Hound of the Dead Chapter 29: Broken (Patreon)

Not beta read yet

Next update is Fate Coiling Sword and Snafu

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-Tokonosu- 

This was easier than she had imagined it would be. 

“Ah!” 

The electric pain that stung the side of her stomach objected to that. 

Wounds, lacerations, and heavy bruises still stung across her skin from the earlier altercation, while every part of her body protested after being slammed against the concrete wall previously, leaving her bones feeling as though another impact might finally push them past their limit and snap. Even with all that, their little operation had gone far more smoothly than expected. Raising her head slightly, her gaze met Cu's crimson eyes, and a subtle signal passed from her fingers toward him. She had expected her civilian companion to hesitate or look confused, but the boy understood the gesture immediately and moved into position without a second's hesitation, following the instruction as though they had practiced it together before.

Keeping her body away from being spotted, Rika tracked his approach as he moved toward a guard stationed along the corridor leading to Shimada's current location. 

The fact that a perimeter had already been established here showed just how quickly that bastard had been moving. Less than an hour had passed since her initial detention, yet the entire layout had already been turned into something resembling a fortified evil stronghold, with guards positioned along the routes leading toward the important areas and enough organization behind it to make moving through the building considerably more difficult than she had expected.

'Okay, perhaps not evil, but still, quite a lot of change in such a short amount of time,' she thought, resting her back against the side of a pillar while keeping her attention on the corridor ahead. The situation had clearly developed far beyond what she had encountered when first arriving, and every extra minute gave Shimada more opportunity to strengthen his hold over the place. ‘I should be worried but… these people are just civilians, I'm more about them than anything else.

Closing the remaining distance from behind, the blue haired man slipped one arm around the sentry's neck while his other hand clamped firmly over the man's mouth, preventing even a muffled shout from escaping.

“Urgh!” 

A quick punch from his right fist struck the guard directly on the head. 

Bam! 

The impact made the man's knees buckle almost immediately, his body going limp as he collapsed onto the linoleum floor. From where she watched, the attack looked rather simple, but every conventional expectation, a strike like that should have done little more than leave the guard yelling in pain, yet every time the boy delivered one of those punches, the person on the receiving end dropped unconscious. Either way, the result spoke for itself, and there was little point questioning something that continued to work.

Dropping to one knee beside the unconscious guard, he rummaged through the man's outer vest and checked each pocket, pulling out a couple of useless trinkets before tossing them aside. "It doesn't look like he has anything useful on him either." His fingers continued searching through the remaining pockets, checking beneath the folds of the vest before moving on.

"Anything?" Rika moved up to cover the adjacent hallway, pistol raised while her eyes swept across the empty passage and the doors along either side.

"Just a knife, a machete, and a few ammo's but no guns funnily enough. Nothin’ dangerous, honestly." The weapons were placed against the wall rather than left beside the unconscious guard, keeping the corridor clear while also making sure nobody could immediately reach them.

"They didn't have time to get to my car. If they had reached it, things would have been much worse. Still, we shouldn't lower our guard. I don't know exactly what Shimada has or what he has acquired since I last saw everything he had."

Stopping his search, Cu looked up with visible confusion. "You've been managing this place for a short while, haven't you? Didn't you see what he had on him?"

A shake of her head answered the question before she explained further. "Shimada went on several excursions outside, and he was always secretive enough to keep some of his findings to himself. I couldn't force him to reveal everything, so I don't know exactly what he has." If he had managed to acquire anything useful during those excursions, there was no telling where he might have stored it or how he intended to use it.

The strange look lingering across Cu's face quickly turned into a slight tilt of his head. "Lady, what exactly do you have in that car of yours? Maybe a few guns here and there would be dangerous, but you're making it sound like you brought an entire arsenal."

“Heh, you have no idea.” A helpless smile broke across Rika's face. "When I got the message from Shizuka about what was going on, I made sure to pack as much as I could and even took some of the US military's personal stash. I knew that upon arriving, one of the most important resources, aside from food and aid kits, would be weaponry and ammunition. Those at the Takagi estate were pushing back against the zombies day and night, and surely they wouldn't have an infinite supply of ammo." She adjusted her stance slightly before continuing, making sure her injured body could still support her properly. "I made sure to bring enough to arm a small group of armored soldiers — even removed all seats except for one to have more space. There's even a rocket launcher inside."

“Oi, a rocket what!? Though that sounds fun to use."

“It is.”

"Oh well, at least they didn't get to it. So let's make sure we kick these people's asses and take back the mall?"

The sheer optimism coming from the boy brought a warm smile to Rika's face. Surrounded by danger, he still managed to stand there as though the situation could be handled one problem at a time. ‘Hmph, as if he can't handle himself.’ 

By no means was this guy a helpless person. Still, that attitude gave her a genuine sense of reassurance and for a moment, his bright outlook felt like something she could hold onto… kind of like Shizuka. "You're pretty different from the way you behaved earlier." Her eyes returned to the path ahead. "Back then, you looked less like a civilian caught in the middle of an apocalypse and more like a veteran soldier."

“Did I?” He said without giving much context.

'I can't blame him. This apocalypse must have definitely changed many people, and I'm lucky I was paired with him,' she thought, keeping her attention forward while preparing herself to move again. “Anyways, let's go. He may have not gotten my stuff in the car, but I still had some sizable weaponry here. So keep an eye out.”

Both advanced upward, dealing with one person at a time as they continued through the facility. 

Anyone stationed to survey the surrounding area became another target, with the pair approaching from behind, dragging each guard out of sight, rendering them unconscious, and securing their hands and feet before moving onward. 

The process repeated through the upper sections, allowing them to make progress without creating unnecessary noise or alerting everyone nearby. It took time, particularly with her injuries slowing her down, but neither could afford to rush blindly into an area controlled by Shimada and his people.

“Hn!” A stinging pain flared beneath Rika's stomach, the sensation dug deeper with every step until there was no longer any way to ignore it. A low groan escaped her as her left knee gave out, striking the floor with a hard thud. “Hah… hah… hah…” One hand immediately went toward the side of her abdomen while the other caught against the floor, keeping her from collapsing completely.

“Hey,” Cu turned at once and crossed the distance between them, dropping beside her with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Hah…hn! P-Probably nothing life-threatening. I didn't get bitten, and it's probably a muscle tear, a minor muscle tear. It should heal if I just rest." Pressing her palm firmly against the area, trying to suppress the throbbing sensation before forcing herself back into a more upright position. “Hehe, I really hope it's not a hernia… doesn't feel like it.” The pain remained, but nothing about it felt comparable to the kind of injury that would leave her unable to continue.

"It's a good thin’ Shizuka is here. She'll patch you up, or she'll bring ya closer to death."

Despite the discomfort, a brief laugh escaped her. "Why do you say it like that? She's one of the best nurses out there, practically good enough to be treated as a doctor. If it's not immediate death, then there's nothing she can't patch up." The confidence behind those words came from years of experience rather than simple praise. Rika had seen Shizuka treat injuries that would have sent other people straight to a hospital, and she had never doubted the woman's ability to handle them despite her tendency to be a major airhead.

