The zombie parts wiggled and writhed like maggots, pulling together, just like I'd seen countless times.
They weren't going to join the battle, were they? The wraith was already getting stronger every time it touched that black smoke. Although Terre acted like the zombies were nothing, what if they tipped the scales of the battle? I gripped my sword and rushed forward, stopping at the boundary of the mist. But I didn't dare take a step farther, into the light mist swirling in front of my toes. I swallowed hard and stared through the haze at the pile of wiggling human remains.
That's when I noticed something different. When I fought the zombies earlier, it didn't matter how jumbled the parts got, the correct arm, leg or head would slither back to the correct torso. But that wasn't happening now. Instead of dividing into eight individual piles, the zombie bits collected into two large piles. Two torsos merged, the rib cages popped as they pressed into a mega torso. Four arms, two on each side, attracted to the torso. Several thighs and shins merged to form extra thick, long limbs. They attached to the torso, creating a massive zombie. A single head connected to the top, tiny looking compared to the body, like a cartoon four-armed bodybuilder.
The worst part? There wasn't just one freak zombie, there were two — one male head and one female head. They pushed off the ground and staggered to standing, holding multiple weapons in their many hands. After a second, the Guide finally labeled them: Enhanced Zombie, Lv 17.
My lips parted in shock. They grew over five levels when they merged! How? The wraith controlled the zombies; is that how much it has grown since Terre started fighting it?
Concerned, I glanced at the battle. The white and black lights clashed together in a magical explosion, forcing the two beings apart. The wraith's black cloaked form shifted and rippled so much, I couldn't tell if it was injured or not. Terre skidded across the ground. His brows were pinched together in determination and he was breathing hard. I couldn't see any visible injuries, but I knew his hands were full with the wraith. Could he really deal with the two zombies at the same time? Even weak monsters could sneak attack a stronger opponent when they were distracted. If that happened too much, Terre would be at a disadvantage to the wraith.
The freak zombies didn't even glance at me, the weaker opponent. Instead, they staggered towards Terre as if driven, hungry mouths leaking blood tainted drool.
I ... could help. I should help. I… I shifted at the edge of the mist, torn between the desire to act and fear of the mist.
Levi stretched out from my shoulder, poking his head into thin vapor. He drew back and eyed me in confusion. Since it freaked me out so much, he assumed the water vapor was terribly dangerous, but he couldn't find anything wrong. After a pause, he slipped off my shoulder and slithered into the mist.
I gasped and reached out to pull him safely back, but I wasn't fast enough. My fingers stopped an inch from the mist, unable to move farther.
Levi stopped to look at me and filled our bond with a reassuring feeling while expressing his desire. If I was scared, I could stay here. But he wanted to kill those zombies. He simply couldn't accept that they still moved after all the effort he took to hack them apart. Now that he was rested enough, he wanted to make sure they never moved again.
"No, it's the wraith. They won’t stop until the wraith is dead," I explained, glancing at the intense battle still raging.
The battle the zombies were closing onto.
Suddenly, I felt stifled. Smothered. Trapped inside the safe clearing that Terre made. How was it any different from the safe bubble that Dad wanted to keep me in back at Mist Haven? Levi freely left, while telling me that it was okay, I could stay safe. I could hide from my fears.
If I hid now, what was the use of being a Hunter? I’d been facing my fears this entire time, why should I stop now? Before I got the System, I wanted to be a Hunter to get stronger. To show that I wasn't scared anymore, even when I was. I wanted to help people.
If I gave up because of fear now, I didn't deserve to be Hunter.
The zombies gained speed as they neared the fight, their clumsy bodies breaking out into a lope.
I took a breath and forced the tide of terror crashing on my mind away, burying it deep enough that I wasn't shaking anymore. After a quick glance at my MP bar and doing a quick calculation, I called out, "Levi." I reached out, my hand passing through the mist wall. The cool vapor rippled around my skin and sent shivers down my spine, but I didn't flinch away. I entered the forest where my mom died; I can enter this mist too.
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Levi perked up and quickly came back. He gripped my wrist as I straightened up.
"Ten minutes," I said, and pooled water magic between my hands. "We have to finish this fight in less than ten minutes." Of course, a lot of that depended on Terre, since the zombies wouldn't stop until the wraith was dead. But I could give him those ten minutes. Determined to succeed, I activated Familiar Enhancement and twisted my hands, forcing the water into a glowing rune circle.
Levi jumped through it as soon as it was ready. He landed on the other side, over six feet long and ready to kill. Water appeared under him and he shot forward like an arrow, sliding along a shallow tide.
