Round Two
Round Two
"I should probably leave, let the two of you talk this out between yourselves," Ophidia suggested meekly standing up at record speed in a hurry to get out of the situation she herself kickstarted.
"Oh, hell no!" Dave rejected her idea decidedly. "If you leave right now, Zoe will think that I actually did something and cheated on her. Just stay here, I'll think of something before she arrives."
Ophidia reluctantly sat back down. She gazed at Dave who seemed oddly relaxed given the circumstances. Who knew what was going on in the mind of the world's most famous undead...if only she knew that internally Dave was repeating 'I did not do anything' like a mantra to keep calm.
After several long tension filled minutes mostly spent on trivial small talk to avoid waiting in silence, Dave's door rattled. Someone was knocking hard on the door threatening to tear it apart if no one came to answer fast enough. Neither had to guess who was on the other side.
He stood up and walked over with a steady pace. He almost chuckled at his predicament. the Undead may not fear, but Dave's fear of Zoe's wrath could trump his undead passive. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!
Dave opened the door, Zoe's grim face looked directly at him, yet she didn't utter a word before shoving him aside, having a clear destination in mind.
Ophidia was sitting calmly and awkwardly at Dave's sofa. Zoe looked intently at her. then the look on her face changed as she suddenly recognized the other woman: "You're the woman from that day? What the hell are you doing here?" Zoe asked.
"Um, I-I'm sorry but this is a huge misunderstanding," Ophidia stuttered.
Zoe's brow rose up. She looked intimidating looking down on the sitting woman who would normally be a bit taller than her... then she had a hiccup, shattering her threatening posture.
Dave quickly put a hand on his mouth, but not before a chuckle escaped, which did not escape Zoe's notice.. His girlfriend immediately turned her attention to him. "You!" she poked him with her finger: "You don't get to laugh!" She was close enough that Dave could smell the mix of Zoe's perfume intermingling with some alcohol. Once again another hiccup undermined her just established authority, "I didn't think you were this kind of guy!" Zoe accused him.
Dave laughed and hugged Zoe tight. She tried to struggle out of his embrace but felt herself powerless. Her inebriated state was no help in this endeavor.
He leaned a bit closer and calmly whispered in her ear, "Z, nothing happened and nothing was ever going to happen. I can also promise you that nothing like that will ever happen. She works for my company."
Zoe stopped trying to wriggle out from his embrace, partly because she could accept this explanation but also because she enjoyed being this close to Dave. She looked at him at tear point asking," Really?"
"Yea."
"Ok I believe you, but work hours are long over so what's she doing here? Trying to get a promotion?" Zoe guessed lifting her brow.
"I already got that," Ophidia responded, causing Zoe's brows to rise even further and her escape attempts to intensify again. Dave wanted to facepalm, and gave his employee a clear "You're not helping!" look.
"You can check with Sam, I fired the previous Head of R&D from the company and Ophidia was the best candidate to take over. She also lives in this building and just came over to give me the report of a new product she was working on because of this," Dave clarified before any more misunderstandings could occur.
"Then what's with the wine?" Zoe asked she seemed stable enough to remove herself from Dave's embrace.
"That's her promotion party. I had a bottle of wine leftover from the house warming party we had. And she came over for the details I decided to share a drink with her. You know me, Zoe, I'm not one of those idiots who only enjoy the "hunt" and go from woman to woman. I'll never cheat on you, or attempt to find anyone better than you. Let's face it it's impossible to imagine anyone better and I am already thanking my lucky stars for having met you" Dave said.
"Really?" Zoe asked looking directly into his eyes.
"Yeah, I love you," Dave answered without hesitating for the slightest moment with a smile on his face.
"Awwwn that's so cute," Ophidia commented, reminding the two of them that they were not alone.
Zoe snapped back to her angrily, cueing her to shut up, which Ophidia did immediately.
Zoe's angry face turned to Dave all beaming with a smile continuing as if nothing had interrupted their special moment, "So do I," She said and kissed Dave on the lips.
Ophidia coughed, not wanting to bother the two anymore: "I should probably get going."
Dave waved his hand and she left immediately closing the door after taking a longer look at them.
Zoe resumed kissing Dave on the lips, he didn't complain or argue. The two slowly moved towards Dave's chamber. But before he got in, he said, "I'm a bit sweaty, let me take a shower first."
Zoe nodded, her face was red but she wasn't complaining.
Dave's own heartbeat was racing, he knew they were a couple and what was soon to happen was a part of every healthy relationship. He took his shower almost too quickly. He made sure that he didn't stink anymore and dried his hair with a towel.
Once he left the shower room, he headed to his bedroom. A bit hesitant but filled with excited nevertheless.
But once he walked through the door, Dave had a sad grin on his face. It appeared that fate had other plans.. Zoe had long passed out on his bed in a weird position.
She came in wearing a pair of tight jeans and had a light jacket on top. It was a great outfit to go out in, but neither was appropriate for bed. He thought they would be uncomfortable on her while she slept.
