Duty Session 403: Zombie Jamboree

The forces of Ninetails and the Adventurers have successfully sealed away the Queen of the Undead, cutting off her access to the many minions that had spread throughout the land. In many ways, this weakened those that remain. Without the more intelligent commanders to guide their path, they act more like normal monsters. Monsters that are easier to clear out and eliminate over time.

However, many of the distant places, closer to where the undead had their seat of control, are still overrun. Thus, Rylen Corvus had worked with the Hunter's Guild to put out a call to clear out some of the villages and eliminate the undead, making these places safe for Landers to reclaim.

That has lead them to the edge of one such village. There are signs of the undead menace everywhere. Buildings are broken into or destroyed. Undead prowl the streets with a shambling gait. However, it lacks that feeling of 'dread' that many would associate with the Mad Queen Helena's forces.

"Alright. The job is simple: Get to the noble house at the far edge of town and eliminate whatever higher level undead is controlling this village. Wipe out what we can of zombies along the way. Look for survivors." Rylen reports. The Pooka is dressed in his usual padded armor, his expression determined. He has spent a lot of time here, which means that he has seen much of the horror the undead have brought, first-hand.

Miho knew the Palace Landers were a problem that would likely need to be solved in fire. Yes however she could not forget about the people of Yamato. They had a chance to reduce howmany minions the undead army might have should they break out. Even better they could reclaim lost ground as well. She felt a personal urge to do this given her failure to save a villiage a long time ago. It would also get her mind off her wosre aspects towards the Palace Landers. So here she was, a stalk of grass in her mouth playing up the whole Samurari trope there with her blade at the ready. Even more so her tail was swishing away as she waited for the party to finish forming up.

"Seek out the leader and purge any undead we find on the way. True I wouldn't discount some folks being lucky and clever enough to surive the undead here."

Undead hunting? Undead hunting! Undead hunting.

Prophylaxis, the Doctor of Tolbana, has something of a vested interest in ensuring the Ninetails Dominion's continued prosperity. After all, these people /are/ in control of the place where he would theoretically return to life upon being slain. So, like, probably best to keep in their good books, right?

Right!

Nevermind that undeath is a terrible disease-- a plague which runs rampant across the countryside like a pox of rats. It's more than mere political expedience that demands his intercession, it's a matter of duty.

"Their central leadership might be scattered, but don't underestimate these creatures," the doctor advises, placing a set of potions into his strange medical gauntlet. "If there were generals sent further afield, they're likely strong and cunning enough to be trusted with relative independence. Fortunately, I've yet to meet an undead that can outsmart fire...!"

    The Scale Necromanccer had felt a bit of responsibility for cleaning up the undead in Ninetails so when he had heard through the Hunter's guild about the village he happily put aside what he was working on and came here. So here Setsuna now was as he looks at the large house at the end of the village. "Hmm ok but if we get there and find someone named Wesker I so call dibs on his shades." With a grin he draws his dagger and looks forward, "So this really just sounds like a smash and grab job, nothing more then get to the house at the end of the street right?"

And is on cue that is when the Nightmare Bard steps out the shadows near the gathering at the edge of town. "So I hear we've still got some scragglers of undead to clean up? Like the leftover viscera in a moritorium."

Though after that Kauchemar pauses and lifts her head. Tilts it a little. Stout equine ear twitching back and forth a bit, though listening isn't really what she's doing at the moment. It's something deeper and more primordial than that. "... I can sense the unliving nearby... but not that forboding ominous dread that always permutated the presence of the Forgotten. Mayhaps the connection to the hierarchy truely has been severed."

Goldenblade has, months ago, scouted out positions and tried to work out how things were working 'behind enemy lines' against the indead, but things have changed recently, and for the better, it seems. So, here she is, with a strong, bold team, about to undertake what six months ago would have been impossible.

To that end, she eyes the terrain warily, alert for any monsters that may jump out, and she's ready with blades or fire. Undead are notoriously vulnerable to fire, she's been told, though she feels that pretty much everyone is vulnerable to fire. Kind of like how a wooden spike through the heart kills humans as well as vampires. Hard to know then if you've got a legitimate target or not.

