“Summon Skeleton!” Veronica yelled and summoned skeletons. One of the skeletons grabbed the leg of a guard, but was quickly cut down. Veronica ran as the group of four knights and two clerics chased her.

  “Kill the undead!” one of the knights yelled, followed my footsteps of the rest of the division. I kept running straight, summoning another set of three skeletons. The gate was still a good distance from her, but she liked her odds of making it.

  The knights and cleric chased her for about three minutes, until the cleric tried to hit her with a light spell. The blast of light just nearly missed her, she realized it was time to drink the speed potion.

  Veronica had enough base mana left for one more skeleton summon. “Summon Skeleton!” she yelled. The skeletons rose and temporarily pushed back the two front knights, giving her an opening to drink the speed potion.

  After she drank the potion, she wiped the residue off her mouth as she continued to run. She was confident in the plan, but she didn’t know how long she had before the speed potion wore off. As her mind pondered the thought, she saw words in the air again.

  [Potion Longevity: 24s]

  “Uh, thanks words.” Veronica said confusingly. Still running, she thought about how the potion lasted longer than a minor potion would have. Starch must have raided a really good place for the loot.

  “The accomplice is in sight!” Shouted one of the knights as they gained on her. “Fuck!” she said in her head. “This really wasn’t the time for my lack of physical ability to show,” she thought. She didn’t feel exhausted but she knew that her stamina would’nt last this entire chase at this rate.

  Veronica tried to dodge another light spell but failed. It hit her and the number appeared again.

  [Health: 620/1020]

  “Shit, shit!” she hought as the realization hit her as hard as the blast. She was still at a major disadvantage because of the type of magic used. She still had the mana potion and scroll. She could use the scroll and foil the rest of her part of the plan, or use the mana potion too soon, effectively causing the same foil. Her options were extremely limited.

  [Stamina: 40/100]

  She saw the numbers again, “Damn it! Also, why the fuck was Casey’s build dependant on his armor? Why did he have warrior armor as a mage to begin with?” she yelled internally. had to save the questions for when she wasn’t in such a dire situation.

  “Foil the plan, or foil the plan differently, what do I do?” the most important aspect of the plan was her ability to get to the gate and use the scroll, as long as she could make sure she was able do that, she could probably make alterations to the plan, key word being “probably.”

  The knights were pretty much at her throat at that point. All they needed was a few seconds and they would have claimed victory. That thought wasn’t assuring of Veronica’s situation at all, but it still lingered as she ran.

  [Stamina: 13/100]

  “Yeah, I have to think of something. Using the potion won’t help me, those knights don’t rely on dealing light damage and those physical attacks will get the job done. Fuck it, I’ll drink the mana potion right now. It might foil the plan, but I’ll take that risk over dying.” Veronica spoke in a panic.

  She drank the mana potion, summoning another wave of skeletons before she could even finish drinking it. She was almost at the gate, just a little longer. All she needed to do was use the scroll and th-

  Before Veronica could finish her thought, she was on the ground. She looked down and saw her leg. She looked up again and saw a man with long blonde hair, blue eyes, clad in knightly armor with a yellow glow. His sword had her blood on it as it rested to his side.

  “This is the culprit’s accomplice?” The man asked while pointing his sword straight at her face. Veronica turned to the knight that the guard has questioned. He was restraining someone in his arms who had a potato sack over their head. They removed the sack, revealing Starch’s face.

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  “Run, you have to go!” He yelled.

  The man turn to him, “You best be quiet, I have no patience for any more nonsense today.” He swiftly hit Starch in the stomach with the blunt end of his sword. His sound of pain was brief but clear. “Now, I would be happy to leave this up to Saint Excella, but I need to know what you and your little friend were planning,” The man said as he turned back to Veronica.

  “Planning?” she said

  The man sighed, “I’ll be clearer, tell me what you were conspiring or your friend loses his annoying tongue.”

  “Don’t t-” Starch started to speak, but was stopped with another jab to the stomach.

  “Okay, now he gets to lose his tongue and eyes, or you can speak,” The man’s eyes looked dead-serious.

  She cleared her throat before speaking, “We were going to escape.”

  “Escape?” The man asked.

  Right as Veronica was going to continue, a giant cloud of smoke appeared. “Captain Lancaster!” One of the knights yelled. Suddenly, Veronica was face to face with Cardinal.

  He tilted his head towards her, “As you can tell, there’s been a change in plans,” he said while chuckling a bit.

  “Understatement,” she said.

