Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Amaja stepped out from her barrier of spikes, her sleeved hand held close to her chest with her ears perked forward. She glanced over to Lily momentarily before taking a deep breath and waited for Lily to sing the next verse, joining her in hopes that it would further help disorient the mob and help them find the girl.

“Every fiddler he had a fiddle, And a very fine fiddle had he…”

Oh there’s none so rare as can compare…

Paulson joins in as he continues to kill the zombies around him. A smile is plastered to his face.

(I think we broke him&hellip

She groans and shakes her head, trying to clear her mind of something. She falters again as the a few zombies close in. She falls to a knee and sinks her claws in as best she can as she yells out to Makar.
Something’s not right…Makar, h-help me…

The knight quickly countered a few zombies’ attacks and turned back to the vampiress.
Lieselotte? What’s wrong?!
He quickly dodges a zombie and slay him. He held one of Lieselotte’s shoulders.
What’s wrong, Lieselotte?!
Remembering she were hit by a zombie, he came up to his conclusion. He gritted teeth.
Please tell me you’re not turning into a zombie!!

You’d swear from the look on her face Lily was starting to enjoy this, a bright smile, a cheerful tone, as if she were singing to one of her one “Tweedle dum, tweedle dee, went the fiddlers three~ Tweedle dum dee, dum dee deedle dee~” Her hand reaching into her robe for her next trick as she continued to evade the zombies…

Which was (If you’d pardon the pun) child’s play now… seeing she was doing nothing but talking and dodging.

(Hm short post is short. But can’t really go into grand detail can I?)

With the sheer brightness of Makar’s blade flooding the camp, Susanna discards the now-redundant inky disguise. Aiming quickly, she drains its stored black energy into the faltering Lieselotte.

Hearing everyone starting to sing he can only feel more confused, but also a little worried as he doen’t really know any nursery rhymes and can only whistle along
This might be one of the most terrifying fights I’ve ever had.
Looking through the bushes he trys chasing after the girls singing voice, not really paying attention to the zombies anymore
Where the hell is she?

As Albert whiles along Paulson’s face brightens even more. Ooh yes! We need music with this! Is there a musician in our group? If not I could always play my flute…

Dave thought that singing would be a good way to take his mind off fear and pitches in The troops came marching in, hurrah hurrah!
He sang while separating a zombies head from its shoulders

Sir,don’t let your guard down,focus!
Continues to slay some zombies
If you can,you cloud search for the girl’s voice,i try to take over here!

She collapses to the ground, grasping at her throat as she joins into the chorus. Her eyes are filled with panic as her voice echoes through the woods with the rest of them. Obviously she has had no intention of joining the singing, and draws a small amount of blood as she scratches her own throat in attempts to stop. Susanna’s attempts to restore her fail as her eyes begin to glaze over and she stops grasping at her throat.

Theresa dashed into the fight, whirling around the zombie horde and severing spines with her daggers. Upon noticing Paulson’s mad fury, she called out to him.
“About time you started to man up, playboy!” Hears Lily spouting nursery rhymes and the effect it was having on the swarm of undead. “…Well, whatever works, I suppose…” She then starts singing along with Lily and Paulson.

(Sorry about last night! I just passed out from my meds.)

The zombies start to freak out. They flail wildly, their limbs swinging savagely at anything they could possibly reach. Their moans seemed to become slightly more rhythmic though. A large group of the zombies converged on David as he started to sing the wrong song.

“Oh there’s none so rare, as can compare, with King Cole and his fiddlers three!” As the rhyme ends, Lieselotte suddenly falls still and silent for a moment, before erupting up to her feet and slashing violently at Makar, her face filled with a rage more intense than ever before. Her eyes however, were empty…

Makar starts to get desperate while Lieselotte started to scratch her throat.
Please stop, Lieselotte!! What’s wrong with you?!
When she stopped choking herself and the knight noticed her empty expression, he embraced her tightly. He jumped backwards when he were attacked by the vampiress.
What the…
He quickly got his holy blade back and stood on guard.
Stand where you are, Lieselotte!! He shouted, ready to counter if she decides to try to attack him.

