Chapter 79: Something Brave (Patreon)

Three zombies burst through the window.

I barely had time to reach for my knives before they fell upon me. Two of them each grabbed an arm, while the third grabbed one of my legs. I growled as I felt them bite into me, ripping small chunks of flesh away. Already, I could feel the infection moving through my veins and making my muscles twitch.

Hugo, seeing that I was in trouble, summoned Ostorox. The room was too bright for it with all the fires below, but he didn’t care. The void spawn spirit summon appeared and threw a tentacle around the zombie on my left arm. It ripped the creature away and tossed it back out of the broken window before the spirit summon disintegrated under the light from the fires.

Luckily, his sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

With an arm free, I was able to quickly stab the other two zombies in the brain and heal myself before rushing upstairs to the belfry to check on the others.

It didn’t look good.

Damian, Hemi and Elise each stood guarding a different wall of the clock tower to prevent the undead from climbing up. Each of them were bleeding in several places, though all of them continued to fight. Elise fired air blasts from her staff, Hemi knocked them away with barriers, and Damian fired his crossbow as he fast as he could.

They looked exhausted.

Damian glanced down at me with surprise when he noticed I was there. “Did you figure it out yet?”

I shook my head, and he grimaced. He didn’t want to say it, but we were quickly running out of time.

Before I could ask him something, Hemi staggered, losing his balance, and nearly falling over the edge when I caught him. He climbed down off the ledge with my hand guiding him. That was when I noticed the wound on his arm. It was a bite mark. The blood from their wounds means that they’re all infected.

“Why were your eyes red before?” Hemi asked as I helped him sit.

“Red?” I frowned.

“Yeah, like glowing with a kind of magic red, but they’re not anymore.”

It must be the temporary amulet buff. I didn’t tell him that though. It wasn’t important and he could learn about it later. Right now, I needed to find a way to take ownership of the clock tower.

“Why are you here? What’s the problem?” Damian asked, trying not to sound annoyed as he continued shooting.

I explained to him that the clock face had been destroyed so there’s no way to manually reset the clock. I just had to hope that the System was being metaphorical about that part of the quest. I thought about what the clock tower had left. Damian said that he didn’t know what else it could be but told me that there would’ve been a notification that the quest had failed if the clock face had been important.

I nodded and thought about what was left in the tower. The only unique things left was the private elevator that was locked down, my key, and the bell.

The bell? Maybe that’s it?

I examined the bell, moving around it until I noticed a keyhole on the back of it. My clock tower key fit inside it perfectly. I prayed that this would work as I turned the key.

Suddenly, it felt like time stopped for a second and then there was a loud gong as the bell rang despite it not moving.

[Congratulations. The clock tower owner has activated the bell to signify a change. The zombie horde will be eliminated in two minutes.]

Okay, we just have to hold out for two minutes. That’s nothing.

“Hey those other survivors are getting near the top of the stairs,” shouted Hugo from below sounding worried.

[Lucas Hudson: Fly out of the window. The zombies will be gone in two minutes.]

I couldn’t help Elise and Damian from the belfry. I wasn’t a ranged fighter like they were. Similarly, the stairs below would be too narrow, especially with eight people already there defending them. I decided it was time to put the amulet through its paces by doing something brave but incredibly risky.

I climbed up onto the ledge of the belfry next to where the zip-line cable now hung to the ground. I stuffed the last of the Swiftleaf from my inventory into my mouth to massively increase my speed. Elise could be heard asking me what I was doing, but I needed every second of the Swiftleaf bonus, so I ignored her and dove over the edge.

As my body plummeted headfirst, I grabbed hold of the zip-line cable. My hand slid down it, slowing my descent but not stopping it. Before the integration, attempting something like this would have ripped all the skin off my hand before I cracked my skull open on the pavement below. But with my level of constitution and dexterity, the zip-line barely tickled as I shot towards the ground.

When I was close to the bottom, I let go of the cable and kicked off the wall while taking out both of my knives.

