It wasn’t much like the Outsiders to make a fighting retreat. Not that Sally could remember, anyway. Then again, most of her memories were rose-tinted, or at least had the bright shade of blood across them.

  The bugs weren’t giving her small group much of an option.

  Usually, enemies were polite enough to die, and that was it. Maybe even run, if she allowed them to escape. For every giant roach they squashed, another two would pop out from behind the trees and scurry toward them. Normally something that would fill her heart and stomach with joy and brains, respectively, but her reluctance to consume the monsters left her pretty dry in the zombie-army department.

  The good news was Edward had regained enough eyesight to be a more active participant in the battles. Still not entirely himself, his attacks sometimes fell short or were off-target. Against enemies closer to their level, he might have fallen. Most of the early birds trying to find their worms had been on the Initiate level still. The occasional flying bug or roach with more experience under its belt would wade into the fray, but it wasn’t something the group couldn’t handle.

  Sally dashed forward, pushing her dagger through the eye of a Radoch attacker before sliding away into the cover of a zombie. A jetstream of acid melted through her pal, and she used the opportunity to fire a crossbow bolt through the neck of the spewer.

  As always, Humphrey was at the forefront of their rolling meat grinder—only this time they were going in reverse. He never faltered as various arrows and bolts bounced off his plated armor. Every time he swung his sword in a calculated arc, a roach fell to the ground dead.

  There wasn’t even time to loot before the Outsiders paced backward up the hill toward the mountain.

  Sally flicked blood from her knife as a potion thrown by the alchemist exploded into a mist of green gas. Several nearby Radochs stumbled over and curled up as if dehydrating. Edward pierced two bugs that were trying to flank the group, his blade crackling with purple energy.

  Despite their gains, it only took a brief look at the maps provided by Jackie up in the Omen to know that they were running out of space. She had been hoping to save this one for a little later in the plot, but she needed to buy them time.

  Her eyes brightened, blazing crimson fire, even as the surrounding forest seemed to darken. The sounds of battle dulled as a chilling breeze ran through the area.

  [Zombie Apocalypse+]

  Empowered by her Life abilities, the ground cracked and groaned. The forest tore itself apart as hundreds of grasping hands clawed their way from the earth, hungry for the insectoid army.

  The Death Knight flourished his sword and allowed the freshly raised dead to wash past him like a wave of living decay. He turned and powered up the hill to join the others. It went unsaid; they knew what she was doing. The sooner they could get to some form of cover, the better.

  Or at least, that was the current plan.

  Dent sat in his chair staring at the glowing blue figure of Chuck. The Architect had been focused on the monitor in front of him for several minutes, and he was starting to wonder how long they could both go on in silence.

  Actually, the swordsman already knew the answer, as it was nearly always he who would speak first.

  He sighed. “Penny for your thoughts, Chuck?”

  The Architect blinked a couple of times before turning to him. “Hmm? What is it?”

  “Things going okay?”

  “Yes. Well..” Chuck tilted his head from side to side. “Not exactly perfect, but progression is… being made.”

  “Woah, don’t fill me with too much confidence.” He gestured at the screens. “Theo is taking things slow for once. The Outsiders have lost Jackie, but this was a fact-finding mission, right?”

  “No Players, so no risk,” Chuck said, as if repeating something. “Archie was adamant it was the best chance to get information with little to no risk on our part.”

  Dent drummed his metal fingers on the side of the table. Something he knew Chuck hated. “But…?”

  “Archie is no longer bound to Sanctuary as his ‘soul data’ has reconnected with something else on that world.”

  “Ah.” That meant the System would need to be saved there, if they wanted to bring the cat back. So it was no longer just about surviving to learn about the Radochs, but a fight to repel them from that planet. “So the loss of Jackie is…”

  “Undesirable. If I had known these were the stakes, we would have sent a different team.” Chuck shook his head, finally deflating from his stoic position.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Archie knew who was picked, though. He was fine with the selection.” The swordsman furrowed his brow and chewed on his thoughts as the Architect remained dejected. “Can we send anyone else to the Omen, or duplicate the ship?”

  “It’s less a matter of whether those questions have a yes or no answer, and more of… time and bullshit.”

  Dent smiled. “Ah, the two constants in life.”

  Chuck rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help but smile as well. He had broken plenty of rules during his tenure watching over Sanctuary. The Outsiders practically rewrote reality whatever they stuck their noses in. He had long believed the two true forces within the universe were Chaos and Order.

  Time and bullshit were just the two tools you had to adjust the pathway of the two spiraling forces. Sally and Theo had both come into this world disordered and chaotic, and had somehow bullshitted their way into becoming immortal semi-gods. The Radochs sought to ruin the order and safety of Sanctuary he had taken painstaking time to implement, to impose the rules they lived by.

  In a way, he was thankful for the pair, as well as any other Outsider that fit that part of the puzzle. A System created with order in mind from the outset would be inflexible. The Players within it would be restricted by the rules set in stone. With his own pocketed agents of chaos, he had the best of both worlds.

