Jury was writing physical notes about the anomaly present in Gallery Street, or whatever the hell that was. She had contacted Archknell and Sage about the military blockade as well; according to some officer, they were sent out as the first wave, reclaiming and defending areas of interest. Given the pedestrian traffic in Gallery, it was thought to be wise to secure it immediately; however, the soldiers were overrun. Obviously, seeing as the sick fucks who murdered them had erected a small monument in toast of their conquest, set it aflame, and created this awful statue.

Vernon nudged Althea, keeping one eye constantly on their surroundings. There were no enemies nearby as Jury said, but you had to always be on the lookout. “You doing alright, Thea?”

“Not really,” she answered truthfully. “It smells like shit and burnt flesh. I wanna get outta here as soon as possible, but I get why Jury wants to stay.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his nose, squeezing his nostrils. It wouldn’t do a thing; Althea had tried it before. “Who knew we’d get stuck with this? I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s a bloodbath everywhere else, but I’ve seen the messages. Some teams were already in combat, but what about us? Whoever’s here, they’re bound to notice us eventually. We’d hear them at this point.”

“You scared?” teased Althea, nudging him back.

He smiled, nodding. “Of course I am. You?”

Althea chuckled. At least he was being honest; she would’ve kicked him if he tried to act all brave again, just like in high school. Only weirdos wouldn't be bothered by this (like Damien). This thing was massive. Althea used Jury as a reference point and she was dwarfed by it. “Yeah, definitely. I’m not Alex; I’m not as good as a fighter as he is, but I know some tricks. I know how to do a proper punch. And I think I got the hang of this.”

She lifted her right arm revealing her new toy wrapped around her forearm. Similarly to Alexander’s [Ironcloth Gauntlets], she had a length of gray chain. Every link contained engravings; Althea didn’t know what they were supposed to mean but in a nutshell, this wasn’t any ordinary chain. This was a magical chain, and that made it better. Magic makes everything better.

[Weapon]

Channeling Chain [E]

A length of chain intended for channelers starting out. Whenever you use a [Channel] skill, all attacks will have its Magick increased by 1.

Jury had brought this weapon for Althea seeing as she didn’t have a good weapon. Considering Althea was an F10, though around an E considering her current buffs, she couldn’t use a higher-ranked weapons. As the System had given a quest rewarding half a million standards too, Alba could go on a shopping spree after the mission was over, being formally kitted out.

For now, though, she had to make do with this [Channeling Chain], which was obviously made for channelers. That were, spellcasters who could enhance their own bodies and objects with augmented mana. The chain itself was lighter than Althea had anticipated. After about forty minutes of practice, she considered herself a master (Alexander didn’t believe her).

“You’re gonna whip guys to death?” asked Vernon, amused.

“I can whip you if y’want that.” She flicked her wrist and took hold of a small length of chain, spinning the excess around in a circle. It made an eerie whirring noise.

Vernon nervously chuckled, vigorously shaking his head. “No, I uh, I think I’ll pass.”

Althea flicked the chain back, tightly wound around her forearm once again. “Tch, coward. I’ve heard some guys are into that. Y’know, masochism. Getting whipped by a cute girl. That kinda stuff.”

“...What kind of mental image of me do you have?” he muttered in disbelief. “I’m definitely not a masochist.”

She sighed. “That’s a disappointment.”

“What do you mean it’s a ‘disappointment’—?!”

“I meant what I said.” Althea smirked. She wasn’t being serious all; she needed an excuse to tease Vernon so she didn’t have to focus on Flesh Mountain.

As he was about to respond, they heard footsteps, then voices, to the right. Vernon stammered, cursing out a “Shit!” and raised his rifle; Althea spooled half her [Channeling Chain], letting the edge drag against the ground. Jury had caught onto the noise sooner, having her pearl [Arbiter] already drawn, pointing it at the direction of the disturbance.

“Sorry!” exclaimed a familiar voice. “Sorry sorry sorry, didn’t mean to uh, scare you there!”

Three junior Slayers emerged; Althea recognized them. One was an average-looking Japanese man: black hair, a katana, and an outfit resembling a ronin. That was Keen. Another was a young woman with brown hair, lighter than Leona’s, wearing magely robes and wielding a conjuration staff. Or something like that, Althea didn’t know her staffs that well. But she knew her: Delphian.

And the last one was a Japanese woman with messy black hair, who Althea was introduced to last night as the Vice Class Representative of Combative Class A1: Sorayama Kaiya, or Uprise.

Jury swore under her breath and lowered her blade. “Uprise, you need to call out your presence. That’s how you’ll get hurt. That advice applies to the rest of you as well.”

