Abby's Road

-On the outskirts of Oak Town, early morning-

Riding towards Oak Town on her DH-40 Centaur Prototype, Victoria was wearing her Azure Armor over her white Steel Matron t-shirt and had her new olive drab iLac in a protective case in the right side pocket of her khaki cargo shorts. In her backpack was her Silver Dagger, her Bandolier, SHG-IV Smart Glasses, and Crown of Persephone. She would need them all because today she had been hired by her old friend Abigail Windstrider to help her with a job in Silent Cemetery. Apparently there was a necromancer who needed to be put in the ground and Abigail was not certain that she could do it alone, so she called upon the Sabertooth mage for a bit of extra muscle. Victoria was happy to oblige.

Victoria rode towards the outskirts of Oak Town at a speed of 10 MPH when she saw a blonde-haired young woman wearing a midriff-baring white t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts with brown boots, a scabbard on her left hip, and a brown leather backpack walking towards her. Victoria slowed down and eventually parked next to the young woman, who stopped and greeted her.

"Hey Vic! I see you got my job notice... and a new ride!" Abigail greeted Victoria. Victoria raised a hand in greeting.

"Yeah, I got your job notice. I also got this vehicle shortly after our job in Desierto. It woulda been really useful then, but it needed a lot of work and I mean a LOT of work. It needed so much work that if I had tried to take it to Desierto it might have broken down in the desert on us." Victoria said to Abigail.

"That's a good reason not to take a vehicle that doesn't work out for a spin. Are you ready to go to Silent Cemetery and kill that necromancer?" Abigail asked the brunette. Victoria gave a thumbs-up.

"Yeah. Hop on board, Abby." Victoria replied, then tapped the seat behind her. Abigail wordlessly climbed on and held onto Victoria's waist. Victoria slowly accelerated and got on the road to Silent Cemetery.

-Two hours later, outside Silent Cemetery-

Victoria brought the Centaur to a stop outside Silent Cemetery and turned it off. Victoria and Abigail then disembarked. Victoria took off her backpack and got out her Bandolier, her Silver Dagger, and her SHG-IV Smart Glasses and geared up with all of them. She draped the Bandolier over her armor, put her Silver Dagger on her left hip, and put on and powered on her SHG-IV Smart Glasses.

"You've come prepared." Abigail remarked to Victoria. Victoria nodded as Abigail was marked on the glasses. The brunette felt Abigail's magic signature and learned that her companion had been quite busy since their last meeting... her signature now matched that of an H-Rank mage.

"Yeah. Since we're going up against a necromancer I brought all my gear. If I can't shoot him or his undead minions to death I've got a Silver Dagger that can hurt ghosts." Victoria replied. She then looked around to see if her smart glasses picked up any nearby activity. She looked all around the gate and the surrounding area and did not see any. She then turned back to Abigail.

"Hey Abby, do you have your iLac with you?" Victoria asked. Abigail nodded.

"Yeah, why?" Abigail asked. Victoria fished out her new olive drab iLac and showed it to Abgail.

"I just got an iLac the other day. Do you mind giving me your number so that if we get split up we can call each other?" Victoria asked. Abigail nodded.

"Yeah, hang on." Abigail replied in the affirmative. She then fished her iLac out of her right side pocket and opened up a menu screen while the brunette did the same. Once Victoria had her empty Contacts List up she waited for the number to be given to her. Abigail gave her number and Victoria reciprocated. Once that was done both of them had each other's numbers now and for the future.

"OK, now that we've done that, are you ready to go in and find that necromancer?" Victoria asked Abigail. The blonde nodded weakly and looked towards the cemetery gates.

"Yeah." She said without much confidence. Victoria noticed that lack of confidence and spoke.

"Are you sure you're up for this, Abby?" Victoria asked her companion. Abigail faced her and spoke.

"I'm a bit worried, Vic. I haven't fought a necromancer in a few years, not since my parents died." Abigail started to explain the reason for her lack of confidence. Victoria was about to speak when the blonde continued.

"It seems that necromancers have it out for my family, Vic. My great-great grandparents, great-grandparents, and grandparents were all killed by necromancers. My parents were killed by one too. I'm currently the last of the Windstriders and I'm a little scared that I might end up joining my family in Oak Town cemetery." Abigail explained further, telling a little about her family's unfortunate history of meeting their ends at the hands of necromancers. Victoria remained silent. She could tell that her companion's apprehension was real.

"I'm here for you, Abby. I'll help you get to this necromancer and put them in the ground instead. I've also got healing magic, so if you get hurt I can keep you on your feet long enough for us to finish the job or to get out of there if they're just too tough to beat." Victoria assured the blonde that she did not think any less of Abigail for being worried. Unlike Victoria, who was strong enough to give Wizard Saints a run for their money and was sometimes too full of bravado to be afraid of something, Abigail was weaker and more sensible.

"Thanks, Vic." Abigail said in a slightly stronger voice, recovering some of her confidence.

"No problem, Abby. I owe you for all the times you helped me." Victoria replied.

"OK then. Let's go into Silent Cemetery and clean it out." Abigail said with more confidence. Victoria nodded.

"Let's go." Victoria said to Abigail. Together the pair left the Centaur behind and moved towards the gates of Silent Cemetery.

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[Total Word Count: 1,035/11,000]

-Inside Silent Cemetery-

Victoria took the lead while Abigail followed close behind the brown-haired mage. Abigail shut the gates behind them and Victoria looked around for any undead welcoming committee. Victoria brought out her Shotgun while Abigail drew her Sky Blade. Victoria looked to her left and spotted a lone zombie in a rotting gray suit shambling towards them from about ten meters away. It was standing in the middle of a row of tombstones and made eye contact with the brunette, who winced when she saw its rotting face in a little more detail than she would have liked.

"Look alive, Abby. There's a zombie ten meters to our left!" Victoria warned her partner, making a pun in the process. Abigail frowned and gave a glare that burned a hole in the back of the brunette's head.

"Ha ha ha. Very funny." Abigail remarked in a voice that was as dry as Desierto. Victoria aimed her Shotgun at the zombie's head and heard it give a drawn-out moan before Victoria aimed and fired, silencing it with a Solid Slug to the head that punched a gaping hole in its forehead and caused it to pitch forward in mid-stride, falling over a tombstone and planting its face into the ground.

"Sorry about the pun. I swear it was unintentional." Victoria apologized to her partner. Abigail did not comment as she stepped to Victoria's right and looked around for any more zombies in the immediate area. Victoria looked straight ahead and did not see any more zombies in the area, which was odd because zombies traveled in packs... or a mass of individuals, to be more accurate.

"Eh, it's OK, Vic. The timing was really bad, that's all. Let's just go." Abigail replied to Victoria's apology after an awkward silence. Abigail took the lead and Victoria followed to her left as the blonde traveled down a path that led deeper into the cemetery. Victoria kept sweeping the area as the pair advanced into the cemetery, but so far the only other magical being besides her was Abigail.

"Hey Vic, you've been here before, haven't you?" Abigail asked the brunette as they walked. Victoria nodded.

"Yeah. I've been here several times before, Abby. I've killed a necromancer here along with a bunch of demons summoned by a cult named Zupazu's Executioners." Victoria casually replied in the affirmative. Abigail looked at Victoria like the latter had grown an extra head on her shoulders.

"How do you do it?" Abigail asked.

"How do I do what?" Victoria asked in return.

"You know... go into cemeteries teeming with walking corpses like it's a walk on the beach? Fight demons, fight cultists, and fight necromancers? How do you do all of that without freaking out?" Abigail replied to Victoria's question with a bit of elaboration on the first question she had asked.

"Oh, right. Well, it's pretty easy for me. I'm always looking for an exciting job that pays well." Victoria replied. Abigail frowned in obvious disapproval.

"No, I'm serious, Abby. The money's a big help." Victoria continued. Abigail's frown did not let up.

"I used to be poor and being poor sucked. It's a state that I don't want to go back to if I can help it. I figured that if I was going to take high-paying jobs that I might as well make sure that they benefited someone. For example, I've fought Zupazu's Executioners on two separate occasions. Both jobs were exciting work that paid well, but the first time I also rescued a lot of young women from being sacrificed to a demon lord, young women which included Mr. Montgomery's two daughters Alex and Allie." Victoria explained her reasoning to the skeptical blonde. Upon hearing that Victoria's first job against Zupazu's Executioners led to the rescue of a lot of young women the blonde's frown relented.

"When you inherit your parents' estate and their bank accounts you won't be poor. I'm sure that you also saved up the money from all the jobs you've taken to date. You've got quite a nest egg built up. You'll have enough money that you won't have to risk life and limb going into places like this." Abigail said to Victoria as the latter scanned the immediate area for zombies. The Smart Glasses did not pick up any, so Victoria looked at the blonde and resumed their conversation.

"Yeah, I do have quite the nest egg, but at this point I've grown accustomed to the action. I don't want to go from this to hanging around with a bunch of wealthy people all day. I also want to keep doing what I can to help people." Victoria explained why she wanted to keep going into action despite having saved up over four million Jewels plus whatever was left in her parents' bank accounts. Again Abigail gave her a look like the brunette had just grown another head. Victoria stood her ground.

"You heard me, Abby. The money helps, but I also like punching evil in the face and sticking it to slavers and cultists. The satisfaction of shutting down a slaver gang is hgher than getting a big payday, if you can believe that. You can't do that kinda thing at a fancy party in Capital Crocus." Victoria stood by her words. Abigail blinked.

"So you care about something else besides money?" Abigail asked. Victoria chuckled.

"Yeah. I thought we had established that, but I'll say it again just for you, my sweet Abby. If the job involves sticking it to slavers or cultists, the pay doesn't matter nearly as much as a chance to give them the middle finger." Victoria said to her partner.

"Wow. I'm amazed." Abigail said to Victoria.

"What can I say? I'm full of surprises." Victoria answered.

"I'd say. You went from short and flat to tall and curvy. It's hard to believe how drastically one person can change with a snap of the fingers." Abigail said. It was Victoria's turn to frown. She hated being reminded of how flat-chested "Normal Victoria" was.

"Yeah." Victoria answered laconically and without much enthusiasm. Abigail laughed.

"You probably find it hard to go back to your first form after you've spent so much time as a tall and curvy brunette." Abigail said to Victoria.

"Yeah. It's like going from driving a top-of-the-line sports car to driving a soccer mom van." Victoria replied with a simile that she found to be an accurate description of how she felt about shifting back to "Normal Victoria." Abigail laughed again.

"It's a small but cute soccer mom van." Abigail opined and laughed a third time. Victoria frowned. She was getting tired of Abigail's making fun of "Normal Victoria" and wanted to get the blonde back. That revenge would have to wait until the pair had completed this job because right now they needed to be focused on fighting through the cemetery and killing the necromancer. Once that matter was taken care of Victoria would get Abigail back for her remarks as soon as it was safe and convenient to do so.

[Post Word Count: 1,184]
[Total Word Count: 2,219/11,000]

Abigail and Victoria continued to walk through Silent Cemetery and watch out for any more walking corpses who had heard the report of Victoria's Shotgun and were on the way. Victoria kept her Shotgun ready while Abigail gripped her Sky Blade tightly and looked out for trouble. Suddenly the wind picked up and blew their hair about. While they walked Abigail spoke to the Sabertooth mage.

"Hey Vic, are you detecting any magic signatures besides my own?" Abigail asked Victoria. Victoria shook her head.

"No, Abby. Yours is the only magic signature I'm detecting right now." Victoria replied in the negative while looking forward and using her Smart Glasses to detect enemies long before they could get within striking distance of the two mages. So far she was not detecting anything with her Smart Glasses. She doubted that the zombies were smart enough to learn and use invisibility magic, so the brunette concluded that there were simply no zombies in the area... well, no zombies that were above ground, anyway.

"I can't detect anything but your magic signature, Vic. It's so strong that it's hard to put into words. It's also a little frightening." Abigail informed Victoria that the former was doing periodic searches for magic signatures in an attempt to find the necromancer who was their target. Victoria's incredibly powerful magic signature was not only hampering the blonde's attempt to locate their quarry but it was also making the latter apprehensive.

"Sorry about that, Abby." Victoria apologized to Abigail for disrupting the latter's attempts to track the necromancer by their magic signature and making her apprehensive.

"It's no problem, Vic. You're a big help on this job. Having you by my side raises my chances of survival by... by a lot!" Abigail accepted Victoria's apology and replied that she was glad to have that power on her side. Victoria looked in front of them and to their right for zombies and did not see any, so she turned back to Abigail.

"I'm glad to be able to help you, Abby. I like doing jobs with you. I also like your company." Victoria said to the blonde.

"Really?" Abgail asked as the pair continued to walk straight until they saw a fork in the road.

"Yeah." Victoria answered laconically, momentarily putting the conversation on hold in order to look around for zombies and listen out for them. They had only encountered one zombie so far. Victoria found that more than a little odd. Normally one could not throw a rock in Silent Cemetery without hitting at least one zombie, but right now the area was clear of them. The pair walked forward until they reached the fork in the road.

"So, which way do we go, Vic?" Abigail asked Victoria. Victoria looked both left and right. Her Smart Glasses did not pick up anything, meaning that either nothing was there or her Smart Glasses were not so smart after all.

