"Jo! You are too far ahead! Stay in the range of overwatch!"
Bella's authoritative voice echoed in the air. After combining our groups, we were now headed again for the platform. The problem was, as Bella predicted, the undead had increased. And they too were heading to the same destination.
We were fighting our way ahead, making gradual progress.
I gripped the 1911 with both hands. I shot round after round into the Normies approaching Josephine. With {Listen}, {Perceive}, and {Aim}, my accuracy went several notches up.
Originally, I used to close the distance because I didn't want to miss. But right now? I could win competitive shooting in the Olympics, no problem. It feels unreal.
"Three Chuckies, seven Normies, and one Bigfoot are coming at three o'clock!" Jasmine announced.
"I hear five Normies coming from nine o'clock," I added.
We adapted our tactics to large swarms of zombies. Instead of charging forward, Jo now only pulled zombies in and then drew them back to us. Jas and I would take them down, while Bella would kill the ones that got too close or approached us from behind.
"Leave the nine o'clock group to me. Focus fire on the three o'clock group and help me afterwards, Honey," Bella instructed.
Because she had more leeway, Bella now served as our tactician and directed who killed what. Energized from resting, the two new recruits fought on another level. Their titles as Descendants were not for show.
Jasmine's firing rate and accuracy were frightening. I once read that an English longbowman could shoot 12 arrows in a minute. Our archer was even faster at 18 per 60 seconds, or three seconds per arrow!
Her shots hit the center of the zombies' foreheads. With almost unbelievable accuracy, she could clear a group by herself.
Another fortunate miscalculation happened when I taught Jasmine {Reload}. It allowed her to fire without minding her remaining arrows. She could even dispatch zombies faster than I could with my gun. I began to wonder if this woman even aimed.
There were eleven targets in the 3 o'clock group. With Jasmine and me sniping them nonstop, it ended in under a minute. Funny. If it were me, I would be struggling with an 11-man zombie group. With Bella, we still needed to take care not to get overwhelmed. Now? This is a cakewalk.
"Two dozen Normies! Kya! Save me, John!" Jo shouted with humor as she ran towards us, a large group of undead trailing behind her. If they couldn't catch my fat ass, no way in hell could they catch the ravishing European.
When our blonde rapier-user got within 50 yards, she turned around and took position. With Jo as the vanguard, hardly any enemy got too close. She combined orthodox fencing with savage moves specialized for murder. I didn't think competitive fencing severed tendons in the hands and feet.
Agility-wise, her speed surpassed even Bella by several times. Unlike my partner, who fought like a brawler, Josephine fought with the grace of a swallow. By engaging in our range, I shot all the zombies that were two feet away from Jo's left while Jasmine did her right side.
Like a child, Jo started laughing. Then, at some point, she began kicking the zombies toward our kill zones. She would clap and cheer as the zombies got terminated one after another. Perhaps relieved of the stress on her shoulders, the fair-skinned Italian smiled. It was a dazzling, happy smile.
'Beautiful,' I couldn't help but think.
"Honey, a little help? If you aren't too busy cheating on me."
Finally, Bella served as the formation's rearguard. Because she only served as our last line of defense so that she could conserve her stamina. If a large group arrived from another direction, Jasmine and I would pivot to that side. Jo and Bella would then reposition accordingly.
{Listen} allowed Jo to always focus her hearing on us. This meant she would always move in sync despite the distance.
This formation allowed us to avoid pulling more than we could handle. Like clockwork, we took down wave after wave of wandering zombies without issue.
Being Descendants, Jo and Jas helped Bella. Their upbringing was evident in how they shared amazing tactics earlier. I tried to help, but most of what I knew only came from games and was superficial at best. So, I let them be and focused on killing as much as I could.
We traveled in a straight line toward the platform. With ruthless efficiency, we annihilated the zombies in our kill radius. We worked near each other. So, we got souls from both our kills and from those killed around us.
Even Isabella, our tactician, who took down the fewest, still earned a good amount.
