[|||| =LEVEL 7= ||||]
The north bled. I felt a little bad as I gazed down at the destruction below, Esdeath's professional soldiers rampaging through the capital of the north, but I hadn't helped her much in conquering the city. She'd had a few small groups of soldiers, including one of her three beasts, pierce through enemy lines and sow chaos. Daidara I think the beast's name was? It didn't matter. The soldiers tore through the north's defenses like a boot through a child's sandcastle. Esdeath took out some of the best battlements herself with her teigu, but she didn't need to help much.
It angered me to see a group of laughing soldiers down far below dragging a woman out of a house kicking and screaming. Judging by their pawing at her clothes it was clear what they were going to do to her. I sent a tendril of mind affinity all the way from the top of the castle where I oversaw the city to the woman's mind and dulled her sense of perception as well as weaving a small enchantment to make the effect last for a few days and weaken the memories so she could repress or forget them more easily. She'd be basically drugged so she didn't suffer what the soldiers were going to do to her. Hopefully she'd heal in time.
I repeated the spell over four thousand times before the conquest ended. Esdeath's army numbered about twenty thousand strong, though only twelve were at the capital, the rest sent out to begin assaulting the forts and remaining towns in the north. About four thousand would remain in the north after Esdeath left to maintain order and defend against danger beasts since the northerners army would be destroyed.
Thankfully rape would be outlawed after a few days, when order was restored. An army couldn't antagonize the locals it had conquered too much or they would rebel, no matter how hopeless a rebellion would be. I couldn't solve every problem and I wasn't about to try. I just hoped my presence at the conquest made everything slightly less terrible for the north. At least I didn't have to cast the spell for every man in the army. Some of them didn't care to rape, having wives of their own, and some just didn't care to do so.
It was as the flames over the city burned bright, though not for long with Esdeath around, that the prince retreated with his guard into the castle, ironically in the same throne room Esdeath had been in earlier. I teleported far above the prince and made a tiny ledge of clear ice for me to crouch on as I looked down on him trying to rally his troops into a decent fighting force. With a mirror made of hard light I could even see down the entrance hall to the castle gate.
"Arsan, can you bandage the injuries well enough to get everyone in fighting shape?" A man with golden hair and a white toolbelt shook his head as he bandaged the severed stump of an arm of one of the warriors. The prince sighed and looked towards the door of the castle, beyond which Esdeath was organizing her forces and probably delighting in that she had taken the city.
"Warriors of the north," the prince said ominously. There was a tone of command in his voice as he turned to address the warriors behind him, many of which were wounded and all of which were tired. "We have fallen. The northern clansmen will have our legends ended here." His words cast a darker mood on his speech.
"But do not despair," the Prince said firmly, standing as tall as he could despite a hollowness to his gaze. His ornate spear's butt thudded heavily against the tiled floor of the castle. "For while we will fall, we will not simply lie down and perish. We are warriors each. We stood up against a superior foe and lost, as so many have, but our history has been a long and honorable one. Our future will not be a footnote. It will be an imprint of honor and valor even in the face of defeat. In this single moment we shall burn the brightest of our lives against the dark army of the Empire, for we have little need of our brightness in the worlds beyond. Fight well, my friends, my kinsmen, my family, and rest knowing that you gave all you could."
I didn't think it was a very good speech, there was too much about death and defeat, but it seemed like a last-minute improvisation so I wasn't going to judge. Besides, it got the message across. The Prince's guard looked resolute, though in their shaking hands I could see that they feared death as much as any man. The Prince's hands, though, didn't shake.
It was a solemn few minutes with the guard standing in a half circle with the Prince in the middle looking stoically at the castle gate. When it finally boomed everyone flinched and I got some popcorn out from my soulspace. It might have disrespected the Prince and his men's final stand a little, not that it mattered to me. This was going to be interesting to watch.
The second boom was louder and accompanied by a sharp crack from the entrance. There was no flinching this time.
The final boom was the loudest as the beam holding the castle doors shut shattered and the doors flew open. Without missing a beat Esdeath walked almost regally down the hall, her sword sheathed and a triumphant smirk on her face. Her three beasts, General Liver, Daidara, and flute boy - sorry, Nyau - walked behind her, Liver taking front. I tended to ignore the three, though I briefly spoke to Liver once. He seemed grateful for me taking Esdeath's attentions, though I got the impression that he thought I was a bit crazy for doing so.
