Dead Money

Wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt under a black hooded jacket and black skirt with white tennis shoes, Victoria walked through the Cursed Lands until she was outside the wooden gates of Silent Cemetery. She was glad that she wore bike shorts under her skirt because the wind was blowing it around. On her back was a small black backpack of basic supplies like food, water, a flashlight and batteries, and a basic first aid kit. This was the first time that she had carried a backpack in a long time, so it was a bit uncomfortable to wear. However, Victoria was operating far away from a city or town, so the supplies she carried on her back would be all the supplies that she had available during the job.

Her job tonight was to rescue a pair of merchants from a merchant guild who had been captured by a necromancer while traveling through the Cursed Lands. It was reported that the merchants had been captured by living corpses. Victoria's reason for rescuing them was twofold. One, pulling off difficult rescues always made Black Rose look good. Two, maybe they would be willing to work with Black Rose should Izayuki see fit to make arrangements with them.

Victoria summoned her shotgun while standing outside the gates. She might need to go in armed in case a welcoming committee was waiting for her. This would be her first time going into a cemetery since Capital Crocus. Going into cemeteries was not something that she particularly enjoyed doing, but a job was a job. The merchants were depending on her.

Victoria carefully gripped the cold metallic handle and pulled open the door, then closed it behind her. Blue flames flickered to life on wall torches placed throughout the area, providing some unsettling mood lights. The scene was like something out of the Malevolent Tenant games. A cold wind blew through the cemetery and pierced her clothing, making Victoria shiver. She looked over the numerous rows of headstones and felt a strange sense of foreboding.

Something told Victoria that she should turn back now while there was still time. She ignored the voice because the merchants needed her help, but something kept eating at her resolve. That "something" was the sensation that she was being watched by hidden observers. She did not see any animals that could be used as spies because no animals were around. That was one of the many odd things about Silent Cemetery.

No birds. No dogs. No snakes. Not even a black cat to stand on a headstone and hiss at her. Maybe they were scared off by the area's malevolent atmosphere or something.

Victoria kept a watch out for any living corpses and kept her shotgun ready. According to some movie about a guy with a chainsaw for a hand, shotguns were one of the best weapons that one could use against the undead. All one had to do was aim and pull the trigger at close range to defeat the foe with little effort. It certainly looked impressive in the movies. She doubted that most movie consultants had fought against the undead, something that she was about to do.

[Word Count: 532]
[Total Word Count: 532/7,500]

Victoria walked slowly through the cemetery with her weapon ready. She never knew when the enemy would pop up. Seconds later she spotted a group of five shambling corpses standing right in the main path that led to the next part of the cemetery. One of them looked in her direction with glazed-over eyes and let out a drawn-out, pained moan that alerted the others in its group to her presence. Stealth was no longer an option; it was time to fight.

Victoria aimed her shotgun at the head of the first zombie and fired a Solid Slug round, hitting it in the head and decapitating it. She fired a round of normal buckshot at another one but only staggered it. The brunette used a Heavy Pistol spell to punch a hole in the chest of a second and put it down. The remaining three shuffled towards her while completely oblivious to what happened to their colleagues.

She fired again, tearing a series of small holes into another zombie but not stopping it. She needed to hurry before they took chunks out of her arm with their teeth. Victoria then aimed carefully before firing a round of Big Shot that punched quarter-sized holes in a zombie's torso and killed it. Two more left. They had reached hand-to-hand combat range.

Victoria used a Brass Knuckles spell to create a set on her left hand and drove her fist into one's face. She recoiled as its rotting face caved in and the zombie dropped to the ground. The remaining shambler grabbed for her shotgun, so she let the weapon go and kicked the corpse back, then used a Hand Cannon spell to shoot it in the head for a clean kill. Well, mostly clean. There was the small issue of congealed blood coating her hands from the last two zombie kills.

Victoria rubbed her hands on the tattered clothes of a dead zombie until the bloody mess was almost completely off of her hands, then brought out a plastic bottle of water and opened it to pour water on them. Victoria carefully washed off her hands and dried them on a clean patch of grass, then poured the remaining water into her mouth without touching the lip of the bottle. Once the bottle was finished she brought out a plastic grocery bag and put it inside before securely tying the top in a knot. She would need to find a safe place to dispose of the blood-coated water bottle. She lobbed the bag into a corner for the time being... she would come back and collect it after the mission was complete.

