They charged forward towards the next zombie, another level three. This time, Tom was in the lead. Holding his spear pointed low to the ground, he stopped close to the zombie, intending to thrust into its gut, when another scene began playing in his head.

Once again, he became a passive observer as his body followed the actions of the vision in his head. The previous vision had shown him what he thought was a sort of utility style of combat, where he could defend and attack depending on how he used the spear. This one was more offensive-focused, or so it seemed. The vision started in a position similar to what he was in now. The butt of the spear was held low with one hand near the waist while the other held the mid-point of the shaft up near chest height. As he watched the vision, his body moved on its own like before. His hands took the same positions on the spear, and his body moved to match.

As the zombie moved closer and reached for Tom, the vision and his body, both stepped forward with his front foot in a lunge while pushing the spear forward and up with both hands, bringing the lower hand up to the chest and thrusting the upper hand to its maximum reach. This extended the spear about one and a half meters from Tom’s body. The spearhead drove straight into the base of the zombie's neck, punching through it and out the other side. The impact knocked the zombie slightly off balance, but the spear must have missed its spine because it regained its balance and tried to move forward again, which was made more difficult because the spear stuck through its throat.

Tom’s body and the vision then reversed their motions, drawing back with both hands while stepping back with the front foot, yanking the spear out of the zombie's neck, leaving a ragged, blackened tear. Tom’s body returned to his control as the vision faded from his mind. Mark was behind him, rushing to pass him on his right. Tom repeated the actions he had just witnessed, following the same steps and thrusting with his spear. He aimed for the neck again, but this time, his accuracy wasn’t as good as when the vision had been in control, instead stabbing into the upper chest of the zombie just below its neck. The impact knocked it back a step but did little else, with the zombie trying to resume its forward march, arms reaching out for Tom again. However, his second thrust, while not a killing blow, would be able to set Mark up to finish it off if Tom was able to move it slightly. Tom leaned into the spear, driving his feet into the cavern floor, finding enough grip to drive himself forward and left, turning the zombie almost 90 degrees.

Mark must have activated a skill because his blade was turning black, and the red halo reappeared again as he stopped next to the zombie and using the momentum from his run to swing down vertically, chopping its left arm off at the elbow.

Tom wasn’t sure exactly what skill it was; it could be Strike, the basic skill he had in his list of available ones, but he couldn’t be sure. He’d have to ask Mark about it later. The effect of the blow was impressive; however, not only had the skill been able to cut through the zombie's arm, which Tom had been unable to do with his sword before, not that his strength was at the same level as the others, but it had also been able to cut into the heart of the previous zombie with only two hits. If Mark could keep using the skill, it would make killing the zombies much easier unless Tom was able to get his spear accurate enough to hit one of the vital points of the zombies. Which, he was guessing, based on what had killed the previous ones, would be their brains, heart or spines.

The zombie couldn't move much with the spear still stuck in its chest. Tom braced his legs, leaning into the spear, twisting it, burying the head and its flames slightly deeper into its chest. However, the zombie still hadn’t stopped trying to attack, and its right arm refused to remain still, swinging and grasping at both Tom and the spear. It couldn’t reach Tom; the extra length of the spear kept him well out of reach, but it could reach the spear. Aside from trying to hit it, the zombie could not grab or get a firm hold on the shaft, leaving it unable to do anything about it.

Taking the time to recover his stance after his first swing, Mark moved behind the zombie and swung his axe again, this time without the glow of the skill, and sliced into the back of its neck, cutting into the middle of the hole left by Tom’s first thrust. With the blackened hole as the starting point, the axe was able to easily cut through the spine and halfway through the neck, leaving it flopping forward onto its chest.

Tom’s notification box flashed at him as the body collapsed sideways, Tom using his spear to push it to the side. His spear was still embedded in its chest, and the flames had started to crawl up and around the entry point of the wound and spread across its chest, using the flesh as fuel and starting to burn.

