Forging A Way Forward

Josh finally found himself out of that strange gate 2 day late

"Jeez, never thought i would meet friendly monsters, and Nagas at that"

Josh's right hand went through his hair

"Ugh, what was i even doing?"

Josh stood there thinking for a few minutes

"Aaah"

Josh snapped his fingers

"The crystals"

Josh took them out of his inventory and went to the atm

He put them in a hole dedicated for them and as they slid down numbers started showing on the screen

200 pounds

"Nice"

Of course bigger crystals in bigger ammount couldn't fit in such atms and as such had to be delivered to the association personally

....

"Well what now?"

Josh scratched his chin and his stomach grumbled

"I haven't eaten in a while have i?"

"Maybe some chippies"

...

Josh could finally sit down and relax

He took the menu that was on the table he was sitting at and opened it

"What will i have, what will i have?"

A red headed server walked over to his table

She had a petite figure, small nose and thin lips not much of Josh's type

Josh put the menu back down

"I'll take the large cod,regular fries and yorkshire tea"

"Right away"

"Thank you"

....

10 minutes later the server came back with the food that Josh ordered

She put down a cup with the tea and a plate with the cod and fries

Josh got straight into eating his food, and while stuffing his mouth full of the cod he noticed 2 men walking by his table and sitting behind him

He could overhear them talking, not that he cared as his attention was fully on his food

But he couldn't help himself and overhear

....

"You seen the knecht interview?"

"Yeah,yeah they did another A rank didn't they?"

"Yup in 3 hours, a german record"

"What do you think of Lexi as their main tanker"

Josh's ears perked up at hearing the name Lexi

"Well, eeeeh now that Leon is in the later stages of the career"

"But he was so charismatic in interviews, and his english"

"Yeah but it could be worse i guess"

After that exchange Josh focused back on his food

....

After being done and leaving an empty plate Josh waited for the waitress

"Did you enjoy your meal?"

"Yes i did very much"

"That will be 10 pounds"

"15"

"Thank you very much"

Josh left the chippies and stretched outside

"Well what now"

...

Josh took out his phone and checked the hunters application

"Hmmm 15 minutes away D rank"

"I could go for that"

....

Josh arrived at the meeting place

It was a parking space devoid of cars with only 6 people standing in front of the gate

three men and two women

The men had swords and the women had staffs

Staffs are conduits to make it easier for hunters to conjure their magic abilities

Josh also noticed that one of the men wore a breastplate with a small ammount of a blue hue around it

....

A breastplate is a type of armor that consists of a fitted metal chest piece worn with supple leather. Although it leaves the legs and arms relatively unprotected, this armor provides good protection for the wearer's vital organs while leaving the wearer relatively unencumbered.

....

"Alright everybody here?" The man with the breastplate questioned

"My name is Harry"

Harry pointed to his righ

"This is Kalvin"

Then he pointed to his left

"And this is Phil"

"Yo"

"Hi"

....

"Oh" one of the girls chirped up

"My name is Amelia and this is Alice"

"Hello"

Everybody looked at Josh

"I'm Josh nice to meet you all"

....

"Alright now that we are all acquainted let's talk about the roles"

"Me,Phil and Kalvin will be up front "

"You Josh, will stay back with the girls and protect them if anything gets through"

"I'm okay with that "

"Alright let's go in "

Everybody entered aheah of Josh as he entered last

....

The weather inside was drastically different

It was dusk, and all around were tombstones

The group found themselves at a cemetery with a single dirt road that lead to what looked like a tomb (Not an artist but here's a badly drawn representation https://imgur.com/a/pG547op)

...

The moment that Harry made a single move hands came out of the dirt surrounding the tombstones

"Zombies!" Harry yelled out

Harry, Phil and Kalvin positioned themselves into something resembling an arrow head in front of Josh and the girls

...

Amelia behind Josh started chanting

"Oh mother of light above us please gaze upon us and grant us a bit of your power"

A yellow ball of light came out of her staff and expanded enveloping Josh and the others

"Alright let's get ready for them"

....

The zombies charged the frontline of Harry,Phil and Kalvin as the trio firmly planted their feet onto the ground

Bodies mashed together hot and cold

The sound of meat being sliced echoed through Josh's ears

More and more zombies poured out

"Harry if we don't do something something they're going to attack the backline"

...

"Aaaaargh"

An inhuman roar came out of Harry and all the zombies started attacking Harry even more

They started clawing and smashing into his shield with a renewed vigour

I have to do something Josh thought

Josh dashed to the right side of the arrow like shape and stabbed the head of the first zombie he could see (once again not an artist but a represantion of how that movement looks https://imgur.com/a/2SYwGka, green=zombies, grey=party)

He slid the dagger out

+250 exp

...

Josh immediately went for another one as he cleanly cut through it's neck

+250 exp

Another one died by getting stabbed throught the back of its neck

+250 exp

Another one got its achilles tendons cut, it fell on its knees and Josh's dagger went straight into its ear and its brain

+250 exp

The rest got swept away by the front trio

The group now had an open road to the tomb

Josh cracked his knuckles

"So ready to go in there"

Josh pointed his index finger at the crypt

"No Harry needs a little bit of a breather after the roar and all that"

"Alright sure "

....

