The snow near the mountains was deep and heavy with moisture. Jogging became walking which quickly degraded into trudging and dragging. Falcher painstakingly trudged through the thigh deep snow drifts. The damp and cold snow made him shiver frequently, his body vulnerable to the colder elements due to the lack of insulation in his leather armor. "You just had to go by yourself, Tang... if I die out here, it's your fault..." Falcher grumbled to himself. "The next zone better be warm... I want the Bahamas warm..."

The blue sky quickly became covered in white-ish clouds. Snow began to fall again in the mountain area. The wind picked up speed and howled through the passages between the mountains. The wind kicked up the loose snow atop the drifts creating a thick haze. Nonetheless, Falcher kept moving.

Another hour passed and the haze became a total white-out. He could barely see his hand in front of him. The wind whipped around him causing him to sway. The air was cold and it froze him internally. Even so, it didn't stop him.

For brief moments, he saw another set of trudging tracks next to him. Then the wind filled them in with snow. Another set appeared on his left. "Two?" he mumbled through his frozen lips. Falcher quickened his pace with newfound fear and determination. He tried calling out into the void of white but couldn't get the words he wanted to out him.

Then the white-out began to break up into a thin haze. As it faded away, something in the distance came into view. It was large, open and circular. It had no roof and no walls but a dozen pillars encircled something atop of bluff. Falcher saw a pathway up the backside of the hill, made by something else that had come here before him, and followed it.

Pyroholiday turned to Creoft and asked him a question, "Is this something that he does normally?"

Creoft snapped back into reality and blinked a few times before responding, "Who? Tang or Falcher?"

"Both I guess."

"Falcher doesn't run off on his own, but for Tang, solo adventures have always seemed to be his thing. Those two are usually inseparable."

"You never did tell me why he ran off."

"I thought I did, huh. To put it simply, he's hunting for the cure to Vampirism to save his in-game wife. Or he's got some secret suicide pact that involves running off into the freezing mountains..."

"I highly doubt the latter."

"It's more common a thing than you probably think. Y'know how many people I've watched scream Leeroy Jenkins before getting slaughtered in normal PVE? Too many..."

"The copycats are real then..." Pyro's voice trailed off. He continued following his HUD which highlighted Tangurple's footprints. Some prints didn't highlight due to an overlap of his and something else's. "The tracks are gone... the prints are mixing, the system isn't reading it."

"The hunter is covering its tracks by walking in Tangurple's path? That's interesting, my dev's never even thought that to be possible."

Tullus followed behind Creoft, distracted and inattentive. That is until he tripped. His foot slammed into something stiff and a split second later, he was face first in the snow.

Creoft looked over his shoulder, "Tullus? You ok back... there... Hey Pyro! Pause for a minute."

Pyro turned around and watched curiously. Creoft helped Tullus onto his feet. Tullus was slightly dazed, but mentally present again. He looked down at the ground where he tripped and swiped the snow aside. Sitting in the snow was the corpse of the suspected pursuer. Creoft grabbed the body and rolled it face up and dusted the snow off. However, the face wasn't Fummau or Tasaki, it was a shriveled up human. Creoft dusted off the rest of the corpse.

The rest of the body was outfitted in older nordic armor, Viking likes in nature. Creoft took a step back and immediately fell. A second corpse was exposed. "Oh shit, run!"

Tullus and Pyro didn't move, "what? Why?" Tullus was beginning to panic.

"I know what happened to our little hunter..."

The snow began to move, shaking violently as a dozen things moved underneath. A handful of armored Viking corpses arose from their once frozen solid graves, their eyes glowing with a very unsettling orange. Creoft quickly cried out amidst his mad scramble, "DRAUGR!"

Like a swarm of locust, the draugr arose and ran at them, their mouths hanged open, orange-tinted blood dripped and splattered with every movement. Some wielded old rusty weapons while others attacked with their fists. Pyro equipped his ax and threw it and like a boomerang, it came back around, clipping through several draugr. Creoft took advantage of the stun effect Pyro's ax provided and swung his maul wide, bashing in their rotting skulls. A handful of draugr fell.

Tullus raised his long spear and rounded steel shield into an attack stance and charged at the draugr. He threw his weight around, bashing them with the shield. Creoft fell in behind him, mopping up the stunned enemies. Pyro held his ax and watched the duo clean up the place. When the last draugr fell, Creoft and Tullus sat down to take a breather.

Pyro kept staring at the mashed and shredded footprints. "No more deciphering the prints, we're stuck with just following the trail of pressed snow which will hopefully take us to Tangurple or his pursuer..."

Tangurple stood at the snow peaked cliffs which overlooked the valley where civilization was. The final spot in his grand quest to cure vampirism. He stared down the cliff mindlessly for a minute before a cold wind brought him back to reality. He turned around and resumed his walk north. His heavy plated metal armor offered little protection from the cold elements and the freezing mountain winds battered his willpower. Snow was kicked up into small split second tornados. He trudged forward up the side of the mountain. The one last spot to search was a small plateau a few minutes up. He stood at the foot of this cliff and looked up.

