"On the ground, now!" Shouted the old soldier. Ivy jumped immediately, but it took Leonard a while to react. From the dark sky came a dozen white spears that crashed against the walls. One of them, unfortunately, hit Leonard in the arm, who fell to the ground and began to scream in pain.
Meanwhile, the Stalkers began to climb back up the stairs. Luckily, there were so many corpses on them that it became difficult for the now more agile zombies to climb up and reach their prey.
Miguel crawled over to where Leonard was and covered his mouth with one hand. The spear in his arm was gone, leaving a huge bleeding hole.
"Take a deep breath and let me take care of the bleeding, we don't have much time, so I need you to cooperate." Miguel said.
Leonard barely listened to Miguel, as the pain made it difficult for him to think clearly, however, he understood enough to nod.
Miguel ripped off part of his shirt to improvise a bandage and adjusted it to stop the bleeding. It had been years since he had practiced first aid, but he soon had no trouble remembering his training. Meanwhile, Ivy, still crouched on the floor and trembling with fear, watched the hallway through which the zombies must have appeared.
Before Miguel could fully take care of Leonard's wound, a white spear, thrown with incredible force, smashed through the wall protecting them and stuck into the wall of the back apartment before disappearing. Miguel cursed under his breath, it was that thing again and it looked like it had brought more zombies of its type. Miguel remembered with a shudder the term Breeder.
Miguel looked at Ivy for a second before making a suggestion.
"When you cast a spell change your position, we don't know if that thing can detect you."
Ivy, who had been staring at the gap left by the spear, was startled by Miguel's voice and nodded after listening to him.
Meanwhile, Leonard bit down harder, trying not to scream. Miguel cursed his idiocy and told Leonard to bite down on his leather glove.
The military man tried, again, to stop the bleeding and, although he had some success in the end, he also realized that Leonard would probably lose his arm, as the wound was too big and Miguel didn't even have a health potion to help him. The old man cursed himself for leaving them all stored in the apartment right behind him, where all the survivors were. Also, and to everyone's misfortune, none of the survivors had chosen the Healer Class and those who had were dead. Miguel had found two healer starter packs, but no one could learn the spell.
Leonard was pale from blood loss and Miguel knew he could no longer be of any help in combat. Leonard had never felt such horrible pain in his life. Strangely, his mind was clearer than he had expected.
"Leonard, listen to me. There are health potions in the apartment behind me. If you want to save your arm, you'll have to find them. I'll open the door and try to create a distraction to get you inside. You have to be quick, do you hear me?"
Leonard nodded, still chewing on his glove. Miguel's makeshift bandage hung from his wounded arm, all smeared with blood. Leonard could feel the tight tourniquet Miguel had placed on his upper arm using a shoe braid, not ideal material for it, but there was no other choice.
Miguel crawled over to Ivy and explained the plan. The girl nodded and mentally prepared for combat. The zombies on the floor below were already almost overcoming the barrier of corpses to reach the top floor. Meanwhile, from the outside, the winged zombie, along with a group, watched carefully what was happening.
Suddenly, one of the doors of one of the apartments burst open and the zombie responded immediately by raising his spear. But before he could throw it, a ball of darkness erupted from the hallway and exploded the next moment on the ceiling, interrupting his vision and that of the other Windwalkers.
However, the Breeder ignored this and hurled his spear toward the place where he remembered the apartment was. Following their leader, the others repeated the throw.
Leonard was about to enter when Miguel tackled him to the ground, only for moments later the entrance to the apartment to be covered in sharp spears, one of which pierced the floor and ended up on the floor below.
"Damn it, there's no way I can get in," Leonard said quietly. The pain and loss of blood had left him in such a weakened state that he could barely move properly.
"You don't think you can crawl in?" Ivy asked.
Leonard looked at the entrance to the apartment, the spears had been stuck in several spots all over the floor.
"Impossible, I think they can aim at me from where they are."
"I can try to block their view again."
"I don't think that will work," Miguel replied. "They weren't fooled the first time, I doubt it will work the second time."
Miguel tried to think of some other option. The three of them could backtrack down the hallway to the last apartment, whose entrance was behind a wall and hidden from view from the outside, but doing that would allow the zombies to reach the apartment where Miguel had moved the survivors; especially now that he had opened the door.
Luckily, Ivy's spell right now had not only served as a distraction, but the darkness had, for the most part, splattered the zombies on their way up, thus gaining a few precious extra seconds.
After thinking for a moment, Miguel realized that they really had no choice if they wanted to retreat safely. He looked at Leonard and whispered quietly.
"Crawl all the way to the apartment at the end of the hall, I don't think they can see you. We'll follow you," He then looked at the soccer ball Leonard had left in the hallway and asked, "Can anyone use it?"
Leonard looked at Miguel for a few seconds.
"Yes, but you only have one shot because it will come back to my position automatically, besides, without my skills, I doubt you can aim well."
"It's okay, I don't think it takes a lot of marksmanship to kill zombies."
Leonard nodded and started crawling toward the apartment.
Miguel and Ivy followed him without taking their eyes off the hallway. Eventually, they were able to enter the apartment without any problems.
"Ivy, I need you to listen to me for a moment. There's a room that has a big hole in the wall, go there and stop any zombies that try to get in."
Ivy nodded and took off to find the room. Meanwhile, Miguel grabbed Leonard's ball and prepared to try to get the most use out of it. The zombies soon appeared at the end of the hallway, at which point Miguel kicked the ball.
Better not to talk about his aim… However, the ball bounced off the wall of the corridor, hit the first zombie and let out an explosion that killed it and affected the other group approaching. When the ball disappeared, Miguel pulled out his gun and fired twice, killing two more enemies.
The weapon the system had given him was a pistol with an 11-round cartridge. Miguel had made tests and knew that the cartridge regenerated a bullet every minute, something incredible without any doubt, but that was not much use in a prolonged combat like the one that was about to begin.
Miguel did not lose his cool and began to kill the zombies systematically and slowly, only firing at the last moment, when the zombie was about to enter the apartment.
At first everything went smoothly, but soon the situation changed. Miguel heard the flapping before he saw it. A winged zombie landed on the hallway wall while holding a spear.
[Zombie Windwalker].
The zombie raised its spear to attack, but Miguel was faster. His shot penetrated the Windwalker's head and knocked him backwards.
A loud scream was heard from outside and Miguel had a bad feeling, so he shifted his position.
Seconds later, a thick white spear pierced the wall of the building and stabbed into his former position. Miguel wiped the sweat from his forehead and shot another zombie that was near the entrance of the apartment and then changed position again. He noted with relief that there were no longer so many Stalkers to kill, so the attack was already coming to an end.
Seconds later he heard Ivy's voice.
"There are too many of them!"
Miguel cursed and was about to go with her, but there were still some Stalkers in the corridor and without him there, the survivors would be left vulnerable.
Besides, the sound of a loud flapping sound didn't let him think much more. Three Windwalkers landed on the corridor wall and glared at him angrily.
Miguel shot one of them and took cover behind the wall of the door. The white spears hit one of the furniture in the apartment and shattered it.
He only had 4 bullets left, but the gun should load one very soon. He peeked out for a moment and, before hiding again, shot the Stalker closest to the apartment where the survivors were.