“…but her lovely bouncing charms command a drawing of the eye, revealing ‘them’ as unwitting buffoons in the presence of her divinely inspired beauty. Surely this must have been planned by the gods all along?!”—Proverb from the Book of Chibusa

Prologue—“Au revoir mes chéris!”

With his most powerful cry, Uji lashed out at the mauldryn and his blade hit the monster square in the chest. The mauldryn spasmed in an eerie cry lamenting its second death as its dried and cracked bones crumbled into dust.

"Haha!" he laughed triumphantly. "Marseilles, did you see to that?"

"I did!" she answered just before losing a shaft at a second of the undead monsters. It connected square into the monsters hollow eye socket where a green ghostly glow of something within peered out with hunger and malice.

"And what about me?"

Uji glanced up the hill where Morrs was trudging through the calf high grass. "Not saving anything for me, I see!" His last few words came out stressed, the final of which he bellowed as his sword arced behind his shoulder. He flew over the grass, one knee bent forward while his other leg remained outstretched behind him.

The grass parted in a woosh! as his body surged toward past Marseilles. Morrs screamed, arced his blade and cried out just as he slammed his sword through the mauldryn's head and body, turning the monster into a falling pile of shattered bones and dust.

Morrs whirled on his heel as he tested the flat of his wide blade over his shoulder. He smirked.

"Show off," Uji said sullenly.

Just then the ground broke in multiple places, the aged and decrepit headstones and obelisks from this ancient graveyard—now no more than a lonely field of grass and beautiful flowers—turning over to admit these abominations.

"Uh-oh!" Marseilles cried. "There are more!"

"Ha!" Morrs scoffed. "Not to worry, boys and girls." He grunted, exchanging sword blows with the mauldryn.

"Wow," Uji said. "This one's actually making Morrs put up a fight!"

Morrs, grunting with the exertion of battle, said, "Yeah right!"

The mauldryn parried another of his blows and snapped at him with its hand-span-long fangs. Its tail thrashed suddenly, whipping the air with a crack.

Morrs flinched and instantly Uji knew he had been struck. "Marseilles! he cried. "Morrs needs help!"

She turned from another of the boney ruins she had created and shrugged. "Really?!"

"No!" Morrs barked, a small trickle of blood running down his cheek. "I—hnngh!—got this!"

He swung his blade with excessive force, grunting with each strike, and each time the mauldryn parried his blows, all the while gnashing it's teeth and whipping its tail about.

Eyes catching the peripheral movements of other monsters, Uji turned his head and saw half a dozen others. Marseilles saw them too and knocked an arrow. "Let's make sure Morrs isn't distracted with that other one. It seems tough!"

Uji nodded. "All right." He lunged forward as Marseilles loosed her arrow. The shaft flitted past him and struck the monster most at the fore, but the arrow didn't penetrate through the bone like the others.

Usually her arrows turned mauldryn to bone meal. Instead, Marseilles’ arrow thudded into the monster, the head sinking to the shaft where thudded as if she had aimed her shot at a dried Sakura branch.

Uji was taken aback and he glanced over his shoulder questioningly. Marseilles looked at him and made a face. "What the hells?!"

Morrs screamed and Uji glanced in his direction as their strongest member bashed his blade over the mauldryn's.

He slammed down again.

Then again. Marseilles loosed an arrow at the monster's back, the impact of her shot barely nudging the skeleton.

With the mauldryn on defense and Marseilles' arrow barely having affected the monster, Uji rushed toward it. Morrs landed several more blows, but each was perfectly blocked, and now Morrs was breathing heavily with exertion.

Not good.

But Uji closed the gap between himself and the mauldryn Morrs was fighting and slashed it across the back.

The feeling he got back on his serrated katana was one resembling an experience much like trying to lop a log in two in one hit.

The mauldryn snarled and turned, and that's when Morrs screamed, arcing his blade as magical wisps of blue-black magic left trails behind his blade.

He struck the skeleton in the shoulder from behind, his sword sinking down to its hip bone. With green vaporous eyes of hate-filled rage, the skeleton monster thrashed as Morrs kicked it in the back. He used his boot to slide the skeleton off where it flailed to the ground.

"Watch out!" Marseilles called, and she loosed three arrows at the other five approaching monsters in quick succession.

Her arrows had little effect.

