The forest all at once was still, so little movement. Not a creature flickered, not even a freeze of wind or rustle from the flora. The zombies stationed before Elise stayed in place after their last march, as the ones far behind did much of the same. Marching before her ceased, marching far behind as well. Then those to the front came to a halt, the leader holding his hand up.

Not more than five seconds following the peace, the middle row of zombies turned, turned to face each other, then stepped backwards at attention with their weapons. Far up front the warriors had also turned round, as did the vampire who appeared as smug as the rest. A light snicker came from him as he stepped forward, passing by the warriors, shoving one. A slow walk forward right between the lines of zombies.

“Heeheeheeheeeheeheeee, hoo ha ha, hmm,” the man chuckled, walking forward with hands in his pockets, eyes aglow, “Ah, well well, what have we here? A kid lost in the woods?”

“No, not exactly.”

The man continued until but a few mere meters away, ceasing with the others filing in between the zombies right behind, eyes all dead set upon Elise. Many an enemy before her, many waiting not far behind, yet there she stood still as can be, calm as can be, a slight smile. The man, eyes red, removed both hands from his pockets. His arms held out, welcoming embrace or praise, a slight chuckle before he continued on.

“Ah come now, come now. Tell me dear, are you uh, are you retarded or something? Do you uh, ya know, not see the hundred armed zombies and the fucking warriors I have behind me, eh? Can you not tell by my eyes and fangs that I am a Vampire?”

“I can tell a lot of things actually, that’s just not what this is about.”

“Oh? And uh, what exactly IS the goal here, huh? To come offer yourself for the glory of the Hisan Vampires?” he chuckled on, hands placed back to his pockets, a wide grin forming.

Her eyes locked to his, eyes of red, dull as can be. Said eyes then wandered among the ranks, viewing the Wulf’n, eyes human as can be. To the left, then back to the man before scanning to the right. Rows and rows of dead cold eyes, mostly, nothing glowing, nothing ou. Finally she looked ahead to him once more, chuckling herself, removing both hands from her pants pockets to place within her coat pockets.

“Hmm? Come to realize your fate lass?” the man laughed once more, arms to his side now.

“Oh no, that’s not it. It’s just that uh, you’re not the leader, and I know who is and why.”

“Huh? And how’s that?”

“For one, the zombies stopped marching in sync before you ever did, both in front and back. No one behind could’ve seen me. No one in front could’ve either. It all came down to what I said. Second, you’d know you were being hunted. That’s likely why you split your line, so any attack up front would result in minor success until the rest overwhelmed us. Three, I can tell a fake set of eyes and fake fangs when I see them. And four, almost all of the zombies have dead eyes. Not a set of glowing eyes among them.”

“Uh- er,” the man began, arms lowered,eyes shifting around quickly, soon shifting back up to lock with Elise’s, “Your point? Yeah, dead eyes because they’re undead, duh.”

“No no,” Elise said with a smile, continuing to speak, “I said almost. Second to back row, third to the right. It’s the only one wearing goggles. I can’t see its eyes.”

Her eyes turned to the right, locked right to the one she called out. Almost immediately the figure stepped back, arms raised defensively, one out front, the other behind as if ready to turn and run. Immediately Elise’s right arm jerked, her hand flying from her pocket. It extended, held out, hand held towards said individual and in it a gun-looking object, yet not quite a gun.

The trigger was pulled and forward there flew a white bolt of energy, plasma practically in appearance. It flew through the ranks and slammed straight into the target. A yell was heard as they flew back and crashed, their howl practically inhuman, a super sonic screech. Right away, all of the non-zombies turned, count included. They all looked upon the struck figure, goggles flung off.

A slight glow of orange eyes, fading in and out. All eyes turned their attention right back to Elise, the count now with his mouth hanging. From the fallen, to the gun, and back to them- her eyes simply drifted.