But she's shown up, ready for a fight, and she will move out with the group, under Rylen's lead, and she nods as he tells us the job. The idea that there might be survivors is surprising, but ... there's always the one or two, isn't there, in a zombie movie, that manage to hole up until a rescue team arrives. That makes us the cavalry, then.

Miho looks over to Setsuna "Sure I'm not human anymore but look at the power I have gained Chris!" Miho just smirks at Setuna for a moment.

The recent developments with the War coming from the Palace Lands have caused much upheaval in the world.

One of them is a huge influx of refugees to the Tower, especially the Spriggans of Eas, and the clinic run by Doctor Prophylaxis being hit by a spike of patients. On the other hand, the same turn of evnents has brought in new staff to the clinic: one of them is Uta Furore who, having lost her Slime Labs and and her Conservatory to two different evacuations, had to find a new way to practice her Pharmacy. This happened in the form of being hired at the Clinic of Tolbana.

If there one truth to be gleand from fictional Isekai Medical Dramas and can be applied to real life Isekai Medical Environment situations, it's that gossip about colleagues is a big part of hospital life. This was no exception, and one of the running gags among the colleagues was how personalities tend to rub off each other, and how exposing the Doctor to this perky, excitable ball of energy of a nurse would do wonders for his usual baggy-eyed, coffee-fueled self.

* * *

Cut to much later, in Ninetails. Uta shuffles in, staff in one hand, coffee in the other, bags under her eyes. "Let's get this done as quickly as possible, Doctor. I have no idea of how all that paperwork keeps piling itself on my desk, and the sooner I get it done, the happier I'll be," she drones, then chugs down a big gulp of coffee. "Man, how I wish I could fireball that inbox..."

"Exactly." Rylen agrees with Prophylaxis' warning about being cautious. Despite some of the leadership of the undead being bound to their castle, that doesn't mean that powerful enemies don't still remain. As for Setsuna's question, the Pooka cracks his knuckles, "We want to clear out as much as we can on the way, but eliminating the more powerful undead always seems to weaken the others, in my experience."

He motions everyone forward towards the village. The easiest place to make headway into the town seems to be through the village cemetary. Like many of those found around Yamato, this is more the style of place that has stone monuments to individuals or families rather than actual graves. However, this one is showing signs of the distress the village experienced.

Some of the grave stones have claw marks in them, others are splattered in dark staining of ominous origin. Here, at the edge of town, there doesn't seem to be much danger. The few zombies present move slowly, shambling from place to place as if they had no real purpose. They seem to be far enough away from the control of any dominant force that they simply... exist.

In fact, most don't even seem to notice the Adventurers as they approach, making them easy targets for a sneak attack.

Goldenblade grimaces as our route takes us straight-in through the cemetary. Was it planned this way? But it's a thing that needed doing, so she won't complain. And it's a thing that needs doing, so she does it. Flickering out of sight for a moment, she appears a few heartbeats later behind a shambling zombie, who is surprised, as much as a zombie is surprised by anything, at a swordstroke cleaving it in two. She vanishes again as a couple zombies lurch in her direction.

Twenty yards away, another zombie is cut down, like a marionette with it's strings cut. By golden blades that flash once and are gone. This pattern slowly repeats across the graveyard. Well, we're here to eradicate undead, yes?

Miho stops being silly for the moment as the time for that is over. It was time to get serious and she nods to Rylen. She'll ready her Katana now. She'll keep as quite as possibke for she's going to start taking down undead with a sneak attack. There's no mercy as how can there be for the dead whom walk?

    Setsuna nods his head in response to the answer to his question, "Understood." As they progress towards the graveyard Setsuna picks up a couple of stones here and there and appears to be fidgeting with them. Finally though they reach the Graveyard and the reason for the stones is revealed.

    >Skills:
        >Throw Rock

    The rock sails through the air and goes right through one of the zombies eye socket and out the other end before the poor thing drops like a ragdoll.

