The hunted

"By Arcione's grace, Purify." Koba cast the Purify miracle before healing himself. The black mist coming out of his wound his wound receded.

"It really is Unholy magic..." Reika said, while stealing glances to his direction.

She and Lia were standing guard next to him while Keita, Nao and Anne went inside the inn to retrieve their possessions and wear their armor. Keita was the first to return since his cloth armor was just that. He also grabbed Reika's bow and quiver and tossed them to her.

"This is nerve breaking..." Lia said. Her stance was lower and her staff in front of her.

They couldn't see anything. They could only pay attention to sounds. Keita drew his blade and stood besides Koba. He reached his hand to help him up without a word.

'What is the best option?' he thought.

Nao and Anne soon came fully equipped and carrying everyone's belongings. They took formation and just stood there for a while.

"Can you two feel anyone?" Nao asked as he anchored his shield to the ground.

"We can't feel the magic power of Undead." Keita explained. "Unholy magic power is different than a Human's or Demon's. Or anything else for that matter."

"Then..." Nao said.

Silence. Everyone knew what he wanted to say but no one said a word. Right now, the city could be surrounded by thousands of Undead. They had no way of knowing, other than sound.

"How is it Reika? Can you hear anything?" Keita asked. He didn't know if the Half-elves truly had better hearing than Humans or it was Shape sifters but right now he had no choice but to rely on her.

"Not a thing." she replied.

'Do we stay here or move?' Keita thought about his options. 'Moving in the dark is going to be difficult but not impossible. If we don't encounter any Undead we might get out of this unscathed. On the other hand if we do, we are going to have casualties. If we try to flee, Nao is going to be the first one to die...' the image of Nao being stabbed from the back by a skeleton flashed in his mind. Keita violently shook trying to shake the thought out of his head. 'Then do we stay here? We could find a narrow path and try to hold them until dawn. If we place some torches and a dead end, we could probably do it... No, that won't work either when we don't know their numbers. Think! What is the safest option." he racked his brain.

"Someones here!" Reika said. The party immediately turned to where Reika was pointing and readied their weapons.

Keita was surprised to notice it wasn't an Undead. He could feel magic power at that direction, even if it was weak and only a small amount. It was closer than his range, meaning he let his guard down once again while thinking.

'Maybe a Aerch Militia soldier?' he thought with optimism. Alas it was not.

"I found you!" an eerie voice said. "Irregular."

Keita's blood was frozen. The voice... it wasn't Human or any other race he ever saw. He took a look at his party. All of them understood, their expressions pale and full of fear. Whatever had this voice was dangerous. Even though it's magic power wasn't strong, it was dangerous. Every inch, every fiber of his body told him to run.

"Now, which one is it?" the voice continued to talk as it came closer. The sound of feet walking on their direction came closer and closer. It wasn't just one pair. Keita couldn't count how many by sound alone.

'An army...' this thought came to his mind. But he couldn't feel any magic power.

The owner of the voice finally revealed himself. He wore beautiful robes and carried a long staff -indicating he was a Mage - and Keita could only see his face and arms. His skin was stretched and falling apart and he carried the smell of rotting flesh with him. Keita could see part of it's skull. His eyes shined a sinister red and it had an aura of death surrounding him. Behind him skeletons and rotting corpses walked. Some of them had only recently died.

'The citizens.' Keita thought when he saw them. Their eyes were white and their skin almost blue. They had dried blood on their clothes and carried any weapon they could find. Shovels, farming equipment, axes and swords.

"Elder Lich!" Anne placed her hand over her mouth.

"It is a pleasure. My name is Morran." the Elder Lich apparently named Morran bowed with one hand extended and the other to his chest. "Keh keh keh." it made a sound similar to laughter. "Now, with that out of the way... Which one is the irregular?"

The party retreated one step. The Elder Lich raised it's head and looked at each one until it stopped at Reika.

"A Half-elf... I don't need you or the other women. If you tell me who the irregular is, I won't kill you. Keh keh keh." it laughed again.