"Prince Seika," Esdeath said with a cruel smile.
"Demon," he said, still holding an air of pride.
"… You know, I actually want to break you, make you bow at my feet and praise me as a goddess." Esdeath's rapier rasped out of her sheath, echoing through the castle's walls. "But this time? I'm afraid you'll have to die with the dignity of a cornered rat rather than my pet. I'm sorry to disappoint you."
"So foolish," the Prince said in disgust. "I am a northerner and the Prince of this nation. I will not bow." Esdeath raised an eyebrow and was silent, somehow conveying all of her doubt with that one small gesture.
"It is a shame that… hm." She looked upwards to me. "It is fine that I make my enemies kneel at my feet, isn't it?" I teleported beside her, making a silhouette of my figure from shadow before I arrived for the drama of the scene.
"I'm not trying to change who you are," I said from beside her, all eyes on me. "I simply said not to torture the innocent. While this Prince isn't a terrible person, as I'd prefer for your habits, I don't mind if you dominate your enemies after you defeat them so long as they knew the stakes as they fought you."
"Perfect," she purred. She turned her head once more towards the Prince. "I hope you're as enthusiastic as I am for you imminent defeat. Your country has been toppled, your women raped, and your children will grow hating their fathers for failing where they were needed most." The Prince's eyes nearly glowed with hatred.
"Demon," the Prince spoke with pure, honest hatred dripping from his words. With that one word his men tensed and raised their shields a little more in preparation for what was to come. "Die."
I teleported back to my perch and was promptly disappointed by the fight. Esdeath tore through the guardsmen, culling them with cruel and painful strikes at their backs, hands, and faces, incapacitating them but not killing them while the three beasts distracted Numa Seika, who held them at bay with the range of his spear, trying to resist flute boy's interference while holding off Liver's water attacks and Daidara's axe throws and strikes.
When Esdeath was done she turned to the Prince and lunged with her rapier. To the man's credit he spun and dodged her lunge and blocked the miniature hailstorm that pelted his face, leaving his stomach wide open. Esdeath's rapier cut his hamstrings without much resistance and the Prince released a choked scream as he fell to the ground, still clutching his spear. A weak thrust from him that Esdeath batted away signaled the end of the battle.
"Disappointing," I spoke softly from my perch.
"Disappointing indeed," I heard far below. Esdeath must have had better hearing than I thought if she heard me from down there. "Return soon, Abyss. We have much to talk about." I teleported to the roof to look over the ruined city once more before I left. I was confident about my actions not being bad, but I still felt regret that I couldn't help more.
I wondered if Ruby would approve of my decision to do nothing while the northerners were conquered. To me it was no different than standing by as Salem sicced her grimm upon humanity, but where Esdeath sicced her soldiers upon the armies of other countries. Maybe someday I'd know whether letting things be was the right solution, but for the moment I was still uncertain.
[|||| =-= ||||]
"Nyaa, a buddy to do your work with?" Kuroka asked, her breasts barely covered by the sheets of her bed as she hugged my side. Not that it was anything I hadn't seen before.
"That's how I'm thinking of it. Esdeath doesn't need more power, but she could learn some new tricks and understand magic theory a lot better. Mostly, though, she's looking for strength so she can accomplish some sort of private goal related to retirement. Maybe she wants to kill the monster that got away from her in her youth or something," I said, keeping her close.
"Mmm… she sounds kinda…" She trailed off.
"Cruel? Sadistic? A horrible person in all capacity?" I suggested.
"Nah. Terrible stuff happens all the time. Her world sounds different from mine or yours, a lot more brutal for sure. Besides, it's no different from the stuff that happened during the great war. Or the human's world wars. The supernatural factions could have stepped in and ended the things but we didn't. Don't feel bad for standing by when almost everybody does the same." I smiled at that, feeling better already.
"Thanks."
"Just speaking the truth, nyaa. Besides, I'm a terrorist. I kill bad guys, yeah, but they're still people if you want to be morally righteous about it."
"I'm not feeling all that righteous. More vindicated."
"Huh… do you think you might like bad girls?" she asked, looking up at me with mischievous eyes.
"Huh?" I asked, confused at the sudden change of topic.
"Well there's Cinder, a terrorist-"
"Not touching that."
