At the pace they were going the fire elementals started making quick work of Drak’s army. However, the creatures were not untouchable. Smash watched as about a dozen of the fat zombies surrounded one of the elementals. Using their gruesomely fat bodies they attempted to smother the magical creatures. The zombies ended up a pile of ruined fat and flesh; however, even though the lard added fuel to the flames, the temporary lack of oxygen did seem to diminish the flames the unearthly creatures emitted.

***You have Whispered Deathberry***

Smashit: Has Cheezus reached you yet?

Deathberry: Yes, he’s providing a distraction to the flying sack of bones we encountered. Seems like your death didn’t slow it down very much.

Smashit: I’m not surprised. That thing is ridiculously OP. It’s higher level than Drak.

Deathberry: We’re on our way to you now. Although Cheezus is flying the dragon so I’m not sure how that will end up.

Smashit: Serious?

Deathberry: I’ll admit it’s quite entertaining to watch. Although I’d doubt he’d agree.

Smashit: Crazy bastard. Ok gotta kill some more zombies. See you in a few.

A new type of zombie that Smash hadn’t seen before approached the raid. The other undead got out of the creature’s way. They appeared as massive orbs of flesh, but there was something wrong with the way that they walked, he realized. Some sort of sixth sense triggered in the back of his mind.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Smashit: Everyone get back. The new zombies look like they are filled with some sort of liquid or gas.

William: What the…

Seconds later Smash heard William’s scream as one of the new globular zombies exploded right in his face. Flesh and some kind of green bile or stomach acid had burst from the creature. Bones had shattered and the concussion knocked Smash onto his back.

William’s health bar was at zero. His body had been pierced by the shrapnel and acid in a thousand different pieces. He didn’t even have time to try to take cover.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Smashit: Fall back!

No one stopped to question his silent order. The battle continued to rage around him and Smash swatted away the sword strike of a stray skeleton warrior that had gotten separated from the rest of its phalanx. Pivoting Reaver in his hand he drove it through the creature’s eye socket and pinned it to the ground. It disintegrated into dust a moment later.

The bursters had thrown pandemonium into the previously well-organized raid and the newer guildmates ran in odd directions or got tangled up with each other trying to escape the zombie bombs. Several additional concussions knocked Smash back a few steps; however, he managed to keep his footing this time.

Nicole pointed to one of the bursters and Smash saw a giant fireball launch from her fingers, burning the atmosphere as it sizzled towards the rotund zombie. He was ready for the explosion this time and didn’t fall back even a step.

The fire elementals followed her example and soon the bursters began to fall in greater numbers. However, seeing the Misfits flee, they soon turned their attention towards the fire elementals themselves. Dozens of bursters swarmed around each of the fire elementals, and the smell of burning acid stings Smash’s eyes. Suddenly, all of them exploded at once. Smash is knocked to his knees this time and when he looks up the smoldering fires of the elementals fill his vision. The combination of acid and the explosive force sending tons of rock down onto the fire elementals had extinguished them.

Worse yet, there were still a few more bursters on their way, chasing down individual raid members. Smash called out over raid chat:

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Smashit: Ranged – focus fire the remaining bursters. Everyone, spread out but try not to get too far from the rest of the raid.

With that Smash set to work trying to assemble the remaining raiders. They’d lost a lot of good people, particularly the newer raiders to that last wave of explosions. Those that had been unfortunate enough to be anywhere near the fire elementals had perished.

They were starting to get a better handle on things when Deathberry, Seona, and Linca showed up.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Deathberry: The cavalry is here.

Smashit: Where is Cheezus and the others?

Deathberry: I think they are still riding that dragon.

Deathberry pointed about two hundred yards away from the raid where Smash could see the form of the bone white monster half buried in the desert sand. The Misfits jumped and Linca cast slow fall on the group before they landed. “Did I miss anything interesting,” Deathberry asked him.

Smash just smiled and shook his head. “Not unless you count exploding zombies as ‘interesting’,” he replied.

The Misfits were mostly back together again and they now had an airship. They didn’t have access to Nicole’s fire elementals anymore since she couldn’t summon them more than once a week. However, most of the raid was intact and ready to take the fight to Drak. His undead army had been routed, his skeletal dragon was grounded, and his deadly exploding zombies had been his last-ditch effort to destroy the raid. Or so Smash thought.

As the raid approached the bone dragon rose up again and immediately attacked the Archaeon. While Lyan’s elves tried to get the guns trained onto the creature, it wove about the ship like a cat chasing a mouse.

Smash would have loved to come to their allies’ aid; however, the Misfits had their own problems. As they approached the place where the bone dragon had taken flight, Smash could see Drak and his zombie warriors surrounding Cheezus and three of the Misfits. His companions were frozen in mid-stride. Cheezus had been in the middle of shouting a warning to the other rogues. Looking above their status bars, Smash confirmed his suspicion. A paralysis debuff timer was on all four of them.

Drak opened his mouth and Smash wondered if his old friend would begin monologuing again; however, it seemed he’d learned his lesson from the last time. Instead he yelled, “Advance.” He swept his arm towards the Misfits and his zombie warriors attacked.

As the undead marched towards them, Smash could hear Drak intonating another spell.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Smashit: Ranged. Interrupt Drak.

Nicole: On it.

