After a short pause, Arkady spoke again. Arkady:"I...can't...hold them back!" The them Arkady was referring to were the spirits that possessed his body. Suddenly, the Hunters could see the spirits explode out of Arkady's body and start to speak. Whatever they were saying was driving Arkady mad! Arkady, with his last moments of sanity, shouted, "Find him! Kill him! Run! Run dammit! RUN FROM ME!" Quick as a flash, the human Hunters leaped onto Matt's back and he tore out of the room at 400 miles per hour, taking an alternate route than the one they'd come through. Behind them, Arkady, who was driven to madness by the spirits, stood up with renewed strength and started to roar boisterously!
After a short time, Matt and the Hunters emerged from the alternate exit, the were in a very damaged area of the Penitentiary Courtyard. At just about the same moment, the Hunters received an urgent message from the Messengers. "With the ghosts possessing Arkady's body in full control of him, the werewolf is almost invulnerable! You'll have to drive him off somehow and reach the Warden's Mansion!"
The Hunters dismounted off of Matt and they all started to continue on foot. They were headed in the direction of the meal hall, when they saw a "pool" of blue flame; from out of this pool of flame, wolf spirits started to emerge! Matt:"Those things have to be the spirits that have been possessing Arkady. If we destroy them, than we just might be able to make Arkady vulnerable, at least temporarily." Without further hesitation, the Hunters pulled out their melee weapons and attacked the ghostly wolves. These spirits were much more resistant to injury than any other kind of "normal" creature the Hunters had faced that night, however, the Hunters were still able to take them out with relative ease.
After dispatching the wolves, the group rounded the corner. The group wasn't on this path very long before they saw Arkady leap down from the roof and attack! Immediately after he landed, Arkady unleased a Tragedy Bomb, but Matt reflected it straight back at him. The Hunters unloaded their ranged weapons into the crazed werewolf. After just a few shots, Arkady leaped back into the air and disappeared. Matt:"Since when did you guys have silver bullets?" Judge:"During our battle with Arkady, the Messengers used their White Magic on our weapons and made our ammunition silver. With our upgraded weaponry, our task of defeating Arkady was eased greatly."
With Arkady out of their way, the Hunters were able to move ahead. Or, so it seemed. A large group of six vampresses appeared out of thin air. What was worse, was these vampresses were able to duplicate Martyr's Demand Edge! Judge was able to shoot one before it could attack, and it disintegrated into dust. Martyr and Defender double teamed another and after a few hacks it died. Matt attacked alongside Avenger; the two of them attacked almost in unison and with their mighty slashes, the remaining vampresses fell quickly. After this small battle, Matt broke down a side door to the meal hall and everyone went inside.
There were no zombies inside the meal hall, so it looked like a free ride into the kitchen. That was the case, until a pool of flame appeared behind them. The pool spewed out fifteen spirits then disintegrated. As the others headed into the kitchen, Matt fired a Scar Dragon to cover their escape. Fifteen enemies charged, fifteen enemies disintegrated into orange flames. No enemies appeared in the kitchen, so the Hunters effortlessly reached the meat freezer. In the meat freezer, the Hunters were disheartened to find that in addition to wolf spirits, the Beef Fleshcraft had been revived and were attacking as well!
Matt sent out a Scar Dragon to help clear a path. It eliminated twenty enemies, twelve of which were Fleshcraft. The wolves died instantly because they were ghosts and the Fleshcraft were cut in half by the deadly three-way blast. This was the catalyst for a string of attacks that annihilated the entire room of enemies; the other Hunters pulled out their ranged weapons and started to fire away. The normal Hunters had to stay as far away from the Fleshcraft as possible, to avoid their deadly acidic spray. Matt moved to take on the wolf spirits. Matt's Adamantium Mace was able to take out the spirits in just two swings, while his Holy Ring protected him from their poisonous, but ice-based, breath. The Hunters had a much more difficult time at defeating their foes, but after reloading several times, they were victorious. No sooner were they victorious, then they made their way out of the freezer and towards the secondary courtyard. The exitway to the secondary courtyard was in plain sight, however, when the Hunters neared the exit, Arkady leaped from the air and attacked again! The Hunters unloaded a couple of rounds of silver bullets into his hide and the werewolf ran off with only a little fight. Then, the Hunters headed into the secondary courtyard, getting ever closer to the Warden's mansion.
