CHOCOLATE DESTINY

Sure enough, a crowd of fifty-some ghouls is making its way through the shantytown for Amos to point to.
Estelle pokes out of her wagon. "Is something the matter- OH MY!" She places a hand to her chest.
"Pick up the pace, we must outrun those ugly things!" The handlers whip their reins, and the wagons speed up.

"N-no! god damnit!"

Amos sprints for the wagon and hops on.

"Ali! Can you dazzle them with your swagger?!"

Noire tries her best to ignore the monsters in the background ,although just by looking at her you can tell she's been affected in some way, as she looks over the young man who jumped in shoulder. After a few moments she bluntly says. "Your clothes, strip em." She then looks around the wagon for alcohol and bandages.

Noire finds the items she is looking for

Ali laughs, happy to see A.D. again, albeit seriously wounded.
"GET LOW, NIGGAS," shouts Ali, standing up to display his glory to all, with the intent of Ϟ AweŞtriking™Ϟ the pursuing ghouls long enough to create a distance gap.

[Shining Swagg activates]


Meanwhile, Daliu Ayime and Coterie load the pistols, blunderbusses, and cannon that Ali's units acquired.

Amos removes his leather jacket and shirt. Without his upper layers anyone can see his body is moderately toned and almost entirely without scars. The wound in his shoulder is a gory mess and the surrounding skin is stained by his blood.

"You know how to patch up arrow wounds?"

"I'm not a doctor if that's what your asking, but when you travel since age ten, you tend to learn what to do whenever you see a wound." She looks at the alcohol and cringes a little. "120 proof, thats gonna hurt." After taking a swig of the drink and coughing a bit from the burning sensation, she rips off a piece of cloth from inside her pack, soaking it and his wound in the alcohol, then goes about cleaning the wound gently trying not cause too much pain. After thoroughly cleaning it she goes about wrapping the wound tightly with the bandages.

"This isn't going to fix it up, at best it will make sure you don't get an infection. I'll take you to an actual doctor when we get to a town, can't have my bodyguard dropping dead on me after all." Finished wrapping the wound she ties it off, she holds the drink out to him, a small smile on her face. "You look like could use a drink more than any of us."

Amos nods vigorously and grabs at the bottle. He takes two shots making his best effort to not let the liquor sit on his tongue. His face cringes in response to the alcohol going down his throat.

"T-thanks. You're a capable individual."

Amos peers back at the pursuing horde while asking the strange woman:

"Your bodyguard for that?"

She shakes her head. "No, I just needed some bodyguards for the road to the capital city." She looks out toward the horde. "If I didn't find your friends as protection detail I'd..." She shakes a little at the thought of possibly being at the city still. "Anyway your share of the money is in there. "She gestures to a sack next to Ali. "Though I'd like to know how your companions got all these weapons out of the six platinum coins i gave them to buy traveling gear..."

"Right, don't be optimistic about that"

Amos puts his shirt and jacket on again. A thought flickers through his mind and his eyes beam. He raises his fists towards the sky with joy.

"I CAN BUY A NEW JACK- AUGH!"

Pain courses from his shoulder through his body and he quickly drops his arms back down.

"Yeah, I'll gladly work your protection."

She laughs at his enthusiasm/misfortune . "With 1000 gold rooks you can buy a tailor made jacket, plus if you guys escort me back to the mainland, im sure i can part with some of my 200k gold pieces at my main bank account." She removes one of her gloves and extends a hand. "Noire Greenheart, hopefully this will be a good time for everyone."

Upon seeing the monstrous horde, many of the travelers scream and start rushing back to Enarou or further north.

Amos takes Noire's hand only to find it frozen in place, her head involuntarily turned to gaze at Ali's Shining Swagg. Indeed, the pedestrians and even the horses stop to stare at the Lil Prince's gilded pectorals, causing all traffic on the northern road to abruptly screech to a halt. The ghouls are also immobilized, though the distance remains the same. Fortunately, the three llamas carrying Lucas, the sarong-clad woman, and the chanting man are inured to the effect, and swiftly outpace the wagons.

At the end of 5 seconds, the Coterie has 3 pistols and 1 blunderbuss loaded and ready to fire.

She shakes her head recovering a few moments later, removing her hand from Amos. "Umm...what was that." When she sees the Coterie loaded up, she takes the crossbow off of her back and takes four cartridges from her pack, clipping three onto her belt and loading one into her crossbow, pulling the bolt lever on the side to lock the cartridge in place and load a crossbow bolt.

"Perhaps we should take a detour, and let these other wagon's serve as a bulwark to our ghoul problem."

Gray offered as a suggestion.

"It would just be a big waste of our powder and ammunition to deal with these ghouls now, who knows what horrors we may find on our way to the capital."

Gray points out the path of least resistance through the crowd for Estelle's convoy to travel through to minimize exposure and time with his path finding skill.

Ali takes a pistol and shoots a random Ϟ AweŞtruck™Ϟ traveler (located closest to the ghouls), to draw the monsters to his/her blood scent and slow their pursuit.

"GET DIS FUCKIN' WAGON MOVIN, BITCHES. WE OUTTA HERE," urges Ali, as he does whatever he can to get the wagons moving again. He hands the pistol to Coterie for reloading and aims the blunderbuss at the nearest ghoul, ready to fire.

Amos holds himself up with the edge of the wagon and looks at the crowd ahead of the group. His gaze darts around as he attempts to estimate the fastest path to maneuver through the other fleeing citizens.

(Mathematics Check)

Her eyes widen in shock as she sees what the prince just did. "What the hell kinda people did I hire...?" She asks herself as she glances at the people with her in the wagon. Putting the question aside for now she turns her attention back to the monsters, ready to shoot when given the command.

More screams ensue as the now unfrozen ghouls reach and start tearing into the wounded nun and other unlucky pedestrians. While Amos attempts to apply his mathematics, the wagons are already following the ideal path pointed out by Lee Gray, weaving through the slower travelers.
Finally the caravan reaches open road and picks up the pace. Ten ghouls are still in pursuit.

Lining up several shots she fires three shots at the leader (one at its head and two at its chest) trying to make it stumble.

(Using good luck manipulation to help the groups aim)

The ghoul wearing a guard uniform looks like he's in charge, so Noire peppers him with bolts. He falls over but astonishingly enough the others keep going. The town bell starts ringing.

The Coterie now has 4 pistols, both blunderbusses, and the cannon loaded.

"These creatures probably won't pose much of a threat to us even if they reach the edge of the wagon. They have to maintain a run to close distance on us and in doing so leave themselves open to being stabbed through the face."

She turns her head to him, her eyes glowing a dull blue as her ability remains active "Still better to be safe then sorry." She turns back to the monsters lining up two shots and firing at two other monster's heads, hoping to trip them up as well and take out several monsters with their falling bodies.

"I agree with AD here, if they get too close we have a better chance of hitting them, and maybe they will tire themselves out on the way here. It seems that we should've also taken some long pole weaponry, although hindsight is always 20/20."

Using his Crunk ain't Dead necklace, Ali shines the might of a thousand diamonds into the ghouls' eyes (careful to only hit the ghouls) to stagger them, using the nearly overhead sun as ambient light. He carefully observes their reactions to the light.

Noire hits one ghoul in the head and misses the other. Blinded by the light of Ali's necklace the ghouls continue running but without direction, some stumbling off the road. Slowly but surely, they are left in the dust and shrink out of view. The caravan catches up with the llamas.

The sorrowful peals of Enarou's bell fade as the wagons bear you away from that forsaken town.

To be continued: https://churchofproz.forumotion.net/t1355-chocolate-destiny-arc-2