“Why can’t these corpses walk into their grave themselves?”
Frank, Mary and I are currently cleaning up last night’s mess. Shortly after we killed the zombies, Mary and I relaxed. At that time, the unbearable stenches that we didn’t care about for a time caused Mary and I to run away.
After putting up a barrier to prevent any dark magicians from raising the dead once again, we go back to our wagon to catch some breath and rest.
“Are you sure you want them to walk?”
Mary is holding her staff from faraway while using magic to create holes as graves for them. A cloth is covering her nose and below in an attempt to even slightly reduce the rotten smell. A breeze constantly weaves around her also help blow it away.
…Convenient…
Anyway… If something like yesterday happened again…
“On the second thought, they should just stay dead. Help me up here, Frank. Heave-ho.”
Frank and I lift a corpse up and lower it into a hole. As soon as it is in, we release our hands and run away to catch some breath. Holding breath is seriously hard work. Even then, the rotten stench can still be smelled.
A small thud is heard as the corpse hit the ground. Mary quickly covers it with sand and soil.
Next corpse…
****************************************
“It’s finally done!”
After Mary blew the stench upwards with wind magic, I breathe in the fresh air. There is little bad smell left but it is quite alright already. Looking out towards the pass, it looks gloomier now.
Yuni carefully leads our horse forward as it got scared by the atmosphere. Soon we line up in front of the pass.
“Keep vigilance. We are moving in.”
I turn off the safety of my rifle. Leading the way, I look around the narrow pass. At first, there is nothing to see. However, the further we go, we see more corpses. Some lightly damaged, others torn apart.
A torn banner stands in loneliness in the middle of the carnage. A limb is still holding the shaft but there is nothing above its upper arm. Occasionally a drop of blood falls from the torn part.
Yuni quickly asks Alishia to not look around and closes the curtain tightly.
“There are too many of them. We must move quickly. There is no way we could handle the undead if they suddenly raised.”
A while later, we see a high stone wall blocking the pass. The gate has been broken down with no sign of activity inside. Bodies are strewn everywhere. There should have been around a hundred of them so far and many more may be inside.
“Just how many died here?”
Mary’s face is green as she struggles to hold back her urge to vomit. Frank keeps his focus on the road to hold back his urge as well.
“Keep going. We need to find a safe place.”
At this time a groan sounds out from somewhere. A limb stretch itself out of the mess of corpses. Soon, as if it is a sign or something, a great amount groans resound across the pass.
However, a small amount of zombies stand up. It is fortunate that most of the corpses only groan and didn’t stand up though.
I aim my rifle at the closest zombie and shoot its leg, effectively cause it to stumble down and struggle to move around the corpse. Aiming at others, I fire a couple more zombies. Then I turn around.
Mary freezes some zombies on the other side while Yuni quickly guide the horse forward. Frank ran alongside Yuni with his hand on the handle of his sword.
“Let’s move. Mary, why are there just this few zombies? How about the others?”
I ask while leading the way, shooting any zombies that might obstruct our way. We are fifty meters away from the gate now. Some zombies walk out from behind the broken gate. Mary cast a few [Wind Hammer] to blow them out of the way before replying.
“We don’t need to worry about the others. Dark Magic needs dark attribute mana which is currently suppressed because it is noon. Dark Magic are much more effective at nighttime or in dark places.”
“Then why are there more zombies inside the gate?”
I fire a few shots to the zombies behind the gate but I can see that there are far more zombies inside the pass then outside.
“The sunlight has been partially blocked by the wall and cliff. Also, the mana is stronger inside. Maybe the magician is inside the pass….”
Mary frowns as she grabs the edge of my cloak and closes her eyes while keeps running. A wave of mana passes through my body towards the pass. Worried, I grab her hand to lead her around.
I attach my rifle on my back as I can’t aim properly with one hand. Then, I unsheathe the sword on my waist.
The sword has a glimmer of golden light. Yesterday, after we handled the zombies, Mary taught Alishia to attach her holy-attribute mana to things including this sword in a way similar to how Mary dyed their hair before. Though it isn’t the proper method, we have no time to teach her that.
It is only a faint trace but with the much weaker zombies, it should be able to handle them.
Frank also unsheathe his sword. The same golden glimmer covers it.
“Erwin. I found the source but there is no magician.”
“What do you mean?”
“This magic is cast remotely with a medium. Someone must have brought something like an orb here.”
“That means…”
I glance back to Mary. Mary stares at my eyes with joy in it.