"So we only fight when necessary, and can make the strikes count. Otherwise save our strength for the big confrontation that's likely to happen when we reach our destination." Kauchemar clasps her hands together. "Simple enough!" Not that it ever stays that simple, but here we are.

She takes a look over the cemetery, then takes a step back. There's a brief rippling of shadowy forces as she does so, and the Nightmare has done her usual disappearing act. Into that technique of hers where she moves with such swiftness amongst the shadows that she's only barely percievable on the perimeter of one's senses.

Until one of the half ruined monuments creaks, and starts to tip as it's tapped firmly in passing. Then Kauchemar steps back into view.

Not that the undead shambling near the monument get to do anything more than notice the Were Fang, because that's when the monument crashes down to crush several of them.

Kauchemar just shrugs. "It was already falling over anyways." Then turns and continues on the way into the villiage.

Poor Uta, she wanted to buoy the clinic's general mood by some kind of manic pixie full of energy, but in the end...

Even in Another World, You Cannot Escape Paperwork.

"Ah, Uta, my poor Uta. Don't you know what happens when the paperwork is over...?" Prophylaxis shakes his head with the full gloom of one who has long since resigned to his dark fate, "That's... when the paperwork begins..."

One might ask why it is that they're entering the undead-infested village graveyard-first. In fact, Prophylaxis is damn near about to raise that very question when a zombie shambles out from behind a distant gravestone. It hasn't noticed them all yet, but its shambling appearance wins a soft curse from the Doctor nonetheless. "Careful. Take them out quietly," Prophylaxis whispers, tracing his finger through the air. An invisible blade of wind tears across the distance and neatly lops the wayward zombie's head from its shoulders.

He repeats the spell again and again as more of the monsters stumble dumbly out from the safety of their gravestone bulwarks. Somehow, he manages to avoid being detected in the process.

Uta just stares at the Doctor's words. She stares with those bag-encircled eyes. She chugs down the last of the dark beverage, so thick one might think it's a syrup, and quickly shimmers away her cup through her menu. And sighs.

* * *

Spriggans.

Creatures of the Night. Creatures of Darkness. The story goes that they were created by infusing Dark genetics into kidnapped Sylphs. This made them terrifying murder machines. Swooping down from the sky, to deliver death. Silent. Lethal.

It is easy for people to forget that Uta is as such a creature. Especially for Uta herself. But it is in moment like these that her nature emerges. An ominous chant is intoned. Her whole figure is shrouded in darkness, a black silhouette hard to distinguish against the shadows and black backgrounds she sticks to. She jumps out only to strike.

Silent. Lethal.

Except... the zombies seem to just -barely- avoid her at the last minute. How, might the average adventurer wonder?

The answer becomes obvious once Uta would come close to them.

Her breath.

Her breath smells like -coffee-.

From ten yards away.

In the end, clearing out the zombies from around the Cemetery doesn't seem to be much of a challenge for the Adventurers. They are all high enough level that mobs like this fall easily. Well, except when you have coffee breath, apparently. In the end, the cemetery is left empty and quiet. It is eerie, but better than containing the groaning sounds of the undead.

Rylen seems to bring up the rear of the group, watching their backs to make sure they do not end up attacked from behind. That is how he catches a shambling form trying to escape and neatly takes it out by chucking one of the stone paving blocks at it.

As the party makes their way into the village, it is the sound of a steady thumping that draws their attention down one of the streets. There lurks a group of armored zombies who must have once been members of the town guard. They seem to be trying to break down a barricaded door in front of one of the few buildings that is still intact.

What is, perhaps, surprising is that a colorful bit of cloth is dangling from one of the windows upstairs. A sign from whomever might still be inside that there are still survivors. For those with more sensitive hearing, they might even pick up the sound of someone trying to muffle a child's cries from within.

"Looks like we might have survivors inside. We need to take them out, fast." Rylen advises the others.

Zombies smart enough to wear armor. Or guards that were dumb enough to be caught dead in armor.

Either way, Kauchemar knows exactly what to do to throw this obstacle off kilter. By stomping one of her hooves into the ground. Repeatedly. Enough to make the ground vibrate with a fair amount of force. Of course, being the bard she is, she's stomping with a specific rhythm.

