Sarah felt her face burn, she tried to distract herself by briefly wondering if her face looked like a tomato, her shame was only magnified as both boys averted their eyes from her newly revealed assets, specifically the chest area.

She held her arms across them, covering what she could.

"You okay?" Eian's concern was spoken to the darkness, as he had his face averted.

He strove, with considerable effort, to speak while not looking at her.

"No! It. Fell. On. ME!" Sarah scowled, she felt anger was burning more and more naturally in her now.

"We got it off." Eian smirked but he sounded nervous, he liked to make fun of people's misery apparently.

"Ughrrg. Shut. Up." Sarah coughed as Alex tended to her, he was only half here though, mentally at least.

"Where is she?" Alex was getting repetitive, that made him even more annoying.

Mentally rolling her eyes Sarah easily concluded Alex was worried for Jessica, whom was probably nearby safe and sound, hoping they died killing monsters or something.

She'd given up on Jessica, next time she did something stupid, which even slightly irritated her, Sarah would give her part of her mind...or torch her to ash, to hell with Alex, she'd heal herself if she had to.

Speaking of Alex, he was getting more annoying asking about their missing 'teammate'.

"Where do you think she went?" Alex scanned the darkness, eyes wide and attentive to his goal.

"I. Don't. Care." Sarah bared her teeth in pain, he had just patched up her left side, most of which was injured when the Tree-monster fell on her.

"......I'm sure you're good at that." Alex's face twisted in disapproval, he wasn't looking at her though.

"OH!? Rrrgg....You! YOU just make it sooo easy." Sarah bit her tongue, before she said anything else.

Sarah closed her eyes and calmed herself, Alex and his stupid obsession had brought her to unparalleled heights of rage.

She tried to distract herself pondering her past again, so strange....she'd hardly thought of her past during this time, but now she was getting nostalgic....well she was also trying to distract herself....from her current disgrace.

She remember how she'd learnt how to deal with anger, she'd been a spoiled brat as a child, causing problems all the time, especially for her parents.

She would cry, scream and moan for anything, toys, sweets, soda, food....one day her mother had enough after she had stolen money from her father's wallet to 'secretly' buy...something, why couldn't she remember what it was?

The first scolding she could remember had left her humbled, ashamed and depressed, a sudden thought wormed it's way into her mind, Sarah scowled with disgust: Jessica reminded her of herself as a kid.

"JESSICA!!! That thing's dead! Come back!" Alex shouted out to the darkness.

"Shut! UP!" Sarah growled at the idiot, he could attract more monsters.

Eian helped her sit up, all the while averting his eyes, she was feeling much better now, at least physically, her dignity was shattered.

'A shirt, please send a shirt.' The prayer set a scowl on her face again, the stupid burning tree had fallen on her then burnt the remains of her upper-clothing.

Both Eian and Alex didn't have one so they couldn't even lend her a shirt, all Eian had was a rigid breast-plate which wouldn't even squeeze her bosom in.

Then again, painful discomfort might be a small price to pay for dignity, she was torn between asking and pretending she wasn't half naked from the waste up, neither of the boys had mentioned it, though they both looked slightly uncomfortable, nowhere near how she felt however.

Her mind set to work as she remembered the packs Eian held, those would cover her....at least enough to make her feel less...exposed.

"Eian, where did you leave the packs?" Sarah spoke slowly trying not to break the uneasy-unspoken truce they had: to not speak about her being half-naked of course.

"What?" Eian spooked slightly, jerking in surprise.

Briefly Eian turned to look at her eyes, which quickly widened in surprise, before turning away swiftly again, she grit her teeth....urgrh....the pervert.

"Ah!...Ummm sorry, I'll....just go get it. Alex, you with me?" Eian looked to the absent sky and his neck strained to remain stiff and rigid.

"Yeah! Totally man. Jess might be around too." Alex nodded quickly as both of them marched away away from her awkwardly.

Sarah rubbed her fore-head while covering her...bountiful assets, this was not how she'd imagined herself after a victory.

Eian walked towards her slowly, he was staring at the sky with eerie focus, Sarah sighed, the darkness probably covered up most of her anyways, so him averting his eyes was probably courtesy.

Her emotions warred within her chest, part of her wanted to scream at the indignity, another part wanted to cower in the darkness, she let neither rule her, she was in control and she would remain calm despite...this, and emerge stronger for it.