"Me, a terrorist-"
"In name only."
"Whatever you say, and Esdeath, a hyper-murdery general."
"What does Esdeath have to do with my romantic life?"
"The harem cometh," she teased me. "She might not be doing anything right now, but a strong, mysterious man comes along and all bets are off. You're like the only guy who can give her, a battle-junkie, what she wants, and you're a nice guy. Some girls like douchebags, but Esdeath doesn't sound like that kind of girl. Doms like her don't like douchebags."
"Every day I learn something new with you," I said dryly.
"Yup!" She smiled naughtily. "And I think you like her too!"
"She's fun to be around and surprisingly reasonable. She's also pretty intuitive with magic and competitive, as well as a good sport about it, making her fun to compete against," I said, thinking of reasons I liked her. "But other than that I don't see where you're getting that I like her. It seems like a good basis for a close friendship to me. I had something similar with Salem, though it's more like I'm in her place now, playing the powerful friend to use as a measuring stick and sharing magical lore with her. She is definitely considering me as a romantic partner, though. I'm not sure what her plans are regarding you."
"I don't know about the magic stuff or much about you and Salem, it goes a bit over my head, but how does she look to you? Describe her to me." Kuroka snuggled deeper against my chest, too close to talk, as I began to speak.
"Well she has beautiful hair, though it's too long for somebody who goes into melee combat like her. According to her she just freezes off the hands of anybody who tries to pull on it in combat, making it more of a trap than anything. Her skin is a snowy pale that looks oddly beautiful when splattered with blood. Don't ask me why, but she looks great in blood. Her eyes are a dark icy blue too, kind of like an iceberg. I've found it odd how she always displays her breasts, though. She likes to wear military uniforms, though she alters them to have a short skirt, apparently pants make her less flexible and it irritates her. She has this tattoo between them, er, her bust I mean, that she got from that treated ice demon blood I told you about. Oh, and I never got why, but she's always wearing her military uniform. I'm not sure whether she'll ever wear anything else, though I caught her in a silk blue nightgown once… come to think of it she pulls off stuff like that nightgown seriously well. I wonder…"
For a moment I wondered what kind of clothes Esdeath wore casually. Did she just have a T-shirt or a long sleeved shirt? It seemed average, but people could be shockingly average when left alone. Did she just wear a skirt all the time too? Esdeath was really feminine (ignoring the murder and sadism) with her long hair, skirts, and being yet another girl who fights in heels for whatever reason. I'd just gotten used to it on Remnant and couldn't muster up the effort to care anymore.
"So beautiful, ruthless, descriptive eyes, and you're wondering about how she'd look in different clothes," Kuroka said amusedly looking up at me again. "Are you looking for some sensei/student play?" I rolled my eyes.
"We've already done that."
"Ah, but think of two 'students', one with long blue hair and myself showing the newbie how it's done." I did, and it was a very enticing image.
"What a nice view… Until the newbie student takes out her whip and leather corset, educating her teacher on how good pain feels." Kuroka giggled, shaking the bed a little.
"Mmm, I'm up for some domming. I'm not much for pain, but domming done right can be REALLY fun. No offense, Abyss, but other than magic in bed, which is super fun by the way and more than enough to satisfy me, you're kinda vanilla" I pouted, my pride stinging a little, but it was soothed by reminding myself of the time we experimented with mind control. Dust that was a fantastic night. "Throw in some illusions of my sister covered in pudding or something to spice things up sometimes," she recommended.
"You have some weird tastes. Should I mimic her voice saying how tasty she is or something?"
"I'm more normal than most people in the supernatural world, sweetie. And yes, 'or something'. And I'm pretty interested in meeting this Esdeath girl soon. She sounds fun!" I shook my head and pulled the covers back up.
"Nope! Not done yet!" My movement was stopped as the covers were thrown off completely and Kuroka straddled me.
"Pudding now or…"
"Umm, do the thing with the ice and shadow magic again. That was fun last time and I'm in the mood for subbing with all this talk about Esdeath."
"Ah, fine… I don't want to play sub with her. She scares me sometimes. Just a little."
"I totally understand. Now break out those cold, shadowy chains. Ooh, should we roleplay?"
