I spent the next hour constantly scanning the tree line as well as any uneven ground or dark spots where someone could be sitting and watching carefully. In the end, I spotted two more people. Three in total were watching us.

Once I had sight of them, it was easy to figure out what exactly they were doing. Two of them were actually resting while a third was keeping watch. While that one was often moving a little, the other two were still as boards, and no one could sit so long without moving about to stretch their legs unless they were asleep.

“There’s a way out of this safely,” I looked at Lucas, “but I’ll probably have to kill some people.” If Jessica didn’t want to do it, then I wouldn’t share that burden with her. If I had to become something less-than-human in order to keep my people alive, then so be it.

I explained how my summoned warriors worked to Lucas, and then added the fact they were truly not living. That was the most important part, and Jessica had told me before that my skeletal squad did not show up on her radar. I found that odd, because while zombies were also not alive, and they did. Presumably, the difference was that zombies were a game-world monster but my summoned troops were an extension of me… or something like that.

It was impossible to be sure about the reason, but after testing in party and out of party, we had confirmed that Jessica couldn’t see my summoned undead. That meant it was possible to sneak them out undetected, especially if the person tracking us was among the three outside.

This was similar to the situation at my old workplace. I could maneuver my squad in the darkness and take care of these three. If the true tracker was asleep, they wouldn’t notice one of their comrades going missing. If it was the person that was awake… well that would be my first target.

The challenge lay in my ability to take out the watcher before he did something to wake the others. It was imperative that the other two remain asleep or this would turn into a fight and not the assassination I had in mind.

“Why do you think they’re waiting?” Lucas asked.

“Probably the same reason we are.” The moon only illuminated so much when darkness was everywhere. Fighting, running, or chasing in the dark was a nightmare. “The darkness is as dangerous an enemy as we are.”

I pointed out the window for Lucas, “See that building down there, right next to the patio steps? That’s where they are.”

“The awake guard?” he asked.

“Yeah.” It was a good place to hide. Completely engulfed in darkness and in such an odd position that even with more light, he would look like a trash bag or some patio decoration.

“Their back is to something solid and there are stairs to their left,” Lucas observed.

“Right, which means I can’t get behind him. He is mostly protected on the left side and anything going in from the right will be seen.” Beyond the edge of the house on that side was an open plot fully illuminated by the moon. For my skeletons to approach from there undetected was impossible.

“So the left is the only option then.”

“Yeah, taking advantage of the cover of the stairs, but the slightest movement in their peripheral vision is going to set him off, and my skeleton general isn’t exactly small.”

“So we need to keep their attention here then,” Lucas thought, “Why don’t I open the door? Take a walk outside?”

“That’s good, but I’m slightly worried that would make them think we’re making a run for it and they’ll wake the others.”

“Okay, so give them a good reason we went outside. Let’s just have Richard walk out and take a piss on the tree just off the patio. It will be enough to hold their attention and also understand Richard isn’t trying to escape.”

I ran the thought through my head a few times, and I couldn’t think of something more appropriate. If the guard woke up their sleeping comrades because one of us went outside to use the bathroom, they would probably get an earful.

“Let’s try that.”

“No, let’s not try that.” I heard Richard’s muffled voice from downstairs, “I heard my name, what are you conspiring about up there?” The voice grew louder as he came up the stairs. Lucas took the time to explain the situation to him. “So they’re out there then.” He grabbed his head. “Fucking religious crazy people man, this is not how humanity should respond to an apocalypse.”

“I didn’t bring up your name at random. They may attack, and your ability allows you to summon a shield on use out of thin air. No one else can go outside and act nonchalant while still being safe.” Lucas explained.

Richard inhaled loudly through grit teeth, “…Fucccking hell.” He groaned. “I’ll do it, how soon?”

“We wait one more hour,” I said, “Everyone but Alan should have a decent amount of sleep. After that we’ll double check with Jessica. This could all come crumbling down if they have more than what I’ve seen.” There were only so many windows, and the possibility I missed someone existed.

It wasn’t that unlikely that both exits were being watched; it was also possible there were people further back who hadn’t wanted to get too close: they couldn’t know for sure Jessica could track. There was also no denying that sneaking out eight people without being heard or seen was no easy feat, especially with how close that guard was.

I kept track on the three I could see for the next hour, and nothing untoward happened. The two remained sleeping while the patio guard remained awake. His fidgeting got less and less as he was clearly getting tired. Waiting had worked in our favor.

