Azalea PoV

My eyes itched and watered as smoke billowed out of the houses surrounding us. Thankfully, there were very few bodies on the streets. Although the lack of bodies could indicate something far worse. 

Raya gasped as her hands flew to her mouth to hold back sobs. Callie hugged her tightly from behind her, encouraging her not to look as she steered Buttercup away from the not so pleasant sights. 

I coughed as I avoided the worst of the smoke while I flew around, looking for any of the seemingly missing townsfolk. 

“Did we do this? Did we let this happen?” Raya asked, turning around in her seat in front of Callie and looking at her as they rode Buttercup. 

Callie shook her head, before jumping down off the horse to look around, “No. Definitely not. This looks like it’s nearly a day old on its own. If we had come here, instead of going straight to the dungeon, we might’ve been caught up in whatever happened here too.”

A sharp noise drew my attention to a partially collapsed house that had the least amount of smoke pouring out of the buildings. It sounded like something had fallen to the ground. My sus radar pinged on to it, so I moved to get a closer look inside. 

“Be careful,” I heard Callie call out, “that might collapse at any moment.”

“I’ll be quick,” I replied, as I slowly made my way through the wide open doorway. I could see the pieces of the shattered door that had been smashed open by something apparently quite strong. 

I activated my shield and discovered, to my pleasant surprise, that it filtered out the smoke from around me. Unfortunately, a slight purple shimmer was visible as it pushed back the smoke, which was a little hard to see through, but at least it wasn’t as bad as the smoke itself, and it also made it easier to breathe.

Thankfully smoke thinned a lot as I came inside, as it seemed most of it was coming from the front wall. Calling it a house was a bit of a misnomer, it was more like a shack. It was an extremely open design, kitchen, bedroom and what could’ve even been the bathroom, all in one medium sized room. A room that was partially burnt and still smouldering in places. I opened my mouth to call out like an idiot in a horror movie, and abruptly closed it with a click of my teeth. 

I first noticed a timber bucket was rocking slightly in the kitchen area, presumably having just fallen off of the table. As I moved around the table, I spotted a sliver of something green hiding behind the lounge that looked like it had been placed inside of a shredder, it was an absolute mess, although, still holding itself together, if barely. As I got closer, I noticed the green patch was moving slightly from side to side while I watched it carefully. 

I slowly flew up and over the lounge, careful to keep a bit of a distance between me and whatever was hiding, when suddenly, with a green blur, something struck my shield. I squealed in startlement as a little green monster attacked me. 

“You’ll not get me, giant zombie fly!”

I dodged the next attack, a glass jar of some sort thrown at my head, when my attacker finally stopped moving enough for me to get a good look at it. Or rather, her. The green devil was, in fact, a young girl. A young orc girl. I could see itty bitty tiny tusks and light green skin, with dark green hair that was so dark, it was almost black. 

“I’m not a zombie fly, doofus!” I yelled in reply, as I dodged another object, one of her shoes this time. 

“Ahh! An intelligent, giant zombie fly!”

“I’m a fairy, not a fly. So rude.” 

“A… fairy? You’re actually real? And you got turned into a zombie? That’s so sad!” The little girl said, seeming to forget about throwing things at me as she looked at me sadly. 

“I’m not a zombie, silly. I’m Azalea. My friends and I just arrived in town,” I frowned, “or what’s left of it, at least.”

Just then, I heard a commotion outside, and Callie charged into the house, closely followed by Raya. 

“Azalea? Are you alright? We heard you yell out.”

“Ahh! More zombies. Take that! And that!” Callie and Raya, dodged out of the way as the young girl started throwing items at them as well. 

“We aren’t zombies, sheesh!” I said, as I tried not to giggle at the situation. I had the urge to start throwing stuff at them too. I was just about to, when with a creak and a loud bang, a hidden trapdoor slammed open. Out came a beautiful girl with pink hair, in a gorgeous armoured dress. 

“Ryel! What’s going on? Get away from her, undead monsters!” The new girl shouted; suddenly, after a flash of pink light, she was sporting two wrist mounted crossbows. With a yelp, I dodged as I felt her aim for me. 

“Stop! We aren’t undead, or your enemies.” Callie shouted loudly. 

The girl frowned, turning her weapons towards where my companions were hiding outside, to the side of the open doorway. 

“Maybe you’re bandits instead?” The new girl asked, although she didn’t look too certain of that herself. Her orange yellow eyes widened as she looked at me, then glanced warily at the open doorway. 

I felt myself blushing as I stared at the pink haired girl. She was absolutely, stunningly, beautiful. 

The beautiful girl frowned again, briefly, making my heart race, before she lowered her crossbows, evidently having decided that we weren’t her enemies. It was then that I used [Inspect] on her. 

Kelcie

Level 31 Magical Girl (Epic) 

“You’re a magical girl?” I clapped my hands excitedly, and squealed in delight. 

The girl, Kelcie, looked taken aback momentarily, before answering with a small smile, “Uh, yes?”

“Are you sure? Because you don’t sound so sure.” I helpfully pointed out. 

“Azalea, don’t be a brat,” Callie called out, as she slowly made her way around the wall and into the house. 

“Ha, a gnat, I knew you were a giant bug!” The little girl, Ryel, giggled. 

“I’m a fairy, I already said so.” I poked my tongue out at the little girl for extra emphasis. To which I got one in return. 

“I said brat, not gnat,” Callie said, replying to the orc. “It sounds like you and Azalea have something in common.” She muttered. 

“Hi, I’m sorry about our friend. I’m Callie, this is Raya, and that’s Azalea,” she said, pointing to each of us when she said our names, except herself of course, that would look silly. “We had just arrived, to find the town in ruins like this. What happened?”

