Adventurers split and each group headed in a different direction while the rest stayed and engaged the undead in the square and the shopping district. Each group was led by a bronze ranker and an average level of adventurers was around level 12. Slowly, adventurers began pushing back the undead thanks to the leaders giving orders and keeping the group from falling apart and needlessly getting killed. When the situation seemed to be stabilizing, one of the bronze rankers fell to the ground with a huge hole in his chest. Adventurers around him were shocked and frantically started searching where the attack could have come from. A futile attempt, as his attacker was hundreds of meters away on the top of one of the taller buildings. It was a dark elf female huntress. She grinned and turned in the direction of the other bronze ranker in a different group, engaging the undead. Another fell down and his group was slowly overwhelmed. The huntress managed to take out one more bronze ranker when she cocked her head back in surprise, avoiding a thrust of a rapier to her head. She looked at the young woman in chainmail armor with a small shield and a glowing rapier in her hands.

“Aahh, vice leader Belle. Nice to finally meet you!”

Belle frowned and angrily replied “Only friends and family call me Belle! You filthy undead!”

“Hm? I'm not an undead, silly girl.” The huntress replied in amusement.

“What? Don’t try to fool me! What the hell is wrong with your skin??”

“Are you serious? You've never seen a dark elf before?” *chuckles* “So young and innocent and already a silver rank!” The huntress mischievously smiled and Belle rolled to the side, avoiding a spray of green liquid coming from behind her. Liquid sizzled on the stone ground, making a hole through the roof. Belle took a defensive stance after she rolled away, taking a look at the newcomer while not taking focus of the hunter. The newcomer was a hooded necromancer. His hands pale, traces of rot with a tinge of green on them and droplets dripping down the tip of his fingertips.

“As expected, you dodged! Hey hey, wanna join us?” The newcomer asked cheerfully, his voice raspy. Even less human than before.

The huntress frowned at the sudden invitation but didn't comment further.

“Haaah? You must be out of your damn mind! Do you share your intelligence with all of your minions? Is that why you are so dumb?” She fired back, trying to rile him up. The necromancer stood there in silence for a second before bursting into maddening laughter. While he was laughing, Belle spun and threw her shield with as much strength as she could muster, towards the hunter while running at the mage. He yelled at her to come at him while lifting his hand and summoning another green blob of necrotic properties from his fingertips. He was too slow, however, as Belle reached him before he finished his spell. She slid under his extended hand and thrust her rapier through the side and between his ribs. He grasped her hand and she jerked it away, pulling him along towards her, a green hue appearing on her hand. She went around him, avoiding him and kicked his back, sending him sprawling on the ground. She glanced at the huntress, who was watching her with indifferent expression and then somersaulted off the rooftop. The huntress approached the necromancer, a pool of blood around his body. It was dark and looked more like a gelatine substance than a liquid.

“Are you going to stay lying down, contemplating on your own stupidity or are you going to get up? The guild leader is coming and will be here any second now.”

The necromancer slowly stood up, his hand over his grimace face. “That bitch is going to pay!”

“Whatever, let's go.” replied the huntress and turned to leave.

A few streets away, a vice leader was dealing with one undead after another. She lost her shield and her hand needed healing, at least she still had her rapier.

“That undead bitch is going to pay!” She declared confidently.

Rayne appeared in front of her, freezing every other undead in a radius around them. “Who are you talking about?”

“Rayne! I saw the necromancer. We fought and I pierced his heart, but I don’t think he’s dead.”

“Mhm alright, the lot do tend to die hard. Where is he now?”

“He was on the roof of a building a few streets away but forget about him, he wasn't alone. A huntress, a dark elf she says, was with him and she was sniping our bronze rankers. Both were silver rank and are gone by now.”

Rayne didn't comment but nodded his head. “Alright, here.” He said as he tossed her a healing potion. “Take care of your hand first and then we'll deal with the rest of the undead. Only the eastern district was left. I've dealt with the rest on the way.”

Bones was sure he was heading in the right direction this time! He was ashamed to admit but he made a wrong turn one too many times. He saw the sunlight at the edge of the forest and stepped out of the forest and onto the cobblestone road a few hundreds of meters away from Westbrook.

“HEY YOU! STOP THEM!!”

He heard someone shouting his way, some distance away. He turned around to look at the person that was shouting and saw an adventurer, level 16, destroying a skeleton and chasing after a few more. They were heading towards Bones. He summoned his bone lance as skeletons ran past him, not giving him a glance. Adventurer was closing in with a confusion written on his face. “Why didn't they att…arghhh.” He was interrupted mid sentence as bone spikes appeared from the cobblestone ground, impaling his legs and pinning him in place. Stuck in place, a look of shock and panic appeared on his face as he looked at Bones.

