Slightly twisting his body and pressing the shield to himself, Robert avoided the thrust. The broken shaft of what happened to be the rakes previously, cut through the air with insane speed, barely touching the surface of his wooden defensive gear. Still, Rob didn’t even blink, continuing to move. His left arm shot forward, pushing the metal edge directly into the twisted face of the former stableman. The hit broke something, but Robert never stopped, adding another kick right into the chest. The mad city dweller flew backward before managing to do anything. However, his place was changed by another infected immediately.
This time it was a woman in her late fifties. Her face still held the beauty from a younger age. Her grey hair was tied in a pigtail with a red strap, while her clothes gave out her rich background. She could easily be a merchant’s wife. Or an owner of a luxury shop. Or a tavern keeper. However, magic rabies crossed out everything, turning her into a mindless beast with raging and bloodthirsting behavior. All these thoughts went through Robert without pausing him in the slightest. He sidestepped a clumsy but powerful swing of glowing claws, while his own mace was already accelerating. The flanged head of his weapon crushed her jaw, sending the woman in flight, but Rob didn’t follow for a finishing blow. The attacks of infected looked like an endless stream and it wasn’t reasonable to try to kill everyone in it. Moreover, it could be impossible in the first place as there were too many enemies.
He had to duck down, almost squatting to the ground when two infected jumped on him simultaneously. They both crashed over his head into each other before falling on him. Luckily, Robert was ready, managing to free himself in a mere second. The moment later, he had to block the hit from another maniac with his shield. Stepping forward, he kicked the enemy’s knee with his leg, dropping the enemy on the ground before turning around with the swing of mace. Unfortunately, he miscalculated the distance as he hit with the handle and not the head. Still, that only made him continue his attack, headbutting the face of the infected. The latter was right in the process of trying to bite him. Therefore, his opened mouth met the metal surface of Rob’s helmet, effectively freeing him from an unknown number of teeth. The disorientation of “zombie” helped Robert to break its Adam’s apple with a following strike.
The dead body dropped on the second infected, pushing him back to the ground. That allowed Rob to finish limping infected with the mace. Not wasting any time, he jumped over the corpse and followed the group, which was already twenty meters (around 60 feet) ahead. However, their advancement was stopped by a new wave, giving Robert almost no time to check the situation and his gear.
The shield is barely holding… A few more mana imbued hits and I need a replacement. One of the flanges on the mace is bent already. Whatever – it is not a sword with its fragile blade. The main purpose of it didn’t suffer. At least I haven’t gotten any wounds so far, except some bruises.
One of the mages, on the other hand, was holding his side. Robert missed when he got that nasty cut - a short look from afar showed a lot of red liquid. The mage attempted to stop the blood loss by just pressing the injury with his palm. Of course, it didn’t work. Adding the need to move fast, it was a dead case. The case, which could be easily avoided by wearing any armor and not just a cloth robe. Still, the man kept sending more fireballs to the nearest enemies as he seemed to be under the influence of adrenaline. That couldn’t last long.
The mage yelled something with excitement after his latest spell burned a hole through two infected. He was even smiling with sincere pride at his accomplishment when his face turned pale. Surprised, he looked at his painted red palm one more time in pure disbelief before his eyes rolled out and he fell to the ground like a dropped sandbag. Robert was almost there by this moment. Almost. One of the infected jumped out of the window from the second floor, ending right on the body of the mage. Rob could swear he heard a cracking sound. He rammed into the “zombie” with his shield, throwing the enemy away but it was too late.
“We need to hurry!”
Angela shouted loudly, drawing the attention to her. Nobody answered, but the silent agreement was obvious as everyone hastened their speed. Both Marquise’s knights and William somehow even started to swing with their swords faster, bringing real devastation to the infected ahead. Angela stayed behind Aspen and used her lighting spell rarely – only when there was a large group incoming. Garret, the mage, on the other hand, was sending flaming projectiles as much as he could. Clearly, he was focused on his own protection what Robert could notice from his target’s choice. Even such selfish behavior lessened the pressure on Rob. The latter didn’t even try to kill every single opponent as often damage to the legs could effectively leave infected behind without the need to spend more time and strength for a death blow.
Still, their way wasn’t easy, despite the power of the knights in the vanguard. They could easily cut through the bodies of the infected, ending most of them with few strikes. However, each missed hit from claws of magic maniacs, each mana-imbued blow, constant need of defense – everything needed the energy to sustain. Robert wasn’t sure if they could keep it up till the tower. He didn’t know the way, but he was sure it wasn’t the shortest.
The first attempt to run through narrow alleys at the beginning of their breakthrough ended in attacks from above in addition to the blockage from both sides. It was the first serious obstacle after entering the gates. Running over the mutilated corpses wasn’t great, but being cornered was far worse. As he was in the back, Robert tried to stop the advancements of the infected. Not wasting any time for threatening strikes, which could only work out with conscious opponents, he put up his shield before bashing it. Rob didn’t stop to see the effect, continuing to hit the thighs or knees of the infected with mace, while covering himself with a basically shaped wooden plank. It couldn’t last long against such frenzy. His entire plan was to slow them as he didn’t see a way to stop them. The problem was that after a few crushing hits and broken legs, he was barely holding. A few infected had hung on his shield, pulling him down to the ground. Another one tried to bite his shin, while the crowd continued to push him back. Robert somehow was able to hold on to his feet, but the contest of strength against multiple opponents wasn’t the best idea.
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However, before he fell to the ground, two fireballs burned through the infected, lessening the push. Imprudently, by inner instinct, he turned around to thank both mages only to see the raised staff in Angela’s hand. Familiarity of it sent shivers across his back, while he moved by instinct. That saved him as he managed to drop down before a lightning spell devastated the ranks of infected. Robert wanted to curse loudly about friendly fire, but the scene of a new wave of enemies made him change his words.
