The foul smell of burned undead hit me hard. I almost vomited before I calmed myself and looked out of the window.
It seemed like the condition had become worse since I saw it; not even a minute had passed since then.
I am scared and didn’t want to go, but understood the consequences of staying. I might not be able to do much, but even doing a little would make a huge difference.
With that thought, I stepped through the hole and saw over a hundred undead attacking twenty-something guards and a few volunteers.
Their condition is bad, with injuries all over. Some had fallen; whether they are alive or dead, is hard to know.
“Miss Utsa; go back inside!” shouted Lieutenant Vasquez as he noticed me, while he hacked two skeletons in a single attack, before moving to zombies.
He is the only one among the people fighting, who is killing zombies at every attack. The others are having a hard time.
They are not to blame; many of them had never fought in the battle.
Raaa Raaa!
I looked around before moving ahead toward the group of undead. They seemed to sense me as they came.
I activated the Stored Sips again, and the whisky filled my mouth. I wanted to release it immediately, but I waited, till the group of zombies were only a meter away from me.
It is far too close for my comfort, seeing they could reach me instantly, but it is necessary for the maximum effect.
Whoosh!
Finally, the zombies reached a meter away from me, and I pushed the liquor out with Power Breath and lit it up with the Fling, creating a plume of fire that was even bigger than before.
The fire covered the three zombies and five skeletons immediately and burned them.
I looked at skeletons and thought they would be able to resist it. They did more than the zombies, but they, too, were burning.
The fire is killing them as it is killing the zombies.
Twilight Amber is precious whisky; ranked in the top hundred liquors in the world. Expensive and hard to get.
It is made in the Oton Continent using magical ingredients. The Number 37 bottle that I am drinking is advisable to drink only those at Lv. 20 with at least thirteen points of vitality.
The undead burned, and the guards watched with open mouths. Even Lieutenant Vasquez seemed shocked, seeing it.
I felt a little embarrassed feeling their gazes and decided to move to another group of zombies. As I did, I released my breath at them, burning them like I burned two groups of zombies before.
Soon, I had already taken four more breaths and killed twenty-six undead.
All the whisky in the Stored Sips had been spent, and I took out a bottle of twilight amber from my purse.
Seventy percent of it is already empty.
The whisky is too good; it was a challenge to make it last as much as I did.
I opened its bottle and smelled that wonderful smell. If I was not in a hurry, I would have enjoyed it, before putting it to my mouth. As I did, I started to gulp it down, filling the Store Sips in two gulps, before drinking one.
I tasted its wonderful taste on my tongue and felt it smoothly flowing down my throat like honey, before reaching my stomach, where it gave that familiar burn.
I drank it not for the pleasure. Ok it was the reason, but there is also another reason; the most important one.
Liquid Calm.
It is a passive skill, I have; it worked with alcohol. It makes me feel calm as I drink. Which is quite confusing, seeing I also feel the buzz from it; that people do after drinking.
With a faint buzz and calm mind. I walked toward the zombies, more confidently than before.
Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh
I released one breath of fire after another, burning the undead, and before I knew it, emptied the whisky kept in the Stored Sips and drank again, before burning the zombies with the fire breath, till I drank the last drop of the bottle.
I may have finished the bottle, but I have burned more than half of the undead.
I had just released my breath when I felt the movement from behind. Only to see Francesca coming out of the hole, with fear all over her face.
“Zombies are attacking the back wall,” she informed, and I turned to Lt. Vasquez.
“Mir, Gina, Smith; go with Miss Utsa,” said Lieutenant, and three people came toward me.
He didn’t stop me, instead giving me people.
He might have if the conditions hadn't been desperate. Now, he could use any help he can, even if it was from an important whore he had been specially asked to protect.
There are still undead, and it will be a tough battle, but it won’t be as bad as it would have been. If I hadn't burned more than half of the undead alone.
I nodded at three before activating the Graceful Walk and moving toward the back of the hospital. The three followed with their own speed skills. Their speed skills are faster than mine, despite me being higher-leveled.
Which isn’t surprising. Their skills are combat skills, while mine is not. Mine had specialties that theirs did not.
