The zombie shakily stood up, while continuing to stare at the corpse beside it. The back of who happened to be the man in his previous life was covered in tattered clothes with clear spots of red. Its movements were almost mechanical, unnaturally jerky. Zombie’s head was still titled down as if the poor victim in front of it captured the whole attention. However, another shout made it twitch. In the next second, the creature slowly started to turn its face, while the rest of the body stayed motionless. For a moment, Robert thought that it would break its own neck, but the thought died out when he noticed the eyes. Glowing blue-purple eyes, which were shining through messy long hair that covered everything.

“You! Answer me…,” repeated the soldier, gripping his axe tighter. The bloodied hands of the zombie and its creepy appearance made his voice squeak in the end, but the weapon gave him enough confidence to stay calm.

The zombie moaned before loudly smacking its lips. Robert didn’t know how he heard that – maybe it was ominous silence everywhere or he was too focused to miss any action from possible monsters. However, he was damn sure it was exactly that doing – as if the creature saw them in a role of the best treat.

“Don’t let it bite you! Better keep it at a distance,” Rob warned his comrade, while hastily swapping his axe with a mace, “And aim at the head!”

“Why? What are talking about?” The soldier looked at Rob with an expression of confusion.

“Fuck! Be careful!”

At the very same moment, when he turned his attention to Robert, the zombie moved. The first step was quite slow, but the next one was faster as if it was rapidly accelerating. The hand, covered in red liquid, was already stretched forward in an attempt to grab the soldier. Zombie moaned again before a new sound emerged from its mouth.

“Hel…,” a violent cough stopped it from continuing its odd roar. Familiar glowing patterns covered its body, making the eyes flare up as two purple torches. Zombie immediately stopped its tracks and dropped to the ground, convulsing in a fit.

“Are you alright?” the soldier rushed over to the fallen creature only to stop at two meters, not willing to touch it.

“He might be ill… I suggest you don’t touch him,” Robert quickly found a reasonable cause for being cautious.

“Not a chance I am doing it,” nodded the warrior, before focusing on the zombie again. The latter finally stopped coughing and was lying in exhaustion. The moans that came from it sounded like the creature was in pain. Both his comrade and Rob stood nearby, not willing to check this thing, but at the same not wanting to leave it behind or use the weapon without absolute confidence. This stalemate continued for a full minute before being broken by the zombie itself.

“Help me…,” the man’s voice was weak and barely audible, but it was definitely sapient and came not from a brainless creature.

Not zombie? Damn! Here comes my theory…

“My wife… I tried everything, but the blood just didn’t stop… I didn’t want to do it, but she tried to kill me… it’s not my fault…,” the more he talked the faster words came out, as a non-stop torrent after breaking the dam. However, soon the words started to turn into absolute gibberish as if the man had a fever. His messy hair fell back, opening the face of a middle-aged man with deep wrinkles and a short beard. From another careful inspection, Robert didn’t find any visible wounds and even blood on his hands seemed to be indeed from the dead woman. Overall, quite skinny, with noticeable calluses from hard work, and without few fingers, he looked ordinary. Only his blue-purple eyes were the sole exception, but even they dimmed by a lot after the initial glow.

“What do you think?” asked the soldier, keeping his distance from the mumbling man on the ground.

“It looks like later stages of the same illness with a glowing cough. Fever, oddity with eyes. Better to call someone with the same symptoms for a checkup – they are already infected, but maybe we are not. Even if we are, close contact may speed up the process, which I would like to avoid personally by any means. Moreover, his illness doesn’t answer questions about what has happened here. Plus we need to check the body of the woman to see what has caused the death – maybe it can lead to something,” after giving some thought, answered Robert.

“Oh, you are smart, I see. Good. Don’t know these words – sympytams, and infeectan. Great that at least someone can figure out in this fuckery, when the commander knight has already opened his death door and others can’t decide anything together. Maximillian,” ending with his name, the soldier stretched his arm for a handshake.

His sincere smile after accepting his own ignorance for a moment disoriented Robert, who wasn’t expecting this. Rob paused, before finally smiling back and putting his mace in his other hand to answer the gesture. However, it was exactly that moment, when “zombie’s” eyes flashed with purple light, and everything went wrong. The body of the man, which was on the ground, moved with a lightning-fast speed, jumping on the distracted warrior. The latter still managed to react on pure instincts, avoiding glowing nails with sharp edges, which had grown by a noticeable margin after getting a similar visual effect to the knight’s weapon.

