. He didn’t have that now, all he had was this lovely eyesight problem that hadn’t yet cropped up. He really hoped that it wouldn’t come up at all, because if it did that might be a serious problem.

He heard various things about Raquar and Lyra talking about how they thought that they might know each other somehow, something like that. Maybe that was just a strange delusion of his mind, because he was really interested in the massive hole in the roof and for looking for a little thing to do. Anything really, unless he wanted to go ahead and play sniper on the zombies in the streets. However fun that might have been, he really didn’t want to just randomly blow apart zombies with Rai Roms. Even though the thought made him giggle slightly, envisioning the ice or the electricity blowing them apart. That was only really enticing because he hated horror movies and shows, so being suddenly in one was bad for his mental balance. He had wanted to scream when the first swarm of zombies had come around the corner, but he hadn’t…and now he really kinda did. The only problem with that was that every damn monster in this area of Mac Anu would home in on the sound.

So while he really wanted to go out and rip zombie world a new one, he just knew that he shouldn’t. Instead, he found himself slowly being drawn back to the people, the conversation between a certain Long Arm and Heavy Blade wrapping up. He resumed his visual scan, looking for something, anything, that would allow him to escape boredom. Little did he know that the entire mess of the room was the result of a certain Heavy Blade wanting to escape that very menace. Of course, he had something slightly different in mind, like…checkers, a board of which he found perched precariously on a shelf, oddly supported by a snapped piece of wood. The snapped frame had somehow wedged itself under the checkers board, but the box containing the board itself had probably been there first…he shook his head at the oddity of it all, only then refocusing on the conversation as Kiwi spoke up.

"Takua and Raquar, I could use your Member Addresses. I thought we should keep our noise to a minimum to avoid attracting the zombies. We can use Flashmails to communicate instead, unless someone has a reason why we shouldn't."

The thought was a good idea…if a little annoying, because so much could get lost in text. To actually get the person’s thought you really had to say it to them face to face, actually tell them with the emotion coloring your voice. Without that…it was annoying, but it could be done. He didn’t really have an objection, but he was curious about Lyra. He wanted to talk a bit more to her about why Sekai had to take her friends out instead of her, especially since she probably wanted to be with her own friends instead of some strangers.

"What if zombies can hear the chime, though?"

"We can't hear each other's chimes... I don't think they can hear them at all."

It was at this point that Takua simply gave the male Heavy Blade his member address. It was a little odd just giving something to him that was kinda private when they had only met once before, the first time was for a massive event put on by administrators, and and now for this event, but even still, it made sense to do it. Besides, he never knew if there would come a time when he would actually ever need that contact with Kiwi. As for the moment, now that they had their own devices…

He got a response a few moments later in the affirmative, and he simply put the checkers board on the table that had been in the center of the room. It was suitably cleared off, so both players put their pieces down, the board the standard sixty four box square. Simply put, there were A-1 through H-8 of the board, even if they couldn’t always get to every place. There was the small fact that you had to stay on the black squares, not the red ones. He was the red side, the girl on the other side, the black side. Figures that the woman would have to go first, but he did it anyways, watching her move her little disk. He didn’t move it instantly, but it was close. He didn’t really have a plan at this point in the game, there was nothing for him to plan on. So he simply started to move his pieces up, one by one, attempting to make sure that he had a solid defense behind them all so that they couldn’t get jumped.

There were a few small victories on each side at first, one man jumped here and there, maybe two on one extremely lucky shot, and right when Takua thought that he might be able to beat the Heavy Blade she devastated him with a six man jump, using the only king that she had managed to get off of him. He looked up, completely surprised, to a see a remarkably foxy and possibly vixen like smile staring right back at him. His mouth was wide open as he stared at the board, almost unable to comprehend how she had just taken him completely be surprise. The mop up was no problem for her, she devastated his last remaining forces in no time at all. When she playfully collected his last piece he grinned at her, then snagged her black pieces and put them on his side.

This time he played much more defensively, watching every move she made for something that she might be trying to do. On the other side of it though, she was also making aggressive moves that would often take out a piece before he could defend against it, even if it meant that he could take one or two of her pieces because of it. It was a bloody war of attrition, each side giving as good as it got before the girl across from him finally lost, the last piece having been cornered right before she got kinged. He breathed a sigh of relief, almost checking the time before he gave her the black pieces back. Whatever the reason was, they were going to play another game, but he had already decided that he was going to play it a lot differently than the first game had gone.

By some mutual agreement they had both decided that this was going to be a bloodbath. Pieces were being taken left and right by bold, unforeseen moves as both players slaughtered the other one in a war that would have left someone who worked for human resources white with horror. There were no concepts for leaving a tactical reserve, or indeed, leaving any piece behind. Anything and everything was slaughtered with a bloodthirsty disregard for losses as the two players went after the total annihilation of the other army with no concept or regard for having pieces left alive. A single piece might be captured only for a set up of a three unit slaughter, but that would be a set up for another two checker kill. At the very end Lyra stood victorious, the last piece having been taken after the game had killed what was probably far more than the allotted amount of pieces.

Takua stretched looking around for something else when he spotted something extraordinary. Indeed, one wouldn’t have thought that it was crazy, or indeed, good, but to his slightly delusional mind at the moment it was god. He got up for a moment, snagging the object before he brought it back, taking a gulp of fresh air while he was at it. The air surrounding the checkers board was thick with competition, the entire time the looks of astonishment and amusement coming from either of them had been making them laugh. However…at that moment he put down the object that he had found. He lay it right next to the checker board, the edges touching, and then raised his eyes to meet hers. The challenge….

A second checker board.

With two moves now instead of one per turn, each combatant combined their forces, creating a double checker board of doubled width. With twice the available space and with twice the units, now with twice the moves as well, there was no concept of order or strategy. Units might start on one side of the board to end up on the other, having taken out three pieces before it had gotten halfway across. At this point someone in charge of a major war might look aghast at the casualties for a single checker gain, the pieces falling left and right as both sides pursued total annihilation of the other one. The entire time she kept up that foxy grin whenever she got more than a three unit capture…and when she got a king that grin multiplied tenfold. In the next second she executed a brilliant six capture combo that took out most of his men and left him with three kings. From then on it was a war of attrition, his kings slaughtering the poor defenseless regular pieces while avoiding the two kings that the Heavy Blade had gotten.

