A blast of fist-sized rocks shot up from the ground, hitting the unfortunate zombie in the legs with a loud bang. The zombie was launched a meter away, fell to the ground with both of its legs mangled beyond use, and started crawling toward Tamara wholly uncaring of the wounds it received. That triggered another rune planted further in its way, shooting stones through its head and killing it instantly, making it crumble apart and shoot a white ball to her chest.
In the meantime, John finished the rest of the zombies except for one, which he left for Rick to handle, and was pleasantly surprised by his crushing might. His ability gave him a significant boost to his strength, and he was able to tear through it in three swipes of his sledgehammer, leaving behind a mess of body parts crumbling to ash.
With the first pull finished, John explained his intention of testing his abilities and farming the ash, which convinced them to stay and learn how to use theirs and complement each other.
At first, John was taking the majority of the kills, but over the following hour, Rick and Tamara formed an efficient combat strategy and were able to dispatch the whole pulls without John's assistance. Rick's ability ended up being a one-minute of super strength followed by a four-minute cooldown, and Tamara was able to plant one trap every fifteen seconds with seemingly no limit, but a duration somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five minutes.
After two hours of testing, learning, and one scary incident where Rick stepped on the trap but didn't make it trigger, they have decided to take down a pack of four Rothounds patrolling around a hill up ahead. Spending fifteen minutes laying traps near their trail, they formed protective layers of highly effective traps.
"Is everyone ready?" John asked, watching both nod in determination.
Here they come, John thought, watching the four beasts leisurely walk to the ambush location and willed both of his minions to attack. The hounds reacted fast, and the two uninjured rushed towards them, triggering the first layer of traps. Their speed carried them partway over them, making the trap explode under their bellies and cause some internal injuries. Unfortunately for the hounds, the unexpected explosions made them panic, and by slowing down they stepped right into the second layer. This time, lacking the momentum to make it over, the rocks shredded both of their legs, turning their beefy paws into a mess of jutting bones and twisting their forelegs at all the wrong angles.
A complication arrived with the two Rothounds left behind who didn't rush in like their pack members, but split up and attempted to run around the dangerous place in front of them. Luckily for the group, John remembered their smart behavior from the hunt in the morning and insisted on Tamara making the final fourth layer shaped like a horseshoe, protecting both the front and the flanks. The two with mangled legs were now panicking, unsure of how to proceed, but seeing their pack members running around gave them confidence and they crawled straight toward Tamara.
The first to step on the next trap was the one with a cut neck and a long wound in its belly, and as it ran over and took the shrapnel, the damage was beyond devastating, tearing through the small cuts and making it collapse with its entrails leaking out.
The second was the one hit by the Storm wisp, and it similarly stepped on the trap on the other side, but with its uninjured belly was able to take the hit and continue. Seeing that, Tamara quickly planted one extra trap in front of them, and John, having its focus, lured the Rothound on top of it. After that, Rick made short work of it with his hammer, earning the first kill.
The two poor Rothounds crawling through the center got to the third layer and got their forelegs torn off, and the last one finally died, giving John the blue ash. The rest of the fight was very simple with Rick going through the traps and crushing the one on the left, and John using his minions to finish the one on the right.
"Wow, great job everyone," John applauded, watching the carnage in front of them.
"How about we use the remaining traps on the zombies?" Rick asked while cleaning his hammer, looking at Tamara for agreement. John shrugged, telling them to be careful, and went to kill more zombies on his own.
He was slowly going around the front of the hill in a zigzag, pulling the ever-shrinking throng away and making a clean work of them until he came upon another two packs of Rothounds. One was going clockwise, the other counterclockwise, meeting at the same spot to the right every two and a half minutes, and John got ready to pull the smaller pack with two members after they passed the other one, giving him enough time to get rid of them.
Remembering their speed on the open ground, he split the targets, and let his dagger attack the closer one, leaving the one trotting behind it to his wisp. His plan was simple and straightforward, run around the two large boulders behind him to break their speed, and then use thick bushes to buy as much time as possible. To avoid physical confrontation, he needed to create space for at least two more bolts from his wisp and was confident in doing so.
The welcoming bolt hit the side of its head, making it yelp, and at the same time his stiletto buried itself into the neck of the other one, and John burst into a sprint, heading to the first boulder. The Rothounds, losing sight of their prey split up, one coming from the left while the other from the right, ready to ambush their attacker, but as they came from the sides, they saw him running straight away in the distance and had to speed up to catch him.
Eight…Nine…Ten! John counted in his head, quickly looking behind him and making the wisp to change target and fire at the one bleeding out from its neck.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The second boulder was coming close, and he repeated the same trick, running around it to hide from sight, but never actually stopping. The Rothounds, losing sight of him again, attempted to keep their speed, but the injured one was starting to slow down, leaving his packmate to pursue John alone.