Her thoughts drifted back to their years in high school. The two had remained close friends for a long time, with Shizuka practically glued to her side whenever the opportunity arose. Even then, an incredible natural talent for medical care had been obvious. Whenever Rika suffered an injury during intense physical drills, she would go straight to her friend if the woman happened to be nearby rather than seek out an official government military doctor. Shizuka could handle those injuries quickly and effectively, and that familiarity had made her the first person Rika thought of whenever something went wrong.

Noticing the strange, uneasy expression forming across Cu's face, Rika looked directly at him. "What?"

"Nothin’... You won't believe me even if I tell you." A dismissive wave accompanied the answer, followed by a resigned little shake of his head. "Just know this. To you, she might be an angel, but to me, she's the personification of the Grim Reaper."

“Pft—ah!” 

Alright, best to avoid laughing, that also hurt like hell!

'Well, that's a bit harsh of an evaluation,' Rika thought, choosing not to argue with him and save her energy. 

Whatever had happened between the two, there clearly existed a misunderstanding she didn't have enough information to resolve yet. Rather than press the issue while they were still surrounded by danger, she decided it would be better to sit down with both of them once everything concerning the mall had finally been settled.

Pa!

“Urgh!”

“Who's th—hmph!?”

“N-No—!”

Thuds echoed through the hallway as three more bodies slammed into the floor one after another. The remaining guards stationed near the doors had been subdued and tied up, leaving a row of immobilized men sprawled against the wall. “Just what the hell did that man do for so many regular people to work for him? Or rather, what did you not do?"

"It's complicated," Rika whispered, pressing her palm firmly against her injured side as she tried to keep the pain from showing on her face. "People just get more jittery during such moments." 

Leaving him with that, both continued ahead.

Enduring the burning pain spreading through her midsection, the woman reached the entrance and wrapped one hand around the metal door handle. She leaned closer, pressing her right ear against the heavy frame and concentrating on the voices muffled by the barrier. 

Most of the conversation remained difficult to make out, but one voice was clear enough for her to recognize. "Gather a crowbar, the guns, and whatever tools are necessary to break into the car," Shimada's voice ordered from inside the room. "After gathering the weapons, bring them all here. Keep an eye on the others so they don't fucking steal anything."

"What should we do with Rika and the police girl and the others who won't follow us? Because it's only a matter of time before the police woman is found." A second voice answered, it sounded familiar but she could not remember the guy's name. 

"Heh, simple, we will try again to convince them. If either of the people, whether it be Rika or anyone else, refuses to cooperate, then you have given them all the chance they deserve and can't risk more danger. We just use more… aggressive methods to make them submit.”

Ugh, of course. Given the feeling that bastard gave her, she was not even surprised.

"Are you sure about this?"  

"It's a dog-eat-dog world out there right now, especially during the apocalypse. We do not have time to coddle the weak and cripple ourselves just to look out for people who don't even care about us or our survival. I know it's not an easy decision to make, but it is what will keep us alive. We need to be harsh with outsiders and ourselves! Soon, we will take back this city under our names!" 

"All right, boss." 

“Tch,” Listening to the exchange, Rika clicked her tongue in complete dissatisfaction. “What a guy, this one. Already planning on taking over the entire neighborhood when he barely even got into power with barely any weapons. Such an ability to bullshit would even make some politicians I know blush.”

Beside her, the young man offered a quick side glance before giving a casual shrug, apparently far less bothered by the conversation than she was. His relaxed posture made it difficult to determine exactly what he thought of Shimada's plans, but at least he did not seem particularly impressed by them. Leaning closer, he kept his voice low enough that only she could hear. "So what's the plan now? Do we just burst in?"

Before an answer could be formulated, Shimada's voice rang out again through the wooden panels. "Hey, Denji, call the people who went after Asami and ask for an update. Either they caught her or are messing around." A series of radio static leaked through the gap beneath the frame. Denji audibly attempted the connection once, then again, waiting through several long stretches of static before trying another channel. The repeated attempts finally ended with a frustrated response. 

"Um… t-the line's dead."

"What?" Shimada blurted out. 

“Now!” That was enough of a signal they needed, planting both feet firmly against the floor as she prepared herself for the breach. 

Her partner moved first, stepping directly in front of the entryway and placing both hands against the wooden frame and the heavy doors tore away from their metal hinges with a violent crack. 

Bam! 

“What the fuck!?”

“Shit!” 

“Who is it!?”

Both massive wooden panels flew inward, crashing across the office and sending several men scrambling out of the way.

A sudden chorus of shouts erupted from inside as the doors smashed into furniture and bodies. "Holy shit!" rang out from several of the men who had been caught beneath the flying barrier, their weapons scattering across the floor as the impact sent them sprawling. Dust and splinters filled the entrance, briefly obscuring the room beyond, but the movement of armed figures could already be seen through the haze.

‘...Is this guy even human?’

Advancing through the dust, Rika cursed under her breath when the room came fully into view. At least six armed individuals were spread throughout the office, some recovering from the impact while others were already reaching for their weapons. She had severely underestimated their numbers. Instinctively, one hand reached out to drag her companion back behind the remaining wall frame for cover, but there was no need. 

“Careful!” Cu had already moved toward the nearest threat. One of Shimada's guards raised a handgun directly toward them, his finger squeezing the trigger before the weapon could be redirected.

Bang! 

Catching the gunman's wrist and forcing the barrel upward, sending the bullet harmlessly into the ceiling. “Oof!” Before the man could recover, a swift strike slammed into his neck and dropped him instantly onto the floor.

Taking advantage of the distraction while Shimada focused on the teenager, Rika sprinted forward despite the pain tearing through her abdomen. Her right hand went to the combat dagger at her belt, drawing it in one smooth motion before bringing the flat side of the blade hard across the back of Shimada's right hand. 

“Rika?!” 

The impact cut deeply into his fingers and broke his grip on the sidearm. Clang! The pistol struck the floor tiles as the former site leader recoiled with a pained cry, blood immediately beginning to run from the injured hand. Before he could turn fully toward her, an arm hooked around his collarbone and pulled him backward. 

“Don't move.” 

The steel edge of the dagger settled against his throat, forcing his entire body to stop as the remaining guards recovered from the thrown doors and aimed their weapons in their direction.

“H-How did you—”

"—Easy there, we don't want to have a punctured neck now, do we?" Rika kept her jaw clenched as another wave of severe pain tore through her midsection, making it harder to maintain her hold. "And trust me, there are not enough medical kits here in the mall to save you from a hole in your neck, and there are no doctors around or miracles." 

Gritting her teeth, she suppressed a groan and focused on the immediate problem instead. 'I underestimated this injury. This isn't just a minor muscle tear. It could be internal bleeding and even a broken rib.' Her physical stamina had already begun to drain, and the longer the standoff continued, the more difficult it would become to keep Shimada's throat covered. Finishing the confrontation quickly therefore became her priority. 

Bringing the dagger slightly closer until the edge opened the cut against his skin, she watched a thicker stream of blood trickle down his throat before glaring over his shoulder at the surrounding crew. "Drop your weapons or else Shimada dies! Shimada, tell your men to back down!"

"You're making a mistake!" His hands hovered near his chest, unable to reach for anything without risking the blade against his throat. "Disarming us will just create more enemies! Do you think they will all follow you without any grudges? If you kill me, what's the guarantee you won't kill them!?" Panic had begun creeping into his voice despite his attempt to sound authoritative, especially with his own blood running down his neck.

