novelraw Chapter 98 : Chapter 98
Chapter 98 : Chapter 98
Chapter 98
The cries of zombies and the screams of people echoed endlessly, mixing together and turning the top of the wall into a scene of utter chaos.
“Aaaargh!”
An urgent scream from close by.
I could not see due to the darkness, but I could tell someone was running this way from the sound of their footsteps.
However, he did not achieve what he wanted.
A scream was heard along with the roar of a zombie, and soon, only the sound of flesh being torn replaced it.
The thick, fresh smell of blood pricked my nose.
“Hmph…!”
Celina’s eyes glowed blue.
I could feel the zombies’ movements slowing down significantly.
She had cast a wide-range gravity field to slow the zombies down.
I knew what kind of heart she had to be pouring out the large amount of mana she had cherished and collected so unstintingly.
However, I grabbed Celina’s wrist.
The soldiers of Monora were important, but at this rate, the soldiers and crew of Unit 917 were also in danger.
“It’s still a long time until morning. If you use all your mana and collapse from exhaustion, I won’t be able to spare any attention for the other members while protecting you.”
“……”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
When she opened her eyes again, the blue light in Celina’s eyes was gone, and the zombies that had been face-down on the ground for a moment due to her rose up and began to run wild again.
“All members of Unit 917, gather around Byan! Watch each other’s backs and form a circle!”
“Yes, sir!”
After a powerful shout, the members of Unit 917 gathered around Byan, who was holding a newly created sphere of fire.
Fear and terror filled the faces of those who stood in a circle as I had ordered, with their weapons drawn, guarding the outside of the circle.
I pulled Celina into the center of the circle.
“Byan, focus on maintaining the sphere. You need to light it up for as long as possible with minimal mana consumption, so don’t waste your stamina on fighting.”
“Understood, Field Commander!”
“And Celina. Our role is to prevent this encirclement from being broken.”
“…I understand.”
Celina’s voice was weak, as if she was still worried about the soldiers of Monora left outside the circle.
However, she was a person who knew how to grasp what was important.
Using a communicator to levitate Unit 917’s airship, she drew her sword.
“Graaaaaah!”
Once we had formed a semblance of a formation, a wave of zombies began to swarm in.
It was a sad thing, but the fact that the zombies were concentrating their attack on us was also proof that the number of survivors in the vicinity had decreased that much.
The battle began in earnest.
Although the sphere of fire created by Byan was illuminating the surroundings, its range was not very wide.
The zombies lurked in the darkness, then suddenly sprang out and bared their teeth.
Latia’s sword struck a zombie’s neck.
It seemed she lacked a bit of power to cut it cleanly, but she still seemed to have some leeway.
The problem was the other members, including Lirisa.
Although they had become stronger after receiving mana on the Frey Archipelago, they were not comparable to Latia, who had been with Unit 917 since its establishment.
Due to their lack of combat experience, they consistently made mistakes, and each time, Celina and I had to fill in the gaps they created.
Among them, the person who seemed to be struggling the most was Lirisa.
Her strength was her excellent archery skills, but in this darkness where it was difficult to distinguish friend from foe, her bow was not of much help.
In the end, she too had to fight in close combat with a dagger, and her lack of close combat experience was holding her back.
“Aah…!”
She had made another mistake.
She should have decisively pierced the zombie’s brow with her dagger, but she could not keep up with the zombie’s fast movements and ended up stabbing its shoulder.
A mistake is an act of handing an opportunity to the opponent.
Especially a zombie that feels no pain, without even a sign of flinching, regardless of whether its own wound opens up, just charges towards the enemy in front of it.
CRUNCH!
A sword that shot out like a flash of light pierced the zombie’s head.
I had been worried that her skills might have become rusty from being cooped up in the airship while we were gaining real combat experience, but it was a needless worry.
Should I say, as expected?
Celina was Celina.
Even without my direct intervention, Unit 917 was holding up well, complementing each other’s shortcomings without wavering.
Judging that I had some leeway, I threw myself into the darkness.
“I’ll be back in a bit.”
The most important thing was my survival.
The next thing to consider was the safety of Unit 917, which I belonged to.
Since both were secured, I now needed to supplement our numbers to raise everyone’s survival rate even a little.
I retraced my memory and headed for where the torches were.
After cutting down three zombies, I finally managed to get my hands on a torch, but I discovered a problem.
“This is…”
The head of the torch had been cut off.
The cross-section was cleanly cut, and this was a mark that zombies, armed with their claws and teeth and relying on instinct, could never have made.
In the first place, the fact that the torches had been extinguished simultaneously was an incomprehensible phenomenon.
It was certain that there was something else at play, but right now, I did not have the luxury to worry about it.
‘The residential area?’
If the city walls were in this state, there was no way the residential area beyond the walls would be fine.