"o/~ A quake! A quake! Say it's all a big mistake. Just feel the ground, go up and down, won't someone hit the brake?
A quake, a quake; oh what a mess they make! The bricks, the walls, the chimney falls; destruction in its wake!" o/~

It's possible that her stomping shakes and singing won't do much more than draw attention to her.. which is perfectly fine. It'll give her allies a chance to really make the quirky song choice fit.

    Setsuna looks up at the sound of a child's cry, a parent's ears never forgetting that sound. " Yes we can not let this linger." Drawing his knife he throws it into the back of one of the sentinels as it freezes in place while the others continue their activities. Without waiting for the group he moves forward, running towards the group and it is only thanks to Kauchemar's song that he isn't heard. Grabbing his knife out of the back of the sentinel, he reaches around and slits the frozen sentinel's throat with one practiced movement before he cast a look back at the others as if a little impatient.

Oh look, armored zombies!!

These are evidently former soldiers, which means they must be somewhat stronger than the average Lander villager, which begs thequestion... How did the wave of undeath initially determine who was to be converted and who would be spared? Stats didn't seem to make a difference...

Oh well, it doesn't particularly matter. Prophylaxis knows how to deal with zombies that are too heavy and too bulky to properly dig themselves out of a hole, which is...

Um.

...To tap his heel a couple of times against the earth, and generate a great yawning void underneath several of the zombified warriors. One moment, they're menacing that surviving structure, the next they're properly six feet under.

Goldenblade considers that muffling the child's cries might not be wildly helpful at this point. The zombies clearly know there's people inside. Though, in fact, the people inside have blinded the zombies to the people outside. Though it kind of doesn't matter. Undergrowth creeps out, in some places growing spontaneously, to wrap around their ankles, and many are immobilized. They are still armored, but armored doesn't slow down Goldenblade, who's blades may as well be marked Armor Piercing. Considering her skillset. Earth binding their ankles, Goldenblade lops off heads as quickly as she can, occasionally taking a flailing arm that's being particularly obstructive.

So far so good the party is making good time as they push past the graveyard. Miho spots the intact building, she sees the cloth and would nod in agreement to Rylen.

"They won't be much longer if we don't act now."

She lets Kauchemar do her song, while this goes on she makes ready using an earth elemental sword art she'll drive her blade into the ground causing a shockwave to head for the undead guard.

A cloth. Survivors. The sound of a child, crying.

Her staff is tilted, and she dashes forward for the barricade. It's slashing left and right as she speeds, singing a powerful chant that charges tendrils of light and magic into the gem atop her staff. A punch, a spin, a blow with the elbow, a back kick. Each YAH! making the whole thing appear some sort of Martial Arts Haka, empowering the melodic charge of the staff more and more, until-

**CRACKLE!**

Her staff is spun, and pulses of raw magical light are shot towards the ground; she's holding her weapon like some sort of high energy blaster, and where her shots impact, sections of the ground shoot up and shatter the armored zombies like some sort of upside-down hydraulic press.

With the prospect of lives on the line, the Party is easily able to break through the armored defenses of the zombies. Kauchemar's singing draws their attention, but it is Setsuna's hunting skill and the others' Earth magic that take them down, causing the street to be silent once more.

As soon as the thumping on the door stops, the enemy defeated, there is a moment of silence before Rylen calls out, "It's safe." Then, from that upstairs window that the cloth had been flying, a child's head peeks out.

A few moments later, there is a sound of things being moved inside the building and the Adventurers are greeted with the sight of a mother and two small children, one held in her arms, the other tucked behind her leg. "Oh, thank you so much. We were running low on food and... and..." The Lander woman just starts to break down at that moment.

"If you head back through the cemetery, the way should be clear. There are some members of the Merchant Blades at the edge of town who can help you from there." Rylen informs the family. The group gets to see them safely on their way, at least.