Morrs grunted heavily with contempt as he cut down with his sword in an overhead stroke, severing more bones and turning the mauldryn before him and Uji into a writhing pile of shuttering splinters.

"Ha! Morrs cried. "I got you!" Then he glanced up at Uji and Marseilles. "I got him! Guys! They're easy too..."

But the words died in his throat as five more monsters ambled forward. Uji nodded. "They're all strong!"

Marseilles was backing away from them. "Well," she said, sounding to Uji like she was slightly short of breath—or was she afraid? "I suppose we could run!"

"We're not running!" Morrs declared and stepped forward. Uji watched him as the breeze cooled his sweat-soaked brow. He turned to Marseilles. The pale and eerie moonlight put a glow on her golden hair that made her look like a spectral spirit.

With five more monsters, Uji thought the party could take them. He moved, distracting the next closest mauldryn.

"Aim for the eyes!" Morrs commanded as he lashed out at the skeleton.

Uji stepped back as the monsters bony tail clacked with an almost wooden sound as it whipped and thrashed at him. The deadly sharp and serrated edges nearly came into contact with him, but Uji paired the strike with his curved blade.

Circling around with deft steps, Morrs came behind the malicious monster and jumped. With a short cry, his body whirling around as his sword left trails in its wake. The skeleton snared, stumbled forward from the impact.

Uji took this opportunity to step forward and slash the skeleton over the top of the head. Shaking and stumbling, Morrs grunted loudly as he brought his huge blade down over its back where its shoulder plate disconnected.

"I got one!" Marseilles shouted. "I hit it square in the eye just like you said, Morrs!"

As Morrs laughed excitedly Uji didn't turn to address her. He was occupied delivering a flurry of sharp blows to the stunned and damaged skeleton.

Unlike Morrs, Uji's blade style was based more on precise slashes with an incredibly light razor sharp blade, while Morrs relied upon strength, heavy damaging blows and magical destruction.

With a final shout of exertion, Uji delivered one final flurry, his blade whirring so fast as to be nearly invisible to lower level adventurers below his own level twelve status.

Leaving off, Uji regarded the skeleton for a moment and Morrs said, "You chipped it out of commission!"

"Hmph!” Uji noised matter-of-factly as Morrs moved off toward the last two skeletons.

As Uji glanced after him, Marseilles loosed another arrow. It flitted through the air and hit the leading skeleton in the mouth.

The monster convulsed once with a chittering cry before cutting the arrow away.

"Ha!" Morrs called, his hands visibly tightening over his long sword hilt.

"Wait, Morrs!"

He turned. "Why?"

"Because I want another shot at this cocky bag of bones!"

Uji grinned wryly. "'Bag'?"

She knocked her arrow. "You know what I mean."

Marseilles raised her now and drew. All was silent save for that incessant clacking and chittering.

When she loosed the arrow it cut the air audibly and slammed into the skeleton's eye socket.

With a final jerk and convulsion, the green lights in the monster's eyes dimmed, then exploded. Its arms slammed outward as it went rigid and finally fell to the ground in pieces.

"Very good!" Uji said.

"And that's how an arrow is shot," Marseilles added quietly with a nod.

Morrs, looking back at Marseilles and Uji tilted his chin down once. Then he said, "Let's finish this!"

"Right!" Marseilles said and knocked another arrow.

Uji looked on, feeling that any danger these higher level mauldryn presented was now over.

Glancing back, his eyes widened when he realized there were now dozens of them!

"Look out!" he warned. "There are more!"

"What?!" Marseilles exclaimed. "How did so many come up so quickly?"

"It doesn't matter!" Morrs said, then he jerked his gaze toward the close-by mauldryn, tweaked his grip and ran.

"HuuAAAAHHH!"—he jumped high into the air with his massive blade hanging low being his back, his arms positioned over his head—"HIIIYAAAHH!"

Magic exploded as Morrs slammed into the mauldryn blade first, his body curled into a tense form of muscular power intent on one thing—destruction.

The mauldryn didn't even cry out. Its body split, it's bones shattering away with the soil and grass as Morrs put a small ravine into the ground.

Uji squinted as he shielded his face with the crook of his arm while hot debris rained down all around them.

Marseilles straightened and looked on. "Power," Uji proclaimed solemnly. "He is the only one of us truly fit to battle at this level."

