Jane and Tarin, in desperation, continued attacking and attracted the Berserker's attention, thanks to which Miriam was able to approach and heal Adam before it was too late. Adam woke up, but he was so weak that the fight was over for him.
On the other hand, Jane and Tarin split up and continued attacking the Berserker from two flanks. When the zombie charged towards one of them, the latter concentrated on fleeing, while the other attacked. Space in the corridor was also scarce and not all the zombies had been eliminated, so Jane had to kill a Crawler that tried to approach. The Berserker took advantage of this moment to reach Tarin, who could no longer flee because to his right he had the fire and to his left an apartment full of zombies.
Exhausted and with no other options, Tarin ran with all his strength towards the stairs, but the Berserker caught up with him and rammed him from behind. The blow knocked him unconscious immediately, and if it wasn't for Jane attacking the Berserker again, sticking an arrow into his charred skin, the zombie would have killed him with a stomp.
The zombie charged towards Jane and Marlen. The latter noticed something important.
"He's faster and stronger than before! We have to kill him fast or we're all finished."
Adam, a little farther back, watched worriedly, but decided he had to take care of another important problem. The fire was starting to get out of control, so he moved in and used his weapon to absorb the flames.
Jane began to scream and cry as she fired arrow after arrow, but the Berserker kept advancing.
Marlen grabbed her axe and waited for the Berserker to approach. She remembered the moment when her axe had bounced off the zombie's thick skin. The [Warrior] Class didn't have powerful spells or weapons of destruction like a flamethrower, but one of its skills was called [Combat Instinct]. The skill not only gave Marlen incredible reflexes, but also allowed her to learn how to fight.
Marlen corrected her stance and prepared to attack. She entered a strange state where a moment seemed to last an eternity. She remembered the feel of his weapon as it struck the Berserker and watched, intently, the burns on the monster's skin. When all was ready, she attacked.
Marlen dodged a blow and put all his strength into her attack. The axe wedged deep into the upper thigh, right at the connection of the leg to the trunk. The scorched skin broke through and Marlen was surprised at how little resistance she had encountered.
The Berserker lost his entire leg and fell to the ground with a thud that shook everything around him. He awkwardly tried to get up, but before it could, Marlen was already on top of it.
Miriam, who was watching in the rear, ran up and grabbed Jane by the shoulders as she watched the scene petrified.
"We have to help Tarin," said Miriam.
Without another word, she pulled Jane behind her. They carefully walked past the fallen Berserker and approached Tarin. Some zombies came out of one of the apartments and approached the vulnerable mage. Luckily, none of them were a problem.
Marlen continued to attack the Berserker, but no matter what she tried, she could not repeat the attack she had made earlier. His blows could barely hurt it. Luckily, the zombie was pretty much done for. Without a leg, his blows barely had any force.
Marlen decided to end it all at once and began to strike at the Berserker's neck with her axe. Luckily, she soon managed to get a single axe through the skin and the zombie stopped moving. Marlen stopped to catch her breath and it was then that she heard a system message
[You have taught yourself a new skill:].
[Precise slash: you focus on a weak point of the enemy to perform an attack with double the maximum damage you can inflict].
Marlen smiled and turned to look at Miriam, who was tending to Tarin while Jane fought the rest of the zombies. When she realized that her sister was okay, she looked around with some excitement for the items the zombie had thrown. In addition to the blue crystal, the Berserker had thrown a fierce-looking hand axe. With a smile, she picked it up, feeling satisfied.
By that time, Jane finished killing the zombies and Adam finished putting out the fire. Everyone could breathe easy, but at that moment they became aware of gunshots and screams coming from the stairs.
"What the hell is going on?" Marlen asked.
A few minutes earlier, in Han's group on the seventh floor.
"Don't you think we're too close to one of the apartments we need to avoid?" asked one of the men, an archer who was still shaking as he remembered the fight against the zombies on the ninth floor.
"Don't worry," said Han, "With Noah's help, I don't think we'll have any problems."
At first, he was nervous about the fight, but the zombie Stalkers turned out to be much easier than expected. Han's Class was [Lawyer] and his form of combat was rather unorthodox. His skill [Weight of Law], allowed him to lay down simple laws under certain conditions that his enemies could not overcome without sufficient power.
Before entering the new apartment, Han used the strange white marker, which was his weapon, to mark a line in front of the door and establish a simple law.
"Zombies cannot overcome this line," he said. His voice, as he activated the ability, echoed throughout the hallway. Then he felt slightly faint.
"You can already lure the zombies."
But this time they were unlucky. Inside was a Gluton and it was the first time they had encountered this zombie. Noah and the others watched it carefully as the group's archer took down the Stalkers. Without warning, the Gluton spat out a glob of acid, which passed through Han's barrier with no trouble and landed on the archer's shoulder.
The latter began to scream, unable to contain his pain. Han turned pale at the scream and Noah moved quickly and knocked the archer unconscious with one blow. The Gluton spat acid again and this time everyone managed to dodge it. However, the archer's scream had disturbed one of the dangerous presences just two apartments away.
As everyone prepared to kill the Gluton, a horrible scream chilled their blood. Everyone's gaze shifted to the left, toward the apartment Carlos had warned them not to enter.
"Shit! Han, erect a barrier! Use all the power you can!"
Han obeyed Noah and drew a line down the hallway.
"The zombies and any of their attacks can't get past this line."
This time, Han concentrated on increasing the power of the law, so when he finished he felt completely exhausted. Just in time to watch as the apartment door flew off with a bang. From inside emerged a zombie with elongated limbs, skinny and long claw-like nails.
[Zombie Ambusher].
The zombie screamed once more and then ran towards them. Luckily, Han's barrier withstood the blow. The zombie fell to the ground and got up with amazing agility and started to touch the invisible barrier, a bit confused.
Noah raised his rifle and fired a burst at the zombie as he and his entire group retreated. To his horror, the Ambusher moved so fast that Noah lost sight of it for a few moments. The Ambusher had dodged the bullets. Before he could say anything to the others, the zombie climbed over the building's railing and jumped. His right hand grabbed the upper floor railing and he propelled himself around Han's barrier and landed in the hallway again, in front of the group.
"We're screwed," Noah said.
Without stopping to think about it, the guard turned and ran with all his might towards the stairs. The others were still processing what was happening, so it was too late when the Ambusher appeared in front of the archer Noah had knocked unconscious and with its long nails pierced his chest in a mortal wound. It then held the body and began to devour it.
It was then that the others reacted and ran without looking back. Han cursed his stupidity. He should have stayed away from the apartment, as Carlos had instructed him.
Carlos, on the fourth floor, heard the gunshots on the upper floors and had a bad feeling. His group had cleared several apartments, but they were having problems with the Brawlers and Crawlers.
"Something has happened with Han's group," said Carlos. We'd better retreat to the stairs.
They all followed him. But then, the noise of the fighting on the upper floors was suppressed by the commotion on the lower floors. The Berserker's angry shouts and the fire in the ravine alerted Carlos.
Noah, meanwhile, was descending the steps two at a time. At first, even though he didn't have much ammunition left, he was confident in his assault rifle, but seeing how the Ambusher had dodged the shots, he knew instantly that the zombie was capable of murdering them all.