Lily has always been a good girl, she had always listened to her parents and they loved her very much, except the time when those mean men had held them as slaves it was so horrifying that she still had nightmares but her parents chased them away.
But, now she was in corundum, her new friends had wanted to climb down and explore the area under a trap door that they had stumbled upon, she was vehemently against it but the threat of never letting her play with them tore apart any resistance as such she along with four others climbed down the trap door.
It had been some time since their departure had been noticed and it was a long time before others stumbled upon the hidden trap door, a quick search through the unknown territory quickly led them outside the base where another trap door later they encountered small footprints on the mud.
Cai Bai who was leading the search let loose a string of curses in his native tongue, curses that would have effectively made him a shoo-in for the 'Worst Mouth of the Year Award' before they all left as fast as they could to search for their missing children.
Ryan wiped the bead of sweat off his temple as he put the last of the herbs inside his bag, with a groan he stood up as he looked towards Dasyra'a direction as he spoke, "So have we managed to fulfil our quota?"
Dasyra nodded as she replied, "Yes Your Holiness, for the time being, we have finished gathering everything we need."
Ryan simply gave a small nod as he looked towards the direction of the base before letting out a jaw ripping as he spoke tiredly, "Well since we have finished I think I would go back and take a nap."
"As you wish Your Holiness, though if I may be rude and ask you something?"
Ryan looked at her before he spoke with a shrug, "You may."
"Why have you accompanied me?"
Ryan blushed at her question as he spoke with an embarrassed look on his face, "The people were always asking me to make this and that not to mention some of them were complaining too much about various things I needed a breather."
"I see then shall we make our way to the base Your Holiness."
Ryan nodded towards her as the duo began to make their way towards their base silently and soon they could see the large concrete walls surrounding the base with Elven archers manning the walls keeping a vigilant eye on the surrounding when suddenly picked up a horn and bellowed it out loud as every archer froze before they dashed towards the source of the sound.
Ryan tilted his head slightly as he spoke, "Dasyra what does the blowing of the horn mean?"
As he looked towards her he was taken aback at the hardening of her eyes as she replied to him in an urgent tone, "Your Holiness we have to move a beast tide has been spotted."
Ryan's eyes had widened considerably as he began to move towards the base entrance as fast as he could, more like Dasyra ran as fast as she could while Ryan simply jogged by her side.
���For the first time I am glad of my stats.', a thought formed in his mind for a hundredth time, only for him to freeze at the sight of the horde.
For the horde had humans who were desperately trying to outrun it, humans who were carrying children and the horde was gaining on them, the Elven archers were doing a rather fantastic job of killing the creatures but he knew that it would be not enough as a single swipe would kill them and they still had quite a few distances to cover, 'Me and my bleeding heart.'
"Dasyra make post haste towards the gate make sure that you help them enter while I stall the horde, as soon as they enter no matter what close the gates."
"But…"
"GO!!", Ryan shouted back towards her as he stopped her from protesting before he dashed towards the horde at full speed, while he whispered lowly, "Circle Activate."
Cai Bai's face was drained of all blood as he ran as fast as he could, his muscles groaned and burned yet he pushed forward with the child in his arms, he could have dropped the whimpering and scared child and then he would have run even faster but what descend human would leave behind a child to save themselves, no one.
Ryan took out his gun and aimed only to grimace, 'Damn it they are in the way of my shot.', his gun vanished as he dashed forward like an arrow released from the bow towards the incoming horde.
Ylerias was taking a nap when all of a sudden the sound of horn jolt her awake, 'Why are they making so much ruckus? I simply want to sleep.', it took a few seconds before her thoughts were cleared as she jumped up from her bed, 'That pattern of the horn means we are under attack, ATTACK!', she screamed mentally before rushing out of her room almost tearing the door off the hinges.
Jessica was playing a game of cards along with her comrades and one Maralyn, who was quite intrigued with the new game but as the sound came she jumped up as she shouted towards them, "Hurry we are under .", with that she dashed off.
Michalina simply shared a brief look with Jessica before they followed after her hot on her heels while a small look of panic passed her face, 'Ryan was outside, did he come back, don't tell me he got caught in something bad.'
A small rock tripped Cai Bai who fell hard on the ground as Lily was flung further away, he heard a snarl only to look back to see a horrid looking red-eyed zombie with drool leaking from its scarred mouth just a few inches from him, time seemed to slow down for him his entire life flashed before his eyes, 'Am I going to die here? Without returning to my country, my family, my kids, the love of my life just like this.'
His thoughts were interrupted when a gust of wind followed by a loud crack was all he heard before a voice came to his ears, "Get up and run I will buy time and now move!"