It was when it was a three on three king slug fest that Takua got up from the table, momentarily taking a break by mutual accord. Something seemed wrong, maybe a little off in the air of the apartment. Something in the back of his mind had started to register noises that he himself hadn’t heard, and by the time he had actually heard them it was far too late. The shuffle in the hallway actually entered his conscious brain in the split second before the door was kicked in, a zombie standing on the other side of it with a strange weapon in its hand. Takua was directly in the line of fire, standing framed in the doorway with the window at his back when the opposing army entered the fray. His reach for his staff was oh so slow, far to slow, as the enemy leveled the weapon and pulled the trigger. For a brief second the Wavemaster was left with the thought that it looked extremely like a shotgun, if a pitch black and obsidian shotgun…right before that shotgun breathed a wreathe of smoke, and in the next second he went flying out the window.

His conversation with Lyra had left him thinking. There were times that felt like so long ago. Times in The World where it was simply just another game. He glanced around the apartment, noting simple things like the couch, the coffee table, the window, the giant hole in the ceiling. He stood there silently, everybody more or less staring at each other. It wasn’t until Kiwi spoke up, asking the Long Arm and the Wavemaster for their Member Addresses that words were used. He handed his over without a word, seeing logic behind the suggestion but not caring to spend too much energy thinking about it. His address handed over, he watched idly as Tak went rummaging through parts of the room, pausing only to extract a checkerboard, which he promptly placed on the coffee table. Apparently he and Lyra had some sort of agreement, as they both huddled around the board beginning to set out small disks.

His eyes shifted to Kiwi, who had taken a seat next to the fox, and had begun to idly shuffle a deck of cards. Not just any cards however, they were authentic The World Trading Cards. He took a seat opposite the fellow, pulled out his own cards and sent a quick flashmail.

Almost no time had passed when he received the affirmation. It took only a few moments, then the cards were picked, the match board laid out, and the first move made by the challenger. He played somewhat safely in first, slapping his Headhunter down in the lower right corner. The man responded with the same card on the same side, except the other corner. Taking advantage of the situation, the younger of the two players responded with the first of his Swordmanoids in the B-3 slot, bringing the attack to his opponent. The elder responded with a Deadly Moth in the Center of the board, bringing the attack right back. The second Red Swordmanoid was played in the low center spot, attacking and defending at the same time. The response was the second Blue Deadly Moth in the last spot of the center column, leaving only the first column left to play. Not taking the time to think over his move, seeing the victory in sight, the Long Arm snapped down the Sky Fish in A-1 almost eagerly. It would prove to be a fatal mistake. The Heavyblade in front of him blinked in surprise, before placing down his own Swordmanoid in the slot directly below, and capturing the Sky Fish due to the elemental advantage. The boy started back in shock at the rule he had completely overlooked, and it was with a sad sigh of regret that he placed his final card, the Goblin in the last available slot ending the match in a draw. A quick rematch was set up, this time with Kiwi given the honor of taking point.

The man opened defensively, setting the Disco Knife in the lower right corner, a popular slot it seemed. The boy had the same idea in mind however, and his own Disco Knife was set right above it. It seemed defensive was the way to play with the first playing a Snip Snap in the last right side opening. The second decided to take a little bit of a gamble and slap down the Headhunter in the bottom middle slot. The elder didn’t respond to it and took the defensive route, setting his second Disco Knife down in the center slot. The young one turned back on the defensive route placing his own Snip Snap into the top middle position. The rest of the game was easy to see, the Sky Fish to A-1, the Cadet Valkyrie to C-1 and the Mad Grass to B-1 sealing the game in a draw that both players saw it would be.

Another rematch was proposed, this time with a Random Level 2 selection of cards. The cards drawn and match about to begin, the only question remained was who was to open. Neither party seemed willing to be eager to take the lead, and it was Kiwi who came to a solution. He pulled out a golden coin and placed it on his thumb, which was indrawn into his fist. Raquar nodded, pointing at his head. With a quick flip, the coin was sent skyward and slapped down into the Heavyblade’s open palm, the hide side of the coin resting face up. The Long Arm looked through his cards one last time, before opening in the typical spot, placing his Fiend Menhir in C-3. His opponent’s response, a Mummy Ripper to B-2 was an attempt to break the game wide open. He was going to have to think about this. After hundreds of mental simulations, twists and turns, hesitations, and take backs of almost played cards, the boy attempted to set a trap, his own Sword of Chaos placed in the C-2 slot. Kiwi played extremely well, his Dust Curse in B-3 re-converting the Mummy Ripper. Both players were at their peak as the Red Snakoid appeared in the C-1 slot. The Ectoplasm in B-1 that followed a while later sealed the game in a tie, as the two Dust Curses, first A-3 then A-2, and then the Snakoid in the final A slot finalized the set in yet another draw. The two players seemed almost equally matched.

Kiwi grinned as he typed.

The boy chuckled a bit, forgetting the no talking rule at the same time. “Yeah I noticed the first one. But as to the second one?” He made the gesture of palming his face when a loud noise seemed to bleed in from the hallway. He whirled around just in time to see Takua catch a . . . shotgun blast? directly in the stomach. The kid flew backward, shattering the window on his way out of it. Before the Long Arm knew exactly what was happening, his spear was sticking neatly out of the thing’s chest. Sadly there wasn’t room for a slash, so a beheading was out of the question but it would still be possible to cleave. He thought. A quick flick of the spear downward, separating what was once a player into two distinct halves. The one that had the shotgun dropped and it was then that the horrors in the hallway were revealed.

Everything seemed to happen at once. The zombies charged in through the door and into the apartment, Lyra and Kiwi raced forward to meet them, and then there was good old Tak who flew back in the window and started waving giant chunks of ice around. Raquar backed toward the back of the apartment, waving through the giant chunks of ice and the huge black mass that Kiwi was playing with. It was too crowded. A heap of bodies piled in the doorway blocked the entrance, and it didn’t take the other three long to clean up the few that had found their ways inside. While they had been doing the fighting however, the boy had noticed a couple of shiny things in odd places around the apartment. He had noticed a tiny glean from under the coach, and when his hand was forced under and yanked back out he had managed to extract a Vaccine. His first thought was what in the world was a Vaccine doing under this woman’s couch? His next thought was, of course, what else could this place be hiding? A quick search of the area while the others were busy demolishing zombies proved somewhat fruitful.

He had managed to unearth a pair of Rune Spheres. One of them swirled green, and smelled strangely like pine trees, while the other took after him. A cloud of black swirled inside the purple casing. He was staring at it admiringly when a single command was shouted out. He glanced up to see the fox suddenly sprout wings and soar upward, clearing out the way as she did so. Did everybody have wings? He sighed as he boosted himself off the couch and into the hole, dodging a couple of intruding beams before managing to pull himself up onto the roof complete with a long skinny gash along his arm caused by a stranded piece of jagged wood. He stood up atop the building, one thought prominently sticking out in his mind.

