"Wait….that's a zombie isn't it? And they were just running right? What the fuck is happening?"
Nothing seemed to make sense in this bewildering scenario. Noah could distinctly make out a solitary zombie feasting on a body before him, but the circumstances surrounding it were baffling. How did this happen?
There could only be two reasons that Noah could think of. Either the zombie was a straggler from earlier, having lost its way after chasing people in this direction, or the zombie in front of him was capable of running. The latter thought actually made him more worried than animals being able to gain experience from eating.
"You all were supposed to give me easy farming…." He mumbled dejectedly. He had already planned on avoiding the harder enemies, gradually gaining levels killing zombies. However, if they were growing this fast, then what should he use to grind his levels?
Tap tap* Noah felt something hairy hitting his back. He turned around to notice his spider trying to comfort him.
'Don't worry, you said it yourself, I'm strong!' It seemed to be saying. Its beady eyes were beaming with pride.
Noah had almost forgotten that not only could he sense the others' emotions, but it also goes both ways. It left him wondering if that was where Arachne had learned her attempt to comfort him. Regardless, it helped to lighten the mood.
"Haha that's right, I don't doubt you at all, but I also need to fight. You can't become strong and still have a weakling for a master, right? Let me go check it out. The more information we have, the better. You can attack if you feel that anything is wrong."
His words made sense to Arachne; she wouldn't want to follow along with someone that she felt was weaker than her. It was just that Noah had already proven to her that he was superior during their battle of the souls, so she already concluded that he was stronger.
Noah didn't attempt to hide his presence; he openly walked to the zombie feeding. Along the way, he took note of his surroundings. A little bit behind him stood a statue of the school's founder, and other than that, there was just a single tree standing a short distance behind the zombie, with neatly trimmed bushes lined up behind it.
With enough vision to feel assured that he would spot any potential interference, Noah continued to walk towards the zombie. As he approached, he tapped the tip of his axe against the ground with each step. Apparently, that was enough to garner its attention. It became apparent that the zombie's first priority was to eat anything alive before completely satisfying its hunger.
Its growl was much more lively than the ones Noah spent killing from before. And during the mix of its growls, it ran straight towards him without any hesitation. The situation should be worth being serious about, but Noah was having a hard time taking the zombie seriously when it was charging towards him with its arms stretched out throughout the entire process. He wondered whether all zombies would run this way in the future. Although he had initially entertained the thought, his attitude quickly shifted as the reality of the situation set in.
'Tsk! It seems this won't be as easy as it looks; the damn thing is faster than me!' Even though Noah hasn't invested much of any of his stats into his agility, he was still at least faster than the average human. So witnessing the zombie, which was clearly faster than himself, also made him wonder, it was possible that its other stats had been similarly enhanced.
Thud!*
Choosing to play it more defensively, the zombie slammed right into his axe that Noah held out horizontally in front of him. The collision that followed was far more forceful than Noah had anticipated.
'Fuck! Its strength is ridiculous too.' Noah cursed, the impact reverberated through his arms as he struggled to maintain his stance.
The zombie's arms were already outstretched, so upon colliding with the axe, it mindlessly gripped the bar and extended its neck forward, aiming to take a chunk out of Noah's flesh.
Despite being outmuscled, Noah's body was fully alert, ready to respond to the sudden change in the zombie's attack. Unable to push away the stronger undead creature and unwilling to relinquish his weapon, he leaned his upper body backward, while still struggling to hold the zombie back.
It continued to snap its jaws savagely toward his face, but then it did something else that Noah wasn't expecting. Spontaneously, it twisted, latching onto Noah's forearm with its teeth. The sudden pain elicited a loud groan from Noah, who instinctively responded by kicking the zombie in its stomach before it could tear into his flesh further.
The blow was enough to relieve Noah of the pressure for just a moment. However, the zombie quickly recovered from its fall, seemingly unfazed by the pain inflicted by Noah's attack. Mentally preparing himself for a life-and-death battle, Noah braced for the next wave of attacks. Yet, to his surprise, he noticed the zombie repeating the same attack as before, rushing towards him in a Frankenstein-like manner.
'Fucker… I can't tell if this thing is smart or just extremely stupid, maybe I was being cautious for nothing.'
Despite his frustration, he repositioned himself once more, holding the axe defensively in front of him as he waited to see if the zombie had learned from their previous encounter. Noah was aware that he had somewhat of an immunity to zombies. With that in mind, he decided to take advantage of the fact that this new zombie was alone. He intended to observe any additional changes that may have occurred besides its newfound ability to run.
Having witnessed enough, he felt that he didn't need to see any more. He learned that the zombie was faster and stronger than most humans as of now. However, if it remained a mindless zombie, then it still served as useful for experience grinding, at least when not in groups.
"Grrrrrrrrr" "Grrwwwl" "Grraaaa"
Thud!
Unaware of the multiple sounds of growling that sounded around just before the second clash with the zombie, Noah and the undead creature confronted each other once more. As they collided again, Noah timed the impact and stepped back, reducing the force of the blow. Just before the zombie could attempt its crazed bites again, he delivered a stronger kick, causing the zombie to stumble to the ground. This time, Noah didn't allow the zombie to get back up.
"Ugh!" He grunted while he hacked the axe into the zombie's skull, swiftly killing it. A sense of relief filled him as he watched his experience collapse to the ground.
"Ok, so they shouldn't be that difficult then. I don't think I need any more strength, but I do need to increase my agility…or I can just make myself more tanky and maybe their teeth won't be able to breach my skin…"
Noah mused amongst his options while he waited, but he noticed that the chest had yet to appear.
"Wha? Where's the chest? Where the hell is m...fuck me…."
