The sound of crushing bone and flesh while screaming ensued was not something Zeke planned. Not at all.
He expected to put up a barrier to protect people, to help them clear the dungeon and be done with the troubles affecting the town.
Then, after that, he hoped he could get strong enough without any more trouble, at least for a little while longer.
He didn’t expect to kill someone today, particularly not someone from his old world. Even if it was a psychopath that only wanted to kill, it wasn’t something he wanted to do.
Throughout the fight, Alex proved to be a challenging foe. Zeke figured he must have put all of his eggs in one basket, summoning zombies as a single power. But apparently the Necromancer class was a lot more feasible than that.
It was a truly nasty one too, a dark type of magic that infested his insides and brought pain all over his body once it hit.
It only grazed his arm, yet it felt like hundreds of ants crawling inside of him and biting him at the same time. He was glad it didn’t go any deeper than that, his Pain Resistance being high enough to resist it. It wasn’t a damaging type of spell, but something that most likely turned on his pain receptors to the maximum.
Not only that, but the damn bastard was wily too. Trash talking and clever positioning was all Alex did, and as someone who focused only on support, it was a difficult fight for Zeke who’s mana reserves were already low, leaving his rune making very little chance to make anything decent.
Then he opted to go for close combat, but he’s not much of a fighter, proof of his piss-poor Strength stat. So he used what little left of his Mana to create a rune on his barrier, and the time Alex threw his god-awful black magic at him, it hit his barrier he created his rune with.
The barrier broke apart, making it look like he got hit. But instead, he summoned a horde of butterbirds to distract him. Honestly, he didn’t even think of using them, just something to distract Alex to get a single blow in. He knew just one good hit is good enough to take this feeble Necromancer out. Still, he was proud of the butterbirds, capable of distracting not just Alex, but the earth zombieman that was giving Myra and Piker trouble.
The butterbirds were doing more than he planned, actually causing Alex to freak out. He took this chance to sneak around Alex, the butterbirds only distracting Zeke’s enemies, and finally rushed in.
He pulled out a spare sword from his storage bag, the one he had on hand this whole time for situations like these. Aiming it properly, he stabbed right through his chest where he guessed his heart would be, pushing him down. Zeke knew that wasn’t enough. Despite the blade literally going straight to him, it was possible he could still survive. He had to go deeper, but the necromancer was not willing to give up, his arms beginning to flail as wisps of mana swirled from his hands.
He put out one final barrier and pinned his arms down. The teen’s screams and cries went unheard of, with Zeke’s only focus of killing the necromancer and finally stopping this mayhem once and for all.
When the screaming finally ceased, Zeke brought himself back into reality. It was horrifically silent. The sudden silence became deafening to his ears as he managed to push himself away from the now true corpse in front of him.
Alex lied there, a sword stuck to his back while his face was stuck in a contorted look of fear, anger, and pain. He just laid there, bloody and unmoving, and Zeke was the one that did this.
He looked back at his hands, filled with cuts, bruises, grime, and lots of blood. He pulled his sword out of the teen, trying to at least bring some respect to his body, but it only made the body make a horrible ‘squelch’ sound as blood sputtered everywhere, leaving puddles of it everywhere.
The blade was coated in this crimson ichor, the reflection barely managing to take note of his exhausted eyes. The eyes of a killer.
His breathing went rampant, his exhaustion leading his heart to pump faster. The sounds of his heart beating echoed in his ears.
It only took a moment before realizing that someone was trying to catch his attention. When that same someone slapped him across the face, he was brought back to reality.
He looked up to see Mikella, utterly charred and wounded, blood appearing at random places where it seemingly burnt to a crisp much like Myra had been. When he finally looked at her eyes, she hugged him.
She forced his head to lay next to hers, and let him ease into her embrace. She spoke softly to his ear, catching his mind in a trance.
“It’s over,” Mikella whispered. “You did it. Let go of the sword now. You don’t need it anymore.”
Zeke didn’t even realize that he was clutching onto his sword so hard, his own blood was staining the hilt. He let go, the blade clattering against the floor. He didn’t even see the blood anymore. In his mind, only the pain and the embrace entered his awareness.
It took another moment or two for Zeke to finally calm down. He closed his eyes, enjoying the embrace for just a little longer before letting her know that he was fine. Mikella undoubtedly wanted to continue, but she let go as he said to take a further look at him.
Taking a look at each other now, Zeke could only see that she ended up worse than he did. He tried to use his skill, but his diminished mana pool stopped him in his tracks.
“W-What happened to you?” Zeke asked, unable to hold back his curiosity.
“Well, I was in a disadvantage, so I, uhh… took the magic out of the Sword of Lightning and took it in as my attunement,” Mikella grinned sheepishly, the charred look on her face only making it worse for Zeke to comprehend.