However, this moment of light and hope is a stark juxtaposition against what they encounter next. A hulking zombie creature stands at the edge of the street, limbs sticking out in all directions. It seems to be made of a number of individuals, all patchwork stitched together in a way that is likely to make anyone feel uncomfortable. It moves like a spider, with far too many grasping hands and arms, lurching, clawing, giving off a strangled sound of too many trapped souls in one form.

    Setsuna sighs relief as he watches the family get out of the town before he hears the horrible creation moving down the street. starign at it with a level of disgust he is thankful for one thing, " At least it isn't a flesh golem like in the tombs." For anyone who had ever smelt that thing they would know what Setsuna is mentioning. With out another thought he throws out a ball of fire to try to turn the horrible thing back to dust and ash.

Goldenblade looks relieved as the last of the besieging zombies is cut down and it turns out that there are three survivors! So fortunate! She watches them depart in the direction we'd just arrived from, then turns to advance. It's just around the corner, it seems, or at least metaphoricly so, but what it is, is huge and horrible, some sort of zombie agglomeration.

"What the hell," she mutters. "The game designers must have been smoking /something/." But the solution is straightforward to Goldenblade, which is often the case with things that can be solved by suitable application of FIRE.

Unfortunately Goldenblade doesn't do suitable applications of FIRE. She only does /wildly excessive/ applications of FIRE, and she does that again, here, resulting in an intense inferno roaring around the monstrous thing, which burns like the inside of a forge, and is nearly blinding.

Miho looks at the mother and her kids and smiles.

"You were brave very brave in suriving. When this is over I'll see what I can do to help you get your lives back on their feet." With a tail swish she looks away to head out on her on going mission. A bit later she looks at the patchwork undead for a moment. She redies her blade it burst into flames and she rushes at it. "I will one day find the root of this evil and tear it out by the roots. FORGE'S FURY!"

She also lets out a wordless war cry as she goes to town on the horror.

As the survivors are ushered off to safety Kauchemar stops and shudders, down to giving an extra hard twitch to her tail. "Okay, something just gave ME shivers down my spine, that cannot be good..." She turns partway, catching sight of the lumbering monstrousity coming down the street. "... Yeah, that would do it. That's wretched even by nightmare standards. Something that needs to be put out of its misery." She snaps her fingers, ghostly flames appearing at her sides and shifting into summoning circles that last just long enough for her to draw her Binder Sword from one and Shield from the other. She rolls a shoulder, and then charges towards the monstrousity. Though as she closes in she lets the Binders loose from her grip, so they instead follow her motions to make the melee strikes from a relatively safe distance, positioning the shield to intercept blows while the sword strikes at stitched seems in hopes of finding a weak spot in the mutilitated mass of fused bodies.

"o/~ My haunting voice you shall hear; rotting flesh in binding shell
Even corpses still can fear; as I cast them back to hell
Shatter bone with shield and blade, severe flesh in blood serenade! o/~"

"This patient is hyperbrachial and hypercrural. Time to perform some-" She taps her lips. "...since I'm operating on a dead patient, is this technically an autopsy?"

She clears her head with a shake, and runs for the creature, ready to slice off bits. But the creature has too many limbs to contend with. No matter how much Uta's martial arts manage to deflect a few, there always are more and more to get to her, so, after bouncing off the creature a few times and chipping off miser amounts of HP, she has to back off and let others do the work for the time being.

Oh! Well that sure is some kind of horrible undead monstrosity! Prophylaxis' lip draws into a thin line and taps his staff against the earth once, then twice. A tiny mote of rock shoots up out of the ground and begins blazing with firelight. The stone fractures, erupting in a spray of hot magma and razor-sharp shrapnel directed straight at the shambling horror...!

"I've been around Ninetails long enough to think that the designers really didn't have much to do with any of this." Rylen replies to Goldenblade, shaking his head.

Rylen reaches for a nearby fallen bit of housing timber and moves forward to try to slam it into the enemy, only to find that the creature is particularly strong against bashing damage. He shakes out his hands, dropping the wood and backing off to defend against a few blows sent his way by the flailing limbs while the others take care of the problem.

