A shout raced across the battle field, "Gunners fall back five steps and regroup! Remember to concentrate fire on single targets! Headshots only!" The training battles began in earnest once the early morning briefings finally ended. Currently, Scott and three others were out on the field practicing live maneuvers against a small horde of ghouls that wandered too close to the manor-house.

"Harley, you lead the way so Harold and Cia know the target," called out Scott once more. Before his turn ended, he rushed forward several steps and placed himself directly before the largest concentration of ghouls.

"Yes, master," said Harley coolly. Ready for action, she scanned the battle field while awaiting her turn. Eighteen ghouls, averaging level six, remained on the field. It was a dangerous situation for half the team, but nothing special for either her or Scott.

The ghouls moved slowly forward, each of the undead monstrosities took two to four steps toward their goal with each turn that passed, a situation that the lower-leveled human gunners could only scarcely manage keep up with due to the difference in movement and speed. It was a good match, but the numbers were on the side of the horde. Only Scott's presence kept it from being a massacre.

Ghouls held racial powers that aided them when they moved as a horde. They became stronger even as their opposition grew weaker. The power seemed arbitrary to Scott at first, as it did not always activate. However, it did not take him long to realize the truth. The horde effects only activated when their opponent was not clearly superior to them. Once his level increased to ten, the effect rarely occurred. Now that he was second-tier, it only occurred when a ghoul appeared who was second tier or higher.

The ghouls stopped just short of Scott, and a good twenty steps from either of the gunners. It was the sweet spot, as far as he was concerned. If the gunners were at least twenty-steps away from their opponents, most enemies could not reach them for several turns. It was the true power of the gun! While the damage output of a gun was little more than a sneeze compared to how firearms worked in the old world, the damage could be inflicted from nearly the other side of the battlefield. They could still be seen as the great equalizer in that regard.

It was no surprise that many of the survivors were people who chose a gun as their main weapon, though most of them also lucked out and found ammunition early on as well.

There was a problem, however. Scott watched from his frozen position as Harley targeted a ghoul that was a fair distance from his position. The ones that were closest to him were not going to get past him in the next turn, so it would be useless to target them.

Her loot master belched out three rounds, each of which scored a hit on or around the hapless ghoul's head. Three numbers ranging from minus twelve to minus thirty-six appeared above its head.

If Scott could have moved at that moment, he would have sighed deeply. A second-tier gun specialist with high-precision firearm accuracy could only do that much damage to a first-tier ghoul. The thing was level seven at best, yet it withstood three headshots.

Despite the small individual damage dealt, Harley's precision accuracy was a devastating sight to behold. She killed-off three ghouls on her turn and picked a final target for the others to focus on before the last of her speed and movement came to a stop.

"We definitely need to upgrade our guns," thought Scott as he watched Harold and Cia fire on their targets. Even with his leadership boosting their prowess by ten percent, the damage they delivered was negligible. Harold's biggest damage was twelve points, while Cia was ridiculously happy when she scored a five point hit with her loot master.

Guns did not scale well with stats. Most of their damage came from the weapon itself, a sensible but annoying aspect of their existence. Still, it was undeniable that someone with great precision and speed could perform well with a firearm.

Scott's turn came around, and he turned to his nearest undead neighbors. "Guess I should clean house a bit."

He rushed forward and leapt high into the air, easily clearing the closest ghoul in the process. Before the creature could even think of turning toward its opponent, Scott launched both palms forward and struck it solidly in the back. The power of the storm surged wildly through his hands and erupted throughout the ghoul's body.

Tiny damage numbers ranging from minus three to minus eight appeared above its head in rapid succession as Scott used his elemental control over lightning to rapidly increase his professional experience. At present, he could get four attacks in per second, which corresponded to roughly one point of movement and speed consumed when he used the skill. Each of those attacks counted separate when it came to milking the system for professional experience.

Death by celestial lightning electrocution was the best method at his disposal for acquiring new professional experience from low-level monsters. He barely earned any for a tier-one opponent, sadly, but by using his ability to manifest lightning he could earn four times as much per second.

Several seconds passed in a flash and the damage numbers began to rise in intensity. The longer the skill was used, the more potent the damage would become. Soon, the attacks were in the double digits. The ghoul was not weak for a first-tier beast of its kind, but it was not nearly strong enough to resist the paralysis caused by the skill. All it could do was gurgle in what it approximated as terror while Scott slowly electrocuted it over the course of several seconds.

Just before the creature seemed like it might topple over and die, Scott relented and moved on. He spent the remainder of his turn striking at the legs of his opponents to knock them to the ground, just before he leapt away and landed three steps from the lead ghoul.

