The Dead Will Hunt

What Sarek didn't notice, was the lizard's tail was in his arms. The stump behind his back end had a familiar cloth wrapped around it as best as the lizard could.

Onni didn't know if he cut it in time. He still wanted to head to Peregren, but now, he was angry. Now, more than ever, he wanted to kill undead.

"You know why I hate people so much?" he asked Sarek. "Politics. Even with all of this," he motioned with the tail in his arms, "people still fight each other. No one stops their bickering to deal with the problem. I've tried too often to fight off the undead, relying on others. They just end up turning their weapons on each other...

"What's the point of stopping the undead when we're no better. We're worse! We choose to act like this. That's why I hate everyone."

Onni stood up and started walking off.

"You don't have to worry about killing me. I'll go off and kill as many as I can. If I'm infected, then I'll turn into one of them, but far from you and having killed several of them before I turn."

Lucian was feeling a little better he still had the chill's and his side ached with every step but atleast he was moving only a few steps from behind her.

The air started getting muggy as the neared the swamp and bugs began getting thick in the air.

The beast was setting in slightly of course he was too drained of energy and too transform but his sent and his hearing was magnified. Lucian stopped for a moment catching his breath.

"W-W-Wait," he said to Oceana.

"Look," Lucian said surprised, there was not a zombie in sight, not a bag of meat shuffling across the ground not one!

"I can smell them, I can hear them. Sarek was right," Lucain began quicking his pace as glowing eyes began to poke there heads out from the swamp's waters.

"RUN!" he shouted as he began bolting holding his side with one hand.

Twisting and turning through the tree's the weeds, the muck not to mention the hidden undead everywhere. The couldn't get separated men have been known to go insane from entering the Swamps and getting out.

Lucian and Oceana, were running straight through them.

The...dead....were....hunting!

Oceana did just that, she ran and ran....not sure how far or fast, fear was her guide. She spotted it, an old flatdeck fishermans boat, she sprinted toward it, "here, hurry, we gotta try!"

she jumped onto it, skidding to a halt looking for a paddle, she found a thick branch and raked it across the water the boat lunged to the side....."HELP ME PADDLE, GRAB A BRANCH OR SOMETHING!!!" The boat moved slowly at first and then coasted along nicely across the water.

On a good day this would still be frightening, but with undead closing in...it was intense.

Hunger was setting in all this running, fighting and terror, Oceana was feeling weak with hunger. She risked a glance over at Lucian, wondering if they were heading for more terror or safety....

Onni Scaletail wrote:

"You don't have to worry about killing me. I'll go off and kill as many as I can. If I'm infected, then I'll turn into one of them, but far from you and having killed several of them before I turn."

"GET DOWN!" Sarek yelled tackling Onni from behind.

A zombie leaped over them.

"This isn't over yet," Sarek said, "we have to get out of here!"

Sarek and Onni turned to run the direction Lucian and Oceana were headed.

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Lucian and Oceana were running. Then Lucian saw it from the corner of his eye. It darted from the bushes. Then another. And another. And more and more and more.

Countless undead were chasing them only an arm's reach away.

"GO! GO!" yelled Sarek. He and Onni were faster because Oceana was tiring out and Lucian was injured. They were catching up.

"DON'T STOP!!!!!" Sarek yelled.

A pack of undead broke off from the larger group and turned on Sarek and Onni.

"OH SHIT!" Sarek yelled.

He split off from Onni, running as hard as he could.

The splish splash of the ground was getting worse. They were entering Toi Swamp.

Sarek could see Lucian and Oceana running from the horde off to his right.

"STAY AWAY FROM WATER! IF WE END UP IN WATER IT'S ALL OVER!" he yelled at them.

A zombie leaped tackling Sarek, both of them falling into a three foot deep standing pool of water.

Both splashed in the pool. Sarek pulled out a dagger but the zombie pounced on him and both went under.

Sarek was drowning. He stabbed up, his blade pushing through the front and out the back of the skull of the zombie.

Sarek shot out of the muddy water gasping for air.

One of the zombies was fast. Too fast. It moved in the blink of an eye, in front of Lucian.

"SPRINTER!" Sarek screamed at Lucian.

The Sprinter zombie zipped in front of Lucian clawing him across the face, knocking Lucian to the ground. Two zombies pounced on Lucian ready to feast.

After Sarek broke off from Onni, the lizard immediately released both bladed on both arms.

A sprinter jumped to tackle, but Onni made a swing in the air, snagging the monster's flesh with a blade and slamming it into the mud. With a quick stab through the nostrils, the leaper was done.