“I know, I know, I had a brainfart, I’m sorry!” Kaiya pressed her hands together and formally bowed, her hair hanging. Then she stood back up, looking past Jury and at Flesh Mountain, wincing. “So that thing isn’t fake after all…”

“It’s way bigger than I thought…” Keen mentioned, frozen. “How could they do this? Both literally and metaphorically; how could they make something like this?”

“So those really are…” muttered Delphian, turning away from the awful sight.

Jury nodded, taking another look at the mound. “Mhm. We measured higher levels of mana concentration here; this is the anomaly responsible for it. Right now, I’m coordinating with Archknell about our next steps. It’s likely that we’ll retreat and have a research team analyze whatever this is.”

“Do you think it’s uh…” Kaiya shrugged. “Something unholy? Like a monument dedicated to Moloch?”

“You’d think we would know who made this considering we’re constantly surveilling the city,” Keen added.

Jury pointed at Keen. “I’m speaking to Archknell about that. And Uprise, that’s up for the research team to conclude. That, I’m afraid, isn’t our mission, though I’m just as curious about it as you are.”

Delphian darkened. “I don’t think ‘curious’ is the right word for it…”

“Anyway, I’m assuming that your team has finished up with your mission?” Jury asked Kaiya, who nodded. “Alright, you know what to do then: keep watch and alert me of any possible threats. I’m certain you know my team members already.”

Althea and Vernon gave Team Uprise small, cute waves. Jury returned to taking notes and communicating with home base while the two teams met in the middle, standing beside a tipped over humvee on its side. While they had several points of protection around them, the horrid smell made it almost unbearable to stand in for a long period of time. Delphian shivered, her eyes searching for a clean place to stare at; not the dead, not the dead, but she was having a tough time.

Kaiya sighed, shaking her head. She must know the pain. “Glad to see you again, Althea. And you too, Vernon Hugo, right? Fusil’s little brother? I forgot if we met before. I do that a lot: forgetting.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.” Vernon tapped his rifle as if to confirm his identity. “Sounds like you had it rough though, huh? I mean, everyone had it rough, don’t get me wrong, but I’m surprised you guys wanted to go through with this. How was it? On your end?”

“Chaotic,” she answered, anxiously rubbing her arm. “We were doing small spars outside of Field Alpha, just normal things you’d expect from us. Then the bugs came and then there was screaming and fighting. No one knew what to do. We weren’t Otherguards so we don’t train for outbreaks. This was completely new to us, so for the first while, everything sorta happened. Badly. I was clueless—”

Keen protested, “Don’t say that, Kaiya. You saved us, especially when Chunhua didn’t step up—”

“Don’t,” she spat, glaring at him. “I’m not gonna play that game, Masaru. The who-did-what game, I’m not gonna do it. We were all headless chickens; we were only put to order when Professor Hei gave us structure, especially when the bad got worse.”

The air was filled with tension after that, with Keen looking away humiliated while Kaiya was fuming (Leona did say she was close friends with Chunhua). Delphian mumbled something, scratched her arm, then spoke up, “I uhm, I wasn’t with the others. I was actually in the north end of campus, in faculty talking with a few of my academic professors. Some massive wasps flew in through the window and I was so scared that I froze while… While…” She shook her head. “Yeah, it was scary.”

“I mean, it’s like what Kaiya said: we didn’t have any outbreak training,” Keen admitted. “So uh, yeah. Yeah…”

Kaiya added on, “Definitely. Y’know that there are—was one-hundred-twenty of us in the Combative Program. We did the numbers. We are…” Kaiya looked like he wanted to scream. “…We’re around eighty, give or take a few. About five of us have serious, serious injuries; and the rest are gone or missing. Most are missing actually.”

She didn’t want to elaborate further on that point.

The numbers panged deeply into Althea’s stomach, made her sicker than the mountain’s stench. Virtually the same event had occurred in Julius High, but with ordinary, average students whose combat experienced amounted to video games and internet videos. Althea thought about fractions. Combative was down a third. And Julius High? Three-quarters, probably even less.

“Hey.” Keen looked at Althea, measuring her from head-to-toe, then settling some place that wasn’t her eyes. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Althea frowned, raising her chained arm above her chest. “Uh yeah. I visited OU a few times before; I’m enrolling next fall after I graduate high school. I’m undecided on my major, but y’know life, it threw me a fast one and now I’m a Pseudo majoring in whatever-the-hell-you-call-this, fighting alongside my dumbass of a brother.”

“Your brother?” he asked, frowning. Keen put a hand on his head trying to remember who that asshole was.

And Kaiya whacked him across the head, noticing his indecency. “Althea Shen. As in, Alexander’s sister. You know him, right? In Economics? He had that little fight with Victor a while back? Who has muscles bigger than your head?”

