Zone woke up screaming until a gentle voice brought him back to a semblance of calm. His eyes bulged in terror and his pupils dilated rapidly.
There was no water so Grace just rubbed his back gently and talked soothingly to him.
"Were you having a nightmare?" she asked although she already knew the answer; she, too, has experienced the same thing but her reaction to it was a little subdued compared to her friend.
"I kept having this feeling that I was about to crash then I would be taken away again. I was carried by this beast with strange markings, similar to the ones on the door we went through. I remember staring at them just so that I won't have to look where we are going. I was clutching at its hair- I thought they were hair because they looked like hair but they were so stiff like metal wires. It moved like the wind, NO, like a fucking hurricane!" panted Zone.
"If it's any consolation to you, I had a nightmare too," confessed Grace.
"No, don't tell me. One is enough for me." Zone held up one hand and struggled to get up.
"Where are we?" he looked around and saw tall trees around - the tallest he had ever seen.
They could not even see the sun but they knew it was still up. The leaves allow for some light to pass through.
"I remember the small girl telling us it would be a clearing. This is the opposite of a clearing," said Zone disgustedly.
The trees themselves did not exude anything dangerous but he could sense a malevolent aura just beyond them. Something that wanted desperately to kill them. Or worse.
He looked at Grace and saw that she is already geared for adventure. He immediately checked his menu and suited up as well.
"Are we still in the same game?" he asked his friend.
"I am not really sure. We still have our menu but this feels more real somehow, like an upgraded version," answered Grace.
"That's some serious upgrade," Zone said as he pulled a leaf off a branch. The branch immediately whipped Zone in the hand.
"Woah, these plants are seriously vindictive!" he laughed.
"If the flora is this aggressive, I wonder what kind of fauna this forest has," mused Grace.
They were silent for a while and looked worriedly at the far end of the forest. It looked deep enough to cause some problems especially since they did not have that much supplies.
They heard dry wood breaking and a hubbub of voices not long after.
"Step a little louder, won't you?" hissed a female voice. It was strangely familiar but the two hid nonetheless.
"Look, I could be as weightless as Ice, here and I would still break these twigs!" countered a male voice.
"Dumbass…" muttered the other.
"Bia...mmph", his voice was muffled and a clank of metal on bone.
The party entered their visual range a couple a seconds after and their suspicions were confirmed. These are the guys at the gate.
They looked comically mismatched and inept. Only the girl in purple and the one in black moved with confidence and litheness that showed training.
The old guy was almost limping and the small girl kept glancing all around with a worried expression.
The boy, not that much older than Zone also looked clumsy in his cheap looking armor and rusty sword. His boots looked too heavy that was why he kept making those noises as he walked.
He wanted to come out right then and there but Grace kept a hand on him.
"Don't do it so suddenly. The girl in purple looked ready to chop anyone's head if she gets surprised," she warned.
He observed the one Grace described and true enough, her hand was on the handle of her sword and her stance was that of someone expecting an attack any minute. He also noticed that her feet were not making any sound at all as she walked on top of the dry twigs. That one was a trained warrior even in real life.
"Let them pass and we shall follow them for a while. We will come out when they are more relaxed. There is no point in starting off on the wrong foot," whispered Grace.
"We can just call out from a safe distance," whispered Zone back.
As soon as he finished his sentence, a sudden sound alerted the girl in purple. She vanished from their sight in an instant and they heard the distinct sound of blade on flesh. A scream of an animal followed.
"You're right. It's not good to surprise that one," Zone said with a shudder.
They decided to follow in a safer distance.
Then they sensed rather than heard another group coming from the back. This group was more careful. They obviously have more experience.
Zone and Grace got out of the obvious path and waited.
There were 7 men, all armed to the teeth.
"They don't look too happy," whispered Zone.
"Let us find a way to warn the five," said Grace.
"Are you sure you want to get involved in their fight?" asked Zone disbelievingly.
"We came the same way they did. If anyone could give us answers, it was them. Besides, where's your sense of adventure? They are obviously the underdog. It would be more fun fighting alongside them," There was twinkle in her eyes.
Zone groaned inwardly.
They followed the two groups while being careful not to be seen.
The undergrowth made it near impossible to move. The grasses and the tiny branches kept clutching at them, like tiny arms.
Their plan to warn the first group failed because of that.
The narrow place leading to an uphill path made for a perfect battleground favoring the second group.
They knew about the place and were waiting for John's group to be pinned down by the narrow path before making their move.
"What now twerps! Got any more smart things to say?" growled the largest of them.
"Nah, you wouldn't understand it," answered Ash and the hiss of her blade going out of the scabbard was ominous.
"Who is this again?" asked Ora.
"The ugly person with a bad aim," answered Ash.
Ora laughed despite herself.
The large man raised a savage looking cudgel and glared at them menacingly.