“It was your fault!” with a wild scream man made another swing but was met with a shield. Reinforced with metal edges wooden surface barely managed to hold the glowing nails that almost cut through. Still, Maximilian didn’t panic as he was already attacking with an axe. The blade of the latter broke the arm of the madman and got stuck in it. Another glow of patterns followed and “zombie” with unnatural strength pushed apart both soldier’s arms before jumping forward with opened mouths. The flash of light might have blinded Maximillian as he couldn’t react this time. The teeth tore apart his throat before Rob’s mace broke the spine of a madman.

“Fuck!”

The scene of two convulsing bodies made Robert stare at them in a slightly shocked state. He was ready from the beginning when he saw the strange behavior of a madman, but his incorrect assumption made him lower a guard in the end. It was especially hard to watch a rapidly fading light in Maximilian’s eyes – the blood loss from such a wound didn’t leave any chances. Robert sighed again before focusing on the futile attempts of the madman to stand up. The glowing pattern had already disappeared, and the man again started to plead for help, but Rob just raised his mace silently before dropping it down a few times.

“Here is your help. You are welcome, bastard!” The blood spattered on his face from a cracked skull. Still, the anger inside him didn’t want to depart. He had to breathe in and out a few times to calm himself somehow.

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I need to think with a cold mind about what was that. First…

His thought was interrupted as a loud commotion broke inside the carpenter’s house. Looking one more time at two corpses, Rob immediately rushed toward them, but it appeared that the unfolding events didn’t want to miss him too. From the nearest window, the body in brigantine armor flew out. Landing in a few meters, it moaned from the pain, as the impact appeared to be quite strong. However, he didn’t have time to recover from it – a figure was already jumping out, glowing with familiar patterns. With a shout of unclear gibberish, “zombie” stopped for a moment before finally finding its victim. However, Rob’s appearance captured its attention, setting him as a new target.

To Robert’s surprise, the infection was fast. Very fast. Illuminating dark surroundings by itself, it started the attack with a straightforward swing, which Rob barely avoided by ducking under. His simultaneous thrust crashed the knee of the “zombie”, dropping it to the ground. Still, it didn’t stop the barrage of attacks at all, as the infected continued its assault despite the wound. With another glow, it almost pushed it in the high jump just using a single leg. Robert had to cover himself with the shield, which ended in a few holes in it. Nails seemed to be imbued with mana, copying the knight’s dangerous ability.

Another sweeping blow cut through the air as a lighting. Rob’s savior this time was an instinctive step to the side, but he didn’t have time to celebrate as it wasn’t the last one. Using his shield, Robert managed to counter the next strike from the start, limiting the motion of the hand. Another kick in the “zombie’s” stomach helped to create some distance during the swing. The nails flew in a few centimeters before his face, sending noticeable shivering through the whole body after realizing the closeness of danger.

The patterns almost dimmed, making “zombie” pause and Robert immediately went offensive. Hitting with the edge of his shield, he broke the nose of the infected and threw the opponent to the ground again. Stomping on the second knee several times until he heard a clear crack, Rob added one more hit with mace before finally stepping back and checking the damage. He was surprised to see that it was crying from pain and didn’t try to stand up at all.

“Please, stop… Why are you doing it? I beg you to spare me… I haven’t done anything…,” the weak and slightly high voice of who happened to be a big-framed teenager shocked Robert, making to stop him.

“Kill that thing!” a shout from the back made Rob turn around only to see the fallen soldier, who was sitting on the ground and treating his cut on the arm with some rag. “Don’t listen to it. It just waiting for another opportunity to strike – we have the same situation inside. Kill it now!”

Nodding after a short pause, Robert gripped his mace tighter before stepping forward. At this exact moment, patterns on the “zombie’s” body shined, pushing the infected in motion again. The stretched arm pierced through the shield, fortunately going above Rob’s handle and got stuck. Before the attacker tried to free it, Robert's fist hit the jaw of the zombie. After a few more punches, he managed to loosen the ties on his arm and threw “zombie” on the ground. The mace ended the deed, finally killing the creature. Yes, the creature, as Rob didn’t see them as humans – nobody could do such stunts with broken bones.