The left path led to one part of the cemetery that had several above-ground burial vaults lining both sides of the path. The right path was much like the one they were on; it had tombstones flanking both sides of the path but featured the addition of strategically placed lanterns sitting on select tombstones. The lanterns were glowing a soft yellow and were emitting a light that was oddly calming.

"Do you think we should split up and check out both paths, Vic?" Abigail suggested. Victoria was quick to shoot down that idea.

"No, Abby. We don't split up here. We stick together unless it's absolutely necessary to split up and right now I don't think it's absolutely necessary to split up." Victoria nixed the idea without delay and in no uncertain words.

"You're right, Vic. I don't think it such a good idea to split up here. The necromancer might even be counting on us to do that." Abigail agreed with Victoria's statement.

"We need to stick together and fight together. I don't think that run-of-the-mill zombies are the only things we've need to worry about here." Victoria added, looking towards the lanterns. Abigail nodded.

"Yeah. It's way too quiet. And what are those lanterns doing there?" Abigail asked Victoria, pointing towards the lanterns sitting on top of some of the tombstones on the path to the right. The brunette shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, but I don't like it." Victoria replied warily. Abigail nodded. The blonde looked back left and then turned back to Victoria.

"So, what do we do? Do we go left and walk by above-ground burial vaults that are full of zombies or do we go right and walk by those creepy lanterns?" Abigail asked Victoria. Victoria took a step forward and looked left, then she looked right.

"I don't know, Abby. Either way we're gonna head into some bad stuff. It's a case where we just have to pick our poison and hope that it doesn't end up killing us." Victoria replied. Abigail shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, I say that we go right. It doesn't have any above-ground burial vaults like the left path. I think it'll be safer there. Well, as safe as things can get in Silent Cemetery." Abigail suggested to her partner. While they struggled to reach a decision the wind briefly picked up again and blew their hair about. The Sabertooth mage looked left one last time, then looked right one last time before finally making up her mind.

"Eh, let's go right. I don't trust the path to the left. Those vaults are probably crammed with zombies just waiting for us to walk by before they pour out and try to eat us." Victoria agreed with her partner's decision to go right. Victoria took the lead and together they walked down the right path towards the glowing light of the lanterns.

-On the right path, in the next section of the cemetery-

"Man, I'm glad we didn't go left!" Abigail said to Victoria, who was busy scanning the shadows for threats hidden among the tombstones. Victoria took a deep breath and lowered her Shotgun for a moment.

"Yeah, me too. Something about those vaults was really creepy." Victoria replied. She just could not shake the feeling that there was something sinister about those vaults beyond them just existing. It was like they were conveniently placed to give zombies an ambush point. Victoria found that so unsettling that she was moved to comment on it.

"I'm halfway convinced that the layout of this cemetery changes each time I come here. One time there's no lanterns sitting on top of the tombstones and then the next time I'm here there's several of them. It's not making any sense." The confounded brunette said to Abigail.

"I haven't been here in years, so I can't really tell you if the layout's changed or not." Abigail replied. The pair involuntarily held their breaths and walked towards the tombstone holding the first lantern. Victoria looked at the lanterns and noticed a pattern in their placement. They were all focused on the edges of the path and were placed in a staggered pattern at five-meter intervals. At the start a lantern was placed on the left on top of the tombstone closest to the path, then five meters later a lantern was placed on top of the right tombstone closest to the path.

The pattern continued for at least 200 meters into the distance. Victoria was not sure what the significance of it was, but she got the feeling that she would find out soon enough.

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[Total Word Count: 3,480/11,000]

-On the right path-

"Well, nothing's happened so far, Vic. Tonight the lanterns might just be lanterns." Abigail said in a voice that sounded more like she was trying to convince herself that the lanterns were ordinary lanterns instead of a sign of something sinister. Victoria thought that there was something special about their placement and their very existence.

"If that was the case, then why are they staggered like that?" Victoria asked her companion. Abigail squinted and looked down the path to see what Victoria was talking about. Moments later her eyes opened back up and she turned to the brunette.

"Yeah, I see what you mean now, Vic. That's odd. That's not a random placement... it's too deliberate, too precise." Abigail commented to the brunette, who suddenly felt justified in believing what she did. The pair stepped into the light of the first lantern and suddenly felt cold.

"Do you feel really cold all of a sudden?" Abigail asked Victoria. At first Victoria was prepared to chalk the temperature difference up to Abigail wearing a midriff-baring t-shirt while Victoria was wearing body armor over a t-shirt, but then the brunette felt the goosebumps on her arms.

"Yeah, I feel it too. I know it's night and that it gets colder at night, but it usually doesn't get this cold." Victoria replied. Abigail looked at Victoria.

"You know, experts in the paranormal say that really cold spots are a sign of ghost activity." Abigail warned Victoria. Victoria shuddered and not just because of the sudden cold. She shuddered because every weapon in her arsenal except for the Silver Dagger on her left hip was useless against ghosts. She was not sure if Abigail's Sky Blade could harm spirits, but the brunette was not going to bet the house on that.

"Great. Just great." Victoria remarked sarcastically. Abigail blinked as they walked out of the light of the first lantern and headed for the second light.

"What do you mean?" Abigail asked Victoria. Victoria did a quick scan of the area and did not pick up anything on her Smart Glasses, so she turned back to Abigail and explained why she said what she did.

"If we run into ghosts, every weapon I have except for the Silver Dagger on my left hip is no good against them. The Silver Dagger can hurt them, but as you can imagine, I have to get really close in order to use it. If I can reach out and stab them, they can reach out and grab me." Victoria replied. Abigail blinked again.

"Oh. I see." Abigail commented in a disappointed tone. The blonde was clearly hoping that the brunette had enough power to banish ghosts with her guns, but that was not the case. Unless Amberlin, Serena Anderson, or another Order of Lightbringers mage empowered Victoria's guns with Holy Magic, her guns were worthless against spirits except as noisemakers.

"Unless you can empower your Sky Blade with Holy Magic, I don't think your weapon will do anything but make ghosts laugh at you if you try to use it against them." Victoria opined. Abigail gave a weak smile.

"You're right, Vic. While I love and value the Sky Blade because it's a family heirloom, it's about as useful against ghosts as a butter knife." Abigail told Victoria that unlike the Silver Dagger on the brunette's hip, her Sky Blade could not harm spirits. Victoria gave the blonde a sympathetic glance.

"It looks like we're in the same boat then." Victoria commented as they passed into the light of the second lantern and shuddered when they walked into a second cold spot.

"Yeah." Abigail replied. They soon passed out of the light of the second lantern and were on the way to the third lantern. Victoria did not get why the light was cold instead of warm, but this was Silent Cemetery. Few things made sense here.

The dead walked. The cemetery changed layouts every time she came here. There were zombie dogs walking down the path ahead of... wait, what?

Zombie dogs were walking towards them?

"Vic, do you see them?" Abigail asked, pointing towards a pack of fifteen rotting Dobermans walking towards them. Victoria looked at them and used her enhanced vision to zoom in when they were around twenty meters from them. She winced when she got a closer look at the four-legged zombies.

The skin around their mouths was not in the best of shape; it looked like it was either rotting away or it had been chewed away. Victoria saw that their eyes were milky white. Some of them even had missing ears.

"I see them." Victoria whispered to the blonde who was at her side. One of the dogs stopped in place and sniffed the air, then barked at the pair. Victoria saw the others growl and take aggressive postures. Abigail took a step back.

"Um, Victoria, I don't think that we can't fight them all. What do we do?" Abigail asked her companion as the rotting canines began moving towards the pair. Victoria looked behind them to see if the path was clear because they might need to retreat from this encounter. The zombie dogs moved with the same speed they possessed in life, so the pair could not just stand their ground and pick them off at leisure like they could with undead humans.

"I think we should fall back, Abby. Unless you have a crowd control spell or two, I suggest we try to break-" Victoria started to say before the dogs got tired of waiting and decided to go on the attack. Victoria dropped her Shotgun and channeled gray magic into her hands, then pushed them both outwards to fire a Claymore Burst. The Claymore Burst hit four of the dogs in the head and body and sent them tumbling to the earth with a piercing yelp, but the rest continued their charge. Victoria quickly picked up her Shotgun and fired a round of Big Shot at a zombie dog missing both of its ears, hitting it in the head and causing it to yelp and roll onto the ground.

The rest of the dogs continued to run towards them until they were within ten meters, causing Abigail to take another step back. Vic stood her ground and fired two more rounds of Big Shot, downing two more of the rotting Dobermans. The rest closed to within six meters and Abigail shouted.

"C'MON, VIC! THERE'S TOO MANY OF THEM! RUN!" Abigail shouted at her partner to fall back while she could before running for it. Victoria took one last shot at the approaching hounds and ran for it, catching up with Abigail about four meters away.

"Where are we gonna run to?" Victoria asked Abigail once the brunette had caught up to her fleeing partner.

"I don't know! We might be taking the left path after all!" Abigail replied. Victoria did not like that idea, but with zombie dogs chasing them, they did not have the luxury of being picky about their escape routes. The two mages kept running and stealing glances at their canine pursuers as they tried to either escape the zombie dogs or get to a place where they could stand and fight.

[Post Word Count: 1,213]
[Post Word Count: 4,693/11,000]

Victoria and Abigail continued to run straight ahead towards the path with the above-ground burial vaults on both sides while the remaining zombie dogs continued to chase them. The dogs moved rather fast for rotting animals... they moved at almost the same speed as living dogs and displayed the same pack behavior. Victoria looked back and a dog with no flesh on its muzzle barked at her and quickly turned around.

"I HATE dogs!" Victoria shouted. She had a lot of bad memories of being chased by dogs in Capital Crocus. Gangs of bored rich kids would get together and bring hunting dogs on a "hunt" for entertainment. In their version of a hunt the gang would go into the bad part of town, pick out a target who looked weak and alone, then loose their hounds on the target and laugh as the hapless street person ran for their lives from the dogs. Victoria had had to run from dogs a few times in her life; memorable incidents included one time where some sadistic rich kid loosed a trio of Dobermans on her and another time when she had to run from a stray German Shepherd that had rabies and had picked her for its midnight snack while she was digging through a trashcan behind a restaurant that specialized in Minstrel's cuisine.

"Me too!" Abigail yelled back as they reached the fork in the path they had started at. In front of them loomed the path lined with burial vaults while behind them the zombie Dobermans were hot on their heels. She did not like the looks of the path ahead, so the brunette spun around, dropped her Shotgun, and charged gray magic into her hands for another Claymore Burst. Once the spell was ready she fired it when the dogs had closed to within two meters of her.

Five of the dogs yelped and fell to the ground with holes in their heads and bodies, but two more had survived the spray of steel ball bearings and closed with Victoria. Victoria formed the fingers of her right hand into the shape of a gun and fired a Derringer spell that hit one dog in the head and it rolled forward and landed on its back before tumbling over to its right, but the other dog raced at Victoria and made a pouncing attack. Victoria sidestepped the leaping dog just in time and quickly spun around, putting her hands together and forming a gun, then firing a Hand Cannon spell to its head.

The dog yelped and collapsed to the ground with a hole in its forehead. Victoria turned from the fallen dog and yelled at Abigail, who was about six meters away and running.

"ABIGAIL!" Victoria yelled. The blonde did not stop.

"ABIGAIL!" Victoria yelled again, cupping her hands over her mouth for the second attempt. Abigail seemed to hear her this time because the blonde slowed down and eventually skidded to a halt using the heels of her boots.

"ABIGAIL! I KILLED THE DOGS!" Victoria yelled to her partner. Abigail put a hand to her ear to signal that she could not hear the brunette. Victoria groaned in frustration and pulled the iLac out of her right pocket, then dialed up her partner. Victoria saw Abigail reach for her own iLac and pick up.

"Hey Vic, are you OK back there? I heard you shouting for me but I can't make out what you're saying other than my name!" Abigail said to the brunette. Victoria set aside her frustration and answered.

"I'm fine, Abby. I killed those dogs that were chasing us. You can stop running now." Victoria replied. Victoria heard a sigh of relief on the other end.

"That wasn't your smartest idea, Vic. You didn't tell me that you were gonna stop and kill them! I'm just glad that you're not dog food right now!" Abigail said angrily. Victoria sighed. Abigail had a point... Victoria had made a big deal of sticking together only to violate that agreement and face the zombie dogs by herself.

"You're right about that. Sorry, Abby. I just don't think we should go down the left path you're on. Something about it feels really off." Victoria apologized and explained why she had acted how she did.

"And you thought that going down the path lit by lanterns was OK?" Abigail asked pointedly. Victoria frowned and started to deliver a strongly worded argument when she realized that Abigail had another point and thought better of it.

"Look, Abby. Neither path is ideal, but I tried to pick the lesser of two evils. I picked the wrong path." Victoria explained. The brunette heard a sigh on the other end.

"Look, Vic. I'm sorry I got angry at you. We'll talk about it later, but right now let's try the left path for a change. The vaults are remaining sealed, so I'm thinking we're safe if we go this way." Abigail apologized for losing her temper and suggested that they go down the left path. Victoria agreed.

"OK Abby, we'll go left. Stay where you are. I'm coming to join you now." Victoria agreed to the suggestion. She picked up her Shotgun and put it in her left hand, then walked towards Abigail while looking left and right and occasionally behind her in case another pack of zombie Dobermans was after her. The Smart Glasses picked up nothing but Abigail, who was waving at Victoria. Victoria walked down the path and eventually reached Abigail, who ended the call on her iLac and put it away. Moments later Victoria followed suit and faced the blonde.

