[SD:RtR] Let's Back Up A Lot - Chapter 8

Inky, “Well, I can’t prove any of that, but we can work our way closer to the center, I guess.”

Gem smiles, “Sounds like a plan!”

And before anyone else can react, Gem swings their spear out and smashes the head off of a zombie. “COMING THROUGH!” And begins to slow walk along the front of the line.

This causes a few disruptions, but Gem’s Wind Blades are able to save the few serious problems. All while those on the front line that they pass in front of use this as a chance to reset or retreat.

Behind Gem, the other nine are quick to follow, though only Samuel and Bell are able to keep up with them when it comes to killing the undead on the move. Though Bell chooses not to, instead focusing on crowd control with her whip so the others have an easier time.

They rush along the front line, zombie after skeleton after skeletal abomination falls behind them. Dead or downed, either works. Though as they advance, there are more and more of the skeletal abominations and they don’t fall over as easily.

Still, they advance until Gem frowns and snaps off a Wind Blade from their spear. The attack magic pierces into one abomination and it stumbles back. Bones fall off of the being, yet it manages to right itself. Though the energy animating the abomination leaks heavily from the home pierced almost through it.

Gem laughs, “There we go! We’re here!”

Inky turns to the others, “Tight groupings! This is a serious fight now. No more slacking.”

Her five companions all gather up with Bell at the front, still focused on tripping the undead. Which, admittedly, is a little harder now that many have more than two or even four legs. Still, she’s practiced with it and managed quite well for herself. Her sword being used more to parry and push back those that make it to her.

Arrayed behind Bell, everyone but Inky falls into place. Spells and weapons ranged out to strike down the undead. Inky in turn moves around the group, not quite in stealth, but certainly able to strike at the undead from unexpected angles.

Which, of course leaves Gem’s team a little out in the cold.

Gem rolls their eyes as they begin to blast through their Mana, nearly killing a bunch of undead. “No orders for us?”

Inky shrugs, “You can handle it.”

Gem snerks, “We’re still recorded as a team with you as the leader.”

Inky, “And I’m leading you by telling you to do your own thing. We didn’t really practice any team fighting. Hell, we barely fought together. It was always more of a scrum and every man for themselves. This is the first time my team is getting serious, and don’t try and say the same isn’t true for your group.”

Samuel smashes three skeletons apart with his shield. “Meh, this is what I assumed the outcome would be.”

Gem, “Well I didn’t!”

June, “Really?”

Emrys nods, “I mean like, I’m evil as well, but we’re in it together. They’re a different team. If anything, this is one of the better outcomes.”

Gem, “But evil doesn’t mean stupid! Working together during a raid is the best choice! I know me some chaos and look at this!” Gem gestures to the rest of the fight.

Around them, skeletal abominations crash into adventurers wherever there aren’t fighters who can take them down in a few attacks. People are dying, selling their lives at high costs to the undead. Except the undead can pay the bill, even if every adventurer’s death costs them ten or twenty undead. That’s sort of the undead’s thing. Admittedly, in this case they aren’t actively raising the fallen so the numbers aren’t unlimited.

Gem frowns and mutters, “Why aren’t they raising the fallen? I mean, I guess on our side we have things in place and are doing a good job of extracting the fallen. But we couldn’t stop them from raising the fallen undead. Especially those taken out with only minor structural damage.”

Gem looks down and then glances over at the central battle. “Haaaa.”

Gem shakes their head, “Hey guys, I think we should back up right about now.” And they grab June and pull them away from the front line, snapping off a final Wind Blade over their shoulder.

Emrys, “Well isn’t that ominous.” And follows behind.

Inky smirks, “Chickening out?”

Samuel shakes his head, “I doubt, but Chaos, remember? Hey Gem, are you trying to get back at Inky or something?”

Gem’s face falls flat, and then the slightest of smiles graces it, “It might turn out that way. Samuel, we really should leave. Oh, and Inky, I don’t blame you though I’m also not going to believe in the stupid nonsense people like to say about ‘don’t blame the player, blame the game’. June, Emrys, let’s blow this pop stand. Things are about to get interesting.”

Samuel shrugs, “Inky, need another front-line tank?”

Inky laughs, “Keeping your team in the rankings, eh? Sure, we can fit another tank.”

Gem yells from the distance, already having navigated the crowd with Emrys and June in tow, “Samuel, we’ll meet you in town when you respawn!”

Samuel and Inky roll their eyes while Bell laughs, especially when nothing happens over the next minute or so.

Back with Gem, the two are confused.

Emrys, “Why are we still retreating? We’re well behind the front lines.”

June nods, “If you just wanted to avoid some sort of undead mass, I’d figure we’re far enough back.”

Gem smiles at them, “Oooh don’t you worry. We need to get back quite a bit. In fact, I wouldn’t be opposed to reaching rear guard and helping around the healing camp.”

Emrys whistles, “Damn, all the way back? The raid has sort of made it quite a bit into this place already.”

Gem shrugs, “Well, if we have time. The climax of the fight should be soon. Thankfully, we sort of bumrushed through this first part of the hall and the undead didn’t really slow us down until further in.”

June frowns, “That was a little too easy. The best place to have held it was the tunnel. Not even in the entrance, but maybe two-thirds of the way here. Just keep throwing stuff at the Guild leader till they falter and then wipe the rest.”

Gem, “Huh, didn’t think of that angle, but you’re right. Anyway, there’s the healer camp! Let’s go make ourselves useful.”