Fuckin’ Zombies.

((OOC: Visual for the Card Games
Game 1:




Game 2:




Game 3 will be included in the next post))

((OOC: Excuse the double post but here is Game 3.
Game 3:





))

In retrospect, she probably should have broken their temporary oath of silence for the sake of saving the kid's ass, but even further in retrospect, watching him fly out the window was pretty funny. Right now she had no time to laugh, though, as she lept up and lunged for the window, knowing she had no chance of saving poor Takua but wanting to at least yell at him to aim for the river.

Of course, it turned out he had wings. Of course. Wings. She had wings, why hadn't she thought of that idea earlier? She could have sneaked out and gotten back quite eas-

Oh yes. There were zombies invading her apartment, weren't there?

She spun around and charged back into the fray, sword first, instantly killing a couple of zombies that couldn't have been higher than level two when they were still players, which probably easily explained why they were now zombies. Their bodies were nicely shish-ka-bobbed to the wall for a moment, that now-familiar bold “Critical hit!” floating above both their bodies befofe Lyra pulled her weapon back and found something else to kill.

“Ohhhhh yeaaaah. MASSACRE!”

In addition to the other various masses of once-players, there were three rather familiar hulking figures; some of the n00b Heavy Axes from earlier. Those were the first to go, sliced down as quickly as possible. It was only their high defense that let them live through two hits before they fell over dead, effectively blocking the door. It was good in that it prevented any more zombies from getting in... it was bad in that, not including the dead bodies (except weren't they all dead bodies?) there were still around two dozen zombies left in the room.

Somehow Takua climbed back in the window and set off a GiRue Kruz at the same exact moment as Kiwi sent off an Ani Don. So now there were only about one dozen, along with a thick layer of slime on her walls and a layer of bodies on the floor.

“Well that's morbid.”

But all the physical fighters were back in there, taking out what was left before they could start taking them out. A few were clearly actually levelled in the teens, which seemed frustrating to the lower level boys, so Kiwi took them out quickly.

“Onto the roof!” he shouted, putting himself between them and the few remaining zombies. Lyra jerked her head at Loud and Broody before opening her wings slightly and shooting up and out of the hole in her ceiling, which proved to be much easier than climbing out. She started shoving crates out of the way, making the hole more accesible, and looked around; the roof was clear for now, but there were plenty of the undead from before on the neighboring roofs, and when she looked down the side of the building, there were some grappling up it as well.

-Hour Four-

“Well, shit,” she grumbled, looking back behind her just as the last of the guys emerged from the hole. “Where do we go from here?”

“Up didn't work, so let's go down. Sewers, anyone?” Takua suggested, pointing out a manhole on the strip of walk below them.

“I'm game,” she agreed, the others echoing. “Help me grab Raquar.”

“Wait, what?!” the Long Arm objected as she and Takua closed in from both sides of him. He was the only one without wings, though, so he had to be helped down. His arms were hooked over their shoulders and they took off, dropping feet first off the building in one hell of a hurry.

One of the Revenants climbing the building decided that it wanted in on the flight, leaping off the side of the building and hurtling toward the three. Red leather connected with its head before it could reach them, though, and the only damage from the encounter was a last-second claw slash down Lyra's boot.

They landed around the manhole, which Raquar promptly opened with his spear.

“Ladies last!” the vixen called to them, racing off to take out all the zombies within dashing distance, so that they'd have as few problems following them as possible. She sort of noticed a strange look on Raquar's face as he looked into the hole, almost as though the smell was getting to him, but ignored it with a roll of her eyes. She wanted some EXP before the hordes got too big to handle; she had a bird to catch up with, level-wise.

Once those had been taken out, she followed them on down, trying to drag the cover back over the edge.

The water was ankle deep, the tunnel just barely taller than the lot of them and splitting off in several directions. She could just barely see their backs ahead of her, and she dashed down that path, catching up easily. Ahead, she could see a patch of ceiling that looked a bit different – probably a drain hole. Kiwi stopped, holding up his hand and staring up the hole for a moment. She didn't understand what was going on until there was a chime.

She nodded, sidestepping Raquar and tilting her feet to accommodate the angle of the curved tunnel as she assumed third in line. She figured the Long Arm's agility would be better to have in the back than her own power.

They tiptoed past the grate, keeping in the shadows, and then continued on down the path, following Kiwi down various paths. She hoped he knew where he was going, because she was fairly lost, the carnage visible through each grate looking no different than the last.

They stopped again, and Lyra nearly asked what was going on, but covered her mouth quickly. Another flashmail arrived:

Careful wasn't going to help them. Before they could take another step, a variety of the monsters started emerging from the tunnel in front of them, lurching straight for their party.

Zombies around meant that they could talk again, since they were already found and everything.

“Shit! Turn around?!” Lyra asked, looking between behind them and the tunnel they'd barely passed.

“They'll still catch us. We'll have to take them out anyway.”

Takua cleared his throat. “Guys... if you don't want to get burned, I'd suggest you move.”

No one had to be told twice. They rushed for the side tunnel, getting out of the way of the casting he was about to do.

“Vulcan Ch!” he called, and there was a burst of light and fire that took out the mob of zombies... and a large chunk of the tunnel and surrounding ceiling along with it.

Before Lyra could say “Overkill much?”, there was a loud rumbling, and it was immeadiately obvious that the water level had risen a bit. “What was that?” she called, torn between going back after the WaveMaster – she had promised Sekai she'd look after them – and just running for it.

Takua had already commenced with the running for it course of action, though. “There was a really big pipe on the other side, and it's leaking, and I think it's about to-”

CRACK

Kiwi and Lyra cast each other a look over Raquar's head, Takua stopping in his tracks between the lot. Both slammed their respective sword into the cracks between the bricks that made up the walls, anchoring themselves as securely as they could. Raquar followed suit with his own spear, and Takua grabbed onto the weapon closest to himself, which happened to be Lyra's.

The water came rushing into the tunnel with another deafening crack, filling it to the brim and pushing with the kind of absurd force only a flood of “you moron, you broke the water main!” proportions could.

Raquar's spear proved to not be rooted far enough to anchor him, and he was shoved into Lyra and Takua in front of him, which in turn dislodged the fox's weapon from the wall, too. All three dove for the walls, each other, anything they could with weapons and limbs alike, but the water was just too swift, carrying them down the tunnel so fast that Lyra could barely catch Kiwi's eye before they were swept out of sight.

