Chapter Twenty-Eight: Regrouping

TWENTY-EIGHT

Roan attacked the front lines immediately. He could only see disaster coming from giving them time to organize and every instinct said attack. Jared was a second behind him, taken off guard by Roan’s sudden charge. The hammer came around in a wide arc and slammed into the chest of the closest of the zombies and sent it staggering backward.

The zombies on either side of the one he hit attacked Roan. He had to back up or risk being fileted as their swords slashed at him. His heart hammered in his chest as he flipped his wrist and continued to attack, the long handled hammer giving him a reach advantage as he caved in the zombie’s on the right face.

It went limp as it flopped to the ground but the one behind it stepped forward before Roan could take advantage. A curse boiled on his lips as he sped up faster, his body burning with energy from the potion.

“We can’t do this. Back up!” Jared yelled. Roan gritted his teeth as he didn’t want to admit that the man was right. In the matter of seconds the entire fight had flipped, now they were on the backfoot and struggling to survive.

A zombie further in the ranks, dressed in sect robes, began to glow green. Roan backed up faster, avoiding another wild swing of a sword. The glowing zombie leveled a hand at him, pointer finger extended. Icy spikes of dread filled him as he threw himself to the side.

Something sizzled as it cut through the air where he’d just been, but Roan didn’t see what the result was. He rolled on his shoulder and popped to his feet, spinning and running at full speed down the boulevard. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jared turn and sprint as well, head down and arms pumping as he tried to distance himself from the block of zombies.

“I have allies further down,” Roan yelled at him, risking a look behind him. The block of zombies had hesitated, but were now marching forward. They hadn’t picked up any noticeable speed, just coordination.

“All of their cysts are flashing in unison!” Jared said, starting to jog as they put distance between themselves and the horde.

“I noticed. What do you think?” Roan asked.

“Hive mind? Definitely some type of communication for sure. That undead gained more sentience when it ate my amulet, that’s for sure.” Jared pursed his lips and spat to the side as Roan looked up and down the still abandoned halls. He still couldn’t tell where his original saferoom was.

“We’ll need more amulets, regardless. I got pretty far down the hall and even mine was overheating,” Roan offered. He kept an eye on Jared, tense and ready to react if the man decided that he wanted to upgrade amulets.

“I’m cut off from my groups, but I think they sold most of their amulet shards to gain credits. Some idiots were obsessed with buying stat points,” Jared said, scoffing and rolling his eyes.

“Don’t think any of us did that. Didn’t really ask around,” Roan said as he came to a walk. They had opened up several hundred yards of distance between themselves and the horde.

“The points were increasing with just working out and fighting. I think it has to do with the mana rich environment and us not having cores. Would need a proper experiment to determine it for sure, but it’s a solid hypothesis,” Jared said.

“The college guys are different from the sect ones. At least this one is. Much more intellectual than fighting, even if he can fight.” Roan had to remind himself not to make wide ranging assumptions based on interacting with one of the college students.

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“Those guys who bought points, did they see increases?” Roan asked.

“Yeah, in the price!” Jared said with a laugh as they stopped without speaking, turning to look back at the horde of undead.

“The price went up?”