"You're not making any sense." The pressure against his throat increased as Rika kept her injured side tucked behind him, using his body as protection from the other armed men. "And I'm fine having more enemies if that means you're not among these enemies anymore." 

The sight of his own blood finally broke whatever composure Shimada had left. As the blade pressed closer and the cut widened, his eyes dropped toward the blood running along his neck before snapping back toward his men. "Do as she says, now!" The command came out as a panicked scream rather than an order from a man in control.

“...”

“...”

“...”

Uncertainty spread through the remaining crew as each man looked toward the others, weighing whether keeping their weapons was worth risking their leader's life. One by one, hands began to rise. Pistols slipped from their fingers and clattered across the floor, followed by the remaining weapons as the men reluctantly surrendered. With the immediate threat reduced, Rika kept her arm locked around the hostage and refused to relax her grip until every weapon had been discarded. "Tie them up so no one moves," she directed, making sure the command reached everyone still standing.

“Fuck you, bitch!” 

Shimada drove his elbow into the side of her stomach with a back elbow strike. 

“Hn!” 

The impact landed directly against the pained area, forcing a painful grunt from Rika as her body nearly folded from the blow. Before she could recover, the man jumped to the side and grabbed an item from his pockets. Her eyes widened when she recognized it immediately. It was one of the grenades she had brought with her, the same one she had lost earlier during the chaos. Shimada pulled the pin and prepared to throw it towards her with desperation, leaving her just enough time to realize what he intended. 

“You idiot! Stop!” she screamed, but before the warning could fully leave her mouth, Cu moved in front of her just as the grenade left Shimada's hand. A fraction of a second later, the room erupted with a deafening boom!

Crash!

“Aaah!” 

The explosion sent a violent shock through the room, throwing debris in every direction and leaving Rika's ears ringing. Her vision blurred for several seconds as smoke filled the air, making it difficult to tell what had happened to anyone around her. 

Grenades did not work like the exaggerated explosions seen in movies, where a massive ball of fire could supposedly tear through an entire room or bring down a building. A real grenade relied far more on the fragments produced by the blast, turning pieces of metal into projectiles capable of causing wounds much like bullets. Rika already knew that, which had led her to make a few modifications of her own to the grenades she carried. Having altered them to make them more useful when facing larger groups of zombies, giving her another option when a handful of bullets was not enough and there were simply too many targets to deal with individually.

“Cu!” 

Broken pieces of the room covered the floor, smoke drifted through the damaged area, and painful groans came from several people caught in the blast. Trying to push herself upright, she immediately sucked in a breath when pain shot through her stomach and leg. “Ah!” Looking down revealed blood spreading across her pants and a hole in her leg that made her stomach turn. ‘S-Shit, should I cauterize it… no, burning the injury will cause more damage and could lead to an infection, something I absolutely can not afford right now!’

The immediate problem remained stopping the bleeding, yet there was no proper medical material nearby that she could use, and tearing a piece from her own shirt to shove into the wound carried its own risks. With little choice left, she prepared to press against the injury and hope it bought her enough time.

Before she could do so, Cu crouched beside her through the smoke, somehow still moving after standing closest to the grenade when it exploded. “Well, that didn't go as planned, now did it?” The casual remark drew an incredulous look from her. 

“What the hell…”

She had seen exactly where he stood when the grenade went off, and anyone that close to an explosion like that should have suffered far more than a few injuries. Yet when she examined him, several tears and holes covered his clothes, along with a handful of bruises, but there were no obvious wounds on his body and certainly nothing resembling the injuries she had suffered. 

“Ho-How did you survive?” she asked, still struggling to make sense of what she was seeing.

“I’ll use your words, it's a long story, and I don't think you'll believe me. In the meantime, let's just handle this.” With that, he lifted her shirt enough to expose the injury properly. 

Under normal circumstances, having someone lift her clothing and examine her stomach might have made the situation awkward, but Rika had never been particularly concerned about modesty, especially not when she had a hole in her abdomen and needed treatment immediately. 

Also he already saw everything earlier. 

“The wound is pretty deep, and we'll need to find Shizuka quickly if she's nearby.” Her concern grew when she felt his fingers moving across her stomach as if writing something. Whatever he was doing, it felt strange enough to make her frown.

“Stop messing around. We need to move quickly.”

“I know, calm down. I'm just doing something real quick. Can you walk?” His question came with a hand reaching for hers, guiding her arm around his back before he helped pull her upright. Rika leaned against him as her legs adjusted to the sudden movement, each step forcing her to fight through the pain coming from her abdomen. 

Even so, remaining there would accomplish nothing. Once she managed to stand properly, her eyes moved across the ruined room and took in the damage left behind by the grenade. “Damn Shimada, that fucking bastard.” The sight of injured and dead people scattered around the room only made her frustration worse, especially knowing that every second they remained there increased the danger. “He's alive.”

“Looks like it, he should count himself lucky nothing important got blown off. In any case, too late for regrets, and you shouldn't be worried about the rest. Most will survive, I think.” 

The uncertainty in that last part did little to reassure her. Several people were bleeding just as badly as she was, and she could not simply assume that everyone would survive an explosion like that. 

The grenade had been loud enough to shake the entire room, and there was no way that kind of noise had gone unnoticed outside. Her attention immediately shifted toward the window, prompting her to urge Cu toward it so they could get a better view. After finding a pair of binoculars on the ground that weren't destroyed, she raised them and looked into the distance. Several figures were already moving toward their position at full speed.

“Damnit, they heard us.” She lowered the binoculars just enough to keep watching the approaching runners. If they were already heading toward the mall, the first group would reach them soon, followed by even more zombies once the noise drew them in. Their current position could not hold against an ever-growing horde, which left only one practical option. “You and the others need to leave while there is still an opportunity, and hopefully there will be enough room inside the cars to take some of the people with you.”

“That won't be possible. Not everyone will fit inside two cars alone, and from the looks of it, there are no more working cars around here. Unless you plan on leaving behind most of them, including those who follow the job?” 

“...”

The woman knew perfectly well that two cars could not carry everyone, and no amount of arguing could change that simple fact. Even so, abandoning the people who had followed her and counting them as losses was not something she could bring herself to accept after promising to help them. Her grip tightened, trying to find some other option before the approaching figures reached the building.

“You look quite confident. That means you have a plan?” Rika turned toward him, forcing herself to focus despite the pain in her body. “We can establish a perimeter using some of the ammunition from the guns and the ammunition in my car, but there's only a limited amount of bullets. Unless everyone here has one hundred percent accuracy with every individual shot, we won't be able to clear everything.” 

The idea might buy them time, but ammunition could disappear far faster than anyone expected once the zombies began closing in from multiple directions. Every missed shot would make the situation worse, and even accurate shooting would only delay the problem if more of them continued arriving. “But the more we shoot, the more noise we'll make, which will always attract more of them, anyway.” 

Using the guns could protect them for a while, but every gunshot would announce their location to anything nearby, creating another cycle of noise and incoming zombies. With the approaching figures already visible in the distance, there was little room left for mistakes, and whatever plan they chose would have to account for both the limited ammunition and the growing number of enemies being drawn toward them.