Keen didn’t respond. Instead, he looked away from the group and cleared his throat, humiliated once again. That guy must be the class’s pervert.

Delphian sighed, apologetically bowing her head. “I apologize on his behalf. It’s good to finally meet you though. You look almost identical to your brother.”

“I get that a lot.” She eyed Vernon. “People tell me that I'm a pint-sized version of my brother, which is honestly kinda insulting. I like to think I'm his opposite, everything that he isn't: y'know, like actually being smart, confident, all that stuff."

Vernon replied, unconvinced, “Uh huh. You two can't go one second without saying something snarky or insulting someone. It's in your genetics, or I dunno, you're both insanely American or something."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

“You and your brother do have great genetics though,” Delphian complimented her. “You’re stunning, and your brother’s quite handsome himself. I thought he was a model when I first saw him. I was shocked knowing he was majoring in Economics. I would’ve thought he’d be a Slayer.”

Since Hangzhou, he wanted nothing to do with Slayers. Ironically enough, he was the first to volunteer for this mission. “Like I said many times before: my brother’s a dumbass.” No matter where we go, we’re always caught in something big. Hangzhou, Oasisgate, now this.

“I guess he’s a perfect match for Leo then, huh?” Kaiya asked with a smirk.

“You couldn’t find a more compatible pair.” Though, Alexander was always afraid of a relationship after he had a falling out with Juna. “I—”

“Should we really be talking about relationships?” Keen said, interrupting their conversation. He continued, but his mouth hung open. He was staring at something. Not them. Something beyond them. Everyone caught on and turned around, finding the subject: a bloodied businessman wearing a torn blue suit stood thirty meters away, facing a brick wall, his head scratching against the mortar.

Vernon quietly raised a rifle in the man’s general direction. He whispered, “I’ll be transparent here, but uh, I might be stupid but I’m not blind. That guy was definitely not standing there before.”

“We came that way, didn’t we?” Althea asked. “We would’ve surely saw him if we did.”

Delphian asked, “Is he alright? Should we go and help?”

Kaiya shook her head. “No, we oughta play it safe and watch from a distance. Plus, I don’t like the vibe here—” The man’s left arm fell off, leaving hanging muscle and tendon in its place, “—okay, I really don’t like the vibe! Jury! We got something! Jury!”

In an eyeblink, Jury was immediately with the group, squeezed between Vernon and Keen who made way. “What is it? Is it that civilian…?” She stopped when said civilian lost his other arm in the same way, torn off by gravity. “Oh.”

Althea remembered the ghouls and gritted her teeth. “Is it a zombie? It definitely looks like a zombie.”

“Not in a traditional sense, as in the virus kind, the ones you see in movies and TV shows. Rather, the necromancy kind. They’re nothing more than walking grunts able to be killed by regular means. As they were normal people, they pose little threat unless you let them. However—“

“The numbers. The numbers are what get you,” Vernon said. “Where’s the necromancer? If I know my dark magic right, taking 'em out means their thralls will die too.”

“In most cases, yes. But it’s odd,” she vocalized, searching the intersection. Delphian softly shrieked as more zombies began rising, standing mindlessly in the streets like the businessman. But that was all. As if they had no orders. One became two, two became four, and exponentially until Gallery was repopulated once again, having the same traffic infamously known for.

Suddenly, in the matter of seconds, the entire team was surrounded, but the zombies did not act. Not yet.

Everyone readied themselves for a fight.

Keen asked in whispers, “So what’s the plan here? I can’t fight a horde of zombies by myself!”

Jury frowned, searching the buildings for something. “First, we escape. Right now though, the thralls haven’t received their orders. The necromancer’s here, somewhere, but it’s quiet. I can feel its presence, but the only thing I can sense is that.”

And that was Flesh Mountain. Yet there was something different about them since the last time Althea looked. Everything was a little bit off, a feeling similar to having your everything on your desk adjusted just enough for you to notice. As she peered closer to determine the abnormality, an eyeless body blinked.

Althea jumped back, startled. “Something blinked in there! I saw it!“

“You’re just being silly, Thea!” exclaimed Vernon, more like trying to convince himself. “I don’t—“ he jumped back too, “—Oh yup, I saw it! She’s right! Something definitely blinked!”

The rest of the party couldn’t argue. Throughout the structure’s abomination of an exterior was the gradual applause of eyeless blinking. It was the sound of tendons clapping, if Althea had to describe it. A dull, wet-sounding clapping like weakly slapping the water, breaking surface tension.

There was no doubt.

It was alive. They were alive.

They cried together, raising the dead.

[Enemy]

Tormented Flesh

S3 Horror

Skills:

Raise the Tormented

???

Power: ???

Constitution: ???

Agility: ???

Magick: ???