"OK, here... I. Am. Let's follow this... path and deal with whatever comes our way... to. Together." Victoria announced her arrival in a weary voice punctuated by the occasional involuntary pause. Her legs were a little sore from the running and she was trying to catch her breath. Abigail gave a weary smile of her own.

"The left path seems to be safe so far, Vic. I ran past the vaults at full speed and nothing stirred. We've got a lot of ground to cover, so I suggest that we get going before the occupants decide to wake up and come out for a snack." Abigail said. Victoria gave a thumbs-up with her right hand and the pair began walking down the path while watching the stone doors at their sides. Each vault was set about five meters off to the side of the path.

As they walked Victoria shifted her weapon to her right hand and stole glances at the names carved into the space above the doors. They were the last names of families to whom the vaults belonged.

DOWD

MANDERLEY

CARTER

SHERIDAN

Victoria blinked and rubbed her eyes when she saw the fourth name on the second vault to the right. Her last name was carved onto it. Was she seeing things?

Victoria looked at the name carved above the door to the vault and saw that the name was not Sheridan, but SHERMAN. The brunette could have sworn that she saw her last name on the vault but quickly dismissed it as her mind playing tricks on her. She turned her eyes from the names to the doors, watching to make sure that they were closed and did not open.

"Wow. Look at all of those vaults." Abigail said to Victoria. The vaults were placed roughly twenty meters apart. They were also all in good shape, suggesting that this might be the end where the wealthy people were buried. That made Victoria think... who was the caretaker of Silent Cemetery?

"Yeah. I see them, Abby." Victoria replied warily. There were so many vaults standing a short distance away from the path and Victoria was not sure how many bodies each vault contained. Even if each vault only contained a small number like four or five bodies, that was four or five potential zombies in each vault and there were at least thirty vaults that they could see. If the doors ever opened and their occupants came out to play the math would certainly be against the two mages.

"Now I see why you didn't want to go this way, Vic. I don't like going this way, but those lanterns were seriously creeping me out. I mean, lanterns don't put out cold light! Lantern light's usually warm!" Abigail said to Victoria, who was silently watching their surrounding for zombies or zombie dogs. They walked past the eighth row of vaults and so far there were no open doors nor any noises coming from within the vaults. Maybe Abigail was right and the left path was really safe after all.

[Post Word Count: 1,453]
[Total Word Count: 6,146/11,000]

-Down the left path, ten minutes later-

Victoria and Abigail had walked past all the burial vaults and not a single one of them had opened. There was not even a knock from the inside of any of the doors. Victoria was hoping that for once something would go right for her and Abigail without there being an unpleasant surprise involved. Maybe tonight was the night that she would get her wish.

"See? The burial vaults are staying sealed, which means that we're safe!" Abigail said to her partner, who was still wary of them. Victoria knew from experience that when everything seemed to be going easy it was too good to be true. The brunette recalled a humorous "law" of combat that Lawrence Sheridan had taught her years ago when she was first learning to use her magic. It was meant to be funny, but it was also a warning to not let one's guard down just because everything was currently going right for them.

"If your attack's going well, you have walked into an ambush."

So far Victoria's only opposition had been a single zombie and a pack of rotting Dobermans. The Dobermans were more of a challenge than the zombie, but that was because the Dobermans were faster and more numerous. However, the rotting dogs were not anything that Victoria could not handle after falling back to the fork in the road and fighting there. Had she tried to stand her ground where she had encountered them she would likely have numerous bite marks on her, if not be dog food by now.

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet, Abby. We've got a lot of path to travel before we're out of the woods." Victoria warned her partner to stay focused.

"You're right, Vic. We need to- Hang on a minute, I'm picking up a magic signature that's not yours! Can you feel it too?" Abigail agreed with Victoria's warning to stay focused before interrupting herself in mid-thought to ask Victoria if the latter was detecting a magic signature. Victoria focused on her ability to detect magic and was picking up a signature that did not belong to the blonde who was standing beside her.

"Yeah, Abby. I'm feeling it." Victoria replied. She could feel a magic signature that was around 400 meters away from them. It was a magic signature that was as strong as Abigail's, meaning that they would be going up against an H-Rank necromancer. Abigail's face showed concern.

"He's as strong as I am. In magic power, anyway. Our spells are from entirely different types of magic, of course." Abigail said to Victoria. The blonde was suddenly unsure of the chances of success now that their opposition was determined to be as strong as her. Victoria recalled her partner's story about how necromancers tended to be the bane of the Windstrider family and refrained from making bland assurances. Necromancers had killed everyone in the Windstrider family except for Abigail herself and the blonde was obviously not feeling very optimistic about her chances of surviving this job.

"He might be as strong as you are, Abby, but that's why you brought me here. As your partner. We'll get through this and you'll go back to Oak Town until it's time for us to take another job together." Victoria assured her partner the best she could without glossing over the fact that fighting another H-Rank mage would make for a tough fight. Abigail seemed to cheer up a little when she heard that, but only a little. Victoria decided to leave it at that since having to deal with a family curse weighed on Abigail and no amount of speeches or assurance could remove that doubt.

"Yeah, you're right. We'll get through this. Now let's go." Abigail said, a little more hopeful but still not entirely convinced that her number was not up and that she was going to survive this instead of joining her family in Oak Town Cemetery. Victoria shrugged her shoulders and led the way through Silent Cemetery with Abigail following close behind.

-Deeper into Silent Cemetery, 300 meters away from the magic signature-

Victoria and Abigail walked into a small gated part of the cemetery with no tombstones and the gate left conveniently open. The pair walked through the gate and as soon as they did the gate swung shut and CLANGed with enough force to nearly make the pair jump out of their skins. They turned around and saw the gate they had passed through being protected by a shimmering violet barrier with the occasional white skull flashing by.

"Well, we can't go back that way. Not until our job's finished." Victoria said to Abigail. Abigail nodded.

"Yeah." Abigail said laconically before looking around and seeing a gate to their right that was protected by the same shimmering violet barrier. the blonde then looked straight ahead and saw a path lined with lanterns perched on tombstones just like the path they had tried to take before they had encountered the zombie Dobermans.

"Looks like our path's already picked out for us." Victoria commented.

"Yeah, it looks that way. Well, let's get going." Abigail said. Victoria nodded and led the way. They walked towards the path lit by lanterns and kept a watch for more zombie Dobermans looking for a late-night snack.

-On the path, 250 meters away from the magic signature-

As soon as the pair walked onto the path they felt a change in the air as it suddenly grew cold. The lanterns were glowing orange, but they were not producing heat. Abigail shivered and so did Victoria.

"Maybe I should have worn a better shirt." Abigail complained about her shirt as she crossed her arms and rubbed her hands against her arms. Abigail's shirt was much more practical for the scorching desert than it was for cold places.

"For once I'm glad I'm wearing this body armor and backpack. They trap so much heat that I don't have to worry about my torso being cold. Too bad my arms are still cold." Victoria mused about her own outfit. Victoria walked towards the first lantern and her Smart Glasses picked up a target, then two of them, then more targets.

"Hang on, Abby. I'm seeing a lot of targets in front of us about 80 meters out. They're... they're humans." Victoria warned her partner. Victoria zoomed in with her vision and saw from the rotting clothing, decomposition, and awkward limping walk that they were more zombies. Their target indicators flashed red.

"They're zombies." Victoria added a succinct warning to her first warning. Abigail tapped Victoria on the shoulder.

"Um, Vic, zombies aren't the only thing we have to worry about. You should look behind us." Abigail warned the brunette. Victoria glanced backwards and saw a large pack of twenty-one zombie Dobermans standing about fifty meters behind them. Victoria sighed.

"Great. Just great." Victoria snarked when she saw the new threat that had appeared from behind with no warning at all. Abigail turned forward and saw the zombies, then turned to Victoria.

"So, how do you want to do this?" Abigail asked the brunette.

"We should kill the dogs first, Abigail. With their speed and their numbers they're the bigger threat." Victoria suggested. The rotting Dobermans were the larger of the two threats. While the zombies would take awhile to close the distance the dogs would be upon the mages in a much shorter time. They would need to work quickly so that the dogs were dead by the time the zombies arrived.

"Got it." Abigail said, ignoring the zombies to focus on the dogs. As if on cue the Doberman alpha male, a dog with a missing right ear and all the flesh missing from around his jaws, barked and went on the attack while his pack followed close behind.

[Post Word Count: 1,310]
[Total Word Count: 7,456/11,000]

Victoria raised her Shotgun and took aim at the Doberman alpha male. She fired a round of Big Shot that connected with the dog and sent it tumbling forward with a yelp, but she had only winged it, not killed it. The remaining twenty dogs continued their charge without slowing down, barking all the while. Victoria aimed at another dog with its gleaming white ribcage exposed and fired at its head, bringing it down in a single shot.

It yelped and fell backwards while its packmates surged forward. They were now within thirty meters and closing. Victoria aimed at a dog with the right part of its face rotted away and fired at its face. It yelped as buckshot tore at its forelegs and neck but did not die. Victoria pumped her shotgun and fired a second blast, killing it with the second shot. Nineteen dogs were left and they were only twenty-five meters away.

"WIND CLAW!" Abigail called out, using a spell that she must have just recently learned. Three silver waves of compressed air rushed along the ground and collided with two of the dogs, cutting them in half as they ran and grazing a third dog on its right foreleg. Seventeen were left and they continued to close the gap... the alpha male had recovered from the round of Big Shot and was running to rejoin its pack.

Victoria aimed at a dog missing both ears and fired a Solid Slug at its head, hitting it and causing it to yelp and fall backwards. Two dogs behind it split up and ran past their fallen packmate, then rejoined the formation without missing a beat. Abigail saw the alpha male take the lead again and shouted a warning.

"We've gotta get rid of them faster!" Abigail shouted. Victoria dispelled her Shotgun and brought out her Light Machine Gun. While she did that the dogs closed to twenty-one meters. Victoria aimed her new weapon at a dog with rotting forelegs and fired a Five-Round Burst aimed at its head, grazing it with three shots before the last two hit it in the head and took it down.

Victoria aimed at the alpha male and fired a Five-Round Burst, missing it because it darted right at the last moment and kept moving without missing a beat.

"Really?" Victoria asked no one in particular. She aimed at another dog with missing ears and a missing eye and fired a Five-Round Burst that took it down in mid-run and caused a packmate to trip over its corpse and roll for two revolutions before coming to a halt on its left side. It stood up and shook its head, then swiftly rejoined its packmates.

"They're getting too close for comfort." Abigail said. She channeled magic into her left hand and ran two of her fingers along the back of the Sky Blade, making the blade grow to its full length of six feet in preparation for close-range combat. Victoria remembered Abigail saying that only a Windstrider could make the Sky Blade do that. She did not have much time to admire Abigail's weapon because the dogs were now within five meters of them.

Victoria prepared for close-range combat by switching the Light Machine Gun for the Shotgun. The dogs ran towards the mages and the pair stepped back a few steps. Victoria aimed at the alpha male and fired a blast of Big Shot that grazed its head and caused it to yelp, but again it refused to die. The dogs went to the attack and Abigail began to glow silver while spinning in place for four revolutions before facing forward.

"BLADE DANCE - FORWARD STEP!" Abigail called out. She crouched down and darted forward thirty meters while swinging the Sky Blade in diagonal slashes and turned five of the dogs targeting her into mulch with the sword. She crouched down at the end of the sprint and took a moment to recover before turning around to face the remaining dogs. Several of them broke off to attack Abigail, leaving Victoria with fewer enemies to face.

Two dogs leapt for Victoria, but she sidestepped left and avoided their pouncing attack. A third ran up to Victoria and she aimed her Shotgun, shooting it in the face before it could leap for her throat. Another dog jumped with its jaws aimed at her right arm and she sidestepped the attack, retaliating with a swift kick to its backside that sent it leaping forward with a yelp. Victoria aimed at the head of one of her first two attackers and shot it as it leaped for her, sidestepping its body as its momentum carried it forward and past her like a zombie rocket.

Victoria heard dogs yelping behind her as Abigail took care of business with her Sky Blade. She heard the sound of a boot making contact with a skull and heard the sound repeat several times as Abigail stomped a zombie dog to death. Victoria saw the alpha male going for her left leg and kicked at it with the leg, catching it in the chest and sending it sailing backwards for a meter. It landed on the ground with a THUD and growled as it got to its feet.

Victoria heard a slicing sound behind her and knew Abigail had added another dog to her total. Victoria looked forward and saw that the zombies were now within forty meters of the mages. They needed to hurry up and get rid of the zombie dogs.

Victoria dodged more pouncing attacks and hurried to rejoin Abigail so that the threats only came from one direction, feeling the body of a Doberman brush against her right calf as she fled. She ran about thirty meters and regrouped with the blonde, who was standing triumphantly over the bodies of the dogs she had killed. Victoria turned around and faced nine dogs thirty meters in front of them and a whole lot of zombies.

"We're getting there, Victoria." Abigail said with confidence.

"Yeah, Abigail. We've gotten rid of a lot of the dogs and the zombies are still far away, so we've got a little time to finish the dogs before we have to deal with the zombies." Victoria replied as the dogs formed up and charged the mages. Victoria then took aim with her Shotgun and fired a Solid Slug at a dog missing the flesh on top of its head, hitting it in the head as it ran at them. Eight more were left.

