Shocked gasps escaped from the crowd as the newly recruited Gunners started gossiping in hushed tones. They had been hearing plenty of rumors over the past few days about necrophages roaming the lands in broad daylight, and what this man blurted out before collapsing only made them more anxious. The Veterans, however, remained calm. Most of them thought the villager was delirious from his injuries and exhaustion and did not know what he was talking about. But Lord Sebastian and Aurelia knew something terrible had happened. “Move out of the way!” Lord Sebastian exclaimed aloud. “And don’t panic.” “I got this.” Flavius pushed through the crowd as it parted and made way for him. The other Elders slowly followed suit. Flavius crouched and sat beside the wounded man. He then carefully touched the man’s forehead with his right thumb and ring finger and uttered an ancient elven incantation. Seconds later, the tips of his fingers started glowing and emitting a pale green light. As
Jasenki and Iraka headed for Ishani’s shrine to enlist the help of the Goddess' chosen priests while the other Gunners followed Abigor to the training arena to hone their skills inside two training dungeons especially prepared by the Elders. The necrophage infestation around Ashgrove had already been cleared and even the villagers weren’t there to stir trouble. Jasenki and his partner were tasked with cleansing the deserted village and investigating the place to find clues about the whereabouts of the missing villagers. However, Ezra and Aurelia had a far more challenging task on their hands. Instead of being sent to a deserted village, they had been tasked with ridding Dewdale of the undead and putting an end to their dark ritual. Since Ezra had already fought the undead before, he knew it would be suicide to go in unprepared, so he first headed to the clan’s private library to learn more about the different classes of undead and the weapons and spells most effective against them.
Aurelia climbed on top of her spotted white stallion while Ezra mounted his chestnut brown one. The townsfolk steered clear as the Romanov siblings rode across town, heading for the western gate. As the two reached the western wall bordering Aranor, Flavius peeked from the watch tower and yelled, “The coast looks clear. No undead in sight.” Aurelia raised her thumb in acknowledgment and approached the gate, but Ezra seemed puzzled by the casual way in which Flavius shouted about the undead. “Shouldn’t we try to keep this a secret from the public at least?” he asked. Aurelia shook her head. “We have been hiding things from them for quite some time, but things are getting out of hand now.” “But Aranor is protected by Goddess Ishani, and the undead cannot tread upon hallowed ground,” Ezra retorted. “That used to be the case before Zepheroth was freed from his shackles, but now we cannot be so sure. The Lord of Decay is more than capable of corrupting these lands and weakening Ishani
Gunners were trained to hunt monsters and track down and eliminate rogue mages and sorcerers, but fighting the undead required special knowledge and skills possessed only by the witch hunters. However, the last witch hunters had hung up their boots over a hundred years ago when the last necromancers had been killed. Now, all that remained of the fabled merchants of death were their tales of adventure and their fading journals. No one would have expected the undead to come crawling back out of nowhere and blight the lands around Aranor, but Zepheroth’s awakening had unshackled the forces of evil. Left with no better options, Lord Sebastian had been compelled to send his own children to deal with the undead threat. No Prime Patriarch or Elder would even think about sending a newly inducted Initiate Gunner to fight a horde of undead, but Ezra had earned his badge of honor by killing a Behemoth. And with Aurelia by his side, he would always have someone to watch his back and pull him o
Aurelia wasn’t expecting to run into a Slasher when she entered the village since these ghouls were extremely rare and usually avoided leaving their dinghy hovels during daytime. While the smaller Corrupted Ghouls could easily be killed with a shot to the head or a few bullets to the chest, the Slashers could soak a good amount of damage. And what made them even more challenging to deal with, was their regenerative ability. Slashers were capable of feeding on decaying corpses to regenerate lost limbs and they could also grow additional armor plates and become beefier by consuming other ghouls. In fact, they were one of the few necrophages with extreme cannibalistic tendencies. However, when out of combat, these oversized ghouls preferred to prowl their hunting ground and feast on the leftover carcasses, sucking the marrow out of their bones and gorging on their intestines. The presence of a Slasher made Aurelia’s task much harder. Ezra could take out the smaller ghouls with his bo
Ezra rushed at the Skeletal Warriors and peppered them with Fireshot bullets. The mini explosions spewed magma all over their bones, shattering their ribs and turning them to ash. Although the Skeletal Warriors were highly resistant to fire due to the absence of a fleshy covering, the magma eruptions were hot enough to even melt bone and steel. Ezra continued firing without stopping, his enchanted bullets slowly thinning the horde. Since his magic power had peaked at 200% percent he did not have to worry about drinking potions as he could fire around 60 enchanted bullets before draining his magic power completely. While Ezra dealt with the dazed skeletons, Aurelia focused on the Slasher. She started off with Radiant Glory bullets and her enchanted nine-shot revolver empowered them with each new shot. Beams of golden light shot out from the barrel of her gun, pushing back the shadows and illuminating the surroundings. As they struck the Slasher, it tried to shield its vitals with i
Aurelia looked around her as a hoarse cackle echoed in the darkness. The Night Walker was nearby, but the blinding fog made it impossible to see anything through its shadowy veil. “Ezra! The Night Walker is close. Be on your guard!” she shouted to caution Ezra. “Where are you?” Ezra shouted back and tried to wade through the foggy cover to find his sister, but the inky darkness made it difficult to see anything. Even though Aurelia was only standing a few paces away, Ezra had lost all sense of direction in that darkness and wandered off like a lost lamb. “This does not bode well. Why did it have to be a Night Walker?” Marlin asked in a trembling whisper. Although the Gunsmith wasn’t afraid of monsters and mages, the undead always made him feel uneasy. He had already suffered enough at the hands of ghouls when the king’s court mages had tricked him and thrown him into an infested cave, and he did not want to relive his traumatic past. “Why would your dear father even send you out
Ezra had heard about necromancers raising the dead from their graves and even twisting corpses with dark magic to turn them into necrophages. However, he had never read about wild animals being transformed into the undead. The Night Walker had not only killed the brown bear but corrupted its body as well. Its flesh was now merely a husk of its former self, and the creature ambling toward them was nothing more than a walking corpse. However, the surprising thing was that the bear’s flesh had not started decomposing, and the only signs of decay were visible on its furry hide. Apart from that, the bear looked to be in great condition for a walking dead. As Ezra and Aurelia prepared their weapons, distant growls reached their ears. Dozens of blood-red eyes stared at them from the darkness, surrounding the village from all sides. Undead direwolves killed by the Night Walker joined the fray, ready to do their master’s bidding. They looked pale, and their fur was stained with blood, but