A Gamble

Keita and Anne were running as fast as they could. They were leading a horde of Undead to their allies but at this point they had no other choice. They couldn't split off from the party nor could they hope to fight against the horde. Keita could sense his friends magic power so he knew the general direction. He tried to loose the Undead instead of going directly to his destination to no avail.

They finally met the others. Koba and Nao were fighting in the front lines. Lia was casting Spells from behind them and Reika was just standing there with an arrow knocked wearing a bitter expression. Keita recalled the location of her wound. She couldn't draw the bow string. He tried to assess the situation.

"Koba, Nao! We are swapping." he said with determination.

Without a need for further explanation Koba and Nao pushed back the Undead they were fighting and retreated, in order to swap places with Anne and Keita.

"Can you handle a bit more?" Keita asked Anne half-jokingly.

"Easily." she replied with an emotionless face.

She was winded. Anne has used an Assassin Skill to catch up with Keita's Haste. But Assassin's Skills were not meant to be used with heavy armor. Unfortunately the party had no time to let her catch her breath.

Keita charged at the Undead and so did Anne. Koba had quite a few injuries. After all, he was fighting in the front lines with practically no armor. He needed time to heal himself.

"How much mana do you have left?" Keita shouted.

"Couple more healing miracles at best." Koba answered.

Nao was preparing to meet the Undead horde that was coming from behind them. Lia was shooting Magic Bullets left and right. The Undead were numerous and two people couldn't hold them off completely. It was her job to target any enemies that slipped past Keita and Anne or tried to flank them.

Keita threw himself to the Undead with ferocity. They were sluggish and weak. Their numbers were great but individually they were easy enough to beat. But Undead don't get tired. The party had to converse energy if they hoped to beat them back but right now they couldn't. Keita understood that better than anyone else.

'We will loose.' he thought. This was not a fight they could win. He needed think for a way for them to retreat. He hesitated though. Retreating meant they had to run through the night. None of them knew the area nor could they run very far before they get tired and the Undead caught up to them.

Keita couldn't shake the thought of one of his teammates dying.

'How the hell did this happen? What the hell is an irregular? Am I the irregular? Is this all happening because of me? Why...?' he stopped himself from continuing this train of thought. He needed to get everyone out of here. They would deal with what comes next after that.

"Lia!" Keita shouted. "Inferno Pillar. Koba, we need resistance against fire." Both of them nodded their heads.

Inferno Pillar was a high level Spell, one that Lia hasn't completely mastered yet. Her mana consumption was not optimal and the heat the Spell produced was nowhere near the real thing. After this one spell, she was going to be completely out of mana. It was a gamble whether that would work. But she didn't hesitate. Lia started casting the Spell. She was holding her long wooden staff in front of her with both hands and it was hard to breath around her because of the heat. The Inferno Pillar had a long chant so Keita and Anne had to buy more time.

The Undead chasing after Keita and Anne finally caught up. Keita could not feel the Magic power of anyone else so he hoped the Elder Lich wasn't close by.

Nao used War-cry to gather all the Undead towards him. It had no affect. Undead were not moving through instinct or individual intellect but through orders from their master - most likely the Elder Lich.

The Undead were not moving as Nao thought and he panicked. He slammed his shield on a skeleton and shattered it. He screamed and wailed to get their attention but he was not making any progress.

"Ready!" Koba said as he charged to Nao's side. He just finished the preparations to cast the miracle. He raised his bronze war hammer and shattered two Undead with one swing.

This was an one way street, large enough for ten people to walk shoulder by shoulder. This meant they had nowhere to run. Thinking it another way though, they only had to defend two areas. The toll on Keita, Nao, Anne and Koba kept increasing. They couldn't last much longer. Keita tried to make out the chant to understand how much longer Lia was going to take. She was nowhere clear to completing the spell.

'I have to do something, and fast!' he thought. Anne was drenched in sweat and her shoulders where weaving with each breath. Koba was covered in wounds and the bleeding above his right ear hasn't stopped since Keita and Anne came. Reika had joined Nao and was stabbing the Undead with arrows. Nao on the other hand, was having the easiest time. He could kill one Undead with each swing and their rusty and primitive weapons couldn't penetrate his plate armor. He was most likely covered in bruises from the blows but that was better than everyone else.

Keita thought long and hard. He could not find an answer. He had no other choice but to do as he did in the past. Use brute force. He had no tactics or clever tricks to play. Until Lia was done casting the Spell, Keita was going to kill as many Undead as he could.

Using Haste and Shroud to their maximum potential Keita cut through bone and rotting flesh with ferocity. He was darting left and right, even reinforcing the back from time to time, punching, kicking and slashing Undead one after the other, leaving only a white trail behind him. And then...

Anne collapsed.

She had reached her limit. Keita rushed to her side, killing the Undead surrounding her. He looked left and right. The enemies were rushing through their defensive line.

'And when we just needed a few more moments...' he though. Lia was close to activating the Spell but now there were Undead closing in on her. Everyone's faces were filled with despair.

Keita didn't have time to think for a plan. He just had to trust that the party could somehow manage the rest on their own. He jumped over ten Undead and landed on the middle of the street. He was completely surrounded. Using Haste he started spinning like a top, killing all the Undead close to him in a single moment. He managed to catch the attention of most of them but some were still heading towards Lia and Anne was down. He could not see the rest of them any more. He had to believe in them and do what he could.

Keita swung his blade as hard as he could, making a path deeper and deeper in the Undead formation. He killed dozens of Undead, until he was almost out of mana to the point that Haste forcefully deactivated without him even releasing. An Undead soldier hit his head with a club - or maybe a plain wooden plank? - from behind. His ears were ringing and he couldn't hear anything else. Warm blood entered his right eye and he could barely see anything. He blindly slashed the Undead, decapitating it. Another blow. This time to the back of his knees. His legs crumbled but he managed to keep a firm grip of his weapon. Two more blows came at him as he rolled to the ground. He could barely see them coming. He used his blade to block the one from the right and his bare arm to guard the one from the left. A rusty woodman's axe tore through his left arm, stopping only at the bone. Keita screamed from the pain. He shrugged the axe off and while locking weapons from the right, he punched the Undead on his left. Unfortunately that was no brittle old skeleton. It was a fresh Undead and the punch barely made it budge. It grabbed Keita's hand with unnatural strength and shank it's teeth, tearing flesh and muscle. More blood came out followed by a dark mist. He tried to shake the Undead off as hard as he could and the Undead bit him harder in respond. With a grunt, Keita switched his attention to the Undead on his right. With a dexterous move, he unarmed it and stabbed the one biting him with his katana.

His breathing was rugged and his vision blurry. He could feel, the Unholy miasma was already killing him from within. He could barely see anything in the dark of night. Another blow to the head. This time with a shovel. Keita was knocked out. In the bring of consciousness though, he clearly heard it.

"Inferno Pillar!"

A giant pillar of blazing fire appeared in front of him. Finding his second wind, Keita managed to get back on his feet.

"Koba!" Keita shouted with all the strength he had left. "Now!"

"White flame!"

Keita could hear in the distance. A tiny white spark appeared in front of him and entered inside his chest.

"Run through the pillar!" he shouted but he could not hear any reply.

There were just, no more than ten Undead between him and the pillar of fire. Keita took his stance but he wasn't able to move any further. Not even a single step.

The pillar, didn't just envelope the street but the surrounding houses as well. Inferno Pillar was a spell meant to be used against armies after all. The yellow fire pillar, reached to the skies and illuminated the dark night as if it was a sun. Any Undead that came in contact with the pillar were burned to ashes.

'At least they might have made it...' Keita smiled as he passed out.