As they slowly continued down the street lining the front of the factory, John was carefully chipping in, trying to help out without showing too much.
At first, he was annoyed at being stuck here and having to pretend to struggle with a single zombie, but following the limitations he set upon himself turned out to be a very fruitful exercise. From their first fight, he had to acknowledge how dumb it was for him to call every command out loud and started to guide the dagger mentally. His special conditions were the maximum range only up to ten meters, and after every stab or cut, he called it back for a second, making it seem to only follow a simple attack pattern. Sure, this way of battle was extremely inefficient, but the practice of guiding every strike made him much more precise and used to the way of its movements.
"John, stall the one on the right, Vic you help Mart to quickly kill that one," Tom commanded while pointing a finger at one of the zombies, "and I'll try to slow down those two."
Over the last fifteen minutes, Tom proved himself a capable strategist and no one argued with his quick tactics. John stepped to the right and willed the dagger to twirl in the air and deliver a shallow cut on the zombie's left leg. He noticed that if he didn't leave the weapon inside them for long, the golden lines won't ever start forming, making it seem like a simple ornate weapon instead of the blessed devastator it was.
Another cut left a deep mark on its thigh and John took a couple of steps back. It was now much easier to keep the zombies out of balance and time his strikes to cause a maximum impact for the least amount of difficulty.
Aaand now! He waited until the zombie was about to put its whole weight on its left leg before letting the dagger strike the wounded side again. "Yeah!" He cheered as the leg buckled and the zombie fell on its back and smacked its head on the pavement. He was ready, holding a steel pipe, and the moment it lost its balance, he closed the distance and started smashing it right on its head.
"That was savage," Commented Vicki after freezing their second target, "I must say, maybe it was a good idea after all. Now I wish I had picked one for myself too."
An agreeable grunt let them know that Martin also supported John's idea.
"Well you should have thought about that before, now get ready, the next street is the start of the city block, which could mean a huge mess," John told her while nodding towards the intersection.
They rounded the corner and couldn't help but stare at the grim sight in front of them, because calling it a mess would be an understatement. There were dozens of car accidents, some cars crashed right into the buildings or shops lining the street, a couple of cars were even burning and human corpses littered the street. In the distance, they could see a small group of people fighting, but other than that, the only living people were those dumbly staring out of their windows into the carnage below.
"Fuck, this is… I don't…" Tom spoke with a broken voice.
"We push through. No other choice left." Martin spoke barely loud enough to be heard, and with a sad shake of his head took the first step forward. "Come."
The fighting wasn't any more difficult, but seeing the dead bodies illuminated by the crackling fire kept the mood low and somber. They made good progress and were halfway to the next intersection when a sharp gasp came from Vicki's mouth.
"What is it V?" Tom asked, and she only pointed at the blue car with a torn-up body of a woman cradling a small child and the darkening red puddle under them. "Leave them V, there is nothing we can do.
"We can at least make the bastards pay for what they've done." Added John and started walking toward the next pack.
They met with a few other parties over the following hour, but everyone kept to themselves, and seeing the group of four moving with a purpose they either left them be or asked a couple of questions before heading somewhere else.
"John, finish that one and fall back. It's too risky to fight all seven at once." Guided Tom, who was currently standing on the roof of a brown van and shooting lightning bolts into the crowd of zombies clustered around a choke point twenty meters ahead.
Martin blocked their advance with the help of the freezing mist from Vic and John slowly cut down each zombie trying to break through. They made this tactic because they came upon a group of eleven zombies, all clustered around five dead people, and the only way through was between two buses blocking both sidewalks and most of the highway, leaving only a one-meter gap in between. They held for as long as they could, but after killing four, the rest were pushing out of the gap and they were now at risk of getting flanked.
"Damn, ok, get ready to run back, we create a bit of a distance and finish them off near Tom," John said and commanded his dagger to stab into the weakened zombie. His guess about how much it could take was correct and before it formed the cracks it fell apart, leaving behind a bigger shining ball of ash signaling a new card. Nice!
They ran back, creating a bit more distance and letting both John and Tom harass the incoming group with bolts and stabs.
Two more zombies crumbled before they closed the distance to the van, and a well-placed mist with good teamwork was enough to finish the remaining four off.