He shook his head. “Seriously…?! You could’ve been killed! Hell, it almost killed Myra if I hadn’t healed her!”
“But…” Mikella continued, pretending not to hear anything he said as she grinned. “I won! And I got a free attunement from that!”
Zeke could only shake his head at her actions. He turned to glare at her. “You tell me not to do anything dangerous, and here you are, taking Mana from an unstable source that was even more dangerous than taking a potent potion!”
He studied up on this sort of thing, and while taking aspected mana from the natural source in the world was fine, it was only in small amounts. Taking it from a potion was better as it was taking more mana in a well constructed amount. Taking it straight out of an enchanted weapon, however, could result in something potentially worse than just a charred body.
“Yeah… I guess that’s true,” Mikella winced, grimacing as she tried to scratch her cheek, but she winced again from the pain. “Sorry about that. I just… I didn’t really have much of a choice.”
“...I guess neither did I.”
Zeke looked back at the teen, a look of despair haunting him. Mikella took a glance at it, shaking her head.
“You gave him a chance, and he proved that he doesn’t deserve it.”
“He’s a kid,” Zeke retorted, though in honesty, his argument was weak. “He didn’t know what he was doing.”
“You and I both know it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that killing people is bad,” Mikella said, an edge to her tone at the corpse down by her feet. “No matter his age, he knew what he was doing, and he was perfectly fine with it.”
Mikella turned back right at him, her eyes filled with resolve. “He had to pay for this sooner or later. Now just happened to be that.”
Zeke closed his eyes. He knew that would be the case. He knew, yet…
Shaking his head, he let it go. There was no point anymore, like Mikella said. Still, despite being right, she grabbed his hand and stared at his eyes.
She smiled. Knowing that despite how he felt, she knew that it wasn’t easy. Even so, she smiled, telling him that he did a good job.
He just had to keep telling himself that was the case. Otherwise, he didn’t know how to handle the idea of taking a life for his own safety as well as everyone else’s.
“Oh, shit, what about Myra and Piker?!” Zeke quickly realized as he took a glance around, but Mikella only grabbed his shoulder, pointing her finger at the two who were just walking towards them.
They looked exhausted, but nowhere near as hurt as Zeke and especially Mikella. If anything, they looked more annoyed and frustrated, with Myra shaking her head.
“It finally died, and only after Zeke helped out with his weird birds,” Myra said, letting out a disappointed breath. Looking at the corpse now, however, brightened her mood. “Totally worth it, though.”
“You did well, considering you weren’t combat-trained,” Piker once again came in with a rare compliment and made a respectful nod to Mikella. “And I saw how you took in the magic from your sword and made it your attunement. You got more balls than most soldiers I know.”
“What?! Seriously?!”
Myra took a closer look at Mikella, her charred body somehow vibrantly vigorous. Her eyes widening, Myra picked up on the new feeling Mikella was giving off, even if she doesn’t have a high magical sense as Zeke’s. Hell, even he didn’t feel that, only told by Mikella. Perhaps it can only be sensed by those with an attunement?
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“You are just full of wonder, ain’tcha?” Myra said, shaking her head ruefully at her.
“Ain't nobody gonna, y’know, lecture her for nearly killing herself? All this praise is gonna go to her head and let her do it again.”
Zeke decided it wasn’t worth it to prolong her behavior, so he decided to comment despite the nasty glare he was receiving. He only sneered back at her which prompted her to jab at his rib, hard.
“That’s how you get shit done,” Myra said proudly, putting her fists to her hips. “Also, you don’t deserve to say that. You probably influenced her from your crazy ass stunts.”
“That’s actually how I carried out my plan,” Mikella smirked with glee, getting Zeke to look ridiculous now with both women staring at him like they caught him in a trap.
“So… what now?”
As Myra said, Zeke took a look at the zombieman that the two were fighting. The zombieman was riddled with many cuts and slashes, each one either totally burnt or frozen over. He also turned to the air-based zombieman, but that poor thing was obliterated across the broken wall and floor, body parts spread all over. Mikella went overkill on that thing. After checking outward, he realized that the sounds of battle from the few rooms away died down a little, if barely. The sounds of the rattling chains were still gnawing at him, almost crawling inside his ears.
“It should be over, now that this kid is gone,” Mikella said, and Zeke decided to at least use up a bit of his Mana to heal her wounds. He had enough of her looking like barbeque. “Hey, you good to go?”
“Just let me handle this.”
Mikella was clearly worried, but nobody complained as the scent of human flesh being burnt was enough to warrant this use of Mana. Her wounds slowly healed up as Mikella finally let loose a breath of relief. Her color returned and she looked a lot better now, though Zeke was surprised how she just took all that damage and still managed to move.