Victoria continued to fire at the dogs and picked off another in mid-sprint twenty meters away. She then tried to kill the alpha male again with a round of Big Shot, but somehow it saw the attack coming and darted left to avoid it. Victoria frowned. She was really starting to dislike that particular zombie dog.

Abigail began spinning in place for four revolutions while glowing silver. Once she was ready she crouched down and used the same spell which reduced five of the dogs to rotting pieces on the ground.

"BLADE DANCE - FORWARD STEP!" She called out. Abigail darted forward for thirty meters down the middle of the pack and turned three dogs into mulch with her sword, but more importantly she had wounded the alpha male by inflicting a deep gash on its left shoulder, a wound that slowed it down. Abigail took a moment to recover from the dash and Victoria took advantage of the distraction her blonde partner made to kill a normal dog to leave one dog and the alpha male as the last dogs facing her.

The two canines moved as one and Victoria aimed at the dog missing its tail and the flesh on the left foreleg. She fired a round of Big Shot to the head that killed it, but by the time she could aim for the alpha male it had already closed the distance and was about to pounce. Victoria had to think fast.

She raised her Shotgun sideways and let the dog bite down on it, then flung it forward once the dog had firmly latched on with its teeth. The surprised dog landed on the ground and Victoria quickly aimed and fired a Beam Cannon spell that hit it in the head right as it faced her and growled. The alpha male yelped and fell to the ground with a hole through its head and body. Victoria took a deep breath. Victoria had finally killed the tenacious zombie Doberman that refused to die no matter how often she shot it. She looked at its body as Abigail ran to her side and turned around.

"Um, Vic, we've still got those zombies to deal with!" Abigail warned Victoria, snapping the brunette out of her daze. Victoria nodded.

"You're right, Abby. We'll deal with them next." Victoria said, dispelling the Shotgun and bringing out her Grenade Launcher. She would deal with the walking corpses quickly so that the mages could move on and confront the necromancer.

[Post Word Count: 1,506]
[Total Word Count: 8,962/11,000]

Facing down the zombies they had neglected in favor of dealing with the pack of zombie Dobermans, Victoria glanced towards the horde of walking corpses and her Smart Glasses told her that they were twenty-eight meters away, which was plenty of distance for Victoria and Abigail to deal with the problem without having to be concerned... yet. The Sabertooth mage dispelled her Shotgun and brought out her Light Machine Gun because while using the Grenade Launcher would be a lot easier, she worried about destroying hallowed ground and angering even more spirits or catching Abigail in the blast of a stray grenade after she used one of her "Blade Dance" spells.

Victoria readied her new weapon as Abigail began spinning in place for another "Blade Dance - Forward Step" or a different "Blade Dance" spell. The brunette did not want to get close to a zombie if she could help it, but Abigail seemed to have a plan. Victoria surmised that the blonde was going to dash straight through the middle of them and split the horde so that instead of a single large group of zombies they faced two smaller groups of zombies. It was a good idea, but Victoria was worried that the sheer number of them might stop Abigail in mid-dash and leave her in a very dangerous place.

However, before the brunette could voice any objections, Abigail leaped straight into the air and seemed to hover for a moment before using another "Blade Dance" spell.

"BLADE DANCE - AERIAL STEP!" Abigail shouted just before darting forward and cutting through the horde at head level with a series of diagonal blade slashes as she moved, then landing on her feet thirty meters away and crouching down for a few moments. Victoria saw that Abigail had cut through the middle of the group, splitting it in two so that they would be easier to deal with. Some of the zombies peeled off from the two smaller groups to go after Abigail, who had recovered by the time they could turn around to face her. Victoria did not sit idle: on the contrary, she raised her weapon and began firing at the group to her right, which was focused on her.

The zombies were so slow that they were hardly a threat, but that was easy for Victoria to say because she was wielding a ranged weapon. Abigail, on the other hand, had only a sword, but she also had a few distance spells for a ranged option. The blonde mage did not seem particularly troubled by the undead because she had begun attacking them with blade and with spell. Victoria stood her ground and picked off the zombies shambling towards her while Abigail took care of those going after her. Once the group of zombies to the right had been finished Victoria turned her attention to the left, where the zombies had closed in to about fifteen meters while she was distracted.

The Sabertooth mage began shooting at them while Abigail took care of business on her end. She finished off the last of the zombies who had gone after her and was now coming to Victoria's "rescue", so Victoria held her fire and began to back off while Abigail began attacking the zombies from behind. About two minutes later and the last of the zombies had fallen with Abigail's Sky Blade rammed through the back of its skull.

"That was intense." Abigail said in an understatement.

"Tell me about it." Victoria replied. The dogs were more of a threat than the zombies, but had the pair spent too long fighting the dogs the zombies would have become a very real threat. Being trapped between zombie dogs and zombies would not have ended very well for either Victoria or Abigail.

"Get back, Abby. Get away from the dead." Victoria warned her. She then began shooting downed zombies in the head to make sure that they were absolutely dead and not just knocked down or playing possum. The brunette did not think that they were smart enough to play possum, but she was not going to be the one to find out when a zombie she thought was dead grabbed her leg and sunk its teeth into it. The sound of a Light Machine Gun chattering could be heard as Victoria shot all the downed zombies in the head one by one.

-Ten minutes later-

Victoria had taken longer than she needed to, but on this occasion she did not care. She did not want the zombies to get to their feet a second time and block the way if they needed to retreat from a threat further down the road. Once the last of them was absolutely, positively dead Victoria turned to Abigail, who was standing about two meters away and looking down the path. Victoria approached her and spoke.

"They're all dead now. I made sure of it." Victoria said. Abigail nodded.

"I can see that. You've gotten a lot more cautious since we first met." Abigail commented. Victoria knew that was true, but she had no witty comeback for that.

"Even someone as reckless as me can change when confronted by the right thing, Abby. Staring into the face of an actual demon can make you rethink a lot of things about your life." Victoria said, alluding to her encounters with Infernal Lord Zupazu and her first encounter with the Maws of Hell. After all of her experiences Victoria had thought she was ready to face down a demon, but she was wrong. The memory of looking into the open mouth of a Maw of Hell preparing to shoot a fireball at her had scared the Sabertooth mage more than she had realized.

"I can tell. I won't ask you about it, not right now, not while-" Abigail started to say before turning to face the lanterns, which were beginning to change. Their orange lights started to flicker as if fighting to stay lit and after a few seconds vanished entirely. Moments later a cold wind blew and the lanterns flared back to life, this time with a sickly green flame that was clearly of unearthly origin.

"Did you just see that? Did you just see the lanterns change color?" Abigail asked. The brunette hoped that it was a rhetorical question because she had seen it.

"Yeah, I saw it too." Victoria said in a wary tone of voice. Victoria walked away from the zombie corpses and approached Abigail, who was looking a little concerned. The air grew cold and both mages shivered.

"How is this happening?" Abigail asked, her breath visible in the air.

"I don't know. It might be that the flames are sucking the heat out of the air, but I can't tell for certain." Victoria replied. Even though she was wearing more on her torso than Abigail, Victoria was starting to get cold herself. It was like they had been thrown into a meat locker or transported to Snowfall Island.

"Well, we won't find out by standing around talking about it. Let's get going." Abigail said. Victoria nodded and took the lead while Abigail fell in behind Victoria and to her right. Together the pair walked on the path illuminated by the unearthly green glow of the lanterns.

-Deeper in Silent Cemetery, 150 meters away from the magic signature-

Victoria and Abigail entered a section of the cemetery that was a large square with numerous burial vaults and marble angel statues with outstretched wings and eyes that looked towards the viewer with an expression that implored them to turn back while they still could. Maybe Victoria was seeing things again. The moment she and Abigail walked through the gate it CLANGed shut behind them and the violet barrier formed, preventing them from leaving the way they had come.

The pair looked around the square for a way out and saw that to the right there was a closed gate flanked by angel statues and blocked by a violet barrier. They turned their attention towards the burial vaults and saw that their doors were beginning to shake violently as they were struck from the inside over and over again. The air grew cold and the two mages prepared for a fight.

[Post Word Count: 1,378]
[Total Word Count: 10,340/11,000]

Victoria aimed her Light Machine Gun at the nearest burial vault and Abigail gripped her Sky Blade as the pounding on the doors of the vaults got louder and more frequent. The old stone doors rocked back and forth under the weight of the attacks and stood firm as if trying their best to contain their deadly occupants, but they were built to keep the living from getting in, not to keep the dead from getting out. Attacked repeatedly from a direction they were not built to withstand attack from, at last the stone doors gave way and out poured a small army of the dead. They groaned and moaned as they poured out and homed in on the mages. Victoria's Smart Glasses flickered to life with numerous target markers and flared red as the target markers were marked as hostile.

"Um, Victoria... I don't think you can take them all on with that Light Machine Gun of yours. Now might be the time to break out that Grenade Launcher!" Abigail suggested as over eighty zombies gathered into a giant swarm and advanced on the mages.

"I agree." Victoria said laconically, dispelling her Light Machine Gun and bringing out her Grenade Launcher. She was reluctant to risk destroying the cemetery, but now was the time to set aside those scruples. Whether she was standing on hallowed ground or not, Victoria would use the weapon to destroy the undead before they could close in with the mages. Their milky white eyes started to glow the same unearthly green as the lanterns from earlier as they approached the mages. Out of the corner of her right eye Victoria saw Abigail took a step back and briefly saw the Sky Blade wobble as the blonde's hand shook.

"Get back, Abigail. They're closing fast and things might get dangerous." Victoria warned her partner. Abigail wordlessly obliged just as Victoria began to pump grenade after grenade into the mass of zombies. The undead moaned as they began to fly apart under the endless barrage of high-explosive grenades that went off at their feet, tearing off some limbs while shattering others. Victoria fired and fired until most of the dead were either in pieces or were too badly damaged to move on their own: many of them were missing arms and/or legs, so all they could do was feebly drag themselves along the ground or writhe in place.

Now that the undead army was no longer a cohesive horde, Victoria dispelled the Grenade Launcher and brought out her Light Machine Gun to finish the job. The brunette picked off the few stragglers who had managed to shamble out of the blast radius of the grenades with headshots, then turned her attention to the mass of the dead that had survived Victoria's explosive attack. The chattering of her Light Machine Gun filled the air as one by one the surviving zombies were dispatched by the brunette.

-Ten minutes later-

With the largest batch of undead they had faced tonight being destroyed, Victoria turned to Abigail, who had watched the proceedings from afar. She had stood by to keep watch for another pack of zombie Dobermans or the arrival of a new and even larger horde of the undead. Now that her task was finished Victoria walked over to the blonde and spoke.

"Are you OK?" Victoria asked Abigail.

"I'm fine, Vic. I just want to find this necromancer and fight them. This place is seriously creeping me out." Abigail told her partner. Victoria looked towards the angel statues and saw that they still had the facial expression that begged the viewer to turn back and leave this unholy place while they still could. Victoria and Abigail were halfway tempted to oblige the angels, but they could not leave until the necromancer was dead. They also could not leave because the barrier that had been cast on the gate leading out was still active. However, the barrier on the gate flanked by angel statues had been dispelled and the gates were now standing wide open.

"Look! That gate's open!" Abigail said, pointing towards the open gate that led into a dark tunnel. Victoria frowned.

"Yeah. I don't like the look of it, but we don't have a choice but to go through it. We can't leave until that necromancer's dead." Victoria told the blonde. Abigail nodded.

"We've come this far, so we might as well go all the way and finish this." Abigail said, clearly trying to convince herself to push on and finish what she and Victoria had started. Victoria saw that her companion's resolve was faltering but was not sure what she could do to bolster it. Abigail had not been through a lot of the things that Victoria had, so the blonde had every right to feel apprehension about what they were going to face. Victoria herself was starting to feel more than a little apprehensive about what would happen when they finally encountered their target.

"All right then. Follow me, Abby. I'll help you get through this." Victoria said, taking the lead and guiding Abigail through the jumble of zombie body parts the brunette had created with her Grenade Launcher. The pair approached the tunnel and looked at the angels pleading with them to stop and turn back. The pair ignored their silent pleas not because they were feeling invincible, but because they had no other choice but to go forward.

-In the tunnel, 100 meters from the magic signature-

The two mages walked through the dark tunnel illuminated by a flashlight held by Abigail, who had thought to bring a flashlight in her backpack. The stone passage was only wide enough to accommodate two people walking side-by-side and was six feet tall, giving them only a few inches of extra room. The claustrophobic tunnel was wearing on their nerves because every single sound was amplified and it was hard to tell which direction a sound was coming from. The tunnel was also damp and cold; it was so cold that the pair could see their breath linger in the air in front of them.

"I hate this tunnel. It's dark, it's cold, and it's cramped. I can't turn around without touching you or the wall." Abigail complained as she held the flashlight and walked. Victoria agreed.

"I hate it too, Abby. This is only the second tunnel that I've been in. It'll be the last one I go into for awhile." Victoria replied, making a reference to Mermaid Cove on Crescent Island. She paused for a moment and turning around to make sure that they were not being followed by zombies or dogs. When the Smart Glasses showed no target markers Victoria turned around and caught up with her partner.

"I'm glad that you're here with me, Victoria. I don't think that I could have gone through with this job if you hadn't joined me." Abigail confessed to her partner. Victoria looked forward and saw a human shape flicker in and out of existence at the end of the tunnel. It was almost too fast for her Smart Glasses to pick up: the high-tech eyewear had just enough time to bring up a target marker before the target vanished.

