Time passed slowly while the team waited. Scott took the opportunity to make certain that everyone was properly equipped with a few healing and status cleansing items. He also took the time to prepare a few bottles of healing tonic in advance.

The restorative effect of his items only remained at maximum effectiveness when used in a small bottle, and they'd need to use the entire thing to get the effect. However, if anyone was too injured to swallow a pill it would be easier to pour the tonic down their throat, or on the wound as a last resort.

Chaine opened a bag at his side and placed the items inside, but immediately took something strange out as well. It was a stone-like object with a strange pattern of glowing lights radiating from its surface.

"What is that?" asked Saelil.

The Ha' Ruulian looked to her and said, "A Lore-Keeper."

"Lore-Keeper?" she asked once more.

"Yeah, I'm linked with it so that it can keep a record of the things I see and help me discover nearby threats and things of interest," said Chaine. He showed the top of his Lore-Keeper to everyone. On the surface a clear image of the surroundings appeared complete with icons marking their locations and points of interest. There was even a compass section that showed which direction he currently faced.

"So some sort of data storage device?" asked Samantha.

"Data storage?" asked Chaine. He nodded once then put it away. "That's computers, right? I've seen them a few times on other worlds when I've escorted the princess..."

"Yes, computers," said Samantha.

"How does it fit in the bag?" asked Kitty.

"Ah, they're linked together. The bag is storage for items, but the Lore-Keeper keeps them organized inside so I can carry a lot more than the size of the bag should allow," said Chaine.

Scott glanced at Chaine then back to the door. Ha' Ruul offered a few interesting items. "How much do they cost?"

"Can't buy 'em. This is a treasure of the kingdom, there's only a few left from the time of the ancients," said Chaine.

"So, no way to get one?" asked Saelil.

Chaine shook his head, "Only the King can grant it. Even I am just using one as a loan."

"Well, that sucks," said Saelil.

A glimmer of hope appeared when he said, "They are researching them, though. A few lesser versions exist, but they aren't as good."

"That's something at leas—" began Saelil, only to have Scott cut her off. "The analysis is done. We're about to see the mission information."

Everyone turned to him. They did not need to wait long. A few seconds passed before he read off what he saw.

[Mission Briefing]

Princess Vita of Ha' Ruul has been taken by the Crimson Death, a rogue's gallery of angry degenerates hell-bent on being a pain in the ass to billions of innocent people. Reach the place of the battle before it is too late, to secure a chance at her salvation.

Difficulty: D-1

World Type: Survival Horror|??

Force Response Authorization: Party Mission| Raid Mission| Expedition Mission

Primary Goal: Reach the princess before it is too late.

Approximate Initial Enemies: 26,756

Time Limit: 92 Minutes.

Reward: Champion Status Upgrade from [Cadet-In-Training] to [Rookie]. Certain limitations will be removed.

Failure: You will die, and will be denied the possibility of resurrection.

Warning: [Second-Tier Undead], and [Elite Out-Of-Place] enemies comprise approximately 0.5% of the total enemy count.

Special: Your mission starting point will be a permanent safe zone. You cannot attack anything that is outside of that position, but you also cannot be attacked within its confines. Further, enemies will not be able to track you.

The crystalline obelisk at the center creates a non-local safe zone that is good for health restoration, resurrection, and safety. In order to rescue the princess, she must be brought back to the crystal obelisk.

You will have access to a system clock, and a campaign map. The area where the Princess is being held, along with notable enemies, information, and useful locations, are marked.

Reminder: If time runs out before the princess is rescued, the difficulty level will increase substantially.

[--]

Before anyone could ask questions, the door opened and the sixty second timer started counting down. On the other side, a sea of writhing dead staggered around just outside a blue screen of energy. At the center of that energy field rested an obelisk that both Scott and Saelil immediately recognized from the world of Fear Rune.

The safe zone was set in a circular area of grass attached to a city fountain square. At the center of that square stood the obelisk. It shined softly in the late afternoon light.

"Everyone who's going, go through! I have to go last," said Scott. It was not a statement of absolute certainty despite the authority in his tone. He'd simply never risked the alternative, as the doors tended to close right behind him.

He waited till they rushed forward, and then followed after them. The door closed behind him as soon as he cleared the entrance.

"We should be safe right here, but the moment we leave it'll be time to get serious," said Scott.

He pulled up the map function that he was allowed to use then took stock of the situation. "Damn..." he said slowly.

"How bad is it?" asked Samantha.

"Two and a half miles..." said Scott, "We have to either go right down the middle and pretty much slaughter our way through thousands of the dead, or take a side-route with fewer enemies but a greater chance for tougher fights.

"Whichever way is quickest," said Chaine.

Scott rubbed his chin. "Splitting up is out of the option. Though, we can still split our forces in a different way..."

"Splitting up?" asked Samantha. "Why would we do that at all?"

"We're not splitting up, the rest of our forces will," said Scott.

"What forces?" asked Chaine.

"Let's get equipped with the items from storage first," said Scott. "I'll show you what I mean in a moment."

"Aren't we equipped already?" asked Chaine, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Now that they were on site, he'd become agitated.