Kelcie sighed, rubbing the side of her forehead with her hands, before replying, “Nice to meet you. I’m Kelcie, and this little scamp here is Ryel. As for your question? It was the undead, a large horde swarmed the town. We held them off for nearly a week, until we didn’t have enough town guards to maintain the defences, and then we were overrun. Look, you don’t seem like bad sorts. Let’s continue this discussion down below. Far less smoke, and we’ll be in no danger of attracting any possible undead that might be still about.”

Callie turned to look at Raya, before looking back at Kelcie. “Sounds good.”

Kelcie nodded once, before turning back towards the trapdoor, and gesturing for Ryel to go first. The little girl jumped down with a thump as she landed, before Kelcie looked back at us. “Are you coming?” She asked, as we hadn’t moved yet. 

“Sure! I always wanted to visit a hidey hole in the ground.” For some reason, I couldn’t help but blush when Kelcie looked at me. But I metaphorically took the leap, and flew down into the underground room, where I hoped I wasn’t about to get eaten. That would suck. 

I heard gasps as my light lit up the room as I entered, and I spotted about a dozen or so people, all bunched up together. 

“Is that a fairy?”

“She’s cute!”

“What’s a fairy doing so far from home? Aren’t they supposed to live far up north?”

“Amazing, I never thought I’d see a fairy in person.”

The mutterings were mostly quiet, but I could hear them easily enough. The room wasn’t very large after all. 

“Hi! I’m Azalea,” I said, giving them a nervous wave as I waited for my friends to join me. I looked around. Most of the survivors looked to be human, or mostly human. A few nekokin, like Raya, and even a single elf were among the group huddled together. 

A young human man stepped forward and nervously bowed to me. “Umm, Miss Azalea? I mean no disrespect, but what have you come here for? What are you going to do to us?” 

I frowned at his question, and he paled, and scampered back into the huddled mass with a frightened look. 

“First of all, it’s just Azalea, and second, I’m not going to do anything to you. Why would I?”

Before anyone could answer, if they were going to that is, my friends climbed down the ladder, followed quickly by Kelcie, as she closed the hatch after her. 

“What’s going on, Kelcie? Who are these people? What’s the condition of the town outside?” The same man that talked to me earlier, questioned Kelcie this time. 

“They’re adventurers, right?” She asks, looking at Callie for confirmation, then turning back to the man after Callie nodded, “Who found the town in ruins and were investigating. There doesn’t seem to be any undead around right now, but that doesn’t mean they won’t come back. After some lunch, I’ll go out and scout a bit, see if I can find any enemies, and more importantly, any more survivors.” 

Her declaration immediately set off further questions and discussions amongst the group. Callie and Raya began talking with the group about what they had seen up above. As I had no horse in that race, I amused myself and satisfied my curiosity by inspecting everyone I could see. Sadly, most of them were pretty low level with boring classes like Hunter or Weaver or something. Ryel was interesting in that it just returned her name and no other information. Was she too young for a class? I didn’t receive mine until I was an adult, maybe other humanoids were the same?

I flew over and hovered near Ryel as she watched the adults blather on and tapped her shoulder. The little orc girl jumped then spun to face me. I giggled at her fierce expression, and her attempt at hiding her embarrassment from jumping. 

“Don’t do that!” she demanded. 

“Do what?” I asked as innocently as I could. “I just tapped your shoulder.” Ryel crossed her arms and huffed. It was adorable. 

“So… how did you escape the room without any of the boring adults stopping you?” That seemed to be the right question to ask, as her eyes almost sparkled in excitement. 

“Ooo, smoke bomb of course, while Kelcie was napping, I make them myself,” she giggled, then launched into an explanation of how she makes them and what pranks she’s done on her brother with them. I fluttered over and sat on her shoulder as she herself sat down and talked my ear off as we waited for the discussions to die down. 

It seemed like the discussion had broken up for now, as Callie, Raya, and Kelcie stepped over to where we sat. 

“Ryel, were you out looking for your mother again?” Kelcie asked, looking worried at us, or rather, Ryel. 

Ryel tried to look fierce as she replied, “Yes, but only because you aren’t!” 

Kelcie looked tired all of a sudden as she sighed. “I promised I’d go and look once it was safe, remember? With these three adventurers, it’ll be a lot safer now.”

“We’re going to head out shortly, do some scouting, see if we can find any more survivors. If these people survived, others might’ve as well.” Callie said, looking at me. 

I shrugged from my Ryel shoulder seat, “I’m happy to kick some zombie booty.”

“I thought you’d say that,” Callie said, smiling at me. Raya bounced on her toes next to her, smiling at me too. 

“I’m coming too!” Ryel enthused. 

Kelcie frowned at her, “No, you’re not. It’s too dangerous for you.”

I swayed side to side as Ryel pouted and crossed her arms, “I want to go and find my mother!”

Kelcie got on her knees and grasped Ryel’s hands in her own, “I’m sorry, Ryel, but without a class, it’s just too dangerous. I promise, I’ll find her for you, okay?”

Ryel sniffed, and began to softly cry, as Kelcie put her arms around the little girl to hug her, I flew up and over near Callie, trying to hold back sniffles myself. Raya had tears streaming down her face and Callie had a gentle look as she watched. 

“We’ll help find her for you!” I promised Ryel. 

Callie and Raya both nodded and confirmed their help. Soon enough, after the sobbing girl had wiped away her last tear, the four of us made our way up and out of the shelter; it was time to save who we could of the town, and then get out of here.