When JohnWillStab’s DPS group reached their camp, they were met with the tanks and healers.

The tanks were the first to get back, they sat around the camp waiting for the others.

The full seven of them now stood instructorless in the swamp.

“Bonifacius left to look for someone and never came back, then we heard some screaming in the woods so we came here to regroup,” Chaz explained.

The wolfman tank, Abutron nodded with folded arms.

“Mm, mm, pretty whack…” he remarked.

The two healers both looked out of breath.

“Y-yeah… we were practising healing magic and levelling our magic stat when suddenly Crown disappeared!” Dun explained.

He looked like a total edgelord, though his personality didn’t match his design.

“Duuuuude… that’s whack…” Abutron remarked, he sat down on the ground.

Chaz crossed his arms.

“Well, judging from everything so far this is probably their attempt at a test or something…” he speculated.

Everyone else remained silent, seemingly considering the idea.

“A test?” questioned Heike, the harpy.

Chaz breathed a sigh.

“Think about it, the trio that basically single-handily beat up an army got taken out by some cult?” he continued.

“The army was made up of rookies, besides, we were there to help too!” Alistard exclaimed.

“W-what if they really did figure out a way to destroy souls?! That’d make sense!” WeabooMike exclaimed.

“Relax, dude – my boy Chaz is onto something!” Abutron exclaimed.

Alistard turned to face the wolfman.

“Why do you talk like that?!” he demanded.

Abutron scratched is head.

“Talk like what, man?”

“All the ‘dude’ and ‘man’ shit!” Alistard exclaimed tiresomely.

“Nah, dude, you’re trippin’…” Abutron folded his arms.

“YOU DID IT AGAIN!”

Alistard grabbed his gun and pointed it at Abutron.

“Dude… could you not!” Abutron moved the gun away from his torso.

Chaz was watching the fighting start, if he didn’t act now, the group would most likely split up,

“If we split up, they’ll be able to take us out one-by-one!”

“I can’t let those jGuardian assholes act all smug once we run into their obvious trap!” Chaz thought with a forced grin of determination.

he cleared his throat.

“We shouldn’t go!”

His commanding tone caught everyone’s attention.

“A-after all… these woods are…-” he breathed a sigh; not fully certain anyone would believe him.

“These woods are haunted!”

Chaz proceeded to improvise a scary story about some woman hung in the woods.

Meanwhile…

JohnWillStab, Crown and Bonifacius looked at the group from the bushes atop a distant hill.

“Asking the TradeRash guys to put on a quick show to make my kidnapping seem authentic was a good idea!” John thought back to the chain and the fireballs.

Everyone was surprised by the fact they agreed.

“I do wish they didn’t ruin my shirt though…” John thought looking down at his shirt and coat, a massive hole going through both.

“Oi, John – you don’t actually think that'll work, do you?!” Crown demanded, already tired of hiding in a bush, in fact, she couldn’t even see properly through the leaves.

“Are you upset because you’re too short to see anything?” John asked sincerely.

“N-no! Who’d want to spend a night in the fucking swamp waiting for some assholes to come look for us!?” Crown demanded folding her arms and looking smug.

“There, there, I can lift you up if you want!” John offered.

Bonifacius felt a chill run down his spine.

“Yeah, sure!” Crown replied without hesitation, as soon as JohnWillStab knelt down to pick up the frogwoman she jammed her thumbs into his eye-sockets.

JohnWillStab let out a shriek of pain into the night.

Crown summoned a goose from the top of a nearby tree to wrap around John’s throat and pulled him up like a noose.

Back in the camp…

“D-did you guys hear that?!” Heike asked in a shaky voice hearing the shriek.

“It’s some woman screaming… c-c-could that be… the g-g-ghost?!” WeabooMike asked.

“…” Chaz didn’t comment.

“G-GUYS! LOOK!” Alistard pointed into the distant hill, against the light of the moon they saw the silhouette of a human figure being hung by a noose.

The distant voice of the silhouette spoke.

“I’LL GET YOU FOR THIS!”

“I WAS ONLY TRYING TO BE NICE!”

“I-it’s just like the story! The maid was hung after all she did for the executioner!” Heike exclaimed.

Chaz began to sweat violently.

“S-sh-she couldn’t! Ghosts don’t exist!” Sepukku4me_n_u said in a shaky voice.

“One of our instructors was an undead!” Alistard exclaimed.

“THIS TIME I’LL GET YOU!” John cried, cutting the goose-rope and falling down to the ground.

“This time?!” Dun demanded.

“SHE THINKS WE’RE THE MURDERERS!” Alistard exclaimed grabbing his gun.

Chaz began to sweat even more.

Everyone turned to face him.

“W-what do we do?!” they all asked.

“…”

“…”

“THERE’S NO GOING BACK!” Chaz thought as he decided to double-down.

“Salt, we need to make a circle of salt around us!” he exclaimed.

Quickly, the people rushed to their supplies, grabbing the bags of salt and pouring them in a circle around the camp.

“Alright! That should keep the ghost at bay!” Chaz exclaimed.

“We’ve all seen these stories, you think something up and it becomes real! All we have to do it think-up a weakness – that being salt!” Chaz thought.

Back on the hill…

JohnWillStab was being violently bitten and tossed around by the geese.

Bonifacius was looking at the situation.

“P-please! Don’t thou think this is enough?” he tried to reason with Crown.

“IT’LL BE ENOUGH WHEN HE’LL BE TWO KNEECAPS SHORTER!” she exclaimed, one of the geese pulling him up, battered and bloodied before throwing him out into the distance.

John’s body landed in some water with a loud splash.

Back in the camp…

The group heard the splash, the ghost woman must have been close.

“Everyone stay close to the fire!” Chaz instructed.

JohnWillStab slowly began to crawl towards the source of light that was the fireplace, his vision blurry and his entire body reduced to a bruised and bloodied pulp.

“She definitely went overboard…” John thought.

The group suddenly saw a bloodied figure, gasping for air and visibly in pain crawl towards them.

“I-I-It’s her!” Heike cried before passing out.

“Alright… that’s rude… I don’t look that bad!” John thought.

He began crawling onto the land when his hand landed on the barrier of salt.

His exposed flesh met the white salt as he let out a shriek into the night.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH (fuck)!” he cried.

“It’s working!” Alistard exclaimed, grabbing a fistful of salt from the pouch and tossing it at John.

“TAKE THAT!” he exclaimed.

John let out another cry as he began backing away into the forest.

“W-what the hell is wrong with you people?!” he thought, his battered face stopped him from being able to voice his complaints.

“KEEP USING THE SALT! IT’LL KEEP THE DEMON AT BAY!” Chaz exclaimed.

“D-demon?” John thought as he felt the snake-like goose grab him again, pulling him back onto the hill, smashing into trees and bushes on the way.

“She’s gone… for now…” Alistard breathed a sigh of relief.

Back on the hill…

Crown jumped as she saw the bloodied mess she pulled in.

“Holy shit!” she began healing John frantically.

“I didn’t actually do all this, did I?!” she thought suddenly met with a feeling of guilt.

She did.

Bonifacius breathed a sigh of relief seeing both of his allies were back to peaceful terms.