A bull ache formed in my temple, letting me know that magic-wise, I was in a bad shape. I took another breath through the pain and wrapped water around my blade. I didn't have enough MP for arrows, just for a single cast of Hydrokinesis and Water Slide, both of which I could maintain for ten minutes. After that, I'd be out of MP and suffering from MP burnout. If that happened, I just hope it didn't knock Levi unconscious too. He'd still have ten more minutes of enhancements that he could use to protect me.
"Ready," I whispered to myself, and lunged forward. A wave of water appeared under my feet, sliding me forward at an accelerated speed. The mist closed around my body, swallowing me in its damp chill. My heart stuttered in response, but I refused to compromise my posture as I water skated after Levi, the loose hairs from my pony tail whipping around in the wind. No matter what, I was going to stay strong.
The huge monsters paused, noticing our approach. The one with a woman's head turned with a roar and swung its right arms at us.
I swerved right while Levi turned left, working in tandem to flank the monsters.
The woman-head followed after me, the decaying skin of its cheeks stretching as it roared in frustration when the two arms swiped right over my head. I twisted around and swung, lobbing off a zombie hand. The hand flopped to the ground, its rusty sword clattering against the hard stone. The hand immediately wiggled to reattach itself. Damn, these things reformed faster than the original zombies.
The monster didn’t even pause before it unleashed attack after attack with its many arms. With only my miao dao, I fended off its attacks while working to sneak in attacks of my own. There were only a couple levels different between mine and the zombie's level, but it was clearly much stronger than I was. After all, my strength was in my magic. That being said, the zombie was acting on instinct, and I was a better swordswoman. That training, coupled with Water Slide, made it so I wasn’t at a huge disadvantage.
However, I didn’t have a lot of HP left and I knew that a single hit from the zombie would be detrimental. Instead of going offensive, I played the defensive game, even to the point that I’d give up attacks of opportunity, just to stay out of reach. After all, I wasn’t trying to beat the zombie – I literally couldn’t – I was just trying to give Terre enough time to kill the wraith.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the male-head sprint after Levi, scrambling to stab the snake's tail. Levi whipped around and opened his mouth, shooting a jet stream out of his mouth. The water smacked the zombie in the face with enough force to detach the head and send it tumbling right next to me.
I whipped around and kicked out, punting the head as hard as I could in the opposite direction. Hopefully, the distance would prevent it from reattaching so quickly. The woman-head zombie instantly took advantage of my distraction.
It swung the sword and axe in its right hand at me. I dodged back, the axe barely grazing my chest, ripping a stud off. Luckily, the weapon was so dull that it didn't cut through my E ranked armor. That also meant that it did cut me, there would be a bone crushing force behind it. I couldn't dodge the longer sword immediately after the axe. I lifted my sword, deflecting the attack to the side. As soon as the weapons met, a numbing vibration shocked through my weapon and stung my hands.
I guided the attack to the side and slid around behind the zombie, looking for a blind spot. There wasn't one — because its eyes stayed glued on me. Its entire head twisted around backwards just to keep me in sight. My stomach twisted in disgust, but I attacked anyway. My miao dao sliced across its muscular back, utilizing the fact that its elbow couldn't bend the wrong way and get me. The rotten flesh split open and a couple ribs fell to the ground, but it wasn't a fatal hit — not until the wraith died.
The zombie's torso swung around like a top on its stationary hips, quick as lightning. Its thick forearms smacked into my shoulder and side, sending me flying.
I gasped, painfully airborne. My HP bar flashed yellow, less than thirty percent.
Suddenly, the mist collected around me like a catcher's mitt and prevented me from smashing into the ground. I knew it was Terre helping me — how did he know where I was? — but my heart rate spiked when the mist moved. The zombie charged, four arms out of the get me. Instead of falling to pieces, I focused on what I needed to do. I twisted and jumped off the solid mist, landing on my little tidal wave, just as the zombie reached me. I ducked under it, sword out as I passed. The zombie howled as it collapsed, missing the lower part of its left leg. The undead fell right onto the solid mist I just left. The mist closed around the monster like steel jaws and crushed it into pieces.
A large volume of black magic exploded to my right, a small distance away. Terre's pain grunt echoed across the rocky plateau as he was blasted back.
My brows pinched together as I scowled, panting for breath. I was grateful that he prevented me from hitting the ground, but I was supposed to be helping Terre, not the other way around. Especially if it left him open to an attack.
The broken zombie at my feet howled insanely, its body parts squirmed desperately to reconnect. All the while, the head faced where Terre was, buggy eyes starving. Yet again, it didn't matter that I was right next to it, the zombie wanted him. Did the wraith issue a command or something?
Suddenly, the headless zombie sprinted right past me, aiming right at Terre.
*****