Damn it! I remembered the ancient film "Critters". There, small toothy creatures clumped into a huge ball rolled over a stumbling person, of whom only a skeleton remained after a second. These won't devour so quickly, but you can immediately forget about eyes and eardrums.
We ran out through the hole in the wall and rushed down the slope. And, characteristically, the chicken army didn't lag behind at all, only slightly stretched out.
Viziliy turned around on the run and threw some blue vial, and a second later something boomed behind us.
"Kill!" shouted the old man turning around.
Repeating after my more experienced companions, I also turned to face the fortress. Hm, it seems the vial was something like a slowing grenade. At least about thirty of the nearest chickens were moving as if in slow motion, and their comrades who weren't affected were jumping over their heads.
And then the heat began.
Both of my companions rushed past me and in this situation preferred short one-handed swords. From behind, it seemed to me that two mills had started working. The gray one a little faster, the healthy one a little slower.
Few made it through these millstones, and as a result, my log looked very modest...
[You killed a Dead Chicken of level 3.]
[You killed a Dead Chicken of level 3.]
[You killed a Dead Chicken of level 3.]
And that's all.
And when Viziliy walked on the carpet of corpses, it became clear why we didn't arrange a bird slaughter right in the castle.
"Whoa, damn!"
The words themselves escaped my lips when HE appeared from the crack in the wall. The Tsar-undead. About three meters tall, in a metal chain mail, horned helmet and with a huge two-handed axe, and for some reason in torn leather pants and barefoot. This monster was surrounded by at least twenty ordinary sixth-level undead.
"You really shouldn't have shouted..." Lynch, activating a two-handed axe, examining the guests. "Before waking him up, we should have killed all the small fry."
"At least we'll finish with everyone at once," I excused myself, and when two faces turned to me at once, I pretended to be performing an autopsy on a chicken with the tip of my sword.
The main undead was in no hurry and, without moving, was examining us.
"When he attacks, we run in a wide circle around the fortress," Viziliy began to outline the tactics. "They will outrun him, and we can kill them little by little. But don't get too far ahead, otherwise he'll call them back. And don't get closer than ten meters to him, he might throw the axe."
Yeah, this needs to be firmly grasped: even when I level up a lot, without companions who know all the nuances of behavior of the most diverse opponents, there's nothing to do in a serious scuffle.
The undead still wasn't moving.
"On the border of the zone..." Lynch looked at Viziliy. "We need to get closer."
"Yes, five meters forward."
We moved, and the corpses of twice-dead chickens crunched under my soles.
"R-R-R-A-A-A!!!"
The boss raised his axe and pointed at us. This became the signal for attack. Pushing each other, the small opponents rushed down the hill. Considering those we didn't see behind the wall, there were about thirty of them.
Everything was going according to plan: we were running, and the undead were interfering with each other, stumbling and falling, others stumbled over them... In general, about half rolled down the slope and fell far behind.
"Get ready!" Viziliy shouted on the run. "Turn around!"
I was running on the edge, a little further from the fortress than the others, and only one pursuer was rushing along my trajectory. Easy! Dodge and sword to the neck. This time I struck from behind, and the beheaded body rolled on the ground.
"Don't do that in a group fight! You're exposing your back!" Somehow the old man managed to chop legs and watch me. "Either continue moving to turn face again."
"Understood!"
"Run!"
We repeated the maneuver, leaving six bodies on the ground. The big boss was walking slower than his minions, but was still close enough and his presence was putting pressure on the psyche.
After about forty meters we turned around again, and this time I got only one opponent. Remembering the mentor's precepts, I didn't show off and killed the opponent with the simplest, already many times tested sequence of actions.
"Run!"
Again, six bodies were left on the withered grass. However, the total number of nearest pursuers didn't decrease, as those who initially fell had already joined the general mass.
The third maneuver also succeeded. Though this time I didn't get anyone.
But then we messed up a bit and overdid the distance.
"R-R-R-A-A-A!"
The main undead froze, and his entire army rushed back to him. Even those whose legs my allies had chopped off were crawling towards their master, pulling themselves with their arms.
"We took down half," Linch stated with satisfaction.
"Why aren't we shooting them with bows?" I asked a question that had been hovering on the edge of my consciousness for a while.
"Why waste arrows?" Viziliy looked at me in surprise. "They're cheap in the city, but in our wilderness, they're a rare commodity."
Really? And Legolas never ran out.
Either the boss was learning, or his aggressiveness depended on the number of his entourage, but this time, to aggro him, we had to get closer than fifteen meters...
"R-R-R-A-A-A!!!"
...and then quickly scram.
In general, he was left alone only after about fifteen minutes. During this time, only one miserable undead fell to my share, and I was surprised to find that it wasn't enough and my hands were itching to cut someone else.
"R-R-R-A-A-A!"
We pulled away again, and now the lonely boss froze and looked at us angrily.
"Linch, stay here." Viziliy came up to me and quietly asked a very strange question: "Ilya, do you believe in signs?"
"Well, sort of..." I shrugged uncertainly. "I know for sure that when a brick falls on your head, it's a bad sign."
"Yeah," the old man grinned. "But in our world, it's better to believe in signs, and so I suggest sending a request to the universe. You haven't taken the next level yet, right?"
"No..."
I stared in bewilderment at my companion who suddenly started talking like an info-gypsy.
"In short, you now go off in that direction, and we provoke this bastard and lead him away. When we're far enough, you go back and finish off all those who are still alive. If you don't take the seventh level, then I'll kill him," Viziliy nodded towards the undead in the horned helmet. "If you do, then you kill him. How does that sound?"
"Sounds reliable."
"I think so too... Now put your hands like this..." he raised his palms above his head, and I repeated, "and say: I, Ilya..."
"I, Ilya."
"Send a request to the universe..."
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"Yes," Viziliy roared with laughter, making his gray beard shake. "But about the signs — it's not a joke. Go over there."
The system sent me quite an ally... Well, fine, let him have his fun. Before me, his entertainment here was just a garden, a horse, and maybe an occasional drunken fight. I walked away with a good margin and froze in anticipation.
Only Viziliy went to the undead, and this time he had to get closer than ten meters.
"R-R-R-A-A-A!!!"
The undead threw the axe. It wasn't "The Matrix", of course, but what the old man did very much reminded me of that movie. He suddenly glowed, blurred a bit, bent... In short, the axe flew past and stuck in the ground. The boss's tricks didn't end there. He stretched out his hand, and the glove on it began to glow. And a moment later, the axe shone too and, jumping out of the ground, flew spinning back to its owner. Of course, trying to reach the old man on the way. He was expecting this and dodged again. And only then did they start running, while I rushed in the opposite direction and began finishing off the crippled sixth-level undead.
To be honest, what I saw shook my desire to play the game proposed by Viziliy. Almost the whole time, while I was walking along the fortress wall and chopping heads, the image of this horned bastard and his huge flying axe stood before my eyes.
Twenty-three undead had survived. However, two of them were in such bad shape that beheading didn't inflict maximum damage, so I didn't get experience for them.
Seems like that's all... Oh no. There, another one is still moving, and there's no box above him. And this one is definitely the last!
I ran up to the undead reaching out to me and lowered the blade of my sword onto his neck.
[You killed a Dead Man of level 6.]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 7!]
[Your vision has improved.]
[You receive one skill point.]
Well, well...