It was then that he recognized it with his Recovery skill. His eyes picked up that just like with Myra’s, Mikella’s channels were charged with her own aspected mana. Unlike the flaming heat of fiery red Mana, hers were charged with extremely dense electricity. It actually helped hasten the recovery process, her charged mana working in tandem with his own. It was possible that her body was just charged with more electricity, not only helping her recover faster but also kept her body moving despite the injuries.
It was a powerful aspect, but he could also tell that it was going crazy in some parts of her body. When he commented on it, Mikella nodded.
“Yeah, it actually stopped me while I was trying to help you. Just… locked me up and forced me to freeze.”
“Oof, that sucks,” Myra shook her head. “You gotta gain more control with your mana. Otherwise your aspect is gonna make mincemeat of your body.”
Zeke almost winced at that, and Mikella looked as though she nodded in understanding. As they were about to head deeper into the topic, trying to rest up as much as they could, the others finally managed to catch up to them.
The soldiers as well as the leaders showed up a few minutes later, realizing that the zombies from the outside were done for now that the necromancer was gone. When they approached, Val ran up to the four with a wide grin.
“I’m so glad to see that you guys made it,” Val said with glee in her tone. She gave a singular glance at the corpse and ignored it as she focused on the rest. “Zeke, I’m glad that you turned out safe. I’m sorry that we couldn’t all come to find you.”
“It’s okay…” Zeke lowered his head. “If anything, I messed up. I got taken and so many others died while I was away.”
“That’s not your fault,” Val shook her head. “It was our own fault for not recognizing the danger, and bringing along inexperienced soldiers was our responsibility. You should only focus on the fact that you survived, and even managed to succeed in taking down the one causing the trouble. All of you should be proud.”
Piker, Mikella, and Myra nodded in agreement, and Myra herself looked a little embarrassed, rubbing the back of her head. Zeke nodded in understanding as well. No matter how much he tried to take responsibility, everyone was saying to just move on as he had no control over what happened.
It was hard to do, obviously, but that’s generally how it goes. It was a dangerous endeavor in the first place, and it goes without saying that leaving without any losses would be a fool’s dream. Having lost a quarter of their group was bad for morale, but this one was a special case.
Cloud stepped over, finally glancing at the necromancer lying by. “So you killed him,” Cloud said with a still tone. He nodded in satisfaction. “A human who somehow took control of the dungeon after gaining a class that can control zombies. Honestly, it’s better off that way, even if I have some questions about it.”
Cloud turned over to Zeke and Mikella, and the two nodded in response. It was a clear sign that he was also like them, but considering the result, he was vastly different compared to the rest of them.
“I’m rather curious about why a human of all things was in charge here,” Zacharia, the general, stepped over with his hulking frame, and Zeke had to take a double take to see him.
The man with built muscles like a statue was practically withering away. His usually dark skin was so pale it might as well be gray, and his eyes look sunken, yet they were still filled with a fiery determination to see this mission through. Zeke almost had to look away when he tried to use his Recovery on him. The undeath Mana was almost radiating off of him. If a normal person were to have that much amount on them, they would’ve turned and died right on the spot.
“A-Are you okay?” Zeke asked, taking the general’s attention. Normally, he would never ask such a thing, but his state only got him worried.
“Ah, this?” Zacharia pointed his chin at himself. “It’ll take some time for me to clear all this up. I won’t turn into a zombie, if that’s the issue.”
“The issue is you look like death itself,” Cloud shook his head. “Just how tough are you to take in that much?”
“Better that than to take some losses,” Zacharia said to finish it off, leaving Cloud to fume at him while he turned to Piker. “You returned earlier than expected, that’s good. Did you find any trouble?”
“Nothing of the sort, sir,” Piker immediately straightened at the response of the general. “We managed to get back in time when we found Zeke while fighting against a large creature. The very same way we came in when we returned back here.”
Zeke noticed that Piker was retelling everything, but was easily avoiding talking about their special status, and how they were connected to the necro teen behind him. Even if it’ll answer a burning question in Zacharia’s mind, Piker kept his promise.
Zeke now felt silly that Piker would end up revealing everything. When he took a glance back, he saw Cloud approaching Alex’s body, studying it closely.
“Perhaps we can take it back,” Cloud said, narrowing his eyes. “I doubt he’ll have a problem with that, considering he does the same thing and all.”
“Honestly Cloud, you’re just as petty as can–”
Val turned around to give a snarky remark to Cloud, but then her eyes widened as her words fell short. Everyone else did the same as they saw what was happening.
Alex’s corpse began to move.