Nao put himself in front of Reika. His was afraid, there was no question about that. His feet were shaking and his breathing was already ragged. His posture though brought Keita back to his senses. This wasn't the time to be afraid.

"We don't know what you are talking about so how about we just leave?" he asked Morran. The Elder Lich, turned his gaze to him. It's head moved with a cracking sound.

"You... you might be the one..." the Lich said. Then it turned it's head towards the Undead. "Kill the women and cut the men's legs off. Just make it quick."

At that moment, Keita felt the ground shaking. The Undead were charging towards them. Thousand upon thousand of them were making their way to this place.

"RUN!" Keita shouted as he charged the Undead.

Nao was the first to run. It was his job to lead when Keita was in the rearguard. Koba and Reika followed behind him while Lia was in the middle, shooting Magic Bullets to the Undead Keita was fighting. Anne was besides him, fighting while retreating.

"Cleave!" she screamed the Swords-man Skill and with one swing, three Undead were cleaved in pieces.

Meanwhile, Keita was dancing around the sluggish Undead, hacking and slashing, kicking and punching. A sword wasn't a very effective weapon when fighting skeletons but with Shroud he could slice the rotting bone like butter.

"That's enough, stay close to Lia and retreat. They are not aiming for any vital points against me so I'm fine." he tried to urge Anne but was completely ignored.

Just as he thought how to make Anne retreat, every hair in his body jumped and he felt a chill go down his spine. His instincts were warning him about the coming danger before he could see it. Keita jumped towards Anne and pushed her with his shoulder. He used Haste to get closer and he didn't have time be delicate. Anne lost her balance and fell to the ground along with him.

"What are you-" Anne snapped at him.

"Hoh?!" the Elder Lich said in admiration.

There was a burned mark where Anne was just standing. The Spell that the Lich cast, Lighting Spear and staying true to it's name, it was a lighting attack. Not only could it kill a Human with one hit, it was as fast as lighting, making it even more dangerous than Magic Bullet. Keita was able to react thanks to noticing the attack before it was fired and because he knew the words for the chant. Upon realizing which Spell it was and where it was aimed, he pushed Anne out of the way and both managed to get away unscathed.

'As I thought, the meager magic power that I am sensing isn't all there is to him.' Since Keita never fought Undead before, he didn't know the specifics about Elder Lich and Unholy magic power. The only thing he knew was that necromancers drew their power from something old and sacred to them.

"You are quite fast." Morran praised him. "Maybe you really are the Irregular. Not that I have any way to make sure."

"Irregular, irregular." Keita repeated as he got up. "What the hell is it anyway? What the hell do you want from us?"he screamed at the Lich.

"Oh, you don't know? I see, I see. You can think of an Irregular as someone who the Gods don't have any control over or way to predict their actions. Someone very precious to the old gods, the true gods! You see, they are a very rare existence. So rare I went through the trouble to become a Lich in order to find. By the way, is this fine? While I am explaining all these, your friends are already surrounded. Keh keh keh." he laughed again. Could this even be considered a laugh or is he just coughing, Keita wondered.

'No, what the hell am I thinking at this time?'

"We are pulling back Anne, go as fast as you can!" he told Anne and let her follow the others.

They have taken too long to retreat. Lia was firing Magic Bullets and other Spells their direction bug has ceased. They were either too far or too preoccupied with other enemies. Thankfully Keita could still feel their Magic power.

Anne run without a word. She didn't like taking orders from Keita and she especially didn't want to owe him anything. But she still run as fast as she could, even though her armor slowed her down. Keita was right behind her. He threw a few daggers using Needle that landed on the heads of the Undead. But not only they didn't stop moving, they didn't even flinch. To defeat Undead you either neutralized them by cutting off their limps or destroying the core of Unholy magic power in their heads which was smaller than a peanut. That was common sense but Keita didn't know where exactly in their heads the core was located. So he just run, as fast as he legs could carry him.

"Dammit! Dammit!" he shouted as he run.

'Where are we supposed to go? Where could we go where the Undead won't follow?'