She tried not to let her joy show as Eian 'accidentally' tossed the emptied pack at her, she struggled but she managed to poke her head and arms through the bottom.

Honestly she looked ridiculous, but given the circumstances she could almost weep from joy, she finished by fastening the roped around her body, tightening her new 'shirt' around herself to be comfortable.

Her brief experience with joy swiftly died as she beheld ahead of her, Alex was walking towards her with a bloody Jessica following him at a short distance, they both looked somber.

Sarah sighed, she desperately hoped those two stayed far apart, together they'd be a nightmare to deal with at the moment.

"We have a problem man." Alex grimaced distastefully, he was looking at Eian.

Sarah frowned, she'd preferred a bit of good news right now instead.

Alex was worried though and Eian was looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"What's up?" Eian's half-smile turned upside down.

"Jess killed a few monsters over there." Alex looked uncomfortable as he pointed at a distance past the illuminated field.

"How many?" Sarah demanded, great...after one monster...more monsters, just great.

"I counted three of those people-reptile-things. She was bleeding." Alex grimaced.

Sarah closed her eyes, she was feeling the beginnings of a migraine, briefly she shot a look at her markings.

Sighing, she realized she didn't have another upgrade yet, bottle-necks were such a huge pain in the neck.

She didn't keep track, but she had killed numerous things since her last round with Adara, which surprisingly wasn't too long ago, a few hours at most.

She wanted nothing more than to go home and leave these people to deal with their own problems, she'd had enough of all this pressure and the anxiety would leave her gray prematurely, as the anger drained out of her she felt......weak somehow.

"Told you guys, I felt bad about this place." Eian was gruff as he gently massaged his left bicep.

"Let's just leave." Sarah sighed, she was feeling exhaustion like a blanket, more so than she'd ever felt here yet.

Sarah let Alex lead the way, she didn't care where they went right now, she was feeling the chill of the midnight wind now, it had been blowing somewhat heavily the whole time, abating only slightly for moments.

Still her molten blood burned with inner heat, comfortably warming her, it felt strange, being cold outside but fiery inside.

She held fire on her open palm, lighting up everything on her right side, granting everyone a clear view of their surrounding as they moved.

Sarah gazed at the dancing fire on her palm, it flickered on the blowing breeze, but she didn't let it gutter out.

They kept constantly moving and Sarah paid no heed to it, the breeze soon quieted slightly.

"Guys...I hear some noise now." Eian broke her out of her reverie.

"What?" She looked at him dumbly.

"Where? What kind man?" Alex paid vivid attention.

"All over. Wait... I think, behind us." Eian frowned deeply and turned at the same time, alerted to the darkness, Sarah blinked and snapped out of her fugue.

Sarah blinked then the pieces started to fall in place, that shadow monster had been weak to Alex's life energy.

They had just left a city full of vampires and undead, some used death magic and suddenly she grew alarmed.

The wind had just 'coincidentally' been blowing hard enough to hamper Eian's hearing, she could use magic from other branches, nothing stopped the undead from doing the same, wind magic!

Vampires could fly, thus cover ground much faster than them, the mindless undead could likely run full speed none stop too, they'd wasted too much time already.

The undead leader had done something, a tracking spell maybe? Maybe the shadow monster was a scout? Or a vampire had flown over-head and spotted them? So many possibilities.

'Ugghhrrrg! I feel so stupid!' Sarah grit her teeth and a familiar heat rose up and pushed the nights chill away, leaving her literally boiling from rage.

"Let's go. NOW!" Sarah looked for somewhere to go.

Then she saw Eian had drawn an axe and was holding it in a stance, she opened her mouth but she realized her deduction was too late.

A monstrosity was shambling out of the dark, it was stitched together from two wolves....and a bear, chunks were missing, bones were jutting out as spikes and its three heads lolled their tongues at the sight of them.

Sarah took a step back, more thoughts flared through her head at the possibilities, but as soon as she'd thought it another shambling horror appeared, this one was three wolves.

The situation was becoming more grim, were the undead swarming the forest?

"Holy. Fuck." Eian blurted, and for once Sarah couldn't find any words that described their situation better.

"Kill those and let's leave! Alex shoot magic at them! Eian defend us if one gets too close!" Sarah barked as she formed a fire-bolt.

"Roger!" Alex formed a bolt of energy and threw it at the first monstrosity.