A second slower and they would have seen the chaos that followed as the few zombies that had survived Takua's summon came floating past, clawing at Kiwi before he had time to react, infecting him even as he was separated from his team.

Their wild ride ended out in the river, where they joined a layer of bodies and other debris floating in the once pristine river. Lyra frowned as she looked back at the tunnel, dragging herself onto a floating crate and sliding her sword back into place on her back. All around them, parts of the city were on fire, lighting the mobs and battles with an orange glow, still accompanied by the same dark light from the chaos gates.

She wasn't sure her teammates could hear her over the sounds of screaming and fighting in the background, but she said it anyway: “Well, shit. what now?”

To say that the plan to stay in the apartment had failed was an understatement. A small raid of zombies and zombified players had gate crashed the party, Takua having been blown out the window with a fucking shotgun. How a modern weapon like that had ever got into The World was more than Takua could comprehend, but it had happened. As a result he had gone flying through window as a couple of shots cracked into his chest at something well over the speed of sound. Glass and woodwork that had still been there had died in that second, the debris falling below him as he reacted instantly. Glossy black wings exploded out behind him, the bat wings flapping to slow his fall. Then he began to glide, moving towards the window that he had flown out of. He didn’t really have the height that he needed, but the bed sheets that hung out the window provided him with the perfect thing to climb back to the window. Another second and he was healed, the Repth sealing the bleeding in his stomach. Bones and organs reformed, their damage healed.

The next several minutes was all about butchering the zombies in the hallway before they ran for it, charging up to the roof only to discover that it wasn’t a good option either. An army of undead were on the surrounding houses, and a group of Revenants had decided to start climbing the building to get to them. The Wavemaster swore under his breath, looking around for a way out of the predicament that they were in.

----Hour Four----

It was when he actually looked at the ground that he saw the solution for their problem. Of course, it wouldn’t be obvious when you first thought of it, but if one got past one’s initial revulsion and automatic hatred of it then it wasn’t a bad idea. The sewers were by the far cleanest probably, given that nobody actually used them for anything, not that he knew. There weren’t that many comatose people, and he didn’t know if they even had to take a shit now and then. The zombies might have a more difficult time coming down after them in the sewers, and the close quarters meant that they couldn’t get rushed easily. Granted, it also meant that fighting would be more hazardous because of the smaller amount of room to swing his allies weapons.

Even still, that plan was taken and their destination chosen. There was a manhole cover down the street…the only problem was getting there of course. The only one of the three on the roof that didn’t have wings happened to be Raquar…who also happened to be comatose. Takua suddenly regretted his decision to go into the sewers as Raquar would have to smell it. However, they really didn’t have much of a choice, and grabbed his arms with Lyra before lifting off. Their descent wasn’t that controlled, it was more of a fall that was barely below the speed that would hurt them. As such, they descended into the sewers without much of a hitch, Kiwi meeting up with them after they were inside. Following a flashmail from Kiwi they all moved to the walls to avoid making sound by water. It was a sound plan…so they all moved to the edges, making sure that they didn’t touch the liquid in the tunnel.

They kept on stopping as they went, Takua getting nervous every time they checked a manhole for zombies that might be descending. This was entirely too easy, there had to be more challenge in the hellhole that they were traveling in. He had loved Kiwi’s plan when he had formed it, not only was he more protected by the stronger and more melee classes, but he had a place where he could heal and cast from in safety. There wasn’t much more that a mage could ask for than that. The minutes ticked by, their line moving down the sewer wall, making sure to keep out of the water to keep the splashing sounds down to a minimum. He was beginning to think that they could get by this fairly easily, even though he had a feeling that it wasn’t. There wasn’t that much more that he could ask for. Right?

Actually, he could ask for a lot more, like not having to face about twenty zombies that suddenly appeared in front of them. There was an intersection behind him, behind all of them, but with about twenty moaning zombies following them the rest could home in easily. He weighed his options, the spells that he could cast or the items he could use. Although he could use several Rune Spheres, that would leave him out. He did have near full SP though…and that meant that he had every spell on him available for a cast. He wanted the one with the greatest range and the greatest radius. There was really only one of those that he had, although another one fell close.

“Guys... if you don't want to get burned, I'd suggest you move.”

When he noticed that all of them were back in the side tunnel he began to cast his spell. It was so simple to pull the naturally chaotic being of fire into existence when one had the power of the God on one’s side. Of course Vulcan himself wouldn’t come, that wasn’t something that he thought would happen. What he could expect would happen was that an appreciable fraction of the God’s power could incinerate the zombies before him. Granted, in all reality it wasn’t that much of Vulcan’s power, but it would be enough. He didn’t know of a spell that could do anywhere near what Vulcan could do, it was the pure difference between what was a God in The World could do versus a mortal.

Small difference in power.

”Vulcan Ch.”

Where all of the zombies were a circle of pure flame began to form, the summon beginning its spell. The circle encircled ten of the beasts, the rest would be taken out by the concussive backlash. The edges began to smolder before glowing, the fire flashing inwards and outwards, annihilating and destroying the monsters…and most of that part of the tunnel. Indeed, as he saw the few pitiful remnants of the squad he found a sudden increase in the flow of water, the level of it rising rapidly as the heat cooled down from steaming hot into icy cold. He couldn’t feel it, but he knew it was there. He stared down the tunnel, noticing now that on the other side of the actual wall there was a pipe…one that was leaking water profusely as the sides of it softened and melted, hardening in a shape that wasn’t meant for holding water.

“What was that?”

Takua began to run, his feet slowed down by the water that was still rising. He had to make it back there before it blew up. He was nearly there when he started reporting on it, finally reaching where they were. “There was a really big pipe on the other side, and it's leaking, and I think it's about to-”

The next second was a thunderous roar as the pipe snapped, and the Wavemaster reached out for the metal sword that Lyra had embedded in the wall. He grabbed on, holding on to the sword with all of his puny strength. In all honesty, he didn’t really think that he’d be able to have held on for as long as the water had poured from the pipe, even without Raquar slamming into him and knocking him and Lyra away into the streets of Mac Anu. Now they were floating in the river, a most definitely not-pristine river. Fires and screams echoed throughout Mac Anu as they sat in the water, their thoughts glum.

Where was Kiwi?