Seeing his dagger fly back above his head, he made another quick look over his shoulder and noticed only one Rothound roughly thirty meters away, and with only four seconds to stall, he smiled.
Seven…Eight…Nine…Fire!
The chasing hound tensed up mid-stride ten meters behind him, losing his footing and eating dirt as he slid and rolled forward with his momentum. John stepped to the left and delivered three strong strikes with his bat to its head while his stiletto slowly cut a deep line through its neck.
Hmm, those hounds really have tough skin.
His stiletto was great at stabbing, but when there was a need to widen the wound, it proved time and time again as an unfitting armament for the job. Luckily, with the combination of paralyzing electricity and powerful blows to the head, the Rothound was unable to mount any resistance and soon perished. The other one was lying on the ground forty meters away, slowly bleeding out, and John commanded his dagger to quickly finish it off.
Happy with his victory, John sat down on a nearby rock, and relaxed. It was becoming obvious that his body had changed, and was able to both heal and deal with tiredness much faster than before.
It must have been the E grade Vitality after all, the Focus gave me a significant boost in range plus the precision of control, so it kinda makes sense, John thought, while absentmindedly looking over the four common cards he obtained in the last three hours.
[Increased bleeding duration
Can be linked with any ability bearing a bleeding tag to increase its bleed duration by 15%]
That's just useless.
[Staggering blows
Can be linked with any ability bearing a melee tag which is activated with a blunt weapon to increase the force of impact by 15%]
Useful, just not for me.
[Disease and poison resistance
Can be linked with your body card to increase resistance to diseases and poisons depending on your Vitality and their rarity]
Interesting, he thought, looking at his main body which currently had only two linked cards, so there was no reason not to use it.
[Increased minion movement speed
Can be linked with any ability bearing a minion tag to increase its movement speed by 15%]
Nodding, he slotted the last card to his stiletto and turned around to look for Rick and Tam. If there were more obstacles around, he would consider killing the pack of three alone, but here it was too risky.
Frowning, he searched for any signs of fighting, but couldn't see them anywhere.
"Rick! Tamara! Where are you?"
Did they leave on their own?
Thinking clearly, there weren't many places they could be, and from his vantage point, he should have been able to see them by now.
Well, I guess I'll have to leave the Rothounds for later.
Slightly dejected, he continued killing on his own, only stopping an half hour after the sunset after almost missing an incoming pack in the dark and getting himself killed. His baseball bat was also dented and showing the wear of the hundred heads it cracked open, and he was ready to take a break.
Remembering the veiled hint from the morning announcement, he expected something similar happening at the twenty-four-hour mark, which should by his guess be in two hours.
Hmm, that's enough time for a quick meal before heading back.
Not seeing any safe place for the archway, he decided to walk back to the city, only stopping after seeing Rick's house.
"Yeah, that will do," he nodded, heading towards the hole in the fence using his Storm wisp as a source of flickering white light. As he went through, he could immediately tell something was wrong by the two new corpses of Rothounds lying broken near the house's door. Looking around for any danger, he carefully walked in, making sure both of his minions were ready to strike.
"Oh no," he mumbled, seeing a trail of red blood leading toward the kitchen. Slowly, he crept forward, listening for any sounds, but the house was silent and the only light was from his wisp, casting discordant shadows around the hallway. Pushing the destroyed bits of the door away, he came upon a broken corpse of another Rothound, but also in the far corner next to a kitchen table was a pair of people hugging, holding hands, and sitting in a large pool of their own blood. "Why?" John asked no one in particular, staring at their dead bodies.
After tearing his eyes away, he noticed something shining on the table, and after coming closer he found two common cards, a stack of three hundred and thirty-one white, five blue piles of ash, and a scrap of paper with a short message written with a shaky hand.
John,
If you are reading this, know that I am sorry. Seeing the ease of dispatching the four beasts, we grew overconfident and wanted to try on our own. All it took was one mistake and my Tammie died in my arms, and I am not going to live much longer. Please, take what we have found, and make those monsters pay.
R.
It was a strange feeling for John. Until now he never had to deal with loss and would have never thought that having people die after knowing them for barely two hours would make him so sad. He was about to leave, but remembering the way all the dead turned into skeletons, he grabbed a spade in the garden and dug out a grave so that they ma y rest together in peace.
"I will make the monsters pay," John said, standing over their graves. Sure, it was just as a pragmatic choice as a choice of revenge, but he made an internal note to remember this moment. Should he have the opportunity to actually make those responsible for this whole apocalypse pay, he would. Right now though, it was dark and getting close to the second announcement, so it was better he got on his way.