After cleaning off her hands Victoria took a look around to see if the fight had attracted any more enemies. So far none had presented themselves. After waiting three minutes to make sure no more enemies would show up, Victoria picked up her shotgun. Anything with hearing likely heard the battle between her and the zombies, so she had to keep moving before they arrived. The brunette kept walking forward on the search for the abducted merchants.

[Word Count: 518]
[Total Word Count: 1,050/7,500]

Silent Cemetery lived up to its name. Aside from the wind blowing and the encounter with the zombies, Victoria had not heard any ambient noise since setting foot in the place. That was good because she could hear threats loud and clear and bad because the silence was unsettling. She recalled her comment to Vinn about people not liking silence and frowned. Little did she know that barely a day later she would be heading into a place where silence was painful.

Victoria spotted a pair of armed skeletons standing around near a small family mausoleum and ducked behind a headstone. One had a spear and the other wielded an ax. She did not want to get close to either one of them, so she put away her shotgun and summoned her sniper rifle. Its suppressor could help eliminate them without alerting other enemies, so she would use that weapon for this encounter. Victoria carefully rose, balanced the rifle on the headstone she was hiding behind, and fired a Kinetic Shot at the head of the spear-wielding skeleton.

The shot connected and made the skeleton's bones scatter all over the place. Its partner let out a low huff and looked around for the source of the shot. Victoria aimed for its skull and fired a second Kinetic Shot; it had the same result as the first one did. The skeleton exploded and sent bones flying everywhere, including one that hit her on the head.

Victoria smiled at the result. Two skeletons killed and they did not even know she was there. She looked around for any more enemies and even looked behind her in case another pair of skeletons or quintet of zombies had somehow gotten behind her. The brunette did not see either of them, so she stood up and switched back to her shotgun in case some were lurking around the corner. The sniper rifle was a good precision weapon, but it was poor at fending off ambushes; the shotgun was not a precision weapon but it was great for fending off close-range ambushes since the spread of magic buckshot meant that the chances of a hit were high.

She walked towards the mausoleum out of idle curiosity. Etched above the doorway was the name "SHERMAN." Victoria had never heard of the Sherman family, so she walked back onto the main path and kept going. The name made Victoria think about her past. Part of the brunette wondered if she had a family before finding herself on the streets of Capital Crocus.

Victoria would have had to be part of one since babies did not just pop up out of thin air. She wondered if her family was looking for her. Even if they were looking for her and managed to find her, it might not have been a joyful reunion since she had gotten accustomed to life with Lawrence and life as a Black Rose mage. Lawrence was her substitute father and Izayuki was her substitute mother. That was all Victoria needed to know about her "family" right now.

[Word Count: 512]
[Total Word Count: 1,562/7,500]

Victoria carefully walked through the cemetery while on the watch for enemies. She had not been this paranoid even when dealing with the Anlecottis and the dirty cops in Hargeon Town. Something about the place seriously disturbed her in a way that could not be readily described. One aspect was that everything was too quiet. Even in the most backwoods of woods, there was at least an owl hooting, wolves howling, or some sounds that indicated life was in the area.

Here, here it was quiet in an unearthly way. It was like the area somehow absorbed all sound except that which was allowed to reach a person's ears. She could not figure out how that was so or why it happened. While thinking about the cemetery she spotted a quintet of zombies swaying in the breeze like grotesque scarecrows. They were positioned in the middle of a crossroads which led to three different places.

Victoria ducked behind a headstone and brought out her sniper rifle. She would use the silenced weapon to pick them off before they ever knew she was there. It had worked with the skeletons, so why not try it again? She slowly raised herself up and took aim at the first zombie's head. She fired a Kinetic Shot and nailed it in the forehead, dropping it like a sack of potatoes.

The remaining four did not even react to the congealed blood that slapped them in their faces. Victoria aimed again and shot, drilling another one through the left temple. She fired again and again and again, killing the remaining three with ridiculous ease. It was not even a fight. It was more like a shooting gallery.

Victoria stood up again and put away her sniper rifle because there was no more long-range shooting to be done... yet. Instead she brought out her shotgun again. She walked until she reached the crossroads, then looked down each path. Which way were the merchants taken?

There was no sign at the crossroads, so she had no idea which path they were taken. She was stuck. Each way she looked there was the same stretch of perfectly aligned headstones broken up by the occasional small crypt off to the side. Victoria looked left, then right, then straight ahead. There were still no clues.

