Davis’ PoV

Davis was panting heavily as the final man dropped to the floor. Tapping his sword on the balcony above Maria gave him a stamina recharge. Much better.

The defense had gone surprisingly well. Idiots didn’t even try to use the upper window. Instead they axed down the door and jumped over the repositioned desk. Gwen made quick work of those people. Davis stuck to defending the window. There was one time two people somehow rolled past the door together but that was the worst of it. It really went way too smooth.

Taking a gamble he took a quick glance out of the window and saw a man running away. Davis blinked and then he saw the man had an arrow in the back of his neck. Before he could trace where the arrow came from a dagger tapped him on the head and a woman said “really shouldn’t do that. Some big mean untrustworthy lady might come along.”

Glancing to the side he was unamused to find Scarlet. But before he could come up with a witty retort a man turned the corner. The man was hooded and had a skull mounted on his staff. There was something wrong about him.

Before he could repeat his speculations the man raised one gloved hand and a pale green light started emanating from it. Slamming the hand down caused the green light to flicker and run in pulses along the ground. For some reason the light show seemed to be attracted to the downed men.

Davis asked “What the hell is that?”

Scarlet sounded scared when she said “Shit! Move, move! Let me in!”

Before he moved he saw a man rise to his feet. That man had an arrow in the back of his neck. He must have been taking too long because Scarlet plowed into him and they fell down in a clatter.

Scarlet yelled “Move the bodies as far away from the door as possible! Now!”

Forrest’s PoV

Forrest snickered as he watched Scarlet tap Davis on top of his head. Didn’t even see her! She was a ghost when she wanted to be. Just as he was about to break cover he saw a man raise a pale green glowing hand. After the green earthquake the pile of bodies began to rise. What the hell was this? Those people had to be dead, at least most of them. You can’t heal dead.

Forrest put it to the back of his mind as he started unleashing arrow after arrow. He hit throats, hearts and bellies, but it had no effect. Glancing up he saw the hooded man had gathered more of that pale green magic to his hand. This time it was a bit more condensed. The being had his eyes locked on Forrest, so out of instinct he rolled away from his location.

A second later he looked back and wondered if he was jumping at ghosts. But then the little wooden barricade he had been using rotted and turned to ash. He gulped. Nope, good job instincts, good job. Forrest put his bow on his back and climbed up the building. Hopefully he could find some weakness if he had a better vantage point.

Scarlet’s PoV

Dammit! She hated necromancers! They were one of the few things that didn’t care if you stabbed the crap out of them. Panicked she looked around for the little midget but didn’t see her. Hoping that she didn’t make an error in jumping in the building she said hurriedly “Maria? Where is she?”

A little head popped out from above her and she relaxed. Good. Scarlet said “Hey kid, how do you feel about becoming a damage dealer instead of just a healer for today?

Gwen jumped in and said “What? What are you talking about?”

Scarlet said matter of factly “Necromancers. They kill themselves in a ritual to have power over the dead. Physical blows and cuts don’t hurt them too much. Heard magic is decent but my training says that any healing magic will cause massive damage to them. So we either need to use the midget or we need to get the hell out of here.”

Gwen said annoyed “I will just fry them again. Step back.”

Luckily the dead in the shop did not rise. For some reason if the necromancer can't see the body it makes it harder for them to animate. Scarlet listened as the animated dead started gathering in a huddle out of line of sight. Finally they moved. Instead of by ones or by twos many bodies crammed themselves into the doorway and window at the same time. She put away her daggers and jumped up to the loft. Now in a safer position she laid flat and looked down at the scene beneath her.

The lightning struck again and again but it only caused short spasms to their targets. Gwen shouted “Don’t like lightning? How about this?”

Fiery orange tinged Gwen’s hand as she flung the ball of fire towards the undead who had just stopped twitching. Sure enough they lit on fire well enough, but so did everything around it.

Scarlet growled under her breath saying “Dammit. Why do mages always insist on using fire magic indoors in wooden buildings?”

She had enough experience with burning buildings so she got up and kicked out the loft window.

Forrest’s POV

Forrest watched from the roof as the former shop started to burn. He didn’t know what to do, arrows were completely ineffective against them. Seeing that the group was now all on the top loft he realized that they were going to jump out of the window.

But they had no idea how powerful that decay spell was. The group jumped out of the broken window and Forrest saw that the hooded man was making that same condensed green glow in his hand. He nocked an arrow quickly and it hit the mark. The hooded man's blast jerked to the side as the arrow pierced the center of his hand.

The blast ended up hitting a couple of the reanimated men. The sight was disgusting. Flesh pused and oozed and then blackened.

Forrest readied another arrow but then glancing to Maria he saw her glow. It started dim, but then it grew brighter and brighter. For a few seconds it seemed like there was another sun. Forrest shielded his eyes but couldn’t make anything out. Finally there was a massive boom and the light ebbed away. He felt all the little pains he had accumulated up to now go away.

As his eyes readjusted he saw that all of the reanimated people had fallen to the ground unmoving. Looking over at the hooded man he was on the ground as well, but was twitching. Forrest’s mouth fell open as he saw the man’s head had no flesh. It was just a skull. Jumping down he found that everyone was okay. But it seemed that the man or whatever he was had one more spell in him. With a glow much fainter than before his spell rushed into the corpses.

