When she heard him suddenly curse, Lori became worried. By now, she knew he wouldn't easily lose composure if there wasn't some great danger.
Since she was running faster than she normally could because he was pulling her along, she couldn't afford to speak and ask what was wrong as it would strain her already strained breathing but she could move her head and look around to see what the problem was.
She didn't see anything in front, there was nothing on the right side too, but when she turned to look on the left, her face lost colour in fear because she saw many zombies come out of the half-constructed buildings and most of them were faster than the ordinary ones, which meant they were high levelled ones.
Fortunately, none of them was as fast as the level 8 they encountered a while ago and the roadblock was less than 100 meters away.
Swoosh!
Luke took a deep breath before pulling Lori in front of him and lifted her in princess carry and increased his speed.
With his 21 points of agility, it didn't take them long to reach the exit. Now they only needed to cross it, but the problem lies in crossing because a giant 10 feet high metal gate was blocking the exit and it was locked.
Of course, Luke could break open the lock with one slash of his sword, but that would leave the gate open for the zombie running after them.
He glanced back and saw the closest zombie was only twenty meters away and would reach them in less than five seconds.
"Lori, hold tight." Luke said, while shifting her to his back. Lori knew the situation. She tightly wrapped her hands around his shoulders and her legs around his waist.
Ignoring the softness pressing on his back, Luke immediately activated his skill [Berserk], raising his strength and agility by ten points.
Bang!
He firmly planted his feet on the ground and jumped toward the gate.
Whoosh!
His jumped propelled him over 7 feet high into the air.
Clang!
He grabbed the metal bars of the gate and climb to top of the gate before jumping to the other side.
Phew!
Luke took a breath of relief and deactivated his skill. It was active for only two seconds had exhausted another two points of his stamina. Now he only had 9 points left.
"You can come down now." He said to Lori, who was sticking to him like a koala, her eyes closed.
"Ah, yes." Hearing his voice, Lori opened her eyes and stepped down.
Bang! Clang!
Just then, the zombie which was right behind them heavily rammed against the gate.
Grawr!
It snarled at Luke and Lori, its hands sticking out from the gap between the metal bars, trying to grab them.
"Ah!" Lori cried out and took a few steps back, even though she was already out of the zombie's reach.
Luke grabbed his sword and,
Slash!
Chopped off both of its arms with one slash.
Grawr!
The zombie snarled, pushing itself against the gate.
After cutting its hands, Luke glanced at Lori. "You wanted to evolve, right? Come and kill it." Saying this, he held his sword toward her.
"Y-Yes." Lori took a few deep breaths and took the swords. Holding it with both of her hand, she took a few steps toward the gate.
She held the sword high in the air, aimed at the zombie's head between the metal bars, and swung with all her strength.
Clang!
However, the sword didn't land on the intended target, but on the metal bars.
"Ah!" The resultant vibrations of the collision made her cry out in pain, and she almost dropped the sword.
"Hurry and aim properly." Luke said from behind.
"Yes." Lori nodded. She then ignored the pain, lifted the sword high in the air, aimed at zombie's head and swung the sword down.
Clang!
Once again, she missed the target, and the sword flew out of her hands.
"I-I can do it this time." She anxiously said and hurriedly picked up the sword with her trembling hands. Luke could see the web between her forefinger and thumb of the right was torn and blood was flowing out.
Seeing this, Luke sighed.
He walked behind her, leaned against her back, put his hands above hers, and lifted the sword
When Lori felt him behind her, she trembled a little, but when she saw what he was doing, she felt grateful to him and clenched the sword tighter.
"Since your aim is bad, hold the sword between the bars before you slash down." He said, while putting the sword between the bars where the zombie's head was. He then let go and stepped back.
Lori took a deep breath and swung the sword down with all the strength she could muster.
Bang!
Unfortunately, her strength was too little, and the zombie wasn't a level 1, making its defence was a lot higher. So, she couldn't damage its skull at all.
Grawr!
Bang!
The zombie snarled and bit toward her, but it was useless since the thick metal gate was between them.
Just as she was about to lift the sword to strike again, Luke grabbed pulled her back.
Lori didn't have to ask him why he did so because in the next second,
Grawr!
Clang!
Bang!
The rest of the zombies arrived and started banging and pushing against the gate, their hands sticking out from the gaps.
"Most of them are high-level zombies. I'll let you try when we encounter normal ones, alright?" Luke said, taking the sword back.
"Okay." Lori nodded.
"Alright. Wait here for a moment." He said before walking toward the gate.
"Um, Luke, shouldn't we go to my home now?" Lori asked when she saw this.
Slash!
Luke slashed out with his sword and chopped off a pair of zombie hand before saying, "If I waste the opportunity to level up and don't kill them now when they are like helpless lambs to slaughter thanks to the gate's obstruction, I'll be extremely stupid."
When she heard this, Lori smiled bitterly and thought, 'Of course, he will give priority to becoming strong.'
However, his next words made her regret thinking like this.
"Furthermore, we need to cross this area when we come back since all other routes are more dangerous. But we won't be able to cross it safely If I leave them alive now." Luke added while continuing to chop off all the zombie's hands which were sticking out of the gate.
"I-I understand." Lori said. That was right. If all these high-level zombies were still here when they came back, they would most likely die.
After he was done, chopping off the hands, Luke looked at the zombies which were desperately pushing against the gate with shining eyes and thought, 'I wonder how much stronger will I get after killing them?'
However, just as he was about to kill the first zombie, the situation suddenly changed.