The brunette kicked the ground and was startled by something shiny being kicked into a headstone and clattering off of it. Victoria looked at her feet and spotted a trail of the shiny objects leading straight ahead. She bent down and examined one of them. It was a Jewel. She was looking at a thin trail of Jewels that gleamed like stars.

Whether it was accidental or intentional, the merchants had left a trail for her to follow. Before she became too smug, she took a moment to think. What if the necromancer had left them as bait for a rescue party? What if the necromancer wanted to be found? That was something to consider before tromping down the path and into a trap.

At the same time, if it was a clue, she would be wasting valuable time by going any other way. The brunette looked at the glittering Jewels, looked down the path, and then made a decision. She was going for it. She would follow the Jewel trail and deal with whatever she came across. It was not the smartest choice she had ever made, but she could not afford to waste time by overthinking the situation.

Victoria carefully walked on the left side of the path, being careful not to disrupt the trail of shining gems because they might be her only way of locating the kidnapped merchants. It was important to leave that evidence intact and follow it all the way to the end. At least that was the plan before she spotted more zombies. This time she would not have the luxury of leisurely picking off oblivious corpses because they were already shambling towards her. It was time to fight.

The brunette took careful aim and fired a Solid Slug that punched through a zombie head and instantly dropped it. The second was met with another Solid Slug that blew its mind. A third was fired and a third zombie downed, but the remaining two were in grabbing range of Victoria. She quickly aimed from the hip and fired a round of Big Shot that took out a fourth one. The last staggered and fell to the ground, attempting to grab her leg on the way down.

She screamed and jumped out of the reach of the rotting fingers, then aimed and fired a Big Shot that turned its head into Swiss cheese. That threat had been stopped. Now to pick up the trail again. Victoria walked past the five corpses until she spotted glistening dots on the ground. She then began to follow them... with any luck they would lead her to her objective.

[Word Count: 826]
[Total Word Count: 2,388/7,500]

Walking slowly down the side of the path, Victoria kept a look out for trouble. She also listened out for the enemy and for any signs of life besides her. While she walked she looked around at the numerous headstones and noticed how they all looked like they were just put into place yesterday. Some of them had dates of death ranging from twenty to fifty years ago, a few even going as far back as seventy-five years, but all of them looked new. How was that? She did not know.

Victoria paused when she spotted a small mausoleum that belonged to the "ANDERSON" family. Its door was ominously open and blood droplets formed a trail that led inside the dark vault. Overcome with curiosity, she edged closer to the door and peered inside. The wind picked up and made the door open wider, making Victoria scream and fall over backwards as she slipped on the grass while backing away. She got up and brushed herself off before moving on, unwilling to hazard another look inside lest any occupants take offense and try to drag her in for company.

Victoria walked on and resumed her quest to find the merchants. She wondered how they were doing. The job notice read that they were captured as they tried to take a shortcut through the Cursed Lands. Where were they trying to take a shortcut to? And why did they think it was a good idea to cut through a land full of werewolves and undead?

If everything went well tonight she would get a chance to ask them those questions. She walked the trail until it branched off to the left and led into yet another section of headstones. Victoria had to take a break from all the endless walking, so she took shelter behind another mausoleum and brought out a bottle of water. She opened it and took a drink while stretching her legs on the grass. Sitting near a potential home for zombies was not the ideal place for a break, but it beat sitting out in the open because the mausoleum could at least reduce the chances of being seen from the road.

The brunette listened to a rare instance of the wind howling and brought out a pack of crackers to eat. She still had a ways to go before she reached the finish line and she had to be ready to fight when she got there. The job was a marathon, not a sprint. Still, she did not want to take too long a break because the necromancer might get fed up with waiting and kill the hostages anyway. That was an outcome Victoria did not want to happen.

She ate half of the six peanut butter crackers in the pack and folded it over before putting it inside a sandwich bag. Victoria put the crackers away and tightened the cap on the half-full bottle of water before putting it away. Four bottles were left out of the six she started the job with. That should be more than enough to get through the night. There were two for the merchants and two for her... she would have to ration the rest, but two bottles should be enough for her.

Victoria got up, stretched her legs again, and resumed the lengthy walk. She had a lot more cemetery to cover before the job was done. After this job was completed she would make an effort to look for some easier work, work that did not involve walking through creepy cemeteries or shooting the undead. Maybe she would finally get around to participating in the Road Fighter tournament she had read about before the fight with the clones at Silver Moon Inn. It was not a fight to the death and winning paid good money.