[|||| =-= ||||]
"No, you can't go to yet another world. You've got three. Give yourself a fourth and you'll start getting stressed," I told myself, trying to think of something to do as I looked at the little victory sign in my game of Civ 6 on the hardest difficulty, leaving me with nothing to do once more. Harry could pretty much train himself now, having found the motivation to improve himself and with his friends giving him space for some reason. I didn't want to pry.
Esdeath was handling boring occupational stuff, making new garrisons, sorting through idiocy, killing whoever tried to start the latest rebellion, and propping up one of her disposable generals, one of the ones more suited for administration than warfare, and requesting the personnel to run things in her absence and properly assimilate the conquered nation into the empire. There was a shocking amount of work to be done and I was keeping it all far away from me, knowing how paperwork was from some management with Nature's Bounty.
Kuroka was doing business as usual but we had gone on a few dates and doing more would just be clingy. I didn't want to be a clingy boyfriend, even if after about three months of dating and living together we were definitely going to get married. Kuroka just wanted to set me up with a harem first to leave the possibility open rather than sort through having a wife and a harem, which apparently made some issues in the harem structure. I just took her word for it.
Even Elsyria, despite being a crazy bitch who managed to sound rational about worshipping me when she had to, was out of work for me unless I wanted to become a more personal god to her followers. I wanted to avoid that at all costs, so I just handed out blessings as usual, which had become more common after my power surge made my cult more potent and thus more attractive. I even had some devils and a fallen angel in my cult now. Elsyria, after learning how people with more mana gave me more mana in turn, was gunning for more magically adept races than humans 'in my name'. So she was busy too.
So now my old enemy came to face me. My limited attention span…
No. No you do not open a new dimension. Think of things to do. ANYTHING else to do before you search for a new can of worms to open.
… I could finally take over the Khaos Brigade? Nope. Never going to lead that band of psychos. They're strong, but way more trouble than they're worth.
Meet up with Arthur? Nah. That's a gateway to the Khaos Brigade and I had said hello months ago. I was happy to be distant friends with him and a little more distant with the Khaos Brigade.
Did Ophis have anything for me to do? I had dumped like half a year of void affinity into an enchantment last month after my first wore off. She wasn't doing anything for awhile other than chilling in her quiet cave and occasionally venturing out to do whatever she wants, like manage the Khaos Brigade, which I repeat again, I wanted no part in.
Maybe meet the canon cast? Like the canon cast who probably had some complicated feelings about me for slaughtering their enemies and being super powerful? … Lets not. Issei can have his boobs. I wanted worlds to amuse me.
… Icouldtraveldimensions I WAS NOT GOING TO TRAVEL DIMENSIONS!
I growled and powered off my laptop, top of the line, before storing it in my soul space for later. I needed a quick distraction. Like… mini golf…
Yeeeaaaahhhh… I needed a disposable world. One that would be fun for like… three hours? Or perhaps a week. I had some time before Esdeath finished her stuff. The Yule ball was next week and Kuroka had already agreed to go, telling the Khaos Brigade that she had a day off then. I felt that the tournament should be over and done with by now and that Helen had roped me into something that took more effort than it was worth. At least she handled all the busywork, bless her. Then again, I gave her enough mana to destroy England in exchange so it might be a fair trade all in all.
Ah, but a disposable world. Right. I needed someplace mildly interesting. Interesting enough to hold my attention but not interesting enough that I'd devote a lot of time to it. Not Star Wars or something so vast. I wanted something smaller in scale. Like… hm.
I took out my scroll, which held all the data of my computer thanks to some alterations Polendina did for me as a favor once. I swept through stories I had downloaded, dismissing most of them but finding a few that might be interesting. Monster Hunter, Fallout, and one of the many, many zombie worlds were my first choices. Basically big worlds without a coherent plotline for me to stay on. They were just places to screw about.
Monster Hunter might be nice for getting a better 'animagus' form (imagine turning into an elder dragon) but I liked being a panther. It made it easy to nap in sunshine, which was nice as a human or a panther. Besides, there was just something nice about being a cat.
Fallout might be nice, but I was a little concerned about radiation. I could defend myself, of course, and I did so naturally, but I was just sort of… it seemed grungier than I'd like. It was like moonshine to me. It had a kick to it but wasn't something most people, myself included, wanted to have all that often. Not that I even drank often at all.