"Abby, did you see that shape in front of us just now?" Victoria asked. Abigail glared at the brunette with emerald daggers.

"That's not funny, Victoria!" Abigail sternly reprimanded Victoria for what she thought was a joke.

"I'm not joking, Abigail. I saw something in front of us." Victoria said in a serious voice. Abigail sighed and turned the flashlight forward, where Victoria saw that human flicker in and out of existence again. This time Abigail saw it.

"I... I-I saw it too. Just for a m-m-moment, but I saw it too." Abigail stammered in a sort of apology that was more a statement of fact than an apology. Victoria did not take much comfort in being vindicated. She felt afraid.

The pair got over the anxiety and walked another twenty-five meters down the tunnel before they got closer to the magic signature. Then something happened. The signature began moving towards them at a blistering pace, a pace that was almost too fast to keep up with.

"Victoria, do you feel that?" Abigail asked Victoria.

"Yeah. It's moving towards us really fast. Almost like it's-" Victoria started to reply before a flash of green light appeared in front of the pair. When the blinding flash stopped Abigail screamed and took a step back while continuing to scream. Victoria's eyes recovered just in time to see what had caused Abigail to scream and screamed herself when she got a good look at it.

In front of them stood a human figure with a horned head, a crown that looked like it was made out of brass, a face of pale flesh that had been torn away at the mouth, exposing its lips and teeth in a rictus grin. Its most frightening feature was black pits for eyes where tiny emeralds sat. They bored holes into Victoria's eyes and chilled her soul.

"Come, my children. Feel the earth's embrace and the cold release of death." The figure bade them in a deep voice. It was the necromancer they had come here to kill, but instead of waiting to be found he had come to them. Both mages found themselves vainly wishing that he had stayed where he was.

The Necromancer:

[Post Word Count: 1,572]
[Total Word Count: 11,908/11,000]

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 37, Post Number 925

"SHOOT IT! SHOOT IT ALREADY!" Abigail screamed at Victoria, who wanted to comply but could not quite shake looking into his... its... the necromancer's eyes and feeling an unearthly chill. Victoria finally forced herself to raise her Light Machine Gun and open fire from the hip, grazing his body a few times as he looked at her and walked towards her at a leisurely pace. Victoria was making hits, but the rounds were not doing anything to him. He ignored the shots and kept eye contact with Victoria as he slowly closed the distance with her. Abigail looked on in horror as her partner's weapon did nothing to the person/thing/whatever it was in front of them.

"DAMN IT! IT'S NO GOOD!" Victoria yelled to Abigail. She would give up her tall form in a second for the Order of Lightbringers to come in and blast this thing into a pile of ash with Holy Magic. The necromancer put a bony hand on the barrel of the Light Machine Gun, gripped it tightly, and snatched it away, flinging it over his shoulder while maintaining eye contact and smiling.

"Your weapons will not save you." He said to her. He then reached towards Victoria and Abigail finally found the courage to make a move, chopping downward onto its arm with her Sky Blade. The blade made contact with his forearm... and did absolutely nothing! Abigail withdrew the blade and took a big step back while her mouth hung open in shock.

Victoria took another step back and dispelled the Light Machine Gun, then drew her Silver Dagger from her left hip as Abigail stepped behind the necromancer, who seemed to be focused exclusively on Victoria.

"Your weapons will not save you. Fighting is useless." He informed them in a confident voice. Victoria drawing the Silver Dagger was a last resort. If the weapon made of blessed metal did not work, then the situation might be well and truly beyond saving. The skeletal hand reached for Victoria's face and the brunette ducked under it, then lunged towards him and stabbed him in the torso, eliciting an echoing yell of pain and a quick teleporting retreat down the tunnel.

Victoria sighed with relief. The Silver Dagger was able to hurt the rotting mage and force him to back off, but now that she had let him know that she had a weapon that could hurt him was doubtful that he would get within range of her dagger again. Right now the brunette was not worried about that... she was worried about Abigail, who was still trying to get over the shock of her weapon not working even though she had scored a clean hit on the necromancer's arm.

"What the Hell IS that thing? It's not even human!" Abigail exclaimed to Victoria, who was glad to have a breather. Victoria kept the Silver Dagger ready in case he came back for another attack on them. Victoria faced Abigail and tried to come up with an explanation as to what they were facing, but the brunette had no scientific explanation for it.

"I don't know what it is other than it's really creepy and really powerful." Victoria said to Abigail, who blinked at her.

"Yeah. It's also vulnerable to silver weapons." Abigail added.

"Yeah, but good luck finding any in this place." Victoria remarked. Abigail rolled her eyes at Victoria and was about to step forward when she saw a flash of green behind them. Victoria turned around and saw that the necromancer had returned for another attempt to kill them.

The necromancer had appeared about fifty meters back and his hands were wreathed in green flame. The two mages heard chanting in an unknown language and watched the necromancer ignite in green flame. Abigail took a step back and the hand holding the flashlight began to shake.

"DON'T STAND THERE! RUN!" Abigail screamed at Victoria. The blonde put away her sword, spun around, and took off running without her partner. Victoria quickly put away her Silver Dagger and tried her best to catch up to Abigail, who was off and running. Under these circumstances Victoria could not blame the blonde for running for her life.

"RAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" The necromancer bellowed, then launched himself after them, his entire body wreathed in flame except for his skull. Victoria looked back and screamed at the sight of the undead mage following them like a heat-seeking missile, those small green emeralds that passed for eyes staring straight at them. She faced forward and kept running as Abigail reached the halfway mark to the exit.

"KEEP RUNNING, VICTORIA! WE'RE ALMOST THERE!" Abigail shouted encouragement to her partner. It was not like Victoria really needed it. Getting away from the heat-seeking undead mage following close behind them was motivation enough for the brunette.

The two mages passed the halfway point and ran as hard as they could go as their pursuer easily kept pace with them. The tunnel exit was drawing closer with each step, but so was the necromancer. Victoria saw the flashlight violently bounce up and down with each running step Abigail took.

"DON'T STOP NOW! IF YOU STOP YOU'RE DEAD!" Abigail screamed. Victoria glanced back and saw the flesh around the necromancer's mouth flapping to and fro as she looked at his permanent smile and gagged.

"NO SHIT!" Victoria shouted back. She was the one back here with the mage about two meters from her and closing. Abigail reached the end of the tunnel first and Victoria followed shortly after with their undead pursuer bursting out of the tunnels and racing up into the air.

-Outside the tunnel, in the next section of Silent Cemetery-

The two mages found themselves standing in another large square patch of cemetery that was devoid of anything except a large stone crypt that had not yet been opened. Above them hovered the necromancer, who was still glowing green and still wanting to end their lives.

"You have only delayed the inevitable. Your flesh will find a new home beneath the earth. Your souls will be mine." He said to them. The two mages watched his eyes darken and his hands glow green, then thrust his arms skyward. From the ground beneath them erupted a forest of skeletal hands attached to skeletal arms reaching out for Victoria and Abigail.

The mages screamed and began ducking and weaving through the arms that were grabbing at them. Victoria felt a hand brush her ponytail and miss grabbing it by mere inches, so she visualized herself as "Normal Victoria" and snapped her fingers, turning into her shorter form so that her hair could not be grabbed. The pair made their way towards the stone crypt as the necromancer laughed at them and began hurling green fireballs at them from above, adding to their troubles. It was the only safe place out here, but that was not saying a whole lot.

"RUN FOR THE CRYPT!" Abigail instructed, dodging a skeletal hand grabbing at her left ankle and jumping over another one that burst out of the ground in front of her right foot. Victoria did a running leap over a cluster of them that burst out of the ground in front of her and landed just short of the crypt threshold, then ducked under a fireball aimed at the back of her head. It was so close to her head that she could feel the cold from the fireball touch her face as it passed by and burst against the ground.

The necromancer laughed.

"If it is shelter that you seek in the house of the dead, then it is shelter you shall have!" He bellowed. The vault door flew open and behind them the earth disgorged an army of skeletons. Victoria and Abigail looked at each other. This was clearly a trap, but what choice did they have?

"There's no choice! If we stay out here we're dead! MOVE!" Abigail ordered. She fled into the vault and Victoria quickly followed her. The necromancer's laughter followed them into the stone crypt as the heavy door slammed shut behind them.

[Post Word Count: 1,352]
[Victoria's New Word Count: 1,352/11,000]

-Inside the crypt-

Victoria and Abigail stopped running and were finally able to take a breath of stale air. Both mages placed their hands on their knees and leaned over... their legs were screaming at them to stop moving and let them rest. The air was musty and smelled like decay, but it was better than nothing. Like Abigail had said, if they had stayed outside they would most likely be dead by now. In between the skeletal hands that were grabbing for them, the necromancer's fireballs, and the skeletal army, they had no chance of winning that fight.

"Well, we made it." Abigail said to Victoria, who was still trying to catch her breath. Victoria wanted to roll her eyes, but she thought better of it.

"Yeah. We might have just gone out of the frying pan. And into the. Fire, but like you said, we didn't have much... much choice in the. Matter." Victoria replied in between breaths. She did not blame Abigail for choosing to go in here rather than stay outside and suffer through a rain of fireballs, skeletal hands grabbing for their hair and ankles, and the skeletal army that erupted out of the ground to chase them down. Sometimes hard choices had to be made without time to think. Victoria learned that lesson the day she entered the village coated in Phaaz.

Abigail looked at Victoria in amazement. She probably expected to be cursed at, be called ugly names, and be blamed for getting them into this mess. The brunette did none of that. Instead Victoria took a deep breath and ignored her screaming legs in order to talk to her partner and assure her that she had made the right choice.

"You did the right thing, Abby. I've had to make some hard choices without a lot of time to think about them." Victoria said and declined to elaborate. While Abigail guiding them into a crypt that was likely full of the undead was not quite on the scale of Victoria having to put Phaaz-infected villagers out of their misery with a Suppressed Sniper Rifle while looking them in the eyes, Abigail seemed to regret making the choice she had made. She realized that she might have guided them into the most unsafe place in Silent Cemetery. Victoria needed to get Abigail to focus on getting out alive, not feeling regret over a choice that was not really a choice.

However, Victoria was not one for macho "man up" talk. It was not the way to get through something like this. Victoria did not suddenly get over what had happened in the Phaaz village thanks to some mystical power of machismo that swept away all doubts and magically made everything better. She could not stand to use her Suppressed Sniper Rifle even though its suppressed qualities could have saved her a lot of trouble on many occasions. Victoria was afraid that she would see the faces of the dead villagers looking at her from the other side of the scope if she ever used it again.

No macho bullshit was going to help her get over something like that. No macho bullshit was going to help Abigail get over this situation either. Neither were bland platitudes.

"We're not in the best situation right now, but we're still alive. We're still alive and as long as we're alive we've got a fighting chance. We wouldn't be alive right now if we hadn't fled in here." Victoria tried to comfort Abigail by pointing out that retreating into the vault was not a death sentence. They might be in a difficult place, but they were not dead yet.

"Eh, you're right. Let's get going." Abigail said to Victoria while sounding totally unconvinced. Whatever. Victoria had tried to comfort her, but maybe right now Abigail was too emotionally charged to see that. Abigail picked up the flashlight she had set on the ground and pointed it in front of them. In front of them was an open doorway that led deeper into the crypt... it looked to be catacombs, which were all but guaranteed to be full of the walking dead.

"Well, here goes nothing." Abigail said dryly, seemingly resigned to the fact that she was going to die in a catacombs at the hands of a necromancer. Victoria was not sure what to say to Abigail, but right now she would just be wasting her breath no matter what she said to the blonde.

"I'll take the lead." Victoria said, bringing out her Shotgun and walking ahead of Abigail, who followed behind the brunette with the flashlight lighting the way.

-Inside the catacombs-

Victoria and Abigail stood inside the foyer of the "house of the dead" and did not like what they saw. Skeletons were lying everywhere and there were several open coffins. They also heard moaning and shuffling in the distance. That meant that they were far from alone in here.

"Well, break time's over. Time to get to fighting our way out of here." Victoria remarked as she raised her Shotgun and held it steady while waiting for a zombie to wander into her line of fire. Soon a zombie with a missing eye and a missing left arm staggered into view and Victoria shot it in the head with a single shot, turning what was left of its brains into mush.

Victoria had just steadied her aim when more of them staggered in from the passageway that was about eight meters in front of the pair. Victoria backed up a few steps and Abigail did the same. The brunette then switched to her Light Machine Gun in order to more quickly dispose of the walking corpses shambling towards them. The tight quarters prevented the pair from fanning out and fighting the zombies together, but by the same token the zombies could not use their numbers to their advantage because they were forced to shamble in single file to get to their prey. With the Light Machine Gun's power and rate of fire Victoria could control the battlefield just as long as that necromancer did not show up to ruin her day.

"Get behind me, Abby. Things are about to get ugly." Victoria warned her companion, who saw what she meant and took cover behind Victoria. The catacombs were about to be messily redecorated.

[Post Word Count: 1,060]
[Total Word Count: 2,412/11,000]

Victoria held her ground and took aim at the head of the first zombie to shamble into the line of fire, which was a female zombie buried in what remained of an old-fashioned white wedding dress. Victoria hesitated briefly because the sight of the wedding dress reminded her of the newly married couple she had to put out of their misery in the Phaaz-covered village. She hesitated so long in pulling the trigger that Abigail had to prod the brunette into action. By the time Victoria finally fired the zombies had gotten to within three meters of her.