“Holy Burst Pistol, good for stunning Vampires for a couple of hours. At least one Vampire or Ghoul is needed to command Undead. Like I said, far too obvious. You know you’re hunted, either you’re a total idiot strutting around like you own the forest, or you’re just a diversion. Then like I said, the zombies stopped well before you did, so someone back here heard me and was clearly the guy. And uh, yeah, only one without visible Undead eyes. Finally it’s at this point where my comrades and I are going to swiftly beat the few Zaherian and whatever else you might have here in front of me, followed by processing you after for intell. We good?”

“Oh fuck me,” the count grumbled out, stepping back a pace among the others.

“Sorry bud, you’re not my type. Now!”

Flora rustled and crashed immediately, out popped nine others who had been waiting up in the tree tops. All came flying down right above, weapons drawn, combat ready. They all looked up wide eyed right as many were then tackled to the ground, some run through by a variety of weapons. A blend of color all came down at once near the heart of the warriors, quick to fan out and begin beating away at many of the Zaherian.

Elise herself flew forward with an upper cut straight to the count, sending him crashing back into two other individuals. In no time flat the group of Zaherian were completely surrounded, those that remained held at blade point.

“How’s that?” she plainly stated, looking down upon the count who now lay upon his back, atop two of his followers.

He gazed back into her eyes, his own dazed, one eye now brown while the other remained red. He simply looked back upon her breathing heavily with nothing but shock filling him.

“Krrz- Bakuuva, come in!” came the voice of Omocha.

“Yes Agent, what is it?”

“Did you seriously just launch your ass in front of the enemy and pull off some crazy shit again?”

“Possibly, very possible. I’ll have to get back to you on that one,” came her response, followed by laughter over the channel.

“How in the living Hell does Lady Bell put up with you? Good lord I- wait, perimeter team just picked something up- impossible! Get out of- krrrzzzzzzzzz-”

“Wait, Omocha, Agent Omocha, do you copy?!” Elise called out.

Upon a sudden there came the thundering march. All bodies turned round, eyes bulging from a couple of the squad, the rest gritted with teeth and narrow. Elise herself turned to see nothing but the source of the rumbling as the second division came marching in. The Undead in sync all came marching again, a lone warrior leading the charge in front of them.

A warrior, cloaked with a black cape doted with red stars. He bore armor, medieval in appearance, clanking as he marched forward with his army behind him. The armor stood out as dark gray and black, a helmet of horns resting upon his head. Tall, bulky due to the armor, eyes fierce and raging amber, hair a blend of brown and black and white. This lone individual headed the entire marching force of the Undead.

Behind them, the units they had stopped prior had also begun to move. The gap opened by the parting of Undead was now being refilled as said ones who parted before returned to formation. Though the target of Elise’s shot had gone down, it had not yet stopped the enemy.

Immediately as she gazed forward upon the enemy, her eyes met with those of her foe, her rage in turn sparking, “You damned-”

“Ah, Lieutenant Bakuuva. I should have expected you to be here,” the man spoke in a deeper voice, authoritative in a way.

“Genereal Mallic Hawkthorne,” came a murmur from one of Elise’s nearby comrades, Milly’s voice.

David stood beside her, shaken, his own eyes turning fierce and beginning to show the inner beast, his Wulf’n blood clearly boiling. Rusty and Britt backed away a pace, collecting themselves, while the rest all began to take on more defensive positions. Scott and Drake flipped round, Mark doing the same with twin swords. Samantha soon followed suit, while Zoey hung close to Elise.

“Did you truly think I would make it that easy for you to disable my army?” Hawkthorne went on to question, looking at Elise with a slight laugh.

“Anything is possible I suppose, you haven’t exactly been the most thrilling of battle tacticians in the last few months.”

“Hehaha, clearly I am incapable of doing my job, wretched brat,” he growled in return.

