Noah descended to the fourth floor, where he crossed paths with Carlos.
"What happened? What have you done?" he asked.
"We attracted the attention of one of the zombies we were supposed to avoid. It is able to dodge even gunshots, so it will be difficult to kill it."
"Damn! You only had to do one thing and you screwed it up."
Carlos could only think about how hard it had been to fight the Brawlers and Crawlers. According to Tracel, the zombies they had to avoid were at the next level.
"Let's go down with Adam's group. They're the only ones who can kill those zombies," said Carlos.
Noah nodded, a little skeptical, but there seemed to be no other option. Just then, Han and the others came running down the stairs.
"He killed Lake and is devouring him!" shouted one in the group.
After running for his life, Han was completely exhausted.
"Hurry! Let's go down to the second floor," said Han.
On the second floor they saw only the destruction the Berserker had caused and the remains of the fire.
They made their way to the first floor, but at that moment the Ambusher, who had already devoured Lake, came down like a spider through the hole between the stairs and, in complete silence, jumped on one of Carlos' men.
The man was a level one warrior. The Ambusher went through his neck like it was nothing and his head flew off. Noah was the first to react and fired a burst.
But moments before Noah took aim and fired, the Ambusher noticed the movement and dodged before the shots left the chamber. The bullets only hit the wall.
Everyone in the group screamed and backed away from the corpse. By the time they prepared to attack their enemy, the Ambusher had disappeared without a trace.
Charles felt a chill and hesitated about all his plans.
"Let's go down, quick, before it attacks again!"
Terrified, they all ran to the first floor. What they found was not what they expected. Adam's group was exhausted and on its last legs. Tarin still hadn't woken up, Miriam and Marlen were exhausted and Adam could barely stand up. When the latter saw the terrified group, he knew they were in trouble.
"We're being chased by a super-fast zombie! You have to help us," Carlos shouted.
Before Adam could ask anything else, the Ambusher attacked again from the stairs. The victim was instantly decapitated.
"Quickly! Let's get into one of the apartments," shouted Adam, who was the first to react.
The group, driven by panic, tried to enter the nearest apartment. Luckily, the zombies living there had been eliminated by Jane.
Adam stayed behind and helped Miriam lift Tarin. Then, they slowly backed up to the apartment; never taking their eyes off the stairs. Jane, at his side, kept her bow taut with an arrow at the ready.
Marlen watched in the opposite direction. Her instincts screamed at her that the monster would not attack from the same spot again.
The Ambusher descended down the outside of the second floor railing, so when it hit the ground Marlen was the first to spot it.
Without hesitation, she suppressed the fear she felt and lunged at the monster, trying to hit it with all her might. But the zombie simply dodged and counterattacked with its nails.
Marlen was spared because her higher level and her Class had granted her superhuman reflexes. The nails, which were meant to pierce her neck, only tore the neck of her armor and drew a little blood.
At that moment, Adam reacted and turned around, ready to shoot. The zombie saw him and jumped aside very quickly. Adam didn't pull the trigger and just followed it with his eyes. Jane fired, but the Zombie dodged easily.
"Miriam, we'll try to give you a chance to paralyze it," said Adam.
Miriam nodded and moved behind Marlen. She had to suppress [holy light], with which she planned to cover her sister, as she realized that her wound was not serious and she had to prepare to use it on the monster.
The four watched the zombie attentively, without moving. They were all exhausted from the previous battle, so it was better to save their energy.
Carlos and Han's group was still panicking and trying to rush into the apartment, which was made worse when the ones behind them realized that the Ambusher had returned.
The zombie watched the second group and for an instant Adam swore he saw him smile. The Ambusher backed up a few steps and then jumped to the second floor, disappearing from everyone's view.
"He's going to attack from somewhere else, keep your eyes open!" Adam shouted.
He, Miriam, Marlen and Jane, surrounded Tarin and looked in all directions, however, they were not the target.
Han and Carlo's group managed to get into the apartment. Panic and nerves barely let them think clearly. The only one who still retained some calm was Noah, he had watched Adam's fight against the Ambusher from a small window overlooking the building's hallway.
He was surprised to observe how Marlen dodged the attack. He also realized right away that the Ambusher would attack his group when it disappeared from everyone's view.
Noah looked for all possible entrances to the apartment. He noticed that the windows had metal bars, which is why he dismissed them at first until he realized that the Ambusher was capable of decapitating someone with its sharp fingernails.
"Stay away from the windows!" he shouted.
Everybody near a window jumped in fright and then ran as if their lives depended on it. The next few minutes were the tensest in the lives of almost everyone present.
Adam and the others also waited in silence, their nerves on edge. Han tried, several times, to draw a circle and enclose himself in a barrier, but he no longer had the power to do so.
Then, the Ambusher returned to the scene. While climbing the outer walls of the building, he found one of the windows of the apartment where Carlo's group was hiding. He cut with his fingernails, one by one and in silence, the metal bars until he had the complete grille in his hands. After laying it carefully on the floor, he climbed back up the wall and opened the window.
Noah had three of the apartment's windows in view and luckily noticed that one of them opened slightly, so he immediately opened fire. The window shattered into pieces and the Ambusher howled in pain.
Noah smiled slightly, he had guessed right.
But the Ambusher was much more careful than the guard had expected. Only one shot had hit and went cleanly through the zombie's arm, which recoiled in frustration.
Inside the apartment, panic once again took control of everyone. A new wave towards the exit caused many injuries as people began to trip over chairs, furniture and anything else they could find. Han was about to run out along with Carlos and Alfred, however, Noah stopped them at the last moment and motioned for them to be quiet.
"I don't think the zombie will attack from the windows again. I think it will attack from outside this time; so this is the safest place," Noah whispered. Han and Carlos recovered from their panic and nodded without saying a word. Then Noah walked over to the window to observe the situation outside and Carlos, Han and Alfred joined him.
Outside, Adam and the others heard gunshots and were alerted. A group of people escaped from the apartment and scattered everywhere. Adam did not like the situation. These people came out of nowhere and had gotten them into another dangerous fight when they had barely finished another one.
"Stay still if you don't want to die!"
He tried to stop them, but no one would listen, they all panicked and scattered in all directions. So tragedy was inevitable.
The ambusher reappeared from the upper floor, decapitated another one in one attack and disappeared again on the upper floor. Those fleeing in the same direction backed away while screaming in terror.
The screaming attracted the other zombies on the first floor, who came out of the apartments and chased the closest ones.
In the midst of it all, Adam's group stood still. At first, he wanted to help his neighbors, but realized that the best strategy against the Ambusher was to wait out the attack and fight back.
The Ambusher continued to kill other survivors while Jane took it upon herself to kill any zombies that came close.
It wasn't long before the Ambusher decided to attack them again. The angle of attack this time was from the stairs, where Adam was watching intently.
The Ambusher fell through the hole and before Adam could react, it jumped in his direction.
"Watch out..."
He couldn't finish shouting as the zombie rushed past him at high speed, ignoring him. Marlen turned around and reacted instinctively by raising her arm.