That left generic zombie worlds. I didn't bother for a specific one, preferring the randomness this time. I just chose one where you're not infected in one bite and strong alcohol or antibiotics could disinfect the wounds just in case. I also looked for one where time flowed oddly. It didn't move in the zombie world when I wasn't around. It had something to do with the presence of void facilitating linear time. I didn't try to understand the concept the void tried to transmit me. I just knew that time only passed when I was there. It was fine by me.
I looked at the world I found, nodded, and donned some casual attire including a small backpack that I put a few guns and knives in and a hoodie since I was going to start in New York. I hadn't been to America in a long time. Too long, really. I wanted to have a hotdog or cheeseburger and ride a motorcycle, really work my American roots from before Remnant.
My ears flattened on my head, convenient how I could do that now, and I appeared in an alley of New York. I stepped forwards into the streets and was swept away as I went sightseeing, knowing that the zombie apocalypse was like two hours away. Not my problem.
I just walked for a bit, enjoying how a few pretty girls looked at me in the streets and hearing the mixed sounds of buskers playing street music and the honking of busy traffic.
I visited Times Square, which was less impressive in person but nonetheless big, and a few memorials. I considered visiting Yellowstone, but I had been walking the streets for about two hours and was getting hungry. I also wanted to see what the news had to say about the apocalypse. Was the government covering it up at first or was it going to be public? It ought to be interesting either way.
I ended up at a rustic bar around the edges of downtown. A few people were minding their business drinking and some others were chatting, including four loud teenagers who were definitely too young to drink. I considered sitting alone, but went to the bar next to an attractive redheaded girl writing on her computer.
"Could I get a beer? That and a sandwich," I asked the bartender, a relaxed burly man in a loose black polo shirt with a small gut.
"Any beer?" he asked with a small New York accent, though disappointingly not the stereotypical one. "Oh, and I'll need an ID."
"I'm fine with anything. Really anything, so long as it's not British. I'm just looking to kill time. As for the sandwich, something hot with bacon." I reached into my jeans pocket and withdrew a fake wallet made of hard light and handed the man a hardlight ID with a bit of mind magic on it to seem genuine to whoever saw it.
"Sure, we've got bacon. I'll get you in a… Abyss?" The man raised an eyebrow at me.
"My parents never grew out of their goth phase, I think," I said with a smile and a shrug. The man looked amused and placed my ID on the bar as he took a few steps away to get my beer, making his gut jiggle a bit humorously.
"Abyss?" the girl next to me said curiously. I said nothing but slid my ID over to her. She picked it up and scoffed with a grin on her face. "Your parents must suck."
"There are worse ones. They cared, but I don't think they really thought my name through."
"Abyss is a really edgy name, yeah."
"What I mean is my last name," I said.
"Mavros? I think that one sounds pretty cool, actually."
"Uh huh? Well it also means black in Mis-Greek," I nearly said Mistralian but hid it with Greek. The girl let out a laugh at my misfortune just as the bartender set down some sort of lager and cracked it open with a grin at me. I grinned back.
"Good god… that's ridiculous." She chuckled, now facing me rather than her computer.
"So you know my name. Care to share so I can make fun of yours?" I asked with a charming smirk.
"It's Cindy Park," the redhead said, blushing faintly.
"Wow, your parents must have been terrible," I said.
"Really? Why?"
"Your name isn't nearly as cool as mine." She rolled her eyes.
The two of us talked a little more after that. Cindy, as it turned out, was a college student in mathematics, who was entirely used to people grimacing when she mentioned mathematics. She wasn't really sure what she wanted to do for a career, but she liked statistics and calculating the chance that something will happen and testing it. She was, in other words, the beautiful nerdy girl. If she had glasses she'd really fit the stereotype, but sadly she'd moved onto contacts in high school.
I made up a story about wandering the US doing odd jobs, though I mentioned that most of my jobs were related to mechanics, metalworking - including gunsmithing, parkour, and martial arts. I described myself as a very hands-on sort of person with the right inflection to make Cindy blush shyly again and eye my muscles. We talked about the benefits of college versus trade school and I began talking about the places I had seen.
"A jungle?" she asked curiously.
