The fight had not gone unnoticed.

Rolly and Squirmie were not yet to the village when Suzette's first spell lit up the pre-dawn darkness.

They raced back up the road and arrived as Layla was trying to keep Suzette alive.

Rolly threw himself into the effort of healing her, pouring his own stamina into her, feeling her first healing, and then fading away as the poison and bleeding took their toll.

The huge gash across her back slowly started to close as he fought against the bleeding.

It was still touch and go because of the poison in the wound, but eventually, after three thousand points of healing were applied, it started to heal, and she began to regain some health.

Layla had cleaned the wound over and over, using strips of cloth torn from her dress to remove the blackened blood that kept seeping out.

The cloth smoked and smelled foul.

It also made her feel sick and she saw her own health going down slowly, but she kept at it.

She was surprised when she got the announcement that she had gained the skill: Minor Poison Resistance.

She asked Suzette about it when they got her to the ACME building and made her comfortable."I picked up minor poison resistance from helping you.

Just touching your wound made me ill and I got the skill after a few minutes.

Did you get it as well?"Suzette giggled, half drunk at this point on 'Medicinal Brandy'.

Billy had run to the tenth floor for a bottle, Ozzy having drank everything on the first floor.

"I had the skill already at rank 7 from Rolly making me choke down sedge beast for lunches.

You should try it - truly horrible.

Maybe it was not dying to a stronger poison? And trust me, whatever that big ghoul had on his claws was strong.

I was negating 40 points of poison damage each round and still dying from it."Layla considered her own health.

Even with the huge chunk ACME managers started with, she wouldn't have lasted so long.

How the girl had managed to stand up and hurl spells at the end of the fight was beyond her.

How much had that hurt?

Seeing the fight up close and personal had been an eye-opener for her.

Things went much faster than she had imagined, and the violence had hit her emotionally as if it was real.

And Ozzy had terrified her more than the huge ghoul.

The Butcher had been radiating fear and intimidation in waves, making a little voice in her head advise: "It's a monster! Run!" At least they had been on the same side as the monster that won the fight.

Layla was recognizing that there were many types of power in this world.

She and Billy had power from their position in ACME, and some growing political power as Baron and Baroness.

But she was deeply jealous of the sheer personal power some of their 'underlings' were attaining.

That monstrous ghoul had laughed at her and Billy and scoffed at them ruling the city.

She hadn't been able to do a damn thing about it, except get angry and even more frightened.

And then Suzette had punched holes in it with beams of light and Ozzy had stood up from the dead and split the thing in two.

She wanted that kind of power.

She'd seen Suzette pick up the carcass of an animal that had to weigh a half ton and pack it over to be butchered.

That casual sort of strength was intoxicating to her.

No wonder some players would grind for hours a day to increase their skills.

Hanging from her belt were the two light cleavers that Ozzy dropped.

She planned on using them every day she could to start the process of getting her own power.

Billy could come along with her, or he could start polishing her boots.Further proof that her contract workers were on a path to power showed up when she checked her notifications.

She normally kept all the in-game messages turned off and only checked things now and then.

That was going to change from now on.

She was glossing over information, and information was a form of power.

Hadn't Billy mentioned his suspicions about Ozzy and Suzette's backgrounds in other games? They were figuring things out in this world now.

She needed to listen to them more.

She wondered how bad sedge beast really tasted.

Being on the winning side against Bone Gnawer had certainly been beneficial.

She understood better how the workers were attaining their special skills.

But it certainly wasn't an easy method.

How many things like this had they fought?

The Terrifying Power of the Carrion Ghouls has been dealt a Mortal Blow!

Long have the carrion ghouls controlled this part of Hungrytown, opening the oldest graves to free the undead, or to eat the corpses within.

While other ghouls are slaves to their stomachs, Bone Gnawer was a crafty craven, hiding from Mama Laveau and preying only on those weaker than itself - especially when prey was weakened by its pack of lesser ghouls.

You may claim a Large Favor from Mama Laveau the next time you visit.

Your group of heroes has slain Bone Gnawer, a Level 12 Epic Boss.

Each member of your party earns 10 CSP and 1000 experience.

Each member of your group has also earned the option to buy the skill: Strike Undead for 5 CSP.

This is a skill that increases your damage against undead with physical melee attacks, physical ranged attacks, and magical attacks that use force, radiance, or fire.Choose either RAD or STR as the governing stat for this skill.Additional Damage: 10 points per rank of Strike Undead + 5 points per point of RAD or STR.

Cost: Stamina or Mana equal to half the amount of additional damage done.