“You are amazing, Miss Utsa. I didn’t know. A fire-breather could kill the undead so effectively,” said the raven-haired woman excitedly, with her eyes shining.
My heart couldn’t help but skip a beat seeing the look in the young woman’s eyes. Nobody had ever looked at me like she was looking right now. They would always look down on me, because of my profession.
When I came into the hospital, I heard many people saying words like ‘prostitute’ and ‘silver’s whore’.
“They could not. It is the fire; It is much stronger than a normal fire,” replied the short man. He is right; the fire produced from magical liquor is much stronger; Margaux was wise to forbid me from using it.
Hun!
We were halfway when we saw a group of four undead moving toward the hospital.
“Let me handle them,” I said when I saw them moving toward the zombies.
Whoosh!
I stopped in front of the group of undead and released my breath. The liquor burned and enveloped the group of zombies. We didn’t stay, to watch them die and moved toward our destination.
Soon, we reached there, and seeing the undead, my expression couldn’t help, but change.
There are ten-something zombies and skeletons attacking the walls, but it is not what changes our expressions, but the several groups, combining into fifty-something zombies.
“Fuck!” cursed the bald man, while I shook in fear.
“You three handle the undead attacking the walls; I will deal with the ones that are coming,” I said to them, with my voice shaking faintly.
“Are you sure, Miss Utsa?” asked the woman worriedly. “I am! Go to the wall before they destroy it,” I replied.
The back wall of the hospital is thick, but the way, these undead attacking it; they will break it, if not stopped soon.
The hesitation on their faces vanished while I moved toward the undead. Fighting the fear, I am feeling at every step I take.
My legs aren’t the only thing, that is moving fast, but my thoughts are also doing the same. I am thinking about the liquor; twilight amber had been spent and so is Stored Sips.
It is not the only magical liquor I have, but it is the strongest one. The others are weaker and the fire they produce would also be weaker.
I had just been thinking about that when I remembered something. The whole vault hadn't been emptied to make room for the crystals. There was some space for some other things, including the bottles of liquor.
I looked and immediately saw there was liquor. I even saw a couple of bottles of twilight amber.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Immediately, one bottle appeared in my hand. I looked at the unsealed bottle filled with amber liquid and opened it, before starting to gulp down wonderfully smooth amber liquid.
It felt different and more amazing, that I couldn’t help but take a sip of it, which made my mind calm as the lake.
It is the establishment's bottle, which means it had the emotion mist in it. Making already great liquor, even better to drink.
As for burning it, I don’t know.
‘I hope, the emotion mist didn’t affect things,’ I thought.
If it had normal time; I wouldn’t have dared to do this. Emotion mist isn’t emotion essence, but it is still dangerous, and I rather not take a risk, but time is different right now.
There is no other option for me than to take a risk.
I slowed down my speed before stopping in front of a big group of undead. There were thirteen undead in there; I tried to find a small group, but there wasn’t.
Raa Raaa Raaa
It is why I didn’t get too close to them. It might lessen the effect of fire, but I like to be safe; I don’t want to get mobbed down by the zombies before I can burn them.
I pushed the liquor out with Powerful Breath and burned it with flint.
Whoosh!
The fire plume of fire bloomed, and it was bigger than I had expected. Seeing that, my eyes couldn’t help but widen.
The bloom of fire is double the size, and the fire is denser and hotter. So much so that I felt my face singing.
Though, compared to me, what the undead are facing is a hundred times worse. The fire had covered them whole, and it was burning them. The fire is so strong, that the skeletons died as quickly as the zombies.
Raaaa Raaa Raaa!
I was transfixed by it when I was awoken by the voice of the undead and saw the two big groups coming from left and right.
Seeing them, a grin rose across my singed face.
Whoosh Whoosh!
I moved toward the left group with my heart beating wildly and released the breath, burning the group of twelve undead before moving right, releasing another breath from burning sixteen zombies.
There are seventeen in the group, and one is too far. That fire didn’t reach it.
Whoosh!
It came at me, and I wanted to release a small breath, but seeing my skills and the power of liquor, I released the full breath, without holding anything back.
It is extremely wasteful but better than trying something I had no confidence in. If I had failed, I might have harmed myself and the harm wouldn’t have been small.