"Guatemala," I explained. "I speak a little spanish, enough to get by south of the border, and I wanted to know what it was like down there. So I settled down for a month with a friend near the border, got a job to buy some things I needed, left some spare stuff with him as thanks, and drove down. I kind of wanted to go all the way to Buenos Aires down in Argentina, but I didn't want to go through the poorer roads in South America. I also don't speak portugese. I saw some jungles, though, and I wasn't impressed. Giant bugs, it's way too humid, and there's too much mud, not to mention the rain. It sounds beautiful to stand bare chested in a bunch of rain but it's so much less fun to hold down a tent and pray that your motorcycle doesn't get water anywhere it shouldn't be."
I was taking reference from my summer road trip with Bella, including the time in the life affinity mana hotspot, where the insects were larger than men and everything sucked.
"You're not a save the rainforest kind of guy, then?" she asked
"Just saying, I'd love some parking lots down there. It'd be better for my back than the mud."
"I-uh…" I blinked and turned around, seeing nothing. Cindy pointed upwards, where a news TV was silently reporting. A lady in a blue suit was screaming as a feral looking man with prominent blackened veins on his face chowed down on her arm. I winced as I saw that the lady's forearm had shattered bones. Finally the zombie pushed the lady down and got it's jaws around the reporter's neck, the cameraman was just standing there filming it for some reason.
There were a silent few seconds as the bar went silent, more people seeing the news screen. The volume turned on and I heard the screams of people from the TV and a fumbling sound as the camera fell down and blood got on the lens. Louder screaming was heard and I got a flash of a teal shirt and brown vest, presumably the cameraman being eaten by a zombie.
"So… where is this happening again?" I asked, breaking the silence and causing everyone's eyes to turn to me. I could hear screams far away, now that I listened for it.
"… Virginia," one of the teenagers said, a black girl with ripped jeans and a sleeveless shirt.
"… Do you think they're in New-" I was interrupted by a clearly audible gunshot from outside. I sighed and stood up. I reached into my pocket, teleported twenty five dollars from the register the bartender used to my hand, and placed it on the table. "Well, whether that's fake or not it's my time to go. Seeya, Cin-" I was interrupted again by a scream and a crack on the glass of the bar, a fat lady with the same prominent black veins on her face slamming her hands on the glass looking inside.
Everyone was still silent. I took my backpack off and slipped a big knife out from it and up my sleeve where Cindy could see. She looked at me with wide eyes and I smiled weakly, having to fake it because I was actually kind of excited. I had never fought zombies before.
I walked to the bar door in silence and pulled it open, clearly hearing the screaming and sound of things breaking around the street. I peeked my head out at the fat zombie lady, who snarled and grunted while stumbling towards me. In my peripheral vision I saw zombies actually running, so this lady was just slow because she was fat. Zombies could indeed be fast.
I backed inside the bar and the fat zombie followed, snarling all the way. "So if you've got a mind in there…" I trailed off as the zombie let loose a screeching sound and swiped at me. I knocked her arms away and kicked out her kneecap, sending her toppling to the floor.
"Dude, it's a zombie! Just kill it!" one of the teenagers yelled at me.
"No mind? Even rabies victims have a little sense, though some sort of mass rabies is unlikely," I said as I crouched down to the zombie's head. She tried to leap towards me but I pushed her back and batted away her arms again. "Fine." I flicked my wrist to get the knife out, to the gasps of the people around me, and pointed it directly at the zombie's eye. She screamed and lunged towards me, burying the knife in her own frontal lobe. She groaned and twitched a little but fell limp as I pulled the knife out.
"So zombies," I said at a normal volume, loud enough so everyone heard me. I paused for a second. "Welp, I'm going to Canada. Oh, uh, one second." I stepped quickly towards my backpack and pulled out a pistol and a box of eighty bullets.
"Here you go, Cindy. You're smart. Go save your family or something." I offered the gun to her.
"M-my family are in Pennsylvania," she said in tears, panicking.
"Then go to Pennsylvania," I shrugged. "I'm going north. There's less people in Canada and I was going up there anyways. Maybe I can hunt moose or something. Surviving in the wild isn't new to me."
"Dude, can I come to Canada with you?" the black teenager from earlier spoke up, sounding excited.
"Have you got family here?" I asked.
"None I care about," she said a bit callously.
"You sure?"
"Dad's a drunk. Mom's a druggie." She shrugged.
"Come on, then. But no slackers. I've only got room for one other person on my motorcycle."
"I can hotwire something," she offered.