Between slicing off limbs and attacking with fire, it doesn't take long until the central mass of undead flesh is left writhing on the ground before pixel bursting in front of their eyes.

This leaves the path towards the larger home at the far end of the city, now in view. It must have once belonged to whatever noble ran this place. However, as they start to make their way forward, there is an eerie screech from above. There, from one of the tallest buildings around, a series of skeletal monkeys hang down.

Soon enough, they start to pelt the Adventurers with building materials and refuse before finally leaping at them from above.

Goldenblade finishes burning down the monstrous zombie, literally, and watches the ashes settle. In a real life situation, you'd rake the ashes to overhaul the fire, here, it's just a matter of watching until the target bursts into pixels. But a job duly completed. "What do you mean the designers didn't have much to do with it? If not them, then who?" This game is so confusing. And kids get into all this. But ask them to change the brakes on a deSoto, and they're nowhere to be found. Kids today.

The sound of monkeyshines overhead, combined with the incoming rotten fruit have her swords stowed and her bow drawn. No way to climb up there, and she's a melee fighter rather than an archer, but she's familiar enough with the basics to give it an honest attempt.

Sadly, for all her effort, she's not up to hitting the scampering, agile little pests, and her arrows mostly sail up and over them, or else land short.

Kauchemar raises the Binder Shield at an angle to shield her head from the debris being chucked down into the street at them. "Just what we didn't need, a bunch of monkey business." Rubble rattles off the shield harmlessly, though the casing around the central gem seems to bend in a way that gives the impression of an eye scowling. Or maybe it's just your imagination knowing the shield is posesses and thus seeing a fragment of emotion in tricks of light off it's surface.

Kauchemar grabs the matching sword by the hilt. Then waits until just the right moment before dropping the shield and twisting her body to swing the sword and intercept a rather large chunk of mortar. With the flat of the blade rather than the edge, which sends the debris hurtling right back at the calified simian that threw it at her. Everyone loves a game of Projectile Tennis!... unless you're an evil dark lord pig demon.

    Setsuna looks at the monkies almost confused, "I didn't realize monkeys were even in this region. Today I learn..OW!" He got pelted with a rock as he looks in anger at one of the monkies. " Dust and ash reform. Rise up and imprison my target." The necromancer chants before a skeleton seems to form around one of the monkies, imprisoning it within the ribcage before falling to the ground with a loud thud before running along to catch up with its summoner. The monkey making a horrible racket the entire time, obviously not happy with being captured.

Miho nods in agreement to Rylen.

"There is something twisted and wrong about these undead more so than standard sort. I don't like it."

She contiune on with the party keeping alert her eyes darting about. After that last fight she was looking concerned what was lurking in this village? Well she finds out as it's some serious monkey business. Out comes the bow as she starts firing off shots at the undead monkeies.

"They might have imported them, Setsuna."

Uta was about to ask the same question as Goldenblade, but then Goldenblade went first, so she adds, "I am interested in that answer, too."

Uta leaps and bounces to reach the gigantic ape. "Don't tell me. This is just the miniboss, and Zombie Godzilla is going to emerge from the ocean." She just deadpans her line, the lack of emotion in her voice made even more somber by the giant bags under her eyes. She switches to singing an erratic tune, those magical tendrils dance on the handle of her staff, and multiple blasts of light depart from her gem, to fly for the monster...

...and miss it.

ZOMBIE MONKEYS!!

The doctor is...

Only vaguely present, because he's actually busy towards the back of the group... adjusting his inventory slots!! And not at all trying to avoid being anywhere near the monkeys after that one time he almost contracted Monkey Pox by being in close proximity to plain old ordinary non-undead monkeys.

One gets close, he shoos it away with a burst of wind, but otherwise keeps a wide and wary berth. Besides, the team's got this, right? Right!

"Well, there are some dungeons that you could certainly argue look like they are developer built." Rylen explains, "But other things, like this..." He motions at the destroyed village. "I don't think this was built by a developer. I think it's just the effect of releasing something like the undead into an area creates." He smirks at that point, "Afraid I'm not an IT guy, but I've seen enough up here to have my doubts that this was all pre-written."