Paulson jumps to help Dave

Stop singing the wrong song!He yells the suggestion while fighting off the zombies. He reaches into the his small pouch on his waist and pulls a pan flute from it. Bringing it to his lips he waits for the next rhyme to start.

Albert watches as Liselotte goes crazy sprouting up unaturaly and begins clawing at Makar
What’s going on with her?!
He rushes up to her and grabs at her arms, trying impossibly to hold her back from Makar as she thrashes in rage
Get away from here Makar!

Guessing what happened, Susanna immediately reaches for her journal and a specially-designed restoration spell. But a stumble of intruding zombies force her to scamper backwards, losing site of the vampiress. Instead, she crouches by Lily’s group.

Dave now realizing that everyone was singing that song for a reason, stops his melody and continues fighting off zombies waiting for the song to start again

Notices Lieselotte’s mad attack on Makar. “That can’t be good! I don’t suppose anyone’s got a counter-spell on hand?” A short distance away, Theresa notices Susanna reaching for her journal. “Hey! Susanna, right? You’re a magician, aren’t you? You got anything to make the Lady less psycho?”

Konar see Liesolette trying to attack Makar but Albert inteveined
Lily,you think is almost over?I think things got a bit crazy for the vapire lady!

Makar stepped back when he heard Albert’s suggestion, frowning.
Not Lieselotte… damn… not her…
He stood on guard again.
Sir Albert! Let go of her and go help the others! I can handle a fight against her.
In fact, by spending so much time beside Lieselotte, the Lord knew her way to fight and could predict her movements with more ease than he could prevent any other’s.
Don’t worry! I’m not going to harm her! I just can’t secure she will do the same for me…

“… I know of -one- way to counter it..” Lily mutters out in-between songs, glancing towards the now enraged vampire out of the corner of her eye. Now if only they could hold her back long enough….

“Hot cross buns~ Hot cross buns~ One a Penny…” She finally pulled out the little bag of sweets from her robe now tossing one in her mouth and giving the bag a shake “two a Penny~ Hot Cross Buns~”

She took a few steps forward, putting a bit of space between her and the others be they living or dead. “Now come on my dear you’re free to have a few if you’d just come out and have a talk with old Miss Lily”

Paulson took a deep breath and started playing the tune on his flute. He kept a close eye on the zombies around him but they seemed to be ignoring him as he played. He kept close to Lily but still gave her her space as he played the tune as happily as he could. Man I hope this works…

She flips Albert over her using her unnatural strength. She claws him across the chest viciously before charging towards Lily. She stops mid charge briefly, staring at everyone around her with a pleading look of helplessness before shaking her head and charging in a furious rage again.

Unrefined as the request might be, Susanna rather agrees with Theresa’s suggestion. Leafing through her notes, she replies:

“Right! She’s either under Mollith’s command or just insane, neither of which we want right now. Let’s keep it simple: step back, everyone!”

And with that, she throws a hemisphere of darkness over the vampiress. There’s a solid thunk as the Lady’s momentum is rapidly diffused on its wall.

“Now think fast, Lily. She’s too smart to be held long!”

Paulson notices her mad rage and jumps back as Susanna attacks. Watching with wide eyes as Liesolotte slows down.

Amaja stopped a few paces behind Lily as she’d pulled the candy from her robes and tried to coerce the girl from hiding in the horde. Her ear turned in the direction of a thud, turning to see what had happened she saw Albert on the dirt, with Lieselotte charging towards them. She stared for a moment before realizing something was amiss with her, her eyes blank and her face full of anger. Shooting her hands towards the ground, she looked up towards Lieselotte as she thrust her palms in her direction. Two blunt cylinders of earth burst from the ground to strike her in the chest and stomach hoping to stop her in her tracks.

