"Guuuuuuuuuu!" With a loud groan, the zombie charged at David, and though it stumbled and dragged its feet, it was still faster than the others.
David slightly changed his trajectory, now that the zombie was facing him, a direct attack wouldn't work.
The zombie windmilled its arms at David, its long claws scything towards David's head.
Smoothly, David dropped closer to the ground, slashing out, at its legs. If he couldn't go for its head, he would stop it from moving.
But this zombie had more intelligence than the dumb zombies he'd fought earlier, it's flaming eyes caught his movement, and lurched to the side.
"Oh, come on." David complained, he had sliced through the zombie's leather trouser, and part of it's thigh, but that wouldn't do anything.
Had it been a living opponent, the damage would've been enough, but to disable a zombie, one would need to fully sever the limb.
Keeping his forward momentum, David used it to propel himself ahead and up, jumping up onto the a nearby statue.
'I need a better plan, I can't be wasting mana like this.'
David's use of mana was far too inefficient, as he relied so heavily on mana channeling, without a technique.
It was like the difference between taking a unrefined lump of metal and hitting something with it, versus using a forged weapon.
Below him, the zombie had twisted its head all the way around, and was walking backwards at him.
David waited patiently, observing the zombie's movements, the more information he could gather, the more likely it would be that he could take it down.
"Please don't."
He whispered, hoping it wouldn't climb up.
The zombie bumped against the bottom of the statue, the burning eyes were staring at David, the zombie had twisted its neck so that it was constantly staring at him.
An off-putting scratching sound came from the zombie's overgrown nails, while it scrabbled against the polished stone.
"Phewww." David sighed with relief.
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" An inhuman screech blasted out from the zombie, which had raised its mouth to the sky.
"What the fuck?" David had fallen back in shock, the screech was loud enough to leave his ears ringing.
He looked back down, the three star zombie had stopped trying to climb the statue, and instead was standing still, staring at him.
'What was that all about?'
Confused, David looked nearby, this zombie seemed intelligent enough that it wouldn't do anything pointless. Maybe it had emotions? Perhaps that had been a scream of frustration.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
"Oh shit."
The system highlight three rapidly moving signals on David's CoreScanner.
The zombie hadn't been making pointless noises, it had been summoning reinforcements.
Now, David was forced with two choices. He could either flee before the other zombies arrived and surrounded him.
Or, he could stay and fight.
'I need this technique. I bet you knew it would come to this, damn system.'
David shook his head, taking a quick glance at his mana indicator.
'This'll be a tight one'
Removing his cloak, David jumped down from the statue, he could no longer play it totally safe.
While flying through the air, David bundled up his cloak under one arm.
The zombie whirled into motion when it saw the first hint of movement from David, spinning its arms.
Swish
David threw his cloak, which spread out wide, covering the zombie's vision, hiding David completely.
The zombie tried to backpedal, but it was too late, its windmilling arms slashed into the cloak, causing its arms to get caught up in the reforming fabric.
Landing just next to the zombie, David's sword drew a shining arc through the air. Cleanly slicing off the zombie's arms.
In one move, David had disabled his enemies main form of attack.
'That's not going to work again.'
David's cloak was twisting and wrapped around the severed arms of the zombie, removing it would waste what little time he had remaining.
"Guooooooo!"
The armless zombie groaned, charging at David, it's mouth wide open, chomping its long yellowed teeth at him.
But now, David had no need to be cautious of this enemy, he easily slashed off its legs, leaving its moaning body thrashing around on the ground.
Just when David straightened up after defeating the three star zombie, there were multiple groans that came from the south.
The other zombies had arrived.
'Mana!'
[Mana: 52/99]
'Shit.'
The three star's body had been a bit tougher than he expected, leaving him with just more than half of his total mana reserves, taking out three red cores wouldn't be easy.
'System! Can I regenerate without any mana?'
[Yes, User, as we have discussed previously, regeneration relies on your vitality or health.]
As if predicting David's next question, the system continued.
[User, please note, if your health runs out, you will no longer be able to regenerate and die.]
Taking in the system's words, David took a deep breath, preparing himself.
"Guoooo!"
"Graaaah!"
Ahead of him, were two two star zombies, and a single one star.
They formed a triangle as they charged, the two stars in the lead, while the one star trailed behind.
All of them were spinning their arms wildly, converging towards their target, who stood over the limbless remains of their leader.
The system displayed a few routes for David, but they all led away, fleeing from the battle. It seemed that it would not help David in his recklessness.
The two lead zombies were right on top of David now, and he raised his sword, blocking their windmilling arms.
David flew backwards, his feet skidding on stone, sending clouds of dust into the air.
But he wouldn't get even a moment to recover, even as the impact caused the two zombies to pause, the one star charged at David.
Still recovering from the first attack, David raised his sword to defend himself.
A burning pain shot through arm, he had been just to slow, and the zombie's long fingernails had carved three long strips out of his arm.
Blood poured out the wounds, and David backed away, trying to buy time as his arm regenerated.
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
There was a hint in David's voice as he called out to the system, this type of surface wound would typically only take a few moments to regenerate.
[User, it appears there are various toxins and pathogens on the surface of the enemies nails.]
'What the hell does that mean!'
David had no time for the system's unnecessarily complex language, he needed to know what was happening now.
[User, in simpler terms, the zombies nails are toxic, they have infected your flesh, and the dangerous substances must be purified before your body can heal.]
'Not an explanation! What's going on!'
[The zombies nails are very dirty, slowing down your regeneration.]
'Was that so hard!'
David exclaimed. His heart sunk, he had planned on defending and looking for opportunities, saving his attacks and relying on his regeneration.
That would have allowed him to conserve his mana, but now that plan had been thrown out the window.
"Guooooo!"
The other two zombies were charging at him again, it seemed like this wasn't going to be an easy battle.