Focus.

She was not getting paid to daydream. She had to stay focused on the here and now. Victoria put one foot in front of the other and followed the twinkling trail of Jewels.

[Word Count: 672]
[Total Word Count: 3,060/7,500]

Victoria had just crossed over into the next section when she spotted six skeletal warriors like the ones from earlier. Two were armed with spears, two with broadswords, and two with axes. This would be yet another shooting gallery were it not for the fact that they spotted her and were ready. Victoria did not have time to switch weapons, so she would just have to use her trusty shotgun.

She started the party with a Solid Slug to the head of a spear-wielding enemy that cause it to break apart. A round of Big Shot defeated the next one in line, but the others were closing in fast. Victoria had just dusted another skeleton with a round of Big Shot when the thrust of a spearhead rushing past her arm alerted her to the fact that they had closed the cap. She jumped back and prepared to fire a Solid Slug when the weapon was knocked out of her hands by an ax.

The brunette fell back on her Heavy Pistol spell and dusted the fourth skeleton. She then used Hand Cannon to defeat the fifth before being slammed into by the sixth. She was slammed against the gate and slumped against it while the sixth skeleton advanced on her with sword in hand. The skeleton warrior made ready to stab her when she used Hand Cannon to the chest to put an end to it... for a touch of black comedy the skull landed between her legs after it fell apart. She kicked the skull away and stood back up.

She had barely brushed her backside off when she spotted five zombies shambling down the path. They must have heard the commotion and come to investigate. That was strange in itself, but what was even stranger was that they were glowing purple. However, their coming to her saved her the trouble of hunting them. It was their funeral... again.

Victoria readied a Hand Cannon spell and hit the first in the chest, killing it again. She grabbed her shotgun from the ground near a headstone and fired a Solid Slug that punched a hole in the chest of a zombie. It crumpled like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Three more shots later and the zombies were dead.

Something was off about this batch. The first few groups did not really pay any attention to her and only reacted whenever she fired at them, a chance she did not give whenever she used the sniper rifle. This batch acted like they had been directed to find her because they did not stand around and sway in the breeze. They knew where she was and went after her before she could recover from the fight with the skeletons. How did that happen?

She had a theory. Her weapons were so noisy that the necromancer would have had to be deaf not to hear the weapons fire. The puppetmaster had to be sending his creations into battle because they were too dumb to find her on their own unless she shouted her location into a megaphone for their convenience. The glowing zombies had found her in short order and moved with purpose. Unless their brains had regenerated when they were brought back to life, the necromancer had to be controlling them.

Victoria was mildly disturbed by the prospect of semi-intelligent zombies. They had coordinated with the skeletons to catch her at a vulnerable time, namely when her preferred weapon was just out of reach. Fortunately for her and unfortunately for them, most of her spells did not require a magical weapon to use. She wondered what other new tricks their master could make them do now that she was closing in on him. Then something hit her.

What if the necromancer could observe her through the zombies and skeleton warriors? What if he was throwing them at her just to see what she could do? It was entirely possible because magic was a versatile tool. When paired with the desperation and ingenuity of someone with nothing to lose and everything to gain by killing their pursuer, magic could do many things that one never thought possible. Victoria would have to keep that in mind as she moved forward into the deeper parts of the cemetery.

[Word Count: 708]
[Total Word Count: 3,776/7,500]

The brunette strolled through another batch of zombies she had just defeated with her shotgun. Like with the first batch from a few minutes ago, these zombies glowed purple. She wondered how much further she had to go until she reached the end of the maze. It felt like she had been walking through the cemetery for hours. Nothing but headstones and the odd crypt as far as the eye could see.

She walked carefully in case the zombies took a different approach and burst from the ground like they did in movies. While she was walking she spotted a grave with a teddy bear placed on it. Her heart immediately sank into her stomach because the implication was all too clear. A child was buried there. Victoria walked over to the grave and leaned down to examine the headstone.

"ANNA CARLISLE" was the name. According to the stone, she only lived to be eight years old. That discovery forced Victoria to remember what her life was like at that age. She remembered the bad old days of living in substandard shelter and being chased by street gangs and criminals looking for their next victim. She also remembered running for her life from slavers who had caught most of the group she ran with and would have caught her were it not for Lawrence's sudden and violent intervention.