It was a dilemma. No matter how many times Rika went over their options in her head, every possible solution seemed to lead to another problem. She could call for reinforcements, but even if someone responded immediately, getting them here would still take time they simply did not have. From everything she had seen so far, they barely had five minutes to prepare themselves before the horde arrived, and that left little room for mistakes.

"Why are you looking so worried? You'll cause your pretty little face to get wrinkled, frowning like that," he teased, apparently far less concerned about the situation.

A small chuckle escaped Rika before she shook her head. "Careful there, I might take those words seriously, and I honestly don't think it's the right time to earn some good points with me."

"Oh, but I'm not trying to do anything. I'm just being honest." 

“Hahaha—argh! Fuck, stop making me laugh!” One hand immediately went to the injured area as she leaned forward slightly, waiting for the ache to ease before sitting back up. "W-Whatever. If we can solve this issue right now, I'll treat you to a drink."

A grin spread across the man's face. "Is that a promise?"

"Well, I doubt Shizuka will care whether you drink or not. We're fighting for our lives, and there's no point in keeping old stashes of expensive wine and whiskey hidden, so we might as well indulge a bit." Despite everything happening around them, she managed a faint smile at the thought. 

"Then I'll keep you on that word." His grin remained as he stepped closer, only for her expression to change when he suddenly bent down and scooped her into a princess carry. 

“Eh?” 

The unexpected movement caught her completely off guard, leaving her staring at him while one arm instinctively wrapped around his shoulder to keep herself from falling.

"What are you doing?"

"Bringing you to Shizuka. You and the rest can fortify the inside and make sure nothing gets in, even from the basement door I came from. I'll handle the rest." Before she could properly process what he meant, he moved toward the window with her still in his arms.

"Wait, what do you mean?" The question barely left her mouth before he jumped straight through the window.

Three floors.

“Waaaaaah!” Rika's eyes widened as the ground rushed toward them. "Are you out of your mind?!"

Bam!

The landing hit hard enough to shake the ground beneath them, yet somehow his knees barely bent before he recovered and continued forward as if dropping three floors while carrying another person had been nothing worth mentioning. 

“...”

Was this guy human?

Again, she could not help but ask herself that question. Her thoughts seemed to shut down for several seconds as she stared at him, still trying to understand what she had just witnessed. By the time her senses returned, the man had already crossed the distance toward a black SUV parked in front of the barricaded gates, which were in the process of being opened.

A familiar face immediately caught her attention.

"Rika!" The blonde nurse exclaimed, rushing over and wrapping her arms around her the moment she was close enough. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you alive! You had me worried there. I was expecting the worst when I heard that explosion! What happened to you? I hope they didn't hurt you too badly? Did you get beaten? Do you need help? Why is there blood!?" 

One question followed another as she checked her from head to toe, looking over her arms, shoulders, and clothing.

‘...Why is she in her underwear?’

Rika appreciated the concern, but the sheer absurdity of the situation left her struggling to get a word in. "G-Glad to see that you haven't changed into a zombie, Shizuka. Also, easy there, girl. I'm fine, just some abdominal pain. Either a muscle tear or something along those lines. No puncture wounds of note." She tried to reassure her while keeping herself from wincing again, though the attempt did little to convince the woman standing in front of her.

"Oh no! I have to check it out!" Shizuka immediately stepped forward, already looking ready to examine the injury herself.

The man who had carried her over handed her toward another student, one she heard the others call him Takashi before turning his attention to the others. "Look after her for a bit. Don't let her walk around. She's pretending to be fine, but I can tell she's in pain. And make sure she doesn't go outside as well, Takashi."

“What?” 

The boy nodded without hesitation, leaving Rika staring at the entire group in disbelief. She could hardly understand how everyone had simply accepted this plan, especially when the threat outside continued to grow. "H-Hey, what are you doing? I know I asked if you had a plan, but the more I think about it, the more impossible this situation becomes. A big horde is about to arrive soon, and staying here is not a good idea. Your best plan is to leave and go back to the Takagi estate. Take the young children and elders first. I'll handle, I'll keep back the horde as much as I can before you return to get the others."

No one seemed willing to listen. Takashi took hold of her before she could properly move away, keeping her from putting unnecessary strain on her injured abdomen while the others prepared themselves. Frustration quickly replaced her disbelief. 

“Hey, are you ignoring me?”

These young ones were risking their lives for nothing when they could simply retreat and regroup, yet they seemed determined to stay.

"If you want to help, then you can always provide support from the rooftop, but that is only after you get treated. I already have a good marksman who will handle that. Or two marksmen." Cu motioned upward, drawing Rika's attention toward the roof.

Following the gesture, she looked up and spotted the fat boy and Asami waiting above them.

"Are you seriously going with this? This is suicide! I don't have a death wish, and I'm pretty sure neither do any of you!" Rika's frustration finally boiled over as she looked between them. Her injuries might have slowed her down, but that did not mean she had suddenly lost her ability to recognize a terrible plan when she saw one.

A brown-haired boy turned back toward her before heading inside with the others. "Don't worry. We got this, it's not our first time."

That answer left Rika completely speechless for a moment. She stared after them as the group disappeared inside, unable to believe how casually they had dismissed her concerns. "Wait, I don't approve of this! Don't! Wait!" She tried to move after them, forcing herself upright despite the pain in her abdomen. If these idiots refused to listen, then she would simply have to do something herself.

"Hey, please don't move around so much."

"I can walk on my own." Rika tried to pull herself free, only to feel something press against the side of her neck. 

“—!?”

Her entire body locked in place as she slowly turned her head, eyes widening when she saw the syringe already being pushed into her neck. The person holding it stood far too close for her to react in time, and the familiar blonde face made the realization even worse.

"...Sh-shizuka?"

"Sorry about that. It's just a… uh, ah! It's a calming agent, yes, don't worry. When you wake up, everything will be alright. Oh, and don't worry about the dosage. I made sure to dilute it to 0.1% of the original concoction I accidentally gave Cu." 

For some reason that sounded ominous.

Rika's strength began slipping away before she could even finish processing those words. Her vision blurred around the edges, the surrounding figures becoming harder to make out as the effects of the injection spread through her body. She tried to resist, forcing herself to stay conscious while her limbs grew increasingly difficult to control, but the effort accomplished little.

The last thing she saw clearly was her blonde friend giving her a thumbs-up, completely unaware of the disaster that was about to hit them. As everything around her faded into darkness, Rika remembered the words Shizuka had given her and found herself having one final thought before losing consciousness.

‘Huh, she really does give off a grim reaper vibe.’

{Break}

“Hah, at least she'll be resting for now.”

He mentally thanked Shizuka for knocking out her friend immediately. A woman like her would never have willingly stayed behind after everything that had happened, especially if there was even the slightest chance that she could still contribute to the fight. He knew people like that very well. Several heroes he had met over the years had possessed the same stubbornness, and even some of his own friends from the time he was still alive had been just as bad. Losing a limb probably would not have been enough to convince someone like Rika to sit back and do nothing. 

"A flood of undead. This is going to be tricky." Sitting down on the ground, he rested his chin against his palm while studying the area around him. His eyes followed the distant mass of undead, measuring their direction, their numbers, and the paths they could potentially take. There was no shortage of enemies, but the real problem came from the terrain surrounding the mall and the lack of anything that could naturally restrict their approach.

