42 A leap of Faith (2/2)

I'd have better luck asking Kessiah probably, but that didn't make my time with Torix pointless. Far from it. By the time the sun was up, I developed a whole new runic set for my forearms, shins, and palms. They still didn't pass Torix's own standards, but they were a start. When I had to leave, I was ready to try out my new toys.

As I started walking off, Torix snapped his fingers which destroyed the black table and markings that floated in the air. He turned to me,

”Thank you for this...break from all the tedium of these past days. I needed it, more than I knew.”

I waved his thanks away, ”Don't mention it. Just make sure to repay the favor later.”

I figured making him feel like he would pay me back may make him feel better. It was weird. It turned out that even if you're an immortal lich, you still have feelings and problems. In the end, I guess most everyone was like everybody else. We were all just trying to get by.

And I wasn't outside of that conundrum either. I walked back towards Kessiah and Althea. I walked back up towards our tent before tapping Althea's tent flap thing. I didn't know what to call it.

Anyways, Althea grumbled from inside,

”Who is it?”

”Daniel. You ready to rip some zombies apart?”

After a long yawn, she replied, ”Did you even sleep?”

”No. Now come on. We don't have time to waste.”

Leaving her tent, I walked towards one of the workbenches near the center of the camp. The entire place was buzzing with life. Troops carried supplies. Other's scarfed down their breakfasts with tired eyes and heavy heels. One drill sergeant went back and forth to each tent, shouting each member awake.

Off in the distance, Kessiah walked up with her hair all frazzled. She looked like she'd slept in the back of a car instead of a bed. When she reached up to me, she snapped,

”You know, I usually have Torix make me a bed before I go to sleep everyday. Thanks a lot for taking my bed maker.”

I laughed before smiling, ”My pleasure.”

She grinned back before Althea stumbled up to us. She looked groggy today, like fighting for so long had taken its toll on her. Kessiah slapped her back as she said,

”Yo miss missy. Cheer up. You have a day of bloodletting ahead of you.”

Althea sighed, ”Yeah. I know.”

I raised an eyebrow, ”Would you rather do something else or?”

”It's not that. I'm just not used to this yet. It's going to take some time to adjust to this much...killing.”

Kessiah gave her a noogie with her hand, ”Get used to it toots. You ready Dan Dan?”

I nodded. She pointed off towards another section of the city,

”Let's go fuck them up.”

We ran towards the next set of ten blocks, ready for another day of slaughter. It only took minutes before we resumed our formation, me in front with the both of them at the back. Smoother than a knife slitting a throat, we went about our business. The blood and guts and bodies would've piled high behind us if not for my armor.

Fortunately, we didn't have to deal with the rot of corpses. Pretty much all the life in Springfield was already done for. The only things we bothered dealing with was the aftermath, and aftermath there was.

Scenes of bloodshed and horror, like cars rammed into half formed zombies, littered the areas. It almost made me thankful how few people made it past the tutorial. Otherwise we'd be fighting thousands and thousands more zombies than we already were.

The sun was a little past midday by the time we finished our quota of a ten block square. According to the legion, we had about forty of the little bite sized segments left. Not wanting to waste any more time, the three of us kept going after our quota. We figured why not. None of us were tired yet, so there wasn't really a reason to stop.

The steel legion struggled to keep up though. They thought we couldn't clear them so quickly at our level. In fact, they estimated our total clear time would be around two years instead of less than two months. Every bit of their supply chain struggled with trying to keep up, from moving the barrier machine to moving the camp. Torix was their savior in that regard.

He used several summons for helping move and carry various supplies. He ordered them, giving succinct, concise commands that made everything run smoother. Without his intervention, I doubt the legion could've maintained the feverish pace we kept up. Fortunately for us, they did.

It was in the afternoon when we neared a set of restuarants. At that point, I cut off oppression. We discovered early on that any place with food was swarming with the spawns. Oppression would aggro packs of them. Kessiah had to help out Althea last time since around thirty sprinted at her. She took some of the exp, which was the real reason we were murdering so many of these fucks. Kessiah wasn't going to gain levels from these lowly spawns anyways.

As we neared the first of the series of restaurants, there were already several dead spawns. The bodies were burned, leaving behind charred bones. The entire restaurant was like that. We passed by another two restaurants before there was the sound of clattering pans and gunfire.

Curious as cats, the three of us snuck together to investigate. There was a shitty chinese buffet, tables turned over in every direction. Every ornament was designed to look expensive, but was actually cheap as hell. All along the walls and floor was dried blood, just like everywhere else. There was new blood though. We found the source at the back of corner of the restaurant.

There was a group of survivors fighting back. Two guys were standing at the front with two girls behind them. Another girl was sitting behind an overturned table nearby.