Victoria hoped that Anna's death was quick and merciful. She remembered watching an old man starve to death during an unusually cold winter in Capital Crocus. She remembered him begging for food for a week until he finally died from starvation. His end was not quick in the slightest and he died in agony. No matter how hard she tried the brunette could not shake that ugly memory.

Why did Victoria feel sad? She did not even know Anna Carlisle enough to be sad about her death. Maybe it was the fact that a child's life was cut short by tragedy. Or maybe it was the teddy bear with the red bow around its neck that sat on Anna's grave. She did not know why she was sad over a total stranger.

Victoria stood up and walked away without a word. She did not know why that affected her so much. Maybe it affected her so much because it reminded her of the other children who died on the streets of Capital Crocus without anyone to care about them or to mourn their passing. A long time ago Victoria wondered if she would survive to adulthood. She had made it thanks to Burr's help, but many others were not so lucky.

Her musing was interrupted by another gang of zombies shuffling down the path. Victoria could go down Memory Lane later. Now was the time to fight so that later she could have the privilege of going down Memory Lane.

[Word Count: 478]
[Total Word Count: 4,254/7,500]

After defeating the latest zombie gang Victoria entered into a part of the cemetery with a lot of burial vaults that were above ground. Great. Zombie condos were everywhere. The area was devoid of tombstones, which was a blessing and a curse. She could run without worrying about obstructions but did not have anywhere to take cover besides hiding between the burial vaults.

Victoria noticed that the vault doors had all been pried open. A trail of blood led from each one to the outside like something had been dragged from inside of them. Victoria edged closer to one that belonged to the "DOWD" family and took a peek inside. What she saw made her nearly vomit. It was a pile of body parts strewn haphazardly like something out of a slasher movie!

Victoria had to turn away before she threw up her crackers. Who would break into a crypt and throw body parts around? It had to be the necromancer. He had to be responsible for that kind of thing because the scale of the ghastly harvest went way beyond a prank. There were fourteen opened coffins and only certain parts had been taken instead of whole bodies... the undesirable parts had been scattered haphazardly across the interior like someone throwing away garbage.

She wondered if other vaults had been broken into, so she took a walk to satisfy her curiosity. She soon wished that she had not. Eight other vaults had been ransacked for parts and the leftovers tossed into piles or simply left to lie where they were discarded. What were all the body parts being taken for? Part of her did not want to know.

The brunette looked across the desolate area for a hint of where to go next. She spotted the familiar sparkle of Jewels on the ground and went to follow it. She had barely taken five steps when a giant strode through an open gate and faced her. Victoria paused in place. What she saw was ghastly and stomach-churning.

It was a ten-foot tall giant that looked like it was stitched together from body parts. It had faces melted into its massive chest and numerous arms flexing as it surveyed the area. Its multiple eyes found the frightened brunette and its body turned in her direction. Victoria quickly raised the shotgun. It roared and charged at her.

Victoria stood her ground and aimed a Solid Slug right at its chest. She fired and hit it squarely in the torso, but it kept charging. She jumped to the side, but she was too slow. A fist hit her in the face and knocked her onto her back. Her shotgun skidded out of reach. To make matters worse, her vision was blurry from the punch.

Victoria aimed a Hand Cannon at it and fired, missing by a country mile. It strode towards her with its arms all reaching for her. Victoria fired another and grazed the side of its chest. It ignored the grazing shot and continued to walk towards her with murder on its mind. Taking a deep breath, she aimed and fired one last Hand Cannon, hitting it directly in the chest.

The towering monstrosity roared and fell straight towards the mage. Victoria screamed and frantically rolled out of the way just in time as its corpse slammed faces-first into the dirt. She dusted herself off, collected her shotgun, and walked the short distance to the fallen creature. As disgusting as it was from afar, it was even more disgusting up close. Its faces were twisted in expressions of agony that were unsettling to look at.

"What the Hell was that thing?" Victoria asked herself as she looked towards the wrought iron gate it used to enter the area. The gate in question had a pair of angels with arms raised in supplication and outstretched wings flanking the entrance. Above the gate was a stone decoration of a smaller angel in the same pose as its larger peers. Victoria saw a small pile of Jewels glittering near the angels, so that had to be the way. She walked past the angel statues and into the next section of the cemetery.