Makar wasn’t as surprised as he tought he would be as he see the vampiress set herself free, but charged towards her as she rushed in meeting to Lily. Taking advantage on her sudden stop, he held her arms.
Stop, Lieselotte!! Look what you’re doing!!

Albert falls to the ground clasping at his new scars, feeling the blood slide it’s way through his finger
Aghh damn that hurt!
Trying to hoist himself up, using his Rapier as a sort of crutch, he looks around for where Mollith could be hiding
She must of done this where is she?

Konar stands in between Lily and the now enraged Lieselotte
You better hurry up Lily.
He stand back as Lieselotte is thrown back by Amaja’s spell, his focus now on the enraged vampire

Lily’s plan seemed to work almost perfectly. The young girl chimed in with her singing, but as Lily offered up the treat, the zombies stopped moving. Lieselotte stopped moving. The roar of combat silenced, leaving only the awkward rendition of hot cross buns being played on Paulson’s flute. A group of zombies parted as the young girl skipped happily towards Lily, a look of glee plastering her face “Yay! Snack time, snack time~” She sung happily.

As she pranced towards the hedgehog, she failed to look where she was going, and tripped over a small tree root, plummeting to the ground and landing on her face, her scythe swinging down and slicing a zombie in half. She slowly sat up again onto her legs and rubbed her eyes a little. “Owwww…” Her eyes begin to well with tears as she sniffles a little, rubbing the small graze on her face. Lieselotte seemed to regain herself control at this point, as the zombies began to fall apart, slumping to the ground, while a small few managed to remain standing.

Susanna blinks twice as the vampiress regains control.

“…You’re a devil to stop when you’re angry, you know.”

Paulson stops playing as the small girl in front of him begins to cry. A ghost of a memory plays through his mind as he wait for something to happen. Finally he speaks gently to her.

…Are you alright?

The knight let go of the vampire when she stopped fighting and looked at Mollith, moveless. He jumped in surprise and held his sword tightly when her scythe came flying near him, slaying a zombie behind him. He gulped. Slowly, he took carefully steps towards he girl. He held the shiny sword vertically, hoping to don’t provoke her while the blade kept it’s smooth white glow.

Theresa stares at the crying child before her.
“The hell? She’s…actually kind of adorable!”

Albert slowly limps his way over to Lily as he looks down to see nothing more then a small girl, crying as she tends to her grazed face
…
This is it?
This is what we’ve been fighting this whole time?
It’s nothing more then a small girl in a cloak carrying a doll and sycthe, too big for her to even carry!
To hell if she’s cute, or adorable, or anything like this she’s a girl who can summon zombies and is tricked by people singing nursery ryhmes!
What sort of person is like that?

Lily quirked a brow at the girl as she came, keeping her face a cheerful one… up until the kid tripped to the ground of course, eyes gazing about as the zombies just started to turn to dust, and her eyes went back to the little whimpering girl.

She couldn’t help but face palm for a moment. Oh I must be going completely insane…but I’d -not- want to see what happens when this child has a temper tantrum…

Down on one knee she went coming face with the little necromancer with the usual reassuring smile, one hand wiping away the girls tears. “There there.. you just had a little fall you’ll be alright… And look we still have your sweets now don’t we?” the bag being shaked and likely snatched up by greedy hands, hopefully the girls attention gained.

“….Though if you would be a dear… and maybe tell the rest of your friends there to go away for a bit? They’re not getting along with my friends very well.”