'This is going to require more planning. Let's see, I don't have a narrow pathway to work with like the Takagi estate. At least there, the undead were forced to funnel through a single path that led inside. The forest behind the estate had the mountain range and the long path around it, which prevented them from being attacked from that direction as well. But this is different.'

A quick glance around the mall confirmed his concern. The area remained almost completely open, and most of the mesh walls that could have restricted movement had long since been destroyed. Some had probably been smashed apart by drivers desperately trying to escape when the outbreak began, while others had likely fallen victim to the panic that spread through the city. Whatever the cause, the result remained the same. There were too many possible routes for the undead to approach from, and movement on the opposite side confirmed that the threat did not exist solely in front of them.

Using one finger, he drew directly into the dirt. A large circle represented the mall, while several lines branched away from it to mark the roads and open areas surrounding the building. Adding more marks as he considered each possible route, occasionally rubbing part of the drawing away before replacing it with another line. "Let's see. Given their distance, the ones from the north funneling from the main road will make it here first. From the looks of it, there will be at least a hundred for the first wave at least. Even if I try to corner them or push them through a funnel, they'll just spill out and come from both the west and the east. With no barriers at all, I can't expect anything to slow them down. Though if I allow Kohta and the others to provide support, it will only buy us so much time."

The problem was not that the zombies themselves presented a particularly difficult opponent. He could tear through individual undead without any trouble, but there came a point where the sheer number of bodies would become more important than the strength of any single one. There was only so much damage he could inflict within a given period before hundreds of bodies became too many to handle at once. Even if most of them were destroyed, a few could eventually slip past while his attention remained fixed elsewhere, allowing them to reach the mall.

'No, even if they get past me, they won't be able to get inside the mall with the fortifications. The walls should be able to hold them back, so I won't have to deal with every single one that gets through. But the question is just how many of them will arrive. The numbers aren't only coming from the inhabitants of the city. There are other undead coming from the surrounding cities as well.'

A faint chuckle escaped him as he looked down at the rough map scratched into the dirt. "It's that war all over again. But unlike that war, the advantage I have here is that these undead aren't capable warriors that I have to block and deflect attacks from. They're just mindless monsters."

His attention returned to the approaching mass while another thought followed immediately afterward. “All right, best to focus first on the runners. As soon as I get rid of the fast ones, then it should be easier to deal with the rest. If the faster undead reach the mall first, they'll only make it harder for everyone else to react.”

"Cu!"

The shout from above pulled his attention toward the rooftop. Kohta stood there waving at him, with Takashi and Rei beside him. Each of them carried bigger guns he had not seen them using before. Judging by their expressions and the equipment in their hands, they had finally reached the car and retrieved the weapons they needed. A small smirk crossed his face as he lifted a hand and gave them a thumbs-up. More firepower would not solve the problem completely, but some support was certainly better than having to handle everything alone.

Several small stones went into his palm before he began scribing runes across their surfaces. Carving each mark into the pebbles while his thoughts returned to the problem in front of him. “I can't take any risks. Best to create a funnel. Given they're mindless undead, I could use that to my advantage and have them make their way through a single path if they encounter some kind of roadblock, visible or invisible, magical or normal. If I can do that, then I can recreate the same environment as the Takagi estate and allow myself to focus on a single point more easily.”

Two shadows approached from behind, he recognized them without needing to turn around. "If I told you to go back and help the others on the rooftop, you won't listen to me." 

A statement more than a question.

"I'm glad to see you know me well by now." Rei's voice carried a light giggle as she came closer, while Saeko's voice followed from beside her.

"At least we can agree on something now, right?"

The swordswoman moved alongside him and reached down for the spear she had brought for him, taking hold of it as she looked toward the approaching undead. "You didn't expect to have all the fun for yourself now, did you?"

"It's not really fun with such opponents. It's closer to a chore." He continued working on the runes, his attention divided between the stones in his hands and the movements in the distance. "I like to have a challenge more than anything else. This is just not fun after a while."

"Chores are easier and less boring when you have someone else helping you around. Or two people helping you around. Or a group helping you around." Saeko's answer came with a faintly amused expression.

Nothing came from him in response. With more people covering the surrounding area, there would naturally be fewer openings for the undead to exploit.

"So what's the plan?" Rei looked over the markings drawn across the dirt, then toward the roads and open ground around the mall.

"The plan is to change the environment in our favor."

"What?" Her brows drew together as she looked around again, apparently trying to figure out what he meant.

The former Servant of the Spear pointed toward the surrounding area. "This is an open area. Even the water is a bit far away, and there's a road over there. For all we know, a group of undead could pass over there and make their way to the back while we're focused on the front. There are just too many blind spots, so we need to eliminate that."

"How?" The orangette glanced toward the distant road before looking back at him. "We can't exactly set up a perimeter in such a short amount of time."

"No, we can set up a bounded field."

“A bounded what?” Both girls stared at him with confusion. "Is this one of your magic things?"

"Yup. To be more accurate, it's magecraft stuff, or runecraft in this case. But bounded fields are a common thing used amongst mages from all eras.” And then he passed them a pile of pebbles. "Place them around the mall. Make sure you try your best to keep them as evenly spaced from one another as possible, and don't put two of them in the same place. If there are any pieces left over, keep 'em, or if you don't have enough, tell me as fast as you can. We still have some time left."

Both agreed before grabbing the stones and splitting up to place them around the perimeter. 

Truth be told, the bounded field amounted to little more than a quick patchwork, held together by his own reserves rather than drawing from the surrounding ley lines or mana in the atmosphere. That made it useful, but far from ideal. The more undead that pushed against its boundaries, the more energy he would have to pour into maintaining them. A proper bounded field could have drawn on the environment and remained active for longer, but establishing one around an area this large would take time, and he simply did not have enough of it.

"All right, hopefully this works." Cu looked ahead toward the path they had taken earlier, his attention fixed on the distant figures rapidly approaching through the streets. Dozens of runners had already appeared in the distance, and the gap between them had shrunk considerably. 

“Aaaaaah!” 

Their white eyes gleamed beneath the fading light as they sprinted forward, mouths hanging open while they chased anything that moved. Judging by their current speed, it would take around thirty seconds before the first of them reached the mall. That gave everyone just enough time to finish setting up, provided nothing unexpected happened.

A glance toward another section of the road revealed even more figures approaching from farther away. Those, however, moved with the slower, clumsy gait of regular undead rather than the frightening speed of the runners. "That should take a while." Compared with the others, they posed far less of an immediate threat, and there was no point wasting attention on them while the faster undead were closing in.

Bang!

Bang!

Removing the cloth wrapped around his spear, Cu tightened his grip as gunshots suddenly cracked through the air. 

Bang! 

Two runners collapsed almost immediately, while a third took a round through the shoulders and somehow kept charging despite the damage. Kohta, Takashi, and the others had already begun firing from their positions, putting their limited ammunition to use before the horde reached the mall. The shots continued in short bursts, some finding their marks while others struck the pavement or tore into bodies without hitting anything vital.

Unfortunately, the noise produced exactly the reaction he had feared. More undead began moving toward them, and the two runners that had fallen were quickly replaced by four more emerging from the surrounding streets. His eyes narrowed as the numbers continued to increase. “Strange, why are there suddenly so many of them?”