Tom moved to pull his spear up and out, but an alarm began blaring inside his skull, drowning out his other senses. He was deafened and blinded; his world shrunk in on itself as all his senses aligned to focus on the alarm and the source of danger. Time slowed for Tom. He couldn’t see any threat but only looked at the corpse and his spear. He felt something behind him as the hairs on his neck stood up. An odd noise whispered past his ear like the air had been torn in half. Realising that this was probably the work of his Instincts skill, he focused on what his gut was telling him. He felt something was behind him, but he wasn’t sure how far or what it was going. It had to be another zombie since they were the only things they had to worry about for the moment. Trusting Instincts, he crouched, bending his knees and hoping he was right.

As he ducked, he felt something rush toward his neck. As time sped up again, his senses returned to normal. As he reached the bottom of his crouch, something touched the top of his head, ruffling his hair before moving past it. Letting go of the spear, he rolled forward over the top of the corpse, using his legs as a springboard. Coming to his feet, he turned around to see that he had been correct. Two zombies stood where he had been just before, one slightly in front of the other, which had just slashed at him with its claws. Using Evaluate showed that they were both level 4.

Tom realised that when he pushed the zombie around to make it easier for Mark to attack it, he moved closer to the other zombies without thinking about it, making him their next target. He had been too focused on the fight and made a mistake that could have killed him.

A chill ran down his spine as he stared at what could have been his death. He’d been so caught up with his success that he let it go to his head. His typically methodical and thought-out approach had been abandoned with his and Mark’s rapid growth and success over the past few minutes, and it had nearly killed him.

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The crash of steel behind him saved him from more agonising thoughts. Turning, he saw Dave and Adam fighting a larger group of six zombies clustered together to fight the pair. The sound he’d heard was of Dave swinging his sword recklessly at a zombie, only to be blocked by Adam’s sword, preventing Dave from hitting both his target and Adam himself. Angry shouts from both parties ensued, but it was enough to break Tom out of his thoughts. He looked back to his own fight in time to see Mark carefully wading toward the two-level fours. He didn’t charge in like last time; instead, he used his shield to ward off the arm attacks of one while he swung with small, controlled arcs at the other, hitting the 2nd zombie's arm. He circled to his left, grabbing both zombies' attention and drawing them away from Tom and his still corpse-bound spear.

Tom recognised what he was doing, buying time. Moving back to the corpse, which was starting to burn more brightly as the flame took hold from deep within its chest, he wrenched his spear out of it. Stepping away, he used the corpse and his spear as a light source to check the situation out lest he be caught again.

Mark was facing two zombies directly, but a third and a fourth were not close behind them, and it wouldn’t be long before they grouped up and became a real problem for the two of them. Mark had seen this, however, and his circling movements had put the two he was dealing with between him and the others. Meanwhile, the reclaimer zombie was still headed their way. It had made it around the room’s centre's pedestal and was about 20 meters from them, but it was slow and would take some time. Time enough, Tom hoped, to deal with the rest of the zombies.

A basic plan came together in his mind, and he moved with a purpose. With the two-level four zombies' attention focused on Mark, he circled behind the first so that it was between him and Mark, but the approaching zombies were off to his front right. This way, he could keep the approaching zombies in sight and not risk being blindsided by them again.

Getting close enough to the first zombie, he was about to attack from below with a thrust, as the second vision had shown him to do, when the third and final vision assumed control. Once again, his body moved along with the vision as he watched.

Instead of attacking directly, as he had been about to do, his arms rose to position the spear to the side of his head just below the eyes. His hands rotated slightly but didn’t change position; the spear, now held at head height, was pointed slightly down, aiming at the zombie's throat and chest. Taking a step, his body lunged forward, and his hands shot out, his right arm at the butt of the spear, pushing it and his left controlling the direction. Since it was now at head height, he could see that it would be easier from this angle to attack someone's upper body instead of the way the second vision had shown him. As he thought this, the spear impacted the side of the zombie's neck, punching through to the other side, the flames from the spearhead starting to lick the side of his target's face. As it exited the other side of the neck, Tom regained control of his body, and the vision ended. Stuck in a somewhat awkward position, he had an idea. Moving forward, he slid his hands toward the tip; as he reached the midpoint of the spear, he assumed the position that the first vision had shown: equal distance from each end. Stepping back, he rotated his upper body left and twisted the zombie off its feet as the spear pulled it off balance. Pushing the spear so it was vertical, he stepped onto the zombie’s back, pinning it to the ground with one leg; he removed the spear before quickly placing it over the centre of where he could see its spine and leant on it with all his weight.