“I don't like people shouting at me in caps.” Was what he heard before the lance took his head off and pierced the ground behind him. A headless corpse was left hanging, pinned by the spikes as Bones approached, searched his body quickly and turned to look at the skeletons disappearing behind the bend. Seems a lot happened in the few days I was gone. He turned in the direction of a town, seeing smoke behind the walls and continued walking.

In the distance, far enough to avoid being noticed, the dark elf was watching Bones as he stepped out of the forest, killed the adventurer, looted his body and continued walking towards the town.

Interesting prospect you’ve found, old man. She turned to look at her companion in disgust and motioned him to hurry up and left right after.

Bones entered the town and saw the bodies littering the pavement. Some bodies were still moving, crawling and growling. Are they zombies? A growling sound was heard from behind him. He turned around and saw a level 9 zombie in front of him, staring at him in confusion. Hm, they see me, maybe even sense me but don't seem to have any desire to attack me. He sensed someone approaching so he took out the sword from the inventory and with a clean cut, decapitated the zombie. He turned around and saw a group of adventurers approaching from the sideway alley. They met and exchanged greetings. Bones explained how he just got in town and didn't fully understand the situation. A bronze ranker leading the group, one of the few left alive, explained briefly what he knew and told him to report to the guild for further instructions. Bones nodded and said his goodbyes. The attack came far sooner than I thought it would. Now then, what should I do? He looked at the street leading to the square and adventurers guild and then in the direction of the western district. First thing first. The guild could wait, he had a favor to repay to Vol and Horus.

Streets leading to the alleys and warehouses were empty apart from the few corpses he spotted here and there. He noted a trail of ice still lingering on the ground and the frozen bodies of the zombies. He would peek around the corner when he would hear voices and find a different path to avoid meeting more adventurers. He didn't need someone asking him questions. The alleys were deserted as he walked the alley, one after another until he came upon a scene. In front of him was a mangled corpse of Horus, without arms and legs. His face was bitten into and he was barely recognizable. A bloody trail was leading from his corpse to his other leg, a few meters behind in a pool of blood and the pavement smeared in blood and what he recognized were bits and pieces of organs, skin, even bones. To the side of the street were cracked and half crumbled walls of a building and from the hole in one of the walls, he could hear the heavy sounds of breathing.

He neared the hole and went to take a peek when a hand came crashing through, widening the hole and punching him in the skull! He staggered back, his eyes looking at the fist in front of him. Slowly the hand receded inside the hole and a red eye peeked, looking at Bones. Growl was heard and then the head smashed through the hole, crumbling the wall and zombie Vol stepped out of the building. “Well well well, you must be Vol. I've finally…” a*grrrowl* interrupted him. Zombie Vol had no sense of etiquette and rushed Bones who sidestepped and avoided his grasping hands. He summoned bone spikes but the zombie was unphased as it went through the spikes to reach him, leaving pieces of muscles behind. Bones back paddled and the zombie followed. They went back and forth for a while when the zombie finally stumbled down and couldn't stand up anymore. After numerous bone spikes, the muscles on the zombie's leg were torn apart and there was nothing left to support its body. It didn't stop it from crawling towards Bones. “Such a shame. I was actually looking forward to killing you myself.” He sighed and used bone spikes one final time to finish off the zombie Vol. A prompt appeared notifying him of gaining a tiny amount of experience. Waste of time.

He searched the two buildings but found nothing of value. “Well shit. Trevak and Guntar then?” He headed towards the brothels but they too, were mostly empty. A few adventurers he stumbled upon and couldn't avoid, told him the majority were evacuated while they were dealing with the remnants of the undead. Warehouse areas were occupied by the guild members, searching the warehouses and standing guard. What are they searching for? Guntar? Probably left the moment shit went sideways. They should know this by now but they're still searching for something. Bones decided he would try and get into one of the warehouses and see what they were searching for.

Using his master distraction techniques he picked up the small pebble and threw it as far as he could. The clang of a pebble hitting a pavement distracted the guard long enough for Bones to get near the large warehouse and silently enter without being seen. The guard picked up a pebble, puzzled, looked around, then the roofs of the buildings. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he shrugged and went back to guarding the warehouse. Inside, Bones was looking around the warehouse but hadn't found anything useful to the guild. Why the guard, if there's nothing here? Is the guard getting pranked? He didn't seem like the sharpest one. Bones musings were interrupted by the sudden voices and they were getting louder.

“Like I said, we need to report the findings and report that almost everyone left in a hurry, leaving the merchandise behind. There must be thousands of stones left behind.“

“Get a vice leader to come here herself.”

Bones watched as two guild members exited from behind the cargo in one corner of the warehouse. After they left, he sneaked behind and looked around but found nothing! A hidden entrance? How exciting! He started moving the cargo and below the empty barrel, found a hatch. Lifting the hatch open he saw the ladders leading down below. He smiled and entered, closing the hatch behind him. The way led deep underground where he found two more guards at the entrance to an underground hangar. He contemplated how he should go about this until it just clicked. It was so easy, there was no need to go around when he could just go straight through!