The wizard turned in time to see a black blur approaching his position and froze.
Luckily, Marlen was also nearby and Jane's voice had alerted her in time. Her talent, [Affinity for Danger], alerted her to what was happening almost at the same time as Jane and she was already half a step away from Tarin.
Her talent was better than Jane's [Alertness] skill, as it allowed her to know, instinctively, whether the action she was attempting would lead to her death or whether she had a good chance of survival.
Because of this, she did not hesitate when she stepped in front of Tarin just in time to receive the attack for him. The Ambusher's claws cut through the armor and her entire body, as if they were cutting through butter.
The Ambusher tried to pull his arm out, but Marlen knew that if she let him escape, then they would have to face another ambush, so she held him with what strength she had left and smiled at him before she began to spit blood. Jane, gifted with enhanced reflexes, responded before everyone else. An arrow shot out towards the zombie's head, who dodged it by contorting his whole body to the left, while simultaneously trying to pull his arm out of Marlen's body. Noah also reacted, but only fired after Jane attacked. The shot hit the zombie's face and made it explode in a bloody spectacle.
Tarin and Miriam were transfixed. They were both watching the zombie's arm sticking out of Marlen's back as it fell dead to the ground.
"Miriam!"
Miriam reacted to Adam's scream and ran to her sister who had already fallen to the ground, on her knees. She tore, with some difficulty, the zombie's arm from its body, used [Holy Light] and forced Marlen to take a health potion and one of the few antidotes they possessed. She only felt relief when she found that her treatment had worked. The nails had damaged several vital areas, but not enough to result in a fatal wound. Especially considering that as they advanced in level, their bodies had become surprisingly resilient.
Marlen was half awake and smiled at Miriam.
"Stupid. Why do you risk yourself like that every time?"
"My talent, remember?"
Miriam nodded. She knew her sister's talent well, but she couldn't help but think what she was doing was stupid. Her sister knew she would be on the verge of death.
Jane approached Noah, eyeing his gun.
"My bow seems so useless compared to a gun."
Noah turned to look at her.
"Well, it's not as useless as you think, I've observed some of your shots and the speed of your arrows can be compared to a gunshot. Besides, I'm pretty sure that the System gives the same chance to all Classes, whatever they are."
Jane nodded, but still wasn't completely convinced. Noah watched her as she went to check on Marlen and then looked at her gun. He was amazed at the gun, as he could tell the difference between his shots and the shots from his rifle. The pistol was not as powerful as the rifle itself, but the bullets made the difference. The bullets provided by the System were much more powerful than normal bullets.
"How many antidotes do we have left?" Noah asked.
"I'm afraid that was the last one," said Miriam.
"No, I have one in my bag still and I think the ones in the superblock have some extras," said Adam.
"I hope Miguel has some extras," said Miriam before helping her sister up.
Adam nodded and then walked over to Marlen, but quickly realized they were in trouble. She was completely out cold, as this time the wound had been too close to being irreversible. Marlen was exhausted and starving. Unfortunately, Adam and his group had not brought any food, so they would have to order some from Miguel's group.
"Noah! You'll have to carry Marlen the rest of the way, so get in the middle of the group."
Noah nodded and carried Marlen on his back with Miriam's help. A few minutes later, Marlen fell sound asleep. Adam was not pleased to lose her before the fight, but they had no other options. For a moment he thought it would be better for the group to split up, to carry Marlen back to the building, but in the end he decided it was better for all of them to continue.
He looked ahead and realized that the survivors they were trying to rescue panicked and ran towards them, attracting the attention of many zombies. Adam watched what appeared to be a dark mage trying to maintain control, but it was useless with so many people running.
"Fast, I don't like this, we must stop these survivors somehow."
An idea occurred to Adam, so he stepped forward and raised the muzzle of the flamethrower.
He expended a full charge in a shot skyward, but the huge flame caught the attention of all the survivors and paralyzed them with fear for a second. Before they could react and turn to run in the other direction, Adam shouted.
"Stop running right now and approach slowly!"
There were still zombies between Miguel's group and Adam's group, but luckily the flare also attracted the attention of the zombies; who had earlier noticed the survivors.
Ivy breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down when she observed the group. However, the tranquility did not last long.
Leonard came running out of the parking lot, followed shortly after by Miguel. Adam and his group watched as Miguel leapt forward and fell to the ground, narrowly dodging a few white spears that stuck in the ground.
Miguel tried to get up quickly, but the Berserker appeared at that moment running towards him and preparing to kick him to the ground. Leonard, who had turned as he left the parking lot, kicked his ball. It hit the Berserker's stomach and knocked him back a few steps, causing him to stagger a little.
This gave Miguel time to get up and move out of the way.
"It's a Berserker, be careful!"
Adam's shout alerted Tarin, who was still watching the unconscious Marlen. He looked ahead and at the sight of the Berserker he felt like he was going to choke from panic.
Before he could run away, Miriam held him by one hand.
"Relax, this time it will be different. I think that zombie is already on its last legs, it shouldn't take long to die."
Tarin swallowed and looked at the Berserker again. It had regained its balance and, roaring angrily, headed in Leonard's direction. Miriam was right, the zombie was on its last legs and it looked like its tough skin had already been worn away.
"Tarin, I need you to support Miguel, use everything you have."
Tarin looked at Adam and nodded. Trying to calm his nerves, he walked over to Leonard, who was trying to get away from the Berserker quickly.
Miriam, meanwhile, had noticed the man carrying Zack and rushed over to heal the wounded man. Adam, for his part, remained where he was, waiting for the survivors to catch up with him to start the way back. Luckily, there weren't many zombies in the area anymore, so it shouldn't be too difficult.
Tarin caught up to Leonard and stopped to cast a spell. First he raised a wall of ice in front of him and then cast a blizzard.
The Berserker broke through the ice wall without much difficulty, but received the blizzard full on. The blood that covered his entire body froze, making it difficult for him to move and, more importantly, he lost sight of his targets within the spell.
Leonard looked at Tarin and nodded in satisfaction, both walked away from the area. Miguel joined them shortly after, but the old man was not looking in the direction of the Berserker.
Tarin followed the military man's gaze and at first saw nothing, but before he could ask, the Windwalkers appeared and threw their spears. A wall of ice managed to stop them in time, but the spell cost quite a bit of energy and Tarin knew it would run out long before the Windwalkers stopped firing.
"Keep it up boy, with those walls we won't have to worry about the spears. Leonard, we have to kill them before the boy runs out of steam."
Leonard kicked his ball again and managed to give it such an effect that the ball went around the wall and hit a Windwalker, killing it with the explosion. The soccer player was amazed, he had never had such an ability to handle the ball and now it was so easy for him that he had not even needed much time to learn how to kick in a slightly different way after losing an arm.
Miguel didn't hold still either and fired with his pistol as the wall of ice vanished as the spell ran out, killing another Windwalker. But his instincts told him they had better get away from the parking lot, and fast.