The state of the residential area… I could not confirm it.
Just like the torches on the city walls, all the lights in the residential area were out.
With zombies camped right outside the city walls, how many brave souls could turn off their lights and go to bed peacefully?
The residents of Monora, too, would have been staying up all night with their lanterns lit, unable to turn them off even late at night.
Despite that, the fact that there was not a single light in Monora meant that someone had intentionally done something.
That was the only way I could think of it.
It had to be magic.
The problem was that even Celina could not dream of such a large-scale spell.
A mage capable of this…
“……!”
A chilling sensation from behind pulled my deepening thoughts back to the surface.
I hurriedly twisted my body and swung my sword.
Something struck my sword hard.
The force of the powerful blow sent my body flying backward.
I gauged the height of the fall and extended my foot, but it did not touch anything.
I had been completely knocked off the city wall by the previous impact.
The height of the wall was about eight meters.
It was not a height that would cause serious injury upon falling, but the problem was the zombie with the greatsword that had sent me flying.
I knew that creature.
It was the same one from the church building that had made me turn tail and run.
“Graaaaaaah!”
It roared mightily, like a predator that had once again encountered the prey it had narrowly missed, and jumped down towards me.
A blow coming down from above my head.
I summoned my shield and blocked the blow.
As a result, I plummeted towards the ground at high speed.
BOOM!
“Kahaak…!”
The strong impact made me expel all the air from my lungs in an instant.
My head spun.
It felt like my whole body was breaking.
But it was not to the point where I could not endure it, and if I dallied here in pain, I would not be able to deal with the next attack.
THUD!
I barely managed to get up.
Whether it was because my eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness or because my senses had become sharper, I could vaguely see that the zombie had landed about five meters away from me.
Still, it seemed the impact was not entirely negligible, as the creature shuddered for a moment, and in that time, I was able to fully prepare myself.
“Uwoooooh!”
Like the mindless corpse it was, there was no conversation between us.
The zombie charged according to its instinct and swung its greatsword recklessly.
Compared to Celina, it had no grace and no particular skill, but its brute strength alone made it threatening.
It was so overwhelming that I had fled from this power in the church in Haram, so repeating it would just be a waste of breath.
But there was a difference between then and now.
At that time, my stamina was at rock bottom, but now, I had eaten well and rested fully for today’s battle, so my condition was at its peak.
“I’ll pay you back for the humiliation of that day.”
I calmly read the path of the sword.
Since the attack itself was simple, the opponent’s openings were clearly visible with just a little concentration.
There were not just one or two, but so many openings that I had to think about where to attack first.
If the opponent had been an ordinary swordsman, I would have considered a trap, but there was no way a mere corpse would have that much intelligence.
I took a step to the left and dodged the attack.
SWOOSH!
The sound of the greatsword cutting through the air was extremely chilling.
As the attack was packed with great power, its weakness was greatly exposed when the attack missed.
The greatsword was deeply embedded in the ground, and my chance was when the creature used its strength to pull it out.
There were still many enemies to deal with.
It was a waste of time and effort to swing my sword multiple times at a creature like this.
The place I aimed for was the neck.
The swung Ella 7 Sword drew a red trajectory that could not be hidden even in the darkness and advanced.
CRACK!
The sword was blocked midway.
But this too was within my expectations.
There was no way a creature that could lightly swing such a ridiculously large greatsword would be the same as ordinary zombies.
Instead of panicking, I swung my left arm and struck the back of the blade with my shield.
The sword, which had been stopped by the zombie’s neck bones, moved forward, and the zombie’s head rolled away.
The separated head was still glaring at me, its mouth wide open, letting out a roar.
I quickly distanced myself from the creature.
The swung greatsword cut through the spot where I had been standing just a second ago.
The zombie, despite having lost its head, continued to charge at me, but there was no need to waste my stamina fighting that ridiculously strong creature.
I ignored it and headed for the city wall where the other members would be waiting.
The interval between the footsteps coming from behind gradually widened and then disappeared completely.
“…I’m going to lose my mind.”
Hell was unfolding on the city wall.
I do not know who did it, but flames had erupted in various places, and around those flames, the soldiers of Monora were gathered, fighting against the zombies.
It was a place where blood, screams, roars, and death ran rampant, and I jumped into it.
The zombies were continuously climbing the wall.
Normally, we should have used the geographical advantage to launch one-sided attacks to prevent them from climbing the wall, but everything was ruined.
I wondered how many would be alive by the time the sun rose.
No, I wondered if the ones defending this wall when the sun rose would even be human.
Because of the darkness, I could not confirm the state of the battle, so I could not be sure of anything.
I did not even know if our side was winning or if we were being pushed back one-sidedly.
‘At this rate, I might even miss the timing to escape…’
I checked the time.
The night had just begun, and it was still a long way until morning.