Morrs' blade wisped with trailes of burnt magical smoke.

"There are too many," Uji added.

Morrs dragged his blade across the dirt as it made a thick metalic sound. Then he shouldered the weapon with a cocky smirk.

Uji realized Marseilles was grinning, the look on her face bespoke more than surprise or being impressed as her eyes wandered about the strong swordsman's features.

She had never looked at Uji that way—not that it mattered. It was a simple observation.

More mauldryn burst out of the ground in front of then. There were eight of them, with as many more coming up.

"Where are they all coming from?" Morrs said musingly. "This graveyard is far too sparse for this many."

The sound of a stone slab ground through the ancient graveyard.

"I think we're about to get our answer," Marseilles said, her tone heavy.

Uji saw the fear in her eyes as he glanced on at the tombs on the hill. Then, looking around, he saw that they were completely surrounded. "How do we get out?!"

Morrs said nothing, but when Uji saw him swallow, fear roiled up from his knotted stomach, making him feel sick.

"Look," Marseilles said as she pointed at a thick knot of the skeletons.

Uji regarded them, saw a taller skeleton ambling forward, but it was obscured from the others surrounding it.

"What is happening?!" Morrs snapped as he took the back of his blade off his shoulder and lowered the weapon where the tapered spade-like end rested in the dirt.

Uji stepped forward so he was closer to the others. "We might be able to cut a path through the where they're thinnest "

Marseilles looked about "They aren't thin anywhere!" she spat. "We... we should have left here when we had the chance."

Uji sighed heavily. "Perhaps you are right, Marseilles." He repositioned his blade so that the hilt was more comfortable in his hand.

"We aren't going to make it out," she breathed.

Uji jerked his head toward her, a fright travelling up his spine.

She's right!

As the thought enveloped his mind, the mauldryn parted, recoiling away from another skeleton. This one was taller, broader and with thicker limbs.

On its head rested a golden crown encrusted with a red ruby, and in its boney grip was a sword at least twice the length of Uji's.

A boss, Morrs breathed.

"I told you we should have never come here!" Marseilles whined.

Morrs glanced back as the skeleton ambled toward them, the knots of mauldryn surrounding them having now formed a tighter line at least twenty deep.

It was an army.

"It's at least level twenty," Morrs breathed. "They weren't supposed to be this high level—none of them! THEY WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THIS HIGH LEVEL!!!"

"Get a hold of yourself!" Uji growled through his teeth.

Marseilles laughed, but it was of bitterness, not mirth. "Why?" She sauntered toward Uji. "We can't beat them."

"IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY!!!" Morrs cried and slammed his sword into the ground.

The mauldryn champion ambled forward, its teeth gnashing and green eyes glowing brightly and maliciously.

Marseilles snarled and drew her bow. She only aimed for a moment before shooting her arrow at the champion's head.

Her arrow was batted aside like a dart of folded washi paper.

She made a noise of contemptuous disbelief. The mauldryn champion bent low, its arms outstretched and its sword gleaming in the moonlight. It opened its maw and howled.

The knot of fear and bile in Uji' s stomach was too much. He leaned over and retched, then righted himself as quickly as possible. Retaking his straight and stiff-backed stance, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand while his other was held low, the point of his sword angled downward toward the grass.

"Even if we cannot win," he said, noting his own shamefully quavering voice, "we must fight!"

My only regret is that I cannot live to see you, Yani... One last time.

"Fine!" Morrs snapped. "Then let's get this over with!" He turned to Marseilles for a moment.

They seemed to share a silent moment between them as glint rolled down her cheek. Then Morrs looked at Uji and nodded.

He returned the gesture to his friend who was the strongest of their party.

Marseilles said, "I'm glad it's with you two."

Nodding strongly, Uji looked at them both. "Hai!"

Morrs screamed, lunged forward as Marseilles loosed quick arrows at the champion. Uji narrowed his eyes and sprinted forward, jumped into the air as Morrs exchanged several strikes with the skeleton, their swords glinting in the pale light of the moon.

A fine night to die on!

With a heavy grunt Morrs was shunted out of sight. Uji screamed as he pulled his arms down with as much might as possible.

He screamed and everything seemed to slow.

His blade connected!

The champion glanced up with green eyes past where Uji's sword had been stopped against its marble-hard forearm.