Even when there’s no more zombies around,Konar still have his sword in hand and only see the strange girl that likes to kill

Seeing Lieselotte regain control of her self she immediately threw her hands out to her sides. The pillars of earth flying at Lieselotte stop short of striking her and dissolve back into the dirt. Sighing heavily she looked over to the young child that had been terrifying the ever living shit out of the entire group. To see her crying from tripping should be a terrible insult to anyone with an ego that was frightened by her. She glanced over to Susanna for a moment, feeling like she’d been punched in the gut after the realization. A little girl made a band of so many people completely rattled and distraught. Plopping down on the ground she leaned back onto her hands and stared up into the dark sky wondering what was going to happen to them all now, with the immediate threat dissolved.

Dave seeing all of the fighting stop has a momentary thought of victory,but when he spots Paulson and Makar moving towards the demon girl he feels a bit uneasy and walks towards her as well

A thought occurs to Paulson as he inches towards the girl: Maybe crowding her isn’t such a good idea. He silently holds his hands up to stop everyone from moving and puts a finger to his lips.

She falls to her knees as she regains control of herself. She stays in that place for the longest minutes of her life, going over what happened again and again in her head. She looks up to everyone else as their attention is focused on the young girl. She stands and hugs herself tight as she walks away from them all. She stops a few yards away from their campsite and sits with her back against a tree. Still trembling she stares off into the woods, deep in thought.

The small girl sniffled a little, taking one of the sweet buns from Lily she takes a bite, looking a little sorry for herself. Lily asks if she could send her friends away, and Mollith gave her doll an unsure look, but after a moment she nods slowly. “Mr. Ardanious says it’s ok… Playtime is over now…” The final remaining zombies crumble to dust, leaving none to menace the party further.

The young girl continues munching on her bun, looking a little shy actually talking to another person as she was. She continued to rub her graze marks with one hand, though she seemed to be holding back her tears now, trying not to cry anymore. She looked up at the stares of the others, their weapons drawn still. “Do your friends want to play more? They’re very good at it” She mentions softly.

Paulson shook his head swiftly before speaking. We’re a little tired now I think. He glances with a nervous smile to the rest of the team.

Can we rest for a little while now? Maybe I can play you a song?

Amaja looked up as Lieselotte got up from her spot and left the group behind. Glancing over her shoulder she looked to see everyone going towards the little girl. She wanted nothing to do with her and didn’t get why everyone else did. Standing up she looked over to the tree with Lieselotte’s tail poking out from behind it. Stepping hastily across the campground she stops beside the vampire looking down at her momentarily. Turning to face her she sat down on her knees beside her, tilting her head to the side quizzically. She wasn’t sure how to react to the vampire, the last time they’d interacted together was when she was upset herself. Taking a few moments she decides on the only thing that everyone else had done for her, and held her sleeved arms out to her offering a hug.

Seeing Paulson’s sign, Makar nodded and stopped where he was. He was about 10 steps away from the necromancer.
I’d better don’t move away as well…
The knight guided the edge of his sword to rest on the ground and them pushed it into the floor.
He still didn’t lowered his guard. Still thinking that the scythe could fly back to Mollith and decapitates him in mid air, the blade was ready to prevent it to happen.
No matter how much I hate speaking like this…
I played too much already. What about we rest now?

Albert looks at Mollith at shock at the mention of the words “play more” and feels a little rage welling up
You think that was all just a game?
People could of gotten really hurt there this isn’t fun this is what we do to survive!
And who in the hell is this Mr. Ardanious you’re talking about?
I’d like to have a talk with him.

Seeing Paulsons hand sign caused Dave to stop in his tracks, still having a feeling of uneasiness
This little girl is too crazy. Is this all just a game to her?

Well i think she is okay for now.
Put his sword to rest,he notice that Liesolette is not around anymore but he see that she is near a tree with Amaja.He go close to Makar
Hey i think you should go talk with the vampire lady.I don’t know her well,but i think she’s a good person inside.

Paulson looks in fear as he jumps up to clamp a hand over Albert’s mouth. W-what he means,Paulson quickly says. Is that we haven’t met your friend Ardanious yet and we would love to.

He leans close to his ear and whispers harsly. are you a fool!? Don’t make her mad!