The next section was the same as the section she had just left behind. There were opened burial vaults, no tombstones, and no enemies standing around. In the middle of the road there was an abandoned cart loaded with objects in the back. Victoria slowly walked over to the back of the cart, lifted up the tarp, and peeked inside. She saw that it was loaded with trade goods like hand-woven carpets, gold and silver jewelry, finely crafted furniture made from luxurious woods, and other items of considerable value. She thought that the necromancer would have taken the goods as prizes, but he left them with the cart that the merchants presumably rode on.

Victoria left it behind and continued to follow the money trail up to the next wrought iron gate with angel statues flanking it. She thought that she could hear screaming in the distance. She opened the gate and began to hustle. The screaming was likely coming from the merchants. There was precious little time to waste.

[Word Count: 868]
[Total Word Count: 5,122/7,500]

Victoria rushed into a clearing with her shotgun in hand. Standing in the middle of it was a solitary man dressed in black robes and wearing a white mask. Judging from his attire and his magical signature, he had to be the necromancer behind the kidnapping of the merchants.

"So... you've finally made it. I was beginning to worry that my creations had finally killed you." The man spoke to her in a pleasant tone of voice. He was entirely too calm for the location they were in. He made it sound like they were sitting down for tea instead of preparing to do battle. He could afford to be calm because the dead in the cemetery answered to him and him alone.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but they haven't. Not yet, anyway." Victoria replied. The man's laughter echoed in his mask.

"On the contrary, my dear. Your survival pleases me." He answered with good cheer.

"Why did you kidnap the merchants if you didn't want their goods? Are they going to be another source of parts for your creations?" Victoria asked him.

"No." He answered laconically. Victoria perked up at that answer. Why did he kidnap them if he did not want their goods or their body parts?

"OK then. If you didn't want their merchandise, did you want to know their trade routes or their connections?" The brunette inquired.

"No." He answered again. Victoria was stumped. If he did not want anything material from them, then what DID he want?

"Then what were you after?" The stumped mage asked the necromancer. He emitted a low chuckle.

"If you want to know... then take this last challenge. Should you succeed, then I will give you the answer you seek." He replied. Victoria sighed. Why her?

"OK. Bring it on!" Victoria accepted the challenge. The wizard floated into the air and crossed his arms. He then muttered in some unknown language as his hands glowed purple. He then raised them into the sky and brought them down in a throwing motion. He threw two purple discs at the ground before disappearing in a puff of wispy black smoke. Victoria soon saw what he had done... two more of those ten-foot-tall monstrosities materialized from columns of purple light that soon disappeared.

"Damn." Victoria whispered before the pair spotted her and bellowed. The necromancer had certainly given her a challenge, but it was a manageable one. Despite their multiple heads the abominations were not terribly smart and were not particularly fast except when sprinting. She could handle these guys.

Victoria led off with a Solid Slug to the chest of the first one and dodged its retaliatory charge, then shot it with a round of normal shot from behind. It fell to the ground with a thud. The second one sprinted at her but slammed into the wall behind her, giving her the perfect opportunity to shoot it with impunity. Victoria took it, shooting a round of Big Shot and a round of normal shot to defeat it before it could charge again.

"That was easy." Victoria commented. More purple discs dropped from the sky while accompanied by echoing laughter. A batch of zombies had arrived. Then another batch, then a third gang of the shamblers. The brunette was facing fifteen zombies total.

"Great." The brunette snarked as they shambled towards her in unison. Unlike in the main sections of the cemetery, there were no tombstones or burial vaults around. Earlier she had refrained from using Grenade spells because the wanton destruction of burial places might awaken angry spirits to add to her woes. In this empty part of the cemetery there was nothing to destroy, so the Grenade and Sticky Grenade spells could be used without concerns. The only thing she needed to watch for was getting caught in her own spells.

Victoria threw a Sticky Grenade just in front of them and silently counted to five. At the count of five it went off and scattered zombie parts everywhere, including dropping a snapping head right at her feet. Victoria finished off the still living head with a Solid Slug, then went around and cleaned up the remaining zombies. The clean-up was tedious, but it was a lot more doable than facing a mob of flesh-eaters. Once the final zombie had been shot in the head it was time to move on through the gate right in front of her.

It opened on cue. It was obviously a trap, but Victoria had to go in. She had to stop the necromancer so that he could not kidnap anyone else for his twisted games.

