There were more whimpers of fear as Gary approached the kneeling group, now sixteen strong. He averted his eyes from the remains of the woman that Forge had just cleaved in two. The whole thing was obscene.

Forge was standing to the left of the group, whilst Annabel was on the left-hand side, close to the three infected people on the pew. The couple and the doctor, Joan.

Gary glanced at Jonathan. He wished he could have conveyed something to the other man, but there was no time.

Gary had a plan. It was desperate, and relied on at least one massive gamble, but it was the only alternative to slaughtering sixteen people.

“What’s going on?” someone asked as Gary neared the group. He didn’t hide the vicious black blade.

“Nothing for you to worry about,” Forge said.

“Oh god, you’re going to kill us, aren’t you? I don’t want to...”

Forge stepped in front of the man who was talking and punched him in the face.

The realisation that they were about to die was dawning on everyone. Their fear of the huge red-bearded man was keeping them in place. Everyone was making the same calculation. If they said nothing, if they did nothing, maybe there was a chance that they could make it out of here alive.

“I’ve never stabbed anyone before,” Gary muttered as he stepped behind the group. Despite keeping his voice down, everyone heard him. More whimpers, more tears. The last uninjured teenager jumped up and tried to make a run for it, but Annabel punched him in the stomach before he’d taken a single step, forcing him back to his knees.

“Here,” Morgan said, rolling his eyes as he tapped a man on the back of the neck. The man cringed.

“Just a quick stab and a twist.”

A quick stab and a twist, Gary thought.

“Right, you mean like this?”

He plunged the blade into Morgan’s stomach and twisted sharply.

You attacked Morgan (Level 12 Rogue)

Critical hit, 24 points of damage

Morgan screamed in pain and fury as Rain’s blade dug into him. His hubris had got the better of him. He’d been so convinced that he had persuaded Gary to go through with his plan that he had missed the obvious.

Gary took a second to look at Morgan’s health bar as it popped into view and his heart sank.

Morgan (Level 12 Rogue)

Hit Points 100/135

Mana points: 15/90

Morgan wasn’t even the most powerful of the four, and Gary had no chance of beating him alone. Never mind Forge, Annabel and Rain combined.

“You absolute bastard!” Morgan marvelled.

“Ah, screw you!” Gary screamed, and he leapt on the other man, grabbing him and biting down on his neck with as much force as he could muster.

You bit Morgan (Level 12 Rogue) for 4 points of damage.

Morgan is infected.

Hit points 96/135

Mana Points 15/90

Morgan pushed Gary away, too startled by the sudden bite to attack him in return.

“You bit me?” he glared. “Right, that’s it. Sod this. I’m just going to kill you...”

Gary backed away and turned to Annabel, who already had her sword drawn.

“Annabel, he’s mine. Get over here and heal this infection, would you?”

But Annabel had her own problems.

Gary had timed it as closely as he could.

He didn’t know how quickly the infected would come back to life, but he had been praying that it was soon after they died.

Fortunately, he was right.

He’d noticed a couple of minutes earlier that the infected couple and the doctor on the pew had stopped breathing. His senses, especially since the Essence of Life potion he’d drunk, were more alert than ever before. It helped that he was sensitive, through his cravings for flesh, to where the living were and where they weren’t.

When the three infected had succumbed to the rapid disease eating them up, he’d stopped feeling them as a potential living food source.

Annabel, distracted by the sudden turn of events, didn’t notice the three corpses jerking back to life. Their pale eyes focussed on the nearest target and found the cleric.

Moving as one, the three shambled up and grabbed Annabel, one of them sinking their teeth into her neck and the other into her arm. Annabel screamed, taken by surprise as the third slashed its claws across her back. She tried to break free, but the three undead had her in their grips. Twist as she might, she couldn’t break free.

One of the zombies bit her right arm. Her sword clattered to the ground, and she tried to fend her attackers off with her fists.

Morgan swore, seeing the danger that everyone was in. Annabel was the only person who could cure the infection he was suffering. He shoved Gary to one side, forgetting his vendetta in favour of helping Annabel and saving himself.

“RUN!” Gary shouted at the people kneeling on the floor, and they needed no further encouragement. As one, they leapt to their feet. Most of them raced towards the side door, screaming.

Rain watched them leave, making no move to stop them. She seemed to have no intention of intervening.

“What is this?” Forge snarled.

He lifted his axe and stalked towards Gary, but Gary was already shuffling as fast as he could away from the altar towards his next target. It was a desperate gamble, but it was all he had been able to think of.

At the far end of the aisle, the body of the fallen sorceress, Delphine, was still struggling against the ropes that bound her.

Gary’s plan was to release her.

He assumed she was undead, and he knew Forge had a connection to her. Letting her free would cause the group more problems to deal with, or so he hoped.

It was one of his two remaining desperate gambles.

Annabel screamed again as the undead continued to bite into her. Her mana points were all but drained from the earlier battle, and without the sword she relied on, she was in serious trouble.

Morgan spat and raged as he stabbed at one zombie that was attacking Annabel, felling it easily.

But now he wasn’t paying attention to the living.

Although under half of them had opted to run, and were now through the door, the rest were enraged by what had happened in the meantime. As one, they attacked the rogue, beating at him with their fists. Their individual blows might not hurt him much, but combined, they were adding up.

Morgan laughed, hysterical, but found himself overwhelmed. Someone wrenched his knife out of his hand and stabbed him with it.

Morgan screamed in frustration and kicked and punched his way out of the mob, who no longer seemed to care if they got injured.

Forge stalled in his pursuit of Gary, trying to make sense of the chaos around him and focus on what was the largest priority.

He turned to Annabel, who was still struggling with the two undead that had latched onto her, bringing her to the ground. He decided that helping the cleric was more important than killing Gary for the time being.

A sword clashing against his chain-mail armour interrupted him.

He wheeled round to see Jonathan holding Annabel’s glowing sword.

The teacher had murder in his eyes. Forge looked furious and turned to face Jonathan.

Fuck, Gary thought.

He realised Jonathan stood no chance against Forge, magical glowing sword or no. He shuffled back towards the pair, abandoning his plan to release Delphine. He had to help in any way he could.

He was interrupted by Morgan, who appeared in front of him. His face was bloodied and bruised, and rage was in his eyes.

“This is your fault!!” the rogue screamed. He drew his long sword from his stash and ran Gary through with it in one clean stab.

Morgan (Rogue Level 12) hits you for 24 points of damage.

Gary coughed blood. In one sharp blow, he was down to his last hit point.

Red flashes appeared before his eyes, alerting him to the fact that he was about to die. He fell to his knees. Morgan towered above him with a snarl. Gary pulled himself off the sword and fell to the ground, lashing out with his claws as he did so.

You hit Morgan for 4 points of damage

Hit Points: 60/135

Mana Points: 15/60

Morgan grinned savagely as he prepared his killing blow.

Then A puzzled expression crossed the rogue’s face. Simultaneously, he seemed to have grown a shadow behind him.

“Rain…?” he gasped as blood flecked out of his mouth.

Rain withdrew the knife that she had placed between his shoulder blades and leapt backwards. Morgan turned, shocked by Rain’s sudden betrayal. Gary staggered to his feet as Morgan prepared to face off against the assassin.

With a scream of rage, Gary stabbed Morgan in the back of the neck and twisted hard.

You hit Morgan (Level 12 Rogue) for 10 points of damage.

Then:

You defeated Morgan (Level 12 Rogue). Morgan is dead.

Experience Points gained: 1200

Levels achieved: 2nd level