The way I dealt with Zombies had changed.

As an apprentice, I’d focused on one at a time and only from the safety of my Master’s gaze.

As a Potential, I’d stalked them, killing them from the back and taking down as many as I could before they noticed me.

Now as a Touched, I walked out to meet them.

The Zombies paused as soon as they saw me. Their purple eyes let me know that they were from around here. The ones that had attacked the town the day before had sported blue eyes. I wasn’t sure what the exact difference was, but I knew that it meant the blue ones weren’t from around here.

I could feel the feral minds of the Zombies as the five of them lined up. They were still mostly clothed in what they’d been wearing when they died. Judging by their uniforms, it looked like they’d been farmers, probably out in the walled fields when one of the walls had failed and a swarm had gotten in. I shook my head. That was part of what I was supposed to be doing on this mission. While Humans could fight against Zombies, it was much safer for someone like me who had been trained their entire life to reclaim any walled fields that had been lost to a Zombie horde.

There wasn’t much travel between cities unless you were going by horse or wagon. There had been a precious few times that Master Bran had accompanied a caravan between cities. There were just some things that you couldn’t get in certain areas, though most of the larger towns tended to be on the coast. It was much safer for Humans to sail from one place to another. If they did come ashore, all they would have to do if they saw a Zombie was get back on their ship and they’d be safe. My Master hadn’t liked ships, so I’d never been on one, instead we’d mostly walked all over the continent.

I thought about giving the Zombies a chance to run away, but then they’d be a threat for someone else. There wasn’t a cure, despite the breakthrough in finding a way to purify the plague. Though that discovery had resulted in the entire town getting destroyed, so I had my doubts there was much, if any, of that left.

“Let’s finish this.” I motioned with my sword for the Zombies to attack me.

Feral snarls filled the night air as they charged in a V formation. Their purple, glowing eyes fixated on me and their open mouths hungry for the magic that was inside me.

The polished heartstone in the hilt of my sword started to shine and the purple blade emitted a soft glow. I only had to move just a little magic into the sword to turn it into a weapon that could cut into Zombies as easily as if they were butter and I was holding a hot knife.

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I took off the lead one’s head as I backpedaled. While they weren’t much of a threat to me, that was because of how easily I could kill them. I’d still die if they managed to overwhelm me even if I couldn’t get infected.

The one to the left of the Zombie I’d beheaded tripped over its headless companion, spreading it flat on the ground. I stepped to my right and without a good angle to the one in front of me’s neck, I cut through its left knee, as I dashed past it.

The Zombie fell over the other prone one, making a stack of three Zombies in between me and the two that were still on their feet.

The two standing Zombies split around the pile, so I moved to my left, swinging my sword up and taking off the head of the Zombie that I’d kneecapped. The lone prone Zombie was now in the middle of a sandwich of two dead Zombies and was struggling to get out.

I reversed the swing and took off the other Zombie’s left arm, then rotated on my left foot. I kicked with my right leg in a sweep that knocked that Zombie on its back on top of the pile that I was making.

The last standing Zombie was slower than me and after a few steps around the pile, I had it on the exact opposite side. I took the opportunity to decapitate the Zombie on top of the pile, then rotated a little more until I was back to where the clumsy Zombie was facing.

The trapped Zombie snarled at me as it swiped with its hands. I took off both at the elbows, then finished it off, kicking its rolling head back to the pile before it could get away.

That was one of the rules when dealing with Zombies. You had to make sure you accounted for all of the parts. There wasn't a lot of wildlife left, but a foraging wolf might try to eat a forgotten appendage. While it wouldn’t turn the animal into a Zombie, eating the turned flesh would turn it rabid and a bite from one of those hungry creatures could infect people.

I stepped away from the pile of dead Zombies so that the last one would come at me. I sheathed my sword, which gave the monster pause. It regarded me like I was offering myself up to it. It hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do when its target wasn’t fighting back or running.

Since it was unsure of what it wanted to do, I stretched out my hand and pulled on my magic. A small stream of fire shot out of my hand and washed over the last Zombie. It stumbled backwards into the pile and the whole thing went up instantly in flames. Zombie blood was very flammable, which was something that we took advantage of when cleaning up.

The Zombie tried to get out of the stack, so I punched it between the eyes, knocking it out and back on the pyre. While the magic within the Zombies would heal them of most wounds eventually, the fire would burn it away much faster than it could heal.

I reached out my senses, but there weren’t any other Zombies close. Content that the threat had been dealt with, I leaned against a tree to watch the fire burn and hoped that would be all the excitement for the evening.