Rylen leaves off trying to explain too much further as they are pelted from above. Some of the monkeys are easy to take out at range, causing them to break into their bone parts before they even hit the ground. Setsuna manages to capture one easily enough, though it squirms and tries to escape. At this point, the Pooka Earthbender seems to join in the attempt, giving a whistle.

For those who know him, this is when a familiar looking undead girl in samurai armor appears. The creature appears as a minion on the party's healthbar as it snatches one of the monkeys and just sort of holds it there. "Thanks, Kyo. Mind taking that one where it won't cause further trouble?" The samurai female doesn't even raise her head, long black strands keeping her face obscured, before she sinks into the ground... monkey and all.

At last, the path to the 'mansion' is cleared, allowing them to approach a building that looks as if it has taken significant damage. There is no sign of life anywhere in the surrounding area. In fact, it is almost a bit too quiet. That is, until an aggression flag shows just a split second before a vampire in a very stereotypical red cape flies down from above.

"You have caused me a great deal of trouble, Adventurers. Now you shall join my village of the damned." Combat engages, the vampire lashing out with fanged teeth and grasping hands, slashing at the party with remarkable speed.

Goldenblade looks up as the vampire swoops down, and steps aside with contemptuous ease - she's insanely fast, it seems - leaving behind a pillar of fire that burns him before he pulls away. She continues to taunt, though, and whenever she's attacked, she steps aside, allowing the vampire to enjoy her flames a bit more. "Olé!" she taunts him one more time, but each time he charges, she sidesteps him, and lets him plow through the flames she leaves in her wake. This does him no good whatsoever, trickling away his HP with each pass she can taunt him into, and amuses Goldenblade no end.

Uta is practicing what in martial arts circles is known as the 'doormat' technique.

She's lying face-first on the floor, being stomped on by monkeys, punched, and having rocks thrown at her.

"...Doctor, how do you do this all the time?!", she says, having pretty much given up on the massive numerical superiority of her enemies at this time, and, feeling the effects of a caffeine crash, focusing on shimmering a fresh, steaming cup of coffee in. She quietly sips some, staring ahead with those two large bags under her eyes, while violence rages on. She remains unflinching while being pelted by rocks and zombie punches, her only reaction being to yank the cup out of the way before it gets knocked over or a rock risks plunging into the Juice of Life.

    Setsuna sends his skeleton running off with the monkey in tow to who knows where for now. The screaming monkey was getting a little to much for him. Then comes the threat of joining the village, " I am sorry there are a few problems with that. First one being I don't like the neighborhood." Setsuna blinks away as a claw swipes at hime. " Second I have like a promise that I won't try to become a demi-lich still in effect for another few months." That gets a look in the doctor's direction before another claw and he blinks away again. "Finally, when I do step up for the eternal pale look I am totally finding a path to it that doesn't involve someone like you." With that another blink as he appears up in the vampires grill slashing at him with his knife.

Kauchemar plants one of her hooves as her eyes take on that spectral glow and flame effect they do when she taps more deeply into her powers. "I have a better idea." Darkness from nearby shadows seems to stretch as its drawn to the point where her hoof rests, worling together and creating a summoning circle from there. Then the shadows start to reach up into the air around the Nightmare as she raises one curled hand upward. "I think it's time the damned of your village got their revenge on your corrupt administration."

The shadows shift, taking on gaunt forms in dark ragged shrouds as spirits use the darkness to give themselves vagely visible forms. With all the dread and despair in this village Kauchemar has little trouble calling some of those supernatural forces to her air. The vampiric mayor moves, but she moves just as fast, dropping her arm to unleashed the summoned spirits. They promptly swarm the vampire, harassing him with their ghostly forms, and already being supernatural creature without physical bodies to be killed and converted he can do little to stop them from haunting his final moments upon these tainted streets.

Just as promised, awaiting the party at the end of the road is none other than one of the dark queen's very own vampiric subordinates. Even if he does look like he crawled out of a costume rack at a Holiday Spirit pop-up outlet store, the fact that he /is/ some variety of vampire means that an abundance of caution is not uncalled for.