“But what if this was also part of my plan General? I’m not exactly the most orthodox when it comes to battle strategies. Maybe my plan was to find the fake within your ranks, do a fake victory celebration, and have us lower our guard just to draw you out?”

“HA ha ha! No one is that clever, that would just be ridiculous!”

“Your bluffs never work out dammit to fuck, now we’re screwed!” Rusty quickly spat, grabbing his sword with both hands, quick to hold it out towards the enemy with gritted teeth and a sharpened gaze.

“Shut UP Rusty, I’ve got this!” came her spat response.

“Eh- Elise, I don’t know about this one,” came the response of David who had begun to eyeball every soldier around Hawkthorne, sizing up the whole lot of fire power.

“This is why we shouldn’t have just jumped in. This stupid bitch is going to get us killed!”

“Shut up Rusty, everything is just fine!” Elise spat back once more.

“Just fine? HA! Your whole squad is now under MY power, and soon the rest of your forces will be as well. A fail to see this as secured. Holly Bell’s prize, and the famous rebels of Vulfax. This must be my lucky day, haha!” Hawkthorne laughed.

“I have to ask myself this though,” came a chirp from beside Elise.

Hawkthorne looked to Zoey, while Elise moved a few faces away, a slight grin still present on her face as Zoey then stepped forward. Her silver eyes skated around her foes a few times, then rested back upon Hawkthorne, “Why would a General like Hawkthorne be out here in the middle of nowhere commanding a who-knows-what battalion of Undead, when Elise without a doubt nailed the actual Vampire commanding this nonsense?”

“Huh?” came the confused response of Hawkthorne.

“Zoey, you have five seconds to explain yourself before I-”

“Rusty just shut up and learn to listen to women for once, you might learn a thing or two. Britt and Elise probably picked up on it easily before I even could. Think about it, why would a Dharkanian be in control of the Undead? He isn’t a Vampire. And of all Dharkanians, why the famous General? So what if he isn’t a Phantom, he’s still noteworthy, there’s absolutely no reason for him to be here.”

Her silvery gaze rested upon Hawkthorne, a smug shit-eating grin making itself apparent while Elise simply stood beside her friend with a smirk of her own. Rusty and the rest looked to one another, then back out to Hawkthorne. The latter looked around, frantically, stammering, “Th-that’s because uh, no- shit!”

Shatter

With the sound of broken glass, the army behind Hawkthorne vanished entirely. The first wave had returned to how it was before, the middle parted and all standing at attention waiting. Where Hawkthorne stood, there now was someone new. A scawny dark haired male stood in place, robed simply, a face practically expelling the feeling of nervousness.

“An illusionist with a pretty bad bluff, called it,” Britt stated behind the group.

“How?! That was perfect! No- better question, how the fucking shit fuck did you fuckers take out Yaunro!? No way are you stupid rookies that damn good!” the male yelled out, rage flooding from him.

“Because half the people in this group have an above average IQ, probably,” David replied with a shrug, “Two of them have kicked my ass in the past with significant ease.”

“Bullshit! GAH!”

Several wolves immediately sprung out from behind the man, followed quickly by several werewolves. Many snarled, some growled, all appeared so very much pissed off just like the Illusionist. Those already taken out or held at point by Elise’s squadron stood ready themselves, flexing a bit, cracking their bones, eyes changing as hair began to go wild along their skin.

“How’s this for impact, eh?! I dare you to beat all these brutes! If I can take you out, Arkaza will promote me for sure!” the Illusionist laughed.

“Looks like you were right Rusty, they are just Arkaza followers. No Hive here,” Scott said aloud.

“Christ bro, that’ll go to his head now,” Drake laughed.

“Everyone shut up and focus on what’s going on around us! You can kiss my ass later!” Rusty spat.

“Time to get this show on the road. I’ve been dying of boredom honestly. Time to finally cut loose,” David concluded.

Elise’s left hand rested upon the end of her weapon as she looked forward at the foes present on ahead, “Alright. Lets go!”