Uriel was surprised by many things at this moment; one of them was, without a doubt, the horned woman running toward him. However, it wouldn't have shocked him so much if it weren't for the fact that, behind this very same woman, a horde of what looked like a bunch of rotting corpses was chasing her—and they weren't exactly slow.
"What the hell, I just got here."
Uriel, of course, expected there would be problems because of his late arrival, but he certainly didn't expect that the moment he appeared, a bunch of what looked like zombies from old horror movies would pop out of nowhere.
"RUUUUUUUN!"
The horned woman ran past him, screaming at the top of her lungs, and Uriel had no intention of arguing with her, so he immediately started running behind her. As they ran, the woman glanced at him several times, clearly perplexed.
"ASSHOLE, WHY ARE YOU JOGGING!?" the woman shouted, unable to hold it in any longer.
Honestly, Uriel was running with all his strength; however, he himself noticed he was slightly slower than usual. But as he ran, he realized something important: he was completely covered in leather armor from head to toe. It looked quite heavy, yet he was still running at a considerable speed.
Suddenly, the woman who had gained quite a bit of distance ahead of him began slowing down more and more until he was only a few meters away from her—he was actually catching up.
"What's wrong? Getting tired?" Uriel asked with a malicious smile.
The woman didn't even look at him; she was breathing heavily. Uriel knew that if the situation continued like this, the woman would eventually collapse, and the zombies behind them—who seemed completely dead but certainly not tired—would catch her and devour her.
Of course, he wasn't going to let that happen. For better or worse, she had run into him, and Uriel wasn't the kind of person who would leave others to their fate.
He slowly approached the woman, but she tried to move away from him.
"Damn it, get closer. I'm going to carry you."
The woman looked at Uriel, then at the horde of thirty corpses. She repeated this about two more times before finally making up her mind.
"You better catch me!"
The woman jumped with incredible agility. Uriel thought that more than a person she looked like a wild cat. She landed firmly in his arms, and to his delight, Uriel discovered that the girl was, in fact, as light as a feather. Running with her in his arms didn't feel like much effort.
"Are you injured?" Uriel asked, puzzled that her running performance had dropped so drastically.
The woman struggled to catch her breath; if it weren't for her leather armor, her chest would probably already be damp from the heavy panting.
"No… uff… it's just ha ha… I get tired too fast, damn it."
This caught Uriel's attention. Normally he should have been tired carrying so much weight, yet he felt fine. It was probably due to the classes they had chosen at the beginning.
"Hey… ha… turn that corner."
The woman pointed toward some alleys a few hundred meters ahead of them.
But Uriel didn't like the idea of running wherever a complete stranger told him to.
"Why should I?" he said, frowning.
The woman remained silent for a few moments, thinking about what she was going to say, until she finally spoke.
"Listen, you might have a bit more stamina than me, but that doesn't mean it'll last forever. Sooner or later you'll get tired, so trust me. You saved me—I won't hurt you," she said, looking him straight in the eyes, as if that alone could make her words true.
"Ahhhh… alright."
Uriel entered the alley while the horde followed about a dozen meters behind. He knew that listening to a complete stranger wasn't the best idea in the world, but what other option did he have? He had already realized a cruel reality: the distance between him and the corpses had only increased by a couple of meters. If this continued, exactly what the woman said would happen—he would get tired and be forced to fight dozens of enemies he knew nothing about.
If what he knew about this tower was correct, then this woman should have four companions somewhere; and judging by her spotless appearance—except for her messy hair and sweat—she hadn't fought anyone yet. That likely meant she was guiding him toward her companions.
"I just hope I'm not jumping out of the frying pan and straight into the damn fire."
Uriel kept running until he reached the halfway point of the alley's exit, when the woman in his arms slipped out of his grip skillfully. Uriel stopped abruptly and looked at her, but she planted herself in front of the approaching corpses.
"NOW, ININISE!"
She shouted at the top of her lungs, and when she did, a layer of black oil formed beneath the corpses, causing them to fall awkwardly onto their bodies. From one of the collapsed houses in the alley, a flaming arrow shot out and burned the zombies' bodies. However, instead of collapsing, now that the ground was free of the black grease, they rose up in flames and ran toward the horned woman.
From two other hiding places, two more people emerged, also with horns of different sizes. One was a tall woman who was the first to charge at the corpses, which fell easily when she crushed their skulls, seemingly unconcerned by the fact that they were on fire.
The other man didn't hold back either; he wielded a fierce greatsword almost as large as himself, splitting corpses in half or slicing off their legs. The woman I had been carrying also joined the fight, but her weapons didn't seem nearly as effective against the zombies. While the others brought them down easily with a few cuts or blows, she had to exert noticeably more effort to achieve the same results.
In the blink of an eye, only a dozen remained of the thirty corpses that had been chasing us. But suddenly one of the corpses that had been cut in half grabbed the foot of the woman I had carried, and in a single moment of carelessness, she already had three zombies on top of her while her companions dealt with the rest. If this continued, she would be torn apart in the worst case—or injured at best, if she wasn't already.
"As if I'd let that happen."
I rushed toward her; she was only a few meters away from me, but I had no weapons, so I would have to fight with my fists. Ahh, I really wish I had something to fight with.
The moment I wished it, a mace and a shield appeared in my hands.
Uriel smiled beneath the leather helmet.
He rushed forward and smashed the corpse that was about to lunge at the woman in the head with his mace, making its skull explode.
The one on the ground he simply kicked hard enough to make it release its grip.
Now only one remained, and it threw itself against him and his shield.
Far from panicking, he ran forward with the corpse still on top of him and slammed himself violently against a wall again and again until the corpse stopped moving, falling limp.
"Haaah… haaah…"
He had finally grown a little exhausted; the fight and all the running were starting to take their toll, and it could hardly have been a worse moment. If these people decided he was an enemy too, he could only rely on what the woman would say.
The fight had already ended; the noise of clashing weapons had been replaced by a heavy silence, until a new voice came from a hiding place.
"Ralzire, are you okay?"
A woman with pale—or rather gray—skin, golden ornaments all over her body, and red eyes stepped out of hiding. Besides her striking clothing, what stood out the most was that her horns were the only ones that were golden.
Her voice sounded deeply worried, almost pained, as if it had been her fault that Ralzire had been hurt. But something else caught my attention: Ralzire… so that's her name.
Ralzire smiled with difficulty.
"Yes, Ininise. I was just a little surprised—I'm still not used to this fighting thing."
It was strange. I'm sure I saw that flaming corpse grab her heel. At the very least, her ankle should have been burned. But looking at it now, it was fine; in fact, she could even stand without any problem.
Alright, now that things were calmer, it might be the moment to join the conversation.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but could you…"
The man who had been fighting unsheathed his weapon, pointing the tip of his sword at me, his eyes filled with anger.
"It seems they're not that friendly after all."