And then there was red. Forrest coughed and wiped his eyes. Everyone seemed okay but they were all covered in red.. And.. other stuff. His stomach churned as he looked to where the bodies use to be. There was nothing there, and now the whole street was painted red. Forrest couldn’t hold it in anymore, he bent over and threw up.

As he was tossing his cookies he heard people yelling “Guards! Guards! They murdered all those people! Guards!”

Gruffly Davis yelled “We need to get out of here. Now. Docks, lets go.”

Wiping his lips he jogged to catch up to his friends. As he was running he noted that a good bit of the street was now on fire.

Captain Voss' PoV

Oh jeez he was so hammered. He could hardly tell if the ship was moving or if it was just his vision. Then he saw the darndest thing. There was a group of people running on the docks in red paint. Did this backwards port have some kind of holiday going on?

Rubbing his eyes he took another look at the scene. In the background there seemed to be a hell of a fire going on. Wow, he must have missed an awesome party! Damn shame. They had just offloaded their cargo with the dawn not that long ago. The payment for his goods should be coming any minute now. Would have probably still missed the party even if he knew about it. If he let his first mate count the cargo they would have all been screwed. Still, damned shame. He liked parties.

Looking at the group again they seemed to be the lead in the play, or whatever the hell they were doing. Right behind them a group of men were running after them all convincing like. Had weapons out seeming mighty angry. Wow, they were really good!

And then his opinion changed when he saw the black robed one toss a fireball back at the chasers. He watched in fascination as people dropped their weapons and started to burn up. The screams. The screams were not acting. Then one of the burning men jumped on to one of the ships next to his. The light show quickly spread to the vessel as well.

Shit! Not a play! Not a play! As he looked back to the group of killers they were heading up the dock to his ship! Taking a deep breath he was about to call for help, when his gag reflex hit him. Voss went to the side and started throwing up overboard.

Damn! Blood thirsty killers were on his ship! Trying to get his mind working he had a thought. Killers loved beer! They had beer! Soon the party of five was in front of him and the one with heavy armor and a shield said "We need a ride. Now."

Voss smiled and said "Why sure thing! Sure thing! Mighty fine vessel for passengers I tell ya, Got booze below! Tons of it!"

As they were talking he watched archer man take out two people while the mage woman set fire to the docks. He gulped. There was even a wee mini killer! Same as the rest, all covered in blood! The man said urgently "We need to go. Now. Either you help us or I'll let the lady in red armor do the negotiations."

Voss perked up. He liked ladies, and red was a fine color. Well, so long as it wasn't blood, His eyes found the one in question and then he reconsidered. She was smiling but it definitely wasn't no friendly smile. And the way she was playing with that dagger didn't seem friendly either. Not friendly at all. Yup definitely armor man was the guy.

Voss cleared his throat again and yelled "Stations! Men to your stations! NOW!"

Luckily his crew reacted better than he did. They were all sleeping so that they could be refreshed when they got paid. Damn, the money! Maybe he could convince them to stick around for a few minutes? Glancing over at red armor lady that looked like a "no". She was getting way too close for his comfort.

Groggily his first mate said "What's going on? The pay come in?"

Voss helpfully pointed at the people surrounding him.

Confused his first made asked "They have the money? Where is it?"

Voss annoyed said "No you fool! We're being taken over by force of arms!"

Looking at the scowls coming his way he rephrased "I mean they are in a hurry and we would be happy to help! Uh, get them to stations, now!"

His first mate looked reluctant, but the red armor lady put a dagger under his chin and said with that same evil smile "Do you want to be replaced?"

Then his first mate started moving! Wow, he never moved that fast for Voss! He was holding out on him. Damned lazy bum. With his first mate moving that fast they were soon underway. Then he looked sadly at all of the docks and ships around them. Everything was on fire. Everything.

Maybe he got lucky? Looking at the source of said fire maybe not. He was so screwed. He really needed that money.

Jim's PoV

Milly had literally talked all night. She went on and on about what happened. The only interesting bit to Jim was about the white gloved hand in his inventory. That was kind of cool. She also talked about how happy she was to have a new job. But every little piece of information had to be attached to a feeling which was also attached to what she was thinking at that very second. Jim had no idea people could have conversations like this. It was like another language.

After about an hour he broke in and prompted her to get her book. Putting it into his inventory he took a nap and instructed the doggies to keep an eye on her. Waking up hours later the girl was still talking. Her poor cousin was constantly on the verge of falling asleep. Everytime she started to snore Milly would shake her and then start her script from the top. Still, he gave her the time because he had no idea when he would be able to return her to visit.

After Jim was about to doze off again she said something interesting.

"Wow! Looks like there is a fire in town! Haven't had one of those in awhile. Actually is that coming from the direction of my shop?"

Taking a look for himself he realized that yes, it was. Finally Jim did what he should have done a long time ago. He picked her up and put her into his inventory.

Best. Mute button. Ever.

Looking over he saw that her cousin had fallen asleep again. Jim made a quick mental note of his item list so he could reference it when he took her out later. After that he started heading towards the fire with his wolves on his tail.

And boy was it a fire. The entire street was burning to the ground. Jim traced the path of fire and found the docks not long later. Or what was left of them. In addition every single ship was burning. He sighed. Things seemed to burn down way to often around him.

Jim saw a group of people pointing out to sea. Pulling up his five senses tab he quickly zoomed in. Yep. Those were his party members. Jim sighed and started swimming towards the vessel with two wolves doggie paddling after him.