Becoming a Monster

Chapter 121: Chapter 121: It’s Him Again

When he laid witness to how the others were faring, his expression turned into a condescending smirk. The group were being forced to retreat, but even that action was a struggle in itself; Noah hadn’t named the current undead ’sprinters’ without justification.

Although their group surprisingly had better coordination than before, anticipating the kamikaze attacks that the sprinter’s were so well adept at performing, the willpower to continue under such a savage barrage way of attacking wasn’t met so well by everyone else.

After the confrontation at the campus gates, everyone participating in battle were able to level up at least once. With the extra boost in their stats and the benefits from their recent loot, the group were able to fare much better than before.

Mark stood out even more as a capable leader, meeting three undead simultaneously, his new blade, large and overbearing, was enveloped in a bluish flame as he swiped with a ferocity that was inspiring for all to see. The visibly stylish attack was met with even greater fervor and morale as the others saw the zombie’s neck and shoulders being sliced through with one blow.

Jasmine focused mainly on support. Her strategy in battle improved after a heavy dose of self-reflection. Instead of trying to support everyone to keep them out of harm’s way, her focus was only centered around those who could make a difference in the battle. Restricting a zombie’s movements, even if just for a fraction of a second became the leading factor in their resistance. The moment a zombie found its movements interrupted, the ”life” in its eyes were dimmed before being able to regain its freedom.

Alicia no longer had daggers or knives of any sort to utilize, whilst her telekinetic ability wasn’t strong enough to play a role in manipulating the body proportions of a zombie. Instead, she utilized the broken glass fragments found from the car windows nearby. The glass fibers weren’t dense enough to penetrate a zombie’s skull directly, but with efficient timing, Alicia was able to utilize the zombies aggressive momentum to allow the glass to penetrate their brains. However, zombie’s that weren’t in a running motion weren’t able to be taken down, only a well placed shard through their eyes, temple or the back of the skull could produce any noteworthy results.

While these three displayed applauding feats, none shone more than two individuals. Paul was a walking fortress, demonstrating his wisdom and risks of investing all of his stats into his constitution. With the use of his unique trait, accompanied by his taunting ability and his newly acquired perks, Paul behaved arrogantly, trading attack for attack, not hesitating to strike through a zombies brain even though the zombies seemingly were about to take a bite out of him.

Although Paul appeared to be a one-man army, Ishii personified his samurai heritage on the battlefield. He was like a fish in water, with no sense of hesitation or doubt when he struck down the ”human” undead. His movements never ceased; for every direction his blade flowed, his body would move in the opposite direction, avoiding zombies with minimal movement of a seasoned warrior. Being part of the main faction, while having a gathering who fully supported him, Ishii acquired the same elusive ability the same as Noah, as well as the magic spell ’increased lesser agility’. It was a stacking spell that increased his agility by ten percent with each use. Without having the chance to display his own unique trait, Ishii covered his basics with skill alone.

Everyone that Noah was aware of displayed an impressive show of strength and utility of their skills. But it wasn’t just the extra level that led to this performance; their mentality was bolstered by the idea of government safety right around the corner. Their usual hesitance was no longer a factor in their reactions when they had to strike down to kill. Their will to overcome the dreaded threat was more empowering when they were no longer only driven by the will for survival.

However, from what Noah was currently seeing, their newfound motivation wasn’t enough.

Going into the fight, they were so set on the idea of reaching ”civilization” on the other side, so anxious to have security amongst the police, that they ignored the dangers of overwhelming numbers.

For each zombie that was put down, two more filled its place. And out of their group, only a small number of them could contend with the sprinters’ inhuman capabilities.

The others, who were less experienced and could only be considered a liability, were unable to relieve the others, allowing them to take a breather. Although their increased stats should’ve played a viable role in their stamina, their hypervigilance for their own safety while also protecting those that were unable to protect themselves quickly led to mental fatigue.

Their early tenaciousness was almost like a dream, and now they had awakened into a nightmare. Their impulsive action began to set in when they realized the gravity of their situation. The tempo of their attacks lacked the previous enthusiasm, communication devolved into selfish screams, and orders that weren’t adhered.

When chaos began to slowly fester within the group, the first casualty occurred, offsetting everything they had achieved. With that one death, a horrifying feast was set, transforming the scene into a nightmare so traumatizing that hell itself would seem like a sanctuary.