Zeke gaped in horror after seeing the body move its arms, then its legs, then trying to lift itself up as though it had a will, yet Alex didn’t speak or even groan.
Just when Zeke was ready to pick up his sword to finish his job, unwilling to let Alex suffer more than he already had, he took a moment to consider himself. It shouldn’t be possible. He felt the energy enter his body from the system. He even saw the notification, telling him he killed the Level 54 Necromancer. When that happens, it usually means they actually died.
So Alex was already dead, but his body somehow moved. And suddenly, the body completely dispersed into black fog. The oily clothes were left behind as the fog spreaded, but at a weird controlled state.
Before anyone could react, the fog went towards the closest living thing–Cloud.
“Get away!”
Val, the fastest of the group, rushed forward and pushed her husband to the ground. The force was enough to topple even Cloud to the ground, making a loud thump.
But he looked back in horror to find that the fog has now covered Val in its entirety. Val was left frozen, her eyes turning distant as the fog just seeped straight into her mouth, her nose, and her ears.
The fog quickly disappeared into Val’s body, and she was soon left kneeling on the ground, her mouth gaping open and her eyes turning into saucers.
Then a force of powerful darkness exuded from her. All the soldiers couldn’t handle such a force, and not even Zeke’s group could handle it as they were pushed onto the ground on their backs.
The only ones left standing were the leaders, but it was clear that their faces showed anything but being steadfast.
Val let out a harsh scream, a yell that didn’t sound human anymore. She gurgled as black veins covered her body from head to toe, yet it was clear she was somehow vying for control.
“Valorie!”
Cloud screamed as he rushed forward, but Zacharia stopped him in his tracks by pushing himself away.
“What are you doing, you bastard?!” Cloud roared, turning to the general with a look that could kill.
“You fool! If you approach her, you’ll get turned as well!” Zacharia screamed. Not even his own composure was enough to handle this.
“You expect me to leave my wife to die?!” Cloud roared back, trying to push off Zacharia as he tried to save his wife.
Everyone else only looked on in horror. It was one thing for a soldier of the Expert stage to get turned into a zombie. It was easy enough for Zacharia to kill, after all.
But what if someone who was in the same stage turns into a zombie? What if she couldn’t control herself? At the rate they were going, would they even be able to survive?
And if Alex’s body turned into that black fog, wouldn’t it make sense that Alex somehow still has control over her through some strange and deranged Class skill? It didn’t look good for any of them, even the leaders as they tried to figure out what to do.
All the while, Val continued to scream in terror and pain, trying to hold her body with her arms, but the force being exuded was still going, as though Alex’s Mana was combating Val’s own. And somehow, Val was losing. With Recovery, he found out that Val had… no mana at all, which was strange. Was the effect of undeath that powerful?
Zeke watched as he tried to figure out what to do. It was one thing to try and help her, but another thing to get turned into undeath. Even now, the Mana that was pushing out of her body was actually undeath, so even going closer to help would be a death sentence.
But if left behind, Val will die and turn into a zombie. She’ll kill anyone here with ease thanks to her strength, and the near-indestructibility of a zombie in Journeyman Stage clearly couldn't be underestimated.
But worse than that, Zeke recalled Ana. The little troublemaker he often thought might be a bad influence on Clara. But at the same time, she was the sweetest little girl one couldn’t bear to hate or even dislike.
What would happen if she found out her mother died?
It was strange. Even though his own life could be in danger, as well as everyone else here, he couldn’t help but want to act the moment he realized that Ana might be left alone. Who on earth could lose their mother like this, especially someone as nice and sweet like Val?
Somewhere deep inside, something yearned within him. It ached to help, to be of use. And from the looks of things, he could do it.
He just wasn’t sure whether it would work, or if he even had the ability to do so. Even so, his hands started moving as he walked towards her.
“Stop!” Zacharia ordered, noticing Zeke approaching. “You’ll die! There’s no use!”
Zeke could tell that Zacharia truly was worried. It wasn’t for some efficiency’s sake, or due to his military training. He didn’t want anyone else to die, even Cloud who he didn’t have a good relationship with.
The other soldiers couldn’t even add their input. For one thing, it could be suicide, but in another, Val was in danger. Piker was helping the general to keep Cloud back, but he watched in horror at Zeke’s movements. Mikella, however, was the closest. Yet, she couldn’t even move. Her eyes were opening wide at Val’s suffering, unable to do a thing.
None of them stopped Zeke as he lifted his hand, his eyes glowing bright turquoise as he activated his Recovery, but not to use it on her.
No, he only used it as an aid for what he planned on doing. Directing his Mana forward, he cast his magic to create a barrier.
Right inside Val’s channels.