Uncurling from its ball, a zombie in the Macbeth Senior High's uniform stares at the group. With burning patches of magma covering almost every part of its body, the group is left shaken.
Apart form its leaders of course, those guys know little fear, and hide what they choose not to show. Especially Arthur.
Slowly the zombie's lips stretched into an unhinged grin, it started at the starry sky then at the survivors. 'I remember this kid, and it seems it remembers me.' Staring at the former junior, Arthur saw a spark of recognition in its eyes.
While the others couldn't notice, the gaze of the zombie was mostly at Arthur and David. It slowly took a step forward and everything exploded into motion.
If Arthur hadn't activated mobility at just the right time his head would have been off. Not only did he activate mobility, he also expanded his force manipulation, pushing everyone away from the zombie.
' I would kill you all myself.' He stopped himself from sliding and stood with his arms crossed. "Everyone stay far away from that thing, if I or David falls. Find Ethan and Peter." Arthur announced.
The zombie moved towards David dodged barely and was shoved by a shoulder.
David stumbled to his feet managing not to reach the ground. However that was all in vain as the zombie effortlessly broke his left ribcage and sent him flying.
If Arthur hadn't caught him on time, he would have been far across the school's building. Lowering David to his feet, the boy immediately fell when the telekinetic influence left him.
"Argggghhhh, my fuckin lungs." He cried writhing in pain. Arthur paid him little attention as he knew the next was him. Summoning the Grey sight, he wore it and got straight to business.
He could now move quickly and perceive quickly as well. Staring at the grinning zombie Arthur cleared his mind out. ' Come on Arthur, no mistakes.'
The zombie came and he saw. ' Bastard is still to quick.' Activation mobility, he dashed out of the way. The zombie changed direction coming straight at him so Arthur dashed forward.
The zombie let out a fist which he easily dodged and counterattacked with a punch to the side. His fist was augmented so the zombie felt it a lot.
In fact Arthur's hands drew punctured a fist size hole in its side. The zombie lowered its elbow straight at Arthur's back bashing him into the ground , before creating some distance.
Arthur looked up and say the zombie holding onto its side at it stared at him hatefully. Its arms and fist began glowing menacingly fierce. Raising its arms to slam into the ground, beams of starlight hit it directly in rapid successions.
In awe Arthur watched as the zombie was slowly being obliterated. Chunks of charred flesh flew erratically as the smell of roasted meat began filling the courtyard.
' Truly devastating, my barrier better be able to fend against this.' Rising to his feet Arthur looked at the smoke veil in anticipation, the rain of stars was over but the silhouette was still standing.
Still standing unmoving, David coughed as he approached Arthur. Using his hand to clear out the smoke, a smug smile could be found on his face. "Just watch, it would walk out of that completely…"
Before David could finish his statement, a hand grabbed his neck taking him as it ran. Arthur followed the zombie who was gradually but visibly regenerating.
David was carried across the courtyard and slammed into a pillar, then a wall with so much force he passed through both. Arthur watched the body roll to the opposite wall of the class.
The zombie stood outside the class as it merely threw him in, not pushed him. ' It would take some time before he getting back on his feet.' Arthur lunched a telepathic strike.
It hit the zombie squarely on the back pushing it into the class it stared into. Arthur walked forward raising the debris made from David's crash.
He reached the class, kicked down the door and wanted to dump it all on the zombie, but it was gone. Dashing forward Arthur turned to see the zombie stand with a hand outstretched on where he had been previously.
"You attacks are getting too predictable…, well they were from the very beginning. " He said to the zombie helping David up.
Firing his attack at the zombie, but as expected it was dodged effortlessly. Arthur knew it was pointless however he used it to distract the zombie so he could take David out of the class.
The distraction worked, Arthur threw David down and got ready to face the zombie which was already on them. He kicked David's body aside and dove away himself, avoiding a magma infused fist slam by the zombie.