"SHOOT THEM BEFORE THEY GET ANY CLOSER!" Abigail urged her partner. Victoria snapped out of her daze and complied. She squeezed the trigger and turned the head of the zombie bride into mush with a Five-Round Burst, then aimed at the zombie just behind her, which was the groom in a black suit complete with a top hat. Victoria squeezed the trigger and turned his head into mush as well. Once she was past those two zombies the brunette lost any reservations she had about killing the rest of the zombies and went to work eliminating them so that she and Abigail could get out of this place.

The Light Machine Gun chattered and zombies began to fall with numerous bullet holes their heads. The zombies in the back of the line were too dumb to know what was coming, but Victoria was fine with that because their lack of self-preservation and their acting on instinct instead of logical thought made them easy to deal with. Since they had been forced to move in a single-file line, all she had to do was shoot them in the head until there were no more zombies to shoot.

Victoria confidently stood her ground and mowed down the zombies until there were none left standing. Once she was sure that they were all down she shot each and every one in the head again just to be certain. The tight quarters would make it very difficult to avoid being bitten if one of them was still alive and either Victoria or Abigail walked by them without knowing. Abigail kept her distance as Victoria shot each zombie in the back of the head, then gave the all-clear.

"It's safe to walk through here now, Abby. Just watch your step." Victoria informed her partner that the way was clear... for now, at least. The brunette began carefully stepping over the dead zombies and watching her feet to make sure that she did not put her leg in range of a downed zombie that might somehow still be alive. Abigail began to follow Victoria and watched her legs as well, gingerly stepping over the zombies and trying not to stay calm as she stepped over them.

Once they reached the end of the first passageway they faced another one that was wide enough for them to walk side-by-side and high enough for them to stand up straight. The passageway was also lined with skeletons resting in open coffins propped against the wall and a few jumbled piles of bones on the stone floor. Abigail recoiled when she saw a skeleton in the coffin only a meter to the front and right of them.

"I hate this place. It's like the skeletons are waiting for us to go by before they try to grab us." Abigail complained about the layout of the corridor they had to go down next. Victoria looked straight ahead and a target marker showed up on her Smart Glasses, but thankfully it did not belong to the necromancer. Instead it belonged to a skeleton in a wedding veil clutching an old wooden club. The skeleton was standing about thirty-three meters away from them, but Victoria could see its empty eye sockets focus on her and Abigail.

While Abigail held the flashlight steady Victoria wordlessly aimed at its skull and fired a Five-Round Burst that ripped through its skull, making it collapse into a pile of bones littering the floor. Victoria then looked around for more skeletons and soon got them. Those skeletons who rested in the upright coffins stirred to life and walked out of them, causing Abigail to jump back and shriek when the one closest to their right darted for Victoria and reached for her throat with both bony hands.

"VICTORIA!" Abigail shrieked. Victoria put her left forearm in front of its hands and let it seize the limb instead of her throat, then quickly set down her Light Machine Gun, formed the fingers of her right hand into the shape of a gun, then jammed them against its right temple and fired a point-blank Derringer shot. At point-blank range the shot could not miss... Victoria's Derringer shot connected and turned the skeleton into a pile of bones, but the danger was not over yet.

"Look out! There's more of them coming down the hall right towards us!" Abigail warned Victoria and pointed her flashlight towards the other skeletons, of which there were over ten. The brunette put both of her hands together, formed them in the shape of a gun, and channeled golden magic into her fingertips. Once the spell was ready Victoria waited a moment to aim and fire a Beam Cannon that punched through the skulls of four of the advancing skeletons and badly damaged the necks of another two, "killing" the four whose skulls had been punched through and making the other two wobble back and forth because their heads were quite literally no longer on straight.

The four skeletons with their heads on straight walked past their confused cohorts and moved towards Victoria, but Abigail joined the fight with a familiar spell.

"BLADE DANCE - FORWARD STEP!" Abigail called out. She darted forward with her Sky Blade swinging and destroyed the skeletons with ease. Approximately thirty meters away she reappeared and paused in place to recover from the dash, then turned around and faced Victoria. Victoria picked up her Light Machine Gun and hustled to Abigail's side. The pair took a moment to catch their breath and figure out which way to go next.

They were at a four-way intersection in the catacombs. There were paths to their left, front, and right, but they were not sure which way to go. The halls to the left and right were narrow while the hall that was straight ahead was as wide as the one they were currently in.

"Which way do we go, Victoria?" Abigail asked the brunette. Victoria shrugged her shoulders. Her left forearm was still hurting from being tightly gripped by that skeleton, so her attention was divided between the pain and trying to figure out where to begin looking for the necromancer.

"I don't know, but if we want to get out of here alive and complete the mission we're gonna have to find and confront that necromancer. We'd better use our magic-sensing ability to find him again. Now that he knows I have a Silver Dagger that can hurt him he's gonna try to steer clear of us and wear us down with an army of minions before moving in for the kill." Victoria said, throwing in a guess as to why they had not seen the necromancer yet. Part of her wanted to avoid him more than anything, but the other part knew that as long as he was "alive" he would be a threat to not just them, but to the world. She would have to confront him a second time. While Victoria tried to frame the unpleasant task in terms of performing her duty as a Sabertooth mage, Abigail had a look that spoke volumes about how she felt.

The blonde would rather be anywhere else right now.

"Can you detect his magic signature?" Victoria asked Abigail. The blonde nodded weakly.

"Yeah. Somewhere straight ahead." Abigail replied. It was obvious that the blonde was not looking forward to Round 2 with the necromancer. Neither was Victoria, for that matter.

She would see his awful face in her dreams for months after this job. She would see those black eye sockets with tiny emeralds for pupils and that rictus smile. She would see the flesh around his mouth flapping in the air as he had chased them through the tunnel that led to the crypt.

[Post Word Count: 1,392]
[Total Word Count: 3,804/11,000]

Since the necromancer was somewhere straight ahead and the brunette had the only weapon that could hurt him, Victoria took the lead and kept her weapon ready while Abigail followed close behind with the flashlight. They passed through the four-way intersection without encountering any opposition and kept going forward. Abigail stole the occasional glance behind them to make sure that they were not being followed by skeletons, zombies, or the necromancer himself.

Victoria paid attention to her Smart Glasses since they were the best early warning system she had. Even if the target marker flickered on the necromancer for only a moment, that moment would be warning enough for her to alert her partner to get ready for a fight or to run for her life. The pair slowly made their way through the tunnel and felt the chill in the air as the temperature somehow dropped more. Victoria knew that underground spaces tended to get cold, but this was getting ridiculous. It was like the mages had just stepped onto Snowfall Island minus the wind and snow.

"Man, it's cold down here." Abigail complained. Victoria nodded.

"Yeah, it's a lot colder than this area should be." Victoria remarked to her partner, who was getting cold on top of being anxious about the fight with their target. The brunette was not sure if she had brought her gray hoodie or not and she did not have time to take off her backpack, set it down, and check for the garment. They had to keep going before he showed up and ruined their day with another rain of green fireballs or summoned another skeletal army.

Victoria paid attention to the Smart Glasses as they flickered and a target marker came up about 30 meters ahead of them. The brunette raised her Light Machine Gun and Abigail put the figure ahead in the spotlight for her partner. Victoria saw that it was only a zombie wearing tattered clothing. She raised her weapon to her shoulder, aimed for its head, and fired a Five-Round Burst that took it down without it even getting a chance to face them.

"That was kinda overkill, but it's dead." Abigail remarked to Victoria, who was not quite convinced that the one zombie was all of the zombies they would be facing. Sure enough there was moaning coming from down the hall where the lone zombie stood and a lot of target markers flickered into view... at least forty of them popped up on the Smart Glasses. Abigail's flashlight latched onto theme and the blonde warned Victoria.

"How many of those guys are there?" Abigail asked Victoria, who wordlessly dispelled the Light Machine Gun and brought out her Grenade Launcher. Abigail winced when she saw the weapon. Victoria quietly aimed it at the zombies who were now twenty-eight meters out and opened fire. She pumped grenade after grenade at them until the forty zombies were a mass of limbs and severed heads lying on the floor.

"Again, that's overkill, but I see where you're coming from." Abigail commented on Victoria's approach to the problem. Victoria did not care for style points or proportionate force. She wanted the zombies dead as quickly as possible so that they could save their magic power for the necromancer... if their magic could even affect him. If Abigail's Sky Blade could not hurt him with a clean chop on the arm and multiple rounds from Victoria's Light Machine Gun did nothing to him, she was not holding her breath on any of their other spells hurting him.

At least Victoria knew that her Silver Dagger could hurt him, but the necromancer also knew that her Silver Dagger could hurt him, so he was not going to get close to her until he was confident that he could make the kill without undue difficulty. However, Abigail did not have a weapon made of blessed silver, so she was unable to defend herself if he showed up again. Victoria would either have to step in or pass Abigail the dagger.

"Yeah. We don't need to waste time and energy fighting these guys because they're only here to slow us down." Victoria explained why she had gone for the overkill option against the zombies. The necromancer was no idiot... he knew exactly what he was doing when he sent wave after wave of disposable zombies after the pair. He was trying to distract them and get them to waste their magic power before moving in for the kill. He was also sending the zombies after them so that he could keep track of the pair's progress by listening for Victoria's loud weaponry. Victoria could use her Sniper Rifle because of the attached suppressor, but a Sniper Rifle was a poor choice for close-quarters combat and crowd control.

Another reason not to use the weapon was that she was pretty sure that she would see the villagers looking back at her through the scope.

"He already knows we're here anyway." Victoria added a rationalization to the end of the conversation to justify her use of the Grenade Launcher so that she did not have to tell Abigail about the Sniper Rifle. It was not like Abigail was going to protest because the brunette had reduced a potentially dangerous threat to a pile of harmless body parts in a matter of seconds. It was noisy and it was potentially dangerous because the limbs could fly around and if a head flew and bit her or Abigail it would be a humiliating way to go, but since they were twenty-eight meters away when Victoria fired high-explosive grenades, the only people who got hurt were the zombies.

"I still think using a Grenade Launcher is overkill, but I can't argue with the results, Vic." Abigail said to her friend. Victoria did not immediately reply and looked for more threats to dispose of before she dispelled the Grenade Launcher and went back to her Light Machine Gun. No target markers appeared, so Victoria switched weapons again and brought out her Light Machine Gun to begin mopping up any zombies who somehow survived the barrage of grenades. They were already dead, so anything less than a headshot or the head being destroyed meant that they were still alive and still a threat.

"It might be overkill, but we just dealt with those zombies in about ten seconds instead of spending five or so minutes trying to take them out with other weapons. I'll go for overkill if it keeps us alive." Victoria replied while facing forward. She spotted a mangled zombie crawling towards them from twenty-six meters away and aimed for its head, bringing it down in a single shot. She then walked forward while Abigail followed her with the flashlight so that Victoria could see what she was shooting. The brunette was going to make sure that all the zombies were dead before moving on.

[Post Word Count: 1,154]
[Total Word Count: 4,958/11,000]

After Victoria had cleaned up the latest gaggle of zombies the pair continued their walk through the tunnel until they reached the end and spotted the necromancer standing about twenty meters away from them facing them with that creepy rictus smile. Victoria's target marker flashed red and gave the range as twenty meters. Abigail gasped and stepped back while Victoria wordlessly raised her Light Machine Gun and fired at him. The necromancer began to laugh as the shots from Victoria's weapon hit him but did nothing other than make THUD noises whenever they connected.

"Must I repeat myself? Your weapons are useless against me." He said with the utmost confidence as Victoria's Light Machine Gun chattered. He began to float towards them a meter above the ground with his arms folded across his chest. Victoria continued to fire at him with the intention of drawing him in for another dagger strike, hopefully a fatal one. Abigail stared at the brunette like she had lost her mind.

"IT'S USELESS, VICTORIA! DIDN'T YOU TRY THIS BEFORE?" Abigail asked Victoria, who did not respond to the question as the necromancer drew closer and closer. When he reached five meters he unfolded his arms and reached for Victoria with glowing green hands. Victoria dramatically dropped her weapon and feigned helplessness. This was going to be a risky move.

She was going to lure the necromancer into dagger range, then attempt a stab or two before he could lay his hands on her. She was not sure what his glowing hands could do if they touched her, but she had a feeling that it would not be very good. Victoria would just have to take this chance to hurt him because he had been keeping his distance ever since she had stabbed him the first time. She needed to get a few more hits on him before he could retreat and send another army of zombies into the fray.

"Have you accepted your end, child?" The necromancer asked rhetorically. Victoria continued to feign helplessness by putting her arms in front of her face while Abigail jumped in from the side and threw a wrench in Victoria's plan. Abigail tried for a two-handed downward chop on the necromancer's arm and landed it, but to no effect. The "man" simply laughed.

"I see that you have accepted your end as well. There is room for both of you in the cold embrace of the grave." The necromancer told Abigail. Abigail dropped her sword and backed away with an expression of terror. The necromancer faced her; that distraction gave Victoria just enough time to draw her dagger and lunge for the floating necromancer. She stabbed him in the torso a second time, then withdrew the dagger and slashed him across the torso, gashing his robe and causing him to bellow in pain as he flew backwards.