  The best of other worlds, if he kept having his way.

  Sally knocked another flying bug out of the sky with a crossbow bolt.

  “I’m just saying,” the demon continued, “it has not gone without notice.”

  She gave him a dull glare before seeing the others were interested in her answer. With a sigh, she hurried them on. “Don’t get me wrong, as I am as hungry-hungry as a hippo, but I just can’t.”

  “They might have parasites or other pathogens.” Bully nodded sagely.

  “Not only that, but it’s a disrespect thing.” Sally turned up her nose just thinking about it.

  Edward narrowed his soft blue eyes. “You only respect those you murder and consume?”

  “Leaving them to go to waste just means I see them as being beneath any use to me.” The zombie licked her lips. “But I will reiterate, I am hungry.”

  Not that she expected the Outsiders to do anything about it. Even if they offered up their own skulls as dinner bowls, she would refuse because she needed them living. Unless it was Bully, then maybe it was fifty-fifty.

  Archie ran alongside them. “When I said the locals were ready for an invasion, I might have overestimated them. There might still be people in the mountain fortress.”

  There was certainly a difference between expecting an alien invasion and having five titans of destruction drop around the planet, closely followed by getting nuked from orbit by five times the expected invading force. The Radoch ground troops probably had no issue mopping up the rest of the planet’s survivors.

  “It might be better to have allies than second-to-twentieth courses, however,” she decided diplomatically. “We just have to be convincing.”

  Maybe a little difficult after the supposed saviors had massacred their way through the world first, but she didn’t see that as their fault. She licked her lips again. Arriving at a meal and a nap hadn’t been so bad.

  Humphrey looked over his shoulder. “I’m worried that this is all leading to a trap.”

  “I have one Teleport All potion, but the arrival destination is incredibly random.” Bully took off his adventurer’s hat and wiped the sweat from his head. “More for emergencies.”

  “No, it is not that.” The Death Knight shook his head. “Despite the titles, I do not believe the chafe hounding us is part of their actual army.”

  Sally furrowed her brow before realizing what he meant. She pushed her way underneath some low handing branches as they reached the edge of the treeline.

  These weaker Radochs were just like sending dogs out to chase hares. She wasn’t about to sit around and make facts up about the roach society, but it stood to reason if they were rampant collectors that… regiments or units of their lessers could be something they could ‘own’. Like tabletop wargaming, but with real creatures.

  The actual threat was whichever monsters remained in the spaceships. Watching their assets with disinterest while they made bids on items to claim from the new world.

  Well, she wasn’t going to be their pawn, nor a collectible. A plushie could be negotiated, but only she received some of the royalties.

  “Running out of cover,” Edward noted. “Keep your eyes peeled.”

  The trees thinned out, and the canopy receded as they moved out of the forest and onto mountainous terrain. Gravel and boulders. Several hundred feet up this steep incline were two flickering torches and the entrance to the fortress.

  “Assistance, Humphrey,” Bully requested. The alchemist gestured to a relatively round stone slightly larger than the Death Knight.

  Humphrey wedged his greatsword behind the stone and used it as a lever. With a sharp scraping noise, the boulder shifted in place and rolled forward. Bully threw a potion at it, and green flames washed around the rolling stone. It gained speed, rocketing down into the woods like a comet.

  Sally helped pull Edward up onto a ledge. “What are you doing? Your legs are twice as long as mine.”

  “Something something, betray you?”

  “Get your ass up this mountain, or I’ll restrict your Theo time!” She chastised the sheepish demon as he scurried away.

  Bully had no issue hopping up with his elastic legs, but it was slower progress for the Death Knight.

  “If you have to leave me, then-” he looked up at the zombie, who was glaring at him with her arms crossed. Her foot tapped impatiently.

  Sally turned her attention from the herding cats and looked out over the forest. From this vantage point, she could see for miles around. It didn’t look good. Smoke plumes rose from dozens of sites across the visible world. The sky was darkening unnaturally, as if the bugs were absorbing the sun. Dark blobs of monsters rolled between distant towns.

  More concerning were dozens of roaches clamoring toward the edges of the forest. Her efforts had only delayed the inevitable, and now they were slowly cornering themselves. She sighed and shook her head. Why was it that when she had one of these bullshit missions, she always missed Theo?

  Well, that was simple to answer. Their lives together had revolved around fighting against the odds. He had been her right-hand man long before they’d become an official couple. A powerful sword she could wield for her ambitions of justice and a full stomach.

  Doing this sort of thing without him just felt like being one sock short of a pair.

  That said, if she wasn’t allowed to have her usual fun, then she would make the experience much worse for her enemies. Out of all the enemies to make in the cosmos, Sally Danger was one of the worst you could have.

  Her sharp-toothed grin widened as she held an open hand out to the Radochs breaking through the tree cover.

  There was still some bullshit up her sleeve; she just needed a little time.