One regular infected grabbed Onni. It tried biting through Onni's fist, only managing to impale itself. Onni stabbed it through the gut for more leverage. Using the impaled zombie as a battering ram, he charged into the zombies trying to claw at Lucien. They weren't killed, but he managed to knock two living zombies into the water.

The sprinter was Lucien's problem. Onni turned his attention to other infected, using his blades to impale skulls and torsos; blocking and guarding.

It was almost as if they zombie was grinning at Lucian.

Lucian looked around trying to figure out a plan he then spotted water behind him, deep water. He took a deep breath and fell into covering the wound with his hand and Oceana's waist coat, who knows the kind of pathogens in this water.

Lucian held his breath the sprinter was feeling around the swamp looking for him splashing like mad. Lucian grasped his hands around a big rock and jumped up taking a breath he raised the rock high.

And brought it down with all his force knocking the sprinter to the ground. Lucian got on top of him and pounded into his face.

CRUNCH!

"FUCKING,"

CRUNCH!

"ZOMBIES"

CRUNCH!

with that last crunch blood sprayed Lucian in the face, he wiped his eyes and slowly stood.

So there the group was surrounded. Someone had to do something fast

Lucian and Oceana had gotten to a boat. however the zombies kept coming and they had to leave the boat for a moment. The last thing they wanted to do was have the horde all try to climb onto the small raft with them. So they ran, and eventually ended up in the same vicinity as Onni and Sarek.

Things were going from bad to worse. Onni was killing plenty of undead, but it almost seemed like for everyone he took out, three more replaced it.

The group, got back together and regrouped and ran toward the boat.

"Shouldn't have ever left my tree," Sarek said as they ran.

They made it to the boat. The zombies were roughly 20 yards behind them.

"Hurry hurry hurry," Sarek whispered helped shove the boat off. They all climbed on. The undead hit the water. The water wouldn't stop them. They just kept running, eventually sinking. Luckily the mud on the bottom held a good vast majority in place.

The group floated out to deeper water.

"Whew.....that was close, heh," Sarek said smiling.

"GROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The huge beast rose out of the water.

Toward the shore were the undead, hungry and waiting. And in the water, it rose higher and higher and higher, taller than any building in Greyshore, and just simply massive. It's undead eyes stared at the heroes on the raft with hunger.

"Wonderful. A dragon. The fun in Toi Swamp just never ends."

The undead beast roared again.

"Do you speak dragon?" Sarek whispered to the lizard aniver.

"As a matter of fact, I do," said Onni.

He stood up in the boat, crouched down, and the sprang like wild cat, with his blades cutting into the dragon's roaring mouth.

"RAWWWRRRRR!" yelled Onni.


He then used his blades to start grinding into the back of the dragon's mouth, going for the area just beneath the brain. He didn't have to worry about teeth, but if the dragon breathed something, or swallowed, Onni would be in a bad place, but at least he'd be taking down the biggest zombie he's ever seen!

From inside the dragon's mouth, the lizardman roared again, possibly enjoying it a little too much.

*GULP*

"Did it just--" Sarek whispered in shock, "I think it did."

"OK hand me a paddle. I'll handle the paddling while you two defend out glorious longboat," Sarek said not wanting to be swallowed like Onni.

If they were still close enough, the others may have heard Onni as he went down the throat.

Unfortunately, it wasn't what he had planned. He was hoping he'd just cut through the throat to freedom... not so. He was stuck, with his arms pinned going down. It smelled horrible, and the vomit he spit up didn't help any.

However, there was still a chance for him! There were two roads that were used by the throat. One led to certain doom by boiling acid... the other, a slim chance at getting to hack more dragon up in the lungs...

He could only wiggle his way through, his nub of a cut-off tail, bumping into the dragon's throat.

Onni was being crushed. The gullet of the dragon squeezed trying to force the lizard aniver down.

Onni tried to get better footing to try to push himself to a better position.

His foot slipped.

Onni sniffed.


"Wait....that's odd," said Sarek to Oceana and Lucian, "never seen one do that before."

Onni smelled it coming up underneath him.



HUWAAAAAHHHH!!!!!

Onni shot out of the dragons mouth in a tidal wave of puke and flew through the air over the trees and landed on hard ground, covered in undead dragon vomit. The smell was horrid. Rancid. Putrid. Onni began vomiting uncontrollably.

"OK then," Sarek whispered to Oceana and Lucian still trying to paddle, "anyone have a plan B?"

Onni had no idea where he was. All he could do was keep his eyes closed as he puked, and puked, and puked. The worst part. The first couple times may have been the dragons more than his...