-Hour Five-

Captain Tocatodo, a man normally bound to sailing the seas, gazes silently out the broad window before him. He overlooks the hollowed city from his safe perch. The lights are out in the house, a measure strictly enforced on his crew to prevent the zombies from discovering them. The distant groaning comes to them through otherwise utter silence, muffled by the walls, like a low Gregorian chant. He brings a smooth pipe to his lips and breathes in the harsh flavor, exhaling a puff of pleasant barbecued chicken scent. Regardless, it’s merely aesthetic, tickling the imagination, because neither he nor his assistant can feel the digital fumes, nor can he savor anything. He runs a stylish ship and takes pride in his refined tastes. The hurried scratching of a feather pen against a sheet of paper reaches his ear, however, and his gaze wanders to his assistant.

The mage sits erect at desk to his side, scribbling out hastily as she eyes a black screen set to stand by her window. A narrow beam of light casts an obvious circle onto the screen, showing the shadow of a hand raising its fingers. She deciphers these gestures and writes out the corresponding letters. Primitive, but effective, it’s the only way they can communicate with another party without sharing Member Addresses. The idea was a spur of the moment, when other players noted that there was a light flashing distantly. They could send a runner to exchange addresses with the other team, but given the hordes swarming outside, it’s too dangerous to risk revealing their hideout.

Tocatodo watches her slim hands at work. She has her tight-fitting ivory coat on today, with only some of the belts that run across the front strapped firmly in place. A matching short skirt adorns her thighs, decorated with silver lines forming into swirls. She pauses less than a second to brush aside her short black hair, while attentively jotting down a message. He shifts closer to her, glancing over her shoulder towards the sheet, but finding himself distracted by fingers further down still. It’s a wonder she can breathe in that coat, he muses. A first mate blessed with a variety of talents. He breathes a smoky sigh as such thoughts momentarily distract him from their gloomy reality.

“Sir, incoming message from Red Robin. It reads: Check the news. Earthquake, Peru.” she states. She furrows her delicate features as she reads it over again. He gives a light puff through his pipe and stays quiet in thought.

“Please ready a response, Maria.” says Tocatodo. She nods and gently soaks the tip of her feather pen in ink. He speaks pronounces each word deliberately, reaching up under his ashen crescent-moon hat and scratching his head.

“Peru can wait… Zombies can’t. Stay focused.” He resumes his observing out the window and strokes his clean-shaven jaw. The zombies are out there, somewhere. Maria dutifully records his response, then holds her hand in front of a tube that narrows and directs their beam. The sole light source in the house, a candle, is boxed to keep the shine from escaping except towards the intended receiver. By holding up her fingers, she projects a shadow at the other end, which allows them to transmit short messages. A minute later, she finishes her task and runs her fingers through her hair.

Tocatodo turns to see her intently watching for any new messages. His eyes narrow briefly as he spots the projection of someone forming a bird with his hands at the other end of the beam. The bird transforms into a rabbit, then a simple mouth.


Meanwhile, Kiwi braces himself against the oncoming tide. The water pounds on his chest and heaves his legs back. The others are gone somewhere, washed through the labyrinth of ducts and pipes leading to the rivers. He struggles to retain his grip and think.

“If I let go now, I could drift along the same route or another close to it and come out to meet them. Maybe they washed up somewhere inside the pipes instead…” he reasons. After all, there are no benefits to staying there and soaking up. Unlike his proficiency on solid ground, however, Kiwi finds himself at a disadvantage in the water. The rising flood inspires dread in his heart. Before he can deliberate further, though, something else comes flowing with the water. The current drags a slew of zombies, all of which reach out to touch him as the current drags them away. One latches onto his arm, but the force of the water keeps him from brushing it off. It digs its claws into his arm and he curses, punching its face in at the expense of being washed off with his sword.

The waters carry him through the pipe maze. He eventually emerges at the riverside somewhere, though unsure of exactly where that is, and kicks madly to stop from sinking. Kiwi throws his sword up onto the walkway nearby and pulls himself up next. Fortunately, only his hands are covered with heavy armor. He manages to slosh around, up to the higher ground, where he simply lets his clothes drip. Where did everyone else go?

The screen fades into shades of grey. The world around him turns monochromatic, though his appearance remains normal. Objects in the distance blend together into a grey blur. The effects must be setting in. Without a second thought, he hurriedly summons his fingers to typing a message for his team.

The message never reaches them. He hears an angry chime, signaling an error in response to his attempts to send the warning. A growl tears through the air and he takes the interface down to glance at his surroundings, ducking for cover against a wall. The growl thunders again and he throws himself forward, rolling onto his feet and facing back. Nothing around. Red symbols appear at the center of his sight for a moment, startling him. Kiwi focuses on the alien feature, a timer that resembles his own event clock, but its numbers are red. He never configured another clock, though. He moves the display to a more convenient location at the bottom right corner of his vision.

The countdown decreases with every heartbeat: 0:14:41

“UNIT-107, you have no time to waste. The countdown you have no doubt noticed by now indicates the time you have remaining to find another player. Infecting a player will earn you another 15 minutes on your count. Failure to comply within the allotted time will result in your permanent infection.”

The heavy guttural voice booms from the sky. No amount of searching reveals the throat emitting those words. He tries hard to track their source, only to find himself suspecting a point directly above, or worse, inside his head. He flexes his hands before his eyes and checks his body over. All his features seem normal. It must be that the transformation sets in over time.

Kiwi runs. He bolts through the town, ignoring anything around him except crates, which he beats into fragments on sight. There has to be a vaccine somewhere, the only item that can get him out of this hell. Crate after crate succumbs to his force and none of the medicine appears. Even various elemental spheres pop into existence. Those briefly capture his attention through their colors. The spheres remain colored, even as his surroundings retain their monochrome gloom. He ignores the gems to save on precious seconds. Every crate he shatters plays as thunder in his ears, an inexplicable roar that was never there before. Beneath that sound, almost hidden from his perception, is a rushing pounding on the ground. The sound registers in his memory vaguely, the sound of footfalls, and fast ones at that, their intensity rising. He quickly surveys the length of the street and sees nothing, not a soul that could be running that close to him. Kiwi delves through his controls and lowers the volume on his headset to a more tolerable level. Still, as he watches the series of lime green bars diminish to the left, he recognizes the volume is still at its usual setting. He continues to pound through boxes, the very act akin to an obsession, and his concerns grow as his time dwindles.

The footsteps finally round the bend closest to him, momentarily drawing his eyes away from the shards that used to be a crate. Kiwi faces two players, both running towards him. His eyebrow curves instinctively at the confusing scene. A Blademaster runs ahead, his character grey and somehow unusual. Closer observation shows that his design is rigid, covered in sharp lines, chiseled from primitive polygons that convey little personality beyond a generic facade. A Twin Blade chases the first player, though his character appears normal. His eyes widen and he comes to his feet instantly.

