The number of monsters on the roof continued to grow in small numbers over time. No matter how many were slain, more appeared to take their place. At a loss for what to do, Scott leapt back to avoid that vicious claws of a blood ghoul only to bump into the side of one of the roof top air conditioning units.

His particular fight brought him to the area that Samantha vacated not long before. Even now, she still rolled around on the other side of the roof while leaving explosive surprises in her wake.

Scott leapt up onto the air conditioning unit then rained fireballs down on his enemies. They could only be released in small numbers until their power went into effect, but they exploded on the third bounce. It was easy enough to keep a steady stream of burning death going given the target rich environment. His only concern was that it was not enough. They killed, or at least badly injured, absurd numbers of these creatures with every passing minute. Yet, they just kept coming.

A blood ghoul screeched in agony as its hideous flesh burned brightly in the darkness. At least the flaming corpses provided enough light for everyone to see well. The nights were quite dark in the apocalypse.

The blood ghoul died, a bright green number, plus thirty-seven, floated upward from its remains as proof of victory. It must have been one of the weaker ones. He'd seen a few that were deemed to be worth more than forty experience points.

Briefly he considered his options once more while he continued to deal with the rest of the nearby horde. More of the beasts crawled up to the roof from the floor below.

A zombie leapt toward him with its arms raised and its knees tucked upward toward its chest. Scott almost casually span to avoid the creature and slammed his fist into its back just as it landed. Spine shattered completely by the blow it fell to the ground and feebly crawled around.

He ignored the nearby absurdity that showcased the rules of a zombie's life. The oddity of a dead creature being unable to move with a broken spine, or at all for that matter, when they could literally walk around with gaping holes in their body was something to consider another day.

"Fire and plasma," muttered Scott. Neither of those abilities were getting the job done. That left only two other options, but they were also limited ones. These bastards were resilient. Even the explosive grenade that Chaine used at the start of the battle only killed the weaker zombies and a single ghoul. There were a few injured as well.

The raw power of those types of grenades was high for a grenade but even normal humans ducking and covering might survive them. They simply weren't as good against tougher opponents when compared to the other types.

The best he could hope for with his explosive grenades was a bit of shrapnel to kill or injure zombies, and knock around effects. In a highly confined space they would produce an unholy amount of damage, but on an open rooftop they were as likely to hurt his companions as they were to hurt the enemy.

No, in his entire arsenal there was only one thing that might be able to help. The problem was that he only had six on-hand. The others carried a few more, but they only had a few dozen grenades of any type total.

Scott sent a fireball flying toward a trio of zombies that lit them up like a bonfire, but quickly turned away. He needed to get Samantha's attention, but continued to explode her way around the rooftop.

It was Saelil whom he saw next. Seeing the way that she flittered about easily, he grinned. "Hey!" he called out to her before lunging for the edge of the roof. He leapt clear off the top then used his control over his personal gravity to slide toward the wall.

"Beloved! What are you doing?" called the elf girl excitedly.

He shouted back, "Come with me a minute!" before kicking off the side and jumping back up a bit.

Zombies trickled off the side of the building and fell to their doom while Scott did his best to avoid their suicidal plunges. All the while he worked his way toward a nearby building.

Saelil and Scott met up on the roof of that shorter structure and he told her his plan. After a brief refresher course on how to use freeze grenades, he left most of his grenade arsenal with her then went back to rejoin the others on the other roof.

The numerical situation had worsened slightly in his absence, but thankfully that actually brought the companions closer together on the roof. Despite the increased number of opponents, the result worked in favor of the would-be heroes.

He came in like a meteor, his downward diving force crushing a blood ghoul under heel with little effort. Samantha, now in normal mode, called out, "Welcome back!"

"Did you miss me?" he asked her lightly before lobbing fire balls at the nearby monstrosities.

"I don't miss," she replied candidly before shooting down three different zombies with a single triple burst of plasma fire.

They bantered briefly before Scott filled her in on his plan. Samantha immediately switched her weapon's fire mode to her ice beam. Simple plasma shots killed the zombies and ghouls easily enough, and the ice beam would have only caused the corpses to be in everyone's way. However, now things were different.

While Samantha turned everything around her into ice sculptures, Scott gripped them tight and hurled them toward the rooftop access door. Soon zombies entering the roof area needed to skirt around their fallen brethren to reach the rest of the battle.

