One by one they shall fall

The sound of metal slicing through rotting flesh is heard through battle cries and the crackles of flame of the nearby burning building.

Every person standing swings their weapons as fast and often as they can, trying to negate the number advantage which is actually working.

The formerly overwhelming odds has now turned into a fair battle with only around twenty of the undead now facing off against the eleven strong group.

Twenty turns quickly into seventeen and then thirteen before getting down to six and before they know it, the undead's numbers finally reach zero.

The eleven finally stop and take a breath, finally getting a moment of rest as one of the soldiers says, "Holy shit, we did it".

"For the moment, but that's only the beginning" John says rather stoically as he begins to walk away from the group and back toward town.

Kyuala immediately goes after him and puts her hand on his shoulder, "Hey...".

The two stare into each others eyes for a few moments, no more words exchanged as they embrace one another as tightly as they can.

A few more moments pass by as Kyuala and John hold one another before eventually letting go. Their faces one again meet as Kyuala asks him, "Are you okay?".

"I'll live... what about you?".

"Doing alright so far" Kyuala responds as the two let out a chuckle.

John's face drops once again and Kyuala sees it so she asks, "Hey... what's wrong?".

John takes a moment before saying, "I saw Imoga...".

Kyuala is shocked by his response and wants to ask a dozen questions but as she looks at him, she realises that something is missing, "Wait... where's Lani?".

John looks down at the ground before saying, "I don't know...".

Kyuala's mind immediately goes to the worst conclusion however she pushes that thought away before saying, "Don't worry, she's a tough one. We'll get her back".

John nods but then the other pressing matter calls to mind, "We have to get to the west gate! They're getting overrun!".

The soldiers all look at him and then look at Mordroe who says, "You heard him men! Let's take our home back!".

The soldiers all let out a unified cheer as they all begin to make their way to the western gate.

---

MEANWHILE - SOUTHERN GATE:

Daffy's crossbow clicks as she pulls the trigger, sending a bolt into the eye of an undead.

Cidal on the other hand, burns a group of them to a crisp as flame spews from the end of his staff.

"Are you alright Daffy?!" Cidal says as the two regroup beside one another.

"Nae chunks outta me yet! Wit about you?!".

"I'm alright for the moment but Nartoko needs to hurry! We need to get that gate closed asap!" Cidal replies.

The two look up and see a pair of soldiers working on the gate cranks and finally... the gate begins to close.

As the gate is coming down, they hear some shouting coming from beyond it, "HOLD THE GATE!".

Daffy and Cidal look out beyond the gate and they see Captain Nartoko with twelve men running toward the gate as fast as they can.

Cidal then looks back up to the soldiers who are trying to close the gate, "HOLD THE CHAIN! THE CAPTAIN AND HIS MEN ARE NEARLY BACK!".

"WE HAVE TO CLOSE THE GATE! WE'RE GETTING OVERRUN!".

Cidal looks a Nartoko once again, seeing that he's around fifty feet from the gate so he shouts again, "JUST HOLD IT FOR A FEW MORE SECONDS!".

The soldiers look at each other but eventually do as Cidal orders and hold the gate for a bit longer.

The thundering of running feet along with the shaking of bouncing armor is heard as Nartoko and his group barrel toward the open gate. The group run as fast as they can, thirty feet.... twenty feet.... ten feet.... eventually they pass the gate and past the walls.

"CLOSE IT!" Cidal shouts and the soldiers quickly follow the order as they turn the wheels and close the gate with a loud thud.

Nartoko and his men all try to catch their breath as the remaining undead on their side of the gate has been dealt with. Cidal heads over to the group and asks, "Captain, are you alright?".

"I am. Thank you for keeping the gate open".

Cidal responds, "I gave you my word, plus, I would never leave you to die like sick animals against those beasts".

Nartoko then stands up straight before extending his his to shake Cidal's as he says, "And because of you and your group, you saved some good men's lives. Thank you again".

The two finish share nods of appreciation but it's quickly interrupted as they hear a voice say...

"Soldiers... only good for blind loyalty to a cause bigger than their meager lives... what a waste...".

Daffy, Cidal and Nartoko along with all of the remaining soldiers turn their heads and look at the source of the voice.