5 minutes later

Harry got up from his seated position

"Alright I'm ready"

Everybody started walking towards the crypt

"Hey Josh are you really a D?"

"Yeah why do you ask Kalvin?"

"It's just...your speed, strength and the way you hold yourself "

"No,no,no I'm positively a D"

"Oh alright i just had to be sure "

"It's fine "

"What did you wanna become before..you know...all of this"

Josh looked at the ground ahead of him and kept walking

"Footballer"

"What team?"

"Manchester United"

"Damn"

"Damn what?"

"I wanted to play for Liverpool, we would have been rivals "

"Yeah we would "

Josh learnt a long time ago that life wasn't fair, it didn't care for your beliefs or dreams. It crushes them, but one still has to move on forward and try to make the best of what one has.

...

The gate to the crypt was open, as Josh figured out when he tried to push it open and almost fell down the marble stairs

"Those are quite the stairs...leading nowhere"

"You want to go in there?" Josh pointed at the darkness that the stairs led to

Josh crossed his arm

"This is not going to end well is it?"

"We won't find out unless we go down" Kalvin retorted

"I guess so"

"Lets just go down already" Harry commanded everyone while sounding quite concerned himself at what migh avait them at the bottom

...

The stairs were a dizzying spiral that felt like it went on forever

"This is taking too long"

"Yeah its making the girls nervous"

"It looks like magic so we have to be prepared for what's down there "

...

The stairs ended, and a red carpet awaited the group, this carpet led straight to a massive wooden double door, four times the size of Josh

"That's very inviting isn't it"

"Yeah"

"Alright Harry you go first "

"Wait, wait,wait what?"

"Yeah you are the tank and the leader "

"Oh come on that's unfair "

"Don't be a scaredy cat and go"

...

Harry put his right hand on the door and put some strength into it

It slowly creaked open and an old horrid smell entered the noses of the party

The undeniable stench of death

"Ugh"

"I smell it too"

"Let's get this over with"

....

The party entered a great hall

A rectangular room between one and a half and three times as long as it was wide, and also higher than it was wide.

"Woah"

Silver chandeliers adorned the roof of the room

"Wow"

And marble pillars adorned the sides of the room and at the end a throne a robed being floated above the steps it's back shown towards the group

....

It slowly turned around and put its hood down

The party saw its decrepit and rotting face

It was missing it's nose, in place of it 2 red holes

Deathly gray skin with missing pieces on its cheeks

Head missing all signs of hair

And who knows what it is hiding underneath its robe

"A lich" Harry exclaimed with a hint of fear in his voice

"A what?" One of the girls questioned Harry's statement

"Very powerful undead, he's the one that probably controlled the undead outside "

"What do we do?"

"Fight it what else"

....

The lich chanted something and a lightning bolt flew out of its right hand aimed at Harry

Josh shoved Harry out of the way as the lighting bolt flew by them and hit a wall behind them

"Holy shit"

"Yeah he's a strong one"

"Everyone behind the pillars"

Everyone quickly hid behind each of the pillars

"What do we do?" Kalvin yelled out

"Someone has to catch its attention!"

"Girls what magic can you do?"

"Fire"

"Protection"

"Alright you have to cast protection on the fire girl, she will be the distraction "

"What!?"

The girl did not seem to like it

"Just do it or we'll all die "

One of the girls started casting and a yellow shimmer appeared around the other

"Now you'll have to distract him with your spells"

The girl started chanting and the moment she was done she came out of hiding and a fireball came out of her staff

The lich turned its head towards the direction of her pillar

"Alright move forward one pillar"

The guys move forward as another lighting bolt hit one of the pillars and a piece fell off

"Aaaaagh"

The girl screamed out

"You'll be fine, only 3 more pillars"

2 more pillars and only one remained between the guys and the lich

"Can you do one more!"

Her legs were trembling as half of her pillar was completely destroyed

She casted the fireball once more and passed out

"Now!"

Josh screamed and the guys ran out from their cover

The lich tried to levitate higher up

"Oh no you don't.. throw your weapons like spears"

Three swords and one dagger went flying through the air hitting the undead in the chest

It didn't stop the lich

"The breastplate!"

Harry took his breastplate and threw it hit two of the three swords lodged in the undead and the swords went deeper in

The undead groaned and started descending

"Grab the robe!"

Kalvin and Phil grabbed its robe and yanked down

The lich came crashing down

As Josh and Harry started beating it

Left and right hooks went flying towards the face of the undead

Josh grabbed the lich by its neck and started pulling and pulling until its head came off

You gain 1000 XP

You leveled up

"Yugh"

Josh dropped the head to the ground and sat down

"Gross"

"Well thank god that's over now"

"Dude you were brutal with that head tear off"

"Haaaa yeah it was a tought one, but we better get going befor the gate closes"

"Who's gonna carry the girl?"

"Phil can do it, also take his robe it might be valuable"

....

Now outside a representative from the hunters association approached the party

"What happened to the girl?"

"She's just exausted"

"Here are your payments"

The person handed out payments of 250 pounds to each person

"Thank you for your service"

After the short exchange of words the person left

"Hah"

"What's funny Josh?"

"Them thanking us for our service"

"Yeah well...we just got dealt the wrong hand"

"Yeah"

"Do you want the robe Josh?"

"No,no,no i'm good you guys take it and split it"

After some firm handshakes the group went their separate way

....