“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”

― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

KittKat - Level 38

Near Shellbreak Harbor

Midnight

The night animals were calling. The winter air was bitter cold, but that didn’t keep prey and predator from coming out. She wasn’t far from the castle heck its broken towers were visible from the glade. So she waited—rather impatiently for the mercenaries to arrive. An hour late already, and they hadn’t sent a single message. Kat would give them five more minutes; ten at the tops before she headed back to the castle. The faint sound of a branch snapping caught her attention. She looked up and towards the direction of the noise.

“Took you long enough,” She muttered sourly. Her first warning of combat was the lead ball smashing into her head. A chunk of her health disappeared from the critical blow. Kat rocked backward; the costume she wore melting away into the form of her dark armor. Blackened metal plate-mail wrapped tightly around her body. She cursed as another round whizzed by her.

“A bloody trap,” Kat hissed under her breath. Of course it was, she’d been a fool to come out here alone. Another ball slapped against her chest-plate stealing another chunk of life.

“Damn dwarves, can’t they fight with honest steel.” She cursed drawing her obsidian axe and shield. Three stout little creatures charged her from the bushes. They sprinted towards her drawing short weapons. Two paused long enough to fire a round from their flintlocks. One ball struck the tree she stood next to, the other hit her hip plate. Kat would have loved to get her paws on firearms of her own. The last charging dwarf fired; the lead shot struck her shield taking with it another sliver of life.

“Come on then!” She shouted.

A new dwarf stepped into the small clearing. This one wore no visible armor except a leather smock, and a thick belt laden with tools. He carried with him a large ornate box which he dropped to the ground. As it landed the item started to move, transforming into something. Tiny treads unfolded from the sides as a turret slid up and out of the box. “Oh just great,” Kat groused. They had a miniature tank-bot. She’d heard the dwarves couldn’t cast magic; instead they had tinkerers and engineers.

“Greater Vampiric Edge,” Kat whispered running a hand along her weapon. An angry red glow spread across it just as the first dwarf met her. He dashed towards her with a small axe in hand. It began to glow as the fighter activated his melee skill. A chunk of her life disappeared as he flashed past her. The iron ball braided into his beard flailed about as he turned. Through the mass of facial hair his big pearly teeth glinted as he grinned wickedly.

“Ain’t nuthin’ personal darling,” The dwarf rumbled. That’s where he was wrong; Kat was taking this all too personally. She side-stepped his next attack and slashed her axe hard across his torso. Blood from his wound surged up the obsidian axe blade healing her. As she engaged the leader, two other dwarves flanked her. Kat’s left side was protected by her black heater shield. She kept it up defensively as she attacked with her axe. The vexed dwarf hammered at her barrier trying to get past the guard. A dwarven crafted short sword and axe rained down on her right side despite her attempts to parry.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a round shape land next to her. She risked a glance. A spiked black ball was hissing, shaking, and grinning up at her with a painted goofy smile. The fuse sputtered once before dipping into the cavity of the device. “A grenade!” Kat thought diving away just as the ball exploded. Steel shards pinged off her armor like metal rain. The three dwarves gave chase hacking at her armored body. Her health continued to fall rapidly. Using her shield as a crutch Kat levered herself up. Fine then, if she was going to die she didn’t need to hold back.

“Asmodeus’s Wrath!” She bellowed and a black aura spilled from her armor. The dark, blood-smelling smoke quickly solidified into ebony blades circling her body. The leader lunged at her eager for the kill. His steel axe struck a blackened sword bouncing off. A second blade struck out from the swirling mass slashing the fighter. Blood flicked into the air before being sucked into her armor. Kat’s health ticked up a few notches.

“Ain’t fair,” The dwarf scoffed. Well, the dwarves had their toys and Kat hers.

“Life ain’t fair,” Kat replied charging the leader. Her health started to increase gradually as the blades did their dirty work. At the same time she attacked the dwarf with her obsidian battle axe. The two dwarves were forced away from her aura as it spun up to full speed. Instead, they fetched ball and powder to reload their flintlocks.

