Kira dug her ji deep into the back of the zombie before whipping back, sending the undead hurtling into its comrades. The weapon felt so good in her hands. Natural. She hadn’t realized just how much she missed using it.

Then again, she supposed it was the weapon she had been using the dozens of times she had to re-fight Guan Yu. She learned far, far too many tricks from that fight and she wasn’t at all surprised that she’d grown so used to that weapon. She heavily suspected that the model for the ‘Demonblade of Bu’ was either modeled after the one from that Three Kingdoms game, if not directly copied from it.

She glanced over the hoards of undead and felt her grin only grow. There was just something so delightful about being able to run through an area and cut down a dozen or so weak monsters. These fields of battle were the ideal location for her.

“Corruption wave!” Kira yelled before a dark aura enveloped her polearm. She swung it once and a wave of dark energy flew out from her weapon, scattering and knocking the zombies aside and into each other. She let out a giddy laugh when she ran through the now cleared area she had made, turning for only a moment to stick her tongue out at the undead that struggled to reach out for her. “Can’t touch me. Come on, awww, too slow. You? Nooope.” She swung her ji once, beheading one of the zombies that got a bit too close and causing it to disappear into a flurry of red sparks. “Better luck next time.”

She hopped back a little, glancing towards her friends. It seemed they were doing just as well as her. No, probably better. But she found it unlikely they were having as much fun. Blueberry and Orion were fighting side by side, both using shields this time and cleaving through the undead with mace and axe. Ervent was in the back, occasionally sending out bursts of light spells, but primarily healing them.

Besides Ervent was the newest addition to their group, Quill. Well, technically ‘Qui11’, but there was no way she was calling him that. A fae with short green hair and light yellow eyes. He was pretty good with a bow from what she’d seen and the fact he seemed to have a good grasp of how his teleport feature worked was nice.

Something about him, though, annoyed her. She just couldn’t put her finger on it. “Tornado shot!” he yelled. His arrow flew the air, just a little past Blueberry and Orion. While it did scatter the ones directly in front of them, it also had the unfortunate effect of causing a lot to be sent flying directly into the pair, forcing Orion and Blueberry to stumble back and lock shields. Worse, it also caused some to go out and around the sides and start moving towards Ervent and Quill.

“You guys need help?” Kira asked into the party chat before stabbing another zombie through the skull and then kicking it back.

“We’re fine. You seen it yet?” Orion asked.

“Nope,” she said before using corruption wave again to send more of them scattering. The dungeon they were in was known as ‘Syn’s revenge’. From what she could gather it was supposed to stem from the time just after all of the races lost their great powers and became the smaller, more humanoid versions that they played as. This place had apparently been one of the last big battles between the angels and dragons, right before Camelot had fallen into the claws of the dragons. Supposedly when Syn had fallen the ground had become tainted and torn asunder, the bodies of the dead rising up to slay all that had fallen.

Kira didn’t know how accurate THAT all was, but dungeon itself was pretty simple. Deal with the constant, steady stream of undead and try to fend them off. There were three special undead, though, that spawned randomly and, when killed, would cause one of the generals to appear. Defeat all the generals and the final boss would show up, some undead lightning monster that seemed to be made of clouds.

Unfortunately, the undead all looked the same to her. She ran into their midst again, cutting through a pair before continuing on. “Sorry. I still haven’t seen any that look different,” she said quickly. “How are you guys fairing?” She took cover under a long decayed siege weapon, molding into the shadows and disappearing while she searched.

“It’s getting a bit much here,” Ervent said. “We don’t have to kill all of these, do we? Are you sure you don’t want my help?”

“We need you here, Ervent. What would we do without your healing? Don’t worry. If you get scared, I’ll keep you safe,” Quill said in a tone that made her roll her eyes.

“I’m not scared!” Ervent said defensively. “I’m just nervous. There’s so many of them. Please move-- careful!”

“Sorry, my bad,” Quill said.

Kira grit her teeth and tried to see the group from her hiding position, but unfortunately there were too many undead between her and them. She made a mental note to take Ervent aside after this and have a talk with the girl about what happened while she was gone.

A flash of silver to her right made her turn and narrow her eyes. Was that it?

YES! As opposed to the other undead that were wearing simple, plain clothing, this zombie had a silver tabard over its chest. She jumped out from the shadows and ran at it. “Got one. Silver tabard. Get ready,” she said into the party chat. Ducking under and around a few of the undead that tried to block her way, she made her way to the undead in a few seconds. With a quick stab of her ji it died, disappearing in a flurry of red sparkles. Of course, that was the easy part.

A loud rumbling tore through the air and she glanced back and forth, trying to find the source. “Okay, what’s spawning?”

“Chariot,” Orion said. “Stay where you are, we’ll clear a path.”

“Okay,” Kira said, swinging her ji to the left, deflecting a sword strike from one of the zombies. She leveraged her polearm against the undead, making it run past and then giving it a quick kick, sending it into one of the others. The endless horde of undead seemed to be fading away, allowing her to see the others running towards her. Though she didn’t see any sign of the chariot.