"VICTORIA!" Abigail shouted. Victoria was tired of running from this creep. She was going to take the fight to him instead of always letting him control the action. She rushed the necromancer and went in swinging the Silver Dagger. She connected with his torso for a third time and ducked under his grasping hands, then swung on instinct and severed the little finger from his left hand, causing him to yell and dart back while clutching his wounded hand.

"I... I cannot believe this! A pathetic human child, harming me with a simple knife?" He expressed disbelief in one of his fingers being severed. The wound pulsed a sickly green like the green often seen in a cartoon depiction of radioactive material. For the first time since the fight with him had started the "man" sounded anything but confident. His small emerald pupils glared at Victoria with an expression of palpable hatred as he made his contempt for her known. Victoria stood back and watched him carefully... just as she was at her most dangerous when cornered, so was the necromancer.

He had not been hurt in centuries and she knew it. Victoria had not won yet, but he was in disbelief over losing a finger to the brunette. She just needed to keep up the pressure and keep landing hits with her Silver Dagger until he was killed for real or he decided to retreat.

"You! Before this night ends I will consume your soul!" He threatened Victoria. Victoria gripped the knife and ran towards the necromancer as he thrust his glowing right hand at the brunette and flung a green fireball. She jumped to the left, then resumed running and slashed at the open left hand, cutting his palm. He yelled in pain and teleported away, reappearing about ten meters away from them.

He began chanting in an unknown language and the hall began to glow a sickly green. A green circle formed at his feet as the chanting grew louder. He then raised both hands about his head and bellowed something, summoning an army of zombies that filled the hallway between him and Victoria, who was still clutching her Silver Dagger. The zombie army's eyes began to glow the same green that his hands were glowing.

"ABIGAIL! GET BACK!" Victoria called out. She retreated from the necromancer and put away the Silver Dagger, then dispelling the Light Machine Gun and bringing out her Grenade Launcher for another round of clearing the hallway. Victoria looked towards the necromancer and saw him floating away at a walking pace while clutching his left hand where the finger had been severed. He had been hurt, but as he had just demonstrated, he was far from finished.

The pair retreated about thirty meters to give them plenty of space for the hall-clearing that was about to commence. Abigail, clutching her Sky Blade in one hand and her flashlight in the other, took cover behind Victoria, who began firing grenades towards the hallway full of zombies until this batch was a mass of jumbled body parts littering the area just like their predecessors had been. About twenty seconds of firing later the zombie army was now occupying a large portion of the hallway's floor.

"Damn it. That necromancer got away again!" Abigail groused about the necromancer. Victoria dispelled the Grenade Launcher and brought out the Light Machine Gun for another round of mop-up duty.

"Yeah, I was hoping to kill him that time, but we've got him on the back foot. I severed one of his fingers and drove him back. I don't think he's ever had to deal with that before." Victoria said to Abigail. The blonde frowned.

"I wish you had killed him, Vic. Chasing him around is getting really old." Abigail groused again. Victoria ignored the assigning of blame that may or may not have been intended and nodded.

"You said it." Victoria agreed with her companion's appraisal of the conflict with the necromancer. She then walked carefully towards the zombies who were lying on the floor. Once this round of clean-up was finished the pair would renew their pursuit of the necromancer and hopefully corner him for a final fight instead of having to chase him all around the catacombs all night long.

[Post Word Count: 1,192]
[Total Word Count: 6,150/11,000]

-Twenty minutes later-

After the third round of cleanup Abigail and Victoria were on the trail of the necromancer yet again. They had picked up his magic signature about 300 meters away from their current location and they were following it very closely. Both mages wanted to end this fight before it dragged on for too much longer. The necromancer had most likely used the time that clean-up had bought him to get further into the tunnel and come up with another plan of attack on the mages.

"Man, I can't believe how long we've been chasing this necromancer. He talks a big game but just keeps running away and throwing zombies at us." Abigail said to Victoria as they rounded a left bend in the tunnel, having recovered some of her earlier bravado. The brunette was somewhat surprised to hear Abigail sound so bored, but then Victoria remembered that the blonde's family had a tendency to die at the hands of necromancers. Abigail could be feeling fatalistic and did not see any point in being afraid anymore. If it really was her time to die and join her family in Oak Town's cemetery, then she did not want to wait any longer. If Abigail was really feeling that way Victoria thought that was a dangerous way to feel, but the brunette was in no position to cast stones at the blonde.

Victoria's earlier Silver Dagger attack on the necromancer had been reckless. She had risked it all to get a chance to really hurt the necromancer and it had paid off, but that was only because Abigail had distracted him with a downward chop on his arm that had done nothing other than get his attention for the few seconds the brunette needed to draw the Silver Dagger unnoticed and lunge at him. If Abigail's accidental distraction had failed Victoria would likely be in a very bad situation right now.

"Yeah. He's kinda smart... for a dead guy. He's been avoiding us and has been throwing army after army of zombies at us to try and wear us down." Victoria replied, reiterating what she had said to Abigail earlier. Abigail nodded.

"Yeah, but you've been cutting through his zombie armies like a hot knife through butter. He can't keep it up forever. He's gotta be running out of catacombs to hide in." Abigail said to Victoria.

"Heh. I can't keep this up much longer either." Victoria shot back. She was getting kind of tired from all the running, walking, and fighting. She too wanted this fight to end sometime tonight while she was still able to stand and walk under her own power, but she knew that it would be in the necromancer's best interest to wait until his opponents were too tired to fight back before making his move.

"Me neither, to be honest." Abigail said to her partner. They walked down the tunnel while watching for more zombies or skeletons but did not see any yet. Maybe the necromancer was running out of undead cannon fodder to throw at them. Maybe he could not so much summon the dead as he could reanimate the dead that were around him. However, he had made those zombies appear from nowhere, so maybe he really could summon them... or at least teleport them to his location.

Victoria did not know how his magic worked, only that they spelled trouble for Earthland if he survived this encounter and escaped Silent Cemetery. The Sabertooth mage would have to make sure that he did not survive this night, but that was easier said than done. The necromancer was somewhat smart and had a lot of magic power at his disposal, so he could afford to be patient and wear his opponents down with waves of cannon fodder.

"We'll be all right, Abigail. He's gotta be hurting from losing a finger and taking those other hits I deal to him. He might be undead, but we've got him on the run." Victoria affirmed. The necromancer had been used to stomping all of his enemies into the dirt without much trouble, but after Victoria had stabbed and slashed him several times with the Silver Dagger he was retreating for the first time in his life... unlife... whatever. He was retreating from them and that was the shot in the arm that the two mages needed to keep going into the house of the dead.

"What if he's just retreating to lure us into a trap?" Abigail asked Victoria a very important question. The brunette paused for a moment to address it.

"That's a good point, Abigail. This entire place is a trap, though. It wasn't made for living people to go into. He's had years... decades... centuri- a really long time to learn the layout of this place, so we're already fighting on his home turf. Everywhere is a trap in these catacombs." Victoria replied. She did not mean to sound cavalier about the valid concern that had been raised, but this entire catacombs was nothing but a trap for the living. The mages had been in hostile territory from the moment they had set foot in Silent Cemetery and the catacombs were no exception.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right, Victoria. We can't hang around and wait for him to come to us because he knows that your first attack wasn't a fluke. You'll get in his face and keep stabbing until he's dead for real. He's gonna try to avoid us for as long as we can and let his undead minions do the work, but we're not gonna let him." Abigail said to Victoria. Victoria noted that her companion was more enthusiastic about this job now than she was when it first started. Maybe the blonde could see the end in sight, but that was exactly what was starting to worry Victoria. Abigail's definition of the end might be different from the brunette's definition.

"Just be careful, Abigail. His back's to the wall and we don't know what kind of tricks and spells he'll pull out to stay alive. Or undead. Whatever he is." Victoria warned the blonde against getting complacent this late in the game. Just because they were succeeding now did not mean that the necromancer could not turn the tables on them with a spell he had been keeping in reserve for the unlikely event that he was facing defeat. Victoria knew that times like this were when she needed to be the most careful. An enemy mage who had their back to the wall was one of the most dangerous opponents a mage could ever face.

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[Total Word Count: 7,257/11,000]

After the skirmish where Victoria had landed several hits on their enemy and severed the pinky finger of his left hand, Victoria and Abigail followed the magic signature through the tunnel and followed it until the very end, which was where the necromancer was waiting for them with arms folded over his chest. They paused about twenty-five meters away from him to muster up their courage before the big battle that was about to ensue.

"OK, Victoria. This is it. Once we start to fight him there won't be a rematch. He's run out of places to flee to and we've got just enough mojo to finish this fight, but not to play another game of hide-and-seek. Either way someone's not going to leave this place alive." Abigail said, obviously trying to psyche herself up for what looked to be the last battle with the necromancer who had been hounding them ever since they had entered the tunnel that had led to the crypt. Victoria remembered her story from earlier about how her family tended to meet their ends at the hands of necromancers. The brunette suspected that Abigail was not entirely convinced she was going to make it out alive even with Sabertooth's second-strongest mage on her side.

"Yeah. He knows what's at stake here. We've got one of the only weapons that can really hurt him and we know how to use it." Victoria said. Abigail was right. Once they started the fight it was going to go to the finish, one way or another.

"Do you fear me, children?" The necromancer asked them. His small green irises glowed brightly, causing the two mages to shiver at the sight of it. If they were lucky and played their cards right they would no longer have to worry about him after tonight. He would be dead and Victoria and Abigail would still be alive. He might haunt their nightmares for awhile, but he would no longer be able to hurt them or anyone else.

Victoria and Abigail ignored the goading from the "man" and spoke to each other again.

"This is it. It's time to fight. If I don't make it, it's been great having you as a friend, Vic." Abigail said to her, their eyes meeting for what might be the last time. Victoria was not sure what to make of that, but she knew that bland assurances that everything would be all right would not work. The brunette would not give bland assurances. Instead she would speak from the heart.

"Yeah. It's been great to have you as a friend too, Abby. Whatever happens from here, we'll go together." Victoria said to the blonde who had been by her side for several jobs over the years. Abigail had been part of her life ever since they had met in Sakuramori Forest when the blonde had been caught in a rope trap and was hanging from an ankle. Maybe it was destined that they would meet so that someone could temper Victoria's worst behavior with a more compassionate and less selfish angel on her shoulder. If they were meant to not leave this place alive, Victoria would have no problem dying at Abigail's side.

While Abigail had shown a fatalistic attitude more than once before this point, Victoria herself tended to lean towards the fatalistic side herself. In between her drinking habit and her dangerous mage lifestyle she did not expect to live to see thirty. She had made powerful enemies in the form of the Corlone crime family, the demon cult Zupazu's Executioners, and the cult's patron Infernal Lord Zupazu himself. Victoria was not going to lay down and die for them, but she felt that she was being realistic about her chances of surviving all those enemies unless she had a lot of help or called in a lot of favors to get help. The brunette did not want to put others in a position to die for her, but she would need help if the cult came after her with its tougher demons.

Victoria and Abigail briskly strode towards the necromancer, who kept his arms folded across his chest and did not even try to attack them. Either he was confident that he was going to win with an ace in the hole or he was desperate and was just trying to project an image of confidence to fool his enemies into losing hope. Little did he know that he had two enemies with very little to lose. Abigail was all but certain that she was going to die tonight and Victoria was willing to die if it meant taking this necromancer with her. The adrenaline began flowing as the blonde and brunette moved in for what could be the final confrontation with this necromancer.

"So you do not fear death? Have you come to terms with the fact that you are to die here?" The necromancer asked them. The two mages ignored him and strode into a large square chamber with a lot of skeletons lying on the floor. The room was also lit by a lot of lanterns that glowed the same pale green as the necromancer's magic. Abigail strode to the left of him and Victoria strode to his right.

"It gladdens me to see you willingly accept death." He said to them and raised his arms. A metal gate rose to block the door they had entered through and the gate began to glow with sickly green energy. There was no way out of here now except if they won or if they died.

"Who said that we're going to be the ones dying?" Victoria asked him, finding the courage to look into his eyes. He gave a dry, raspy laugh and held his arms in the air as they glowed green. He began to chant and Victoria took this opportunity to rush at him for a stab with her Silver Dagger. Victoria jumped at him and aimed for his head, which she should have been doing all along. The necromancer teleported a short distance away and reappeared behind her as Victoria landed from her jump.

He continued to chant and the skeletons glowed green as they began to form together. Victoria recalled her special shadow magic and paused in place, focusing and calling it forth as her equalizer to stop the skeletons before they could march on the mages. The necromancer saw Victoria pause and took the opportunity to rush at her with his left hand extended towards her face.

"VICTORIA!" Abigail screamed. Victoria's eyes opened and a hand made of shadow grabbed the necromancer's hand at the wrist, stopping it just short of her face. Instead of green Victoria's eyes glowed purple.

"What? How? What is this magic you wield?" The necromancer asked Victoria. The brunette quickly circled and ducked under his right hand, then used another shadow hand to catch it and hold him in place. Once he was temporarily immobilized Victoria used her Silver Dagger to cut off his left hand at the wrist, causing him to yell in pain and splashing her left arm with acidic blood. Victoria recoiled from being splashed with acidic blood, but she had taken his right hand, a loss that was bound to hurt him.