Of course, it wasn’t that easy. Well, it was June. She just volunteered her limited healing ability. Gem and Emrys ended up hanging around June, waiting for someone to come and tell them what to do.

Emrys, “So, it’s been a minute since we got here. Are you sure the fight is wrapping up soon?”

Gem looks towards the front line and shrugs. “I’m not going to try and be like ‘Oh, it will stop right about now!’ and draw out the last word in hope of getting it right. But yeah, soon.”

The two stand there, looking expectantly towards the front lines. Waiting. With nothing happening. They fidget a little as a minute or two pass.

Then things get crazy.

Gem wipes their brow, “Whew, finally. I was getting worried there.”

Emrys isn’t able to respond to that, being a little distracted by the fact that all the bones on the ground have suddenly risen up and assembled into chaotic bone amalgamations.

The less intact the bones, the stranger they get. Though after a certain point the masses of shards end up being more of a small sand dune sort of look.

Gem nods, “Yep, just as I predicted.”

Emrys turns to Gem, “And you didn’t warn us? The raid? Someone?”

Gem points over their shoulder, “No one back here is reacting to it except those who joined late like June. Oh, Hey June! Just focus on the healing!

“Anyway, they’re undead! The higher-ups knew this sort of thing was possible. After all, there is a reason they’ve been so fastidious about removing our own fallen and the various protections against being raised. Things those skeletons completely lacked. If anything, they were primed for exactly this.”

Emrys sighs, “So, uh, we going to fight then?”

Gem rolls their eyes, “Meh, not worth it. What we will do is stand guard here and intercept any big attacks that head this way. Even if it kills us.”

Emrys whistles, “Damn, hardcore much? You do realize I’m not going to sacrifice myself for the greater good, right?”

Gem laughs, “Neither am I! Thankfully this is the perfect chance to look like we’re doing so while making a lot of money. Defending the healers is highly rated by the system, especially if there aren’t many doing it. Now let’s play human shield a little. Would have been nice to have Samuel, but I didn’t want to cue Inky in on this! Though I hope my claim of meeting her back in town will be from her respawning and not me.”

The two of them move in front of the healers and stand there. Waiting. Again.

Gem, “Huh, I expected more.”

Emrys, “Oh wait, there we go.”

Bone spears arc over the combat and rain down towards the healers

Emrys, “So, uh, how are we supposed to stop that?”

Gem, “It’s a mass attack, they’re going to be weak. Err, I guess I should mention that a mass attack doesn’t have to be weak, but this one came from across the entire line of combat, so likely from a bunch of enemies. Ergo, weak or otherwise, they’d just steamroll us.

“As for stopping them? We’re both over level ten. That means we’ve got cheesy martial art movie strength and speed. No one really seems to notice it, guessing we limit ourselves based on how strong and fast we think we should be. Anyway, let’s go smack a bunch of arrows out of the way!”

Gem is already rushing towards the bone spears as Emrys shouts after them, “I don’t think that’s how that works!” Though he doesn’t back down either.

Which ends up working out because it seems Gem wasn’t wrong. He could move faster than expected. Gem still has a leg up over him though. While he batted tens of bone spears out of the air, they knocked down hundreds as he could only watch.

Gem dashed ahead and began to spin their spear, but not in the normal “martial artist spinning a spear” sort of way. They instead held the very end of the spear and spun the entire length of it around wildly. This wouldn’t have been all that effective of an attack, but that isn’t what they meant it as.

They were simply spinning it around to knock as many bone spears down as possible. Which it did quite well. Though it helped that while spear shaped, the bones were more humanoid bone sized and so not actually that long. As Gem for a closer look in fact, it appeared that each spear was made from a single bone and varied in size depending.

All while they danced through the rain of death, spinning their spear.

This didn’t last long. Back on the front line, the Guild leader found what they were looking for. A squat zombie near the back that was still lifelike. No signs of withering or modification to be seen.

Though the trick was seeing it in the first place. The skeletal titan blocked line of sight and there were a number of obfuscation spells rung around the undead monster. The Guild leader might not have been able to find it at all during the fight if not for one thing. It needed to control the titan.

And through that small connection, the Guild leader finally tracked it down and attacked. Perfectly shaped spikes of metal are summoned in and streak across the battlefield.

The Titan, of course tries to stop said attacks. Too bad the Guild leader hadn’t just been keeping their shield up the entire time, but rather charging this very spell. The metal spikes slice through the Titan’s bones, ignoring the reinforcements applied to them and continue on out the other side.

The small master zombie waves a hand, bringing forth a wall of bones to block the spikes. And another. And another. The limit seemingly more one of space than ability. By the time the zombie started casting, the spikes had simply gotten too close to raise too many.

And all for naught. One or two spikes fail on the way, but this was even less than the Guild leader had expected to fail. So suffice it to say, more than enough spikes pierced through the master zombie, tearing apart the magical framework that kept the being animated.

Not that this ended the fight, per se. Only the skeletal titan collapsed upon the death of the undead puppet master behind the scenes. All the rest of the undead, even those just raised, were regular undead. Still, without the zombie master, or rather, the skeletal titan, which was the actual source of command, being the cults deity, the undead lost cohesion. Which is exactly the kind of enemy the adventurers that have survived till the end are best at dealing with. Not like they’re soldiers or trained to fight in a large force.

I Want To Almost Kill Stuff - Chapter 7

Treasure In The Dunes - Chapter 9