There was something looking over the edge, down at him. At least it seemed that way to him. He lowered his head and began the climb. He wedged his fingers into the crumbling and wind-worn slits in the cliff face and pulled himself up. He positioned his feet to take the slot while his hands reached for higher grab points. He repeated this for ten minutes as he scaled the cliff face.

Upon reaching the top, he crawled up onto the ledge and laid down in the snow for a minute. His armor weighed heavy on him as cold wet snow seeped through the gaps and froze his skin. He laid still for only a minute before throwing himself to his feet, shivering. He lifted his head and searched the plateau. Ahead of him, a thin haze of snow kicked up but through it, he could see the outline of some circular structure. He crossed his frostbitten fingers and trudged through the snow.

Falcher wandered aimlessly in the deep snow following the path of someone else. He didn't know whose trail he was following but he kept his hopes high for it to be Tangurple's. Not too far ahead of his was a hunched over figure. It was tall and it had a large tail. Falcher rubbed his eyes to clarify his sight. It was indeed a Tasaki which fits Pyro's earlier description of Tangurple's pursuer. Falcher unsheathed his rapiers and forcibly pushed the snow aside, moving with purpose.

As the unsuspecting Tasaki got closer, Falcher began to do a hop run across the snow top. When he was within range, he went into a charge and slammed his rapiers into the Tasaki's back. The fox cried out in pain and swung around with a halberd, tagging Falcher in the side. Falcher rolled through the snow and recovered quickly. The Tasaki was a rank one boss and not a player, much to Falcher's relief.

However, much to his disbelief, the Tasaki's eyes glowed red and his fur was ash grey. It held a set of gauntlets with long sharp blades attached to each finger. A low growl emitted from the Tasaki, its unusually long pointy fangs exposed from its parted lips. It ground its blades against each other making an ear piercing sound.

Falcher unsheathed his rapiers and ground his teeth. He stood himself taller, his gnollish body giving him two extra feet on the Tasaki. "Do that again, I dare you," Falcher growled back with a forceful parental tone.

As if by command, the Tasaki growled and slid its blades across each other again.

Falcher took a deep breath, "You asked for this." Falcher howled raising a fist to the sky and bringing it down with speed. Seconds later, a rain of fireballs poured on top of the Tasaki inflicting burn damage. "Submit?"

The Tasaki growled again and spoke, "You're the Catholic's friend then? Then Judas will be pleased if I remove you from this game."

Falcher immediately burst into laughter, "Bwahaha! That is rich, that is absolutely rich. You, a midget with metal claws think to stand a chance against the fencing master of the class of 2029! I'd eat my own shit if you could manage that."

The Tasaki rolled its eyes and dashed towards Falcher with incredible speed. Falcher sidestepped and stuck out his leg, tripping the Tasaki. As it face planted into the snow, Falcher jammed a rapier into its back. "Tsk, tsk. I thought you were smarter than that."

The Tasaki rolled over and lunged upwards digging and sinking its metal claws into Falcher's chainmail and fur armor. He only chuckled despite being in pain. He brought his knee up and kneed the Tasaki's chin, knocking it loose. He then extended his leg and punted the fox backward. He then took up the classic fencing stance sheathing one rapier and holding the other out in front of him.

The Tasaki recollected itself and charged at Falcher again, claws aimed for his chest.

Falcher parried and reposted using his sword to deflect and redirect the blades while his fist swung high and slammed down into the muzzle of the fox. Unfortunately, it created an awkward position and a slow recovery.

The Tasaki quickly responded with a headbutt which set Falcher off balance delaying his ability to recover even further. A second strike followed as a pair of claws slashed across Falcher's face. Both of them fell to the ground, the Tasaki somehow staying on top of Falcher. In its seemingly dominant position, the fox repeatedly clawed into Falcher.

The pain became unbearable and hastily, Falcher jammed the rapier into the fox's side causing the beast to holler in pain. He brought his legs in and again punted the fox off of him. He used the momentum to get himself onto his feet once more.

The Tasaki rolled back but failed to recover due to the deep snow.

Falcher had a window of opportunity and chased after the fox in ragdoll mode. He jumped, unsheathed his second rapier and slammed them both into the Tasaki's chest making sure to twist the blades.

The Tasaki was heavily disoriented and badly wounded. Falcher stared at the Tasaki with an angry scowl. "Next time, pick your fights better." Falcher then yanked the blades up the fox's body and ripped them out.

The fox went limp.

Falcher got a second look at the eyes taking note of the bloodshot appearance. "Vampire... That explains the chase and the connection to Judas. I hope that's the only one-" Falcher was immediately cut off by the sudden appearance of many Draugr warriors and another vampire, also a rank one boss but of the Orcish race. "Ah hell..."