He pulled away from the second shadow hand and teleported back to his original position as the severed hand lying on the ground shriveled up and rotted away where it sat.

"I tire of your insolence. You die now!" He bellowed, glaring at Victoria with malice that could be felt.

[Post Word Count: 1,264]
[Total Word Count: 8,521/11,000]

The skeleton army that the necromancer had tried to form finally took shape, causing about four dozen skeletons to reanimate and come after them. Victoria focused on her shadow magic and used it to slow down the skeletons by grabbing their ankles, but she left herself vulnerable to the necromancer. The brunette could do little but focus on slowing down the skeletons long enough for Abigail to take care of them while she dealt with the necromancer.

"Abigail, take care of the skeletons!" Victoria commanded as she faced down the necromancer, who was still in shock from the loss of his left hand. The necromancer's acidic blood had burned her left arm and made it hard to move due to the pain. Victoria found it funny... she had traded her left arm for his left hand.

"But what about you? Don't you need help?" Abigail asked Victoria.

"I'll deal with him! Take care of those skeletons before they overrun us!" Victoria repeated her command. While the necromancer was invulnerable to conventional weapons, his creations were not. Both the zombies and the skeletons could be harmed by Abigail's Sky Blade, so she would be better served taking on opponents she could fight while Victoria dealt with the necromancer.

The necromancer finally recovered from losing his left hand and laughed at the pair.

"Do you think severing my hand really hurt me? You have only delayed the inevitable! I cannot be defeated by the likes of you!" He boasted. Victoria clenched her teeth and channeled magic into her left fist, then tapped it twice against her chest, activating a special power-up that boosted both her physical and magical resistance. She was not sure if it would work to full effect since she was wearing armor, but right now she needed every bit of protection that she could get. The necromancer simply laughed at the brunette.

Victoria clenched her teeth and went on the offensive as Abigail began attacking the skeletons while the brunette held them in place. She ran towards the necromancer, who met her attack with a glowing green shield that stopped her dagger inches from his skull. Victoria bounced off of the shield and watched the necromancer laugh at her feeble attempt to hurt him. She frowned and put away her Silver Dagger, bringing out her .44 Magnum Revolver.

"You foolish child! Have you not learned that your mortal weapons cannot harm me?" The necromancer rebuked Victoria for changing weapons from one that could hurt him to one that was about as effective against him as a water pistol. Victoria looked at him and her eyes focused on the crown and the necklace. Perhaps taking out one of them would somehow hamper the necromancer like losing his left hand did.

Victoria calmly aimed for the crown on his head and fired an Armor-Piercing Round, punching through the glowing green shield and punching a big hole in it. The necromancer's "smile" faded as Victoria fired a second Armor-Piercing Round down and to the left of the first hole and broke his crown completely. His body glowed sickly green as his eyes focused on her and he began to levitate higher out of her reach.

"Enough games! This ends NOW!" He bellowed angrily, rasping the "NOW!" in his sentence. He dropped the shield, raised his remaining hand above his head, and began to channel magic into his body as a high-pitched ringing began to fill the air.

Victoria looked at Abigail, who had finished bashing through her tenth skeleton and was attacking an eleventh. Victoria had to stop the necromancer's spell before it was cast and that meant freeing some shadow hands to grab him and bring him within range of her Silver Dagger. Using both hands to steady her revolver, Victoria began to fire on some of the skeletons that were being held for Abigail to destroy.

She fired at their skulls and destroyed them in a single shot apiece. She killed one, then two, then three, blasting a skeleton apart with each headshot she landed. She freed up a couple of shadow hands and redirected them to grab the necromancer and haul him to within striking distance of her dagger. She fired three more shots and killed three more skeletons, freeing up three more shadowy hands to latch onto his ankles and pull him closer to the ground.

The necromancer did not seem worried by the development. He smiled at her as he continued to charge his spell. Abigail paused after killing another skeleton to look at the glowing necromancer.

"We've got to hurry, Victoria! If he uses that spell we're dead!" Abigail urged her. Victoria fought through the painful burns on her left arm and aimed her revolver again, killing a few more skeletons and freeing up more hands with which to drag down the necromancer. The ringing sound grew louder and louder as the spell continued to charge.

The two mages began to focus on killing skeletons to free up hands to drag the necromancer down. One by one the skeletons fell until there were only twenty remaining. Victoria mentally shifted all free hands to grab the necromancer and grab him they did, pulling him down to within a distance she could reach with a big jump. The rotting mage began to laugh.

"Foolish children, I know what you intend to do, but in the end it will not be enough to stop the inevitable. By the time you reach me I will have unleashed my spell!" He crowed at them. Victoria frowned. She dispelled the .44 Magnum Revolver and drew her Silver Dagger, then prepared to make a leap of faith. She was going to make an all-or-nothing leap at him and drive the dagger through his skull before he could release his spell and kill them both in a burst of corrosive eldritch magic.

"STOP HIM!" Abigail urged Victoria. Victoria saw a couple more skeletons fall by Abigail's hand and a couple more hands became available. Rather than sending them to latch onto the necromancer, she would use them to boost herself up to him. Victoria ran at the necromancer and closed to within three meters of his position, then jumped at him and made the shadowy hand serve as platforms to make another jump. With her new boosted jump height she descended on him like a bird of prey. She could feel the corrosive magic eat at her clothing and skin as she descended, but there was no turning back.

Victoria was committed to this attack the moment she had leaped towards him. She would win or die based on the success of this attack. Victoria aimed her Silver Dagger at his head and hoped for the best.

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Victoria's leap of faith saw her land squarely on the necromancer's shoulders. Her clothing began to burn away and her skin began to burn, but this would be her only chance to end him before he unleashed his spell and ended them. She knelt down and drove the Silver Dagger down as hard as she could, hitting him in the top of the skull and causing him to bellow in pain as it punched through. He faced upward with an expression of shock on his face.

"What... how?" He asked her as the brunette leaped off of him to avoid taking further corrosive damage. She landed on the ground and fell forward, ending up on her stomach. Her shirt sleeves and part of her shorts had been burned away just by being in the vicinity of the necromancer and the skin on her arms, legs, and face was burning like she had just been hit with a really bad sunburn. The remainder of the skeletal army fell apart and the necromancer collapsed to the floor with the Silver Dagger still lodged in his skull. His corrosive spell weakened until it faded entirely.

"Yeah! Way to go, Victoria!" Abigail cheered for her partner.

"Abigail, finish him now! Take the Silver Dagger and kill him!" Victoria ordered Abigail. Since she was too weak to stand up and do it herself, she focused her energy on using the shadow hands to pin the necromancer in place so that her partner could finish the job. The badly weakened necromancer was being held as he sat on his knees with the Silver Dagger lodged in his skull.

"I'll finish him once and for all!" Abigail vowed. She put her Sky Blade away, approached the necromancer, and drew the Silver Dagger from the rotting mage's skull, then looked him in the eyes as he sat listlessly. As she raised the dagger to plunge into his skull his green eyes flared to life one last time and met Abigail's. The brunette thought that she saw a flicker of fear in the undead mage's eyes as the dagger descended into his forehead and caused the tiny green emeralds to disappear.

The mage collapsed to the ground and rotted on the spot, turning into bleached bones that had a golden necklace around the neck. The necklace began to glow sickly green as it caught fire and melted, staining the earth gold where it had melted. Abigail sighed with relief as the bones disintegrated.

The lanterns in the arena turned from a sickly green light to a normal pale orange. Knowing that the battle was finally over, Victoria deactivated her control over shadows and her purple eyes turned green. She struggled to get up because of the pain, getting on her hands and knees before rolling over onto her back and facing the ceiling. She was going to need some help to get out of here.

"Um, Abigail... I need your help." Victoria requested. Abigail walked over to her and set the Silver Dagger down.

"Hang on, Victoria. I've got you!" Abigail said. She grabbed Victoria's hands and pulled her into a sitting position, then pulled her up to her feet. Victoria wobbled on her feet and Abigail leaned down to pick up the Silver Dagger, then offered a shoulder for the brunette to lean on.

"C'mon, Vic. We're getting out of this place. We're going to Sakuramori to get your friend Florence to care for you. You look like you've got a really nasty sunburn." Abigail told her. Victoria laughed a little.

"I feel like it too, Abby." Victoria replied before clenching her teeth to dull the pain. While she had taken a lot of damage from the necromancer's corrosive magic, she had more than settled the score by setting him up to be killed by Abigail. Abigail had come through by killing the necromancer with a silver dagger blade through his forehead, killing him once and for all. There would be no third resurrection for him.

Together the two mages began to work their way out of the crypt, taking it one step at a time. Despite a rough start they had survived this job. After recovering from this adventure the pair were sure to go on more exciting adventures, but that could wait. Victoria really needed a drink or two of Albino Gander to take the edge off of her pain.

-Outside Silent Cemetery, one-and-a-half hours later-

After a lengthy walk through the now-quiet cemetery where the greatest difficulty was Victoria finding the strength to move forward, they finally reached Victoria's Centaur, which was still in its parking spot. That was a minor miracle in itself. Victoria figured that some enterprising individual would have tried to steal it by now.

"We're almost there, Vic. Do I need to drive your hovercycle for you?" Abigail said before offering to drive. Victoria chuckled.

"Nah, Abby. I've got it. Thanks for offering, though." Victoria said. She eased herself into the driver's seat and cranked the vehicle up. Abigail climbed on and put her hands on Victoria's sides, which were covered only by the Azure Armor thanks to the corrosive magic burning away part of her shirt. Victoria was miffed about that.

She had really liked that Steel Matron t-shirt.

Florence had gotten her that t-shirt!

At least that necromancer was dead now. That was more than enough compensation for the brunette's t-shirt.

"Hang on, Abby. We're getting on the road to Sakuramori!" Victoria told her partner as she turned the Centaur towards the road and increased throttle until they were at 25 MPH. In a few hours they would be in Sakuramori and be receiving professional medical care courtesy of Florence Manderley.

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-Sakuramori, Florence Manderley's house, two-and-a-half hours later-

After a lengthy and painful ride Victoria and Abigail sat on the couch in Florence Manderley's house just as the sun rose. It was a good thing that Florence was still at home and could treat Victoria on the spot because after a ride where the wind blew on her skin the brunette was miserable and would want to die by the time she got to the hospital. Florence had ushered them right in and then cast a few healing spells on the brunette to take away the pain and eliminate the possibility of any corrosive magic residue spreading and damaging property or hurting any people.

After having been treated for the pain she had suffered from the necromancer's corrosive spell she looked like she had spent way too much time in the sun on Crescent Island, but she was no longer in pain. However, Victoria's current outfit was badly damaged by the corrosive magic.

Her Steel Matron t-shirt was missing its sleeves and her midriff was now exposed. Her khaki cargo shorts had nearly become khaki cargo short shorts. The corner of her olive green iLac could be seen in the right cargo pocket, but its protective case had ensured that it survived the corrosive magic when Victoria's clothing had not. Victoria was glad for that extra durability.

"You seem like you're already doing better, Victoria." Florence said to the brunette, who was feeling a lot better now that she was no longer in pain from the burns.

"Yeah, I am. Thanks to you for healing me and Abby for helping me get here." Victoria thanked her mentor for healing her with a few spells.

"That corrosive magic you told me about didn't seem to be able to spread. Even if it was I've cast spells to eliminate it completely, so you're free to leave whenever you're ready." Florence told her. Victoria silently gave a thumbs-up from the couch. Now that she knew that she was no longer a biohazard of sorts the brunette would leave to take Abigail back to Oak Town... in a few hours.

"Thanks, Florence. Do you mind if me and Abigail crash here for a few hours? We're feeling kinda tired." Victoria requested. Florence nodded.

"Sure, Victoria! I've gotta go to work in a few minutes, so if you house-sit for me until I get back you can stay here!" Florence offered a deal. Victoria and Abigail looked at one another.

"Hey Abby, do you need to get back to Oak Town in any real hurry?" Victoria asked her blonde companion. Abigail shook her head.

"And I don't need to return to Ace of Spades in any hurry either, so it's settled." Victoria told Abigail and by extension Florence. The brunette turned her head towards Florence.

"We'll take the deal. We'll house-sit until you get back." Victoria informed Florence that they would take the deal that had been offered to them. Florence smiled.

"Great! Now I've gotta get dressed for work." Florence said, disappearing into her room to get dressed. The blonde and the brunette looked at each other again.

"Thanks for helping me with this job, Vic. It really means a lot to me." Abigail said to Victoria.

"It's no problem, Abby. It's what friends do." Victoria replied. Most friends did not venture into Silent Cemetery to kill necromancers, but the point remained. Friends stood by each other through thick and thin and helped each other when they needed a helping hand.

"I'm serious, Vic. I'm glad that you came to help me. I couldn't have done this without you." Abigail said to her partner. Victoria's casual demeanor did not change.

"I'm glad I could help you, Abby. I couldn't leave you in the lurch after everything you've done for me. Maybe the next time we take a job it won't be so life-threatening." Victoria replied calmly.

"I'm looking forward to an easy job together. And thanks again for helping me take down the necromancer." Abigail said to her partner as the two vegged out on Florence's couch. Once Florence was gone the pair would likely crash on the sofa and recliner for awhile until their hostess got home. It would probably be nightfall before Florence got home, but right now the two mages were too tired to care about things like that. After all they had been through they could use some peace and quiet for awhile.

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[Total Word Count: 11,338/11,000]