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The rotting beast let out its ferocious roar at another beast, wings spread out to show its strength. It would not feared by a large opponent before the fouled beast. It charged toward the red dragon, leaving its trial of foul ooze behind. The ooze dissolved into the ground and brought forth more undead.

The Dracozombie raised its front claws against the large beast. It let out another roar as it tried to pin its opponent down. To show its dominance of strength against the dragon, it sank its teeth at the neck, trying to squeeze the air pipe close.

As the beast tried to force the other to submit, a large bird swooped down and clawed its talon over its eye socket. Whether the wrenched beast felt the pain was unknown; but it brought its attention of being attacked.

The Dracozombie let go its decaying teeth and let out a roar. It lowered its chin as it tilted its neck slightly back. Smoke began to stream out from the rotting holes. It then unleashed its wretched, foul breath at the large bird.

After his Flametongue had crossed paths with the corrosive fire the Dracozombie could use, the undead dragon charged towards Fire Dragon, faster than he would have expected from an undead enemy. His lack of preparedness against the opposing dragon cost him the upper hand and the velocity of the beast allowed it push FD back before they began trying to pin one another down. Things weren't progressing very far until the Dracozombie managed to clamp it's mouth around Fire Dragon's neck, successfully penetrating the scales on that part of his body, albeit not terribly deep. Still, that was something no opponent of his had ever accomplished before. FD was clawing at the beast's semi-exposed underbelly, easy to rend into given the beast's decayed state, to make it release him out of pain but the foe didn't seem to express any.

Just then, a large green hawk, Tibarn of course, rocketed towards one of the eye sockets of the beast. Still no demonstration of pain - neither from FD's attacks or Tibarn's. And while Fire Dragon wanted the beast to himself for the thrill, the adrenaline of it, working with Tibarn would prove more productive, which FD was fine with, given the danger the Dracozombie would pose against the rest of the group. Tibarn's swoop at the eye also garnered the attention of the undead dragon, who then released its grip on FD's neck to release a blast of its foul flames towards Tibarn. Fire Dragon wasted no time with the monster's attention distracted to position itself roughly atop it diagonally. With his right fore claws he shoved the Dragon Zombie's head to the ground, redirecting the second half of it's blast away from Tibarn and towards the other undead warriors it had spawned and sunk his own teeth into the monsters back, readying a blast of his own to unleash upon the monsters body with virtually no distance to travel to hit its mark.

Edward had been observing all that has happened for quite a while, keeping quiet and staying out of the way but... ZOMBIES! After a while... he found himself nearly surrounded by the undead creatures and had been hacking away at them until one of his swords broke, "Oh... dear." He slashed away another undead and unleashed a blade of wind that cut another one in half.

By the time he was done. There was only five left. Edward's sword fell apart in his hands and he frowned. His last sword was a present from Micaiah and Pelleas, Caladbolg. Edward drew the sword and charged the last remaining enemies.

Much of the undead army had been dealt with by now. There was only a splathering of them left. The group was relentless in ensuring that they survived, indeed. One leaped from behind and extended his blade toward the one with earth magic. Another leaped toward the female nomad.

Others focused on dealing with the shape shifters. They were mauling through the undead soldiers, and thus drawing a lot of attention to themselves. At least, most of them were. When an undead caught sight of ears and tail, they instantly went towards it and swung their swords. This included the summoned wolf.

As for the dracozombie, it was furiously struggling underneath the fire dragon's grip. It roared constantly, partly because of of having its eyes clawed out. It wasn't in pain, but it knew that now it could not see and was mad about it. Its tail whipped around, beating undead soldiers that crossed its path and hitting the fire dragon's side. It flared its wings, then shut them tight as it rolled over, exposing its soft underbelly to its opponent.

It was not thinking of this however, as it had begun building up a blast in its mouth, even as it was rolling. However, the hawk had not left yet. It was clawing at its jaw, and had great success. The jaw broke, and as the foul breath unleashed it deviated way off course, spiraling wildly in the air. This left nothing to defend itself against the oncoming blast from the fire dragon. It was as good as dead.

