"The zombies are already dead," Elektra tells me. "You have to slice them in pieces or incinerate them if you are to take them out for good."

She turns and powers up, then casts a Fire Bolt that incinerates the body of the zombie. The stench is unbearable, like burning rotten meat. If I didn't have Vampire Ancestry, I would probably vomit at the smell, the way several others around me already are.

Alexander's team is doing great so far, each having killed at least two zombies, as they penetrate deeper into the dungeon in a bloody frenzy. I know I can do better. I have to if I want to give that son of a bitch a lesson.

Ambrosia and I decide to charge out into the darkness, Elektra right behind us. My team and other adventurers attack the zombie mob en masse, my sword slashing rotten flesh again and again, leaving dismembered bodies behind us in a bloody trail. The place soon becomes a perfect pandemonium of death and I fail to notice a lurching zombie from the side. The moaning shuffler tries to bite me with his razor-like teeth, but Ambrosia attacks it with a hiss, her sharpened claws taking care of it in a bloody flash.

"Thanks!" I tell her with a nod.

She gives me a snobbish smile. "No problem," she responds. "I wouldn't want anything to happen to my favorite pet now, would I?"

I don't have time to reply as more and more zombies appear from the darkness, all of them moaning and wanting to taste fresh and pudgy flesh. I wait patiently, till another zombie comes into reach and I cut it in two with my sword.

The zombie horde comes at us with renewed members and now Alexander and his team have problems of their own. Several of the zombies have already surrounded them and it's impossible for them to escape. Especially for them, being a team entirely of wizards, the stupidest thing to do is to take on the vanguard, but having a proud idiot as a leader has come down to this. I care less for my rival, but I want nothing bad to happen to Zoe.

I recognize two of the zombies as the female wizards that followed us down into the sewer. They had joined Alexander’s party it seems. He led them to their deaths.

Dammit, they were hot! I grind my teeth.

The zombies march forward and my rival's team tries to break the encirclement to connect with us with no success. Alexander spits something with his shaking voice, his face turning around to find a weak spot to penetrate but there are none. The zombies continue coming closer and closer by the moment. In the end, there is just a blur of claws and teeth. The zombies strike like snakes and without warning, they claim a young brunette Threat Level 3 wizard girl.

More of them become undead, spreading across Alexander's party, infiltrating his team from frontline to center. I can't keep watching them die.

Once more, I decide to play hero and charge at the zombie horde, one hand Lush, the other my deadly claws. In this mass of rotten flesh and bones, swords slash, heads break, bones crunch, and black stones turn red almost instantly. The wizard team can't win this battle, no matter their rank and their numbers. I search for Zoe, but she's nowhere to be found. I hope she didn't perish inside the formless mass of the battlefield.

Using all my strength and wits, I manage to break the encirclement and most of the wizards retreat safely, Alexander and Zoe included. A rush of joy runs throughout my system and I give her a sexy smile. She smiles back. I try to hold the zombie horde as much as I can until Elektra and Ambrosia come to my aid and help me obliterate the zombie vanguard. This gives the adventurers the opportunity to slay the remaining zombies that had penetrated our lines and to find some time to catch our breath.

"Excellent," the artificer tells me as he comes and pats me on my shoulder. "That was a good call," and motions me to follow him.

"More are coming," I tell him but he already knows. "What do we do?"

I must admit, now I'm a bit more confident knowing what I just pulled off.

"Catch your breath and rest for now," he orders me. "I want you to take on the vanguard after this wave of zombies. Stronger opponents will appear after the waves of mindless zombies and I want someone to tank for us."

"But," I begin to say, thinking I might lose my wager against Alexander.

"That's an order!" He says with his booming voice.

Silently I accept and head to the back, leaving the other adventurers to finish the remaining wave of zombies.

"You should be more careful," Elektra tells me with a wary look. "Have you forgotten what they've done to us a little back at the adventurer's guild?"

"I didn't do it for Alexander," I confess. "All I did, I did it for Zoe."

Now I get a glimpse of envy from Elektra. "And you would do the same for me?"

"I already did once and would gladly do it again," I reply with a sexy, but honest smile. "When this is over, I'll ask Zoe to join us. Now that I remembered, why did you argue with Alexander back at the guild?"

The battle against the undead horde continues, but the moaning fades as their number dwindles. Elektra turns her face to the side, almost not wanting to reply.

"I'm an outcast," she confesses.

"What did you do?" I want to know, my eyes narrowing into slits.

"They think I stole a sacred artifact," she replies curtly, still not looking at me.

"And did you?" I continue my interrogation.

She casts her gaze on me. "I was ordered to guard something, but I failed and lost it, and now I'm an outcast until I find it and return it to the Phratry of Helios," she tells me in a quivering voice, her naïve eyes starting to water.

This case reminds me a bit of my own and I can show some empathy. The Supreme Administrator probably tricked me into this world and I am still not sure if it's actually the real world or another virtual game that mimics the real world.

"I wouldn't sweat it," I try to comfort her. "If they can't understand your worth and think that Alexander is better, then they don't deserve you."

She remains silent for a moment and I wonder why. Then, I see Zoe is coming our way.

"On behalf of me and my team, we thank you for saving our asses back there," Zoe tells me with a smile.

"It should be your leader thanking me," I half-shrug. "He's too prideful to admit it."

"I know," she tells me in a bitter voice and continues, "I know you're not going to like what I say."

The corner of my eyes crinkle, almost suspecting what I'm about to hear. "Don't tell me that Alexander wants to cooperate with us?"

Zoe shakes her head. "The artificer wants both of our teams to cooperate and lead the vanguard."

"Damn!" Is all I say to her.