Deathberry: kk

Smashit: Thag you’re with me. Let’s split these warriors into two groups. Melee come around the back and break up the party.

Smash shield bashed a warrior that was trying to get under his guard. It had a fearsome looking battleax and moved with a speed and intelligence he hadn’t seen from the other undead on the field. Its companion scored another hit on his flank. While he was reeling from that blow the warrior before him managed to make it under a gap in his armor, bringing the ax up into his armpit while Reaver was raised high:

-4577 slashing

-6246 slashing

This was getting damn annoying. Feinting low, he brought Reaver down across the zombie’s shoulder but that wasn’t the main attack. Off balance slightly the creature raised up its ax to defend against the next downward blow that never came. Instead, he countered. This was an ability to copy your opponent’s last move. His sword came up under the creature’s arm and lobbed it off.

-7514 slashing critical x2

Counter was a powerful move but it only worked once for a single enemy attack. Pivoting his stance, Smash came around and this time the downward strike severed the head of the zombie clean off.

Instakill

Meanwhile, the zombie behind him had retreated back towards another formation of its brethren. Seeing that it was no match for him it had escaped instead of continuing to press forward with a fight it could not win. The AI was getting way too smart with these ‘mindless undead’.

The creature’s retreat gave Smash another chance to see how the battle was progressing. The Misfits had done significant damage to the zombie warriors, despite their increased intelligence. However, it looked like Drak was getting very close to finishing his spell, one that had gone on for quite a long time. It didn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out that this was going to be a very powerful spell when it hit.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Smashit: Ranged what’s going on?

Deathberry: We can’t seem to penetrate its magical defense.

Looking closer, Smash could see the problem. As a fireball shot from Nicole’s hands he saw it strike an area surrounding Drak only to dissipate harmlessly a moment later. Some sort of shield spell? There was no doubt in his mind that this was some sort of one-shot spell. They needed to find a way to stop that cast or get the hell out of there.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Smashit: Any ideas?

Thag: Send in the rogues to interrupt? Oh, yeah, they’re frozen.

Smashit: Yep, good idea but that’s a no go right now. Anyone else?

Deathberry: I’ve got an idea that may work.

Deathberry and Nicole started chanting right away. Smash had a vague idea of what his friend was doing. Something about an illusion spell and using a new General Ability. However, he didn’t think that Drak would be fooled by an illusion at the best of times and right now the enemy caster appeared to be so enthralled in his own spellcasting it was unlikely that he could be distracted. Still, Smash had learned to trust his somewhat enigmatic friend and hopefully he could pull off what he had in mind.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Deathberry: Ok, now.

Smashit: Everyone fall back.

As Smash stepped back he could see an image of himself right where he had been standing. His plate armor stood out in the rays of the evening sun and every detail on Reaver had been duplicated, down to the small blue gem that adorned the hilt. The Misfits retreated about two hundred yards and from there Smash could hear the finale of the spell coming to a close. The intonation rose with a crescendo. Drak’s voice became warped and darker than usual and Smash could see a cloud of darkness begin to envelop the area where their illusions stood.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Deathberry: Get down!

Smash hit the deck with about a dozen other Misfits around him. He heard nothing but the howls of the undead as a wave of pulsing darkness spread out from Drak, slowly consuming the illusions. The unnatural blackness dissipated about two-dozen yards in front of them. When it cleared no living thing could be seen in the area. Grass and trees had blackened and crumbled to dust. If Deathberry’s spell hadn’t taken the hit they would have all been dead.

***You have entered Raid Chat***

Seona: What the hell was that?

Deathberry: Some sort of powerful decay spell.

Smashit: Let’s get in there quickly before he tries to cast it again. Go!

Scrambling to his feet Smash took the lead and charged towards Drak. He could hear the rest of the Misfits were right behind him. Running through the blasted remains of the ground before him was Drak waited his arms at his side. His bony face contained no discernable reaction or emotions that he could discern; however, the calm way he stood there told Smash his opponent was not the least bit surprised.

Smash had intended to get a reaction from his old friend by running Reaver through his body; however, when he was about a dozen feet away Drak pointed and said a single word. Every muscle in Smash’s body seized and he found himself completely frozen.

A dry laugh escaped Drak’s desiccated body, “Well, that was entertaining,” he said. “I’ll admit that you have become a thorn in my side. Escaping my fortress was one thing, but you destroyed my beautiful two-headed creation. And now your spell casters have wiped out half of my army. But the game ends here. I won’t make the same mistake twice. Time to die.”

Smash knew Drak was going to kill him then. Hopefully the others would be able to escape. He had let them down badly this time. Every step Drak took towards him was full of menace. Was it even possible that they had once been good friends? But no longer. Drak took his skeletal hand and stabbed it into Smash’s chest. The sharp pain spread from there all through his body. He would have screamed had he been able to so much as twitch. The agony went on and on for long moments and Smash was sure he was on the verge of destruction; however, when he looked at his health bar it was at full. Strangely his stamina/mana bar was emptying at a rapid rate.

“Ah so you’ve finally figured it out,” Drak grinned, a horrific toothy smile. “I couldn’t have you just respawning. While you and your friends were fighting my army, I made a little adjustment to the AI. When your mana goes to zero, you will go mad. Technically, the AI will take over your mind and you will be mine forever.” Drak’s words were filled with bloodlust. His eyes pulsed with the glory of his enemy’s final defeat.