From what Alex had witnessed, she surmised the abilities of both zombies.
The greater zombie with the displaced head could manipulate its limbs at will, whereas the greater zombie with no distinguishable features was a crystallized drill.
In regards to the zombies, Alex had only a single thought.
'At the end of the day, these amazing abilities don't matter if they never get to use them.'
A few minutes later, the zombies resumed their march, pressing onwards and forgetting the one who had flawlessly killed their brethren.
Naturally, Alex waited behind to pocket her hard-earned zombie shard.
Alex followed them, limiting her movements to outside their awareness zone. Her next actions were already carefully planned within her head.
Truthfully, Alex could have adopted a simple manoeuvre a while ago. It would have dramatically reduced the risk involved in ending the greater zombies, but Alex had tested this tactic with a few lesser zombies while fighting in the labyrinth. The results left her distraught, forcing her to completely discard the idea.
Whenever a zombie was killed without the challenger being in the zombie's awareness zone, no spirit shards were awarded. Therefore, although throwing her chakram or wakizashi at the zombie outside of its awareness zone would be an easy kill, but without the spirit shards to show for it.
Patiently disconnecting the driller's limbs and waiting for it to emerge from the sand would be too much of a gamble. Although her hearing had improved tremendously, she was not a radar designed to pinpoint locations using sounds.
Alternatively, she could just have rushed up to the driller zombie and decapitated it, but the consequences of this were clear. The headless zombie would be given ample time to levitate its head in the air. She had seen it happen the last time she attacked. Once that head reached the air it would be even more difficult for her to kill that zombie.
Alex assiduously positioned herself in such a way that she had an unobstructed path to the displaced head of the greater zombie. She maintained a consistent pace outside of any zombie's range, walking backwards and flexing her arm in preparation. She released her wakizashi with a stupendous propelling force behind it.
None of the other zombies even glanced at their injured comrade or its attacker. Alex wasn't done with that zombie yet, she dashed forward and slashed her chakram deep into the mispositioned head before pulling her chakram and speeding off.
The greater zombies were extremely resilient. A sword pierced in the head was unlikely to kill even humans immediately, what more a greater zombie? She had followed right behind her thrown weapon, ensuring her kill would yield her desired rewards.
The moment she left their awareness zones, the maddened zombies cooled, turned their heads straight and marched on. The rest was easy, decapacitate the driller zombie, take her shards and deal with the lesser mobs.
Alex now donned a cheerful persona. A jaunty smile and delighted eyes remained fixed on her face even as she slaughtered the remaining zombies with unrealistic ease.
After her slaughter party, Alex realized that bathing herself in zombie blood was not the wisest thing to do.
' At least my clothes have mended,' she was pleased with herself for the job well executed. Not only had earned a massive amount of spirit shards, but she acquired a good amount of zombie shards as well.
She wasted no time in swallowing the unused zombie shards she had collected, taking care to rinse them and dry them before ingestion.
Alex decided to go to the labyrinth to rest before purchasing anything from the shop.
120: 09: 23
Sitting on a bottom bunk in the labyrinth's sleeping quarters, Alex was closely examining the castle lord, its troop and the very castle. Alex's outfit had a self-cleaning function, so Alex let it do just that while she wore a modest cotton top and pants after a shower.
Alex refused to allow herself to become complacent, especially when the castle lord was involved. She would rather destroy his troops right now, but she felt that would abruptly end the first stage and she may not have the time to go through the information before the next stage. There was no assurance there would be a waiting period regardless of whether they ended the stage early or not. She had seen first-hand that time dilation was not impossible.
From her observations, the troop never moved, remaining stationary until their master commanded otherwise. The castle lord never moved either, the casual air around it never abating or increasing.
Alex also decided to check, 'The Underground Bunker' and was appalled by the childish antics and shenanigans a despondent John had to face. He and his executives were trying to quell the raging flames they had allowed to burn their base. She found it a bit surprising that none of the executives had lost any limbs or body parts. Only one of them had died.
Done with her inspection, she rubbed her hands together with an excited grin, ready to see her accumulated spirit shards.
Honestly, Alex detested this entire charade, the game, the deity, the currency. It was merely a form of control, a subordination system. The truth was right in front of her: to this deity and most likely numerous other incomprehensible beings, she was nothing but a grain of sand in a desert. She posed no real threat to them when they could unintentionally squish her out of existence with a drop of their sweat.
She was weak and she knew- rather, it had been ingrained into her very being- that weakness was an unforgivable crime. A crime that attracted punishments far worse than death. Her life was in the palm of another and there was nothing she could do, nothing yet.
She would become strong, strong enough that her brother could be weak. She would climb to the pinnacle even if it was declared impossible. If she could not do that, then she would fail her brother and most importantly herself. No one hated being at the mercy of others more than her. No one.