At the estate, they had not even encountered any runners, and even inside the factory only a handful had appeared. Here, however, their numbers seemed to have exploded.

“Tch, from the looks of it, there are much more here later on.” His thoughts turned toward the possibility that the runners had somehow developed from the regular undead or perhaps were like that from the beginning? “Though we would have encountered some at the school as well. So it can't be the latter.”

The runners continued closing the distance while more gunshots erupted from behind him. 

Bang!

Some rounds pierced skulls cleanly, dropping their targets instantly, while others missed altogether or struck bodies without stopping them. 

"Cu!"

The call came from behind, drawing his attention for just a moment. Saeko and Rei had most likely finished placing the remaining pieces, meaning there was no reason to wait any longer. He focused his attention on the pebbles surrounding the mall and reached out with his senses, checking the positions as quickly as he could. "They can't see well, or at all, so it doesn't matter if I activate it now or later."

“Tiwaz!” 

ᛏ

A command followed, and the scattered stones immediately began glowing with bright red colors. For a single second, dust shifted before a translucent light stretched from one marker to the next, forming a barrier around the entire mall. Then the glow vanished, leaving nothing visible to the naked eye. Anyone looking closely, however, might have noticed a thin film covering the area, almost impossible to distinguish from the air around it.

“All right, not as bad as I feared. Still, given how big this place is, it took a good chunk of my reserves, but it will work.” There had never been much reason for him to rely on the bounded field in the past, so seeing it take shape without any major problems came as a relief. He might not have used the technique often, especially at such a scale, but at least it worked well.

Turning toward the rooftop, Cu raised his voice over the continuing gunfire. "Kohta, give me a signal if you see more of the undead appearing behind the school, or anywhere around the area!" His attention shifted toward Rei and Saeko next. "Get ready, and make sure nothing gets to the mall!"

With that, he rushed forward. 

Less than a few dozen meters separated him from the first wave, and every second mattered. His gaze landed on the charred remains of a broken-down car nearby. Reaching it, he seized the ruined chassis and hauled it up with both hands before shifting his grip. 

Krt!

The metal groaned as his muscles strained, veins standing out along his arm from the effort required to move something that heavy.

"HAAAH!"

With a forceful heave, the chassis flew forward and slammed into the first group of runners. 

Crash! 

Several bodies were crushed beneath the wreckage while others stumbled aside, creating the opening he needed. Cu immediately charged through it, spear raised above his head before bringing it down in a powerful vertical strike that tore through the first undead directly in his path.

From there, the fight became a constant use of thrusts, sweeps, and strikes. 

“Ah!” 

A horizontal swing tore through five runners at once, cutting through their bodies and sending them crashing apart onto the pavement. The spear spun back around, its shaft smashing into another undead across the chest and sending it flying backward into three more. Before they could recover, he drove the weapon forward, the tip punching through the skull of a regular undead with a wet crack. “Urgh, slimy undead.” A quick pull freed the spear, followed by a wide sweeping arc that took the heads from two runners attempting to approach from his side.

Another group tried to reach the mall by coming around from a different road, only to slam into the invisible boundary. Their hands scraped uselessly against the unseen barrier as they clawed at the air in confusion. 

“Looks like it's working.” Unable to understand what prevented them from moving forward, the undead repeatedly pushed against it, their movements frantic and aimless. Cu caught the sight from the corner of his eye but did not allow it to distract him. The field had done exactly what he needed it to do, preventing the horde from simply bypassing him and reaching the mall from another direction.

“Raaaaah!” 

A runner lunged, and the spear drove through its eye before the creature could reach him. He twisted the weapon sideways, using the impaled body to block another undead rushing in from the front. 

Clack!

Clack!

Its teeth snapped uselessly against the corpse before a forceful kick sent the body flying away. “...What a rotten breath.” 

Thud! 

It crashed into two more undead and knocked both to the ground, giving him another opening.

Using the opportunity, he jumped upward and spun in mid-air, bringing the spear down with enough force to split a regular undead from the top of its head to its waist. The body collapsed beneath him as he landed and immediately turned toward the next group. 

This cycle repeated again and again. 

Once, twice, ten times and continued repeating.

More runners continued pouring forward, their numbers making it impossible to clear the entire horde at once, but the narrow opening created by his assault gave the people behind him valuable time.

He continued holding his ground, spear cutting through every undead that managed to reach him. 

For the moment, the horde remained trapped between him and the bounded field, with the fallen undead forming a temporary second wall that slowed those still charging toward the mall.

“Hah…” 

He continued his assault, cutting down one zombie after another as they forced their way through the single passage. Blood covered his body from head to toe, soaking through his clothes and running down his arms from the sheer number of undead he had already cut apart. More kept appearing ahead of him, yet none could enter from the other sides, leaving them with no choice but to funnel through this narrow opening. 

Every time another corpse stepped into reach, the spear came around and cut it down. Looking at the endless stream in front of him, one thought remained fixed in his mind. 'It's still working, good.' The barrier had not been breached, and as long as he continued holding this position, they had nowhere else to go. For the moment, he had effectively turned himself into a meat grinder.

A few of the undead managed to slip past him, but there was little reason to worry about those when two capable fighters stood behind him. 

Thump! 

Saeko's sword came down on one that made it through, removing its head before it could reach anyone. 

Another lost its arm and stumbled forward, only for Rei to drive her spear into it and finish the job. Her weapon did not give her the same ability to perform wide sweeps and horizontal cuts that he did, especially with the cramped space limiting her movements, but she still dealt with anything that escaped the front line. 

Above them, the others continued providing support as well. 

Bang! 

Bang! 

Bang! 

Gunfire cracked through the night, bullets striking several zombies and dropping them before they could reach the barrier. Even with all of that combined, however, the numbers barely seemed to decrease. 

There simply were too many…

“AaaaA-aAaesrgh!” 

One of the undead let out a horrible screech before rushing straight toward him. The spear pierced its chest with enough force to drive the point through its body, but it barely reacted. “Eeeeaargh!” Its arms reached forward as it continued pushing itself toward his neck, its ruined mouth opening wide as it tried to bite him despite the weapon lodged inside its torso. “Keep that away from me!” 

Cu immediately grabbed its face with one hand, stopping its advance before squeezing down hard enough to crush its lower jaw. 

Crack! 

The broken jaw hung uselessly as blood poured from the creature's mouth and splattered across his face. A disgusted grimace crossed his features before the corpse got shoved forward with enough force to knock several other undead off balance. Their bodies collided and tumbled into one another, buying him another moment to clear the area. After spitting onto the ground to rid his mouth of the taste, the spear came around once more, cutting through the next group before they could close in.

Once more, the cycle continued on for an unknown amount of time.

“Hah… hah…”

He never stopped. 

Crushing skulls. Slicing heads after heads. 

Wiping away the blood on his face as it dripped down his chin. 

His hair soaked crimson.

Time slipped away as the slaughter carried on. 

Regular undead, runners, and everything else that reached the passage received the same treatment. The spear kept cutting, stabbing, and smashing through bodies until Cu had stopped keeping track of how many times he had attacked. 

'Just how many of them are there?' 