"Wow, it was eleven!" Cried the ecstatic voice of Tom. "We made it, I told you to trust me and it paid off. We even got a new…"
His enthusiastic speech was interrupted by Martin, who put his meaty hand on John's shoulder from behind. "John, I have to ask you to pull out the card you just got and give it to us."
"Wait M, John helped us, surely he.. " Tom tried to argue, but got interrupted again.
Martin shook his head and spoke with finality,
"No, it is only the second one we got and they are too valuable right now. It is foolish to be generous in the time of need."
"I see… what if I refuse?" John said, keeping still so as not to provoke them.
"That," Martin took a deep breath in and out, "would be unfortunate."
"Ok, ok I don't want to fight you. Apocalypse deck." John replied sadly, shaking his head in disappointment.
There, nestled on top of the pile was a new card called Increase melee penetration with a white border.
[Increase melee penetration
Can be linked with any ability bearing a melee tag to increase its melee penetration by 15%]
"How do I do it?" He asked, already having an idea, but it was better to sound sincere and inexperienced.
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"You just think about grabbing it with your hand and it should pop into the open." Tom helpfully answered.
"Ok, let me try… maybe… like this?" He focused on the card he wanted to pull out and suddenly, he held it in his hand. "Huh, this is it?" It felt firm like it was made from metal, but weighed barely anything and he stretched out his hand, letting Martin grab it. The moment Martin grabbed it, John took a couple of quick steps away, creating a safe distance.
"No need to be afraid," said Vicki, trying to placate him, "we wouldn't have hurt you, but you must understand, the cards can be the difference between living and dying and surely you must agree we helped you a lot by letting you go with us. Yes, we probably should have said we will be keeping the cards, but still, we worked together well, right? We kept you safe, and.."
"It's useless." Martin's deep angry voice suddenly interrupted her speech. "It's a fucking projectile speed and none of us have a projectile card." He waved it around, "Here John, you keep it, but the next one you find is ours."
John was about to reach for it but thought better of it. "No, you were right, you deserve it for what you did. After all, you would be foolish to be generous in these hard times, but I am afraid it's better if we split up. This street," he pointed towards the last intersection, "can also take me where I need to go, so yeah, good luck." And he turned and slowly walked away.
"What? Don't get smart with me…" Martin spoke out but was stopped by Tom.
"Stop, you've done enough M, leave him be. You know, If you just asked what he got first, this…" As John was getting further away, Tom's voice was soon too quiet to be heard.
Yeah, they would have only taken the good cards. Fuck them, they were holding me back anyway.
Besides, he was telling them the truth about this intersection. Sure it didn't lead to the rusted statue, but if he kept following this street up north, he would come home from the other side and take only a very small detour.
Stopping at the corner to make sure nobody was following him, John turned around and all he could see was a crashed bus and a couple of cars on an otherwise empty street.
Good, now it's time to test my limits.
The first thing he tried was the maximum range. He had a feeling the E grade in Focus had an impact on the precision of its movements, so maybe it could also work on the range.
After trying to command an attack on a zombie a bit too far away and nothing happening, he slowly walked closer and repeatedly willed for it to engage. With a swishing sound, it suddenly flew forward and John smiled in appreciation. He waited for it to hit the zombie once and immediately called it back, counting the seconds. By his estimate, the maximum range was now around fifty meters, and it took nineteen seconds for the zombie to run the distance between them.
This is huge, he thought, watching the dagger do a quick work of it. With my increased control, taking four at once shouldn't be a problem. Might be even worth going for another guardian. And he had a good idea of where to find one because the main bridge wasn't far from where he lived.
He was moving with purpose and only killing the ones blocking his way and after passing through three streets, he ran upon a street perfectly cleaned with no zombies in sight.
"Someone's been busy." He commented, briskly walking through the street and towards Winton's square. It was only two streets south of where he lived and filled with a bunch of shops, restaurants, and some famous old chapel right in the middle.
There was a checkpoint at the half of the street, and the entryway into the square was currently being barricaded. There was already a white van and half a dozen people were bringing pieces of furniture and lodging them into the spaces between the van, creating a makeshift wall to block any dangerous undead monsters off.