  “Do you still have that scroll?” Cardinal asked her.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  He turned back towards the direction of the knights, “I think you might have a little mana left, summon 3 skeletons,” With those words, cardinal threw Veronica’s leg towards her. It landed right towards its original place. Within seconds, it had reattached itself to her body.

  “How di-” Veronica started to asked.

  “Explanations can wait, do the summon now!” she nodded and went along accordingly.

  A gust of wind cut through the smoke, she assumed it was from the sword of the captain. “Summoned Skeletons!” she yelled as the last remnants of smoke were leaving.

  As Veronica began to run, she looked back and saw that Cardinal was frozen. She looked further down and saw why… Starch had been impaled by the captain. His body was sliding off of the sword. “B-but captain, I thought we were only supposed to take them alive and kill the undead!” Spoke a small Dwarven Healer.

  “I’m the captain, I’ll do whatever I need in order to complete Saint Excella’s goal.”

  Veronica looked around- They were surrounded. Every inch of the area was covered in knights and clerics, there was truly nowhere else to go.

  “You bastard,” Cardinal said while gritting his teeth. He started clenching his dagger tighter in his hand. “You fucking bastard!” while yelling angrily, Cardinal shattered a speed potion in his hand and darted at the captain as his ears tilted back.

  The captain braced himself, but was still pushed backwards by the force of Cardinal’s lunge.

  “Fiesy little cat,” the captain said while pushing back. He swung for another hit but missed, leaving room open for Cardinal to land a hit.

  “It appears I’ll have a challenge after all!” the captain started increasing the speed of his attacks, repeatedly swinging horizontally before landing a hit on Cardinal, or so he thought. Within seconds of the hit, Cardinal had already moved.

  “You aren’t fast enough,” Cardinal said before landing on a brick wall with his knees crouched.

  “Wanna bet?” the captain asked as a smile grew on his face.

  Cardinal went at full force, landed a small hit, jumped from a wall, then repeated.

  “-10 -10 -10 -10 -10”

  The numbers appeared again. “Holy shit!” Veronica thought. Cardinal was really giving the captain a run for his money.

  It dawned on her still, this was only capable because of the speed potion Cardinal drank, and the assumed stamina potion as well. He’ll be dead when that runs out.

  Cardinal lept downward from the awning of a building while throwing 3 daggers at the captain.

  “Nice trick,” the captain said while flicking the first two. As he was about to flick the last one Cardinal slashed him right before he could.

  “Shut up already,” he said while flipping his dagger for another slash. The worst came to pass- The potion ran out and his speed slowed right as he was going for it.

  “Argh!” Cardinal yelled out as the captains sword pierced his shoulder. He jumped back and tried to hold his shoulder as the blood seeped through his hand. “Shit!” he said.

  Within that same moment, the dwarven healer from before ran to his side. “Hold on!” he said as he started healing the wound with his raised staff.

  “What are you doing?” The captain yelled angrily.

  “I’m saving someone who needs it!” Said the healer.

  “Then you’ll all bleed!” The guard yelled. He rushed towards them, but Veronica couldn’t let that happen. She was done standing around.

  Her mana was recharged enough, she could do something. “Summon Skeleton!” she yelled. Before the skeletons could even finish rising, she took out the scroll. “Scroll:Viobee Swarm!” she yelled as she unraveled the scroll. The summoning sigil on it flashed green, then yellow, before the scroll blew up in a swarm of Viobees.

  “Ahh! Help!” the knights yelled.

  “Damn insects!” another pair yelled.

  “Come on!” Veronica yelled to the healer and Cardinal. They nodded and quickly followed her. They were already close enough to the gate.

  “My shoulder hurts like hell, but I got it!” Cardinal said as he hit away the arrows of the archers stationed on top of the northeast gate.

  “I’ll help too!” The dwarven healer said as he shined a light on ahead of them that blinded the guards stationed, making them easy for Veronica to push aside.

  Cardinal in his last bag of tricks, threw a smoke bomb and yelled, “Push through the gate!”

  Veronica nodded and ran, summoning 3 skeletons to distract the guards from the gate as Cardinal picked them off. They busted through the gate, and right as they did, the words appeared again.

  {New Skill Unlocked: Skeletal Archer}

  “Uh, fuck yeah?” Veronica said confusingly. Even so, she yelled, “Skeletal Archer!” Within seconds, the skeletons she had summoned created bows out of their bones, and started using them shot at the archers. They ran as the distracted archers aim wasn’t directed towards them, barely managing to get out.

  Veronica turned back and looked at the chaos that had happened. “We did it,” she said as she turned to the Dwarven Healer and Cardinal.

  “I guess we did,” Cardinal said.

  The plan was complete, even if it was at the cost of a life.