Chapter 69 - Dawn of the Dead
"I don't think this is good news…"
A woman in tattered clothes and covered in seaweed was waving at them from afar. Even with her bow's long-distance vision, Anna couldn't see much; the person was too far away.
The seaweed-covered woman raised her hands and screamed into the air before starting to run towards them.
"I'm sure that's not a good sign!" Luke said.
"She's fast!" Alice drew her sword.
"Kyaa!" Anna screamed, pointing behind them. Positioned further ahead, when she turned to look at her friends, she noticed a group of what looked like people covered in seaweed running from a distance.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!"
Luke and the group began to run, following the line of the mountain.
"Should we stay and fight?" Anna tried to ask while running.
"Of course not, those things came out of nowhere."
"Luke!" Alice shouted. "What's happening? How… what are those things?"
"How should I know!? They never appeared when I was walking in the shallow sea."
Anna drew her card, summoning the albino goblin, Gobby.
The four of them ran, putting distance between them and the creatures chasing them.
Thank goodness they're slow.
"Going back is out of the question; they're coming from behind us," Alice said, looking back while running.
In front of them, the sand shifted, and a creature began to rise as if emerging from a grave. It looked like a man with torn shirts, his brain exposed, and huge blue wounds all over his body.
"Ahhhhhhh!" He screamed, running towards them.
Luke conjured his hammer and struck the monster. His scarf started punching the fallen creature as if trying to bury it again, while Alice stabbed the monster with her sword.
[You killed a Leaping Drowned]
"A damn Leaping Drowned! That's what the message says."
Next to them, the sand began to move, and more drowned ones emerged.
"Let's run!"
The trio ran from the slow drowned ones, and from afar, the seaweed-covered woman was still coming towards them.
In the distance, more and more drowned ones appeared, and they were varied; Luke also saw skeletons emerging from the sand.
"We're in a damn open field getting surrounded!"
The four of them ran desperately along the slope, hoping to see a beach. They could see more drowned ones 'sprouting' from the ground.
In front of them, five more drowned ones ran towards them, while there were about twenty pursuing them from behind.
If we stop to face these guys in front, we're done for.
As Luke drew his hammer, Anna her club, and Gobby his knife, the scarf stretched its ends and hardened. Luke ran past, throwing the five drowned ones away using the living black fabric.
Thank you! he internally thanked the scarf.
"They're Initial Peculiars… but even though I can identify them now, I still don't feel confident…" Luke said.
They continued to run; luckily, the drowned ones were slow, so creating distance became easier. The downside was that looking back, more drowned ones were accumulating, forming a horde that followed them.
The horde was a mix of skeletons with algae inside and what appeared to be people possessed by these plants. They looked like walking corpses but were bloated due to the water. Their eyes were like those of fish, and their mouths dripped green slime; even algae could be seen coming out of their ears.
"Run without me!" Alice shouted as she stopped.
"What?" Luke and Anna yelled.
"Just do what I'm telling you." She raised her sword and thrust it into the sand.
Imagining what she was about to do, they ran, moving away from their friend who remained waiting for the horde to approach. Luke ran while glancing back whenever he could. The blonde girl stayed still, waiting for the drowned ones to get closer while keeping her sword in the sand.
As they approached, he saw small bolts of lightning circling Alice's body and transferring to her sword. The monsters fell from the shock, and Alice began to run quickly towards them. She caught up with them easily due to having her thunder power activated.
As Alice neared them, she deactivated her power.
"Was that Emission?" he asked, surprised.
"I released my Aspect, but my ability still lacks control. I can't minimize its use. It's like whenever I use it, it switches to its maximum and exhausts me quickly. I'm making small progress... but I still have a long way to go. So, trying to use the Thunder Mantle and still use Emission with it is difficult."
She released an Aspect? That... she's very powerful.
Luke ran, but he looked back, seeing all the drowned ones on the ground.
"Did you kill all of them?" he asked, incredulous.
"No, I'm weak. But I managed to give them a shock and left the electricity lingering in that part of the water. We've gained precious time."
Weak? How is that weak? She managed to use Emission with the Thunder element. She maintained her elemental prana in that place! That's incredible… She's a Transmitter and an Emitter! That means she can… emit lightning from her body… what power.
Putting a great distance between themselves and the drowned ones, they didn't see any more emerging. They could see some on the horizon, but they walked in their own directions. However, the seaweed woman continued to follow them.
"That thing is definitely trouble!"
As soon as he said that, the ground trembled, and what appeared to be the tip of a giant sword emerged from the sand. The three widened their eyes as they saw the wood rising from the sand and getting bigger.
"A damn haunted pirate ship?"
They resumed running, and the seaweed woman suddenly froze when the ship appeared; she stood like a statue.
Mists filled the horizon, and in the background, many drowned ones appeared, walking alongside the ship, chained like prisoners, being dragged by the monstrous wooden vessel.
Horror gripped them as they realized the threats were increasing.
The trio did the only thing they could: run.
Minutes or hours, they were exhausted. Running for that long was not easy; after a while, their steps became heavy, and fatigue set in. Even Gobby had been dismissed.
The haunted pirate ship, along with its army of Drowned, remained shrouded in mist. The seaweed-covered woman fell to the ground, convulsing in the presence of the ship. The trio didn't discuss or talk. All they did was run as far as they could from the creatures.
After hours of this, Anna collapsed, sitting down to rest.
Luke silently thanked the girl; he didn't want to be the first to do that. But he didn't complain or protest; he just sat down, trying to drink some water and rest.
I forget that Alice is a Transmitter… comparing myself to her in physical activity is madness. She can use her prana to strengthen her physical attributes.
Breathing heavily from running for so long, Luke conjured his canteen. After drinking a bit, he passed it to Anna, who passed it to Alice, who also sat down. Each one sat with their back to the other, watching in different directions.
"What… what were those things? They appeared out of nowhere," Anna asked while washing herself, splashing seawater to clean off the sweat. Alice passed her some water, which she quickly poured over her head, the cool liquid refreshing her.
"I don't know, it was new to me," Luke managed to lay in the water, ordering his scarf to harden and form a large pillow that kept his head above water.
"Could it be related to us passing that canyon?" Alice asked.
"Probably? All I know is that ship was insane."
Not staying idle for much longer, they stood up and continued walking along the mountain's edge, hoping to eventually reach a height sufficient to return to the island.
Walking through the early morning, the sun rose, but they didn't dare stop. The fear of more drowned ones or those pursuing them reappearing drove them to keep moving.
From a distance, they saw a large rock by the edge and smaller rocks scattered around.
"I think… I think we need to stop there, even if just for an hour," Luke couldn't hold back and spoke. One thing was his walk through the shallow sea, but what they had done was different. They had run all night… he was extremely exhausted.
They were panting.
"I vote we do that," Anna, who was dragging herself to walk, said.
"I agree. I need… I need to recharge," Alice said, looking at them.
Luke walked ahead.
"Wait, was that a joke?" he stopped, looking back.
"It was…"