"Formation, stop. Jo, return. We move again after a rest of ten minutes," commanded the Brazilian bombshell.
We approached from a less crowded side of the platform. Visibility had been improving a lot as the Reapers set more corpses on fire. As the zombies came in batches, we made sure to move when there were the fewest undead around.
Our plan was to join the army before the next wave arrived. To ensure the safety of the girls, the three of them all chose to have {Rewind} at the ready.
"Damn, you are all so amazing. I feel like dead weight," I complained.
Bella, the tactician and all-rounder; Jas, our rapid-fire sniper; Jo, an untouchable vanguard.
"What are you talking about? {Identify} is an unimaginable comfort. We don't have to worry about buried Chuckies while we move. Don't get disheartened, Honey!"
"I agree. If not for {Reload}, I would not be able to fight like this," added Jasmine.
"YEP! And you gave us {Rewind}! You are the core of this group, Your Majesty!"
After the girls had spoken, I saw a green reticule appear a few steps away from Jo. In the same breath, I raised the 1911 and fired. The ground ruptured. Out came a Chucky. But a bullet slammed into its temple before it could even finish standing up.
Jo smiled as she blew a kiss toward me. "Wow! Thank you, Darling!"
'Darling? What Darling?'
Anyway, by combining the {Fates} in my possession, I created a new ability called {Identify}. People feared demons, not for their looks or strength, but for their ability to create {Kismet}.
The new ability, {Kismet}, emerged when two {Fates} joined to fulfill a wish. Reapers could receive only one {Fate} from their kindred. So, they could have only one {Kismet}. So when I suddenly created one, the girls were ecstatic.
I didn't even know how I did it. When I was bored, I looked at the ground and wished for the ability to see buried Chuckies. As if to answer my will, {Identify} was born. It used {Perceive} and {Listen} to find targets. Once found, it would use {Code} to mark them with a visible target symbol.
Jasmine stated that each {fate} could only evolve nine times. Thus, a {Fate} would grant ten abilities at max level, at most. Normal reapers would have only two sets or families, giving them a pool of twenty skills to form a single {Kismet}.
As I had {Rewind} and three sets of {Fate}, I had twice that amount I could theoretically learn from. I didn't even know if my limit was four.
Jas and Jo advised me to keep this a secret. Jasmine believed it was a passive effect of {Rewind}. It made sense, as even as Formless, such an ability was too valuable.
Whatever the truth, it only meant I could still get stronger. Reapers chose Kindred for their {Fate} with great care. I must be just as deliberate with my future choices. Luckily, right now, none of the ones I had clashed with one another, so we were good.
After talking to Jo and Jasmine, I now understand Isabella's condition. She basically duped me into agreeing to marry her!
"What? You already agreed! We even chose our surname! What about Alfonso? Think about him!"
"Who the hell is Alfonso?"
"Our future son? Tee-hee?" Bella then stuck her tongue out and struck her head with her fist.
"I refuse! I want a divorce!"
"Divorce? You haven't even married me, you ass!"
Jo and Jasmine laughed beside us like innocent schoolgirls. It was annoying. Being older, Bella and I horsed around to ease our nerves. While we did clear out a huge number of zombies, those were the leftovers.
The bulk of the undead rushed toward the large army of Reapers around the platform. Meaning, we were fighting against the ones who were too dumb to join the main battle.
Without the Reaper army, the undead would roam by the thousands. No matter how good we were, fighting such numbers was bullshit. We needed to join with other groups. But I had a different worry.
Jo and Jas lied about being mugged. But they said that being kicked out for being Formless was the truth. The question was, would the army on the platform accept us or send us away? Would it be wise to kill them if they did?
Red was there somewhere. We still had about two hours before the night would end, and I wanted to kill before I lost the chance.
"Everyone, the next wave of zombies is coming at 6 o'clock. There are too many to count. How do we proceed?" Jasmine asked, warning us all.
Right, no matter what we choose, this will be our hardest battle yet.