In the second courtyard, the Hunters could see a huge pack of wolf spirits in the distance. The wolf pack of twenty spirits charged at them with speed no ordinary wolf could ever hope to match! Matt fired wave after wave of Fire-Fortress Blades at the charging wolves. The couple of wolves that didn't die from the barrage were so weak that a single slash from any of the Hunters' weapons could kill them. The way forward was blocked by tons of debris; Arkady's insane rampage was taking its toll on the courtyard.
Fortunately, he'd also knocked down an iron gate, which lead to the basketball court. So, the Hunters took this alternate route. Even though Matt was able to move the debris, an invulnerable Arkady would be waiting for them on the other side! On the basketball court, the Hunters saw undead Rotweilers instead of wolf spirits. Unlike the wolf spirits, these zombies could still get hungry! Matt stepped up to the front of the line and roared thunderously at the pack of dogs. These dogs ran cowardly away, with their decaying tails between their legs! Matt:"You see guys, size does matter."
The Hunters were glad that Matt was with them, because the only thing keeping them going was adrenaline. A little Rejuvenation took care of that. Now that they had a small amount of energy back in their bodies, the original Hunters followed Matt through the remains of a gate. This gate lead back to the corridor where the heavy iron gate before the Warden's mansion stood! However, as the Hunters expected, two more pools of flame appeared. A large pool spew out thirty spirits, while a smaller one released twenty.
These spirits were smarter than any of the other spirits that the Hunters had come across; they had figured out that Defender could heal everybody, so they all targeted her! Before any of the others could react, five wolf spirits jumped Defender and started to bite and claw at her repeatedly! Their attacks were ended by a wave of Fire-Fortress Blades. The remainder were defeated swiftly by combining Word of Power and Celestial Wraith.
Judge:"Good God! Samantha!" The others went over their downed friend. She was bleeding at a horrible rate, and her face was mangled terribly. If she didn't receive aid soon, she'd die for sure. However, the wolves didn't anticipate there being a second healer in the group! Matt used his Blood Trick and healed Defender.
Her wounds healed semi-automatically and she awoke with a start, completely revitalized. Matt did the same for the other three Hunters as well, and completely restored their energy. Matt:"[Helping Defender to her feet] I guess the wolves didn't realize that your not the only healer around here! Come on! We need to get moving, it's nearly dawn!" The revitalized group headed toward the heavy iron gate and Arkady attacked them a third time! Matt was ready for him, though. After extending his Mace, Matt slashed Arkady once with either arm diagonally, then did a cross-slash, taking the right arm down and right while the left arm went down and left. This assault was enough to make Arkady flee. Judge:"We're almost there!" After he activated the switch to lift the gate, Judge lead the group of Hunters into the mansion's courtyard!
Immediately after they passed through the iron gate, they saw four pools in the distance. Each pool was spewing out fifteen wolf spirits. Matt fired a Scar Dragon towards each one. The pools themselves were, however, more than the blasts' fifty foot range. But, that didn't stop the dragons from eliminating a large number of wolves from each pool. The once dominating force of sixty was now reduced to a mere twenty. This small number of enemies was no trouble at all for the experience, revitalized Hunters.
After the small battle, the Hunters continued along the courtyard towards the mansion with no opposition at all. At least, until they reached the water fountain. Arkady leaped out of the air again and attacked the Hunters. Matt:"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" Matt slashed Arkady a couple of more times, then gave him a right hook, which sent the crazed animal flying through the second floor window. Arkady didn't come back out, so the Hunters continued inside.
A burst of silver bullets killed the lone werewolf spirit in the room. The Hunters continued up the stairs and immediately headed towards the Warden's study. The study was empty...at first. Arkady suddenly burst through the back wall and roared at the Hunters. Out of thin air, eight vampresses appeared as well. Avenger case Smite and was able to kill all eight in one blast! The Hunters then proceeded to fire silver bullets at Arkady. While the evil werewolf was stunned, Matt ran up and cold-clocked him! Arkady slumped to the ground, unconscious. In a far corner of the room, Martyr spotted a staircase that lead up to the attic. The final showdown was about to begin!
