The second he saw Skrakch burst through the door looking panicked, Zacharias knew that things were about to go sideways. It’s what he got for sending a bloody rat to do a man’s job. He immediately stood from his seat and quickly stepped out of Rodyr’s sight. Luck was on his side, thankfully. The Minotaur was too busy focusing on the Ghouls that had just appeared in his Arena to notice Zach’s sudden disappearance as he began to scour the room for various escape strategies.

Quickly palming his two daggers with a small and subtle flourish of his wrists, he watched as the Skrakch charged forward through the drunken crowd and jumped down into the pit alongside Winifred and Gregore. That was another thing, watching Winifred get her arse kicked had been pretty painful and she clearly hadn’t followed his instruction to make the fight last as long as possible, barely making the fight last ten minutes.

Not that it mattered now. He pushed all thoughts about the two inept companions out of his mind as the swarm of Ghouls began to attack the crowd, tearing into the drunken fools and spreading through them like wildfire.

The people closest to where the Ghouls had fallen hadn’t even had a chance to react. Before they realized it, the Ghouls were already on them, latching on and biting mouthfuls of flesh before they could even comprehend what was happening to them. The next row of people stumbled backward, for the most part too intoxicated to react quickly as they were attacked in turn by rotten teeth and grasping dead hands.

Seconds later, all Hells had broken loose. Shoving and pushing at each other, the crowd broke into a chaotic run, people doing anything they could to get away from the Undead threat. The whole room broke out in a deafening cacophony as people screamed and cried out in terror. Friendships and relationships mattered not to these people as they willingly abandoned those they’d arrived with in a desperate attempt to get ahead and move further towards the exit. Some unfortunate souls, who’d fallen to the ground in a drunken heap, were trampled under the sheer weight of the scrambling Humans. Those were the lucky ones, he’d wager. It was a much better death than being ripped apart limb and limb by the Ghouls.

Shaking himself out of his momentary state of shock, Zach began to head towards the exit himself. The damnable Ratling and Winifred were just going to have to sort themselves out. No way was he risking life and limb attempting to save them, no, it was time to get himself to safety.

He shoved his way past drunks and whores, yelling at them to get out of his way, weaving between their legs, pushing them by the hip, and not giving a single shit if they fell over. There was no way in Hells he was going to end up as a Ghoul’s supper.

Moving swiftly, Zacharias was almost at the door when he felt someone grab hold of the tail of his fancy jacket. He turned around to see one of the serving wenches. She was laying on the floor, her whole face bloodied and swollen. The general noise wasn’t as loud now that some had succumbed to the Ghouls and others had escaped. He could hear her labored breathing from her broken ribs.

“Help…” she croaked out. Her filthy, bloody hand clinging onto him for dear life. “I...have…”

Zach didn’t hear what she had. Perhaps she was trying to say that she had a child or children at home. Well, whatever. It was his life versus hers. As one of the Ghoul pack started shuffling towards him at a terrifying pace, Zach quickly struggled out of the jacket, leaving the woman clutching onto the fabric. He turned away just as the Ghoul grabbed hold of her leg.

Ignoring her broken screams of terror, he reached the door which had been slammed closed by the last escapee. He wrenched it open and two half-eaten bodies of Rodyr’s guardsmen almost fell right on top of him. Flinching backward, Zach could feel the shift of the crowd as they began to realize the exit was as full of death as the way they’d come. Immediately backtracking, the Halfling ducked and weaved through the crowd before running back to Rodyr’s dais. Hopefully, he’d be able to find something a bit heftier than his two daggers. It looked like he was going to need to fight his way out of this one.

Keeping his eyes ahead, Zach tried to slam the door closed but it caught on an Undead that lunged forward, getting its torso through the door frame. Holding the door closed as best as he could with his body weight, Zach slammed one of his daggers down into the biting Ghoul’s head, even as more Ghouls began pounding at the door.

As ferocious as the Ghouls were, they could still be killed by a pierced skull, the brain being the sole weakness of the bloodthirsty creatures. With strong regenerative abilities, anything short of a lethal blow would eventually repair itself as the undead feed on the living. Worse yet, the wild necromantic energy inherent to the city of Dray’Mel meant the corpses would recover from even that in due time.

Throwing his back against his meager shelter, Zach took stock of his surroundings. The side room was dressed as opulently as the rest of the mansion, not that it would help him in this situation. Taking up almost the entire length of the back wall was a giant black velvet chaise lounge. There were two scantily clad servant girls sitting on it and clutching each other in fear.

Rodyr himself was standing in the center of the room. What remained of his security details were gathered around him as he bellowed orders at them. He didn’t seem to care much for the spectators that were being torn to shreds mere feet away. Unsurprisingly, his number one priority was keeping himself alive. Despite the fact he was an overgrown cow, it was one thing Zach felt he had in common with the guy.

“You!” Rodyr roared as soon as he caught sight of Zach. He pointed a huge sausage finger in his direction. “You brought that dirty creature into my mansion!”

“That’s true…” Zach replied, aware of the fact that the Ghouls behind him were still trying to break through the door. He hoped the flimsy wood would hold. At least long enough for him to get clean away. “But you also have to take into account the nest of Ghouls that seem to be in your mansion…”

Rodyr growled in anger. He looked to the guard that was closest to Zach. He was trying to decide if he wanted to forego another possible Human shield or whether he should order the goon to attack. Behind his back, Zach could feel the door bulging, pressing into his spine along with ominous creaking noises. Well, if Rodyr wasn’t going to decide, he sure as hell was!

Springing forward, Zach grabbed the guard by the shoulder before heaving the fool behind him. Hearing the door splinter, he didn’t linger and immediately rushed past Rodyr, pushing himself through the crowd of attendants and grabbing a tray from one of their slack hands. Taking a deep breath and raising the tray like a shield, he hurtled himself forward, slamming into the sheet of glass separating the room from the arena.

Falling in a shower of shards, he rolled to his feet, bringing his daggers to bear as he spun in place. Half of the crowd was already dead, and the rest fled for the hills. Rodyr was bellowing a litany of curses through the hole in the glass. The huge Minotaur started yelling threats. Threats that told Zach they’d all need to lay low if the Minotaur got out of the place alive. But from the sounds of the guards screaming, and Rodyr’s painful bellows, it wasn’t likely to be an issue.

Glancing towards the arena in the center, he couldn’t help but scoff as he watched Skrakch and Winifred desperately shoving away Ghouls. There was no way in hell he’d be heading in that direction unless everywhere else was even worse. Winnie could handle herself, hadn’t she just proved that? And as for the rat, well…

Zach used his short height to his advantage, ducking into a darkened corner of the room behind some discarded mead barrels. They smelled like a mixture of rancid meat and sour mead but he wasn’t about to complain about that. He realized it might come in handy.

Trying his best to make as little noise as possible, Zach dipped his hand in a barrel that had been knocked over by some escaping drunkard. His stomach turned over when his hand came away covered in some black goo that was once probably a turkey leg. Without thinking about it too much, he quickly smeared some on his face. He figured if he smelt like rotting meat rather than fresh, he’d have a better chance at survival.

Suddenly, the screams of those still trying to flee increased tenfold. Zach looked upwards to see Wraiths beginning to drift in through the hole in the roof, no doubt attracted by the stench of blood pervading the air. That was all he needed!

Zach clutched his daggers and watched the evacuating stragglers looking for an opening. He was going to make it out alive, there was no doubt about that. And if the rat did? Well, Zach was going to teach him a thing or two about revenge…