Harley finished off the current target with a single round of burst fire then moved on to the next. Just like the machine she appeared to be, it was the simplest task in the world for her to pick a target and tag it in the head three times with each burst.

In truth, despite the pathetic damage she could dish out in a single shot, she had the potential to out-perform Scott in raw damage per turn, should she acquire a better weapon. If he went all out, then the amount of damage he could produce was ludicrous. At the moment, though, it was better for him to weaken the ghouls and let Harold gain professional experience.

Cia's current profession was more melee focused, but Scott did not want to risk a future priest at melee-range. He could bring her back if she was killed, but that would leave him unable to bring anyone else back for a month. There was also the fact that she was admittedly terrible at fighting up close. So, she would receive most of her professional experience from him when the time came.

The ghouls made their moves, several of which foolishly attempted to go after Scott. A rapid string of counter attacks left each of those poor unfortunate souls with considerably less health that before. Once his ability to counter ran out, he settled for dodging or blocking them until it was time for his other team mates to make their moves.

"They make it look so easy," said Harold, before he fired on his target. Two rounds hit the fat ghoul in the face shattering the surprisingly intact glasses that he had previously worn. The third round missed entirely, but the ghoul fell prey to several more rounds that ripped into its skull. It was not slain before the end of Harold's turn, but it was left injured to the extent that Cia actually managed to finish it off near the end of hers.

"Yes! I got one!" cried Cia excitedly. She jumped up and down, but froze in mid-air as her turn ended. Scott glance at her when his turn came up and could not help but laugh a little. Much like an excited cheerleader caught in the act, a look of absurd joy was etched onto her face. Her arms and legs were spread out like she had chosen that moment to perform some sort of jumping cheer.

"Well, we know who the team cheerleader is now, I guess," said Scott with another chuckle, before he turned back to the business at hand.

He quickly moved to the back of his next opponent and practiced his ability to manifest lightning for a while. Just like before, once he spent roughly half his speed and movement in the manner, he began tearing at the legs of his opponents. His goal was ultimately to dismember as many of the ghouls as possible in the hopes that they would be weak enough for the others to finish them off. Professional experience increased the most when a skill was used to finish off an opponent.

Though, for him the gain was negligible due to level differences, the same could not be said for Harold. Besides that, if the ghouls had their arms and legs removed, Cia could safely beat them to death and earn some professional experience of her own.

Several turns passed as the foursome worked hard to finish off the ghouls surrounding Scott. By the time the battle began to die down, eight dismembered ghouls remained. Cia was given the honor of taking out her weapon and smacking them in the head repeatedly until they died. Over thirty rounds passed in that way before she finished the gruesome task, but she proved to be surprisingly willing to beat a dead man when he was down.

"Yeah, payback!" she cried cheerfully when the last ghoul was defeated.

Scott grinned at the excited girl then surveyed the rewards of battle. "So, we took down about thirty ghouls..."

His eyes lit-up as he noticed several columns of light appear. If he fought those ghouls alone, he knew that they would have barely granted him any loot. Allowing Harold and Cia to finish a lot of them off was quite rewarding.

"Let's see what we got, people!" exclaimed Scott in a manner that was nearly as cheerful as Cia.

"Sweet! Free stuff," said Cia as she practically skipped over to the closest column of light.

Harold chuckled at her then looked at Scott. "She seems excited."

"It's a good feeling, isn't it?" asked Scott with a smile.

Harold looked at the girl then looked at the ghoul corpses littering the area. "I never used to enjoy the idea of killing, and I was a long time hunter before all of this. I even pulled a tour in the army..."

"Hey, I get it. I think everyone still around pretty much has to have changed their view on things like that. It's disgusting... brutal," said Scott before reaching into one of his pockets and pulling out a normal bottle of water. He took a drink then said, "Still, every one of them that dies means one more of us that lives."

Harold nodded slowly then looked back over to Cia. The girl cried out happily and scooped up a handful of coins before she trotted off to the next pillar of light.

Scott did not need to know what Harold was thinking to guess his thoughts. The world changed, and the people needed to change with it. Yet, the sight of a young girl cheerfully picking through corpses for bits of loot would weigh heavily on the mind of a member of the older generation.

Cia picked up a shiny necklace then made a happy little cooing noise at it before holding it up to her chest. Scott opted to get involved in the loot clean-up at that moment. It would not do to have the girl become too attached to shiny things, even if she earned them.

The team gathered up the loot and checked through everything. The last item left was a little gold treasure chest that they waited patiently for Scott to open. Once he did, he looked inside then immediately acquired a blank expression. "Seriously?" he asked, even as a laugh began to bubble up to the surface.

"What is it?" asked Cia excitedly, her eyes wide and her smile bright.