Even the gunfire behind him had become less frequent, and that could only mean one thing. The others were beginning to run out of ammunition. Looking around offered little comfort either, because corpses had begun piling up everywhere, some stacked several bodies high around the area. Despite everything happening around him, his attention repeatedly shifted backward whenever he had an opportunity, checking to make sure Rei and Saeko remained safe. Thankfully, neither had been injured, but exhaustion had begun showing clearly on both of them.

'They can't keep going like this forever. They're still regular people.' 

The thought made him glance back once more before returning his attention to the approaching undead.

Crack!

A huge chunk of broken boulder caught his attention nearby, and without wasting time, he grabbed it with both hands and shoved it toward the mass of undead. The rock rolled forward, smashing into several bodies and crushing them beneath its weight before breaking apart from the impact. Rather than letting the pieces go to waste, he swung his spear like a baseball bat.

“Ha!”

One fragment flew into a group of zombies and knocked several down at once. Another followed immediately after, striking another cluster and sending bodies crashing into those behind them. It was not elegant, but there were more than enough targets to make use of anything he could throw at them.

His gaze shifted toward the horizon, where more undead could be seen making their way toward the mall. The sight made his expression tighten. 

'Shit. Did the whole city decide to come here?' The gunfire alone had been loud enough to draw attention, and the grenade certainly had not helped. Still, the sheer number now gathering around the mall felt wrong. Even with the noise they had made, this many zombies should not have appeared so quickly. 

'This does not feel normal...' 

Something had drawn them here, or perhaps something had simply made them move in this direction. Either possibility left him with an unpleasant feeling.

'Do we really need to leave this place and abandon those people?' 

The possibility entered his mind despite everything he had already done to defend the mall. It was not the outcome he wanted, but if staying meant putting everyone in greater danger, then abandoning the position remained an option. He knew that. He also knew what would happen if the barrier finally broke and thousands of undead poured inside. The people they had been protecting would have nowhere to run, and the few fighters still standing would be overwhelmed almost immediately.

"What the hell am I thinking?" The question escaped him as he looked at the countless bodies surrounding the passage. He tightened his grip on the spear and hurled it into the next wave. 

Whoosh! 

The weapon shot forward, piercing through one zombie after another until several dozen undead had been skewered in a line. With a movement of his hand, the spear returned to him, tearing free from the bodies before flying back into his grasp. "I've done it once. Who says I'm not doing it again? I've defended a kingdom. What are a few thousand undead compared to that?" His eyes returned to the approaching horde as the spear settled into his hands. "I have really gone soft."

The next wave met a completely different assault. Instead of relying solely on close-range swings, he alternated between wide spear strikes and throwing the weapon into groups before calling it back. 

A body dropped. 

Another head hit the ground. 

The butt of the spear smashed into a runner's skull before the creature could get close enough to attack. 

Each time the weapon returned, another group met the same fate. 

.

.

.

Eventually, night settled fully over the area, turning the sky dark while the battle continued without any sign of stopping. 

The corpses around the passage grew into piles that formed a third barrier around the second, making it increasingly difficult for the undead to even reach him. Blood soaked the ground, stained the nearby walls, and covered his clothes until the difference between fabric and blood became difficult to see. 

“Hah… hah… hah…” 

A slight shake existed within his hands until he took a deep breath to have it vanish. Somewhere along the way, he had pushed everything else from his thoughts and narrowed his attention down to one simple task, stopping anything from getting through.

Crash!

A runner's body collapsed beneath his foot as Cu brought it down with enough force to crush the creature into the ground. His upper clothes had already been torn apart during the battle, while the lower portion of his pants had suffered plenty of damage as well. Despite the state of his clothing, not a single wound marked his body. 

Behind him, Rei and Saeko had long since reached their limits. Both had fallen onto their knees, their breathing heavy as exhaustion finally forced them to retreat from the front line. 

They had fought for a while and simply could not continue any longer. Cu adjusted his position, making sure even more of the undead remained focused on him while allowing Kohta and the others to deal with the few that managed to slip through.

“Hah, that's why I hate dealing with undeads.”

Unlike soldiers, these creatures knew no fear. It did not matter how viciously he attacked them, how overwhelming each strike became, or how many of their bodies ended up scattered across the ground. The next ones simply stepped over the corpses and continued forward. Soldiers could hesitate when faced with overwhelming odds. Warriors could recognize when they had reached a battle they could not win. These things possessed none of that instinct. 

They did not care about the bodies around them, did not react to the growing mountain of dead, and did not hesitate when the spear came swinging toward them. Even without the skill or training of an actual fighter, they possessed something that made them considerably more troublesome in a battle like this, they had absolutely no fear of dying.

"Is this your doing?" The words left him as his gaze shifted beyond the horde and toward the distant mountainscape. Somewhere in that direction, he could feel the presence he had been thinking about. "Are you trying to get rid of me?" 

His grip tightened around the spear as another group approached. "Well, tough luck. You'll run out of corpses before I even break a sweat." 

Taunting a God, or any supernatural entity powerful enough to be responsible for what had been happening, clearly was not the smartest thing he could do. 

The man understood that much. 

Yet if such a being truly stood behind this attack, there seemed to be little point in trying to appease it. Wave after wave continued arriving, and whatever reason existed for sending them here, it clearly had nothing to do with giving him an opportunity to negotiate.

How many had he killed by now? 

Several thousand? 

Tens of thousands? 

Perhaps somewhere close to that number? 

The constant fighting had made counting pointless, especially with bodies covering almost every part of the battlefield. From behind him came the voices of the others, shouting for him to come back and making it clear that they had become increasingly worried about how long he intended to remain out there. Rather than retreat, he simply lifted one hand and waved them off before giving them an easygoing grin. 

“Can they see me? I'm covered in blood like everything around me.” 

This situation remained manageable as far as he was concerned. Even if it took days, even if the battle dragged on longer than that, he would keep fighting until he could no longer stand. As long as the undead continued coming, he would continue cutting them down.

"Don't worry about me! Just make sure the others are okay!" he shouted back, turning toward another wave as the creatures rushed toward the barrier. 

His eyes moved across the approaching mass while his mind considered whether it might finally be time to start using more spell-based attacks. Using runes had never been his preferred method when a spear could accomplish the same thing, but against this many targets, using more ranged attacks would certainly make things easier. The thought had barely settled when something else caught his attention, drawing his gaze away from the approaching zombies.

Surrounded by several piles of corpses, Cu did not immediately notice what was approaching. 

“What the…” 

Only when the mass drew closer did its grotesque shape finally become clear. It looked like an amalgamation of dead bodies tangled together, flesh and bones twisted into one enormous crawling mass, with hands, feet, arms, and whatever other limbs remained forcing the entire thing forward. Some limbs dragged uselessly behind it while others pushed against the ground, causing the whole mound to lurch forward in an ugly, unnatural manner. The sight earned a disgusted scoff as he looked over the thing. "Pretty sure I killed this bunch. How… are they still alive?"

Without bothering to wait for an answer, he hurled his spear with enough force to make it tear straight through the mass. The weapon punched through the mountain of flesh, ripping apart bodies as it continued all the way to the other side and left a sizable hole through the center. Yet despite the damage, the amalgamation did not stop. The countless bodies continued dragging themselves forward, limbs scraping against the ground as the mass slowly closed the distance.

