Alyssa Nightraven, The First Challenger (A) Lvl 7

Alyssa blinked away the slew of notifications that crowded her vision, determined to prove their importance. At some point she had determined that all the messages the System provided were largely what one would refer to as “filler text”. So she’d become quite adept at ignoring them. Having cleared her vision of the persistent notifications she was rather stunned to see that the rest of her party still stood. The press of Navajo Raiders abated, though the sounds of battle could be heard further down the street.

When she came around the corner to investigate she was further shocked to see several of the Faceless mages, Spider-woman archers and Imp infantry pressing a large group of Raiders to the south. To the North, she was less surprised to just barely make out Eli, atop Felix, leading a charge of coyote and mountain lion cavalry straight through the Raider lines. Even less unexpected were the battle junkie Valkyr devastating the eastern flank from the air. The deputies from Flagstaff and recon teams that had been out hunting that bastard Tracy, were harrying the Western flank respectively.

The Raiders, finding themselves the subject of their own encirclement, attempted to break out. Unfortunately for them, Eli had managed to maneuver and time all of his elements to prevent any major grouping of Raiders from escaping the slaughter.

With this in consideration, Alyssa decided it was enough for her and her team to now take a breather and watch the “festivities”. As she and Lulu walked exhaustedly back to where her team had taken up post to watch the battle that raged around them, Alyssa had a sudden grim realization. Shit! Who the hell are we going to leave in charge of the town!? “Fuck!”

Her party acknowledged her approach as she swore, Choox’il looking on with particular concern, “What is it, Challenger? We have somehow managed to win the day, why such a forlorn look?”

Alyssa looked up from her thoughts in exasperation, “I just realized there’s not a damn person in this town that I would trust to manage the city. And I for one don’t intend to miss going to Phoenix when Karl finally returns!”

Choox’ il and Feodr chuckled at her outburst, “I think Johnny is en-route to speak with the village elder. I’m sure they will sort something out.” Feodr offered while Brondwyn and Dany watched the battle wind down from atop the General Store.

Alyssa sighed with relief, “Good.”

They watched as soon the Raiders closest to their position had either thrown down their weapons in surrender or continued to fight to their final breath. A trio of coyote riders broke through the quickly thinning enemy lines. Right behind them Eli followed, identifying current threats against those that had given up the fight. Felix took the opportunity to fling a man across the road with a jerk of his powerful jaws who’d not realized the fight was essentially over. Eli just glanced indifferently at the man as he ragdolled against a building wall, then locked eyes on Alyssa with a smile.

“My girl, you sure know how to get in the middle of it, don’t you!?” He boomed as he slid off Felix’s back. The trio of riders that led him through the enemy lines went about further securing the perimeter and restraining the Raiders that had the sense to surrender.

“I got impatient.” She snapped back, then lowered her eyes in a small bit of shame, “Sorry.”

He looked at her carefully and shifted his gaze studiously to the dead Raider leader lying bloody in the street, “Well, it worked out in the end. And honestly, you provided a solution to a problem that would have eventually come around to bite us in the arse.”

After a few more short words shared between the two, Eli returned to directing the forces of Winslow as contingents of Valkyr and Daemon closed the gaps, running down errant Raiders that had still not realized they were beaten. With another hour having passed Alyssa noticed that the two beast people her team had liberated had grown by several dozen. The beaver woman that she’d initially rescued was currently organizing the bedraggled and wayward group of refugees.

I really need to get her name, she thought as she watched the proceedings while the sounds of battle began to recede into the distant background. Eventually the woman caught her watching and cautiously approached her.

“Challenger, I wanted to thank you. What you’ve done today… I…”, tears formed in the woman’s eyes before she brought a furry clawed hand up to her face to wipe them clear. She took a moment to steel her emotions, then continued, “Well, we are all very grateful. My name is Delilah, by the way.”

Alyssa smiled, something she rarely had done in the last couple of weeks, “I’m Alyssa. Alyssa Nightraven. I’m sorry we hadn’t helped sooner. I had no idea… I… no. I know what kinds of bastards my people can be.” Her smile faded as shame flooded her thoughts.