We woke Jessica up first, who definitely wasn’t happy about having her sleep interrupted. Even less so about my being up and about, “Mike… why are you out of bed?” Lucas and Richard immediately backed out of the room and I didn’t think it was out of fear of what they might hear.

“I promise I’m okay, but what I’m about to tell you is more important.” I reported what we knew about being followed and our plan for getting out of this mess for good.

“I can feel one person in range of my detection,” Jessica said, confirming that what I had seen with Necrotic Vision was a person. “Besides that… didn’t I talk about this earlier? Is there no other way?”

I couldn’t think of any other way. “Detaining him leaves the chance for him to yell out. If that scenario comes about, we will have more than we can handle on us. It might not just be these three. And every player brings something unknown to the battle. What if one of them can use telepathy and instantly alerts everyone else of our escape?” I didn’t know if telepathy was a skill, but it served as a solid example for my reasoning.

“Just that one then,” she said, “just the one in range and actually awake.”

I didn’t like it, but after I pause I agreed. “Okay.” I had planned to kill all three to be absolutely safe. Killing less people was my preferred choice too, but I just didn’t want our mercy to bite us in the ass in the future. “Just the one.” I promised. “Are you about ready Richard?”

“Ready when needed,” he replied.

I made for the stairs and found Jessica right on my tail. She placed her arm under mine. “Careful. We can’t escape if you break your neck, so don’t complain.” I made a face, but secretly enjoyed the considerate attention. That, and the steps truly were treacherous.

When we reached the ground floor I walked to the center of the room, stepping into a ray of moonlight that granted me a shadow. Without one, I couldn’t cast Vast Shadow to bring my undead squad into the world. I pulled them forth and my squad of skeletons appeared in the living room, nearly filling it. Lucas and Jessica moved to the staircase just to have some room.

Fortunately, the Demonic Goats had perished earlier or we might have made a large commotion. The other positive was none of my warriors had stepped on Alan who was still sound asleep, completely oblivious to what was happening.

I picked out my most trusted aide, the Zweihander-wielding general, and made the remaining skeletons open a path to the backdoor. The timing of this needed to be somewhat accurate.

Richard could only pee for so long, and in that time frame I needed to cross and approach from out of sight, and then initiate the execution. I reached the backdoor just behind my skeleton general and turned the knob. If there was a god on my side, he would surely make this door not squeaky or loud.

The back door opened without any issues, but the screen door was something straight out of hell. The hinges holding the frame were wobbly and barely screwed into the wood. I could tell from a glance it was going to squeal like a pig. Not only that, the pump was going to rip this thing back so fast you’d think Jessica would have shot it out of her bow.

“We might have a little problem,” I said. How could I tell them a screen door may have defeated us? Lucas and Jessica squeezed past my undead and examined the situation curiously. I grabbed the plastic handle and pushed the button and moved the door just an inch. The noise it made in that short movement was enough to put the crickets outside to shame. “Well, maybe I have a solution. Come hold it.”

Lucas and Jessica scooted forward and grabbed the door frame, both looking at me in confusion. “I just don’t want it to fall.” I said while raising my hand. I hadn’t case Decay since it had reached level three; I had tried during the Miscreation fight and nearly been impaled.

The lack of cast time it had in the skill description was something I wanted to test. How would that work? Was it just instant cast now? I aimed at the top hinge and cast. In that moment I felt Decay flow from me and then stop, but the feeling it gave me was odd. It felt nothing like it had when using the spell before.

I cast again, and this time I held the thought. To my surprise, Decay didn’t stop. Instead, it was as if I was channeling an ability. The wooden frame began to age and peel and crack until it was splitting off the frame, even the screw that was originally half-in started to rust and break apart. Eventually, the screw melted out of the decayed frame and clacked into the wooden back steps.

Everyone froze, and didn’t even dare to breathe. The ageing of the screen hadn’t been that loud, but sound traveled on such a quiet night. “Did he move?” I asked Jessica.

“No, he hasn’t,” she said.

I let out a sigh of relief and then marveled at how much faster Decay worked now. Even better was that the MP consumption was half the cast if I just kept channeling it. It cost less and worked faster: an amazing upgrade.

Before, casting Decay created a gradual change that you could only see from one cast to the next. Now it was just a constant withering of whatever substance it touched. The wood deteriorated in real time and the frame and screw rusted as if aging dozens of years in a few seconds.