"Whoever did this to the world likes to watch us; that much is obvious... But this is ridiculous," said Scott with a laugh.

"What is it?" asked Harold. "Is it something good?"

Scott reached into the chest and pulled out a set of dark blue pom-poms. "Take a look at these and ask me if you still want to be a priest," he said before he handed them over to Cia.

"Pom-poms?" she asked curiously, her eyes alight with interest. "I never did make it to college..."

"Hmm?" asked Scott.

"Ah," she said before taking the pom-poms from him. "I was a cheerleader before all this happened, even got a scholarship for it... but never did make it there because... well, you know."

"Take a good look at them," said Scott.

"Is there something to see?" she asked curiously. Cia stared at the pom-poms for a moment so that she could check their information then her eyes widened. "Is this for real?"

"It seems that reaching level ten and professional experience aren't the only way to make things happen..." said Scott, "I'm not sure what good that will be, but..."

"I was going to be a priest, though..." said Cia.

"What is it? What are those things?" asked Harold.

Scott looked to him. "Apparently, it's a rare drop. A class change item. I don't think it's a unique, or elite, class option but it would let her change to become a type of entertainer."

"A cheerleader," corrected Cia. "Apparently, it would let me generate status effects but I would lose a little fighting strength."

"That could be good," said Harold. "How is it that ghouls dropped such a thing, though? What do they have to do with cheerleading?"

Scott coughed into his fist then pulled something else out of the chest. "I... uh, it was a gift from a friend in the entertainment field."

"Master likes weird girls," said Harley, her eyes slightly narrowed. It was obvious that she knew who the little gift was from.

"But I'm not weird," said Cia cutely before she shook her pom-poms.

Scott glanced at Cia curiously and she offered him a winning smile. His eyes widened a little then he coughed politely once more. He was certain that she was just exerting her flirtatiousness for the first time since the apocalypse started, but it was definitely not something he needed to get into at that moment.

Cia was definitely pretty, but she had not shown that sort of interest before. So, it was unlikely that she meant anything by it other than a little flirtatious fun.

He looked down at the letter in his hand, more to avoid trying to determine what Cia was up to than anything else. Even so, he could hear her laugh a little at his expense. Ignoring her for the moment, he said, "I guess it's a house-warming gift for our new faction... my, uh, friend wants to come over to visit and she left that treasure chest with these ghouls to sneak a gift into the loot as a way of letting me know."

"How could she sneak a gift in like that?" asked Harold. "Who is she?"

"Well... she's..." Scott was at a loss for words at the moment.

"She is Brittani Rotten, a leader of one of the ghoul factions," said Harley, her cheeks reddening, and her nostrils flaring a little. "She likes to stand too close to people."

"Yeah, she sort of leads a large number of ghouls in the same way that Eloa leads those lizard men on the bridge," said Scott. "Though, why the gift is pom-poms is beyond me."

"Well, I think that chest came from one of the ghouls I killed... Maybe that's why?" asked Cia.

"Hmm, maybe?" asked Scott. It was certainly possible that the one who slew the monster that dropped a treasure chest would create a link with that chest.

"What does the letter say?" asked Cia.

Scott looked down at the letter then laughed nervously and tucked it away. "She's coming to visit and will bring a friend."

"Can we trust her?" asked Harold.

"She's... I don't know what to say about that, but she's helped me out at least once," said Scott. "I would have died a while back if she didn't step in and get involved."

Harold nodded slowly then acquired a pensive expression. Whatever his thoughts might be, he chose to keep them to himself.

Cia sniffed the air a little then leaned toward Scott, "Perfume, hmm?"

Scott's cheeks reddened slightly, most likely due to the exertions of the day, "She's a girl."

"A weird girl," groused Harley.

Scott ignored his petulant former loli and continued, "Girls do wear perfume..."

"Hey, I approve! Smells better than these guys anyway," said Cia before she jerked her thumb back toward the remnants of the undead apocalypse a short distance away.

Scott glanced over to the pile of rotting corpses then nodded. "Well, that is true."

He grew contemplative after that, however. If Brittani insisted on coming to visit there was little that he could do to stop it other than the placement of a salvation barrier. Yet, it was a wonderful opportunity if he played his cards right. She was a powerful and noteworthy figure in the region. If he could stay on good terms, and even improve those relations, his group might find it a little easier to expand in the future.

"I wonder if ghouls would make good recruits?" he mumbled aloud.

Harley released a slow, deep, breath then silently reached over and gave him a good pinch on the arm. Scott yelped in response then cried out, "Hey! What was that for?"

Harley crossed her arms, exclaimed, "Hmph!" and looked the other way with her nose in the air.