“Kira, look up!” Ervent yelled.

Kira looked up in time to see a soldier in dark steel, their entire body covered aside from their wings. However, their wings were rotting and decayed, most of their feathers having fallen out and the few that remained were a disgusting gray color. It rode on a flying chariot pulled by an undead, rotting pegasus and wielded a rusty lance.

Kira leaped to the right, only narrowly avoiding getting pierced by the lance, landing on her stomach. Unfortunately, while the numbers of the undead had decreased dramatically, they still surrounded her. She started to get up, but was only to her knees when the first blow hit her on the back, knocking her back down. “Ow, ow, ow,” she said, trying to crawl away.

But there was nowhere to crawl. The undead were slow, but there were so many of them. When she tried to get up, they launched themselves at her. Even now they beat on her, knocking her down to the ground. “Shadow eruption!” she yelled. Darkness rippled off her, but the undead barely seemed phased by the attack.

“They’re strong against that type. Use light magic,” Quill said.

“I don’t know any,” she said. Dang it, if she could just get to some shadows she could hide. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be anywhere near. She did have one new spell that might help, but she didn’t want to deal with the penalties from it unless she absolutely had to.

“Look out!” Ervent yelled. A moment later the girl landed directly in front of her, shield up. The sound of metal against metal tore through the air, the lance striking the shield and sending the angel toppling back, over her. The chariot knight flew back up into the air, slowly turning for another run at them.

“Draining aura,” Kira cast now that she had some breathing room. A black mist formed over her hands and then she gripped her ji, stabbing the nearest undead in the head and pulling herself back to her feet. Her HP went up a little bit, but it wasn’t enough. “Whirling petals!” she cast next. Her body seemed to move almost on its own, shadows wrapping around her ji. Her entire body spun towards Ervent, the shadows erupting out from the polearm and cutting down the undead. Within a moment she was standing over the angel, holding a hand out to her. “You okay?” Kira asked.

“My shield broke,” Ervent said before reaching out and taking her hand. “Other than that, I’m fine. Thanks. Heal,” she cast, causing a small burst of healing to wash over the demon. “Sorry, I meant to save you.”

“Hey, you distracted them enough I could get some spells of. That helped,” Kira said with a grin.

“You two okay?” Orion asked, charging shield first into one of the undead, sending it back. “You going to be okay for this?”

“Definitely,” Kira said before glancing around. The handful of remaining zombies were quickly being dispatched by Orion and Blueberry, while Quill continued to shoot arrow after arrow at the flying chariot. “So, plan?”

“When it comes down to attack us, we hit the pegasus. Once it goes down, the chariot comes with it. Should be a lot easier then,” Orion said. “Once you two are ready, spread out. I’ll draw its attention.”

Kira nodded, quickly moving away from him. Up above the knight flew in circles a few times, seemingly trying to decide who to attack. Finally, it dove down at Orion, the lance held ready.

“Get ready!” Orion yelled. “Ice shield!” A barrier of ice formed around him mere moments before the lance struck, causing it to embed in the ice. It bought a few sparse seconds where the chariot couldn’t fly off.

Kira ran straight at it. “Corrupting strike!” she cast. Darkness coated her blade and she saw the others doing the same, activating their weapon skills to strike the pegasus. The flying undead never stood a chance, the four strikes hitting it and turning it to red sparkles, the chariot falling down a moment later.

The knight leaped from the disappearing chariot, landing in front of them. “Okay Kira. We’ve got this, go find the next one,” Orion said.

She gave a small nod before turning and running back towards where the horde of undead had fallen back. Once the general was defeated, their numbers would rise once more. But while the general was out, finding the special undead was a lot easier. In the end, it came down to either going incredibly slowly, trying to slog their way through all the undead one by one.

Or, her preferred method, going after them all at once. She glanced at her HP and MP bar and sighed. Thanks to Ervent the former was fine. The latter was almost empty thanks to her expenditures in the fights up to this point.

She paused and glanced back for a moment, watching the others fight. The large knight was slow and awkward. Orion was meeting that lance strike for strike, staying in close enough that it couldn’t get a solid blow on his shield. The others were tearing it apart as well. She didn’t have long at all.

Kira scanned the area, trying to find some source of it. A grin formed on her mouth when she saw an archer with a green, moldy hat by one of the siege weapons. “Found the archer! How you guys doing?”

“Almost done here. How far away?”

“Not very. Give me ten seconds!” she yelled before running at it. Once more a few of the undead tried to get in her way, but she quickly moved around them with ease, beheading one that got too close with a flick of her ji.

The archer fell as quickly as the first target. “Got it! Get ready!” she yelled into the party chat. She quickly reached up, gripping the edge of the long decayed catapult and pulled herself up with a grunt. The wood yielded slightly to her touch, but held. Once she was up, she looked around from her new vantage point for the boss. “There!” she called out, pointing a little further to the north. Another angel, this one in a torn, decayed robe. Their left wing had been entirely torn off, while the right was heavily shredded but still had a few feathers.