Some thirty feet away the sentry tank came around the tree. It’s muddy treads stopped, turret swiveling ominously towards her. It fired another grinning spiked grenade. She dove past the dwarven leader as the shell landed. He too scrambled to get away from the explosive. Kat slashed at his back as he went past making her health go up a few precious ticks. She wasn’t going to be the only one taken out today. Her aura wouldn’t last forever, and the two pistol-toting dwarves were taking aim. She stood and ran after the leader raising her battle-axe high overhead.

“Unholy Smite,” She yelled calling her daily ability and brought the weapon down on his head. A red angry charge spread between her axe and the dwarf.

“N-no…” The dwarf gasped as his health disappeared. The gunfighter’s body devoid of life crashed heavily to the ground.

“Nothing personal, darling.” Kat mimicked in a sarcastic tone. Three dwarves remained though, and she didn’t have an easy escape. Two gunfighters caught up as she turned to face them. They stopped just outside the range of her aura of blades, leveled their pistols, and fired. One bullet was deflected by her mass of black weapons, flicking off into the trees. The other slammed into her, knocking her health into the red. Holstering their guns, they attacked again with melee weapons. Her aura faded, smoke slipping back into her armor as Kat continued to back away. If she could keep a tree between herself and her attackers she might just live. Kat had no hope of taking down another; both were full health, and ready for revenge. Kat’s health bar was looking ragged and red. Her axe swung, connected with a dwarven sword. She twisted her wrist deflecting the blow and cut into the dwarf. At least the gun-dwarves weren’t as skilled at melee combat.

“Clear space,” A squeaky voice commanded. The dwarves bounded left and right. Kat managed to get her shield up just as the tank fired. The cannon round slammed into her, forcibly knocking her back. Thankfully Kat kept her feet— if only barely. She glanced over the lip of her shield and saw the spiked ball sticking to it.

“Oh fudge,” She thought knowing she couldn’t un-equip, or drop her shield in time. She stared blankly at the grenade as it blew. The explosion picked her armored form up and tossed her through the air a dozen feet at least. She had time to reflect that this had been a bad idea. Kathrine let out a quiet sigh. She’d taken one of the dwarves out at least. Kat wouldn’t die alone. It had been a good run. She’d made friends, created a guild, and found a lover. Well, 'lover' was a rather strong word for it.

The earth moved to meet her, rubble and stone shot out. Just as the ground neared a white marble coffin breached the soil. The open maw closed over her like a giant shark. A coffin lid slammed down leaving her momentarily in darkness. A few seconds later she tumbled out amid a mass of undead. She never thought she’d be so happy to see a group of zombies and vampires surrounding her. A giant skeletal mage pointed at her.

“You should have told us you were going out.” He said in a deep voice.

“It is nice to see you too.” She replied holding up a hand. It was true, and she was so incredibly happy to see him just then. He dragged her roughly to her feet. Kat immediately started to feel better now that she was out of combat. Her natural regeneration and the necromancer’s aura was patching up the wounds she’d received. The skeletal mage poked her in the stomach with two fingers.

“Negative Energy Bolt,” He intoned. A green flash of eldritch energy struck her making all the little hairs on her body stand up. The green glow spread over her body as her health climbed back into safe territory. By the dark lords, she needed that. The necromancer let go long enough to point his staff past her.

“Attack,” He ordered and ten undead rushed the dwarves. The three remaining mercenaries turned to flee into the night. Six vampires quickly circled the trio with their increase speed— not to mention longer legs. They trapped the dwarves between themselves and the zombie pets.

“Protect me,” The tinkerer squeaked fumbling for his tool belt. The two remaining dwarves turned to face the undead. Meanwhile, he pulled a flat device from his belt and tossed it to the ground. The fighters fought back to back as the teleporter unfolded. A blue glow lit the round disk as it fully activated. Quickly the engineer stepped atop it and within seconds teleported away. Vampires rushed to attack the remaining two dwarves. The second dwarf shuffled back up onto the glowing device and was teleported away. The third and final fighter fell a few feet from safety. His eyes turned to the blue device as a sword stabbed down into his back. Seconds later the strange dwarven machine twisted up on itself vanishing among a bright flash of blue light.

At least she’d had an exciting evening, enough to get her undead heart pumping. Moving to the necromancer she leapt up to give him a peck on his exposed cheekbone—not that she was grateful—just because she could.