"Sweet. We can get something better than a motorcycle after we get out of the city. The streets are going to be stuffed soon." The black girl nodded and followed me when I made to move out the back.
"Good luck, you all!" I called back as I exited the bar from behind. "So my bike's at the corner five blocks that way and four that way," I said, pointing down the street and to my left.
"Maple. Maple and… I think sixteenth," the girl said thoughtfully. "Also, can I get a gun?"
"Have a knife. I don't know how well the zombies can hear, but I'm guessing pretty well so I'll use knives too," I said, pulling my second out of my backpack and holding it out for her. She seemed disappointed but took it anyways and we started walking. A few screams later showed both of us that being silent was a bad idea.
"So why'd you give that white girl a gun?" the girl asked.
"She was honest, nice, had a family she wanted to get to, and I liked her. Oh, and she was a pretty redhead. There's always that," I said casually. My tone seemed to make the girl a little less tense. I could see her eyes darting this way and that, all senses on high alert.
"That was stupid. We could have used that gun."
"I've got a revolver in my bag too." She looked at me in disbelief.
"What? I like guns," I said defensively.
"What kind of person walks around with guns and knives in their backpack?"
"The kind that brings little girls into back alleys." I gestured to the alley we were in with a wave of my hand and the girl snorted.
"Yeah, right. Whatever."
"The motorcycle was an innuendo, you see."
"Riiight." The girl rolled her eyes. "My name's Claire by the way."
"Abyss."
"I heard."
The two of us exited the alley onto the main streets again. "Come on, let's run. Don't stop and keep your ears open. If they start chasing us duck into an alley and don't yell. Sound."
"Sure." Claire nodded along with me and we fell into silence again, this time because we were watching the carnage unfold around us. Most of the zombies were trying to get inside the buildings, pounding and screaming on doors. Claire got freaked out when some zombies got near us but after seeing how quickly I dispatched them she started getting closer to me and we ran a little faster. I was actually impressed when she noted how I was running, rolling my feet a bit to stay silent out of habit from Bella's classes, and she mimicked me. She didn't do it right, of course, but she tried it and I made sure to look a little impressed with her.
"Hey!" I heard somebody yell out. I looked back and saw a sweaty nerdy guy in an unbuttoned dress shirt, glasses falling down his nose. "I, uh… need a ride?"
"I've only got a motorcycle with room for two. Sorry," I apologized.
"M-maybe I can go with you, then?" he asked hopefully.
"No means no. Leave," Claire said flatly. The guy winced and looked back. Another of the endless screams of zombies rang out and he looked between us and the streets like a lost puppy.
"You can tag along until we hit my bike. Then we have to go and you're on your own," I told him. Claire gave me an annoyed look but the guy practically collapsed in tears before he ran towards us.
"Thank god there's still decent people in the world! I'm David!" He held out his hand.
"I'm Abyss. Yes, that's actually my name. I'm not your friend, man. I'm just moving along," I said, not shaking Daniel's hand but turning away and continuing to walk down the alleys to my 'bike'.
"Oh. Um… okay," Daniel said awkwardly. Claire and I walked and he trailed behind us.
A minute passed of screams. "So, uh… where you guys going?" Neither of us answered him. "Cool… right," he said, looking sullen. Suddenly a skinny zombie came around a corner in the alley with a friend. I held my knife back and threw, landing in it's head. The second screamed and lunged at me. I kneed it in the gut, tore the knife out, and stabbed into the side of it's head.
"… Whoah," Daniel said, stunned.
"We're pretty badass." Claire puffed up.
"You haven't done anything," I reminded her.
"Ooooh snap! Calling her out!" Daniel grinned at Claire, who glared at me again. I heard shuffling around the corner and gestured to it. My two tagalongs looked as a zombie in a suit came around the corner.
Claire sighed and stepped forwards, holding her knife at the ready. The zombie screamed and ran at her. She waited until it was close and stepped forwards, slamming into its gut. The zombie snarled and spat as it clawed at her, leaving gashes in her back. Claire gritted her teeth and stabbed the zombie's throat. The zombie gurgled and its clawing weakened. Finally, she managed to stab through its eyes to its brain.
"That," I told her, "was incredibly sloppy. Attacking the gut first does work for humans, though."
"Fuck you! It's my first time!" she yelled at me.