“Wait, do any of you have a vaccine? I can’t seem to find any and I’ve got… less than 4 minutes before I become a zombie.” he says, unconsciously tainting his words with frustration. The first player stops and draws his sword without warning. What little expression he seems capable of communicates haunting fear. His mouth moves mechanically, but the words come forth as sharp static and heavy distortion.

“Get out of the way, he can’t understand you!” shouts the Twin Blade. The Blademaster raises his sword high and brings it down on Kiwi. Reaching up, he intercepts the swing with both hands, holding the player tightly by the wrists. At this range, he can spot the profuse sweat snaking down his polygonal skin and how the geometry of his jaw clenches shut.

“What the hell is going on?!” shouts Kiwi, his grip tightening upon facing resistance. He notices his timers now tick at different speeds. Specifically, the red one falls twice as fast as the event clock. His time is running out and someone has the nerve to attack him.

Not much longer: 4:22:26 and 0:02:17

The Twin Blade gives a long sigh, watching just a few feet away from the other two. He comes from behind the Blademaster and shoves a curved knife into his shoulder. The attack severs the muscles that support his arm, causing the force behind his sword to soften and his face to contort in pain. The Twin Blade stares at them, his arms crossed.

“Bite him you idiot.” he demands. Kiwi, who was already disturbed by the brutal display, outright refuses and opens his mouth: “What?!”

“Bite him now. We’re running out of time here. Look, you must be new, so just bite him and I’ll explain…”

“No. Explain first.” says Kiwi. The Blademaster seems to crumple slightly in his direction, confused and injured.

“Then I’ll bite him.”

“Wait, what?! Look, I just need a vaccine.” he says and sighs. A roar reverberates through the air, that same disembodied voice from earlier, and strikes him down invisibly. The time on his red clock plummets by a whole minute, to a scarce 17 seconds. He freezes upon noticing the change and holds his breath. Suddenly, he realizes the horrible purgatory to which they have all been sent.

“UNIT-107, communicating any desire or hope of being uninfected is strictly prohibited. You have been penalized. Future violations will carry heavier consequences.”

The words seem to bounce off his mind. Kiwi reluctantly swipes his hand across the arm in his grasp. Despite his benign gloves, his movement seems to tear into the player’s arm, drawing steady crimson lines with a violet tinge. He lets the player collapse to the side, apparently disabled, and faces the other one.

“So… hey. You need to start getting this fast or you’ll be stuck as a zombie. Oh, right, where are my manners? I’m Belome, or UNIT-98 as the boss says. You might have some trouble believing this, but you’re already a zombie. A lot of people get confused because you look normal to yourself and other infected players look normal too. You want to find people like him, though.” says Belome, pointing down at their recent victim.

“I remember meeting a friend who got infected… to them, everything we say it growling or moaning. We can clearly understand each other. They can’t talk to us either, so don’t waste your time on them.”

“Why didn’t you take him instead?” Kiwi asks, calming down only as he feels the despair beginning to swallow him whole. No, he shoves back and struggles to gain the upper hand. He can still figure a way out.

“I already got a whole party earlier. They were locked up in a room and… you know the rest. I’m fine for at least another hour and a half. Plus, you seemed to be in need, and I could use some help. The Cataracts started coming out this round. It’s become a problem because they’re tougher than Revenants, and a few players have gotten caught. The survivors are hiding from us. Besides, if you can keep your time up…” Belome’s voice fades and he points up, following that with a finger to his lips as if shushing him.

Someone out there, probably an administrator, is enjoying his predicament. And as they say in some circles, when the administrator is smiling, it’s already too late. It all makes sense, though. It’s a cleverly orchestrated curse for anyone who gets infected. Someone out there…

“Who’s the boss?”

“The Dracolich, or something like that… Oh, and if you didn’t notice… Once you meet a normal player, you must infect someone to stop your clock from draining faster.” explains Belome. Before he can continue, a few curse words shoot up from the Blademaster on the ground.

“What did you do to me!?” he shouts, so perturbed that spittle flies from his lips. Kiwi remains quiet, thinking of how to best explain this all. The player quickly rises to his feet and shoves him back. The disembodied voice thunders around them.

“UNIT-112, attacking another-”

Logically, attacking another zombie must carry some punishment as well. The Blademaster refuses to listen, swinging his blade out in a rage and catching Kiwi across the forearm. The very second the damage appears, the player disappears in a white flash. Kiwi feels needles in his eyes and ears as a brilliant lightning bolt impales the irate zombie and his being disintegrates into soot. He groans, rubbing his eyes, black spots pulsing until his vision returns to normal. The voice soon insists on their attention again.

“UNIT-98, UNIT-107, a scout has detected players in this location. Proceed there and meet with UNIT-99 and UNIT-109. Infections will carry an additional 5 minute bonus.”

Belume whistles as he hears the bonus involved. A little arrow appears in his display, a waypoint, tagged with a number for the distance between him and the destination spot. Kiwi gives Belome a puzzled look, and the other chuckles back. He answers: “If players get found by a Revenant and it howls for support, we get the chance to go in and clean up. Depending on the perceived difficulty, and how many previous parties have failed, we get bonuses.”

Kiwi comes to dread the blood-red digits in his gaze. The numbers float there constantly, obstructing a sliver of his vision, as if to remind him of the chains that have been secretly forced on him. He follows the waypoint with Belome, stopping just outside the two-story building where the arrow hovers. They meet the two others who he presumes were mentioned in the orders. Croco, an odd Fist Fighter in a top hat, lurks in the shadows alongside Mack, another Twin Blade with scarlet red hair and an affectionate relationship with his serrated knives. Croco grins at the new arrivals, his teeth glowing against his ebony features. Kiwi keeps the planning short, since his clock is running short again.

Less than a minute later, a knocking is heard against the reinforced steel door that guards the safe house. A narrow gap opens in the top, and a pair of eyes scan the world outside through the slit. They seem bemused when all that’s at the other side is a green frog suit, crouched at the entrance and staring up. The suit remains silent, drawing considerable attention. The guard immediately questions him for a password in a whisper, but he simply raises his finger before his face as if shushing, then points to the into the street urgently as if expecting a monster to come any minute. The eyes glance around reluctantly, filled with hesitation, and he points insistently into the street. He brings his hands to his neck as if to choke himself, driving the point across. The guard relaxes and lets the frog in. Seconds later, Kiwi bursts out of his frog costume, eyeing the surprised guard. Before he can call anyone, Kiwi gives him a personal demonstration of the Moumokuteki, and successfully raises his red timer to a comfortable level. He puts the suit away as the other zombies dash into the house excitedly. Still, his victory is not without its pangs of guilt, and he quietly sneaks off before the carnage ends.