Landing a few paces away Arthur sent his brain to work. He had to think of a way to survive this creature or they would all be dead.
Stirring his will, he activated three skills at once, mobility, augmentation and cryokinesis.
[ Mass mana drainage has been detected.]
[ Deactivate immediately to avoid null mana sickness.]
Ignoring the prompt entirely, Arthur walked forward boldly. The mildly intelligent zombie immediately saw this as a threat and focused solely on him.
They closed in on each, the zombie's grin wider and wider. Once they got seven steps away from each other, hell was let loose.
Blurs flickered under the moonlight, the courtyard became uninhabitable for weaker beings. The thuds of bodies being thrown around, the zombie's growl and Arthur's tired grunts were the only sounds in the courtyard.
The cohort had to retrieve quickly David's subconscious body before he would get crushed by a tripping tier two or a telekinetic blast.
While they thought of this they contemplated on who was the best to send. Dodging an icicle Noah complained, "My speed isn't enough for these two monstrosities. I can't keep up with Arthur who is now struggling against the zombie.
From my analysis, because I am a fuckin genius. Arthur is going to die, initial the zombie was twice his movement speed, now I don't even know if it's seven times."
"How can you tell speedster." Eli asked raising his voice due to the rumblings of the entire ground floor and courtyard. "My ability allows me to sense and gauge speed. But for God's sake, Arthur is surviving on his ice abilities, if he's out of mana. It game over." Noah answered emphasizing the last part.
" We understand, but we have to go get David, he is our only hope if Arthur fails." Mary yelled, even then her voice was barely heard. " You mean when he fails." Tamsin added as she peeped into the battle.
" I would go with the speedster, both of us are the fastest." Mark informed ignoring what Tamsin just said. Noah opened his mouth to protest but was dragged away by Mark.
Amidst the rising temperature of heat and cold, Mark and Noah dashed over to David who had ever since being twitching in pain. Noah reached first and checked his heart beat.
"He's good." He said looking directly at Mark. They picked the boy and sprinted full speed into the classroom they hid in.
And do the battle continued with Arthur's fate turning grimmer and grimmer as moments passed. He was understanding the difference between a tier two and a mere awakener.
Slowly he was succumbing to his increasing injuries, tears, gashes, puncture holes. The zombie on the other had was just turning blue.
Its magma infused body was slowly cooling down turning it slower but more harder to damage. The magma patches turned into stone hard obsidian.
With the easiest places to target being the neck, head and abdomen. The other parts were nigh impenetrable. Their fight had even gone airborne at the last minute as Arthur found mobility too draining.
Freezing everything also came with a cost. In the coming minutes he would be drained badly and would be forced out of the fight, theoretically he would die when that happened.
Nevertheless he kept a calm composure. While he could see and monitor the speed of the zombie, following it was nearly impossible.
Another reason Arthur still found himself alive was the fact the zombie had only one fighting style. It fought it one pattern and didn't have enough reasoning to dodge.
' It's still a mindless creature, although it remembers I and David. ' Creating am ice wall to stop the zombie's incoming fist, he melted the ice and froze it once it encoated the zombie.
The zombie broke free before the water could fully solidify. The ice had served its purpose aiding Arthur get a clean hit with an augmentated punch.
The zombie was lifted to the air and flung across the courtyard hitting the tree and bouncing back at Arthur with tremendous speed.
Arthur however anticipated this as he had noticed the tree's unnatural sturdiness earlier. He followed up with a telepathic strike launching the zombie back at the tree.
For some moments, Arthur played ping-pong with the zombie. Hitting it at the tree from a far distance with either a telepathic strike or an augmentated attack.
Up until the seventh attack which was an augmentated punch. As his fist made contact with the zombie, it grabbed his hand and flung him away with its gathered momentum.
Not hitting the tree Arthur crashed into the ground and tumbled a few meters away from his landing spot.
[ All skills have been disabled except from the core ability.]
