After finding the note which was his only lead, Astrick decided to start heading north as he used his [sword eater] to cut any zombie that comes nearby.
After cutting through some zombies he realized that their strength seem to have increased by a lot making it hard for him to fight the same amount of them as before.
Due to the zombies strength jump Astrick's progress was slowed down a lot as he needed to make a lots of turns and stop many times after seeing a big crowd of zombies.
He was even able to see a couple of mutated zombies in a few of these crowds, which made him realize how dangerous things have gotten here while his back was covered in cold sweat.
As the only thing that matters here is your strength, not money and not looks, just pure strength.
He realized that he needs to get stronger quickly or else he might not make it in this world, and he can start by using the mana pill they were given.
But first he needed to find a safe place to stay in for three to four days..and there aren't that many places that go with that description after the apocalypse...
....
After a while of moving North while hoping to find somewhere safe to stay in so he can consume the mana pill, Astrick was able to find a big shopping center, looking at it with a thoughtful look on his face.
With a last glance at the center's surroundings Astrick moved his legs swiftly and in no time he was standing at the front doors of the center...
Entering the center slowly so he doesn't notify any zombies that might be inside, Astrick was able to see the floors full of dry blood but he was unable to see any zombie in the distance, which is very strange considering the size of the building and how crowded it must've been when the zombie outbreak happened
This made Astrick very suspicious as a frown appeared on his face as he raised his guard preparing for something bad to happen...
But even after walking in the center for more than ten minutes, he was unable to find anything, literally nothing, there was no food, clothes or anything that a person would usually find in a shopping center...
This made Astrick even more cautious raising his guard to a mind exhausting level as he kept trying to find whatever's responsible for the strange atmosphere in the center.
...
*Clatter
While Astrick was checking one of the food sections, he suddenly heard a sound of something falling followed by what he assumed to be a roar..
Astrick instantly started heading towards the site where the sounds came from... which many people would consider as a stupid move but in Astrick's head it was an opportunity for him to find other people and maybe if he was lucky enough those people could be strong enough to protect him until he fully consumes his mana pill.
But for that to happen he needs to be extremely lucky as not only those people need to be strong enough to protect him but also good enough for him to trust them.
Thinking of all the possible situations he might find himself in Astrick finally reached the location where the former mess was happening which was the pharmacy section.
He hid behind a shelf as he started peeking off the corner, in the distance of the pharmacy he was able to see three male swashbucklers, one of them looked like a middle aged man and had blue hair and used a black sword while the other two both looked like teenagers and both had black hair with one of them holding what looks like an Excalibur sword while the other had two axes.
There were also two women one of which looked in her twenties and had a hair that was as dark as the midnight sky while she held a compound bow while the other looked a bit younger and had purple hair with black eyes that made a perfect match with her beautiful face that made her look like a little Porcelain doll while she held a black katana.
The group of five seemed to be facing a lot of trouble as they were fighting a gigantic ugly looking zombie, it was ugly even for a zombie as it was a 400 pounds male which his body seemed to get a big buff after getting turned into a zombie as he also seems to have already mutated making his pure body strength so high that could be compared to a small truck.
But even though with its bigger shape and stronger body, the zombie was unable to break the Five's defense as they seemed to have a strong connection with each other as their teamwork was absolutely magnificent...
The man with the black sword charged the fat zombie while dodging the zombie's big hand that was heading towards him, then instantly swung his sword to cut the zombie's body but his sword was barely able to cut into the zombie's stomach as it didn't reach more than 2 inches deep.
The man instantly withdrew his sword and did a quick back handspring dodging the zombie's strong, angry punch as it landed on the ground where the man was just standing making a deep hole in it.
The blue haired man swallowed his saliva with a look of fear on his pale face as he thought to himself,
'This would've killed me ten times...'
But he didn't keep thinking about for long as his teammates started moving on to kill the zombie quickly..
He charged again from the front while the boy with the Excalibur sword and the girl with the katana attacked from both sides in complete sync making the zombie unable to decide who to kill first.
And this moment of hesitation was all they needed as they all landed their attacks directly on its flesh at the same time.
But the zombie didn't even flinch as it used the back of its hand to knock out the katana girl sending her flying across the section breaking some of her ribs as she coughed out some blood.
The boy seemed to get very angry seeing this as he charged again recklessly cutting through the zombie's flesh again and again and again.
Meanwhile the other female used her bow from behind trying to aim her arrow to hit the zombie's eye which it did after a few seconds when she finally let go of the string.
*Rooaar
The zombie put his both his big hands on his eye, although zombies usually don't feel pain in movies, those ones which have already been mutated seemed to get back a bit of pain nerves in their vital areas like eyes, ears,etc...
In this process the Zombie lowered its head making it more reachable which was the chance the boy with the axes was waiting for and immediately took that chance jumping on the zombie's back while using his axes to pierce through the zombie's head.
After a while the zombie finally fell down on its knees making the five lower their guard announcing the end of this hard, dangerous battle.
Or so they thought...
....
********