It’s time to find his party.

“UNIT-107, a scout has detected players in this location. Proceed there. Infections will carry an additional 5 minute bonus.”

At first, Kiwi simply shrugs off the announcement and continues on his way. He continues towards the center of the city, noting how the waypoint seems to aling itself with a familiar destination. Straight through the buildings in his way, in that vicinity, is the Elf's Haven.

--Hour Six--

After a full hour of searching, dodging, and whatever other nonsense it took just to stay alive, Lyra, Raquar, and Takua had wound up ducked behind the counter of the Magickery, crates stacked on every available inch of counter to block off any route in or out. If they wanted out, they'd have to smash their way out, but since they were sitting there in complete silence, they appeared to be safe. Occasionally the fox peeked out between the slats of the storefront, but by now she couldn't see much of anything but writhing masses of zombies. There really didn't seem to be many players left.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, slumping back to the floor again.

The responses came back totaling six, including the one already in her own inventory.

They nodded, passing her the items, three Vaccines and a half dozen spheres in all, and she withdrew one of the vials along with a handful of spheres, biting off the cork of the Vaccine and clamping her teeth down on the edge of the bottle so she could carry it there. It was a trick she often did with Health Drinks in duels, and she saw no reason not to do it here with this; it was ready at a moment's notice, the first moment she felt herself slipping out of control. She switched her weapons back out, pulling out the Moumokuteki; its resonance with Kiwi's blade would be necessary to find him. Her free hand held up her fingers in a count down, and they stood up.

Three, two, one...

She slammed shoulder first through the crates, throwing a pair of the spheres as far in front of her as possible to start the fire fight as she took to the air, flying as far above their heads as she could – which was a mere foot, eighteen inches at best, but it was enough to avoid being reached by the slow-moving creatures for the moment. Behind her explosions and the call of Vulcan joined the rest of the apocalyptic noise that filled the city, and she knew the boys were running for a new hiding place.

As she'd predicted, she made it less than halfway across the square before one of them got her, grabbing her leg and throwing her down into the crowd. She fought back up, but the infection had already began; she looked at her leg and saw the gray color slowly consuming her flesh, and it was far, far from comforting, but to her, this meant she was no longer a target for the zombies, but not yet a target for players, hopefully.

Adjusting the grip her mouth had on the vaccine, she went back to her low soar, searching the streets for her lost comrade, trying to find the familiar weapon and jacket that would give him away. She tried to speak once, to call his name, but it had been a good five minutes by that point in time and the word came out only as a scream. She shuddered, wondering how long she could keep it up before she started wanting to attack things. Lyra had no idea exactly how this zombie thing worked, and she didn't want to find out first hand.

She couldn't fly any longer, and so she landed, checking her timer; how long had it been, was it time for her to take the Vaccine yet?

...It was most definitely past time. Those bastards hadn't sent her her Flashmail! She sulked, tilting her head back and swallowing the drink, watching her body heal instantaneously.

There was a chime as soon as she was all normal, and the Flashmail waiting for her, titled “Time!” was dated for about two minutes before. “Oh.” So she couldn't get Flashmails while even mildly infected. “Shit.”

She had no time to ponder the full consequences of that before she was infected again, stabbed in the side by what used to be a Twin Blade. She cursed some more, uncorking another one and shoving it into the other side of her mouth this time, before taking to the air again.

Lyra had to watch the clock closely herself now, too. She had no system to rely on but herself, and that made her time shorter, so she needed to get to a better vantage point.

Th-thump.

Or not. The familiar resonance that occurred only when two identical rares were close together passed through her back, and she looked around for the source. Trying to find the glowing red lines of the Moumokuteki amongst the fire and chaos was harder than it sounded, though, but somehow she managed, spotting the bird and his weapon on the nearby bridge.

Zombie was not a good look for her boyfriend.

She swooped up behind him, grabbing him under the shoulders and carrying off the protesting zombie Heavy Blade across the square. He seemed confused and lost as she dragged him barely above the ground, but she didn't care; his attempts to damage her and his attempts to free himself were equally ineffective, and so she took him as far as she could before her timer reached seven minutes and she started to fall again, dropping him a dumpster in a relatively empty dumpster and shoving the Vaccine in her mouth down his throat, curing him within about ten seconds. By the time he was talking normally, she'd gotten another out and downed it.

“You... don't want to be infected. Ever,” he stammered. “You wouldn't believe what it's like...”

“I don't plan on it, now let's get back to the boys so we can survive this shit, ne?” she assured him, sending a Flashmail back to Takua and Raquar, asking if everything was alright and where they were. They responded with the location of the (by now unidentifiable, from the damage to it) shop they were hiding in. “This way,” she commanded, last Vaccine in her mouth, Moumokuteki in hand. “We've got newbs to protect.”

----Hour Seven----

Takua huddled in the ruins of a shop. He wasn’t even certain what shop it was anymore, there were so many zombies roaming around that they had annihilated damn near everything. His supplies had dwindled, he was down to maybe five Rune Spheres and three vaccines, the rest was all in his slowly regenerating SP. He had just healed everyone to full health with two La Repths, which also meant that his SP had a sudden and drastic four SP hole for the time being. That wasn’t going to help their cause, but they needed the health now that they were fighting damn near every zombie known to man. Everything from the originals to these new types that he didn’t even want to touch roamed the streets, and all he could do was hope that his allies could take them down. The only way he could actually do damage was by slamming it with a second level summon or a second level spell, either one worked just fine…except for the massive amount of noise and SP cost that the summon took.

They needed to hide.

That thought was printed upon his mind, that they needed someplace to hide out. That way they could find a place to wait for this all to blow over. He didn’t know how long it would take before the damn zombies found this place, but he knew that he didn’t want to be there for when it happened. Of course, if they moved they’d be found sooner…but he also knew that the more that the moved the better, away from a hiding spot that could be found so quickly. That was when he heard the roar, an earth shattering, or in this case, shop shattering, roar that dropped a piece of rock on his head. From the Chaos Gate itself strode a massive dragon made of bone, and the moment it appeared a green shield started up. The typical no damage shield…and it never, ever dropped away. Even from this far away he could see that its health bar wasn’t being touched, that it just didn’t take any damage at all. Whoever the band of players were that tried to kill it, all he saw was a single swipe through buildings and rubble, and then the green shield stopped.