"What?" Cu clicked his tongue and jumped down from where he stood, landing firmly on the road before facing the approaching horror. "Just what are you playing at right now?" Whether the thing could actually hear him remained uncertain, but its sudden change in behavior had caught his attention. Perhaps it understood what he had said, or maybe it had taken his earlier stance as some kind of challenge. Either way, there was clearly something unusual about it.

“Hah!” 

With a call of his hand, the spear returned to him, and the moment it reached his grasp, he moved. Several swings tore through the mass in rapid succession, his arms becoming difficult to follow as the weapon carved through one body after another. Flesh and bone flew apart with every strike until the once massive mound had been reduced to chunks, most of them no larger than his own arm. Bits of ruined corpses collapsed across the road, leaving almost nothing that could still be mistaken for a living creature. Yet as he looked over what remained, something in his gut told him that this could not possibly be the end of it.

Something felt terribly wrong. 

“—!?”

A sensation crept into his mind, followed by the unmistakable feeling of something extremely ominous lurking somewhere beyond what he could see. It felt almost like an invisible hand had reached toward him and brushed against his skin, leaving behind a cold sensation that made his instincts flare. 

“You!” 

He immediately spun around, spear raised and ready for whatever might be behind him, only to find the road empty.

"What is going on? It is capable of a physical manifestation?" His eyes moved across the surroundings, searching between the corpses and the darkness beyond them, but nothing revealed itself.

Before he could investigate any further, a large figure suddenly rushed in from behind and slammed into him. 

“Urgh!” 

The impact drove him several feet across the ground, but his reaction came instantly. An arm rose in time to block the undead's snapping jaws from reaching his head, and the sheer size of the creature made it obvious that this one differed from the ordinary zombies surrounding him.

“Just give it a rest!”

It looked like a runner, a muscular man whose body had retained enough strength and speed to charge at its prey with frightening force. A hand caught its neck before those teeth could bite down, and with a powerful upward pull, the entire undead body came off the ground. Its spine tore free with a wet crack, leaving the creature dangling for a moment before Cu tossed it aside. 

Splat! 

The corpse hit the road and collapsed into a heap.

“Hah… hah…”

Slowly but surely, his breathing began to grow deeper. 

Exhaustion hadn't knocked on his body yet, but he did not have infinite stamina.

More runners came rushing toward him almost immediately, charging from several directions as the undead began swarming around him. Instead of retreating, he planted his feet and stomped down hard. 

Crack! 

The ground beneath him broke apart, the uneven surface throwing several of the approaching zombies off balance and sending them stumbling into one another. That opening gave him enough room to attack. His spear drove through the back of one runner and pinned it directly to the ground, anchoring the corpse in place. 

“Hm!”

Using the weapon as a point of leverage, Cu twisted his arm and dragged the spear across the road, carving out a large trench as chunks of broken earth and debris were thrown outward. The flying rubble struck the slower zombies around him, knocking several away and giving him another brief opening to deal with the remaining runners.

“Woah… where even am I now…”

The fighting had carried him onto the main road, and when he looked into the distance, the sheer number of dead zombies made it difficult to even see the road beneath them. Bodies covered so much of the area that the original surface had nearly disappeared. 

The man glanced back toward the direction he had come from, realizing just how far away he had gotten. 

“Hahaha… “

Considering how long this had been going on, he briefly wondered if the others would be better off simply having a meal and going to sleep rather than continuing to wait around for him. He already knew they probably would not listen, but the thought still amused him.

His attention shifted toward the mountains in the distance. For a moment, the idea of simply going there and destroying that particular shrine crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed it with a shake of his head. In most cases, destroying something connected to an unknown entity or deity without understanding what it did would only make matters worse. It could easily be taken as an act of provocation, effectively taunting whatever had been behind all of this. 

Considering how many times he had already pushed his luck, Cu had little reason to believe another act of provocation would end well.

Another movement caught his attention farther down the road. A large pile of corpses shifted and pushed against the bodies around it, dragging itself forward in much the same manner as the earlier amalgamation. His expression soured at the sight. 

"What a waste of time. A waste of effort." 

There was no point in letting it continue, so he moved toward the pile and raised his spear, intending to cleave the entire thing apart before it could reach him.

As soon as he reached it, the spear swung through the mass. Yet on the first strike, instead of cutting through, the weapon suddenly lodged itself directly in the middle of the mound. Cu's eyes narrowed in surprise as he felt the resistance through his arm.

"What?" 

The corpses themselves had offered almost no resistance before, so the sudden obstruction made little sense. Frowning, he pushed harder against the weapon, attempting to force the spear through the pile. 

Whoosh!

“Shit!”

That was when something moved beneath the bodies. A massive hand burst out from the mound and grabbed toward him, but its fingers caught the spear instead, wrapping around the shaft and preventing him from pulling it free.

The movement revealed what had actually been driving the mass forward. A much larger undead creature slowly pushed its way through the pile of corpses, its enormous body emerging from beneath the tangled remains. Its round shape looked almost inflated, with a huge stomach and limbs that seemed barely capable of supporting it. Skin stretched across its swollen body until it began tearing in several places, exposing blood and ruined flesh beneath it. The sight alone made the previous amalgamation seem almost ordinary.

"And here I thought you couldn't get any uglier." Despite the grotesque creature standing directly in front of him, Cu noticed something else that bothered him more. The feeling from earlier had returned. It almost seemed as though the undead were observing him, watching his movements rather than simply reacting to the attacks. Whatever awareness existed behind those ruined features, it gave him the distinct impression that this creature was different from the others.

Even so, a grin slowly spread across his face as his grip tightened around the spear. 

"So what?” He raised the weapon high above his head, and the grin on his face widened as he prepared to bring it down. "It's all the same in the end!" 

Rather than stopping because the creature offered greater resistance, he simply decided to answer that resistance with even more force. If its body could endure his previous attacks, then he would hit harder. If stronger muscles were holding the thing together, then he would put even more strength behind the next strike. 

There was no complicated strategy behind it. 

He would simply overpower the thing in front of him.

The spear descended with enough force to make the air around it seem to burst apart. Bam! 

The weapon smashed directly into the undead's face, flattening it like a pancake before tearing through the swollen body underneath. Blood erupted from the ruined corpse and splattered across the surrounding zombies as the spear continued downward. The sheer force crushed the undead beneath it as well, flattening bodies against the ground as though they were nothing more than soft obstacles in its path. Cu continued driving the weapon down until the spear finally struck the earth with enough force to leave a small crater beneath him.

Then came a sound that instantly cut through the frenzy of the attack…

Snap!

The gleaming red bloodlust in his eyes vanished as disbelief replaced it. 

“Eh?” 

Looking down, he found the spear in his hand broken cleanly in two. The upper half remained buried in the crater beneath him while the other portion stayed clutched in his hand. Tiny fragments of shattered metal scattered across the ground around his feet, catching the light for brief moments before disappearing among the corpses.

"Shit." He stared at the broken shaft, his expression shifting as reality settled in.

His still new weapon had already reached its limit. He… used too much force.

"...I really miss Gae Bolg."

The realization barely had time to register before hundreds of zombies surged toward him from every direction. Bodies crashed into one another as the undead swarmed over to him.

“AAAEEUaaeAEgh!” 

From every corner they shreeked with hunger, dog piling the Irishman until not even a trace of him could be seen from the horrified people on the rooftop.