The battle that followed with the castle zombies soon dissolved into a series of quick repeated motions as I killed them. Swing, hack, slash, repeat. Swing, hack, slash, repeat. I kept moving from one side of the courtyard to the other, desperately avoiding being boxed into a corner. And it was working. There were times when I came close to being beheaded myself by one of the zombies when I wasn’t looking, but I always ended up reacting just in time to dodge out of the way and save myself. The sheer amount of dead corpses on the ground were starting to pile up, making movement for me difficult and a bit tricky. I had to be cautious of where I stepped so I didn’t fall.

“They just keep coming!” I told Rachel as I yelled out in frustration while I continued to battle the enemy. A zombie I had been fighting with tried slashing at me with his sword, but I quickly swung first and took off his sword hand before quickly swinging again and sending his head flying away from the rest of his body. Then I lunged forward and turned my attention over to the next one.

“They are being summoned from within the castle!” Rachel said in my head as I struck another one down. I had finally advanced to the center of the courtyard but I almost wished I didn’t. the zombies were now quickly encircling me and attacking from all sides. I was fighting to my front, I was fighting to the left, I was fighting a zombie on my right, and I had to constantly glance over my shoulder in order to avoid getting stabbed in the back. My health hadn’t gone down an inch but it was only a matter of time before… “Hunter! look out!”

A spinning hatchet came flying and struck me in the side of the head, causing me to zone out of the battle and lose focus for a bit.

Big mistake.

The second I lost my grip on the fight the zombies pressed their relentless assault on me, not giving me a moment to catch my breath. One of them suddenly stabbed me in the side of my stomach with his short sword, causing an explosion of pain and triggering my health bar to appear in the center of my vision.

98.

97.

96.

Another zombie slashed me across the chest with his knife, causing fresh blood to begin leaking out of the wound.

94.

93.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

92.

Yet another zombie jabbed me with his spear in the right side of my chest, before another zombie jumped forward and slashed me across the side of my face with his sword, spilling more blood.

I was bleeding out profusely from all of the wounds I had received and I stumbled away to avoid another attack. My health had plummeted in an instant from a 90 to an 81. A weapon was still sticking out of the side of my stomach and I instantly recognized the short blade as the weapon the first zombie had stabbed me with. The dam thing hadn’t even bothered to pull his sword back out.

I reached for the hilt of the short blade before pulling it out with a yank, causing more blood to gush out as a result. I suddenly felt tired and weak and my vision was starting to blur. I was losing a lot of blood.

I continued to move back from the advancing corpses, having swapped over to a defensive strategy rather than my initial offence. Although the once I had killed remained dead on the ground, the zombies continued to multiply by the second, joined by the fresh corpses that were streaming out of the castle to assist in the fight.

“You need to take a healing potion.” Rachel said in my head. “If you keep this up, you won’t be able to last long.”

I had stumbled back over to the main wooden gates of the castle, giving myself enough distance to catch my breath from the slowly advancing horde of zombies. I took a quick glance at my health bar and was horrified by what I saw. I was now at 75% of health and dropping.

“Do it.” I told Rachel, and two small vials of glowing blue liquid suddenly appeared in the palm of my left hand. I didn’t waste another second. I popped open the cap of the first one with my teeth before pouring the liquid into my mouth and swallowing. I did the same thing for the other vial soon after. As the zombies slowly boxed me into a corner with nowhere else for me to retreat to, I felt a cooling sensation wash over me in an instant, briefly sealing up my injuries and slowly pushing my health back up to a hundred percent. Suddenly, I felt a lot better than I did just a moment ago.

“Hunter, look!”

I lifted my gaze to stare at the spot Rachel had indicated with an arrow in my vision. Up ahead on the opposite side of the courtyard, standing behind the dozens of zombies moving towards me, was an old man wearing a black cloak and holding a staff with a glowing orb. His eyes were glowing the same bright color as the orb on his staff and he seamed to be reciting an incantation as more zombies pored out of the castle behind him.

“He’s the one.” Rachel suddenly said. “He’s the one controlling the zombies and summoning more of them from the castle.”

Frowning, I gripped my sword tighter in annoyance and prepared to cut my way through the approaching horde of zombies in order to get to him. But there was a good chance I was going to end up being surrounded again, so I decided to think of a different strategy.

I passed my sword from my right hand over to my left. Then I stretched out my free hand to the side and said, “Dagger.” And a small glow suddenly enveloped my right hand before quickly dissipating, leaving behind a small black dagger.

“I know what you’re thinking and yes it will work.” Rachel said. “But you need to hurry. The zombies are almost on top of you.”

There were around four to five zombies already closing in on me, ready to lunge and attack me at any moment. But I ignored all of them and stayed focused.

I lifted my right arm back in a throwing position and took aim at the glowing orb located on the head of the old man’s staff. Then I flung my dagger forward as hard as I could, sending that baby flying straight towards the ball of energy.

There was a small explosion. It sounded like the sudden pop of a magical glass ball filled with sprinkles.

“Bullseye.” Rachel suddenly said with pure excitement in her voice. “Right on the money. Nice shot Hunter. At least now we don’t have to worry about these guys anymore.”

Not a second after Rachel had said that last part, all of the zombies in the courtyard suddenly collapsed to the ground and exploded into dust, with their weapons still laying on the ground beside their ash. I turned my attention over to the old man who I was now suspecting to be some kind of wizard, but I only caught a glimpse of his cloak as he disappeared back into the castle, deciding to retreat.

“We need to follow him.” Rachel said, and I walked forward to pick up my dagger before proceeding towards the entrance of the castle.