His legs burned; It was like he had pulled every single muscle simultaneously. Each step sent waves of agony radiating from his thighs and calves. He forced them to work and move, each step faster than the one before. The more he moved, the better he felt. The pain decreased with each step into a dull pulse that faded away into nothing as he picked up speed.

Tom had never been a good runner; he’d never even stepped on a running track during high school. During his physical education classes, he’d always done well enough to pass but never done overly well, but that was what happened when your favourite pastime was reading and studying in the library. His usual speed had been a brisk walk at best; anything more had usually resulted in him breathing for dear life after 20 meters with his hands on his knees. The fastest he’d ever had to run in the past few years was to catch the train or the bus, which, thankfully, hadn’t been too often.

Yet right now, it felt like he was running faster than he ever had before. Not only that, but despite the hours of walking and fighting they had done previously, he didn’t feel tired, nor was he running out of breath as quickly as usual. He wondered if this was a side effect of gaining the new skills or if it was the effect of the attributes he had gained. He wanted to investigate this effect more, dive deep into the changes occurring to him and find out what was happening.

But there was something a bit more critical happening right now.

The other two had already started work on their zombie when Tom caught up to Mark, who took one look at Tom, nodded to him and then proceeded to charge forward at the zombie he had been headed toward. Tom followed close behind; his spear held low across his belly. Tom’s plan was similar to the one they had used back in the tunnel, with Mark as the battering ram to stop the zombies in their tracks while he would attack from behind Mark. The only differences were that the zombies were much tougher and harder to kill than the skeletons they had fought, and he had a spear instead of a sword, so blocking would be more difficult. However, he hoped the extra reach of the spear and makeshift fire spearhead would make up for those differences.

It seemed Mark had the same idea as Tom.

He charged up to the zombie, a slowly advancing level two. This time, he didn’t take a swing with his axe. Instead, he braced himself behind his shield, putting it in front of his left shoulder, leaning into it and pushing it out just as he ran into the zombie at full pelt.

The shield first struck its outstretched arms, flinging them upwards before smashing into its chest. The hit flung the zombie backwards, turning horizontal in the air and striking the ground with its upper back before rolling with the remaining momentum from the blow. It ended up lying on its face a few meters from where Mark had collided with it.

But Mark wasn’t finished yet. Brandishing his axe with his right arm, he ran forward, and before the zombie could begin to rise, he aimed for its neck. The blade didn’t bite very far, stopping just before cutting through the spine, almost a quarter of the way through its neck. They were prepared for it this time; Mark instantly ripped his axe from its neck and straddled the corpse, using his weight to keep it pinned to the ground.

Tom, meanwhile, was still running forward and jumped into the air just as Mark pulled out the axe, aiming to come down just in front of where the zombie had come to rest. Putting his spearhead downward, he held the spear two-handed, angled diagonally across his torso. He aimed for its neck and jammed it into the gap Mark’s axe had recently vacated as he landed, sinking into a crouch with the force of his landing. The flames from his spearhead had blinded him a little, but with a target lying still on the ground, it was hard not to miss. With all his weight behind the spear, plus the extra speed from his running leap, he was able to punch the spear all the way through its spine and all the way out the other side of its neck.

His notification box flashed at him, confirming the kill and its experience points.

Notifications

Kill notice – Lvl 2 Zombie

You have killed a Lvl 2 Zombie.

You have been granted 112 Experience Points

You achieved the final blow.

You have been granted 225 additional Experience Points

Level Up – Lvl 3

You have gained a level.

You are now Level 3.

You have gained +1 to all attributes.

You have gained 1 Skill Point.

The level-up was a welcome surprise, and Tom only hoped that they would have a few more of them by the time they had to face the Reclaimer.

Tom looked up to see Mark with glazed-over eyes as he went through his notifications and menus, but another thing had caught his eye. The bleeding from Mark's hastily bandaged chest had slowed even further to just a tiny dribble from one of the cuts on his chest.

Tom remembered that one of the attributes in his menu, vitality, had mentioned it controlled or affected the body's ability to recover from injuries. If Mark’s bleeding had just slowed, it must mean that he had gained a level, and the resulting attribute increase had helped his body recover from the attack. If that was the case, Tom’s stamina and speed increase must come from the same attribute increase.

This really was starting to feel more like a video game to Tom, and if it weren’t for the pain he had experienced over the past few hours, he probably would have believed it if someone had told him he was.

The next zombie was still a few meters away, time enough to make use of the skill point. Tom had lots of skills that he could take, but checking the available list only revealed a few choices that might help him in the current situation.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Available Skill Points (1)

Shield Mastery (Basic) (1)

Polearm Mastery (Basic) (1)

Sword Mastery (Basic) (1)

Strike (Basic) (1)

Evasion (Basic) (1)

Sense (Basic) (1)

Fortitude (Basic) (1)

Reinforcement (Basic) (1)

Recovery (Basic) (1)

Resistance (Basic) (1)

Multi-Tasking (Basic) (2)

Rapid Processing (Basic) (1)

Meditation (Common) (1)

The weapon mastery skills were the most obvious choice. He had a spear, and he had to stab things. Getting better at stabbing things would kill them faster and help him live. Simple enough.

But then he started to think about the other options and what they might be able to do. He hadn’t read all the descriptions back when they had first unlocked the skills, and he didn’t have time to do so now, not with their next opponent only meters away. It annoyed him that in the almost six or so hours since they had entered the dungeon and with all the walking they had done, he hadn’t even opened the menu and checked all the skills. He reminded himself to check them all out later.