Fuck.

He knew that the rest of the group had the same thought. If that thing found them? It was over, they had to move quickly, before it trapped them. How could they get rid of that thing anyhow? Could they get rid of it? He thought for a few minutes while it rampaged around Mac Anu, slowly drawing closer, thinking of how to kill it. Then he got an idea, one that might work, and if not would easily get rid of it for the time being. With small, swift hand gestures towards his three teammates he got them up, no zombies around where they were for the time being. Unless you counted the Dracolich, who happened to be charging at them, somehow having detected their position. They moved at that moment, the plan having been explained in a few pointed gestures towards the bridge, the Dracolich, and the river. It wasn’t the main bridge, the one that most people used to cross the river, but it would have to do. That way if his plan failed they’d have another route across back to where they wouldn’t be cornered.

If his plan failed.

From that moment, from the moment that they moved, it was a solid bloodbath. The boy that was currently leading the plan hadn’t seen so many zombies around, but he had to conserve his SP. He needed a minimum of 70 at all times or else this would fail horribly. To that end, the Rai Roms that he spread around the front of the group were all aimed at the clumps of regular zombies. He didn’t even try for the level tens, the fifteen, the twenties, and whatever else wasn’t a one shot kill. That wasn’t what he was there for, he was there to kill the masses of monsters that came for them.

In all actuality, it was the Dracolich that probably saved them. The hulking behemoth charged through its own troops, squishing zombies and players alike as it moved. Granted, it didn’t move very fast, but when the zombie was moving towards it? Even the highest level monsters, the Legions, didn’t stand more than a second of attention before they were crushed. The entire way Takua was casting his Rai Roms every time he had 80 SP, constantly keeping 70 as his lowest value. After all, if he couldn’t cast a Vulcan Ch, what was the point? Perhaps it was because they had three people surrounding him that they lived, the three point team was able to butcher the enemy as they moved as one, the last six hours having been a trial and a binding experience. The grind was a team making, not a team breaking, time.

He didn’t want to count how many zombies ended up below their feet. Possibly close to a thousand had been killed by the fifth hour, by now? Their combined kills probably totaled around three thousand zombies, and that wasn’t counting those which couldn’t be confirmed. The entire way was a slog until they hit a perfect circle where a Rai Rom had fried the enemy troops, at which point a few precious feet were gained from the rampaging bulk that filled the skies behind them. Takua half wondered whether or not it could even fit on the bridge, and if it couldn’t the plan was for nothing. All of this killing, this waste of SP, all of it was just a waste of time and energy. He pitied Raquar, having to slog through this while worrying about his friends…and Sekai probably. Speaking of the Archer, he was glad that he hadn’t run into her as a zombified corpse, that would have probably crushed the party’s spirits.

It was right about when they had left two hundred dead on their way to the bridge that they finally gained the first objective…actually getting there. It was amusing, the Wavemaster mused, how they had all gone with him with minimal complaint. Maybe his brief hand signals showing that he wanted to drown the Dracolich had been enough to make them all follow him, but either way, it spoke well for them as a team. He couldn’t speak the same way for the zombies, the damn things didn’t really work well together, relying on sheer weight of numbers to take the players down. Once or twice on the way there they had passed a solo player, and at one point a group, but they didn’t look that well coordinated.

Right after they reached the bridge they had a small break, two groups of players fighting on opposite sides of the bridge. That had left them with a small amount of breathing room, but not for long. They were both on their last legs, and they died in a wave of Legion and Cataracts. As the hordes moved up the group moved on, their troop advancing while the healing bitch cast a La Repth, making sure that nobody was infected. From there he had a brief moment of actually doing damage with a GiRai Rom, and then the Dracolich began its movement over the bridge. The group moved up a little more so that the claws on the front of the thing couldn’t hit them…and the Wavemaster cast his Vulcan Ch, the spell centered on the center of the bridge.

When the summon exploded it was with a shattering blast that the bridge went underwater. No longer supported by anything, the actual bridge across the water fell in…with the Dracolich with it. Now on the side of the bridge that they had first been at, they started to move away from the river, hoping that the zombie in question was actually dead.

It was with a sudden roar that the Dracolich pulled itself back up, mocking their attempts to kill it before its tail flicked towards, barely missing the party before slicing through the few Cataracts in front of them. Then they ran, moving past the now dead and dying zombies before turning down a street. There in front of them, completely untouched by the zombies, stood Kiwi’s old crate fort. Of course, that wasn’t what Takua was thinking, what he was thinking was how great a weapon it could be against the zombies. The way was clear, if only for a moment, and the group charged inside, all four of them barricading the door against the regular monsters.

”Okay…this probably won’t last against that thing, so Kiwi, go find a sewer grate. Everyone else? I want two Rune Spheres at the corners of this tower, no exploding them. Don’t break crates to find them, I want the biggest boom we can get.”

They all departed to do his work, he looked out the small window at the approaching dragon. If they did this right they could get away…if they didn’t? Then it was a good try. Kiwi had managed to find, of course, a sewer grate in the center of the tower. It also had a clear line of sight to the other corners, so Takua put everyone down the hatch before he planted four of his rune spheres. One at the midway point for each corner…and then slipped down the hatch himself. Taking one last look at the tower that would soon serve as the Dracolich’s death, or at least the death of a ton of zombies, he threw a rune sphere up in the air, bringing the grate over the top of it before he dropped to the bottom of the tunnel. There was no need to be silent this time, not with the amount of noise that was about to happen.

”Quickly, back to where I set off the Vulcan Ch. We’ll try taking refuge in the water pipe.”

Back on the surface the Dracolich slammed into the tower, body tackling it as he tried to get at the players he thought were inside of it. At that moment the rune sphere fell, the explosion of Rai setting off the four intermediate stages…right as the entire front section of the tower shattered, vaccines and Rune Spheres flying to the ground. Then the two at the corners exploded, and in the next second the skyline of Mac Anu had a new sun as fifty spheres erupted in one area, the elemental magics fighting with one another. Dozens of other spheres flew through the air, crashing into houses and zombies alike while the group scurried down the tunnel, hearing the massive amounts of explosions plainly. The massive amount of detonations cleared out several hundred zombies…and the Dracolich lived, dragging itself out of its hole in search for other prey. The party in question were sequestered in the water pipe that had exploded…staying there, safe and sound, until the end of hour seven.