Ryan grimaced as he saw Cai Bai stumble and fall, and along with him the child he was carrying in his arms, he saw the Tier 4 Zombie was already upon him, but he was faster with his entire might he kicked the zombie hard, so hard that it flew back towards the horde and like a bowling pin knocked down quite a few, as he shouted to Cai Bai to run.
His gun once again appeared in his hand as he squeezed the trigger hard releasing a torrential downpour of the bullets on the horde, the very same horde that had given up on chasing the fleeing group and focused completely on Ryan.
Ylerias looked at the fight that was raging on as her jaw clenched, a bow without string appeared in her hand, she took aim and as she pulled the air three ethereal silver-white arrows along with string appeared before she let loose, Michalina looked at awe at not only her weapon but at her speed of firing the arrows.
"Stop gawking at me, your brother needs you more."
Michalina was brought back to her senses only to be horrified upon seeing the entire horde concentrated on her brother who was fighting while carrying the rifle of his in his left hand and sword in his right.
Ryan ducked before bisecting a lunging zombie at him which exploded with a bang making Michalina cry out in fear, "Ryan!!"
"Shut up Michalina and keep firing, Ryan is alright that his circle at work."
And indeed she was right as Ryan stood without even a scratch whereas the rest of the zombies that were nearby were lit aflame from the blast as an agonizing unearthly scream ripped from their throat making Ylerias smirk as she spoke, "My my that is a rather nice circle."
Ryan was in a frenzy he had all he saw was snarling drooling face, all he heard was only snarl, all he could smell of rancid decayed flesh and it was overwhelming to the point he wanted to hurl, 'Damn it, I miss my gear, ugh they smell so bad but still, my circle power is cool, and it would be cooler if the smell of burning bodies would not be surrounding me.'
Ryan looked from the corner of his eyes the last of the person had already entered through the door as such he did not waste any moment as he made a mad dash towards the entrance which was being guarded by Dasyra, he ran as fast as he could to the point that his legs were beginning to burn but he did not care.
Dasyra looked at the Ryan who was making quick work of the undead creatures, but he was being slowly overwhelmed, even if he was being helped by others from the fort walls, they had to be careful not to accidentally injure him and as such, they were limited in the options especially when the creatures only died if their brain was destroyed, she looked at the fight as she bit her lips she desperately wanted to help but she knew that the current her would be a burden to him, as such with the bated breath she waited, waited for the last of the humans to enter into the safety of their base, when she watched Ryan break into a run, running way to fast before jumping inside the safety while she slammed the door shut as other quickly helped her to bolt it.
"Open fire will kill them."
Ylerias's voice thundered around base followed by flashes of magic while Dasyra helped Ryan to stand up before the duo ran up to the top of the wall.
Michalina suddenly felt a feeling of warmth pass through her body, it felt like the warm rays of the sun after a rather cold night, and then it happened one of her bullets caused the creature to blowup and ignite the rest near it.
"What are doing sis don't stop firing?"
"But I…."
"But nothing that was because of the effect of my circle though you are extremely lucky to trigger something with just a couple of shots, for now, focus after all we have a horde to deci…"
Ryan stooped speaking as he deadpanned upon seeing the sight in front of him, between his run and his climb up to the top of the wall the Elven archers along with Ylerias had decimated the horde, and it seemed as if they were waiting for him to get a bit away from the horde for them to work their magic.
Ryan could only pout while Ylerias send smirk towards him as she spoke, "I hope you had a nice brawl out there."
Ryan's face scrunched up as he spoke, "What was nice about that? I am now covered head to toe with putrid flesh and blood and I stink."
"Cai Bai, thank you thank you for saving our Lilly."
Cai Bai simply waved his hand off as he spoke, "There is no need to thank me, I only did what any decent human should.", he then looked towards Ryan as he spoke with a smile, "If you wish to thank someone than thank the young man who saved our lives."
Cai Bai did not understand but when Ryan had told him to run he just did that a part of him was ashamed on leaving him behind to face those horrifying creature but, the confidence in his voice made, he knew in his heart that Ryan would prevail."
"As expected from an Apostle, always helping and caring for others even at the cost of their life, His Holiness is truly praiseworthy."
They all turned towards the speaker and saw an Elf who had arrived a day before looking at Ryan reverently and as such Cai Bai could not help but ask out loud, "What are you talking about? Why are you calling Ryan as 'His Holiness' and also what is an apostle?"
The moment he asked the question Cai Bai suddenly felt as if he had asked a rather stupid question seeing the look on the Elf's face which quickly turned to anger as the Elf spoke with disbelief, "What are asking about? Are you people Godless Heretics? Do you not have GODs? What kind of cursed land is this?"