The hulking zombie rained down blow after blow, pushing me back. I hacked away doggedly as I retreated, cutting away some fingers and leaving a deep gash in the zombie’s thigh; not that the huge beast cared. Whatever blood the creature once had, it was long dried. Unless I could cut all the way through a limb, I doubted my attacks would even slow it down.

The creature flinched as Ajax’s bullet hit it in the temple, but the shot failed to penetrate. Whatever unholy magic made the creature eight feet tall and built like a bear apparently also reinforced it’s bone. Still, the shot gave me an opening to reposition. If I had retreated much further, the beast would have pinned me against a dilapidated building.

We were in some sort of courtyard about a mile and a half into the Old City. The fountain at the center was bone dry, and as cracked as the cobblestones. The ground was littered with zombie corpses.

Ajax had picked them off one at a time while I led the special zombie on a merry chase around the fountain. Every minute or so, the large zombie would let out a roar, attracting any normal zombies in the area. Ten minutes and many bullets later, it seemed like we finally depleted the local zombie pool.

Now we just needed to figure out how to put down the big guy. I was drenched in sweat and exhausted. If I pushed too much harder I would probably puke. Even with seven points in Constitution, protracted battles like this were taxing.

The slab of meat recovered and came at me again. I dragged my arms back into a guard, cursing the extra weight of my buckler. My force shield had dissolved a few minutes ago, and I wouldn't be able to resummon it for another twenty minutes. Luckily I had been able to draw my old buckler before being overwhelmed.

My opportunity came when Ajax shot out one of the zombie’s beady eyes. The beast reared, bellowing and stumbling back. Going fully offensive, I used my push spell right before tackling the zombie. It was like slamming into a wall, but the combined force was enough to send us toppling to the ground.

The impact was jarring, but I quickly recovered and scrambled up to the zombie’s head. Drawing my knife I rammed it home into the undamaged eye. The beast bellowed again and swatted me away. The blow sent me flying, and I cracked my head against the stone fountain.

Pain shot through my skull and I closed my eyes reflexively. I knew I should finish off the zombie lieutenant, but all I managed to do was roll over and throw up. As I knelt there, dazed and staring at my vomit through watering eyes, six gunshots rang out in quick succession. Each bang drove a fresh nail of pain into my skull.

I forced myself to look over at the zombie. It was still down, thankfully, its face in ruins. Ajax stood over it, reloading his new six shot revolver. Either one of the shots had gotten lucky, or the concentrated fire was too much for even the massive undead’s resistance. It wouldn't be getting back up. I hauled myself into a sitting position on the fountain. I sucked in air and spat a few times, trying to recover.

“You ok?” Ajax asked and handed me a canteen.

“Yeah,” I said, taking a small sip and spitting out the last of the bile. “Just hit my head, nothing important.”

Ajax chuckled goodnaturedly and went to start looting the bodies. As I watched him strip the dead of valuables, I considered our current strategy. After hiring the River Rats to watch the racetrack for us, we were left directionless. In the end, we decided the best use of our time would be grinding money and levels from the zombies in the Old City.

The strategy had been fairly successful so far. I had reached level five and—checking my journal—this fight just pushed me to the edge of level six. It seemed slower than when we were progressing on the main quest, but I was still happy with the progress.

I was starting to regret putting my point from level five into dexterity. The eleven dex made my strikes lightning quick, but I really needed to pump my constitution if I wanted to survive these long fights. The tool proficiency I picked up, ropes and knots, had yet to come in handy, but I liked the synergy with my Ethos skill.

Aside from levels, we also now had a bag full of pocket watches, brooches, hair clips, and other random loot. Not every zombie had valuables on them, but enough did that we more than made up for the bullets spent taking them down.

Things were getting harder as we got further into the city though. The zombies were getting more numerous and faster. They still moved at a shamble, but Ajax now had to jog away from them instead of walk. The huge zombie was the first ‘special zombie’ we had encountered, but I highly doubted it would be the last. The depths of the Old City would doubtlessly just get more and more dangerous.

“Well done lads, nobody even died this time,” called Sarah as she scrambled out of the building she was watching from. The olive-skinned woman from Gateshead had joined us when she overheard our plans. She couldn't really help on the combat side, she didn’t even have a weapon proficiency, but I didn’t really mind. Leveling up her Archivist class was the only way to translate Slinger’s journal after all.

“That only happened once,” Ajax called back. “I swear I am putting points in perception until nothing can ever sneak up on me again.”

“Yeah well, I’m just glad Silver here was able to fight them off until we got back to the bridge,” she said and shot me a smile. I smiled back wearily and then pushed myself to my feet. I needed to stand guard until we were ready to move out again.

