Alexander glanced around, as a fairly tall human he stood well above his mob of goblin zombies. He stood out quite a bit. Looking around he dispersed the horde in groups of two, letting them roam and hunt on their own. He was unconcerned about gaining levels as his class, earning back what had been scammed from him was the bigger goal. For right now though he went to check on Laytalya, chances were high instead of hunting she had snuck off to smoke and laze about while he slaved away. Normally this would annoy him but he could understand the mindset. She was sexy as hell, no sense in not using her beauty to make others do the grunt work if they were so blinded by lust to do so for her.
As he stalked through the hills he lifted his head to sniff at the wind. He was by no means a skilled tracker, but he could at least tell the wind was blowing from the direction she left in, that horrid pipeweed she favored could likely be smelled a good distance away. Still as he walked he didn't smell any of it, back tracking to where they had parted he tried to follow her steps but the sickly sweet odor that clung to her didn't seem headed into the outskirts of the hills, rather it was taking him inwards towards the fort. This he found quite particular, one would think a fake swordsman would avoid a high conflict locale...
As he walked he could hear shouts of alarm in the distance mixed with screams, every so often he'd get notice of another zombie joining the horde, or notification that a zombie or two had fallen, though the latter was quite rare. Like the zombies from his old worlds films, these ones needed their brains destroyed to be slain. Naturally a few victims would get lucky, but aiming for the skull as a natural reaction for sword and club wielders? Not likely to happen easily.
As Alexander approached the fort he noted that the goblin presence was distinctly smaller not larger, it was like the goblin nest was on the fringes of this area, not in the ruins like Laytalya had claimed. Suspicious now he crept forward, deciding on a more round about route to the old abandoned fort the goblin camp setup before the structure was devoid of life, the sour scent of rotting goblin blood tickled his nose but the splotches on the ground were old, hardly monsters killed in the last hour or so.
Alexander frowned, this whole situation made his skin crawl. Where were the goblins? Where was Laytalya? Looking around, rather than approaching the entrance he snuck around the side looking for a crumbled wall to gain access to the looming fallen bastion. Oddly enough, as he searched the outer wall, he found signs of reconstruction to prevent that exact plan. The fact that it was worked stone or thick wood planks patched over the damaged holes told the tale the owner of the keep was most definitely not a goblin.
Shifting to the rear of the fort he hunkered low, in the distance a stout wooden door stood ajar, rather than goblins though, a pair of sturdy guys in dark leather armor framed the portal. They leaned casually against the stone chatting it up quietly. Alexander's eyes narrowed. This could well explain Laytalya's disappearance, if bandits had claimed the fort she could well have been captured... or had she. Adding this new information to her smooth hands and seemingly inability reaching here, might she be bait?
Grimacing Alexander squatted in the bushes replaying everything he knew about her, it could well be THAT situation. Send a honey pot out to attract a bunch of lusty guys, do a job, meet at the bandit headquarters... and never return to town. Looking at the two thugs in the distance this plausibility was becoming more and more a likelihood. There'd been no signs of struggle, no cry for help. His companion was up and gone and their meeting spot was the front door of a bandit camp.
Sighing under his breath at yet another opportunity lost he focused on the distant bandits. His spells had been effective on goblins, would it be the same for humans? Gritting his teeth he willed up a [Death Bolt] in his hand, the roiling dark energy crackling softly between his fingers as he considered just what he was going to do, he could likely drop one of them, but would the other shout an alarm? Dealing with the whole camp would be suicide if all at once.
Dismissing the spell, letting the deathly energy melt between his fingers and onto the ground he backed off slowly. A new plan coming to mind, but he'd need to gather up the horde for it to work. Hopefully a couple of the first generations were still in good condition. If his hunch was right, the goblins were likely allied with the bandits, victims and unwanted spoils would be handed off to the little shits who provided a monstrous cover for the bandits to hide their presence behind.
Slipping back out into the hills, Alexander began gathering up the horde. He was rather surprised by the number. Even with a few lucky hits destroying a couple of the zombies he had a good host of thirty undead biters. Smiling to himself he separated the most 'normal' looking zombies from the host and guided the five towards that guarded back door, taking a more wide route so he and his minions would appear coming straight on at the guards he slowly had the zombies shamble forward shaking their stiff arms as if in distress as they ambled through the tree cover before the two thugs.
The two were rather taken by surprise when a handful of bloodied, pale looking goblins shambles towards them, both had drawn longswords of decent repair and stood ready, one slapping the door likely to alert a third guard on the other side to be ready. The one on the left stepped forward snarling something in a language which sounded a bit like a dog puking and gagging on it's own sickness, his blade was lifted pointing at the 'goblins' before pointing back the way they had come. The other guard was watching the tall brush behind the goblins warily.
