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Nezbit pushed her way out of a snowbank, the first thing she saw was her bone-white hand silhouetted against the night sky. "Oh... I'm ..." Standing up completely, she verified her status.

Nezbit Blue-Sky

Undead Skeleton [Elite]

Class: Unholy Cleric

Rank 1

Kills: 0

Welcome to the Bone Fortress, new recruits. Your fellow undead welcome you! If you bring up your hud map, you can find the territory that your faction currently holds. The ground you are standing on will remain neutral for the next hour.

Nez brought up her hud, kneeling behind the snowbank to try and block the light from anyone watching. "Six people? Hopefully, that's them." It was then that she noticed her only piece of gear was a silver mace. "Crap, I'm a nakey butt." The cleric closed her hud and then broke into an easy trot.

/Alpha: Nez: Anyone here?

/Bravo: Nez: Nix? Shit... I should have let Bulo eat you!

She ran southward, her bone feet crunchy loudly on the icy path. A moment later she skidded to a stop when three loud explosions went off in the distance. It was slightly off course from her objective, but she made an adjustment and headed towards the disturbance. "That has got to be the boss!"

************

The skeleton lit up the center of camp with its emerald aura. Three of the large tents were in flames while it directly attacked everything that moved. A half dozen emerald strands floated around him, while his blade crackled and hissed in the frigid air. "No need to lose your head!" Nix ducked under the commander's personal guard and sliced through the back of his neck with an easy swipe of his blade. A sudden blow on his side spun him around. The blast gunfire reverberated in his skull and he slashed through one of the burning tents before diving inside.

Nix crawled the length of the tent, originally he thought it was lodging but he had been mistaken. It was filled with several wooden crates of ammo. "Hello, beautiful." The sounds of bullets passing through the tent increased, to the point where it felt like a firing squad.

"KEEP FIRING!" The camp sub-commander had finally arrived on the scene, she moved all of her riflemen into the center and waited. "Half of you take cover and face outward, he might have backup outside of camp!"

An instant later, the night sky lit up like mid-day. The center of the camp disappeared in a brilliant flash of destruction as the sub-commander was thrown into the sky like a wayward kite.

"Heh... Bitches." Nix crawled out of the deep hole he melted into the ground, staggering slightly as his skull continued to vibrate with a loud ringing noise. Everything within thirty meters had completely vaporized.

You have been received the Blessing of the Undead.

Nezbit has cast Dark Crusader on you.

Your wounds have been healed.

"Found ya." A skeleton waved from behind a pile of burning rubble.

Nezbit has joined Skelly.

/Skelly: Nix: You are fucking beautiful, Nez!

/Skelly: Nezbit: Sweet words! Let's get out of here, then we can talk!

Nix nodded and stumbled toward her, he slipped his stealth ring off and placed it in her hands. "Stealth up and run like hell, I'll lead the way!"

Nez nodded and eased around a moaning body, she raised her mace to finish her off, but was stopped by Nix. She frowned when he picked up the wounded soldier.

/Skelly: Nezbit: Can you run and carry that person?

/Skelly: Nix: You bet your sweet ass.

/Skelly: Nezbit: Normally my ass is pretty amazing, but I seemed to have slimmed down a bit.

/Skelly: Nix: Heh... Looks good on you.

Instead of taking the direct route, Nix headed north and then circled around the burning camp. Eventually, he retraced the steps to the route he had taken earlier in the evening.

/Skelly: Pon: What the hell are you doing Punk? Getting extra kills while I'm sleeping is bullshit!

/Skelly: Nezbit: Hey Pon!

/Skelly: Pon: Reinforcements? How many?

/Skelly: Nezbit: Just me for now. I'll explain when I see you.

***********

Edi stared at the number, and then rechecked it. "Ice faction is down to 13,255? Is that right?"

Alfie rubbed his hands over the fire, before glancing toward the entrance of the cave where Sasi and Pon were waiting. "Thirty-two in one night? When's the last time that happened?"

Sasi caught his look and waved. "You two join the Skelly channel!"

Alfie has joined Skelly.

Edi has joined Skelly.

/Skelly: Pon: Where you at, Nix?

/Skelly: Nix: Two minutes out, we stopped for a beer.

/Skelly: Pon: Don't say beer to me right now. I don't even have a proper mouth to drink it.

/Skelly: Nezbit: I'm glad you two are okay! Rabi and Semmi asked me to say hello.

/Skelly: Alfie: Why were we able to get another person? I thought you guys said that only two of you were able to come through.

/Skelly: Nix: Not sure, I did kill the HQ Commander. That might have something to do with it.

/Skelly: Edi: The Sandcrab Precinct Commander is dead?

/Skelly: Nix: Yar! Pretty sure I'm carrying his second in command.

/Skelly: Pon: You punk bastard! Did you use my grenades? I bet those kills are all mine!

/Skelly: Nix: The fuck you say... Those cheap things fizzled out, nearly got me killed.

Edi laughed, despite herself. Shaking her head slightly when two skeletons entered the cave.

Sasi hugged Nez around her waist, even though they had never met. "Is Rabi okay? Does he miss me terribly?"

Nez nodded slightly. "A big yes to both of those. I was sharing a meal with both him and Semmi a few hours ago. Semmi says to tell Pon to listen to Nix and Rabi sends his love."

"What?" Pon mumbled a curse. "I bet you got those backward. Semmi sends her love and Rabi is supposed to listen to Nix."

"Hmm... I suppose that could be true." Nez winked at the fire mage before turning her attention back to Nix. "We have a deployment roster in place, the next person through will be Sharl."

/Skelly: Pon: Sharl? That's a great choice.

/Skelly: Nix: Agreed.

/Skelly: Alfie: Who is Sharl?

/Skelly: Pon: She's a badass.

After getting briefed on recent Inferno events, Nix carried the prisoner down to the containment area and waited while Nez patched her up.

/Skelly: Pon: How are we going to stop the prisoner from accessing her hud? Tie her up? Or blindfold?

/Skell: Edi: I can do it. As the faction commander, I will change her status to POW. That will disable her hud functions.

/Skelly: Nix: Will the Ice Faction know she is a POW?

/Skelly: Edi: No. She'll remain an active part of their roster until she dies.

/Skelly: Pon: Tomorrow I'll melt down some armor and make a barred hatch for the containment area. That way we'll be able to secure them without keeping watch.

/Skelly: Nezbit: Them? Do you have more than one?

/Skelly: Pon: Not yet, but we plan to grab a few more.

After talking for nearly an hour, the group turned in while Sasi took her turn on watch. The demon skeleton woke them shortly after sunrise.

/Skelly: Sasi: Come outside!

/Skelly: Edi: What's wrong?

/Skelly Sasi: Green stuff!

Nix was the first to exit the cave, immediately he noticed the warm breeze pushing at his face. At the base of the trail leading toward the cave, he could see bits of green bushes. "That wasn't like this last night!"

Edi brought up her hud and studied the map. "They pulled back from the two closest sections. Our territory has expanded because of it."

Alfie climbed onto a large boulder and scanned the distant horizon. "Why would they do that? There are only six of us."

/Skelly: Pon: Cuz they are scared. Damn, I so pissed! You should have brought me with you, Nix!

/Skelly: Nix: I was only scouting. It just sort of happened.

/Skelly: Alfie: I approve. They are definitely reinforcing the graveyard guard.

/Skelly: Nix: I have a plan for that. Since they pulled back, we have two sections? Give us four days and the graveyard will be ours again.

/Skelly: Pon: Now we're talking, spill it!