Life and Death Decision

Chapter 1

"And this is your reward! Thank you again! You've saved this village from the horrors that came from that forest." The mayor of this town handed us a bag of gold coins, more specifically she handed it to our dragonkin brawler since it was quite hefty. "5000 gold. Divide it as you wish."

"Nice! Let's go get some drinks." Our brawler's eyes widened as he gazed into the bag. The gold glistened in the sunlight, sparkling as our other member reached inside to get a handful for herself.

"Be logical, Baz. Let's get some supplies first. Health potions, arrows, and the like. What about you Sage?" She turned to me, handing me the coins she took; around five or six. "Don't you need something for your magic?"

"Yeah. Can someone go with me to the jewelers?" I replied, pocketing the coins while surveying the village. At the mention of jewelers, her cheeks turned a light shade of pink as she dipped her head to hide her face with her blonde hair. "I'm out of resurrection materials since that lich took you down so many times." I turned my gaze to Baz, placing my finger on his chest; I saw our female member's face return to normal, if not turn slightly disappointed, in my peripheral vision. "Next time, don't run in without us!"

"My bad, my bad. Let's go. You need diamonds, right?" The brawler raised his hands above his head. The three of us headed for the mercantile district of the town, I rode our cart and steered our horses in the right way. "Alright Tyme, you're going to get some more arrows right?" He reached into the bag, handing a few coins over to our archer before she broke off from our group, leaving just the two of us.

"Hey Baz, about that lich," I spoke up after a few minutes, the serenity of this village sending chills up my spine. It was quiet, nearly a ghost town; it might've actually been a ghost town if we didn't stop that lich. These people, as well as those from nearby villages, were threatened by that monster for weeks on end. "How long do you think he's been doing that? You know, before we stopped him."

"Right, you've always hated undead..." He huffed, leaping onto the back of our cart to ride to our destination instead of walk. "I can't say for sure, but it seemed to have been happening for a while. Why bring it up?"

"I just can't keep it out of my mind. That whole crypt, all those corpses have been defiled! It's unspeakable!" My blood began boiling, my brows furrowing as I remembered the scene of our fight from a few days ago.

A large room deep beneath the earth, underneath a cemetery. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of bodies from the neighboring towns all collected and raised as zombies and ghouls. The smell of undeath seeped into the stone, rot, and decay became our foes until we had felled the monster. It was a tough battle, though that was because Baz ran out of range of my spells and got the life drained out of him instantly.

"I want to go back there, cleanse that place and purge that filth from the face of the continent!" I grumbled, gripping the reigns of our horses tighter as Baz placed his hand on my shoulder.

"If you want to, we can go back. We don't really have a mission now, so we're free to do whatever we want." He said before pointing to a nearby shop. "Go get your diamonds, just hurry it up so we can get some drinks." He rummaged through the supplies we already had in the back of the cart, pulling out a deck of cards to play with. I hopped off, taking the equivalent of a thousand gold coins with me as I bought the gems I needed for my spells. After that, we met up with Tyme, who had just filled her quiver with arrows and had multiple salves and potions strapped to her belt.

"I take it that everything is taken care of?" She asked us, hopping into the back with Baz. I gave her a quick nod. "Alright then, let's celebrate with drinks." She leaned back, lying down and resting her head on one of our softer bags. We rode to one of the town's inns, getting a round of drinks and rooms to stay the night. Before we went to our own rooms, we had a meeting in my room. "What? We're really going back there?"