Kira leaped off the weapon, sailing over a few grasping zombies. She took off straight at the undead, a smile on her lips. “How you guys doing?” she asked.

“Already on it,” Orion said. “Freezing blow!” A moment later she saw an explosion of ice on the creature’s back. The leviathan was standing behind it, striking at it when it turned around.

The zombie’s hand erupted into white light, sending rays of light into Orion. Blueberry came around the side, his axe raised high. “Lava cut!” he cast. The axe grew nearly four sizes, glowing bright red. When he brought it down, the lava spilled off, washing over the angel and leaving a pool of it at the angel’s feet.

“Watch it!” Orion said, quickly moving back to avoid being splattered by the lava.

Kira chuckled and leaped into the air. “Necrotic ram,” she cast. Her polearm formed a ram at the end and extended, slamming into the angel, sending her back and away from the lava.

The undead angel lifted its hands once more, mumbling something incomprehensible. A flurry of sparkles erupted around them, washing over the group and covering them in them.

“Ugh, spark burst,” Kira said, shaking her head. She hated that spell. It made her stick out as if she had a bright light on her, making sneaking around impossible.

“Razor winds!” Quill cast. A moment later, a thin, swirling vortex formed around the angel. “Okay, hit it with all you’ve got!”

“Kira, onto the next!” Orion yelled.

“On it!” she yelled before quickly pulling back from the others and running away once more. Behind her she could hear the others tearing into the creature. With razor winds on it, the damage they did would be amplified. Not the most flashy of spells, but it at least was efficient. She wished she could say that about most of her spells.

There were only a few undead now and it took her only a few seconds to find the last one. The zombie was wearing thin, leather armor and had a pair of daggers in its hands, the only creature dual wielding.

New zombies started to appear, rising out from the ground around her. “Did you kill it?” she asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice when she leaped over a zombie rising from the ground directly in her path.

“Yes, sorry. Are you okay?” Orion asked.

“Almost there!” she yelled. Just a few more seconds. Unfortunately, the undead were rising all around her and before long they’d have a full swarm again. “Corruption wave!” she yelled, but the skill didn’t go off, instead a light buzz went off in her ear. She didn’t have enough MP. Dang it.

She narrowly dove around another undead, ducking just out of its reach before stabbing the dagger zombie, pulling the ji back and striking a second time in the skull, making it disappear in a flurry of red sparkles. “It’s down, here comes the last one,” she said.

“Careful!” Orion yelled at her. “We’re on the way!”

“Look out!” Ervent yelled. “Get off me!”

“Sorry, I tripped,” Quill said with a laugh.

Kira spun around, stabbing and hacking with her ji, trying to get the risen hordes to back off. Slow or not, there were so many of them. Worse, she couldn’t even see her friends now. She tried to see some sign of where the final boss had spawned, but there was nothing. “Come on, come on,” she whispered.

Suddenly pain shot through her back. She stumbled forward before turning around, nearly falling down. Behind her a rather small angel had appeared, this one had entirely scorched off wings and was sizzling as if it just stepped out of a fire. It held a massive sword in both hands, which came down at her head. She pushed her polearm up, catching the blade on the shaft. The zombie then twisted the blade, driving it down the shaft and forcing her to let go with her left hand. She dove to the right, trying to pull back but walked backwards straight into another zombie. “Sorry!” she said, trying to pull away from it.

A bony hand wrapped around her arm, not letting her pull back. “Let me go!” she yelled. She rammed her elbow into the monster’s face, though it did almost no damage. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the angel moving towards her, sword raised. “No no no no no!” she yelled, bringing the polearm up and blocking the slash from the angel.

Unfortunately, she could only block the one. The other zombies surrounded and tore at her and she felt bursts of pain all over her body from their blades when they stabbed and clawed at her. “Corruption wave!” she yelled once more, but her MP still hadn’t recovered enough. She tried deflecting the sword of the angel, but with everything hitting her at once, her HP was plummeting.

She was going to die.

“LET ME GO!” she yelled before stabbing back, digging the ji into the zombie and causing it to disappear in a shower of red sparkles. Unfortunately without her deflecting the greatsword, the angel drove the blade down into her chest, making her stumble back through the sparkles. Only a sliver of health remained now.

“We’re almost there, hold on!” Orion yelled. She didn’t dare look back, though. Instead she tried to pull back, making wide swings with her polearm, trying to make the zombies back away. It only worked for a second before the edge of the blade lodged into one of the undead, trapping it for a moment.

It was all the moment they needed. The greatsword came down at her head and she tried to pull away, only to be stopped by another zombie blocking her movement. “No no n--” Her last words were cut off when the sword dug into her body, sending the last of her HP to zero. She disappeared a moment later.

Kira died. She couldn’t believe it.