He went toward her, removed her shoes and unbuttoned her jeans. He wasn't tactless enough to remove her pants while she slept, especially because judging by how great the evening went for him, there was a real chance she would wake up in the middle of it causing even more awkwardness. He felt it would be inappropriate but that was the best he could do to keep her comfortable in her sleep.
He helped her take off her jacket while she groaned in her sleep then covered her.
Dave kissed her on the forehead. He fetched his pajamas from the hidden closet in his room as well as a bottle of water for the morning. Checking a final time on Zoe before he left the room, allowing her to rest.
"You can get other chances, Davey, at least you got your wish of her spending the night here" he spoke to himself and went to the couch.
He adjusted the alarm for his morning event and went on to sleep soundly.
Once it was morning and his alarm woke him up, Dave felt a few cramps in his back. He didn't complain though, it was time for the Clash of Gods event.
His bedroom was upstairs, but he didn't want to go up and wake Zoe yet. Let her sleep a bit more he thought.
Dave went to his gaming room and accessed the capsule. He had an event to be ready for.
Once Dave was inside the game world. He realized that he still had another hour before the event. In the meantime, he should prepare for the attack on the Qin Army.
Dave returned to Nora, and began giving orders. The first among them were for the citizens of Nora to use the Gate and head toward the capital.
The Teleportation gate could still be used to access the capital but not the other way around, Dagla had made sure of it so there was no need to worry about enemy soldiers surprising them.
One of the Death Knights that were standing guard in Nora approached Dave and reported, "Your lordship, we have received information about the Qin Army being mobilized. We believe they want to retake their lost cities."
"Don't worry about it," Dave said. "Send word to the captured cities! Order all the civilians in them to go to the capital now!" Dave called and the Undead disappeared into the Teleportation Gates to relay the message to the other two captured cities.
Once the order was given, and the NPCs left for the capital, Dave gave another order.
"Burn the captured cities to the ground!"
Dave burned Nora to the ground, the Undead had made sure that no building was standing as they left.
The two other cities had fallen as well and now Dave was starting the final part of his plan.
He summoned Singund and asked, "How many Dungeons have been captured?"
"Apart from a few Dungeons that were too close to the Qin capital, we captured over 80 Dungeons. There were a few that were too difficult for us, we had wasted too many soldiers but couldn't overcome the Guardians of the Dungeons." Singund said.
"You did well Singund, 80 Dungeons is more than I hoped for," Dave praised his subordinate and pulled out a small black square from his inventory.
It was the Core Resonance Amplifier. A low-cost item that could agitate a captured Dungeon into a Dungeon break. But with the amount of captured Dungeons he had, Dave's next step would be deadly to the Qin kingdom.
***
Do you wish to use the Core Resonance Amplifier?
Currently, it is bound to 83 Dungeons.
The following captured Dungeons are too far for the Core Resonance Amplifier ability to take effect.
Dungeon of the Skeletal-Soul Bat
Ice Palace Dungeon
Mustakrakish's Desert Palace
Desolate Temple
Sea Goddess Temple
Do you accept?
Yes/No?
***
Dave pressed accept, and almost immediately, the Black Square shuddered to release waves of energy that swept through the land of the Qin Kingdom.
Suddenly, shrieks and howls of creatures, hundreds of them echoed through all the lands of Qin. The lands began shaking almost as if an army of monsters was racing through the lands.
Dave caught a glimpse of a nearby cave, several dozen wolves, with patches of missing fur and rotten flesh ran after each other as they headed East. More undead creatures followed after them, it felt like they knew where life was and they chased after it.
Dave knew that this was working even better than he thought. His idea was to fill the Qin lands with undead and hamper the advance of the Qin Army as he could raid more cities while their lands were teeming with monsters that would hamper them, but now these monsters were going to swarm the lands of the cities and will cause the citizen to hole up in them.
Without food to harvest as the land would be filled with undead, the NPCs will hunger. Their only chance at survival will be to head to the capital, the only city that still had available food. With more people swarming the capital, it will be chaos. Dave loved chaos, he could do whatever he wanted in it.
Dave grinned as the armies of undead ran toward the cities. He ordered his Sub-Division to head to one of the nearby cities that he hadn't taken down yet. Without food, and with undead monsters swarming them, it would be easy to raid and takedown. Especially since they can't receive aid from the main army as it will struggle to get there due to the numerous monsters on the land.
Just as the army began moving, one of Dave's Undead jumped at Dave lifting him off his feet and throwing him a few feet away. Dave yelped in surprise, he turned to see what madness went on into the Undead's mind to shove his leader to the ground, then he noticed that the Undead that had pushed him was split in half.
"Oh, your underling would rather give their lives for you," an eerie deep and familiar voice sounded near Dave.
Turning, he saw the reason why his Undead had given his life to push his leader away. The Chosen of the Ash King was standing tall inside the group of Undead, unworried by the thousands of Undead surrounding him.
Dave cursed, the Chosen One's timing couldn't be more perfect, what's worse. Dave knew that he couldn't use his Undead to fight it. As he learned from Nick, the Chosen Ones of the Ash King could feed on Dave's Undead to regenerate, he needed to fight it alone.
Dave stood up to face the Chosen One.
"Ready for round two?" The Chosen spoke then lunged at Dave.