The group began to retreat with every effort imaginable. There were those who turned their backs to both the zombies and their fellow members, running down the street frantically screaming in the heat of the moment. Others, who were with the leading figures since the beginning of it all, these particular people still retreated, but they stayed close enough to support the main group without placing themselves in too much danger.

”Aaackk!”

Suddenly, amidst the screams and yells, Bailey wailed in excruciating pain, the trembling of her voice distracted the others just in time to see a zombie ripping a large amount of flesh and muscles from her arm. Their friend’s distress weighed heavily on their hearts, brief glimpses of her disfigured, eaten body looming in their thoughts as three more zombies were inches away from her to participate in the meal.

”NO!” A loud but curt shout echoed within the swarm of zombies. Every zombie in the vicinity jerked in response, their hungry gaze glistened with strong ravenousness desires. The zombie’s that were ready to pounce on Bailey suddenly turned away, even the zombie that painfully gripped into her skin let up on its desire to finish what it already started.

After losing Blake, Paul couldn’t allow himself to lose anyone else. The fear of losing someone else precious to him made him fully alert to Baileys’ scream, allowing him to distinguish her voice amongst the many others in the vicinity. His ashen expression contradicted the strong resolve in his gaze as he once again resorted to attracting the incoming zombies towards him.

”No one else dies...” He spoke aloud, firmly in his conviction, his resolve overshadowing his predetermined death. Although his trait gave him an otherworldly resilience, he had experienced before that his skill still held significant weaknesses. One was the obvious restrictions to his movements; another was undergoing an attack much stronger than even his hardened body could endure. But lastly, accumulating attacks played a prominent role in draining his mana, which was the key factor in maintaining his skill.

The depletion of his mana was miniscule when absorbing attacks that were unable to break though his defenses. However, when those attacks came from tens of tenacious zombies bombarding him from every angle, his mana was being exhausted at a terrifying rate.

The awareness of his situation was evident to Paul, he was resigned to his fate, but he was determined to make his death count. A small mound began to form of undead, all fighting to reach him, while within the encirclement of the hungry beasts, Paul continued to struggle with every fiber of his being.

When despair spread amongst the others, Paul’s selfless sacrifice spurred the others not to abandon him. Mark was the first to run to Paul’s aid, followed by the others while Bailey was being retreated away to be healed. But as they approached, a mystifying scene took place, one that extinguished their fervor entirely.

For a brief moment, almost everything went silent. The zombies’ growls, mixed with their hurried steps, everything completely stopped in motion. Even the moving mountain of zombies were frozen in place, with the only sound and movement coming from Paul, who had yet to realize the change. And yet although the majority of the zombie’s were frozen in place, movement in the back couldn’t escape everyones’ notice; for unfathomable reasons, not all zombie’s were affected.

Their baffled awe couldn’t make sense of the reality they were witnessing. It was only when they saw four monstrous figures speed past them that gave them a semblance of realization.

”It’s him again..” Mark muttered to himself, both relieved and bitter towards their failure and clear display of weakness. Despite his disturbed feelings, his gaze tracked every moment of the monster’s efforts. This only resulted in his bitterness to deepen, realizing that just Fenrir alone was worth more than their entire group. But watching the carnage being unleashed by the group, his bitterness reminded himself why he so desperately wanted to get stronger.

His eyes quickly shuffled across the scene before locking on to a specific area, his body impulsively shooting forward with his sword in hand.

Out of the four monsters, only one attacked the mound of zombies with Paul submerged within, while the others only converged on the zombies encroaching in. That very same creature was the abomination Noah had gifted to her to be used as her weapon. Knowing that Ailetta was still supporting them gave him the courage to not only save Paul but to also use the situation to his advantage to grow stronger quickly.

There wasn’t really any clarification about the mysterious force that prevented the zombies from moving, but Mark and Jasmine had an inkling that Noah was the cause.

Seeing Mark engaging with Noah’s menacing beast gave others even more courage to continue with him.

Only a few seconds passed, with everyone making split-second decisions.

With the nearby zombies still not reacting, their tensed fear began to recede, filled with the vigor to fight to their content.

They made their decision with the naive belief that the ability would last forever. Their enthusiasm wasn’t prepared for when the zombies’ movements were no longer controlled. The scene was twice as eerie than when Neal was forcibly made into a monster.

Instead of continuing their attack on Paul or preying on anyone else, each zombie that was once bound, jarringly twisted their necks, ravenously glaring in one direction. Before anyone could react to the situation, a loud schyronized growl emerged from the zombies. They were like a herd of ants as they ran uniformly in Noah’s direction.