"I have more gear to pass out," Scott turned to Samantha. "It'd be better if you used some of the stuff I keep in storage to go with your gear."

"Oh... Don't tease me, now..." said Samantha in a digitized but strangely breathless tone.

"That building over there has an area marked with a storage icon. We can equip ourselves there, and head out," said Scott.

Chaine grunted, but followed the rest of the group. They took a pit stop at the obelisk first, however.

Scott touched it, and read the message that it presented on its surface. "Alright, we can heal here if we need to. There is no cost for normal healing, but status effects and severe injuries are the same as my home point. Resurrection will cost one thousand experience points multiplied by your approximate level, however. So, try not to die and I'll do the same."

"Resurrection? Level?" asked Chaine. "Are you saying that if we die here, we can be brought back with this obelisk?"

"Yeah, but it'll cost us a lot and it only works here. So, someone would have to drag the corpse through that hell out there," said Scott before pointing at the apocalypse waiting for them.

After everyone touched the obelisk so that it would recognize them for possible resurrection, they moved out once more. The storage area was a small convenience store on the corner of the street. It was barely within the light screen that showed the perimeter of the safe area. Inside, Scott ignored the general debris and left over salvage. Instead, he went straight to the back.

"Here we go," he said before opening the maintenance closet.

"Why are we checking a closet?" asked Chaine.

Scott grinned to himself and opened his foot locker. He pulled out several items of interest and handed most of them to Samantha. He then looked to Chaine, "You're good with explosives right?"

"I use bombs, yes..." said Chaine.

"Ah, do you know how to use grenades like this?" Scott showed him a plasma grenade. "You just rotate your finger around the trigger quickly then press the trigger button down to arm it. They go off after three seconds."

Chaine glanced at the grenade then had Scott show him the procedure. Scott also showed him how to disarm it by performing the circular motion in reverse. Doing so would disengage the trigger.

He gave most of his grenades to Chaine and Samantha, and then pulled out something he'd been waiting to use in a mission for a while now. It was his Delta Aeon Disruptor! Sadly, it'd be better for Samantha to work with it this time. He'd be able to do obscene amounts of damage with his own two hands and floral powers at the moment. She could use the damage upgrade far more than he could.

"Only use it when you have to," said Scott. "The ammunition isn't endless."

Samantha laughed softly then did something Scott did not expect. She opened a compartment on her suit's arm and attached the weapon to it. A bright shimmer raced along her suit and the disruptor's appearance change from a futuristic looking rifle to a replacement for her standard gun arm.

"Ah yeah, this is great! The disruptor just halved the time it takes for an overload shot and my normal shots just tripled in energy output..." said Samantha. Despite the digitization in her voice, she sounded quite excited.

"What about ammunition?" asked Scott.

"Don't need it. The upgrade doesn't cause too much stress by itself. As long as it doesn't take too much damage my suit will use my bio-energy will cause the power core to produce more than enough energy to maintain effective damage output," said Samantha.

"Damn, where can I get one," said Scott with a laugh before putting the remaining grenades into his spatial storage for personal use. He only kept plasma and freeze grenades, however. There was no need to keep the incendiary, and normal explosive ones since his fireballs did that job far better.

"Live my life," said Samantha with and chuckle that started warm but ended sadly.

"I see," said Scott. He did not want to dig into her emotional turmoil at the moment, due to the mission. Instead he said, "Right let's get going."

Once outside of the storage area, Scott led them to the edge of the safe zone. A large group of zombie shambled around the area. He turned to his party. "Time to see if we can make a few friends."

"Make friends...?" asked Chaine, confused. The others merely chuckled or rolled their eyes. They knew what was coming.

Scott stepped out of the safe zone and immediately lobbed high-explosive friendship toward the dozens of zombies milling around the street corner. Immediately, a shriek went up as a full third of the undead bastards howled and ran toward him. The rest stopped moving and looked around in mild interest. Even as the berserk zombies raced toward Scott, the newly friendly zombies began to compliment each other on their clothes and possible lifestyle choices.

Testing the efficacy of the safe zone, Scott hopped back through the screen of light. The berserkers kept running forward, but suddenly slammed into the light screen and bounced off as though they'd struck an invisible wall. Suddenly, they became less aggressive and started to mill around the area once more. It was as though, the safe zone border erased their aggression.

"What was that about?" asked Chaine.

"I've got an ability that lets me try to turn enemies into friends. Obviously it works better on some than others. We need to kill off these berserkers and move forward," said Scott.

"I can do that," said Chaine. "There's only twenty of them this time."

Scott nodded to him. They needed to see what the non-union parody equivalent to the Hero of Hyrule could do. "By all means, but try to aim for the head."

Chaine pulled out his sword and equipped a large shield. "Won't be a moment."

He trotted forward. The moment his feet touched ground outside the safe zone, the berserkers sensed his presence and grew aggressive. However, they barely had the time to scream out their roars of challenge before the jewel on the cross guard of Chaine's sword glowed brightly.

