‘So there is a down side,’he thought, looking up to check on Athios. She was watching him from the roof as his Fel Hound tore the boney limbs from a savaged Ghoul pinned beneath its paws.
*Get off the roof! Can you walk now?* Garath projected the thought to Athios as loudly as he could, hoping the distance wouldn't be a problem for this new form of communication.
*Don't yell at me, kitty,* she replied calmly. *Yeah, I'm fine actually... The hole in my chest closed and my Health is almost full.*
*Well that's great news, I'm happy to hear it. Now get your ass inside before the next respawn,* he projected the thought to her even as he sped to the front of the group.
The smooth coated, white cat sprang ahead of the shielded man as the group of children in their wake rounded the entrance to the fenced area. There were still dozens of Ghouls between them and the safety of the brick building. Garath fired a black ball of death energy, blasting an unaware Ghoul in the back - and dropping its HP by nearly half. The soldier turned on him with its shield raised and charged. Another four of the uniform undead turned away from the small horde locked in battle outside the doors to lend aid to their enraged ally.
When all five were within range of Blight, he released the instant cast. Deep purple energy shot from his diminutive form again, infecting the putrid, armored undead with a devastating poison that immediately got to work depleting their HP.
He focused his projected thought to communicate with those fighting the Ghouls from the other side over the Raid sub-channel. *Warrion, help me clear a path to get these kids inside.*
"On it," Warrion verbalized his reply over the sub-channel. The Assassin crouched low and dashed through the company of undead gathered at the door, each of them desperately clambering against one another in an attempt to spill the blood of their quarry. With one dagger held out on either side, he raked the chain armor and bones of a handful of Ghouls on the way.
When the lanky Assassin broke out of the bottlenecked horde, he wasn't alone. A stream of enemies followed in his wake, the damage caused by his daggers striking rage and vengeance in the soldiers.
"That should do it, G! Get 'em inside then help me finish these things off," said Warrion, turning to deflect a blow then brain his attacker with the heavy pommel of his dagger.
The shielded man looked on in shock as Garath shimmered and returned to his human form, then addressed him. "Get the kids inside. I'm Garath, by the way. Everyone calls me G, though."
"Thank you," the man said simply, his bearded face said the rest - gratitude, deep rooted and sincere. "I'm Gary."
Chapter 13
The Band of the Hawk
Once inside the old building, Garath got a better look at the gaggle of children and their protector. Gary was a large, red headed man with a thick beard and a beanie that really added to his flannel shirt in pursuit of the lumberjack look. There were five ginger children huddled behind the bearded man with ages ranging from six to sixteen, all boys. Garath accessed his MENU panels to send off a Raid invitation to Gary’s already established Party.
Would you like to invite Gary's Party to join Garath's Raid Group?
Yes or No
‘'Garath's Raid Group', how lame is that?,’ Garath thought as he read over the prompt. He accessed the Raid Group options and found that he could change the name of his Raid Group without great effort.
Would you like to invite Gary's Party to join The Band of the Hawk?
Yes or No
‘Better,’ he thought - and then chose yes.
"The Band of the Hawk?" the bearded man asked when he received the prompt asking if he would like to join.
"Yeah, it's from my favorite anime. It sounded better than 'Garath's Raid Group'," Garath replied, thinking about how much cooler it sounded before verbalizing that he had taken the name from an anime.
"Oh. Hey, is there a bathroom or kitchen somewhere with running water?" the bearded man asked.
"I honestly don't know," Garath replied. "Would running water work though?"
"Probably,” Gary speculated. “Some water pumps will run on electricity but a lot of the function is just gravity and pressure based. It won't KEEP working, but power’s only been out a few hours. It should for now.”
"Sick. Let's look around then."
Garath was coming down from the Adderall he took that evening and the cotton mouth was quickly moving from a minor annoyance to a legitimate concern.
Gary nodded then pointed to the group huddled near the entrance. "Boys, stay here."
Together, the gamer and the lumberjack went off in search of water. They walked across the gleaming white marble floor into the main hall. Garath hadn't noticed before but now that he was looking for it, there was a fairly obvious 'restroom' sign on either side the long, open room. Gary pushed open the door to the boys loo and they entered, he turned the faucet and water sprayed freely out of it. Garath marveled at the last real remnant of working human technology.
Gary filled a bottle from one faucet while Garath shoved his face under another.
"I'm going to go back and get the boys," the bearded man said, screwing the cap on the full bottle of water.
"I'll come with you, we're stationing people behind the group to rest and protect us from behind. I’m out of Mana anyway so I’ll take the next shift."
"Mana?"
"Yeah, I use Mana to cast. Do you not have Mana? What Class did you pick?"
"Armoron,” Gary said sheepishly. “The fact that ‘moron’ is in the Class name just about