"That posture would require something sinister to say, like 'I would tear you to pieces!' or 'Ooga booga," taunted Ash and the man swung his cudgel in her direction.
"I would tear you to pieces!!" screamed the man.
"Plagiarist," Ash said as she nimbly danced away from danger.
Suddenly, a short arrow protruded from the forehead of the large man.
Ash turned to John as he was reloading his slingshot.
"Nice shooting old man," she congratulated.
"I was aiming for the chest," John muttered.
As the large man toppled over, the rest of his gang went into a frenzy.
They roared, mad with rage and they descended upon John's party.
Ice scrambled away into the uphill path to better see what was going on.
That was the scene that Zone and Grace arrived into.
From their vantage point, they could see that the first party was at a great disadvantage.
The boy with the rusty sword was already lying on the ground groaning and the older guy was desperately holding on to the waist of one man who was trying to lift him from the ground.
The girl in purple was hard pressed by two warriors and two others are slowly stalking the girl in black.
The small girl threw a potion at the fallen boy even as one warrior was bearing down on him.
An old guy from the second party, a mage from his looks, raised his staff and flames erupted from the ground near the small girl and she screamed in surprise.
The woman in black swung her sword at her attacker and a scythe shaped light flew out towards the surprised man, cleaving him in half.
Without pausing, she thrusted her sword in the air towards the enemy mage and an energy bolt shot at the old man who clumsily erected a shield of light to deflect the attack.
Zone drew a sharp poniard from his inventory and ran towards the mage.
The old man arched backward as the dagger pierced his back and collapsed writhing on the ground near Zone's feet.
Zone went to help the girl in black but she gestured towards the older guy in her party who was still locked in a mighty struggle with his opponent. Zone rolled towards that direction and thrusted his poniard to the tall guy's unprotected side. He loosened his grip on the middle-aged man and dropped to his knees.
As the larger man did that, Zone saw that a knife was sticking out of the middle-aged man's back. It was amazing that he did not let go even with that grave a wound.
He went to help him. He pulled the knife out and was relieved to see that it was not that long. It was still deep but it wasn't fatal.
The middle-aged guy gasped his thanks and lay face down, panting.
Zone kicked one of the attackers of the purple garbed girl and she immediately took advantage of the situation to slash at the distracted man's neck. Even as his head rolled to the ground, she vaulted in the air and threw her sword at the remaining enemy, hitting him squarely on one eye.
It would have been a short fight if not for the last enemy who kept hacking at the boy who raised his sword ineffectually. He was getting shallow cuts on different parts of his body and Zone could see that he was losing his remaining strength. He can barely raise the sword anymore.
The small girl behind him frantically scrolled through her menu and casted healing spells one after the other. It healed the minor cuts but there were other bigger wounds that she couldn't heal.
She rummaged inside her bag and brought out a bottle with purple liquid. She opened it and in her panic, sprayed its contents out.
The horrendous sound that emanated from the fallen warriors were terrible. A purple aura blanketed over them and they all screamed in agony. The first one to revive was the one that the girl in black killed and as that one stood up, he immediately attacked indiscriminately. He hit his comrade in the back, killing him instantly.
All the dead came back to life and started hacking blindly at anything that moved. They all hit each other but they went on like nothing happened.
The girl in purple kicked at the severed head who started moving. The headless body lurched aimlessly and she cut that one to pieces.
Even after being torn apart, some of the fingers still twitched much to her revulsion.
Fortunately, most of them lost their weapons and no one had enough brains left to retrieve them. They became mindless killing machines. Virtually indefatigable and unkillable but a lot less dangerous without their killing implements.
They resorted to grabbing and mauling. The woman in black got overpowered by three of them and even the best efforts of Zone and Ash were not enough to make them let go.
The boy was being pummeled into the ground and the small girl was trying to get away from the one that kept grabbing at her ankles as she scrambled up the narrow upward path.
The middle aged guy was struggling to get up but was obviously in so much pain that he kept groaning. He loaded his sling shot and shot an enemy on the head but that one still held on to the woman in black who was now visibly weakened, she stopped struggling.
Grace began her incantation and the ground around them began to glow a sooty color. As her voice rose over the growling of the undead, the black light enveloped them and they collapsed as if pressed by a terrible weight. They continued shriveling as if being crumpled from the inside out.
Then in a puff of smoke, all but one of the warriors vanished and the glow immediately ceased.
Grace dropped to her knees breathing heavily.
Zone went to her to help her up and together, they approached the five who, except for the girl in purple, laid on the ground bruised and bloodied.
As they got up, pain and shame were reflected in their faces.
The truth wounded them deeper than their enemies.
If not for the newcomers, they would have been severely wounded or worse.
"Take that pain and channel it," Ash re-echoed the words from her training days.
They all nodded and stood straighter to welcome their two saviors.