Onni almost wished he'd fallen into the stomach acid... then he'd be out of his misery by now.

He wanted to get up, and start fleeing, but he couldn't stop throwing up. The smell, the colors... the contents...

His throat burned, his nostrils burned, his stomach was sobbing for mercy. Tears streamed down his eyes.

Onni cursed his own name. He was tired, hungry... maybe not hungry, thirsty... He wanted to go to a tavern, lay in a lice infested bed, and sob. But that would be too good for him!

Finally, finally, he was able to halt his stomach. He couldn't tell if it was a mental block or if his stomach just physically could not throw anything else up.

Onni started wandering away. He found a tree (he was starting to hate trees now), and sat down. He was shaking from being sick.

It was only because the dragon spit him up so far, and that the others were much louder, and possibly cause Onni was less appealing now? that the undead were not tearing him to shreds.

One zombie stumbled over to him. The rest seemed to be distracted. Onni pushed himself up using the tree, released his blade, and gave a lousy, weak punch. Luckily, the blades were sharper than he was strong they cut through to the brain and the stiff was dead, but not before falling on top of Onni.

Suddenly, Onni remembered an old legend. He prayed he'd never have to test it, but considering what he just went through, it couldn't get much worse. Onni used his blades to hack away at the zombie. He cut open the stomach allowing all the filth and garbage to fall out. Onni then proceeded to smother himself in the slop.

Zombies didn't eat other zombies, and the dragon didn't eat the zombies. Maybe if he had zombie on him, they'd be easier to slip by...

He wished that for once, he would be lucky enough for something good to work.

I am actually excited for when I shed my skin...

This was the first time Lucian was able to relax for moment since the adrenline pumping escape happened. He fell on his stomach laying on the deck of the boat. He clucthed Oceana's leg in instict as he spasm'd in pain.

"Gahhhhh!!!!!" He shouted clawing at his stomach.

He finally relaxed for a moment. He pulled himself up using Oceana's leg and leaned against it slightly, Lucian's body was riddled with claw marks bruises and other scracths from the wooded areaS of the toi swamp.

He was cold still naked the blanket he once had was back soaked in unead blood somewhere, he slowly lifted the pacth of Oceana's waist coat from his side and looked away in sicking horror.

The hole in his stomach wasn't much better before possibly even worse, because in and around the wound there was countless maggots crawling and squrming. Lucian needed the help of arcane healing abilitys or a doctor, and fast.

He was so tired, all he wanted to do was sleep, but that would mean death. He coughed again sweat trickled down his brow he then looked up at Sarek. At this point he was resting his head against Oceana's leg aswell it hurt for him to try and stamd so he stayed there proped against her.

His face was pale but he managed to laugh in between coughs as he spoke jokingly.

"I need doctor," he joked.

"We should head to the nearest city, but Onni needs are help, either we go for him now and then the city, or the city then Onni, your call.

"I am Oceana of the the Gaslamp Quarter, what is your name?" she asked Lucian. Her sympathy for this man paled in comparison to the disgust she felt over sight of his wound.

The cauterizing was horrible indeed, but necessary, now there was maggots....she couldn't even look at him anymore.

She helped Lucian to his feet, and began walking. "I believe we stand a better chance if we try to stay together, for now. Then perhaps head to the city." The thought of the city still stirred a certain excitement in her heart, the people, the food the music....if only this thing, this curse had never entered her world, but no time for regrets...

"I assume you are referring to THAT as Onni." as she pointed to the bile covered lizard man.

Ugggh, why did she have to breathe...her nose burned, but when she tried to breathe through her mouth instead she swore she could almost taste the air that assulted her senses. When all this madness is over, she is gonna take a long hot bath scented with sandlewood and lavender. For now she scratched the inside of her leather waistcoat and breathed in the musky smell of leather deeply....ahhh, that helped and sparked a memory of a much nicer moment in time......

"Let's go and see what if anything can be done before we too are eaten and....(shuttering) regurgitated as well."

Lucian smiled at Oceana she was nice and he felt a friend in the making. It was refreshing to see someone act nicely to him and not make a rude comment about his curse.

"My name is Lucian, at your service" he spoke with a kind smile as he bowed slightly.

He then turned to Sarek, looking down at muscular,pale and slightly shaking naked body.

"There wouldn't happen to be any spare clothes here would there?" He asked.

"I need a weapon too" he then looked to were Onni was.

"He may be an ass but, he is still our friend it would be wrong to leave, but first we need a plan" Lucian stated.

He then looked to Oceana and then to Sarek.