The first six berserker zombies to reach him immediately understood the truth of this battle. Chaine went from standing perfectly still to a spinning whirlwind of death. He span in place once, but struck all six zombies with an extended circular horizontal cut that cleaved through their rotting bodies with ridiculous ease.

The bisected undead fell sideways, but before they hit the ground two things happened. The first thing was Chaine exploding forward with great strength to rush past their falling bodies. The second thing was said bodies turning to ash then dispersing into motes of spiritual light.

"He didn't have to hit them in the head?" asked Kitty.

"His sword is clearly a sacred blade of some sort," said Saelil. "The divine energy radiating from it is amazing."

Scott said nothing, but continued to watch. A smile spread across his lips as he bore witness to something his childhood self would have given anything to see.

Chaine slammed his shield forward just in time to send a leaping berserker flying backwards. He followed up with an agile spin to the side and a downward slash that tore straight through a second zombie's shoulder and cleaved apart its clavicle with little effort. The blade continued its downward slide and ripped through the beast's ribcage and out of its body. Part of the monster fell to the left and the remainder fell to the right. Neither hit the ground before they dispersed into motes of light.

The movement speed during his combat maneuvers was ridiculous. The speed and aggression of the berserkers was completely overwhelmed by Chaine's ability to side-step or block them with his shield.

More zombies began to pour into the area from the streets beyond, however. Scott and the others rushed forward to alert the tunic-clad hero. The first battle in the mission had truly begun.

Kitty rushed forward to help Chaine at melee range, while Saelil rose into the air to assess the situation. Her spells were limited in number, and would only be used if necessary. Still, she could prove to be an excellent scout due to her senses and ability to fly to a limited degree.

Scott found a good platform to stand on, the top of an abandoned city bus, and started lobbing friendship bombs at oncoming zombie packs. The results were mixed. Most of the zombies caught in the area of effect were turned docile, but a decent number automatically became enraged. It was like the assault on their rotting minds upgraded them to berserker status.

Samantha fired on the speedy howling bastards with everything she had. Her upgraded plasma shots tore them apart with ridiculous ease. Most of those unfortunate enough to be hit lost their heads entirely.

The battle wore on for several minutes. The number of zombies increased rapidly. They were mostly slow moving shamblers, but the noise generated kept bringing more and more of them into the area.

"We can't kill thousands of these things and still make it in time," said Scott. "Time to see if the plan works."

He shouted out to the several hundred zombies that he'd made friends with only moments prior. "Hey guys! Help me out here! We're being attacked!"

"Whoa! Thash harsh, buddy," said one of the zombies. Several others said similar things. It became obvious after a few attempts to reach them that they were rendered harmless by the magical power of friendship.

Scott glanced at his party and noticed that they were being pushed back. If things kept up like this, Saelil would have to nuke the area with her few casts of large area of effect spells, effectively losing them until the battle ended. He checked his map to see what was nearby that would be of use. There was little that he could discover, however there were other options.

Thinking quickly, he came up with an alternate plan. "Hey, do you guys like to sing?" he shouted to the docile zombies.

"Singin's great!" called out one zombie. Dozens of other friendly neighborhood undead agreed.

"How about you sing for these guys? Heck sing for the whole town!" called out Scott.

The zombies agreed and immediately started singing random songs randomly and off-key. Scott called out to them to tell them they sounded awesome. "Ya'll should head down to Eighth Street and let everyone hear you singing! That'd cheer 'em right up!"

"Eighth Street?" asked a few zombies, but most of them became excited and sang a little louder before walking off. The others noticed it and began to follow them and sing louder as well.

"Back to the safe zone!" he called to the others. It took a while for them to disengage, but they managed to retreat.

"Damn! How are we going to get through?" asked Chaine, a look of utter annoyance on his face.

"We've got it covered. Do you see?" asked Scott before pointing out at the zombies.

First it was a trickle, but soon it became a flood. Zombies followed after the friendly undead. The singing was different than usual moans, and as such it caught the attention of the other rotting fellows. They did not act aggressively toward the friendly singing force, but their instinct was to follow distinctive sounds.

"They're leaving?" asked Chaine.

"Yeah, looks like it. I'd planned to have them fight for us, but they're too mellow to do that. We can use them to drag most of the zombies in earshot off toward the far side of the area, though," said Scott. "It should buy us enough time to get through to the princess."

"So, what now?" asked Kitty. She lashed her tail from side-to-side in agitation.

"We wait a few minutes then try to sneak forward as quietly as possible. We don't want to draw attention away from our distraction," said Scott.

Chaine growled. "More waiting..."

"If it wasn't such a serious situation, we could just kill off most of these things and take our time moving forward. We don't have the luxury, though," said Scott.

"I know, but this is ridiculous," said the Ha' Ruulian hero.

"Let's heal any wounds we have and make sure none of us are infected. If that distraction works out, we'll be able to take the side-route," said Scott. He looked to Chaine and then to the others. "Even if the horde notices us again, it will take them a while to stagger over to where we are, and I can just make more friends while we run forward."

Reluctantly, the team settled in for the wait once more. No one was infected, or had even taken injuries in the battle. So, all they needed to do was let the way forward clear itself so that they could advance with fewer impediments.