It was now easy to take the screen off its hinges. Lucas caught it before any noise was made and lowered it quietly to the side. I took that opportunity to look out the backdoor and move to where I could see the building against which the enemy scout was sitting. It was just fifteen or twenty feet away and there were no obstacles that my skeleton general needed to go through to get there.

He needed to cross the open ground unseen, and then approach as far as the stairs under cover. Ideally, he would then inflict a swift and painless death. I instructed him to walk down the porch steps, which was awkward for him. The ground outside was a mixture of dirt and grass, and his boney feet made no noticeable noise.

I walked him slowly to the edge of the building and had him wait. “Whenever Richard’s ready.” I whispered back over my shoulder, “he can be flashy about it, too.”

Lucas nodded and moved through the rows of skeletons to the front room. I could hear their mumbling.

A moment later, the front door opened violently as Richard fumbled out. He burped so loudly, that I wondered if this was practiced or if he was just showing his true colors. He walked two steps onto the patio and gazed into the distance—nothing out of the ordinary, just having a look.

As soon as he stopped moving, I urged my skeleton general to cross the short gap between buildings and position himself against the wall, out of sight. This wasn’t supposed to be the most difficult part, so when my skeleton general suddenly tripped on a root and tumbled to the floor, I wanted to scream.

Don’t get up! That thought boomed in my mind, and no doubt my Skeleton General received it loud and clear. His instinct when falling to the ground was always to instantly get back up and fight, but lying on the floor there would probably save us from having to start a blood bath. He was large and had no doubt made some noise, but to see him the guard would have to fully stand up and look over the stairs he was perched behind.

I prayed for his drowsiness in that moment. Please be so tired and lazy you don’t care enough to stand up and look. My heart was in my throat as I expected any second for the guard to yell out. Ten seconds passed in pure silence and then I gave Jessica a look that said ‘go tell Richard to do something.’

She raced back through the house as quietly as she could, and then I heard Richard mumble something and then tumble on the floor. His acting was impressive, and I used that moment to stand the general up slowly and cross the gap. After that, Richard started to relieve himself as planned.

I rushed to the second floor as fast as my bad leg would let me, and glided up the treacherous stairs. From here I could see the watcher clearly and would be able to tell if they were doing anything fishy. My skeleton general now had a target and was instructed to move slowly towards him.

Against the building, my general was fully engulfed in its shadow, barely noticeable: he could only be seen if the guard fully stood and turned around. Being so low and right next to the patio was a double-edged sword. They were hard to spot, but it made watching to their left impossible.

My general was just a few feet away when the watcher suddenly stood up. It didn’t seem like they turned around or heard anything but was instead preparing to alert the others who were sleeping. That or complain it was his turn to get some sleep.

I gave the instruction to kill right then, and as if timing was on my side. The guard was fully turned away from the general, and before he could even scream out a blade almost as thick as his neck passed from the back of his body to the front. The lifeless body slid off that blade like a doll and slumped to the ground. I forced myself to watch as that orange hue faded to nothing.

“Got him; wake the others.” Lucas started to wake those still sleeping. Their bodies shook and their eyes showed fear as they woke. The thought of being hunted was on everyone’s mind. Stomping it out now would save us from many sleepless nights, “We’re leaving in five minutes.” I said.

Jessica came up the stairs a moment later, “Is it done?” she asked. Presumably, she just was making conversation. She would have seen the marker for that person disappear from her tracking ability.

I gave a nod, “Have the other two guards moved?”

“No, they haven’t moved at all,” Jessica replied.

“Were we followed?” Maria asked while rubbing her eyes.

“We were, but we’ve taken care of it,” I answered. “We need to move quickly though.”

Alan was the last one to wake, and since most of us slept dressed, we were ready to go in under five minutes. “We take the backdoor and follow the fence as far as we can.” I held the door open for everyone and when they were all through, rushed to the dead watcher’s body.

It was a perfectly good corpse and half my skeleton warriors were currently dead. “At least you can become something.” I held my hand and cast on the lifeless body. My squad repopulated around me and then vanished as soon as I stepped into the moonlight and cast Vast Shadow.

There was a bag on the ground there too that I hadn’t seen from the upstairs window. I picked it up and realized it was the dead man’s entire inventory. There was no time to check it now so I rushed back to the others. The root my skeleton general tripped on almost caught me as well; fortunately, given my bad leg, I stopped from tumbling over.

A pain shot through my thigh as I put all my weight on it. It was too dark for anyone to see my near fall, thankfully, and I quickly caught up with them all.