Stood there is none other than Imoga with Ivellise by her side and her group of the undead flanking her however the group are also joined by the resurrected bodies of John's group.

Daffy is the first to respond by saying, "I guess you're the whore that caused aw this?".

"You would be correct small one" Imoga responds.

Cidal then steps forward, staff at the ready, "What do you want?! You rotting shit heap!".

Imoga chuckles, "An elf that's not cowering in fear... That's even rarer than myself".

Daffy re-arms her crossbow as Nartoko steps up with his halberd pointed at Imoga, "You have precisely five seconds to tell us what you want before we tear you from arse to elbow!".

Imoga sighs, "Fine... I am here to simply bolster my legion... and you shall make a fine addition. Kill them".

Imoga and Ivellise then walk away as the undead run forward and the soldiers begin to fight but the wave is quickly too much for them to handle. Nartoko, Cidal and Daffy are backed up to the gate with no escape in sight as the snarling undead close in on them.

The trio look around, seeing their certain **** in front of them so Nartoko says, "Cidal, I don't suppose you have any crazy mage spells tucked away that we could really use right now?".

Cidal wracks his brain, trying to think of something when suddenly... one spell pops into mind.

"Okay... I have an idea... however... the chances of us dying are eighty-twenty... seventy-thirty at a push".

Daffy and Nartoko look at each other before Daffy says, "Well, it canny be worse than bein' a feast fur a walkin' maggot bag".

"What the lady said" Nartoko comments.

"Alright, grab on!" Cidal orders as he plants his staff on the ground with a purple mist emanating in the orb at the top.

Daffy and Nartoko then grab onto Cidal as the undead get ready to charge.

Just then... the hungry beasts sprint forward, ready to snack on the trio but as they get within just a few feet...

A cloud of purple smoke appears.

The undead stop in their tracks, looking confused at the smoke as they continue to snarl. They swipe and claw at the smoke, trying to get it to dissipate faster. The cloud of smoke eventually does clear however it lacks one thing... Or rather... three things.

---

SOMEWHERE IN REDUNA'Z GAZE:

That purple cloud of smoke pops up again however it dissipates a lot faster than the other but this time, it has something more.

Cidal, Daffodil and Captain Nartoko.

The trio are all stunned and dazed as they sudden appear in this new location.

Cidal falls to a knee, trying to catch his breath as the other two head over to him.

"What... in the holy fuck... was that?" Nartoko asks in disbelief.

Cidal finally gets a big enough breath to respond, "That... was a teleportation spell... one of the most dangerous spells that a caster can use".

"Wits so bad about it?" Daffy asks.

"Well for starters, it can send you into hell... literally. It's the same sort of spell a demon uses when being summoned to make a demon-kissed. Secondly, it can just rip you apart. There has been stories of people teleporting into objects and being torn in half. There's also a chance it can implode your entire body however that's mostly novice casters who attempt it without practice on objects first".

Daffy and Nartoko just look at each other with wide, worried eyes as Cidal finally gets up to his feet and walks forward.

"Well, it wasn't exactly where I imagined however... it's better than where we were".

The other two walk up beside Cidal and look out at their new location... or rather... they look down.

"Uhh, we're on a roof" Nartoko comments.

"Tae be honest... I think we're safer up here".

Nartoko makes a noise of acknowledgement to Daffy's point before Cidal says, "We need to find a way down and regroup with the others".

The trio then move away from the ledge as they look for a way back down to the street.

---

MEANWHILE - WESTERN GATE - John's POV:

John, Kyuala and the others are all rushing toward the sound of screaming and fighting, ready to join the fight.

As the groups gets round the corner, they see a devastating sight...

Only a few of the soldiers remain as a large squadron of the undead bear down upon them.

The last of the soldiers try their hardest but are quickly devoured by the numerous undead.

The group are stunned by the horrific scene however John is focused on one thing.

Finding Terra.

He scans the dead and quickly notices that she isn't one of them which brings him some momentary relief. He continues to scan around but he sees nothing that resembles Terra.

As the group are looking around, trying to think of a plan, they hear a whispering voice call out to them, "In here!".