Using a frozen ghoul as a makeshift club, Scott whirled around and batted enemies away, both zombie and ghoul alike. It was all for the sake of a single goal. The corpses of the already deceased zombies and ghouls were a bit squishy and flopped around a bit. They would have been far more difficult to use for his plan. However, once frozen the corpses became incredibly stiff.

"Try to get to Chaine and Kitty, alright? We need everyone together!" called back Scott to Samantha before hurling his zombie bat toward a thick concentration of oncoming undead.

"Sure!" shouted back Samantha before her ice beam froze another ghoul.

Scott reached the pile of corpse and passed by it long enough to toss one of his few remaining high-explosive grenades into the stair well. He had just enough time to dodge around to the side of the access door before a loud explosion rocked the area. Upward climbing zombies were temporarily slowed as a large number of them fell from the stairs and plummeted down toward the ground far below. The others fell down and slowed the remained that tried to climb over them.

He smashed his fist into the face of a blood ghoul that attempted to take a bite out of him then kicked the hideous thing away long enough to close the rooftop door once more. Between efforts to fend off the attacking zombies and ghouls, he started moving bodies to block the doorway.

By the time that the stair climbing zombies and ghouls reached the door, it was already difficult for them to try to push it open. Once the door was open far enough for a zombie to shove part of its body through, Scott crushed its skull with a powerful kick the tossed a fireball through the partial opening.

The fiery eruption caught several of the rotting bastards in tight confines. While a few fell from the stairway and gravity snatched them down toward the ground floor below, the remainder were left in place to make things problematic for zombies trying to get to the door.

Scott went into overdrive and tossed as many frozen and freshly slain corpses atop the pile as he could. Soon, the mass rose above the height of the door. Even if something managed to get through, it would take a great deal of time. The entrance was effectively sealed for the moment.

Time was of the essence, however. The blood ghouls in the stairwell would not take long to change course and take the zombies to one of the floors that were close enough to the roof to be used for climbing, or tossing. If things went to plan, they would never regain their momentum.

He rejoined Samantha, who at this point had gathered both Chaine and Kitty off toward the far side of the roof. Scott asked, "You three ready?"

They all spoke their agreement while trying to keep the horde at bay. Without the roof access allowing zombies and ghouls to pour onto the roof, the number of opponents had already begun to lessen considerably. More climbed up from the floors below, but most of those new combatants were ghouls.

The zombies were not as adept at climbing due to the lack of claws. Attempts to toss more zombies up like before were met with fireballs or ice beam shots. More than a few hapless zombies flew up into the air from below only for the waiting ghoul to be frozen solid before it could catch the rotting missile.

Fleeing from the battle was no longer the top priority. Clearing out as many blood ghouls as possible would be the key to moving forward. Their numbers were growing fewer by the moment, but there were still enough to be problematic.

It was time for phase two of the plan. "Saelil! It's time!" shouted Scott before bouncing a fireball toward a group of zombies charging his direction. Already there was a bit more breathing room to fight, though no one with a sense of smell would actually want to breathe the disturbingly potent stench on the roof top.

Upon receipt of the signal, Saelil immediately began to arm and lob grenades through the windows on the floor below the roof. She spread the love all around the front section of the building in order to reduce the number of climbers from that side by a considerable margin. Since Scott and the crew were on the other side of the building, only the sound of explosions reached them while the effects were not felt to any great degree.

While Saelil continued to wreak havoc on the undead horde from one side, Scott and the others rapidly reduced the number of rooftop combatants. Corpses piled up all around, but new enemies only trickled in now instead of overwhelming them with a constant tide of undeath.

Once the elf girl was out of grenades, she pulled out her staff and began the second phase. If something dared to climb out of the window she rushed over and smacked it. Even if she did little damage, it occasionally led to a ghoul losing its grip and falling to its death. One even attempted to lead onto her in a bid to drag her down with it, but she easily kept it at bay with her staff and it fell to a pointless death which screeching angrily.

The roof was an absolute wreck. Part of the building looked as though it would fall apart at any moment, and the other half was heavily covered with the corpses of the fallen. It was a hell of burning and frozen flesh, but it was also a symbol of the power that the companions held. The battle was largely over for now. Even though zombies continued to flock to the area, a large number of the blood ghouls were destroyed due to the current state of things. Soon, the hideous creatures stopped bothering to climb up the side of the building altogether.

"I don't trust this," said Chaine while attempting to wipe a bit of gore from his face. "These things don't seem like the type of monsters that just give up."