Oh no...

The skeleton pushed Uji's blade aside and then brought it's knuckled grip into his stomach.

Everything blurred as he was thrown away. He thought he heard someone scream his name as something hit his back.

Or had he hit something else?

All was a whirl and blur of kimono sleeves, grass and night sky as he grunted end over end.

When his body stopped, Uji found that he posessed no will to move, despite the fact that his hurts, though throbbing and aching, were lesser than what he had sustained during the worst of times.

"UJI!" Marseilles called.

Morrs grunted. Some sword strikes were exchanged, but when Marseilles screamed in horror, Uji knew Morrs had been beaten.

Something thumped next to him and Mors grunted again. "Gah!"

"Are you all right?"

Uji found the urge to move, if only so that he could see his friends one last time.

He rolled over. "Hnngh!" The smell of fresh grass and damp dirt filled his nose. Even these scents reminded him he would never smell them again—at least not on this world.

"Are you okay?" Marseilles said, her tone one of caring as she held Morrs over both shoulders.

He took her by the neck and pulled her close and they shared a kiss.

Uji glanced away. "I'm right here..."

They looked at him with irritation and he shrugged, gesturing for them to continue.

Grunting loudly and using his knee for a hand support, Uji stood and trudged away from them. Glancing about, the mauldryn were still holding tightly to their encirclement, their ranks far too thick for any of them to think about jumping over—and fighting through would be all but impossible.

The mauldryn champion stood tall and smacked the broad side of his sword. Uji nodded. "Yes, yes!" he said, annoyed as he waved a hand at his executioner. Under his breath he muttered, "I don't see why we're even going through this farce. Just kill us already, because the wait is more unbearable than the prospect of our actual deaths!”

A wisp of light appeared from out of nowhere and Uji came up short. So did the mauldryn champion. When the monster looked at him questioningly, Uji shrugged.

The ball of magic swelled and became oval in shape—"What the...?"—the inner portion darkening and collapsing.

"Uhhh!" Uji noised, motioning to Morrs and Marseilles. "I think something is happening!"

They rushed up beside him and in hand and Marseilles wiped her cheek. "Is this a—"

But she was cut off when the interior collapsed completely, revealing two figures beyond.

Morrs yanked Marseilles forward. "It's a portal!"

"What?!" Uji howled with surprise and excitement.

"Come on!" Morrs screamed, but Uji saw him come up short as two figures within appeared.

The man in front was such that Morrs quickly moved aside as he appeared, followed by a beautiful woman in provocative black leather and a wide-brimmed and pointed hat.

Uji's eyes were wide and he suddenly took in a deep breath of much needed air.

The portal closed and the mauldryn champion behind snarled its displeasure, along with his lessers as they all chittered and howled, their eyes blazes of hate and fury.

The man who came through was wearing a heavy leather jacket, his sword gleaming with powerful energy that Morrs could hardly match.

Moving a lock of his brown hair out of his eyes, the man seemed to barely see their party of three, his eyes scanning the horizon of monsters—though briefly. Almost absently he said, "You did it again..."

"No," the smiling blue-eyed woman added. "It was my will that we come here this night."

The man said nothing as he seemed to see Uji and the others for the first time, his eyes studying them quickly. "Are you well?"

"We—" Uji began, but Marseilles interrupted.

"We need help!" she cried, taking a single step further. "These monsters are above our level."

Morrs glanced at his hand grasping the large hilt of his sword.

The stranger—the man—glanced at the woman, who was now standing beside him.

Uji was taken aback. Either these newcomers were dangerously oblivious, or they were at such ease as to behave as though army of mauldryn and their champion were nothing more than encircling trees!

"Do you see?" the woman asked. "It was intentional, my love."

The man's mouth quirked into a hidden smile. "Very well," he said. Then to Uji—at least Uji thought the man was speaking to him--he added, "We'll clear these for you."

He noted the word "these" as if the army before them were no more than annoying patches of grass standing in their way.

Yes, these two are top-tier adventurers.

Uji found himself smiling. With a nod he said, "Arigatou!" and bowed.

The man stepped past them and drew his sword.

"Wait!" Marseilles said. "The champion is behind you!"