Alexander however, was no longer there. Creeping around a rise in the landscape he came at the back guard from the far side watching the thug as he nervously watched his advanced partner as well as the strange sickly looking goblins. He was rather oblivious to the man stalking closer from his right who extended a gloved hand and launched a small sphere of dark energy. The [Death Bolt] flew silently across the distance slamming into the mans side, he gave a gasp of pain before falling sideways clutching his side.
His partner glanced back worried when Alexander gave a silent command to the goblins. The restrained hunger exploded into obscene movement as the five undead launched themselves at this towering buffet table. The bandit snarled and stabbed the lead one but cried out in horror as the goblin slid up the vicious blade thrust through its heart, arms reaching out as dirty teeth snapped and chomped. Then the other four had bowled the man over with a cry, their teeth and claws tearing at his dark flesh, splashing the area and the hungry zombies with his rich crimson blood.
Alexander frowned watching the man being eaten alive, much like the horror films this visual was quite unsettling so he focused instead on the door. With the first guard slumped over and the second being torn into by the goblins he wondered what the hidden guard would do? Alarm or rush out? Thankfully it was the latter as the door was kicked open and the third guard rushed out, a large axe in his hand as he began slashing and swatting the monstrous undead off his buddy.
While he was distracted Alexander looked to the fallen door guard back by the fort, reaching out with his other spell the body twitched and clumsily pushed itself up, its formerly brown eyes now a milky white as Alexander recieved a new series of pop ups...
[Create Infectious Undead] +10% Proficiency
A human infectious zombie has been created outside your dungeon!
The new zombie staggered to his feet, stalking behind the axe weilder who was lashing with rage into the goblin zombies, the formerly normal looking ones were now missing limbs or had huge rents in their bodies. None of the blows had struck their heads yet, but their ability to move normally had been greatly shattered. The guy had glanced back with relief seeing his friend coming over, but that relief turned to horror when the zombified thug lunged onto the third back and bit deeply into the side of the mans muscled throat!
Alexander slowly left his cover as he walked to the door, staying on the swung wide side he carefully peeked into the interior guard room, thankfully not seeing any further investigators of the problem. Glancing to where the two men stood intimately entwined, the zombie chewing into the axe guards ragged throat, bathing in the mans freshly pumped life essence. Snapping his fingers the zombies shambles over, leaving the axe man alone on the ground, futility trying to stem the gushing blood from his ripped open throat.
Alexander frowned, the guard he had killed with his spell, other than the thick stain of blood over his face and chest looked the most normal. The partner was a torn shambles, flesh and organs dangled out of ragged bloody wounds, no way he'd pass as still living. Same for the five goblins, all of them had been torn badly by the axe guard, so he dismissed them back to haunt the area, they could still hunt the remaining goblins or any bandit patrols, same for guard number one, the ugly ravaged corpse would just have to be best at what it was, a grotesque ruin.
Sighing he looked at the remaining zombie then looked to the axe guard, like the first two he was decked out in dark leather armor and was well built. From the shared armor it wasn't hard to guess this was more than your average bandit group, if they all wore armor of the same vein it stood to reason they were in fact a mercenary group. It was more and more looking like this had indeed been a setup. Sighing he rubbed his face.
First there was Ingrid, she killed his mother so she had to die. There was Jansea, screwing a succubus was a death sentence. Thersea... he really really shouldn't have let his pride get in the way. Now there was Laytalya... and it was looking more and more she was bait for this group, a pretty worm to reel in fish to be killed and robbed. Chances were high she wouldn't survive this encounter. Gritting his teeth as he lead the two zombies into the fort he started to wonder if that brothel back in Colter would be all that bad...
Shuddering recalling the super fat prostitutes he gave himself a smack. Was his lust so bad he was going to scrape the literal bottom of the barrel for release? Shuddering he shook his head. Laytalya HAD to survive, no doubt about it. If he was starting to consider settling for ugly paid outlets he'd just have to risk it. Grumbling he frowned at the two dark and bloodied zombies behind him, a little bit of resentment bubbling up in his heart, if it wasn't for these bastards he could have made money and scratched that itch already!
Grumbling under his breath he walked slowly into the fort, there was no telling how many mercenary bandits had made this place their base, the last thing he needed was close combat, even with the zombies being hard to kill all it required was a lucky knife and he'd be done himself. Still, he needed to get this done and solidify his place in Tress... and for that itch, the more important matter in his mind!