As the two went towards the direction of the light in the distance, Claire moved forward to inspect the area ahead of them. The duo had changed unknown to them from jogging at a light pace to running. At this point, Cree didn't even know what she meant by not been allowed to affect the selection process in any way. She had clearly done her fair share of law breaking while he was with her.
Passing through the plane void of life, Cree proceeded to tell everything he knew about what was going on to Maverick. Though while doing this he made sure to leave out the details of Claire and his abnormal skill, blood mutation.
"What are you for reals!? A selection process for a god is what is going on? But we never signed in for that. How do you even know this!?"
"I did my research", Cree said with a serious expression.
"By the way I am sorry about your.... your friend."
Cree felt something hook in his throat for a second as he said this, however he quickly recovered from it. He didn't want to have this conversation with anybody at the moment as he had not really accepted his friend's death. The normal thing to do in such a situation was usually to bring something up. That was exactly what he did.
"So why exactly were you moving around the place?"
"During the monster attack, I was separated from my sister, Harley. I was never really a good brother to her but the least I can do to make up for it is to find and keep her safe", Maverick explained feeling heavy all over.
Cree felt for him as he kinda understood the whole brother and sister dynamic. Being a good brother was never an easy thing. Even though he didn't know the details, he kinda understood what he felt inside.
Just then Claire fazed out of the ground looking at him with an expression that meant nothing but trouble.
"We have a problem. There are five Abstracts ahead, four of them are in level 4 and their leader is at level 8. That is a terrible combination for both of you. I advice you to circle around, however it will take a longer time to get to the Rift cube."
Cree was quiet for awhile as he thought about it. Eventually he asked Claire a question that made her tummy tickle.
"The path ahead, is it the shortest way there?"
Claire gave a nod before growing a smile on her face. Cree continued towards their original direction before eventually coming across the monsters the Calamity being had warned about.
Taking cover behind a large rock, Cree and Maverick observed the creatures.
"Wait aren't those zombies!?", Maverick had a look of awe on his face.
"Zombies!? That fool...Those aren't zombies at all!", Claire said ultimately catching Cree's attention.
Cree looked at the monstrosities once again before looking at Claire with a expression that screamed he was confused.
"They are bacterial surging undead. Corpses that are being used by a form of intelligent bacteria. If you look at them carefully you would notice some kind of oozy substance running through their body. That would be the bacteria", Claire pointed at the level 4 creatures.
On the third look he noticed what Claire was talking to him about. It seemed she was right after all.
"Though you have to be careful, a scratch or bite from them is bad news. You don't want to turn into one of them after all", A cocky grin appeared on her face.
'They are zombies after all..', Cree thought while he slapped his head.
Cree's eyes in an instant moved to the huge being behind them. Unlike it's underlings, it had no form of rotten flesh on it. To be honest it seemed more like a skeleton in armor than a zombie. The aura that he felt from it was a clear indication that it was a threat to them.
Cree couldn't help but feel that this was a plan made up by Claire for her own entertainment as he was pretty damn sure she could have done something to avoid a confrontation like this.
Noticing that he had been quiet for too long, Maverick decided to share his thoughts on what they should do.
"Cree I think you should fight the armored one while I face the other four.."
"What..!? Are you insane!?"
"Wait hear me out. You don't have a long range weapon like I do so it would be a bad idea to fight those zombies, heck we don't even know if they are slow like in the movies. I am pretty sure that if you got injured by the big one over there you wouldn't be infected because of it's armor, plus I am pretty sure you are higher than me in level, you would stand a better chance against it", Maverick explained.
"Hmm, seems this fool is smarter than I gave him credit for", Claire grinned while holding her waist in a childish manner.
While he didn't feel good about the way things were going, Maverick was kinda right. Fighting against something like those hand to hand especially when he knew little about them was a bad idea.
'Claire, what is his current level?'
"He is currently at level 3. You are at a higher level than him."
Cree made an audible sigh before smiling at Maverick to ease the tension.
"Just make sure you don't die you dummy, or I will haunt you."
"I don't think that is even possible but You got it!"
Maverick ran out of the covering relieving himself to the monsters in front of him. A great wave of pressure hit him as the level 8 monster stared him down, however he didn't falter one bit.
"Over here you ugly looking asses! Let's go!", Maverick took a solid stance.
Behind the large rock, Cree took off his gloves as he got ready for the enemy. One thing was certain at the moment and that was the fact that this was not going to be easy.