"Not to worry, dear," the woman said. Then she withdrew a wand of gnarled wood with a white crystal planted at the top. She moved her body with a dancer's grace and traced runes of glowing magic in the air, her fingers hitting unseen objects that created musical notes. She then thrust her wand up into the air as she kicked one heel back.

"Ipthum re esso cucurbita plume!"

Her wand brightened and a plume of purple magic shot into the sky. The snarling and chittering undead looked at it, their howling increasing in pitch and intensity.

Uji's eyes went wide as the purple plume of magic separated into a dozen other plunes. They arced into the sky and the magic swelled.

"It's coming back!" Marseilles exclaimed.

The woman smiles. "Well of course it is." She gestured with an open palm. "How else do we kill all these monsters with as little work as possible, sweetie?"

Despite the woman calling Marseilles "sweetie" she was hardly any older.

The monsters reacted to her words.

"I think they heard you," Morrs said.

"Hmph!"

The mauldryn became visibly agitated and there lines were increasing in jaggedness as their members started inching into the open space.

"Look again," the blue-eyed woman said.

Uji glanced up and what he saw made him frown with confusion. He saw...

"Pumkins?" Morrs asked skeptically.

"Oh my gods!" Marseilles cried.

"What is it?" Uji asked, his hand still on his hilt. He was confused about how these two were intending to kill this many mauldryn.

Looking up again, the pumpkins with their glowing interiors landed on the ground and bounced about.

The mauldryn went feral and began striking at them as they all chittered and howled as one.

"Now the good part," the woman said with a giggle.

The pumpkins started spinning and hopping as purple luminescent magic spiraled out of them, the wisps of smoke enclosed by greasy black vapor.

The mauldryn jumped and howled, many of them charging forward as they realized they were under attack.

Marseilles screamed as hundreds of them came in to mail them as their name suggested.

Uji tensed as he lifted his blade for a final fight!

The woman—she must have been crazy because she was still unaffected—said, "Aaaand..."

She raised her finger

Everyone save for the two insane newcomers screamed.

The sorceress flicked her finger. "Et voilà!"

The pumpkins burst into balls of hot red flame, the magic they had spread catching like fire oil as the horde of mauldryn howled and burned, the smell of charred bone all in the air.

They all coughed and waved their hands away, save for the two newcomers.

Upon seeing the mauldryn in heaps—all gone and dealt with—his mouth dropped open.

Morrs was clearly thoroughly impressed and Marseilles smiled ear to ear. "You're the Pumpkin Princess of Ilth!"

"None other, sweet thing."

"Oh," Uji said.

"Not just 'oh' you sword wielding barbarians! This woman is an adventuring legend!" She whirled and pointed at the man who was gazing off into the distance. "And you, sir! You're—"

Uji's eyes widened when he heard the mauldryn champion growl. "One more!" he shouted and raised his sword.

As Uji glanced back at the others, he saw them whirl—all but the man, who was gone. When he swung his eyes back around, Marseilles and Morrs shouted.

Bones were falling from the sky as the man bent forward, his sword arm outstretched at the end of the strike Uji had missed.

"Power..." Morrs muttered.

The man stood and sheathed his blade.

"Hmph," the woman noised with satisfaction. "Now the rest of you baby adventurers be more careful from now on, oui?”

She tipped her gnarled wand and opened another portal. Stepping in, she turned on her tall stiletto heel and tipped the rim of her hat off to them "Au revoir mes chéris!”

The man followed. "Another mystery location?"

"Of course," the princess said with a smile.

As the portal closed, the man nodded to the group of adventurers and then they were gone.

They stood in silence and awe. Though his reaction had been simple, and quite honestly rather dumb, Uji was well aware of who Amélie Montillier, the Pumpkin Princess of Ilth was.

And he was also aware of—

Morrs breathed out heavily and pushed his hair out of his eyes. "That sword master was—"

"Jeanbleau de Parise," Marseilles finished for him.

"Also known as the Evil Adventurer," Uji added.

Marseilles nodded. "So... Amélie Montillier, the Pumpkin Princess of Ilth, and Jeanbleau de Paris, the Evil Adventurer. They saved us!"

"Surely they have better things to do," Uji suggested.

"Like battling otherworld demons in the heavens," Morrs added.

Marseilles shook her head as a wry smile touched her lips. "They saved us!"

"None of our friends will believe a word of this," Morrs said.

They all regarded one another. Together the party laughed aloud in the night.