Fend off the Infection

Though the village was not that large the danger was terribly obvious, the infection seemed much more all encompassing than they had previously thought. They would need to tread carefully near streams and rives and even trees, for fear that the perverted twisted abominations of nature would leap out and attack them. The mist covering the ground would be pretty much normal mist until wind carried it up to their faces now and again, and it would make them gag with the stench of rotting corpses and polluted earth.....

Then in the distance...they saw it. The town, even the building twisted and covered in organic resin. The whole town looked like a massive living entity and they could see it pulsing slightly, almost like it had a heart beat. Worse, they could hear the monsters that used to be humans screeching and roaring, the could even hear a few human sounds...but they soon stopped.

Nithien paused for a moment, staring off into the infection. He mummered under his breath.

"This disgusting infection is destroying everything I've known." he looked back to Slailie. "I owe my brother my life, so I follow him."

Dane began to sprint toward the village, motioning to Slailie to follow him. When he turned to see her chatting with the elf, he glared.

"I guess I'll take this village myself," he said as he turned away. His voice was gruff and deep. He sounded much older than he looked.

Lorelei takes a good, hard look at her surroundings. "Oh dear..." she mutters, "It's just as bad here as it is in the ocean..."

Nithien watched as she ran forward to catch up with the taller man who name was not spoken. He watched her exchange words with the man as they moved forward. He looked to his brother, who had also begun to move forward and picked up his own pace.

"Nalrak, the girl has a point. We can't fight what we don't know is there."

Nalrak scoffed, "Hah, that's part of the fun!"

Dane looked to Slailie as she approached.

"Can't count what we can't see." He kept up his pace until he was close enough to see the village in full view. He would find cover before approaching further and raise a hand to signal that Slailie and the others get down. He looked passed rumble and wreckage to count the number of visible threats before he motioned for them to come forward.

There were far more infected in this town than what he could see, but from here he could see at least 15 infected humans, 10 of them were adults while the others appeared to be children between 12-14. They shambled around slowly and parts of them twitched and shuddered as veins and thing rippled in their skins, some of them mutating and changing before their eyes, bones ripping from their bodies to become weapons, one or two of them disemboweled themselves and the intestines began to raise up and move around like tentacles.

Lorelei gulps as she looks at the sight, "Oh damn... I'm not ready for this!" she thinks to herself, "Snap out of it, Lorelei... You just need to change your tactics..." She waits for the signal.

Dane waved them forward, motioning for them to stay low. He watched carefully as the creatures mutated into vastly different beings. The sight of them disemboweling themselves did not phase him, he was too familiar with what happens to those infected. He held up five fingers then three, meaning five times three, then pointed passed the cover toward the majority of the infected.

Talas nodded to Dane, understanding his meaning. He was eager to rid the town of this plague and wanted to rush in right away. Although they were absolutely vile, the infected did not appear to be too dangerous and with the element of surprise they could fall quickly. Talas's fingers twitched. He watched the monsters rip apart their own bodies for only a few moments longer before he could wait no more. Talas gave the signal to attack and rush forward and brandished his blade.

Turnis smiled wide and knocked three arrows at once, muttering an enchantment that caused them to ignite. He let them fly by and pierce three infected, the infected caught fire but didnt seem to go down "The cursed ones are strong, but nothing can stand in fire for too long."

Lorelei attacks the infected from a distance. Changing her strategy from the last Infected battle, she decides to attack with ice instead. She fires pointed ice projectiles at an Infected.

Nalrak bolted forward, drawing his Kusari blade, he dropped the blade and swung it in an upward arch toward the infected. He was fast, agile, and his blades movement was that of a chain whip flying around his body without ever coming into contact with it. And yet, the blades at the end of the chain was precise, never missing its target. Nithien also moved forward but remained at the flank of the group, keeping the infected from circling behind them and surrounding them. He had drawn his Katana and watched the back of the ground as well as the side.

The infected that were struck by the attacks from our heroes were felled quickly, but the other ran at them with animal like ferocity. More were coming by the sounds of the rest of the city, they may have made a mistake just rushing in like they did, even though they had a preliminary number, the center oft he city is where they needed to be and to get there they would need to fight through hordes of the infected. Talas and the Noquor brothers would get the worst of it being infront as lorelei and Tyurnis were in the back playing support.

Dane moved to the side of the group, cutting off the infected from reaching the others. He pushed Slailie back as the hordes grew larger. One could tell he was concerned for her safety although his expression barely changed.