[ Mana ailment be induced in the coming minutes or as soon as remaining mana is depleted.]
The prompt vanished from his sight but Arthur remained still, staring at the stars while in the midst of battle. He still had strength to fight but had simply lost his will, he was tired and just wanted to rest.
Even if it was for a few minutes.
Meters away from him the zombie slowly approched, its obsidian parts melting back into magma. The ice melted rabidly in the presence of dripping magma, filling the air with a scalding vapor.
Yet the zombie walked unaffected, regenerating from wounds given by Arthur. A little distance away from him, the zombie stopped to the sound of crackling.
An electric bolt crashed into it from behind taking away it's attention from Arthur. It turned and immediately locked eyes with Eli. However it was forced to switch attention with seven disc whirlwinds.
Dodging them all he began approaching the rest of the survivors hiding on the corridor. Mark rose from concrete railing, Noah followed. Nodding to each other they sprinted towards the zombie.
Following them almost instantly was Blessed who did run but walked towards the zombie with cute angry expression. One which made her look like an anime waifu.
While Noah was the nearest, it was very obvious he was terrified. He wasn't even running at top speed. Unsuspecting because it couldn't think, the zombie blinked forward, its hand trying to clamp down on Noah's neck.
The boy dodged, barely enough to escape its touch. The zombie followed his movement but as he was about to punch down on the ducking boy, it found it's self unable to move its limbs.
Mark's arms were wrapped around it tight restricting the zombie for a few seconds before getting flipped to the ground. Trying to focus on Mark, a kick sent it staggering.
Blessed had joined the battle.
Shocked by the amount of power emitting from the petite girl before it, the zombie hesitated to fight. Blessed closed the distance made, a steel blade appearing in her hands.
The zombie moved and she saw, she followed. To her the zombie's current speed akin to that of a mundane human. She landed strike after strike, for once the zombie was defending against probability.
It could pinpoint what made the little girl powerful. The moment it decided to charge in recklessly, a barrage of whirlwind discs tore though it's calves followed by a long shock of electrical current.
Blessed sized the opportunity to land a clean slash to the neck as the zombie stumbled. Most of its neck was off but it wasn't severed. Blessed stuck again, but the zombie caught the sword with one hand, the other held its head in place.
It had understood her strength.
It knew it was still vastly more powerful. Not even bothering to withdraw her sword, Blessed did something sudden. She, Noah and Mark zoomed back to their hiding spot.
Dazed the zombie looked at the vanishing sword in its hand and back at the fleeing opponents. It didn't see them, instead David stood, a hand to his left side, the other pointing to the sky.
Then rain of stars decended.
Far more powerful than the first. The entire courtyard shook at the descendance of just a single beam. And all that destructive power was concentrated on a single being.
Arthur slowly rose at the sudden display of power. ' A single coloured light show I should be terrified of. ' Feeling slightly dizzy he attracted the dagger which was embedded into the soil, nineteen paces away from him.
Catching the blade, Arthur prepared his final move, he knew the light show wouldn't kill the zombie. David was strong enough to possess such fire power but his potential was terrifying.
Watching the ground splinter and crack into a modestly large sinkhole Arthur felt his heart throb. The rain continued for an entire minute before slowly reducing in size and intensity.
The zombie stood, charred beyond explanation. It looked incredibly skinny almost bone like. Huge chunks of its body parts were gone leaving the zombie with an arm and it's quivering legs.
Yet it vanished from sight, its speed unlike anything it showed before. David was sent flying through the window into another class. The zombie stood where he stood previously and faced the group.
"Behind you." Arthur said taking off the zombie's head as it was still distracted.
He rushed to and stabbed the zombie's skull relentlessly till.
[ You have defeated a level 18 tier two Heat Walker.]
[ You have leveled up X4 ]
[ Your Mana Ailment has been cured.]
Dropping to his knees, the still standing body of the zombie fell before him unmoving.