The spear sliced through its neck, and the zombie stopped moving. The kill was confirmed a moment later by the flashing notification box. He looked over to Mark, who had also used Tom’s attack to good effect. He stood over the zombie, each arm pinned by one of his legs, having knocked it down somehow. Standing above the zombie, he sent his axe careening down into its skull, splattering blood, brain and bone in all directions.

With the last two zombies almost within touching distance, Mark backed away towards Tom, who began to circle to the right, ensuring that no one or nothing had snuck behind them. Once the further zombie was behind the nearer one, they both attacked. Mark blocked the initial strike while Tom, following the movements of his third vision, skewered it with a spear through its eye directly into the brain, killing it instantly. The last zombie fell just as quickly. Mark took its attention while Tom slipped behind it, tripping it over and allowing Mark to hammer two quick axe strokes through its neck, cutting its head off.

They both paused for a moment. The recent exertion and near-death moments left Tom out of breath and Mark panting slightly.

Checking on the reclaimer and seeing it getting closer, he motioned to the other pair, still battling it out with a now slightly smaller group of 5 zombies.

“We should help them out and kill the rest before we have to take on this thing,” he gasped.

“Agreed”, Mark replied before starting to jog away.

Tom looked back at the reclaimer, worrying about its sheer size, let alone its three sets of arms. He took off after Mark.

“Once we kill the rest, and it's just him, we can spread out and buy ourselves some time to put a plan together”, he panted as he ran. Mark nodded.

As they ran, Dave managed to kill another zombie. He must have been using the same skill as Mark, as his sword turned black and cut through the neck of the zombie closest to him, leaving four left. When Mark and Tom reached them, Dave and Adam had been cornered, the zombies driving them up against the wall. They each attacked one, Tom preferring to go with what he considered his trip and spear method, using the spear as the first vision had shown him to make it fall over before stabbing into its head and brain. Mark meanwhile opted for the straightforward axe to the back of the head approach, splitting the zombie's skull wide open in one blow.

Mark and Tom's interjection allowed Dave and Adam to take care of the other two zombies, who were dead in short order.

“What took you two so long?” panted Adam as he and Dave caught their breath after having fought for several minutes without a break from what Tom could tell.

“We were...” Tom started, but Mark raised his hand quickly to catch his attention and then pointed.

Tom turned to look in the direction Mark had pointed to. It was the Reclaimer Zombie, which, instead of continuing to walk slowly towards the group, had stopped just before the pile of dead zombies where Mark and Tom fought.

“What are you idiots looking at?” Dave snapped as he sat on the ground, his chest still heaving and his usually pallid face looking flushed.

An ear-rattling roar echoed around the cavern in reply to Dave's question. Dave and Adam’s heads snapped around at the sound.

The Reclaimer stood watching the group. Its three sets of arms twitched constantly, muscles bunching up as it clenched and unclenched its fists. The black and white eyes, which had been rolling continually, unable or unwilling to focus on anything, stopped. One eye was completely black, while the other, with its white, bloodshot pupil, was staring at the corpses on the floor. Slowly, the black eye turned until the pupil emerged from behind the bottom eyelid to stare at the corpses as well.

Adam’s voice, spoken in a loud whisper, came hesitantly. “Should we be doing something about that?” he asked.

As if tempting fate, as soon as Adam had finished speaking, the reclaimer roared again. Its white pupils turned blood red and began to glow. It started hammering the ground with fists, forming fissures as the ground cracked and broke.

As the four of them watched with concern, the concern slowly turned to fear; fear then turned to horror as the monster in front of them began to change.