[Word Count: 772]
[Total Word Count: 5,894/7,500]

Once Victoria entered the last patch of the cemetery, the iron gates closed behind her and locked themselves. She was stuck in this square enclosure until the fight was finished. Moments later the masked man appeared with his arms crossed. He then unfolded them and began to clap with sincerity.

"Well done, my dear! You have proven to be quite tenacious. You were more than a match for my best creations." The man complimented her warmly. Victoria was not impressed. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.

"OK, I've beaten all of your creations. Every last one of them. Now I want my answer." Victoria interrupted the flow of compliments. He remained silent for a few tense moments. His tone of voice then shifted to a formal, businesslike tone.

"And as I promised, you will have your answer. You may have as many answers as you wish." He assured her.

"Why did you kidnap the merchants?" Victoria repeated her question from their first meeting.

"Because I wanted something very important, no, essential to my plans. YOU." He answered. Victoria was not amused. What did that mean? A cemetery was hardly the best place for a romantic outing.

"My creations are... flawed. They have no magic potential and are fit for use only as cannon fodder. But you are different. You have magical power and that is what I want. I want you to be my newest test subject." He answered calmly.

"So you don't care about the merchants at all?" Victoria asked him.

"No. They have fulfilled their purpose, which was to lure you here. They have played their role to perfection." He replied. Now it was all making sense. The necromancer counted on the Legal guilds to send mages to rescue the merchants. Either he or his undead minions would kill the mage and he could start work on creating an army of magic-wielding zombies. He would repeat the trick as many times as necessary to get as many mage corpses as he needed for his new army.

"Are they still alive?" Victoria inquired. The necromancer simply snapped his fingers and an iron gate opened. The two merchants, a male and a female dressed in beige robes, ran from the enclosure they were trapped in and towards Victoria.

"Thank goodness you're here!" The male said to her.

"He captured us while we were on the road to a village called Wolfsmane. We were looking to do business with the village's chief when this man's zombie servants captured us." The woman explained. So that explained what the merchants were doing here. Their endeavor was still risky, but it made more sense than the job notice indicated.

"Did he hurt you or make any threats?" Victoria asked the pair.

"No. Not at all. He just wanted us to be bait." The man supported the masked man's story. The female merchant nodded her agreement. The necromancer was still creepy, but he did not abuse the captives, which was a big step up from the usual highwaymen who preyed on Earthland's travelers.

The masked man snapped his fingers. Suddenly the iron gate behind Victoria slid down and was open. Was this a trick?

"Go now, merchants. I have no further need for you. You will find your wagon and your goods perfectly intact. My business now is with this mage." The necromancer instructed.

"How do we know that you won't kill us now that you don't need us?" The older merchant asked.

"I will not harm you, nor will my minions. However, I cannot guarantee that the other denizens of the Cursed Lands will be so kind. I suggest that you leave immediately and employ the quickest route out of this region." The masked man replied. The merchants turned to Victoria.

"We're getting outta here. We're heading straight for Rose Garden. Thanks a lot for saving us!"
The female thanked her before the pair ran through the gate and got to their wagon. But how were they going to move it without any horses? The gate closed and Victoria was alone with the necromancer.

"Now, I believe that we have business to finish." The oddly courteous necromancer said to her.

"But before we begin, I must introduce myself. I am Mortalis." He introduced himself. So now the masked man had a name. Since he had introduced himself, now she would introduce herself.

"I'm Victoria Sheridan of the guild known as Black Rose." Victoria gave her own introduction.

"Victoria Sheridan? I shall remember that name. You will have the honor of becoming the first of my new test subjects. I will learn much from experimenting upon you." Mortalis told her, his open hands glowing purple. Victoria did not like the look of that. She was about to be in for the toughest fight of the night.

"You'll have to beat me first." Victoria retorted. Mortalis laughed.

"I intend to do just that. I have many ambitions, ambitions that you will help me fulfill." He said with confidence.

[Word Count: 834]
[Total Word Count: 6,728/7,500]

It was go time. Victoria aimed her shotgun and fired, hitting a wall of bone that he had summoned to protect himself. He momentarily lowered the wall and flung a purple ball of energy at her. She barely dodged it by dropping to the ground. He laughed and threw another one that she avoided by rolling to the left. He then began throwing them rapidly until she came to a stop and fired a Solid Slug that shattered the wall of bones but did not not punch through.

"It will take more than that to defeat me." Mortalis said to her. Victoria sighed. In addition to being uncommonly polite, he had a penchant for stating the obvious. She had more weapons and spells waiting to be used, so he did not need to worry about her being a one-trick pony. He should worry more about himself.