With the Swiftleaf I must have been a blur to the others, but my perception was higher than the last time I’d used it and I didn’t need fine motor control to deal with a swarming horde.

I descended upon them with savagery and viciousness that I hadn’t felt since I’d used Umbral Frenzy.

Two fell instantly to my knives, causing a rush as I felt my stats massively boost further from the amulet. The boost only lasted five seconds before it needed another kill to replenish itself. Fortunately, I had many willing targets close at hand.

The zombie horde was like a sea of snarling bodies. All tightly compacted together, restricting their own movements too in some ways. Many of them were still behind the burning barricade wary of the fire, while others were finding ways around or over it to get into the clock tower.

[1:50 remaining]

My blades swept through those behind me, trying to get into the clock tower first before I tackled the horde. If they were the sea, then I was a relentless storm of wind and fury. Stabbing and slashing.

Hands from the undead would try to grab me, but with my buffed strength, I could shrug those off before killing them and moving on. I didn’t need to defeat the horde, though a part of me yearned to as I kept moving through the space that the barricade afforded me. No, all I needed was to keep as many of them focused on me as possible until the time ran out. The less the others had to deal with, the higher the chance that they’d survive.

There was a problem though.

I’d gotten carried away and killed many of them, but that still left the issue of their corpses. The bodies were piling up, which started to shrink the amount of room I had to maneuver in. The space around the clock tower entrance was growing smaller by the second, while more and more zombies were happy to climb over their dead associates to try and get a piece of me.

Even with my buffs, if enough of them jumped on top of me, I’d get crushed or eaten by the crowd. I had to maintain my mobility in order to survive.

I checked the time.

[45 seconds remaining]

Despite the amulet's buff, I was eventually forced to retreat into the clock tower, using the doorway to funnel them.

There were still some zombies on the stairs though who, instead of continuing after the survivors, changed their mind and came down for me instead.

I dropped my goblin steel knife and drew my sword for the extra range. Keeping them at a distance was important than getting close to them now.

I activated Savage Rupture and swung my katana taking three heads in a single blow. My Viper Fang continued to get work too, as I heard the rotting zombies come at me from behind.

[10 SECONDS REMAINING]

[Elise Evans: Lucas, get out of the tower!]

Trapped at the bottom, there was nothing I could do except throw myself onto the zombies in the doorway and push them back.

A deafening roar followed behind me as a giant cyclone of orange flame plunged down the inside of the tower, setting everything on the stairs below in flames.

I’d managed to get outside and free from the fire, but I’d also trapped myself amongst the zombies. Dozens of them dragged me down, biting and scratching.

I couldn’t move my limbs and the fear that I was going to die here returned.

I closed my eyes and watched the counter.

[7 seconds remaining]

I screamed as I felt a chunk of my thigh being ripped away.

[Five seconds remaining]

One of them bit into my face and I had to close my mouth for fear of losing my tongue.

[three seconds remaining]

Rough, hard teeth gnashed down on my hand, taking several fingers with it.

[Two seconds remaining]

One of them managed to clamp down on my neck and, while the other pain was worse, I felt a burst of wetness there that suggested they’d nicked an artery. I was going to bleed out very soon. Oddly, I started to feel calm about it. Dying to protect my friends wasn’t how I’d imagined going, but there were definitely worse ways.

[1 second remaining]

All the zombies froze.

[The Zombie blight has officially ended. Congratulations to all of those who survived it. Your infections have been halted but will still require healing or medical assistance. The town will remain condemned and the elevators will remain locked for a final 24-hour period to allow people to settle any remaining affairs that they may have on this floor. After that there will be no more town founding on this floor and all residents are encouraged to continue their climb downwards.]

I didn’t know what would happen to the zombies. They might vanish or turn to dust. I had to act fast before that happened.

Swallowing my disgust, I bit down on the closest one. I nearly gagged as their foul blood entered my mouth, but I forced myself to swallow some of it before my vision darkened and I passed out.