What is one thing all zombies have in common? sluggish movements and weak.

Well, turns out... these zombies were not like that. They could fight just as well as a living person, even seeming to be able to team up with the other Zombies to attack him.

" Blyat! " Nikolai barely dodge a sword attack, with only an axe in hand he was not faring well as these zombies had Wooden round shields. He also had to occasionally dodge the arrows.

[ DEVOURING TIME: 1 MINUTE ]

Again that creepy voice echoed. This voice has been saying this shit for the past four minutes and it was very annoying.

SWOSH!

Another dodge, the archer was posing a big threat to him. A zombie charged at him with a huge swing from its sword at his head. Dodging to the side, he saw an opening. He aimed his axe at the zombie's arm holding the shield.

SLASH!

The dull axe chopped through the rotten arms and the shield drooped to the ground. He did not give the zombie a chance to counterattack, he immediately brought the axe to the zombie's neck separating the head from the body.

The decapitated zombie fell to the ground, becoming more dead than it previously was.

' one down! five more to go. '

He saw the archer zombie aiming at him again, he quickly picked up the shield and covered his face.

THUD!

The arrow struck the wooden shield, he wasted no time and dashed towards the archer. ' That urod need to die. '

He dashed towards the archer, blocking another arrow and four strikes from the other zombies. His momentum did not stop, approaching closer to his target.

THUD!

Another arrow was blocked, and approaching melee range he bashed the zombie with his shield, sending it to the ground. He then followed it with an axe to the head.

' Four more left. '

[ ITEM DEVOURED ]

" Wha- " Like a nail being hammered to his skull, pain coursed through him, causing to drop his axe to massage his temple.

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The zombies on seeing his moment of weakness, charged at him. The closest one slashed its rusted sword at him... but.

CHING!

A metallic sound of two metals hitting was produced. Nikolai saw that he had defended the attack with what seemed to be a black knife made from the dark mist that was oozing through his arm.

He kicked the zombie on its chest, sending it towards its approaching kin who caught it.

SWOSH! THUD!

An axe flew straight towards the undead's skull killing it.

' Three more to go. '

With three more enemies to deal with and with his current state, things were looking good for him. That was until.

[ DEVOUR!!! ]

" CYKA BLYAT! " The voice spoke in his mind as the dark mist encased the shield on his left hand and devoured it.

[ DEVOURING TIME: 6 MINUTES ]

With his only mode of defence gone, he was stuck with the black knife.

The next six minutes were just him dodging attacks from the zombies and a few attacks from throwing rocks locally available from the ground.

[ ITEM DIGESTED ]

He immediately materialize a black shield on his left hand, it was circular in like that which the Vikings used. But on doing so, the black knife turned back into the dark mist.

' So I can't use two items at the same time. '

With his defensive item back, he can go on the offensive. Equipping himself with a rusted sword he picked up a few minutes back, he engaged the remaining zombies.

The fight did not prolong for more than five minutes. As he watched the motionless undead, he made sure they all stayed dead as he poked them with the rusted sword.

[ DEVOUR!!! ].[ DEVOURING TIME: 30 MINUTES ]

' And there goes the sword. '

The fight was somewhat easy if he was to review it, but what bugged him was that he was able to fight.. like a trained warrior.

He fought as if he had been trained for years and as if he was fighting on instincts alone. And also not to mention that he was able to conjure those mist-like weapons as it was natural for him to do so.

Those thoughts could be discussed later on, he was still not safe. There could be more of those zombies lurking around this dark forest. He needs to stay vigilant.

{ 30 minutes Later }

Well, the good news is that no zombies had been spotted for the past thirty minutes. The bad news is that he got bored.

So he spent the time playing with the black knife he conjured and waiting for that creepy voice to say-

[ ITEM DIGESTED ]

Which was accompanied by a pain equal to a head being struck by an even bigger nail. He then immediately conjured a double-edge black weird that the mist devoured.

This mist and that creepy voice in his head were very confusing things for him. To be honest, none of everything that happened today was logical.

Those rotten corpses in the basement were weird, covered only in robes and nothing inside. In fact, he was wearing the same rope now and was totally nude inside. He concluded that these people were crazy nude cultists or something, and he was part of their group.

That didn't help him and made him more uncomfortable. Then this black mist along with the creepy voice was a curse placed on him by some entity those robe-wearing nude cultists had summoned.

But that thing aside, this mist devours items and gives him those items back which he can conjure at any time, even if he breaks them. but it came with a price which include a painful headache.

His eyes landed on the fallen zombies, and an idea came to him. The zombies were stripped off from this armour for his future use and we're left completely nude.

He placed his right hand on one zombie and waited for something to happen. The mist escaped from his hand and slowly covered it and then the voice said.

[ DEVOURING TIME: 1 week ]

The zombie was devoured. His theory was right to more complicated "items", as said by that voice, require more devouring time and a more painful headache was sure to come for him.

' I just fucked myself up didn't I ' that he surely did.

' But that, I will deal with it the next day now I will sleep. '

With no signs that the zombies are near the cabin, he went straight to bed for his well-earned rest.

The future was unknown to him, but his presence in this cabin in the middle of this dark forest was going to spark a big fight in the future.

The zombies he slayed today were no ordinary zombies. They were monsters, the Nordic people called Draug, and they were not there by accident. They were summoned.