“Don’t try to cut through the infected. Cut through the fucking wall!”
In the end, they barely escaped from a narrow alley, running through someone’s house. Robert even had to jump directly into the window when he noticed how slow mages were squeezing through the newly appeared hole. The lack of physical activities made them dangerously clumsy. That experience led them to choose wider roads in exchange for a longer route. As the death of the second mage had shown, it didn’t guarantee anything also, just gave more chances not to be ambushed from all sides, including above.
Therefore, following the shout from Angela, they ran across several streets before finally finding the main one. The road was covered with paving stones and was mostly empty from anything. There were several closed stalls, folded in single-covered construction. All front doors were shut tight, while curtains hid the insides of buildings. Moreover, a quite few could boast with additional wooden planks, hastily nailed over frames. During their run, Robert noticed several abandoned toys, buckets, boxes, and many other things that showed, that despite all the preparations of citizens, some still were caught in the middle of assault. However, the emptiness was visible, as he couldn’t see anyone. Of course, not counting the infected.
Occasionally, “zombies” dropped out from windows or emerged from alleys, immediately going for an attack. Rob heard sounds of something breaking or rare screams, but he had neither opportunity nor wish to check what was going on behind closed doors of houses they were passing by. There was another thought that bothered him during all this time.
Why the fuck don't they attack each other? They were in the village, but here they are clearly focusing only on us. How the hell does it work? Where is my system notification, which could explain everything? Or all-knowing AI? Or the spirit of the grandmaster from the universe? Well, I guess you just can’t know everything – it could be the first phase or newer mutation of infection… At least mages didn’t build any barricades to obstruct knight’s advancements. It helps a lot now. They might think that spells would crush… Oh, fuck!
He had to interrupt himself as they entered a huge square. Previously it seemed to be designed for trading, as he saw lots of stalls and carts. Now, everything was covered with cloth or totally emptied as he could notice boxes with vegetables, plants, bags with corn, and other valuable staff scattered all over the ground. Wide roads from the gates directed farmers from nearby villages through the whole city to sell or exchange their goods here. Rob could see a full row of shops, and administrative and service buildings surrounding this flat space. Each of them showed its main purpose with painted signboards – pen and ink, saw, scales, mug, rose, and many other symbols. He could easily imagine how busy and lively this place was before trading days. Almost an ideal copy from movies – bustling, noisy, and colorful. Only was it because right now the scenery had changed completely.
Being the center point of the city, to which most roads led, the square simultaneously was situated not far from the mage’s tower and its front gate. Therefore, the retreat of spell-wielders and their chasers couldn’t miss it. And it didn’t, resulting in possibly the last huge battle between both sides. Some of wooden constructions were still burning, while others turned into chips under magic attacks or knight’s swords. The bodies were scattered all over the place, showing how chaotic and panicky the escape was. However, that didn’t end there as their confrontation unavoidably attracted the attention of the infected, creating even more mess in the process.
Robert could see the beheaded corpse of the mage, who even after the death was still gripping the half of the staff that didn’t manage to save him. The other part was lying near his own head. The latter still showed a shocked expression. The killer hadn’t gone too far from there as he was immediately targeted by the infected. The cut bodies of them were dispersed around, while the knight tried to retreat. Clearly seeing the ineffectiveness of it, he attempted to lessen the threat by using the cart as protection for his back, but it backfired. That and maybe the fact of energy over usage. His sword impaled the crawling “zombie”, who attacked his legs, but the knight didn’t last much longer. The visor on his helmet was looking in the wrong unnatural direction, while all his armor was covered with blood. He still managed to get company in the afterlife by taking out several infected, but death finally took him.
The scenes with the same level of cruel somberness were everywhere. Burned bodies of “zombies”. Half exploded from the unknown spell torso of the knight. Broken limbs infected with protruding bones. The legless remnants of the mage, who tried to crawl away only to be hammered by the mad butcher. Also, there were faces – different faces. Young and old, distorted from hatred and anger. Others were filled with grief or surprise. Some had been damaged to an unrecognizable state. One carried the marks of tears, while the owner was bleeding out from a cut in the stomach. Another smiled even in death, showing bloodied teeth in his wide grin.
The scenery struck Robert with an enormous mixture of horror, wish to vomit, and sorrow from so many needless deaths. Even his experience only partly helped to lessen the shock from the brutality of such a picture. He continued to run just by inertia, absentmindedly moving his legs for a few seconds, before finally pulling himself together. Nothing was over. There were more infected around them, who managed to survive the battle. More likely, they came too late as the road to the tower was filled with bodies. It had a much smaller number of dead, showing the possibility of someone’s breakthrough into it. However, the widely opened huge doors left no doubts that the attempt to stop the chase had failed.
“Run, quickly! We can hide inside!”
William shouted, pointing to a tall tower ahead. Made from grey stones, it raised high into the sky, almost dominating the entire area. Maybe it wasn’t that tall in reality – not more than ten floors, but in comparison with other buildings, it looked like an adult around toddlers. The whole construction seemed to be copied from a lighthouse with no windows and a huge opening on the top, but much wider. It was almost a mixture of a medieval version of a skyscraper and a fortified prison. There was no fence around and a single entrance looked like oversized metal doors with two leaves.
“Hurry before too many of them will follow us!”
Angela’s scream was accompanied by sounds and noises from incoming infected. As it was creating the chain effect, the movement of the nearest “zombies” triggered even more of these creatures. By some point, when Robert could easily see around ten maniacs, running to them, the yells and shouts, filled with rage, were already spreading across the whole square, attracting even more unwanted attention.