In the depths of the dying forest, an eerie shriek sounded out in the distance.

“Hells, what now?” A petite woman in red complained.

“Stay calm Tia, it’s probably just another [Skin Bat].” A gruff man in plate armor said.

As if triggered by his words, an arrow flew into the gloom and there was a meaty thud as something dropped out of a nearby tree.

“Sixty-two.” A hooded woman covered in chitinous armor appeared, bow still in hand.

“This forest is fucked. How many rotting trees are gonna try to squeeze our guts out? Tia was right, we should burn the whole place to the ground.” A giant, naked man added.

“Don’t say that! She’ll set it ablaze with us in the middle of it.” A second woman in simple clothes added with a smirk.

This mismatched group spoke with one another with familial ease, with the exception of the sixth and final individual. “A fire would not work, work, work. It would quickly burn out, out, out. We have tried such methods in the past, past, past.” A human-shaped creature made of swarming vines said.

“Everything burns if you turn up the heat high enough,” Tia said with a cheeky grin.

“The soil is seeded, seeded, seeded. Nether energies make this a place of death, death, death. Other magics quickly fade, fade, fade.” The strange plant man said.

“Sixty-three.” The hooded woman added to the conversation. “Kana tells me that we are close to the tower, though she can’t approach by air for fear of lightning. She sees no movement from inside.” She reported.

“Alright then, how are we gonna topple this tower?” The naked man laughed.

__

“Behind you!” Elyria shouted as she launched a drilling arrow through two zombies.

“RAAAWRG” Typho roared as he killed half a dozen zombies with a single roundhouse kick, but the horde kept coming. Zombies poured out from the staircase, and even occasionally fell from the ceiling. The [Bareskin Berserker] was so occupied with clearing the chaff that he didn’t notice the abnormal zombie that ran up behind him until Elyria called her warning. The warning was a second too late as the zombie detonated in an explosion of bone and gore.

“[Heal] coming at you Typho.” The man in plate shouted, raising a holy symbol of a burning sun up above his head.

“Cheers Wilar. I was pretty low.” The naked man replied, turning to face another wave. Before the wave got in range of his deadly strikes, a white fireball tore through them.

“Tia… aren’t you supposed to be saving your magic for the necromancer?” Typho asked. Her attack had incinerated every zombie in the room, and the blast-wave continued up the staircase and out of view. None of the red mage’s companions were even singed due to Tia’s masterful control over her flames.

“Clearing swarms is what fire is good at!” The small woman snapped back.

“We know that Tia, but none of us have any null magic. Your [Null Flame] is the best thing we have to disrupt his spellcasting. How much of your soul did you use on that attack?” Wilar asked in a weary voice. No more zombies were coming from the staircase, and he imagined that the rest of the necromancer’s horde was waiting on the floors above.

Tia turned around to face Elyria for moral support but found that her ranger friend wore a disapproving scowl on her face. All around her companions glared at her, except for the vine-man that waited outside. The strange hive minded creature only served as their guide and was too low level to join in the fighting.

“Don’t get mad at me just because my kill count is higher than the rest of you! We all voted to set experience sharing to contribution based!” Tia complained.

“Nadari’s tits! This trip isn’t about experience, Tia. We are going to put an end to the bastard that killed Jalina.” Elyria shouted, her normally stoic facade slipping.

“You didn’t even like Jal!” Tia yelled back.

“You think I don’t regret how we ended things? If our breakup hadn’t pushed her out of the group she might still be here!” Elyria shouted.

“Umm, guys? Maybe have this conversation after we finish what we came here to do.” Typho shrugged, cracked his knuckles, and began heading towards the staircase. His bare feet crushed the still smoldering chest of a zombie as he walked over it.

“Fine. Let's just get this over with.” The fiery mage pouted as she too headed for the stairs.

__

“Well, I guess we can go home then?” Tia said, poking the headless corpse of the necromancer with her staff. It had taken the group all day to reach this point, but not because of any resistance they encountered. The staircase was some kind of space bending structure, and it had taken them several hours to figure out what was happening, and even longer to dispel the magic. Part of the reason for that was that they had been forced to wait until Tia regenerated enough soul to use [Null Flame] on the enchantment, something that hadn’t helped ease tensions.

They had faced barely token resistance as they traveled through the tower, only having to fight a handful of opponents, mostly more zombies. The lack of response had put them all on high alert, so to find the orc dead on their arrival was anticlimactic to say the least.

Tia once again turned around to find her teammates all giving her death glares. “What? The necromancer is dead, isn’t he? This explains why we stopped being able to [Scry] him a few days back.” Tia said.

“I don’t buy it, this guy has been terrorizing the forest for years now, and you're tellin’ me that someone else kills him right before we arrive?” Typho shook his head. “That’s horseshit! You magic types have all kinds of broken spells, ain’t a necromancer gonna have plenty of cheap tricks to avoid death? Hells, he’s probably watching us right now and laughing his arse off.” He cracked his knuckles and looked around the room.

“I agree with Typho.” Yasna said.

The plainly dressed woman seemed to appear out of thin air. She had been their trump card against the necromancer. The unassuming woman had followed the group all day, invisible and silent, with her dagger ready to stab the orc in the back. She was clearly miffed that after hours of waiting for her moment she would not get to kill anyone.

Tensions were high, and soon the conversation devolved into arguing, but with no threat hanging over their heads the fighting took on a friendlier tone than before. There was still tension in the air, particularly between Tia and Elyria, but Elyria had stopped making bards at the mage, and instead was arguing about loot distribution.

“Howdy there folks, am I interrupting something?” A voice came from outside the window. In practiced unison, the five companions spun to face the window, weapons drawn and ready to strike.