Kami had been leveling up steadily as the fight wore on. He had started at level 27 which had been very difficult since all of the zombies were at least level 20 and many of them were level 40 or higher. Now that he was level 37 he’d been able to put some points into skills that benefitted his duel-wielding approach. Unlike in other games where you assign points in order to be able to do something, the Misfits had learned that in AO, you do something over and over again in order to be assigned points. That was how the General Abilities, like Detect Enemy Weakness, had been discovered and Kami had used that same approach to specialize as a duel weapons master after talking with Rygor about it.

As well as having the typical rogue abilities for his level such as stealth, backstab, hamstring, and vital slash, Kami had duel parry which allowed him to fend off attacks from two different weapons or an extra strong cross handed parry with both daggers. Additionally, he had an ability called feint which allowed him to distract the enemy with one weapon and hit the opponent with a sneak attack using the other. This was particularly effective once you were in melee with an opponent since typically sneak attack could only be used once – when you first snuck up on your target. In addition to his class specific abilities, Kami had developed two other general abilities: Discover Enemy Weakness which worked the same way as he’d used with the Cheezus and a new ability he’d learned accidentally: Shadowstep.

This new ability he’d learned while fighting the first wave of zombies. Kami had joined the front lines with Smashpal and Yalla, killing their way through the lines as Emmy and the gundams hailed down a rain of death from behind them. Turning back to see how far they’d come from the bunker, he’d noticed that a group of sneaky looking zombies had split from the main horde and were closing in on Emmy’s team. Kami had left the front lines and dashed back as quickly as possible to provide support but he knew he wasn’t going to make it in time. He’d urged himself to get there faster and suddenly he materialized only a few feet from the flanking zombies. Upon seeing the notification, he grinned with satisfaction. He downed the stealthy zombies moments later. He made quick work of them using his feint ability combined with a short range shadowstep.

Back at the front lines he reviewed the Misfits progress thus far. Smashpal continued to pulse holy light every few seconds as he tanked large groups of the rotten creatures. Yalla was right behind him providing healing support and casting a few offensive healing spells of her own. Since their pre-emptive strike a day ago, she’d become a lot more assertive. She’d now yell at Smashpal to pull back if she thought he’d over committed himself and the way she threw out healing spells seemed manic as if she would both keep their group alive and out DPS everyone while she was at it. It was fortunate that their enemies were undead and therefore subject to taking damage from healing spells. Kami had considered her a strong healer before when she’d played on Linca but this was a new side to their friend they’d not seen.

He was pretty sure it was because of Emmy. She’d become death incarnate during this fight. While he’d always had a high respect for her gaming abilities before, Kami couldn’t help but be somewhat awed by what he saw. Not only did she have the guts to come out here with her real body and put herself on the line, but she was super amazing with a shot-gun. Seeing her blast hundreds of zombies into the ground reminded him of some B movie action flick. Still, she wasn’t invincible and the toll of fighting with her actual body was taking a toll.

Kami shadowstepped to her side and the two of them fought wave after wave of zombies. His blades danced in and out of zombie guts as he fought to keep them from pushing through. He could hear the report of Emmy’s shotgun every few seconds and occasionally the thunk of the gunstock would be used to fend off the ones that got too close.

Finally, they cleared the pack that had been forcing their way towards them and in the distance Kami could see that his other friends were in dire need of help. He blinked away once more after giving Emmy a wink and dove straight into the fray. Smashpal and Yalla were back to back and on either side of them was a Level 45 giant zombie. While his friend did his best to shield their healer, it was obvious that he was outmatched while Yalla could only do a small amount of healing damage on the giants since she was trying to keep their guild leader alive.

Kami went after the one on Yalla first and attempted to hamstring it. The creature roared in pain and Kami felt the wind knocked out of him a second later when its fist smashed into his chest. It had taken off half of his health in a single hit. Fighting the smaller zombies had made him complacent. This creature was a lot more powerful and he needed to be a bit smarter. He used Detect Enemy Weakness on the monster and noticed that it was actually weakest behind the knees. Shadow stepping again he used his ability to get right behind the giant and used a wicked backstab right behind its right knee:

-711 piercing/backstab

He followed up with two powerful slashes and finished with a feint as the creature whirled to try to attack him. Making as if he was going for the left knee this time he fooled the giant and at the last second plunged his dagger into its right knee again. It went down to one knee screaming in pain.

-408 healing X2

Yalla’s healing was double damage to these undead. Seconds later he finished the creature with another backstab to the knee.

Smashpal was holding firm against the other giant but just barely. With Yalla providing assistance to Kami, he wasn’t getting healed and it had taken about two-thirds of his life. Fortunately, he’d popped his Holy Wall and was only taking a small amount of damage. This other giant had a chain-saw for its right hand made out of bone, flesh, and sinew. Soon that chain-saw started working its way through Smashpal’s defenses, despite his extra resistance.

He and Yalla were about to aid their guildleader when two more zombies approached. They weren’t giant sized but they looked tougher than just you’re run of the mill zombie. Reading their description, Kami saw that they were Enhanced Zombies. That sounded like trouble. “Yalla, I’ll distract them. Try to get back to Smash,” Kami said in raid chat. When she started moving toward him the new zombies attempted to intercept her but Kami was too fast. He stepped forward ten feet in a single move and parried the creatures’ attacks. He made a move to start a feint but the first one was already upon him with its claws. Damn, these suckers are fast.