"Yeah, we definitely need to get out of here. That robbed us of a lot of time," said Scott. "We wait here too long and those things will figure out another way up here."

Saelil floated over to the group, a bright smile on her lips. "Looks like we did it."

Scott nodded to her. "Let's all heal up and get ready to move. At most this was just a distraction. I'm sure that red robed bastard was just testing us and keeping us busy."

"You think?" asked Kitty.

"Seems likely. I mean, none of us is seriously injured and we were forced to kill so many of these things. If we even have half an hour left to get to the princess I'd be surprised," said Scott before pulling out a bottle of water and tossing a healing pill inside. It rapidly dissolved and turned the bottle of water into a healing tonic.

He pulled his helmet off then took out a status cleanser and popped it in his mouth before using the tonic to help him swallow. Once the pill was down, he chugged the rest of his health tonic without regard for potency. He needed water as much as he needed to heal any minor wounds he possessed.

"Be sure to take a cleanser in case any of you were infected by those things. The last thing we need is to have one of us die and turn because of something preventable," said Scott. He glanced at Samantha. "Even you."

Samantha snorted, but wasted little time in taking off her helmet. She took her medicine the same as the others. There was no point in risking her health.

At this point Scott walked over and looked down at the ground below. The friendship miasma had long since dissipated. The figures down below writhed around in a disturbing display. He was sickened slightly by the sight of it at first, but then he began to notice something odd.

"Hey, one of you with better night vision than me... What do you see down there?" asked Scott. All of the others came over to look down alongside him. His night vision was far superior to a normal human, but his companions were still a bit better than him in this regard.

Ha' Ruulians were basically a kind of specialized elf. Dark Elves were literally able to see clearly in the dark. Kitty was a cat woman, and Samantha had her superior technology.

"Are they fighting among themselves?" asked Kitty, surprised.

"No, it looks like a bunch of naked white people are beating up the zombies," said Chaine.

"That's racist," quipped Scott while looking down. From what he could discern in the darkness, it certainly did look like a bunch of naked people punching and kicking zombies.

"Racist?" asked Chaine curiously. When Scott did not bother to answer, he shrugged it off.

Saelil's eyes widened. "I think I know what this is!" she exclaimed before looking toward Scott. "This could be great news, beloved."

"What's going on?" asked Samantha.

"Yeah, what she said," replied Scott.

"I didn't expect this outcome, but it might be because of your sacred friendship power!" exclaimed Saelil, a warm smile on her lips and a look of absolute joy in her eyes.

"Those people are strong..." said Samantha, "Do you see that one over there? The one that just threw a vehicle at a group of zombies?"

"No..." said Scott lightly, while the others said the opposite. "Damn, I seriously need to get my senses upgraded next time. This blows."

"Seriously, what's going on Saelil?" asked Scott.

"Possibly, reinforcements..." she said with a grin.

"Could you please stop being vague... How can a bunch of zombies too mellow to fight anything be reinforcements?" he asked her with a snort. He took a moment to put his helmet back on and nearly missed her answer.

"It's because you co-opted their spiteful birth. I thought your power might be able to override the normal regeneration of the birth sacks and destroy them before they could be born in this world, but never dreamed it might do this!" said Saelil, a look of adoration in her eyes.

Scott began to speak, but Saelil spoke up again. In a warm cooing tone of voice she said, "Oh, beloved. Who knew that we would have children this soon?"

She placed a finger to her lower lip then innocently said, "I'm not certain that I'm ready to be a mother..." before giggling girlishly, "If it's with my beloved, however..."

"We had what now?" he asked her, his eyes widening. Perhaps it was the stench of burning zombies, or perhaps he was tired. Either way, his brain had difficulty processing her words at that moment.

"Well yes. Our love united to give birth to the future!" she cried ecstatically.

"Saelil..." said Scott in mild confusion.

She looked him in the part of his helmet that covered his eyes. Cheeks flush from her imaginings of proper unification, she said, "Oh, beloved..."

The companions all looked to Scott and then back to Saelil. There were many things to be said at that moment, but none of them knew what specifically should be said. The situation was just too ridiculous.

Eventually, Chaine spoke up, "We need to get going..."

"Right!" said Scott. "We need to move, people..."

"So commanding," said Saelil before unleashing an inappropriately throaty chuckle.

Scott sighed to himself. Now was really not the time for that sort of thing.