Vampire bites are, after all, still quite dangerous... But the Doctor has a solution at the ready. Of sorts.

Words of power whispered at high speeds, Prophylaxis lifts his staff high and calls tongues of flame to descend upon each of his compatriots. They find themselves bestowed with a potent <fire enchantment> buff to each of their attacks... And, as it happens, also BURST INTO (harmless, to them) FLAME, making a bite attack a much riskier prospect for something so vulnerable to fire.

Uta steps up to the vampire mansion. "Nice. I like the decor." Sip of coffee. "Not too flashy. Demurely unsettling, if you will." The vampire swoops down. "Oooh, entrance." Sip. "Might consider it if I was into this stort of aesthetic. Too bad it doesn't fit a bard's nomadic lifestyl-"

Pause. Sip. "Mh. Hey, Kauch, you know? You could get yourself a traveller's wagon like mine. Live-in. You could give it a funeral theme, to go with your branding. You know, harbinger of omens and stuff. Maybe scare people into thinking it's jinxed. And then, when onlookers see it pass by, they'll point at it, and go, 'A hearse, a hearse! Of curse, of curse!'"

Last sip. She tosses her cup away, with cool nonchalance, and, body unmoving, she flips her staff and points it at the vampire. "Let's get this over with already."

As it is usual for Uta, she does something unusual: she intones a song with a call-response structure, breezy and ominous, high and low, and two beams shoot out from her staff: a red one towards the vampire, and a green one towards whatever party member needs healing at the moment. "Lesson of the day," she deadpans to no one in particular. "When you face a vampire, bite them first to establish dominance. It confuses the heck out of them."

Miho is glad for the help in dealing with the undead Monkies with that handles she would relax a little bit. They still need to deal with whatever undead was leading this.

"I don't think it's a game anylonger Rylen."

She says looking concerned though. Finally as they reach the mansion she stares down the vampire and says.

"I think not, your end has come! ANCHOR HOWL!"

Light so much light bleeds off Miho as she does this but it doesn't quite do enough...

"Good thing I saved most of my mana until the end." While Rylen might usually fight up close and personal, the quick movements of the vampire seem better suited to a ranged attack. He stomps the ground, throwing up stone paving bricks from around the courtyard, then ignites them with a flicker of flame from his palm. One by one, he drags them down, raining them like meteors onto the boss monster.

As the vampire's health is slowly drained by the party over time, despite his powerful attacks, he gives out a grunt and a look towards the sky. "Why... why have you abandoned us, my Queen?" The vampiric noble gets no answer, and uses his unusual leaping abilities to try to escape, hoping onto the roof of the nearby mansion.

Then, a few choice attacks from the Adventurers take down the last of his health, causing him to burst into pixels just as he was about to make it over the crest of the roof. A handful of vampire fangs seem to be left behind, more than usual due to the combined Hunting skill of a number of the Adventurers. They plink down off the roof to land in a pile on the front steps of the building.

"Agreed." Rylen answers to Miho, trying to catch his breath in the aftermath.

Kauchemar stoops down to pick up one of the fangs now littering the street. "Well, we've put his dentist out of work it seems." She stands, holding the tooth between her fingers in the general direction the vampire died in. "For your generous loot drop, we say fangs alot." Flicks the fang into her inventory. That might come in useful... or it might sit with the rest of her monster remains, who really knows.

    Setsuna retrieves his fang and looks at it with a gleam in his eye before it disapepears into his inventory. Looking about he says, "So then should we get out of here , maybe light the village on fire on our way out? Would make sure the village is clean of all the undead after all." It is a reasonable proposal he thinks as he looks at the others to feel out the room on the idea.

"Please refrain from lighting the village on fire," Prophylaxis grouses as the vampire burns away, wondering why his beloved queen forsook him in his moment of direst need. The more of these things they burn away, the more ground that bloodsucker will need to retread if she ever returns. And next time, she might not find Ninetails to be such a simple target. "There might still be people living in the ruins. We should do a pass-through and make sure they get to safety before taking a drastic step."