"Infected Scum," he growled as he slashed the hordes approaching. His blade lodged itself in one of the beasts as he fought through the surrounding horde. He struggled to keep the others at bay as he tried to rip the blade out of the corpse.

Nalrak's expression was completely different from the arrogant smile he had shown before. He looked serious, almost angry as he tore through the infected. He pushed forward into the horde and swung his blade full circle around him. He turned and saw Dane struggling with his sword lodged in an infected. He acted without hesitation, turning his back to the horde, and lashed the chain out and around the infected's neck. He jerked backward in effort to rip the beast away from his new-found comrade.

"Disgusting filth!," he shouted in a enraged tone, much different from how he was speaking earlier. "I will see you severed from this world!"

Nithien continued fighting at the flank, he was cut off from the much of the group other than those behind him and would be unable to reach Dane nor his brother.

Dane continued to struggle to hold back the infected until Nalrak's chain ripped the infected from his blade, however, the creature was still living. It stumbled backward then moved toward Dane again, its body disembowled and oozing a mucky sludge. Dane raised his balde and impaled the creature through the skull then tossed it aside. His strength was withering, some may notice his aim deminishing and his movements becoming more disoriented. Only Slailie would understand what was happening to him.

The infected were closing in on Nalrak as his back was turned to aid Dane. He drew a dagger in the left hand and plunged it behind him, stabbing an infected. He turned and lashed his chain blade forward, but it was too late, he would have already been overrun. His only choice was to fight them head on in close range, a risky attempt at survival.

Nithien looked back and saw his brother being surrounded by infected but was unable to leave his position without endangering everyone here.

"Drow," he shouted to Talas, trying to get his attention. "look ahead of you!"

Talas fought expertly with his own sword. He stayed back to finish off the few that Nalrak had ran past. He cut off an arm and a leg from the infected directly in front of him. Immediately after he knocked another to the ground with the hilt of the weapon and plunged the blade into its chest. When he was up he heard the call of Nalrak and noticed the other son of Noquor in danger of being overwhelmed. Talas quickly retrieved one of his summoning stones and called forth his bulky stone golem, Garrison right next to Nithien. Meanwhile, Talas raced to Nalrak's side to help him against the horde.

Garrison swung his thick arms at the infected nearby. The bones crushed and cracked from his powerful strike, yet still more infected were coming from the city.

"Is there ever an end to them!? Gale-Munnach (Drow God), they just keep coming!" Talas was reconsidering whether this frontal assault was a good idea.

Lorelei keeps shooting ice spikes at the Infected, trying to keep up with the horde. She knew that her water supply was running low, however, and couldn't keep shooting for much longer.

Nalrak's dropped the kusari blade and drew his other short sword. At that moment his expression changed, he smiled maniacally as he slashed the throats of the closest infected.

"Now this is more like it," he said as his smiled grew wider. He had begun to fight back the hordes enough to draw his chain blade again. When Talas arrived he had already returned to his previous weapon, and with it the same serious, almost enraged expression. He glared when he heard Talas speak of the Drow God. "The gods will not help you, nor I, they have forsaken us and you should do the same to them." He growled in an angered tone, almost a completely different voice.

Nithien was jolted by the summon Talas had been keeping hidden. He continued fighting, although weary of the beast that now fought by his side. He heard Nalrak's voice when he scolded Talas and paused in shock.

".....That isn't Nalrak..." Nithien said under his breath as he continued fighting.

The infected horde was taking a terrible beating but the heroes began to notice, as a group as more of the infected died the tactics began changing and they seemed like they were learning as a shared intelligence. Slicing their throats was no longer as effective, the wound closing with the sludge that slides through the veins and arteries of the infected, cutting them in half wouldn't kill them anymore, the spin would spew infected material out and created a long snake like body for them as the old legs shivered and molded in a spider like creature, near total dismemberment of the whole body is one of the only ways to kill them now. But with the ferocity of the various Drow and Dane, along with the ranged support from the others, the infected horde finally began to thin, but as the horde started to break the could hear roaring, this was NOT a human infected, the ground itself seemed to pulse now as if giving life to some terrible monstrosity inside the city.

Tyurnis stopped shooting off arrows for a moment "What is that terrible sound? I think by some terrible foe we have been found."

As soon as the roar is heard, Lorelei begins to shake. "Oh no..." she says. She feels as though she's gotten way over her head.