The bear-wolf horror charged and ignored Alex's spell even as it impacted one of it's head, the head came apart at the neck, falling and leaving the monster with two heads.

Sarah threw her fire at the monster setting it aflame, Eian received the monsters impact head-on attempting to defend them, the impact sent him careening sideways, as though he'd been run over by a car, it pounced at him.

Wincing slightly Sarah felt bad for Eian, if they weren't there he would have probably dodged the attack, instead of protecting them.

The monster tried to gore Eian, even as the other three-headed wolf charged, Sarah fueled lightning and caught the undead wolf-Cerberus, it hit the ground hard, twitching it gurgled at her.

Sarah focused and fueled the lighting channeling out on one-hand, them she tossed her awareness to energy conversion.

Drip, drip, drip, her energy slowly pooled through the multiple necks of her hour glass image, to her it felt like an eternity but intellectually she knew it was a second or two.

Soon her new spell manifested, an exact copy of Alex's life spell, she threw it at the monster on the floor catching one of the incapacitated monster's three faces, dead straight.

The head went still, one of it's eyes fell out it's socket, and the remaining two head's bared their teeth as they gathered up their body to attack, a spear flew true but only penetrated inches into it's hide before bouncing off, Sarah turned and saw Jessica throw a bolt of darkness at the monster.

"NO!" Sarah screamed.

The bolt hit another of the monsters head and did nothing, Sarah sighed at least nothing bad happened: like reviving the only dead head.

Focusing Sarah did another conversion even as the beast threw itself at Sarah, she threw the spell of life at the monster catching another face dead on.

She tried to toss herself to the side, but the creature was already on her, it's weight crashed into her and sent her flying for an instant.

Bang, the worst migraine of her life came alive, a massive pounding of drums beat down on her ears and she saw the final head of the monster bare it's teeth and spring forth.

Sarah close her eyes for an instant as she heard flesh tear, blood splattering and bone giving way.

Tentatively she opened an eye and beheld her greatest surprise yet, Jessica was on the floor, holding a spear into the last monsters head about a yard away from her.

Jessica withdrew her spear, got up and began stabbing all the skulls on the monster with wrathful vigor, the creature was already dead, well permanently dead and she kept stabbing.

"...don't tell me what to do." Jessica mumbled lowly, as if afraid to voice the insult.

Sarah narrowed her eyes, the bitch had the gall to act like she could do things on her own, one time, just one time and she was putting on airs.

'Ugh.' Sarah sighed, still she'd be dead without the crazy bitch, the indignity.

"I hate this fucking place." Eian grunted.

"Stay still man." Alex frowned at him.

Turning she saw Alex heal Eian from a few gashes he'd suffered from the other monster, it lay dead next to Eian, Alex had probably killed it, he was good at battling the undead at least.

Sarah marveled at Eian's skin, a monster that large should tear through flesh like jelly and all Eian sported were mere gashes, serious injuries if left unattended true, but still anyone else would be in critical condition...or more likely dead.

She couldn't deny a little envy, Eian was the least likely to be killed by an accident, shaking her head Sarah reminded herself that her strengths lay in offense not defense.

She was a loaded cannon, while Eian was an armored bunker, they had different strengths and weaknesses.

"Let's go before more show up." Sarah was up and feeling very uncomfortable, the ropes lashing the pack to her body bit into her.

"I'm up for that." Eian smirked, with blood matting his face, he looked unhinged.

Alex quickly tended to her injuries, speaking of Alex, Sarah wondered how low he was on energy, the night had been hectic so far.

Sarah summoned hotter flames, if those things were about she wanted to be able to see them from far.

Flapping sounds emerged from the sky loud enough for Sarah to look up....vampires.

Sarah tossed flames at one, incinerating the monster, five more swooped down almost instantly.

Alex's magic took one down quickly, it screamed as it thrashed and large pieces of it's body turned to ash as it died.

Sarah felt her reserves dwindle, she was perhaps more than half way through her well, grimacing she realized she wouldn't be able to keep using channeled spells, they ate up her reserves too quickly.

Mean-time Eian had charged and beheaded two and was began engaging the last one but Alex killed his opponent with a well-timed spell, Jessica had killed one easily a while ago and was watching them neutrally.

"Great, they found us." Sarah's mood soured further.

"...They're really after us?" Alex was staring blankly at the remains of the corpses.

"It's the only thing that makes sense." Sarah narrowed her eyes, was Alex that slow?