As he was looking around, Noah finally heard the sounds of growling in the distance. Among the growls, he could also hear the sound of multiple "people" running in his direction. It didn't take a genius to realize that more running zombies, like the one he had just encountered, were approaching. He reasoned that they were likely the ones who had been pursuing the group earlier. Perhaps they had caught someone else from the group and were too occupied eating to give chance, while the zombie he had just fought chased down the remaining survivors.
Aware that the upcoming fight would be challenging, Noah prepared himself to utilize his killing instincts skill if necessary. That's when he glanced back at Arachne, he thought of a way to make the fight just a little bit easier. Only if it worked out the way he thought it would.
"Arachne! Attach your web to 'that' and stand over there! And don't move!" Noah commanded. The bushes still had slight gaps in between them, by now he could easily see three zombies rushing towards them from that direction.
Quickly, Noah ran to the other side of the statue and threw down his backpack to lighten his burden. Although the situation wasn't making immediate sense to Arachne, she still obediently shot out her web to the statue. Normally she would use her webs to make a nest or to jump, which in this case she was doing neither, hence the confusion.
"Ok move a little bit further! Ok stop, once I attack then you can help me out and of course I'll let you eat them!" Noah directed Arachne, motioning her until her webs were hovering over the ground just below knee height, ensuring there was no chance for the zombies to step over them.
Noah wasn't certain how strong Arachne's webs were, but he hoped they would at least be sturdy enough to trip up the approaching zombies. Though he was unsure, he was willing to try. With that said, the mention of food caused Arachne to become fully attentive to the situation, ready to take her job seriously.
The zombies by now had already cleared the bushes and were passing the eaten body. Sadly, because of the bushes, the zombies weren't running adjacent to one another. If the web doesn't hold, Noah needed to be prepared. At least two of the zombies in the lead were running side by side, leaving him with one that could potentially still attack.
The zombie's covered the distance in seconds and finally came upon the webbing. To Noah's surprise, the webbing worked better than expected. Both zombies got entangled in the webs and fell over, but what astonished Noah even more was that the web didn't break apart—it held them firmly in place! This far surpassed Noah's intentions, but he couldn't let his guard down. He needed to quickly take out one of the immobilized enemies before the last one joined the fight.
Noah quickly noticed that the webs were no longer suspended, indicating that Arachne either chose not to support them anymore or couldn't withstand the force created from the zombies' momentum.
Once the zombies fell, Noah quickly struck at the closest one with his axe. Thankfully he didn't need to worry about hitting the dead center of its head to kill it. Although it was more challenging to do so while it was struggling, he still managed to pierce the side of its skull, reaching its brains and finishing it off.
He wasn't given time to pull out his axe before the last zombie was upon him, forcing him to let go of his weapon. He didn't plan on confronting it immediately, so when he dropped his weapon, he circled around the zombie that had become further entangled on the ground in Arachne's web.
As Noah circled around the entangled zombie, the approaching zombie didn't plan on making a detour around its fellow undead and mindlessly attempted to run over it. Apparently, even though they could run now, their motor skills were still worse than subpar. The zombie easily tripped over the struggling zombie. While Noah wasn't planning for this to happen , he seized the opportunity without hesitation. instinctively, he launched forward to attack, momentarily forgetting just how tunneled-vision a mindless zombie could be.
Even as it fell, the zombie didn't feel fear or confusion; its sights were still set on Noah. Despite its descent, it didn't stop in its attempts to reach for him, succeeding in grabbing his leg mid-fall. The strength of the zombie's grip, combined with Noah's unbalanced posture, caused him to fall along with it.
"Oh no you don't!"
Whack!* Whack!*
"Arachne? Where the hell are you?"
As Noah felt his body being pulled, he rained down kicks onto the zombie's face. Despite his repeated kicks, the undead creature refused to let go of his leg, but Noah at least bought himself some time. However, he was beginning to worry, the zombie that was struggling to lift itself off the ground no longer cared to do so. He could see the zombie turning itself towards him while still on the ground. Its threat level was now enough to put him in danger.
But resembling a superhero, Arachne came in just in time to provide support. Unaware of the difference between a human and a zombie, she performed the same action on the two-legged creatures as she did on the rest. She sank her fangs into them to not only paralyze them, but to also prep them to feed on.
The poison wasn't as fast acting to the zombies as it was to the humans before. However, the slight paralysis it induced was enough to allow Noah to quickly scurry away from the zombies' vice-like grip before the remaining zombie could reach him. It seemed that Arachne had forgotten about the last zombie, she was slightly surprised when she saw the it moving under the meal it just injected its venom into.
Stab!*
Arachne penetrated the sharp ends of two of her legs into the zombie's body, attempting to hold it in place while injecting more of her venom into the previous zombie. Noah used this opportunity to retrieve his axe to finish off the last one before his body released all of its tension as he flopped onto the ground.
"Ok….that was harder than I thought! Maybe if I used my skill then it would've been different, but everytime I use it I always end up in some weird predicament…" Noah reflected, thinking back to the first time he used his killing instinct skill, when he was bitten in the shoulder, and then the time after that when he was literally being squished in Derrick's palms. He was forced to realize that the ability had a glaring con.
He had always known that being by himself would allow more freedom and experience, but it also came with its own dangers. After this fight he felt it even more, an unhealthy desire to grow stronger so he didn't have to rely on anyone but his own strength, including the strength of his monster companions. As he mulled over these thoughts, his attention was interrupted by an unsettling feeling.
"A notification? But I'm sure both of us aren't even close to leveling up. What could it be now?"
[User has been contaminated by a corrupted substance. Genes have been detected to already exist within the host, trait 'zombie' is now being modified.]