Maybe Strike would allow him to kill the zombies with one shot since it was a basic damage skill, but compared to the other three, he didn’t have a lot of strength, so while it might help do damage, it was unlikely to let him kill them in one hit unless he could hit their heart or brain. Evasion might help him dodge their attack, especially if he could use the feelings from Instincts to help predict their attacks. Maybe Meditation could put him into a trance of some kind where he would become a zombie-killing machine with no distractions…. Yeah, that wasn't very likely.

Through his screen, he could see that Mark had finished whatever he had been doing and was starting to get to his feet. Tom looked at the list and made his choice.

He wasn’t sure what would be the best choice. He didn’t see any point in keeping the skill point for later; the only skill he had that required two skill points was Multi-Tasking, and he didn’t think that being able to think of or do multiple things at once would help here, nor did he think it likely that a new two-point skill would appear that could solve all his current problems. But picking something now might give him the edge he needed to make sure he got out of this alive.

In times like this, he relied on the tried-and-true method used by engineers, mechanics, teachers, and most militaries worldwide when dealing with problems, or at least problem users.

Keep it simple, stupid. He picked Polearm Mastery (Basic).

He closed his menus and stood, wrenching the spear from the newly re-made corpse. The fire from the spearhead had blackened the hole made when Tom had landed, and tiny embers still smouldered even after Tom removed the spear.

He turned to the next target Mark was heading towards, a level three this time, and stepped forward. As soon as his foot hit the ground, his body was wracked with pain again, and his muscles seized tight, stopping him from moving further. This time, the burning sensation came not from his chest but from his head. The pain wasn’t as bad as before; instead of a flesh-melting fire, it was more the start of a migraine, a heat that wouldn’t go away and began to build as it pulsed over and over again. As the pain started to build to uncomfortable levels, each pulse caused flashes in Tom’s mind. Slowly, the flashes came together to form images, images that started to move, Movements that began to look familiar. Three scenes played on repeat in his mind, broken TVs stuck on repeat, showing the same scenes over and over and over. He watched for what felt like hours, fascinated, as ghostly figures moved before him, wielding all sorts of weapons, some he recognised, others he did not, in graceful flowing movements—an eerie dance of flesh, wood and steel. The scenes played out before, suddenly, they stopped.

Just like before, the pain stopped in an instant, as did the scenes in his head; his muscles released themselves, and Tom was once again freed from his flesh prison and just like before, barely any time had passed in the real world. Mark started picking up his pace and getting behind his shield for another charge. Tom quickly followed him, forcing his now aching legs to fight the pain and move. The pain wasn’t as bad this time, and he was quickly back up to full speed, or maybe even slightly faster. Tom wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not, but he didn’t have time to ponder it.

Mark repeated his actions, slamming into the zombie with his shield and pushing it back a few meters until it regained its balance. The zombie had been able to stand its ground this time, and he hadn’t been able to send it flying like he had previously. Despite this, he readied his axe. Keeping his shield in front of his body toward the zombie, he twisted his torso to the right, extending his axe as far back as he could. As his axe reached the end of the backswing, the blade turned pitch black and was surrounded by a glowing red halo.

Tom watched as Mark leapt forward with the glowing axe, bringing it across his body in a horizontal strike on the zombie, hitting it full in the chest. The axe opened a massive gash, half a hand deep into its chest, entering just under where the heart should be and carving through several rib bones before exiting near its right shoulder. The blow rocked the zombie back a step, but it recovered quickly and moved forward again, reaching for Mark with its claw-like nails.

After the massive swing, Mark tried to raise his shield in time to block the arm, but the force he had applied to the swing had turned his body almost 180 degrees, so his shield was now almost behind him, on the opposite side of where it was needed.

Seeing that he couldn’t raise the shield in time, Tom charged forward, putting on a burst of speed that surprised him at how much faster he was than before, aiming to get between the two and block its attack somehow. Just before he was about to dive in between them, his mind burned again, and one of the scenes from before began playing in his head as he moved. The ghostly figure in his mind gripping a spear similar to the one he held, moving it in slow but sure movements. Without realising it, his hands began to move as they copied the figure in his mind, placing themselves shoulder-width apart at the centre of the spear in an overhanded grip with a roughly equal distance from each end, with his left hand closer to the spearhead. Tom felt like he was no longer in control of his own body. The autopilot was on, and someone else had taken over while he watched and waited for his turn at the controls.

As the zombie reached for Mark with its right arm, he stepped in, putting his spearhead end under its arm. His arms rotated clockwise following the scene, knocking the spear into the arm and forcing it upward. With the same movement, Tom moved the other end of the spear behind the outstretched leg of the zombie, tilting the spear and his body backward before following the clockwise motion. The butt of the spear hooked the leg forward, catching the zombie off balance and causing it to fall onto its back. Continuing the rotation so that the spear tip now faced toward the ground, he let go with his right hand and grabbed it further toward the butt of the spear while his left hand changed grip.

With a jerk, the scene in Tom’s head stopped playing, and he suddenly had control again, with the headache disappearing along with it. He stepped forward and thrust down into the carved open chest of the zombie as it lay on the ground. It went only a little deeper than the original cut, the remaining flesh and bones stopping its descent. But that wasn’t Tom’s aim.

Dragging the spearhead along the cut, Tom began to burn the flesh of the creature's chest. It turned black and began to bubble as he pulled the spear and its flames – still happily flapping and waving – through its ruined chest. He pulled the spear out and stepped back. The green-grey skin and sickly purple skin had been burned black, but most importantly, no healing was going on; the cut remained as it was.

Bingo, Tom thought to himself, just as Mark, who had recovered from his first swing, came in with a thundering roar as his overhead axe swing landed right on top of the zombie's chest, breaking through the now blackened flesh and into its heart.

The notification box blinked as the zombie stopped moving. The two looked at each other briefly, then started moving towards the next zombie. Another one down, ten to go.