Delilah cut in quickly, “Well, that doesn’t seem completely true. You came along, after all.” A toothy grin spread across the beaver-woman’s face.

“Uh… thanks. Ummm, have you collected all of your people?” Awkwardness flushed Alyssa’s face as the remaining beast people gathered behind their representative and stared at her with a kind of reverence.

“No, we would wait for your warriors to finish securing the city before we reclaim our own. It seems the fight has left these people, though to be honest, they weren’t particularly mean spirited.”

Old Johnny appeared atop Brother Coyote’s back just as the pair were wrapping up their conversation, “Young Raven, it is good to see you well. Although, I suspect the Elder is not as happy as I am at your presence.”

Another rare smile spread across Alyssa’s face, “JOHNNY!”, she squealed and ran to hug the man as he dismounted his soulbound companion. Brother Coyote was the first of the soulbound coyotes, though he never assumed the Alpha position. Like Johnny, he was held in esteem for being the oldest and wisest of his pack. He padded over to Lulu and the pair exchanged greetings in the way all canines did, then laid down together in the shade of the two story general store that had become the team's holdout.

“Ah, there’s the old bastard. Looks like I have work to do.” He disengaged from Alyssa’s fierce embrace as he saw an older native gentleman step out of a large building further down the street and wait silently. Soon the two men had exchanged proper greetings and disappeared into the building the man had stepped out of. Alyssa knew that inside, Johnny would perform a ceremony of some type that she’d never cared to learn about, then the two men would come to an agreement on how the city would be managed henceforth.

With her task complete, she sat against Lulu’s warm flank and rested her head in the large coyote's fur. With eyes cast up to the sky she wondered to herself, I wonder how Karl is doing?

Karl Brunette, Merciless Reaper of the Foolish (A) Lvl 8

After the fight with the horror, the team stood silently behind Stephen as he considered what to do with Courtney’s remains. He had snatched what remained of her head and body at the beginning of the fight and stashed them in the forest. Now he stood over her with a tear streak faced. I figured it was best to give him a bit to sort this out. He did so an hour later, instantly incinerating her remains with a quick usage of [Sol’s Touch]. After which he marched off in the direction of the city.

We stared at the charred space several dozen meters wide offering our silent parting thoughts to the dead. Shortly after Stephen stalked off, we rushed to catch up to him. Carly and myself walked some distance to his left. Albert gently stepped alongside the grieving man and placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. Softly whispered words were spoken by the older man, and then he fell back to cover our rear as we marched forward.

Stephen’s demeanor slowly shifted to something more normal as he wiped his eyes and face dry from the tears he was attempting to hold back. We soon reached the edge of the city once again, stepping onto a wide avenue that looked like it would take us most of the way to our destination.Of course, it appeared the undead were congregating in thick clusters along our projected path of travel.

“Looks like we fight from here on out. Lean on your Skills and limit your Ability usage til we reach this Lich.” I directed, knowing this should end up being our worst fight yet. A chorus of tense acknowledgement resounded from what remained of our party.

We charged forward through the ranks of the undead. Spells of ice, fire, and gravity clearing our flanks as the chatter of my AK in Albert’s hands mowed down the stragglers in front of us. I swept forward with axe and pistol, driving the spearpoint of our formation unswervingly towards the Show Low City Hall.

I scanned the city around us using the new vision modes provided by the loot I’d earned from killing the Horror.

Operator's Tech Mask (A) Rare

[+50 Armor]

[+50 Perception]

[+50 Intelligence]

[+35% Kinetic/Concussion Absorption]

Ability: Air Filtering

Modification Slots: 1/3

Slot 1: N-Tec Vision Modes; Night Vision and Thermal

Slot 2: Empty

Slot 3: Empty

This was the first equipment I had earned with Modification Slots, and I can’t say I wasn’t a little excited at filling the rest of those empty slots. What can I say, I like to fill slots. From what I understood from Veep, modifications run the gamut of everything imaginable and generally extend the life of the equipment in question. It also seemed that the mask was part of a gear set, though the details of what bonuses were available were yet hidden.