"Phrasing, Claire," I reminded her. The tension didn't lessen. "I'd recommend going for the major veins or anywhere near the face. I go for vitals or more well protected spots. I should try that when I fight again." I stepped forwards past Claire and listened to her pause and catch up with me after kicking her zombie's ribcage with a snarl.
The rest of the way was easy. Some zombies got in my way but I discovered that severing their spinal cord just takes out their lower body, or their whole body if you get it high enough, and the zombie acts all drunken and has a hard time using their body. It was weird since normally people just collapsed when a nerve was cut.
I used this to do sneak attacks from the nape of the neck, not that I got much opportunity. The fact that the zombies could seemingly reroute nerves, even major ones, was odd but, well, it still killed them.
When finally Claire and I arrived at a parking lot I reached into my soul space and pulled out a motorcycle I had stolen in DxD and put a bunch of runes on.
… What? Who wouldn't steal a bunch of nice stuff if they could without consequences? I had my airship from Remnant, sure, but I couldn't exactly use that in a zombie apocalypse or to go to the supermarket. My experience with maintaining the airship helped me a lot in maintaining and improving the motorcycle, though. I basically power-leveled the skill with my experience in airships.
"Aaaaand… here." I reached into my pocket, that means soul space, and took out my keys, pushing them into the beautiful motorcycle. I didn't pay too much attention to it when I got it.
"… Holy shit," Claire said in clear awe.
"Dude, that is a sweet bike," Daniel agreed with her.
My bike was a Harley, as all the best bikes are. It was a rugged-looking bike almost like what you would see a biker gang use except it had a distinct lack of skull stickers or a shotgun holster. It also wasn't a chopper with the long axles for the front wheels. I almost painted it a light grey but I decided on dark grey instead. It let me hide the runes a bit better, though I didn't hide a few runes, letting them show freely. They looked like artwork with how intricate they were and gave the bike have a bit of character.
"I'm pretty proud of her. She is a bit loud, though. That means we'll have to be speeding through the streets as fast as we can. It'll be terrible, I know. I hate driving as fast as I can."
"If you don't want to drive as fast as you can I'd be happy to do it for you," Claire offered.
"When hell freezes over," I replied, getting on my bike. I turned the keys and felt it hum under me. "Oh, and this is where we part ways, Daniel."
"Right… I'll, uh, just… fuck off, then," he said nervously, undoubtedly hearing all the snarls and screams heading towards us.
"You do that, Daniel," Claire said. I was getting the impression that Claire was a bitch.
"Say, Daniel? You should run." I pointed at a few zombies running towards us at breakneck speeds. Daniel took the hint and ran to the nearest building only to find that the door was locked. I took a little pity on the guy and unlocked the next one he ran to with my metal affinity. I felt a little better about myself when he nearly cried in relief at the unlocked door.
"That guy's gonna die," Claire said, getting behind me and wrapping her arms around my torso.
"… Yeah," I said, my prideful feeling at being a good guy gone in an instant. "You're not really a sunshine and kittens kind of girl, are you?"
"Yeah, could we go now? The zombies are coming." I sighed, getting a little tired of Claire already and revved the engine before kicking off. The zombies snarled a little at me as they continued coming at me. I slowly made my way between two cars and drove down an empty lane onto the main street, getting past the zombies. Then I gunned the motor and sped down the street, enjoying how I could go fast in a big city.
"WHOAH!" Claire yelled as we passed right behind a car that was speeding like we were.
"Holy shit! Maybe we shouldn't go so fast?" she yelled against the wind nervously. Her arms tightened around me. I suddenly understood why guys liked to pick up girls on motorcycles. Having them press up against you was kind of nice, though Claire was probably underage. Not that that really mattered in a zombie apocalypse, but still…
"Well, the zombies are a problem," I yelled back.
"Being a red stain is a problem!"
"Lesser evil, Claire. Besides, I'm a good driver. Trust me, I can get out of New York. I might have to be creative, though." Claire was silent but I felt like she didn't trust that voluntarily. "If you want to jump off, feel free to do so," I said.
"Zombies," she said simply.
"Lesser evil," I affirmed. She took one arm away from my body and punched me in the back.
"Ow," she muttered. I chuckled and continued speeding down the streets of New York, enjoying my decision to waste some time here. Zombie scenarios were pretty fun in the short term.
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