Victoria aimed and fired a Big Shot that he blocked with the wall of bone before pushing outward and firing a cone of purple energy that slammed into her and disoriented her so much that she fell to the ground. She felt momentarily drained of energy and woozy, but she soon recovered and fired a round of normal buckshot that grazed his left arm as he threw a ball of magic at her. Both of them recoiled from receiving the attack of their opponent.

"I cannot die. I am the master of all that is death!" He bellowed at her. Gone was the veneer of politeness. Now Victoria was seeing the real Mortalis. He snapped his fingers and disappeared in a burst of black smoke. Next came a purple disc that landed on the ground and summoned another one of those tall abominations.

Victoria fired a Solid Slug that punched through its abdomen and fired another that punched through the center of its chest. The creature fell and the cone of energy surged from Mortalis, who had appeared directly behind her! Victoria dove to the left side but she did not jump far enough... her legs were caught in the blast and went numb for a few moments. That was time enough for Mortalis to grab her by the throat and lift her into the air.

"You were an idiot to come here, mage! You cannot possibly win this! I am the master of all that is death!" He hissed in her face.

"So you keep on saying." Victoria retorted. He threw her to the ground and she landed on her back, dropping her shotgun in the process. He called in another pair of skeletons to harass her while he flung more energy balls at her. The brunette jumped to her feet and started running for her life from the skeletons and their master.

Victoria got some distance between them before using Hand Cannon to defeat the first one, then shot the second moments afterward. Mortalis simply hovered in the air and raised a wall of bone to defend himself before she could fire the third Hand Cannon shot that would have defeated him. Victoria huffed in annoyance as the wall shattered and the necromancer seemed to cheat death yet again.

"Excellent! Show me more of your power!" He encouraged her. Victoria frowned. She was going to give him his wish and then some. In order to do that, she needed a clear shot at him. But how was she going to get it when he could summon minions and defensive walls at will?

"Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it." Victoria warned Mortalis. She was going to end him sooner or later. She just needed the right opportunity to make good on her threat. Again, she was not going to be handed one. She needed to make one for herself.

[Word Count: 632]
[Total Word Count: 7,360/7,500]

Victoria was going to have to make a choice. They could not afford to be in a stalemate forever. She would have to break it by force. If she kept dancing around his attacks, she was eventually going to be worn down by his endless summons and lose. The brunette could not afford to lose.

Victoria dispelled her shotgun and stood before Mortalis without a weapon. She had an idea, but she was going to have to eat an attack for it to work. So she stood in place and aimed a Hand Cannon at him. Mortalis laughed.

"I have seen what you can do, child! I can avoid your spell with ease!" He shouted.

"Then what are you afraid of? You're the master of death, right?" Victoria asked. He clenched his hands into fists and his breathing turned shallow. She had him.

"I WILL TAKE MUCH PLEASURE IN EXPERIMENTING UPON YOU!" He roared as the cone of energy raced towards her. Victoria fired a Hand Cannon but missed and was hit for the third time. She was momentarily blinded and tried to run but fell to the ground. She put a hand under her and conjured a Flashbang. He floated down to grab her throat.

"Can you not feel it? The end is near!" He taunted her. Victoria mentally counted to four and held the device in front of her. She quickly shut her eyes.

"WHAT?!" He shouted just before the device went off. She was dropped to the ground and he dropped with her. Victoria landed on her back, but she quickly sat up and fired a Hand Cannon just as Mortalis lifted off. It pierced his chest and he dropped to his knees.

"So... this is how it ends." Mortalis mused as he clamped his left hand across his chest. His body was beginning to turn into black particles that blew away on the wind. Victoria simply watched his demise. The iron gates barring entry or exit into the arena now opened.

"You were such... a good specimen. You were... what I wanted." He lamented before he blew away completely. It was over. Victoria had won the battle and she was still alive. The merchants were alive and heading back for Rose Garden. It was a good night.

Victoria turned around and began to retrace her steps towards the exit. She would have a long walk back to Rose Garden. She needed to pick up that bloodstained water bottle she had left in the cemetery so that some loony could not use it to get material for a science experiment. Also, littering was not a good idea, especially not in a cemetery. She could not wait to reclaim the bottle and get home.

[Word Count: 456]
[Total Word Count: 7,816/7,500]