"So what are your stories? My wife, and my child were murdered and raped by a band of thieves not long after I was cursed by a darkling witch, that would be the result of the wolf thing you saw earlier." He spoke slightly saddened at his wife and child.

"I tend to like to know the company I keep, but as far as I can tell this kind lady is the real only trust worthy person,excuse me Sarek but that magic doesn't look like anything iv ever seen before," he said, a little nervous of the blood magic user, none the less he did save him. So he couldn't be that bad of a person.

Name: Petra (Unknown)
Age: 233
Race: Elf
Faction: None
Hair: Short Brown
Eyes: Green

Weapons: Two small grappling hooks, each with steel wire and a small sharp hooks. The launchers themselves are sealed to his wrist, but the cables can be disconnected

No armor

Companion: Spiders follow him, but dont obey him

History: Held hostage and experimented on by a darkling wizard, Peter was subjected to a series of painful tests, ending with him him being bitten by a maical spider. He now has the ability to climb walls and stick to them, but no memory of anything before his capture.

Sarek paddled the boat in a hurried manner.

"Hello! Dragon!" he whispered incredulously and shocked by Lucian forgetting the monstrosity less than 50 yards away in the water.

"And as for clothes....Hello! Boat! Sorry there isn't a tailor shop on this raft or in this swamp. The nearest city is going to be at least three days away....more than likely, five. Now if neither of you would mind, stick your arms in the water and help me paddle."

The undead dragon started following them, and quickening it's pace.

"Have to escape," he repeats over and over, hooks digging into to tree branches as he swings along, quickly and nimbly, almost instinctively. He left his pursuers long behind him, but reasoning seldom consoles the frightened or angry man. After feeling like his arms would literally rip out of socket, he decides to rest in a tree.

His brief rest suddenly turned into half a day, and voices were upon him, not to mention a few wandering undead. Pushing the undead from his mind, he climbs quickly to the top of the tree, his fingers not grasping anything but the tree itself to his amazement.

Nothing made sense anymore. Where had he been? Why had he traveled so long without seing daylight? They were not his captors, but who were these people? Why couldn't he take the damned contraptions off his wrists?!

It was all to much for one day of consciousness. The elf held his head in his hands and settled on just ending it all, just slitting his throat and leaving this place. Before he could even make a motion however, the branches he stood on gave way and he began to fall to the undead below.

Petra quickly fired his hooks, catching himself, but tangling his arms in the process. As he looked down into the gaping maws of the undead, the elf hellbent on suicide suddenly became very afraid of death.

"HELP!!!!!!!!!" He yelled frantically, hearing the branches his hooks caught starting to snap

Sarek paddled faster. The dragon began storming its way toward the group.

"Was that Onni heading toward another tree? You'd think he'd--"

Aldion wrote:

"HELP!!!!!!!!!" He yelled frantically, hearing the branches his hooks caught starting to snap

Sarek saw the odd elf hanging from a tree with undead underneath him.

Sarek paddled fast and made it close to the bank of the murky water.

The dragon was gaining on them.

Sarek jumped off the raft and ran toward the group of undead, arming himself with his halberd polearm.

He ran into the group swing the weapon knocking two undead back. The weapon flew from his hands.

Sarek was no good with a halberd anyways and didn't care too much about losing the weapon. It served it's purpose. The undead were distracted and began chasing Sarek.

The elf hanging from the tree was safe, but still stuck.

Sarek ran toward Onni.

Sarek ran past Onni.

"Nice day."

The undead ran past Onni.

The dragon stormed toward the raft and brought down a massive claw at them missing the raft but hitting close enough in the water to send Oceana and Lucian flying from the raft into the water and capsizing their small boat.

Sarek ran around a tree and began running back toward Onni.

"I do this all the time."

The zombies ran past Onni.

Sarek ran toward the dragon.

Petra watched in shock as the elf led the undead way from him, in a circle, around a puke covered aniver, and towards a dragon. He was about to make witty joke regarding the situation, because for some reason it just felt right, but the branches holding him up snapped, causing him to land face first onto a root.

"Fuck," he mumbled, spitting dirt from his mouth. Blood stained his blue tunic and the white handkerchief he used to cover the lower half of his face. He looked down at his clothes and sighed, "Red and blue really arent my colors," he mutters as he walked towards the travellers

Lucian sank in the water slightly as he was holding his side.

"BLURGABLURRRR!" he yelled underwater.

He threw himself to the surface gasping for air, he coughed spitting water out. He then turned and saw the Dragon it began heading straight for Lucian and Oceana.

