Somewhere in a dark alley way, a random citizen hurriedly walked through an alley in Rivendare. Suddenly, a cold rough hand grabs his neck and slams him to the ground. All he could see before the inevitable as he screamed for help that wouldn’t come was sharp yellow teeth closing in on his skin, and an ugly rotten face.

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Akira suddenly opened her eyes in the middle of the night, sensing malice. Her sensitive ears picked up a faint scream, far away. Something was up. Another scream, then another, then many at once. What was going on?

“Hey, Kori. Elizabeth. Wake up. Something’s going on.” Akira woke the two of them as she shook them.

“Huh?” Kori looked very tired and still half-asleep.

“Look outside.” Kori slowly walked towards the window, as if he was sleep-walking. Kori's eyes brightened and woke as he beheld the chaos before him.

“Holy hell…”

Rivendare was in chaos. Houses on fire here and there, people in dismay, screaming and pleading for help. The source of all of all of this, seemed to be an army of undead. Undead that haven’t been seen in Rivendare for decades. Zombies that ate and turned other humans into one of them. It was like a plague, spreading fast, as if Rivendare was an infected body, slowly dying.

Elizabeth beheld the view along with Kori, tears in her eyes, mouth covered, and absolutely terrified out of her mind. “Oh gods…”

“We have to get out of here. Now.” Akira said. The hoard will reach here soon. And when it does, it will be the end of them.

“No.” Kori said.

“What? Why? If you don’t have a valid reason then I will drag you out of this cursed town.”

“Look there. There are people fighting them. And even if we do leave this place, this will spread more, becoming an even bigger issue. It will a global apocalypse consuming all of Enterra! I say we join those adventurers and fight them off.”

“But-"

“Running away from our problems won’t help when we have to face it eventually.” Akira looked conflicted, her face strained.

“Ugh, fine! Whatever!”

Kori sighed in relief. “Thank you, Akira.”

“Let’s just get this over with. I still want to sleep.”

“Let’s go!”

Kori, Elizabeth, and Akira managed to find the guild without any problems. They were having a meeting with the remaining adventurers. “If this town gets overrun by the undead, humanity is at risk. The Imperial Military won’t arrive till dawn. We’re on our own until then. Just survive until they arrive and we win. For adventurers willing enough, your job is to protect the surviving citizens in the emergency shelter. Got it men?”

They all gave a good “Yes sir!” and were dismissed. Kori and Akira signed up to be vanguard, while Elizabeth was stationed in the shelter, tending to the numerous wounded. Elizabeth wished them good luck before Kori and Akira went to the frontlines.

Men were stationed everywhere, each defending an area. The elites were stationed in the midst of the hoard, cleaving away at their massive numbers. Our job was to make sure any that got away would not reach the shelter. There weren’t many coming yet, but according to our scouts, there was a big wave coming.

“Here they come…”

“Brace yourselves men!”

There were hundreds of them spilling out. There were about 40 adventurers defending the shelter. They were outnumbered 15 to 1. It seemed like impossible odds, but then the back-line mages unleashed their spells that they had prepared beforehand.

A most of them died to the large-scale attacks. Now there were only about 100. 3 to 1. It seemed winnable. “Charge men!”

The adventurers followed the call with a battle cry and charged head on into the fray. Kori summoned Murasame and Akira enveloped her arms with ice, with claws at the end of them, as if she had transformed only her arms into her wolf form.

Akira went on a rampage, killing a zombie with each swipe of her deadly claws. Kori struck down zombie after zombie, each strike cutting through them like butter. The two of them were like a whirlwind of death. Cold, icy, death.

Soon the fight was over and there were almost no injuries or casualties whatsoever. It seemed that the elites had killed most of the thousands. Although Rivendare wasn’t completely wiped out, nor did it turn into a mass extinction event, but the damage was heavy enough that this event would most likely go down in history as a horrible tragedy.

Dawn approached and the military cleaned up the rest of them. They were to stay in the city and clean up the mess and stay overnight. They will be departing back to the Captial the next day at dawn.

Akira, Kori, and Elizabeth went back to their inn, which was untouched by the event. The streets were much quieter, corpses of the undead everywhere, and the reek of rotten flesh filled the air. The adventurers were paid a hefty amount of money, especially the elites who killed thousands of hoard.

The three of them were given 6 silver coins for their efforts. The elites were given gold coins instead. After resting in now half populated Rivendare for another day, they set out for the Imperial Capital once more. This time, they set out with the military. Since their destinations were the same, they got permission to travel with them. They only had about one more full day of travel. They will be able to make it to the Capital by early morning the next day.

Kori used the silvers they got to buy more magic stones and camping supplies, though Akira scoffed at the magic stones, calling them completely inferior to real magic. Even if Akira was a Demon and can use all kinds of magic, Kori and Elizabeth needed them for their everyday use since they can’t use many kinds of magic and the ones they can use were learned through desperation and aren’t very proficient at it. Having these stones were like being able to have all the functions of an entire house at your fingertips. For them, it was incredibly convenient, for Akira, maybe like an unnecessary luxury item.

They traveled on the path for the next few hours, and soon it was midday and time for lunch. They settled down and got ready for lunch. And in the vicinity happens to be a lake called The Lake of Dreams, holding one of the many legendary beasts of the world, Ysera, the Dreamer.