If they aren't zombies, they are pretty close to them in one thing - complete ignorance of pain. Hmm, they look like more infected with a magic variation of rabies. Those glowing patterns might indicate the state of mana charge of the infected, when they can use imbuing of their bodies to increase strength, and speed and even to cut through objects. But when they spent their mana, they seemed to partly recover their conciseness for a limited time, while returning to a before-infected state of physique… This might be it as it correlates with the ambient mana-sucking process, the consequences of breaking the soul’s defense, and possible changes from it. Well, it would be better if they were just zombies. Crash the heads, while don’t getting bitten sounds better than avoiding fast-moving madmen with all-cutting claw nails… Shit, and I prayed for vampires. What an idiot!

The shouts from the street made Robert hastily return to reality as if nothing was over. He didn’t know how many of those things were hidden inside the ominous settlement. At least he was sure that if everyone was ready for the threat, their group had a good chance to fight through. Proper-geared soldiers with melee combat skills had more abilities to survive than average villagers. Even against those infected by rabies, good organization and coordination could work well. They had weapons to get a distance advantage. They knew how to battle in ranks to attack the same target simultaneously. They didn’t need to hurry. Therefore, it could work out. Of course, if nothing went wrong. And naturally, when Rob ran to the main street, which went directly through the village and was the center point of their search, he found a complete mess.

The scene unfolded before he showed an absolute lack of any proper coordination. Most of the surviving warriors fought for their own lives, not having any opportunity to help others. The mumbling religious lunatic was lying motionless near the bloody remnants of what seemed to be an old knight. It was hard to guess identity in such a state, so Robert wasn’t totally sure if it was indeed a wounded leader who wasn’t able to recover from his last sleep or one of his servants. His guards killed the maniac, but it was possibly already too late as that loud commotion brought all attention to the group, making all infected rush to this place.

Fortunately, it seemed those “zombies” didn’t tolerate even each other with their aggressive behavior as not only did they rush in limited numbers, but also fought between themselves. Two of them – woman and man – were tearing each other with glowing nails, spattering the blood all over the place. Robert saw only the end of the fight when the woman managed to pierce the eye socket with her finger, immediately killing her opponent only to die a few moments later from the sword of the nearest soldier.

The problem was that the latter had glowing patterns all over the body. Rob realized it was the same warrior, who gave a speech about the need to walk to the village. His cough turned into a full-scale infection, effectively turning him into another madman, but worse. Armed with a weapon and skills to use it, clad in armor, with added strength, his next swing went around the defense of his former comrade, deeply cutting into flesh.

There was another infected soldier, fighting against two warriors. This time the result was the opposite as they both were clearly overwhelming him. However, the jumping attack from behind tripped one of them, which gave the armed “zombie” the possibility to focus on a single target. The axe, accelerated by muscles imbued with mana, went through the shield with ease, cutting the hand in the process. The soldier screamed from a mixture of pain and anger but still managed to thrust his sword into the stomach of the madman. That wasn’t enough as the latter just stepped back, easily avoiding the hit. However, at the same time, he ended open for Robert’s mace that bent his helmet, finally dropping him to the ground.

“We need to stay together. Let’s move into…,” Rob started to shout for everyone, but a wave of pain interrupted him as the soldier, who he just saved a moment ago for some stupid reason decided to hit him with the sword. The shaky blade almost missed his face as he somehow managed to react. Almost. The tip sharp edge of it still cut through Robert’s chin, crushing the bone and making the world go dark for a second.

“Stop! I am on your side!”

He cried, or he thought he did as nothing comprehensible came from a broken jaw. On the other hand, he sounded like a real wild beast, pushing the soldier into continuing his assault. Therefore, Rob had to react in the same manner, stopping the sword with his mace. The hard block shook both hands, leaving a noticeable chip on the blade. His second hand was already taking the hanging axe from the waist, while his body was moving forward. His shoulder bashed into the turned-to-be enemy’s chest before he head-butted the nose of this idiot. Both wore open helmets without visor and nose protection, which resulted in screams of pain from the soldier. The faint hit from the mace distracted the opponent, giving the axe a possibility to end the fight by penetrating his face with a small pick on the other side of the axe blade.

Stop! Why the fuck did I kill him? I… Nope, he attacked first and was going for a kill himself. Gather your shit, Robert! Nothing is over!