It also looked even more badass than my signature Punisher’s Ballistic Mask. The new headgear resided in a thick collar that snapped around my neck. As in every cool Sci-fi movie of the past 20 years, when I pressed a button on the side, it expanded to fit snugly and comfortably around my entire head. The end result resembled a mashup of the Scorpion or Sub Zero mask on the bottom with Sam Fisher’s night vision goggles across my eyes. Instead of the green glow of contemporary night vision, these glowed a faint red. Hard plates formed around the back and top of my head to provide impact protection.

Unlike modern night vision goggles, the seven optic points provided a normal range of vision. Four optics spread horizontally across my face, while a single lens was placed on the center of my forehead, like a cyclops. Two more were placed above each cheek bone, just below the eye socket. Carly commented that in the dark I would look like one of the demons we had fought in the past few days.

The night vision mode was fairly standard. The world was instantly painted in shades of green, though the clarity was far superior to anything I had ever used in my previous life. Flicking to the Thermal mode I was disconcerted to find that the majority of the enemies in front of me washed out in a blur of muddy orange as the only heat they radiated was that provided by the hot Arizona sun. I flicked back to normal and continued leading our assault on the army of undead in front of us.

The poison that prompted us to give up our living mounts was still present, though it was now patchy and thin. I suspected that the whole scenario was set up to feed off the individual encounters. As we defeated each, the efficacy was reduced. The only place where the poison gas was thickest was around the City Hall building where the Lich was supposed to reside. The final guardian to claiming the City Core.

As we approached the municipal building the legions of undead thinned, either by some dark decree, or the relentless amount of firepower we brought to bear on the horde.The green fog thickened until we couldn’t see more than a dozen feet in front of us, causing us to slow our pace as we cautiously pressed forward. We suddenly stepped through a wall of fog into the former parking lot of the former City Hall.

I say former because what stood before us, shrouded in the poisonous mist, looked more like a medieval redoubt. The fortification was constructed of shiny black bricks the size of a small sedan, stacked so tight that the cracks were barely visible in the gloomy lighting. There was no obvious way to enter the building, and rising to nearly three stories tall it wasn’t going to be an easy climb without proper handholds. I was pretty certain that myself and Keeg could jump up there, Carly and Stephen could each manipulate their own elements to scale the wall easily enough. Though what trick Albert was going to use eluded me.

“Thought there was only supposed to be one of these undead fuckers.”, Albert stated flatly, looking at the top of the dark palisade as three skull-faced figures peered down at us.

The lead Lich didn’t give us time to assess the situation as it started charging an attack that flowed through the thick bone white staff it held in it’s right hand. Green energy built to a blinding white light that lashed out to strike the ground in the middle of our formation. Everyone dove away from the attack as it descended in the blink of an eye. I tilted my head up with pistols drawn to find my target when the undead monster released a horrible scream that staggered me.

Pain shot through my mind and settled at the tips of my nerves as it’s horrific scream seared my body in white hot torment. The scream ended and I found myself gasping for air. I felt something wet dribble down my chin inside my mask. That’s not good. Mother fucker!

The Lich mage stared down at me and snarled, as if it could hear my thoughts. Then the other two leapt in opposite directions to face my party. When I looked around for them I found that a thick barrier of poison mist had risen up around me and the Lich Mage, isolating me from my team. The density of which was such that I was unable to see or hear anything through it. MOTHER FUCKER! So you wanted to isolate us. That’s fine.

I picked myself up off the ground from where I had rolled away from its initial attack and took a good look at my opponent for the first time. The Lich was pretty atypical fantasy fare. Stark white skull, wrapped in an ethereal black cloak. The staff it carried looked like it was carved from the femur of a great and ancient beast. The Lich’s glowing green eyes radiated unadulterated malice. Even standing at my full seven and a half foot height I could tell the Lich had at least another foot on me, and that was if it was actually touching the ground. No, this fucker floated.

“Alright, bitch. Let’s do this!”