Stopping at the checkpoint, there was a young man—likely a guard—and to the side a flimsy Ikea table behind which sat a middle-aged woman.
Admiring the handy work of the people in the distance, John eventually stepped up to the man and with a grin on his face asked, "Hey, is that entrance going to be made out of a wardrobe?" Pointing at the sliding door currently being fitted to the left between the grey house and an overturned table, blocking the way through.
"Ehh, better then nothing, right?." The guy replied, clearly a bit annoyed of his position out here.
"Stop pestering Lucas and come here, I need to write you in before you are allowed inside." Snapped the woman, clicking a pen and shuffling some paper around. "Soo," she looked him up and down, and frowned, "your name?"
"Huh? umm, John… Why are you asking?" He replied, confused about what was going on.
"So, John... no last name... right. I can guess the flying thing above your head is your card, so what rank it is and shortly describe what it can do." She looked at him expectantly, waiting for his response.
"Excuse me? Why should I…" His confusion was now turning to annoyance.
"So we can assign you to a fitting group and you can start helping others as soon as possible, obviously." She continued with her voice that was always just a bit too loud to be pleasant, but not loud enough to be called out on.
"I think there's a misunderstanding. I am not joining anything, I just want to go through here and continue up Baker's street." John explained, trying to keep the annoyance from leaking into his tone.
"Just want to go through... How can you say that? There are so many people here who need help and you would just let them suffer? When the groups cleaned up the streets and helped you to get your first card, it was ok, but now that we ask you to do the same, you refuse? Not on my watch! You either get your head straight or I'll make sure you are never allowed to come here ever again." She sneered at him with that condescending expression of someone who thought they already won the argument and are just waiting for the other person to fall in line.
After that, John's frayed patience almost snapped, but he grit his teeth and once again tried to explain. "No, I obtained that card by myself, and I am not willing to commit to anything yet. So please, stop with that condescending tone of yours and let me pass through."
"You will apologize and show me respect, young man!" She tapped her finger on the table for emphasis. "Until then, we have nothing else to talk about."
Fuck, I just hate these people, she doesn't care about me one bit and was only stroking her flaccid ego.
He turned and got the fuck out of there, leaving her incensed blabbering and impotent threats well behind him.
After calming down, he kind of regretted leaving without solving the issue, but after the hard day at work, followed by this mess, he was just tired of everything. Having her spew all that bullshit was just too much for him.
I just want to get home and go to bed.
Luckily for him, all the streets leading around and into the square were already cleared, so he followed them until the intersection with Baker's street, where he ran into a group of people who were clearing the way up north.
John kept a safe distance and watched, as a young man handed a fire axe to an older gentleman who seemed very unsure about what to do. "Don't worry Mr. Hugal, all you need to do is wait for us to incapacitate it, and you come over and deliver the finishing blow to its neck." Mr. Hugal only nodded, gripping the axe in both hands and ready to swing.
"Hey Josh, we are ready, pull one to us." Shouted the young guy and John watched as three people lured the closest pair of zombies to them, and after killing one, they cut off the other one's legs at the ankles and the young man calmly said, "When I say, it's all yours Mr." darted in, and touched the downed zombie's chest. A green pulse spread from the touch, it stopped struggling, and he yelled, "now!"
Mr. Hugal swung down with all his might from the side, burying the axe deep into its head.
"One more time, I can keep it paralyzed for six more seconds, hurry." The young man said, holding a hammer in his left hand, ready to finish it off in case something went wrong.
The older guy planted his boot on its neck, with a jerk upwards tore the axe from its face, and delivered a blow that cut the rest of its head off. "I think I got it, I chose a rare card and got something called a Soothing light. Says it can heal up to moderate injuries. Is that good?"
"Wow, we found our first healer. Yes, Mr. Hugal, it is very good. You might have the second-best card we've seen so far." The young man replied, unable to keep the excitement from his face. "Jin, lead this fine gentleman to Vinton's square and make sure he has all he needs."
"Thank you, young man. I am glad even these old bones can still be useful nowadays."
John watched them walk away, when the same young man walked up to him, leaving the rest of his group heading north, cleaning up the zombies, and calling out to anyone who lived there to find safety and food at Vinton's square.