It lurches, one of the struts breaking as they hit a pothole. A moment later, the giant hand of another greater undead slams out from an adjoining street, splashing individual bodies in their direction.

"Unanimity - that must be a permanent one!"

"Ive got maybe three quarters of a bottle of ethanol left split amongst two bottles!" She tries to snipe supporting zombie bodies from the legs of the conglomerate zombie. HItting hearts on individual zombies on the conglomeration while it runs are some of the hardest shots shes ever taken while unaided by enhancement spells. She misses her Norden made SMG. Spray and pray seems much more likely to randomly hit hearts than having to aim for moving hearts in a mega zombie.

It's not enough. The main body is too far for a void bomb to be thrown or her sprayer to reach it. One of the flung bodies lands in their path, jolting the bike, getting tangled in the wheels.

And then thousands of arrows shower down from above. 

2048 of them, to be precise.

Some of the undead are pierced through the heart, but even those that are not are impeded by the sudden impalement.

"Over here!"

Tanya won't look a gifthorse in the mouth (Well, she would actually check a gifted horses teeth. But that is not relevant to the meaning of the saying). "Let's go that way!"

"Joon, make room!" She gets ready to jump from the sidecar, It feels like it will detach at any moment.

Joon hacks down at the undead messing up the wheels with the moment's respite the volley brings. There's very little space behind him, and clinging on is more like a piggyback.

The sidecar breaks off a moment later, continuing on without them on its own wheels to bump harmlessly into an undead while Amaryllis turns the bike towards their rescuer.

"Ditch it! Through here!"

Their rescuer is running away from the biggun on foot, and darts down an alleyway and then through an unlocked door into one of the buildings.

"If she wanted us dead she could have let the combiner get us!" Tanya races after the blonde without hesitiation. Snapping off occasional shots behind her as she runs. to keep the zombies at the head of the pack off of the team.

Joon takes a bad hit from another flung undead, bone breaking with a crack before he can run down the alleyway, only for another level-up from Tanya's kills to heal him moments later.

They're not just led through one building. The woman, blonde with pointed ears and unmarked fatigues, leads them vaulting over desks and through corridors, around corners and through more doors that she pulls open or slams through on the first try each time. She must know this place like the back of her hand, or else she's incredibly lucky.

Their narrow winding path is working to escape the biggun, the pursuing undead limited by the tight confines, their ability to form up confounded by the short sight lines.

For once (with the exception of flying) Tanya's small size is to her advantage. Ducking through doorways, making sharp turns, and jumping over furniture is much easier for her than for tall and more muscular Joon and the Princess. 

She actually deliberately slows down in places to shoot or stab zombies that catch up to the group. Fire while indoors is so many levels of bad idea she does not even try it.

A few turns later, she abruptly slows to a relaxed stroll, stretching with her bow. 

"You're welcome."

"Thanks for the assist. Nice trick with the arrows." That arrow barrage was good enough to almost match an artillery spell. Fire magic has been useful but she wants something ranged like that.

"Yes, you have our gratitude."

Unmarked fatigues, entad bow (invested?), no allies visible, no immediate sign of recognition...

"What brings you to Silmar City?"

"Looting! Violation of imperial law, that, but if the empire is going to just let all this stuff go to rot, then I don’t consider it the worst crime a person can commit to steal some of it away. You three look well-resourced, did you have the same idea?"

An actual looter would show more concern about competition over the limited non-perishable valuables left in the city. Out here, there's nothing to stop a dispute over spoils turning violent. Is her elf luck guiding her through the conversation? She wishes she had some idea of how heritable that is.

"As it happens, we are. There's a specific item we're seeking in Sorian's Castle. If you were willing to guide us, anything else we come across would be yours."

"Well, there it gets a little complicated. I'm already signed on with another crew of smugglers, you see, and while we may have our differences in opinion they'd be very upset if I were to leave them in the lurch in the middle of a job. Worse, I suspect they might be looking for that mystery item of yours as well."

She tilts her head, inspecting Tanya's roots to see if the pink color is natural. While her tone is regretful, her posture suggests she's angling for a better offer.

Blonde roots! If not for the rounded human ears, Tanya might also have a bit of a fae look to her. Her callsign was Fairy for a reason.

Tanya is politely pretending not to look at the elves ears. This world is suddenly a lot more fantasy themed than she thought, if it has elves as well as zombies.

"Hmmm, unfortunate." unfortunate for the other team that is. If her opponents are anything near the same level as the Fuchsia Coterie. They shouldn't be too much trouble.

"Their target, is it something that we could split or share?"

Tanya is far from the first human to be awkward about the whole half-elf situation.

"Who knows? They do, of course, but they've been awfully vague about the whole thing. One of the points of contention between us."

Hint hint.

"We're only a few blocks away from where our group agreed to rendezvous, so you'll be able to ask them yourself if you like. See if they're any more candid with you."

Tanya turns to Amaryllis. "Cypress. You think they have anything to do with..." She points at her hair colour.
Wouldn't do to reveal things to this stranger, even if she saved them. Tanya hopes that is vague enough to obfuscate things. She doesn't doubt at all that Amaryllis will get what shes talking about though.

"It would be surprising if they didn't. Exclusion zones like this shouldn't see much activity under normal circumstances."

She turns to the half-elf. Thinking about killing her to deny her team knowledge of their arrival and the key's location in Sorian's Castle would be counterproductive if her luck would give her enough forewarning to escape and report back to them. 

"The item they're after is likely a teleportation key. Instant transportation to a touchstone or any location previously visited by the bearer, with a two-hour cooldown and a maximum of four other passengers."

"That must be our exit plan. There's five of us in total, so that limit wouldn't be a problem, except they've also been complaining about a new side mission involving picking someone up from here..."