The group turn around and that's when they see Terra hiding in the dark building beside them, beckoning them with her hand.

With no better ideas, the group head into the building and head over to Terra. As they get over to her, they see that she isn't hiding alone, beside her is wounded Johtun, clutching at his side as blood coats his hip.

"At least we finally got those reinforcements" Johtun says before breathlessly chuckling to himself.

"What happened?" Kyuala asks.

"After I sent Terra away... we got surrounded... I tried to save one of Parlo's men... but as you can see... it wasn't without cost".

"What about Parlo? Is he...?" Mordroe hesitantly asks.

"I saw him" Terra interrupts, "As I came back, I saw him and a soldier retreat into town".

The soldiers all breath a small sigh of relief as they hear that another captain has survived the onslaught outside. As a moment of silence passes over them, Radvar is the one to end it by asking, "So... what do we do now?".

Everyone looks amongst each other, waiting for someone to speak up but finally, John is the one to do so as he says, "Well, I don't know about all of you... but i've got friends to save... and an ugly bitch to put down".

John goes to leave when he is stopped by the hand of Mordroe who says, "You go out there alone, you won't be coming back".

"Good thing we're going with him" Kyuala says as she steps beside John.

Amilia then follows behind as she comments, "Ahh, she would've dragged me into this somehow anyway. I mean, who does want to get torn to shreds by hordes of hungry undead right? Super fun".

As the trio stand there, Kyuala looks at Radvar who isn't looking her way so she takes a step to slap the back of his head and gets his attention, "Ow! The hell was that for?".

Kyuala motions over to herself, Amilia and John which makes Rad finally understand so he walks over to the group to join them.

In the back of the room, a pain-filled chuckle can be heard coming from Johtun as he says, "That's... why I made him... a leader".

Johtun then groans as he tries to stand by himself but Terra is quick to help him while saying, "You have to take it easy, my magic hasn't healed your wounds entirely".

"Argh... I know... my body... it can take as much punishment as it needs" Johtun says rather action hero-esque as he leans against a wall.

Johtun then seethes before saying, "I... will join you also".

Terra is shocked by this, "No, Johtun, you cannot go out there in this state. You will most certainly...".

"Die?" Johtun interrupts, obviously not bother by Terra's warning, "Well I hope hell is as hot as they say... i've been looking forward to a holiday".

Johtun chuckles again as Terra just looks at him unamused.

Mordroe then speaks up, "I have an idea that may help John and his group to kill Imoga".

Everyone looks at Mordroe as he begins to lay out the plan, "I will take a group including Johtun to the old huge signal fire next to the northern gate. Once we get there, we'll light the fire and hope the smoke gets those bastards attention. We'll set a trap for whoever shows up and take them out, hopefully giving John's group less resistance to kill that whore".

Johtun looks at Mordroe, "I like it. If we take down whoever shows up, we can head back into the town and join up with John's group afterwards".

"And your wounds should have healed some more by the time you get to the gate" Terra adds.

"Alright, now that we've got a plan and collective **** wishes, I'd say we've got a good chance".

The others all chuckle at John's words before Johtun asks, "John, tell me... are all people on your world this crazy?".

John answers, "Well, there's people who jump off of stuff whilst attached to a big rope for fun. There's also people who skydive at thirty thousand feet so... yeah".

The guards are all impressed but one of them asks a question that they're all thinking. "What is a 'sky-dive'?".

John realises that they have no concept of planes, parachutes and the like so he says, "If we survive, i'll happily tell you everything about it".

"As long as Kyuala supplies the mead" Another guard says.

The group chuckles once more before Kyuala says, "If we survive, i'll even break out the good stuff".

Everyone let's out quiet cheer but that leads to a question from Mordroe who asks, "Wait, so we've been drinking the shit stuff all this time?".

Even with Kyuala not responding, the answer is pretty obvious. The group chuckle once more before Radvar asks, "Before we split up and do the whole group thing... what about the undead out there?".

Johtun limps forward with Terra following behind, he stops at the doorway before saying, "I think we've rested long enough. Now... it's time to earn ourselves some sweat".

The group then all reaffirm their grips on their weapons and bolster their spirits as they head outside.