Zane stood next to me with his arms crossed and his chin raised trying to play the tough guy as I talked to Anne and John. he definitely had a crush on Anne.
'Man…'
I pointed to my three weapons on the ground. My Rare compound bow, Rare Longsword, and Common and slightly chipped sword. "John, you take the smaller sword. Anne, you take the Bow."
Anne smiled as she looked at the bow. "It's so beautiful! But I don't really want to fight!"
"You have to fight. This is your best option. You need to grow some tough skin over your soft heart, or you will die. YOU WILL DIE!"
I tapped my head for emphasis. "You have to think!"
She shivered as I screamed at her and then she bent down and picked up the bow. She set her jaw down hard and then looked back up at me. "FINE. As long as it's only Zombies I don't ever want to kill another Human. I simply won't!"
I smiled. "Good."
I flicked my eyes to John who had already picked up the smaller sword and he was running his hands over the nicks. The sword was slightly too big for him, but with Mana, it shouldn't matter for them as much.
'Well, I'm starting to like this group. Things are forming together pretty well. I just dread the next time I need to sell Mana.'
I bent down and picked up the Longsword in my hands. The grip felt steady, but it was extremely heavy. I felt like I could swing it through a block of stone. I smiled
'I want to try it. It has the auto-repair function anyway.'
I jerked my head around to the others. "I'm gonna swing this sword through the brick wall. Step back. I want to test its strength."
I bent back and filled my veins with mana. I amped the tension of my muscles and I swung the sword as hard I could through the brick wall.
My sword sliced through the bricks with a loud noise. BOOM. small and large chunks of bricks scattered from the explosive strike.
As my blade passed all the way through the brick wall, I looked over my sword. There wasn't any sort of damage over the massive blade.
I turned around with a grin. "Well, I'm ready to go kill some Zombies. What about y'all?"
Anne sighed. "Well-"
"THAT WASN'T A QUESTION! LET'S FUCKING GO!"
We all started jogging off towards the very center of Dallas. Within minutes, there was an enormous horde of zombies in front of us. I turned around. "I want to test my sword. Stay back and cover your eyes before they explode. Zane, you watch John and Anne and make sure they don't do something stupid."
I started dashing towards the Zombies with the two-handed sword raised over my shoulder. As I got to the edge of the horde, I swung the enormous sword like a baseball bat. It cut through the zombies so smoothly and they were so close together that I sliced through eight heads.
I took a forceful step through their falling corpses, and I swung back in the other direction. Five more Zombies dead. I jumped backwards as they exploded. ZZZTTT. ZZZTTT. ZZZTTT…
'It's usually about five seconds after they have been killed that they explode.'
I got back on my feet. There were still eight zombies in front of me, but I wanted to test out the Common skill I had bought from the shop earlier in the day. I focused on the single thread of Mana connecting my Brain and Soul together.
I let my broadsword swing to just one hand while I raised the other up with my palm flat towards a Zombies head that was slowly stumbling towards me. As the skill went off in a flash of blue Mana, the Zombie's head exploded. I turned around and I started walking back towards my group as the Zombie exploded behind me. ZZZTTT.
They had turned their back after seeing me kill the Zombie. "Hey Anne, it's your turn to use your bow. Shoot a Zombie in the head."
She looked nervous, but she didn't say anything. She stepped closer to the Zombies and then she took a knee to the ground. She grabbed an arrow from her quiver, and then she took her aim. She released the arrow, but it flew too high.
She sharply took in a breath. "Shit!"
I walked behind her slowly and I put my hand on her shoulder. "Steady your aim. Don't tense up. Imagine that Zombie over there with a hole in its head."
"It's getting closer."
"Draw the string, I am right here. You feel my hand, don't you."
She sighed. "Yes."
She pulled another arrow from her quiver and quickly strung it up. She drew the arrow all the way back to her ear and she let her breath slowly out. At the bottom of her breath, she let the arrow fly. The arrow flew through the air fast and it stuck in the Zombie's head. The Zombie tumbled to the ground.
I tightened my hand on her shoulder just slightly. "Good job another, quickly."
She froze for just a split second before drawing another arrow. She fluidly pulled the arrow up to her and released it without worrying about her breath. The arrow hit another Zombie in the head.
I grabbed her other shoulder and I spun her around. I put my much larger back over her own. ZZZTT. ZZZTT.
After the Zombies exploded, I stood back up alongside Anne. As she looked into my face with a hint of need, I smiled at her. "Good job."
For the last few Zombies, I had Zane go over with John. It did not take them long, but as they did, I talked for a minute with Anne as we both sat next to each other looking away from the Zombies propped up against a car.
"So Anne, how did that feel?"
She grinned. "Actually, really good. I honestly wasn't expecting it to be that fun to kill the Zombies. It was a little scary at first watching the Zombie limp towards me. After I shot the first one though, I felt adrenaline spiking through me and I was able to kill the next much easier than the first."
There were three green flashes of light behind us. ZZZTTT. ZZZTTT. ZZZZZT.
I nodded. "Well I'm glad you have overcome your fear of killing."
She blinked. "I never said it was a fear."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I just didn't want to. After that Mana stone made me see visions of how the world would soon become, I became angry, but not at the situation. I was angry at the stone. I will kill everything that stone is related to. It insulted everything that I stood for."
"That Stone has the ego of a god. His name is Zanoth, the god of Anger. You want to kill an intelligent being. Is being insulted really enough of a reason to want to kill someone?"
"You don't know what that stone did! It played with my head in the worst way possible. I will kill this Zanoth god. I will become an even bigger emblem of hatred."
I clucked my tongue and turned away. "M'kay then."
'Yeah I've definitely got to watch that girl.'
There were another three bright green explosions behind me as I sighed behind the blackened car.
'It's going to be a long night.'