He turned seeing Oceana slowly coming to her sense's Lucian paddled to her and grasped his arm around her waist and swam as hard as he could.

as they were nearing the shore the dragon was closing in he was going to eat them both.

"COME ON!" Lucian shouted as if it would have helped.

And then he saw it, a crossbow rusty and falling apart he grabbed and swung it around aiming with one hand this was surly a miracle. The dragon opened its mouth and Lucian fired at the soft fleshy piece at the roof of its mouth. The crossbow snapped against his hand and fell that into the water gone for ever.

The arrow stuck in the roof of its mouth as the dragon reared it's head back and snapped at the air, it wasn't much but it saved there lives, and bout them just a little bit of time.

Lucian's feet touched the murky muddy bottom of the shore as he drug Oceana on shore. He checked her pulse and it was faint.

He pushed on her chest.

1

2

3!

He pushed again and still nothing.

1

2

3!

He pushed and she sprayed water from her mouth Lucian turned his head to avoid getting sprayed in the eye's. He then helped her to her feet and they rested for a moment, they escaped the dragon. But not the undead.

"Onni, Sarek!....HELP!" he shouted.

Onni watched half amused. Sarek had run past the lizard twice with an army of undead following him, yet none of them noticed Onni!

Perhaps the zombie filth really did work. Onni used the roots of the tree and a low hanging branch to pull himself up. He was still tired, but that rest seemed to help a bit. He grabbed an arm full of zombie slop and walked over to the elf with strange arms.

Onni, without a word, threw the slop on the approaching Petra.

"Let's hope this works," said the lizard in a raspy, tired voice.

"You wouldn't happen to have any water would you? I'm parched..." asked Onni in his first friendly voice. Of course, Onni still smelled like the inside of a zombie dragon.

Sarek ran toward the dragon with all of the undead in the area chasing him.

The dragon leaned down toward Sarek, it's mouth wide open, bit down.

Sarek rolled on the ground even closer to the dragon, and came back up to his feet. He slipped in the mud, fell on to his rear and slid down the bank into the murky water.

The dragon had missed Sarek and instead snatched up the group of undead in one gulp and swallowed, eating them.

Sarek came back up from the water under the dragon. It didn't see him, but it could smell him. Yet it couldn't figure out where Sarek was due to the darkling being under the dragon. It began turning circles, stomping the whole time.

Sarek tried not to move and stayed directly under the dragon.

Then the dragon heard Lucian screaming and began storming toward them.

Onni watched as the darkling rolled under the dragon. Onni hesitated, fearing going near that thing again. He was so tired... but the dragon lost track of the darkling prey and instead went after the shouting werewolf.

Onni left Petra to deal with the zombie slop. Onni ran, halfheartedly towards the dragon, taking a more scenic route. While he ran, he scooped up the halberd the darkling had flung.

Onni steered straight towards the dragon, ignoring regular infected, shoving them with the polearm, when he had to. He used a fallen tree as a ramp, leaped to a large rock, then, using the halberd, pole vaulted up and onto the dragon's back.

The lizard released his blades, and stabbed both fists into the dragon's back. The rotting flesh wasn't as strong as living, but Onni hoped the blades would anchor him to the dragon as he slowly cut and clawed his way up to the dragon's head, going for that damn brain.

Lucian was trying to cacth his breath, his side ached as he felt the maggots wiggle around the gapping hole in his stomach.

Lucian turned seeing a zombie grab ahold of Oceana's shoulder's and it was going to clamp down upon her neck. Lucian swung his fist as hard as he could and it connect with the undead's head. Its skull gave way to the preassure and lucians hand drilled its brain, he hand glided through is brain and out the side of its head with a sicking crunch.

Lucian pulled the zombie off his fist with his other hand and shook it.

"Ouch that hurt," he said cracking his knucles.

He then turned and looked up at Onni and then down at Sarek, in the proccess of Onni's attack the dragon knocked Sarek over with its massive leg it was going to step on him!

Lucian looked around and spotted a large rock just under the water he picked it up he had to hurry because the dragon was trying to knock Onni off with its tail!

Lucian waited untill the dragon dipped its head real low trying to shake Onni off. Lucian ran and lept grabing ahold of its tooth he had to make this quick if he wanted to keep that hand. He swung the rock with great force, it shattered the dragons tooth he did this two more times and let go falling back into the water the rock landed on his wound and pinned him underneath the water, he was going to drowned.

Meanwhile the dragon stopped in pain giving Onni and Sarek those few precious seconds.

"BLUGGRGLUG" Lucian was yelling under water he couldn't turn due to the pain in his side and make the rock roll off of him, and he couldn't get the leverage to lift it from him.