The next few minutes were a blur as Kami tested his speed against those of the enhanced monsters he faced. These were not the ponderously slow undead they had all gotten used to fighting and they were in some ways tougher than fighting the giant zombies because their weaknesses were harder to find. Despite several uses of Detect Enemy Weakness, he could find none.

Of course, he knew that every creature had its weakness so Kami attempted to find it the old-fashioned way – with extra stabbing. He’d managed to get lucky at one point and had chopped off the hand of one of the zombies but it was still dangerous. The other one had him flanked and he had some close calls trying to dodge its attacks.

Finally, he feinted low and finished his second attack but instead of trying to locate a weak point he used his second attack as the start of another feint. It seemed like no matter what combination he used these zombies were fast enough not to be fooled by one go around. However, two was the charm because after the completion of his second feint he was rewarded with a squelchy sound as his dagger found its home in the creature’s eye.

Feint

Feint

Instakill

It dropped to its second death almost immediately. After that he used a similar tact on the second creature. Without having to worry about getting stabbed in the back, Kami was able to finish it off quickly.

He looked around and saw that Yalla and Smashpal had finished the other giant zombie. Suddenly, he heard a scream. Turning around Kami saw a towering Level 70 zombie with scissors for hands. One of its giant pincers was locked around Emmy’s leg. Two more enhanced zombies popped up right in front of Kami as he was about to blink toward her. Unfortunately, he couldn’t use that ability when he was locked in melee combat. With a blind rage he slashed at the creatures in front of him, heedless of whether they might hit him.

Seconds later they were dead and he shadowstepped to where Emmy lay in her own blood. He’d heard the gunshots while he’d been fighting and could see the corpse of the giant she had slain. He yelled to the other Misfits to come help her as he fought more zombies come to eat her body. Her health was not yet at zero but he could see some sort of debuff was on her raid window and she was nearly dead.

Kami couldn’t remember how many zombies he killed after that. At some point Yalla must have healed Emmy and gotten her back to the bunker but Kami didn’t know when. He and Smashpal were the only Misfits left on the field. The gundams had been destroyed and Yalla was keeping Emmy on life support back at the base. The zombies kept coming and things looked grim.

He fought in a haze without any real concern for the moment after next. It seemed similar to the sensation he’d experienced as a child of drowning. Time stretched out for long moments at a time as he wove a field of daggers and death through the unending zombie army. He knew that his health bar was low and his stamina continually at the point of exhaustion. Even avatars were not meant to fight forever without respite and he was continually spamming all of his abilities to keep them from being overwhelmed. Smash had healed him a few times during the fight but now was conserving mana for his own offensive and defensive abilities.

The battle continued on and more enhanced zombies joined the ranks to the point where they became the main backbone of the army. Perhaps the original set of zombies was just the cannon fodder and now the actual shock troopers were on the field to finish things off. It wouldn’t take long, Kami mused. They were surrounded by dozens of the creatures and Kami wasn’t sure he could move his arms fast enough to block their attacks, let alone kill them.

Suddenly, his body was surrounded by light and he felt much better. Looking around in confusion he finally spotted the source. Yalla had come back to the fight and was dropping healing spells like a boss. Seeing Kami’s worried look she answered his unasked question, “She’s ok. I’ve got her stable for now although I can’t clear the debuff. It looks like a contagion of some sort. However, it looks like I got here just in time.” Kami could only nod stupidly. She was alive for now and that was what mattered. But they needed to get through this if he wanted to see her again.

With Yalla’s healing giving them a second wind and breaking some of the strength of the enhanced army, the three remaining Misfits fought until dusk. They had started some time that morning and it was surreal seeing things on the back end of the day. The army of the undead had continued unabated in its march. How many undead there were was unknown but they continued fighting. Having survived wave after wave like this they had effectively power leveled their group and all of them were in their mid-40s now. Considering it had taken their original party weeks and weeks to gain their levels it was pretty amazing. Miles wasn’t sure which rogue he’d use as his main from now on but if they survived he might consider using Kami.

Several minutes later he was re-evaluating things. He wouldn’t have to worry about which avatar to use because it was likely they would all be dead soon. Two new enhanced lieutenants had joined the field with an entire army of enhanced zombies. They also had four enhanced giants with them that were all level 50. For several more minutes the Misfits continued to hold the line but slowly they were pushed back toward the bunker. Kami had lost one of his arms to the lieutenant who had gnawed it off before he could finish the creature with his dagger. No longer being able to feint was a huge disadvantage, and Kami’s attacks slowed dramatically. Yalla could probably fix his arm but she was too busy dropping general heals on the three of them as well as trying to damage the remaining zombies. Their guild leader had even more dire problems to contend with: he was tanking all four enhanced giants and attempting to stay alive. He might have normally been able to tank two of these creatures but the rate at which he was taking damage wasn’t sustainable. Having been in situations like this before, Kami knew their little party was going down soon if something didn’t change.

A concussion swept Kami off his feet next. Stunned, he looked up and saw that the cavalry had arrived. As promised, Tim had brought a host of airships and elven wizards stood above them raining fiery death down on the zombie army. It seemed they might still win the day. Seeing his new allies, Kami fought the zombies in front of him one-handed. Within minutes the remaining zombies were dead. The Misfits had survived.

Miles logged off and returned to the bunker where he saw Emmy lying in her pod sleeping. Although she’d been pivotal to their win, Miles was filled with regret. What cost would their victory have?