“I haven't died yet and I don’t fancy the idea of being zombie-chow,” Sarah continued with a shiver. Walking up to the zombie lieutenant, she crouched down and cracked open the huge tome that was the hallmark of her class. Placing the open book on the monster's broad chest, she started poking and prodding the beast, occasionally stopping to write something.

Seeing her manhandle the corpse was a bit disconcerting, but I was not surprised. As much as she disliked violence, gore and bodies didn’t seem to faze her. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I checked the entrances to the courtyard.

I wasn't surprised to find nothing. Our fight had probably drawn every zombie from a huge area. We would have to go fairly far to find fresh enemies. I checked the sky. Sunset was only an hour or so away.

“We should probably call it a night after this guys; it’s getting late,” I said.

“Fine by me,” Ajax replied. “I am running out of shot again anyway. I wonder if I can get some kind of magic bag to carry ammo in?”

“I wouldn't get your hopes up,” Sarah said, looking up from her work. “Enchanted items are super expensive unless you can make them yourself or get them from a class feature.”

“Can anyone in the guild make them?” Ajax asked, but Sarah just shrugged.

After another minute of writing in her tome, she closed it with a clap. “Done! My entry for the normal ones is complete, so I won’t get any more experience from them. We are going to need to find more unique ones like this guy,” she slapped the hulking zombie, “if I want to keep leveling.”

“I am sure we will run into plenty as we push further in,” I answered confidently. It sucked that she couldn't get experience from the low level zombies though. I doubted Ajax or I would get experience from them for much longer either. That meant more dangerous expeditions if we wanted to keep leveling.

Ajax finished looting the last of the normal zombies and started frisking the big one. Finding a glowing gem, he tossed it to Sarah. “Any idea what this does?” he asked.

“No,” she said, frowning at the small amethyst. Holding the gem in one hand and her tome in the other, she stared into the distance for a moment. Her eyes glowed and the pages of the book flipped erratically as she cast her spell. After a moment, the glow died out and Sarah looked up.

“Weapon enchantment. Slashing only. Force Magic. That’s all I got,” she said with a shrug. “I only have the first rank of the skill. You should get a journal entry about it if you use it enough. Or you could pay to have it identified.”

“Eh, we know enough,” Ajax said, plucking the gem from Sarah’s palm and handing it to me. “Put it on that chopper of yours and we’ll figure it out eventually.”

“You’ll have to get someone to install it,” Sarah interjected. “But you don’t need to worry about it being permanent. An enchanter can remove augments without damaging them or your weapon.”

“Nice,” I said, slipping the gem into my bag. Loot divided, we hefted our bags and started back toward Westminster Bridge. We had cleared a fairly wide path, so I was not too worried about encountering more zombies.

“We will have to move faster tomorrow if we want to get deeper into the city,” I said, stepping over a downed street light.

“Maybe we can bring bait for the small fries? Throw them some meat to distract them?” Ajax suggested. “Killing every single one is slowing us down.”

“Agreed, but I would hate to get into a bad spot and not have a safe retreat though,” I said.

“Maybe we could kite them away?” Sarah suggested. “Lure a bunch of the slow ones away from the bridge before losing them and doubling back.”

The conversation trailed off, and we walked the rest of the way in companionable silence. When we got back to the bridge, we bribed the guards with a few watches. Ajax split off, and walked Sarah back to her apartment.

“Do you really think there are answers deeper in there?” I asked, looking across the river to the Old City.

“There has to be!” Sarah exclaimed. “All signs point to the Night of Jagged Teeth happening because of something in the Old City. All of the zombie occurrences radiate out from the epicenter there. If we can find that source, I’m sure I can figure out what happened that night.”

Sarah hardly seemed daunted by the task. To me it seemed cruel to give a non-combat class a main quest that forces them into the most dangerous part of the game world. “If the army couldn't take back the city, what makes you think we will fare better?” I asked.

“We don’t need to take back the city, we just need to make it to the center. Besides, the army was only routed because they tried to stay across the river at night. If they had—”

“There you are!” a voice shouted from the alley. I had my shamshir out and ready to strike within a moment, but it was only Roach. The River Rat kid was panting and looked worn out.

“I’ve been searching everywhere for ya. I followed the cloth merchant on account of ‘im acting real odd. Went to the counter and got a purse even though he bet on the wrong horse. Real weird about it too, didn’t say nothing, just took the purse and left,” he rambled hastily.

“What’s your point Roach?” I asked, trying to stay patient.

“Killer’s got ‘em! I followed the bloke for two blocks a’for he got drug into an old church,” Roach explained.

“You’re sure it was the killer? Never mind,” I dug into my bag for a few coins and handed them to Sarah. “Send a message to Ajax, let him know what’s up,” I said before turning to Roach. “Let’s go.”

“Sure,” Sarah said, as Roach and I took off down the alleyway.