“That means the magic is only a residual magic. It is much easier to resolve it. We just need to destroy the source.”
“Alright! Let’s beat them up and destroy it! Which way?”
“Go inside the pass first.”
I swing my sword on a slowly nearing zombie’s neck and cut off its head at the second swing. The cut isn’t smooth but it is much easier than expectation. Frank has only managed to cut halfway through a zombie’s neck as his strength is not enough. He kicks the zombies away as he can’t afford to be held back.
Mary has easier time as she can directly blow them away with a [Wind Hammer]. As she starts to attack, none of the zombies can approach us.
“To the left. That big building over there.”
Frank and I take the vanguard position to slaughter the zombies. Yuni takes the rear to protect the wagon with Mary. She holds a sword similar to Frank but shorter.
We take on around three zombies at a time while advancing. Around us there are only around ten to fifteen zombies. It is quite fortunate that the dark mana is suppressed until this extend.
“We are nearly there.”
The big building in front of us looks like an infirmary. A lot of stretches are scattered in front of it broken. Corpses are mainly concentrated around there and the blood stench is heavy.
“Mary, can you move the corpses away from there?”
“Understood.”
“Frank, focus on kicking them back.”
I throw a punch to push a zombie back before thrusting my sword to its neck. With a twist and swing the zombie is beheaded. Then I kick it towards other zombies.
Frank who has less strength parries an attack to the side. He then hit the zombie back with the flat side of the sword. Following that he kicks the zombie away.
Mary holds her staff steady. Small yellow orbs quickly gather around the tip of the staff. After a lot of them gathered together, she stamps her staff to the ground.
The small orbs throw themselves to the ground around the corpses in front of the infirmary. Following it the ground starts to shake and shift to the side, carrying the corpses with it. In just a moment the entrance is cleaned up. Several zombies also fell down due the sudden shifting.
We run to the entrance and decapitate any remaining corpses and zombies there. Mary stamps the ground once more with her staff and create a barrier.
It is a bright light blue barrier composed of water held in place with magic, [Protection of Clear Stream]. It enables the ones inside to see the outside and vice versa. The barrier can absorb tremendous force by spreading the force throughout the barrier.
However, the main point to select the water barrier at this time is not only to defend but to also reflect sunlight. The reflected sunlight shaves away the dark mana surrounding the place. It further weakens the zombies.
“Frank, Yuni, stay here and guard Alishia and the wagon.”
I take out a round shield from the wagon and hold it in my hand. Facing the entrance, I feel a chill for some reasons. I turn off the power saving mode on my suit.
Mary and I glance at each other and nod.
“Let’s go.”
I push the half-opened doorway. The infirmary is messy with a lot of stretches, tables, chairs, etc being scattered around. There are only a few corpses inside. The wide infirmary is bright with all the sunshine shining in through the windows.
I stand in front of Mary while readying my sword and shield. Mary quickly tries to find where the source is with [Search] magic.
“Over there.”
Mary points at a zombie lying face up at the corner of the infirmary. The zombie is relatively intact. It is wearing a white robe with the center of the chest bloodied.
We approach it slowly while looking out for other zombies. I decapitate any zombies we encountered along the way.
“That round thing on his chest should be the source. Looks like the zombies broke his torso and embed it in there. All you need to do is to break it apart and the magic will dissolve itself.”
Mary points at the dark purple orb. The orb glows weakly every now and then. It’s probably because the zombie is shone on by the sunlight directly.
I walk towards the zombie cautiously. It twitches a couple of times in the meantime. It looks like it is struggling to move. Mary stands where she is while staring at me nervously.
I stand beside the zombie and lift my sword, preparing to stab the orb with it. The zombie’s eyes look over to me. That scares me a bit.
I take a deep breath and raise my sword a bit more. I aim carefully at the orb.
“Kyaa!”
I startle and quickly turn around at Mary who suddenly screams. A hand is grabbing her ankle from a pile of clothes nearby. She tries to extract her leg but the hand firmly holds her.
Suddenly I feel that my left leg is also being grabbed. I turn back to the zombie in front of me. With a swing of its hand, it pulls my leg and I stumble down on my back.
“Gah. Damn it.”
The zombie climbs on top of me and opens its mouth to bite but I push my shield to put a distance between us. I release my sword and clench my right fist.
“Beat it.”
I punch the orb with my amplified strength. A shattering sound is heard echoing in the wide infirmary.
The next moment the doorway is kicked open with a loud sound.