Naturally the undead dragon was struggling and flailing voraciously to get out of the clasp Fire Dragon had on the beast, just as FD had done when the Dracozombie had clamped his neck. But FD wasn't about to release the monster from his jaw's grip, even as blind, zombified dragon flapped its tail about, striking the Fire Dragon's side - he swung his left wing right back against the lower half of the Dracozombie's unsightly body. As their bodily struggle continued with one another for control, their large appendages loosening up ash and dirt from the ground into the air, Fire Dragon was still readying a particularly strong blast of Flametongue to unleash directly into the (presumably) rotten flesh of the Dracozombie. This fight had gone on long enough - FD wanted to make certain his next attack would be the last.

As the pair of dragons rolled over onto their backs, the Dracozombie, too, shot out another blast of corrosive, foul and fiery breathe, projected randomly into the air thanks to Tibarn's strike's against it's jaw. And before it's attack could finish, FD's attack began: the Fire Dragon unleashed the powerful blast of Flametongue directly onto their zombie foe's back, burning away at it's undead flesh so effectively that the flames broke through the other side of it's body, emerging through the Dracozombie's underbelly to fan out in the air. Afterwards, FD knocked what was left of the zombie dragon off of him to the side so he could stand right side up again before letting out a triumphant roar, though it was Tibarn's success just as it was his, he knew.

Soon enough the rest of the undead army was subdued. Calmness returned to the area, but a lingering thought of WHAT IN THE ******** JUST HAPPENED latched itself to everyone's mind. The Learanian group had been attacked by an army of shadow. It was rather convenient, too. As soon as they were at a place where they might find prove or at least a clue, their chanced were crushed. Surely, this would make even nomads with the most hardened of hearts skeptical of Learania's guilt. It could not have been a random thing that conjured the undead, after all. That force was clearly targeting the Learanian group.

As for searching for proof, there was nothing really to be found. The battle may have caused anything to have been destroyed, perhaps, but even before then there was not much to find. Scattered arrows about the ground, maybe a doused torch... a few scorch marks that would be mistaken as the result of erupting fire at first glance, but when investigated more closely, reveal that the area was not so much charred as much as it was purged. Several claw marks here and there, the same size as the ones the lion of the group has. But there was really nothing that could be used as proof for innocence.

Bodies had been buried already. And the rest would be as well. Maybe the blind guide would think differently about these Learanians, since they were helping to provide proper burials to his deceased tribesmen. With the group effort, it wouldn't be long before every corpse was put to rest.

But after that was over, the foreigners still had to face the fact that they had nothing. Maybe the trip had not been a failure, but they had not achieved their goal. There was nothing to do except travel back to the elder's camp and report. Perhaps Songhua had an idea of what they could try next.

And thus they went back.

Upon arrival, things were a bit hectic. The guards didn't act the same way they they did the first time. In fact, they didn't even bother greeting the group to take their weapons. The guards could be seen running about the camp, as if preparing for the worst. Outside the largest ger, were a few familiar faces; chieftain Songhua and the three elders. Maybe they could explain what was going on.

[You guys can post the last of your attacks at the beginning of your next post. Since that part is pretty much done, we're just moving on to the next part, which will lead to the final battle!]

A grim expression could be seen on the Chieftain when being looked at from a distance. There was obviously something wrong. He spoke a few words to the elders, or more specifically to Kenafa and pointed here and there, as if offering suggestions of some kind. Around the gate of the encampment, bowmen climbed up ladders and stationed themselves in sentry towers. On the inside, druids got into position at key areas. They carried the same staff and were prepared to begin its use, when commanded. It was a method used as a precaution, to shield the entire camp from harm. There was already a shield similar to one that Fefga Manor used to have. For the nomads to think they needed an extra shield, something bad had to be going on.

Songhua glanced around and did a double take as he saw the Learanian group. He turned back to Elder Kenefa and spoke a few words that caused the elder to look up at the group. The elder nodded, then Songhua walked over to the group. "I am glad to see you unharmed, my friends. However, I am sorry to say that things have not gone well for the plains." Songhua closed his eyes and shook his head. "While you were away, another tribe was attacked. There were more survivors this time and we got the news rather quickly. In fact, one of the people who came here from the site was a mercenary from your country. He's currently having his, er... backside healed. Apparently it was the first time he had ridden a horse." Songhua turned to his side and glanced behind him. "In any case, the elders are taking no more chances. You are obviously not responsible, since your location was accounted for, though. However, Learania has not yet been cleared of this. But the camp is currently preparing for if the invaders decide to make this place their next target.. as you can see, by the... hwa ha! Chaos." The chieftain looked back at the group, mainly at Sue and Tibarn. "But you're back! Tell me... did you have success? How did it go?"