"Guys. Any ideas? I fucking hear more noises about." Eian was dour.

"Let's move." Sarah wasn't sure that would help them now though.

Sarah stayed silent as they moved, she too heard a few noises now, they were too low to distinguish though.

While thinking, Eian interrupted her thoughts soon.

"Incoming!....SHIT!" Eian alerted them.

The first thing she saw was a squadron of three vampires, they were in the air watching.

A small army of thirty animated skeletons was arrayed a good distance away and they approached along with a pair of stitched monstrosities, they were all staring blankly at them.

Sarah grit her teeth, she didn't want to engage in a big fight, but the option was taken when the skeletons charged, they were a good distance away but outrunning the tireless undead didn't sound feasible, especially with flying vampires.

Eian flew forward and began a massacre of skeletons, Alex helped him with magic and Sarah joined her attacks to the fray.

Sarah could see that Jessica was staying slightly ahead of her, but when a skeleton strayed too close, she attacked it with her spear, killing it as efficiently as possible.

The fighting raged on for less than a minute, but Sarah had a hard time keeping track of what was happening, she threw bolts of fire, healing and occasionally lightning all the while feeling her spirit deplete.

Eian was having a bit of trouble, he was surrounded by monsters and he'd tired himself out spiritually already, he couldn't use earth magic.

Sarah frowned and looked up at the observing vampires overhead, an idea blossomed in her mind, in all the works of literature she'd read, many sources claimed if you killed the creator the minions would die.

The question was if those minions were the creations of these vampires though, and if killing them would even work.

She took a deep breath as she saw one of the chimeric monsters tackle Eian, they ganged on top of him, her heart quickened, she had to do something!

"Eian!" Alex charged spraying magic recklessly, he wildly entered the fray.

Many monsters left Eian after he was covered in monsters and charged in their direction, Sarah and Jessica slowly retreated backwards, Eian wasn't going to die easily but the rest of them could.

Sarah looked up the the vampires and looked for the most important, she powered a bolt of lighting in her hand, the one in the middle was fully armored while the other two wore simple clothing, but it was hard to discern in the darkness.

The armor would probably even help her spell of electric-power inflict more damage, or so she hoped.

Praying Sarah aimed, two bolts were now in her hands and she simultaneously cast them at the figure, luckily both hit dead on.

"MASTER KALUSRA!" A vampire roared, the other hollered something incomprehensible.

Sarah readied herself to fight for her life as the remaining skeletons raced to her.

Half the monsters came apart, leaving only five charging at Sarah and her eyes widened.

'It worked!' Smiling she slugged lightning-bolts at the remainder of skeletons shambling at her, she caught three before her focus shifted to another concern.

Now attentive Sarah knew the two vampires would attack, Jessica easily downed the two skeletons remaining, Sarah had finished the other three after-all.

They were descending at her as missiles, inhaling sharply Sarah sprayed wild-fire at them, her scream was swiftly added to theirs as one collided unto her full force, a mass of confused moving images spiraled into her vision.

For a moment which spanned eternity the ground seemed to enjoy slapping her as they went rolling, she tried to use the burning vampire as a cushion, it wasn't much of one and she was forced to take her blows.

Sarah pushed off the flaming menace as their momentum slowed but she was still rolling on the ground in a tumble, her roll came to a slow halt, gingerly she felt the ground and scrambled to a knee before carefully standing.

Her head and vision were unsteady, the world seemed to spin in one direction then reset in a vicious cycle, she tried blinking it away as she slowly found her balance.

'My clothes!' Sarah looked at herself and quickly put out the few patches of flames on her 'shirt', it was really just an improvised sack with ropes but it protected her dignity.

Once the flames were out she felt the areas which would likely bruise, there were too many for her comfort, in the morning she'd have more black spots than a jaguar without Alex's help.

Her hips, head, arms, back and legs all felt more bruise than not, her head also felt like it was now home to a brand new bump.

Looking about she spotted the group assemble, Eian looked in a bad way, he had multiple thin lacerations and blood was everywhere, still she thought he might just look worse than he was because of the blood.

Alex himself was bleeding profusely and he was favoring one leg, limping slightly, both of those soon stopped as he neared and his gait straightened slowly, then eased off completely.

Sarah envied them a little, both of them took more serious injuries than her, but her stupid body was spun-glass, fragile and flimsy, those abilities Adara promised better come soon and she hoped they were worth the hassle.