The guys had crude shields made of stone barriers. They would slam them into the zombies, causing them to stumble away. While they fumbled, the girls would unload a clip into them over a second or two. The hidden girl would then dash in, slice the exposed insect core before retreating back to safety.

In all honesty, they weren't the cleanest looking group, but what they lacked in finesse, they made up for with practicality. They were nothing like us. Althea and I just crushed the zombies now, overwhelming them with raw power. We sacrificed safety for speed most of the time. These people chose to take their time.

The gunners were standing with their backs against a wall. The two guys out front both had extra shield rocks beside them incase one of theirs snapped. Each of them wore fitted clothing, almost tight. It made it so that the spawns couldn't grab them as easily. No heavy armor here, just plain, brown leather. Enough to stop teeth and nails, but not much else.

It let them kite backwards most of the time, but now they were stuck in a hole. They didn't have anyway of getting out, and there was about fifteen or so zombies running out of the back of the restaurant still. Althea shot a hole through one of the zombie's heads before I darted into through a window.

Glass clattered against the ground before I charged through several tables. Another spear shot past my head, stabbing through another fleshy abomination's core. Right before a pack of the zombies crashed into the shields guys, I tackled straight into the spawns.

Like a wrecking ball, I kept my arms wide as I slammed the monsters straight into the concrete wall. My momentum and the weight of the zombies combined caved it in. Before they could recover, I pulled my fist back and roared as I crushed a zombies spine with a heavy fist. I grabbed the cord of bone, wrenching it out with the ribs still attached.

I chomped into the core of the creature, killing it at that moment. One of the zombies pulled itself from the wall and dashed towards the shield guys. I tore the spine in my hands in half before stabbing the ribs into the running zombie.

The bones sliced into the monster, pinning it against the wall. I kept turning, my feet sliding on the floor. I let my hand swing around as I grabbed the skull of another chasing zombie. I pulled it off its feet as I spun, slamming the head of the creature right into the head of the pinned zombie. Brains and blood and bone exploded as the skulls crumbled in my hand.

With a quick thrust of my arm, I pierced the freshly slammed body, pulling out the insect core. I devoured it before a spray of bullets shot straight into my face. They didn't do much, so I ignored them as I turned back towards the horde.

Althea already killed two more zombies, though she was reloading now. I charged forward, ducking low. The first zombie to reach me was thin and tall, like a stretched out tube of meat. The petal bug had landed on its head. When it reached me, I shot my arm upwards.

My fingers wrapped around its head like metal claws. They dug into its skin as I pulled it up and off the ground. I pulled my other arm back, whipping my other arm forward. The slender man followed. I turned my torso, dragging the monster's head into the ground.

Like a balloon full of blood, the monster's skull popped against the ground as I crushed it. Another spawn came towards me. From my lunged position, I pressed my heels into the ground. My fist built momentum before I drilled an uppercut straight through the monster, pulling the core out of it.

A mist and rain of organs and blood rained down before I jerked my arm back. The body fell to the ground before I bit into the core. The zombies slowed down after that. It made me guess at just how sentient they were. I couldn't help but wonder if they could feel fear.

If I could, I'd make them. I charged forward with another hail of bullets unloading onto my back. I roared,

”Stop firing at me or else I'll kill you too, you dumb fucks.”

The clanking of two dropped guns landed on the ground. The last zombie came up towards me. The skull of a woman had split in half, teeth reaching out of each side of her opened head. Her legs had reformed into a four legged platform. Her arms were like whips.

They wrapped around me before pulling me towards her. When I was within her range, my armor grinned with a sinister crimson leaking from between the armor's teeth. As if sensing my lack of fear, the fleshy whips around me loosened, but the thing's fate was already sealed.

I chomped into it, tearing it apart as my armor absorbed the creature. The monster shook, struggling to shake me off. I held tightly to it as it struggled. It tried stabbing me, pulling itself off, even vomiting onto me. It couldn't get away as I consumed it from top to bottom. Blood squirted in every direction, making the floors slick with red.

The creature stopped its struggle before I lifted it outward. My armor shot needles into it, absorbing its remaining corpse. I walked back and forth between the bodies. I repeated the process on body parts and the larger pools of blood as well. By the time I finished, the building looked much like it had before.

Althea and Kessiah walked in behind me before the group of five looked at me. Their hands and legs shook. Their pale faces were gaunt, like they were suddenly sick. I glanced back and forth at them before noticing two faces I'd seen before.

It was insane seeing the both of them here. I suppose after we met and left in BloodHollow, they cleaned up their acts. I must have inspired them to go so far as to take advantage of the double exp from the area. I didn't really know.

I spread my arms,

”David, Stacy, it's good to see some familiar faces around here.”