I should have bought weapons with the money I didn’t have.

I managed to instinctively defend myself from whatever tried to have a piece of me using the Grimoire, but it wasn’t pretty.

The pastor just looked on in dismay. I showed him the finger.

Raynard was right; the zombies had been infused with a spell. We tried fighting back but were only mildly successful.

The spell on the zombies appeared to be the same one that had been used on them before they woke up. And no-one has been able to break it, so, yeah. This sucks.

“I think it’s time for plan B!” I shouted through the sounds of zombies hissing.

Raynard and Aurelia were basically jumping around the room, evading the attacking horde. I couldn’t do more than smacking them with my Grimoire. It wouldn’t be able to actually hurt them, but at least we could get some space.

“And how are we gonna do that?” Raynard asked.

“I don’t know, Aurelia can’t you just punch that gate open?”

“I’ll try.”

She jumped into the air, probably doing so by using magic and then flipped backwards midair. Her feet hit a wall behind her, and she kicked herself towards the gate.

The pastor ducked away towards the side, as she soared towards the gate next to him, not making an attempt at stopping her.

She landed on both of her feet, sliding across the floor, and using the momentum to ram both of her fists into the stone.

Only a loud bang and repressed curses.

The gate didn’t budge.

“If you really thought you could remove one of the gates of the gods by sheer force, I’m sorry, but how reckless can you be?” The pastor mocked her, which maybe was a bad idea.

Aurelia clenched her fists.

“Look, if you think I’m pissed, you’re right. If you think, you’re what’s pissing me off, that’s also right. So please stop that mockery, it’s getting you nowhere, only near my fists,” she said and broke his nose.

How very sexy of her.

He backed off, somehow still retaining his balance, but bending over letting the blood from his nose drop onto the floor.

“Fuck! Ahh! What was that for?” He screamed.

“Wha- Excuse me?!” The princess was shouting now as well. “What could this possibly be for, you poor excuse of a priest?” She was livid and ready for another punch.

She extended her right fist. He caught her midair.

He squeezed her fist and began pushing her back.

“You caught me off guard, I’ll give you that.” In a swift motion he extended his other palm forward, pushing her away using magic and then jumping back himself to get some distance between them.

They were now exchanging punches, windy blows, and other sweet magical nothings, all in front of my escape plan.

“Nathan,” Raynard who was busy fending off the zombies called out to me.

“Huh?” I sort of snapped back and looked at him.

“We need to open the gate,” he said.

“Huh?!” I exclaimed. “If the princess didn’t manage to have it open, what do you think I’ll achieve with my noodle arms?”

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“Well, I don’t know! Ask that handy-dandy book of yours!”

I just looked at him with a blank expression, wrecking another zombie’s skull using the Grimoire.

right, I forgot its main purpose wasn’t to be used like a baseball bat.

Can you open that door? Pleeeeease?

[This magic door needs direct contact from a magic user.]

[In other words, I would need to establish direct contact with the door.]

One look ahead told me that wouldn’t be easy at all. Between the pastor and Aurelia trading blows like that, and the zombies circling in on me and Raynard ... the best option seemed to be ...

Yeet!

Throwing the Grimoire against that door.

The flying book – [Grimoire] – drew the pastor’s attention, and his fight with the princess came to a sudden halt.

That was all she needed, however, for the princess to launch herself towards him and tackle him to the floor.

The Grimoire soared above their heads, and it needed only its corner to touch the stone door, for a light to erupt from its cracks, enveloping the entire room. The light seemed to stun the zombies – though that might well have been simply my imagination – because when I saw the stone gate dissolve into particles of light, I made a run for it.

Shoving away one of the zombies in front of me I ran towards the opening.

I had to warn the villagers.

I glanced behind and saw a few zombies following me in my path one after another and I tried speeding up, picking up the Grimoire on the way.

I reached the gate and broke into the fresh air. The sun was already setting, but that did not matter at the moment.

I looked back again and saw a few zombies having followed me outside.

Suddenly Raynard appeared inside the gate, spreading his arms between its walls as if to shield it from something.

“Raynard,” I shouted, because I was pretty sure, just standing in front of the gate wouldn’t stop the rest of them.

Until I saw the other zombies crashing against an invisible wall.

Raynard tilted his head a bit toward the side and gave me a thumbs-up.

“Hopefully this’ll buy us time,” I muttered out loud for some reason. The only ones that could hear me were the five zombies that had escaped, while I left the clearing, and dashed through the bushes.

I tried to speed up again.

Everything hurt.

My head, my legs, my back.

If this was what dying felt like, it wasn’t very pleasant. Though definitely better than being torn apart by one of those things.

If I could I’d let my legs rotate like a wheel to get some speed, but I was already at my limit.

So, are there any strategies to escape this situation?

[None.]

Don’t give me that crap! There’s gotta be something.

[Nothing.]

What?! There’s gotta be a speed spell or anything!

[...]

So, there is something!

[You wouldn’t be able to use the spell without depleting all of your mana.]

Is there a chance I could reach the village in time?!

[Yes.]

How?!

[The most efficient method would be to use an aerial spell-]

Show me!

The spell’s information was immediately loaded into my brain, which honestly felt like a plane crashing against my skull.

Still, I had only one shot at this.

The zombies were closing in.

I stretched my hand out behind me. I could feel their fingers reaching out for me, not so gently grazing my skin.

I gathered every inch of magic my body could provide me with, into my open palm, concentrating on replicating that exact sensation the Grimoire showed me.

And a burst of air left my hand, blowing away a zombie, yanking my hand into the air. Not only was this spell using lots of mana it seemed to also be physically taxing, as I tried to control the stream of air.

It took a lot of effort, but after a few seconds I pushed more of my mana into blowing air from my palm and propelled myself high into the air. When I actually surpassed the trees, I cancelled the spell, flying another dozen meters at insane speed. The headwind made my vision blurry.

[Your mana is reaching critical levels.]

I tried looking behind me to find the zombies, but my vision was so bad, I only recognized the trees and grass below me as a dark green blur.

Just after I began sinking, I concentrated on that spell again to give me another boost.

I think I could see the village and the river in the distance.

The next moments became an obscure blur. After the second boost my nose started bleeding and the Grimoire notified me that I had used up all of my mana. I think. I couldn’t concentrate on the message, really, yet I somehow managed to repeatedly boost myself into the air, and each time it felt like someone stabbed my brain through the nose.

It was a steady up and down and it made me sick honestly.

That’s when I spotted a commotion in the center of the village, and I decided it was best to just let myself fall onto the ground.

I crash-landed on the dry earth, near the commotion that was seemingly caused by Shelly and Misha. Somehow no one noticed me flying towards the village, but when I landed, I immediately drew all the attention to me.

“Guys, the pastor... he has... done the spell. He’s coming for the village.”

I tried standing up, but I realized the feeling in most of my body was gone. Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure if what I said was any more than just a weird slurring.

I saw Shelly running towards me and my vision twisted and tilted until I couldn’t hold my eyes open any longer.