It had been nearly half a year since I had started learning the fire-breathing and nearly two months since I had gotten the Fire Breather class. At that time, I had already reached Lv. 6 and had two skills.
I am practicing, but half a year is not much; it is already fast that I was able to reach Lv. 6 within two months.
If I knew, I was going to be using fire breathing. I would have practiced even more and focused more on control and techniques, rather than trying to blow the biggest fire plume as possible.
Which is also helping me tremendously right now.
The idea to learn fire breathing had been sudden.
One time, I had gone to watch the circus with Margaux. There I saw a fire-breather. I got so enamored with her, that immediately I asked Margaux to hire an instructor for me.
She got angry immediately, not because I wanted to learn the fire breathing, which is dangerous.
It is the reason, but not the main one. The main reason was three instructors of different things, I had asked her to hire and left the courses within a month, losing interest.
Margaux had warned me that it would last. If I didn’t learn it for at least four months; she would cancel the privilege of personal instructor that every asst. madam has.
I was planning to give up at that moment. Thank god, I didn’t.
Whoosh Whoosh!
I didn’t waste any time and moved toward the last two groups and released the breath one after another, burning them.
Clap Clap Clap
I was about to move when I heard the whistles before loud claps rang out. It surprised me so much, that I GOT alarmed for a moment before I saw the people, a large number of them.
They are in tall buildings around the small squares, watching from windows, balconies, and roofs.
Some were from the cordoned tents in the small garden.
I felt tears coming down my eyes and I wanted to cry, but I didn’t and instead moved toward the hospital. There is another group that joined, and the three are struggling to fight.
Whoosh!
“Move!” I said, and they listened immediately. A second later, a large plum of fire came out, burning all the undead.
Hun!
Seeing that, a smile appeared on my face, and I was turning toward the three when I saw a sword coming out of the fire.
A skeleton threw its weapon at me, and it was fast.
Rip!
I moved at the last moment, but I was not fast enough. The sword cut through my waist before clattering on the ground.
“Miss Utsa, are you all right?” asked the three in alarm as they came at me as I looked at a big bleeding cut.
It is painful enough that it is bringing the tears to my eyes.
It took me a second to think through the pain and shock that I needed to heal the wound and quickly took out a potion and drank it while applying some to the wound.
The short young man also helped me quickly bandage the wound.
“Thank you,” I said as he finished. “We shouldn’t underestimate the undead. Sometimes, they behave unexpectedly,” he warned, and I nodded soberly.
I never heard skeleton throwing their swords at enemies. At least not the ones that are not being directly controlled.
Still, I should have been careful.
I got too confident. If I had dodged it on time; it would have burrowed in my stomach and that might have killed me or been injured enough that I couldn’t fight.
That would have been disastrous.
“We should get going. Lieutenant needs our help,” said the young woman. I nodded and the four of us moved immediately.
Every step I take shoots pain through my body, but I bore a reminder to be more careful and not get too confident.
“The undead are everywhere,” said a bald man as we moved toward Lieutenant Vasquez.
The undead seemed to be everywhere, most of them moving alone, but some were in small groups. I wanted to burn them all, but the hospital was a priority.
Soon, we reached the hospital and saw the undead had reached the previous numbers.
“My god!” exclaimed the woman, seeing the numbers, but didn’t stop and soon we reached them.
Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh
They joined Lt. Vasquez while I moved back and started releasing large plumes of fire. Each of the plumes cost a lot of gold, but I decided to not think about it; I am sure Master Silver would forgive me for it.
He personally said to me, that I could use anything I want from the vault to help people.
I released breath after breath until I realized there was no undead left to burn.
“You are magnificent, Miss Utsa,” praised Lt. Vasquez as he stopped in front of me. “Thank you, Lieutenant.” I took the praise gracefully.
He smiled before his expressions turned serious.
“What are you going to do now?” he asked. “There are a lot of undead,” I replied, looking around.
“Just be careful,” he said, and I nodded.
A few seconds later, I was moving toward the big group of undead, with a small smile on my face.
I am feeling something I had never felt before. I don’t know what it is, but it gave me a sort of joy, I had never felt before and I want to keep feeling it.