Seeing the quickly approaching zombies coming my way, I stepped back for a second to lead them and make them go into a line so I could deal with them one at a time.
And just as I did so I quickly noticed that there was some difference of speed between each individual zombie, the fastest of them was the first to approach me while everyone else only lagged one or two steps behind each other.
Honestly I was still quite nervous, I wasn’t sure whether or not my plan would actually work, but I tried anyway as I slowly stepped over a overgrown tree root that had popped out of the ground.
And oh be hold as soon as the zombie was about to approach me it foolishly tripped over the root just like I had imagined, falling flat on its face.
(GRAHHH!)
-They may be fast now, but they’re still beyond stupid.
Taking advantage of the zombie’s non-existent intellect and using the fact that they are walking fast I quickly came up with the idea of tripping them over within this forest by going over difficult terrain, even I who had a high dodge skill still tripped a bit while running over here, in comparison these zombies have no skills or ability to judge the situation meaning that over all it was extremely easy to deal with them one on one or even two on one, the only advantage these zombies had right now were their overwhelming numbers and even then using the right surroundings such advantage would quickly become obsolete as well since they had no coordination whatsoever much less understanding on how to avoid obstacles.
This makes forests with a lot of obstacles the bane of zombies or at least these zombies here.
The reason I came up with an idea like this and not just walked over and killed them directly was because doing so was extremely reckless.
Of course I was confident enough to dodge their attacks easily, but at the same time I didn’t see any need to put myself into that much danger if I could just as well do this spare some energy and effort while sacrificing some small amount of time.
The tree the woman sat on wouldn’t fall immediately either, while I was worried about it falling, I judged that it wouldn’t be falling within 30 to 40 minutes, by that time I was confident in taking down these guys and be fast enough to reach her to get rid of the rest.
-Now the only thing I need to do is to kill them one by one.
I stepped forward, knowing by instinct that a easy to grab opportunity had arrived I was about to stab my knife through the zombies skull until I stopped for a moment and instead decided to aim for the neck twisting the blade as I quickly pulled the knife back.
-Since the neck contains the connection between the brain and the body, severing that connection should be the same as damaging the brain and since the skull is harder then the neck I shouldn’t waste the durability of my knife by needlessly using it to pierce the thick bone…
Of course thats assuming that these zombies move because of their brain, even though up until that has been the case from my experience, I started to think about all of the irregularities I have seen coming from these zombies like those who have faster mobility and the ones standing bellow the woman trying to fell the tree to get to the woman, I already had a hunch that these zombies weren’t just ordinary zombies and that many things would be very different the more I came to understand these monsters.
But these thoughts were for later, right now I needed to kill more.
Focusing my mind, I continued to lead those zombies within a circle where in the middle the woman was sitting on her tree, the zombies trying to eagerly follow me fell after another tripping over all kinds of things ranging from roots, rocks and even small mounds, each time I would come close and deliver a swift stab with a twist, since they were down they needed a bit of time to get up which gave me enough time to kill them, furthermore even when they tried to bite when I approached, since I would always stand at the side of them at each swing there was no danger of me being bitten that easily.
Plus another advantage of using this technique was that it needed no particular blade skill on my part since I was merely stabbing them in one spot repetitively.
Overall everything was going well, after each kill I would also check on how the woman was doing up there, she was watching me the entire while I was clearing the out the zombies, I wasn’t sure what she was thinking with her expression, but it was good that she was still clear-headed.
Another thing I noticed while killing the zombies was that the other half that didn’t follow me started to pay attention to me the more I killed, for some reason I couldn’t help but think that these guys in particular were far more eerie and sinister in comparison to the other zombies I had met so far, only convincing me more that they were different which is why after killing the last zombie that was after me I became extremely careful about what would happen next.
My knife was already extremely bloody from the amount of flesh it needed to go through, I wasn’t tired, but slightly spent mentally as I had never killed so much before, the first time was also like this but a bit more severe, while this time it wasn’t as bad even when I had killed 20 times the amount.
Now only corpses surrounded the tree the woman was on, the zombies that had initially rammed the tree to fell it had all stopped as they glared at me with their bloody eyes, I was expecting them to come and charge at me but even after a minute later they still just continued to stare at me eerily as they stood still.
-What the hell ?
Getting a bit spooked I wondered what was going on, the woman had also started to stare dumbly when she noticed how none of those zombies were doing anything but stare at me, other then the natural sound of the forest there was no sound emitting from these zombies either which was even more scary.
-Wait…these zombies…on closer inspection they actually do have something similar..
Observing these zombies I immediately noticed something about them that made them stand out, 7 of those 20 wore some kind of lab coats that scientists or doctors would wear while 8 wore suits or very neat clothing with the other 5 only wearing casual wear.
The fact that 15 of them were wearing some kind of official or formal wear seemed odd to me, I hadn’t noticed it immediately when I saw them because of how dirty and ripped those clothes were, but now after getting a better look at them it makes me think that these people must have been quite accomplished when they were alive…
-Wait…what about the ones that chased me ? Do they have something similar ?
For a moment I looked at the zombies that I had just killed trying to find more similarities, maybe I was just imagining things and finding fault in things where there was none, but I still could not shake the thought that I was getting somewhere.
-Hmm…not all of them but at least 8 of them are wearing loose or sport clothes…one in particular looks like he was doing a marathon before turning into a zombie..
I swiftly surmised, now feeling as if I had started to get a solid idea as to how these worked and were divided.
I wanted to make more conjectures and theories, but unfortunately I didn’t have such time anymore as the woman suddenly shouted at me.
-Careful ! They are starting to move !
Switching my attention I focused back towards those zombies who hadn’t moved ever since I killed the last zombie, now taking a look at them I saw how they suddenly started to move, surprising me as they moved in sync, way different from the disorganized mess that I had deal with earlier while also pressuring me slightly as they spread out into a U formation approaching me like a net.
Their sudden formation alone astounded me beyond belief, even the woman gasped in shock when she saw how smart these undead were being able to perfom basic tactics, they were simply far more intelligent then zombie I had ever encountered making me retract the non-existent intelligence part that I stated before.
-But still…they are very slow..
Even though they were smart, they were still rotting corpses, in comparison to the faster zombies these guys were just as slow as any ordinary zombie, but then again they were far more threatening then ordinary zombies as they understood the idea of surrounding a enemy to take them down.
-Wait…if the faster zombies were able to chase the woman up there then how did these guys catch up if they are this slow ?
A sudden question came forth, a question I simply couldn’t answer as there were still blind spots within my knowledge regarding these undead, so far I knew that they were for most part blind, but I couldn’t be sure of that seeing how different each zombie was, in the end I needed more time to figure this out.
-And until then I need to get rid of you guys.
Getting ready I prepared for the fight that was about to ensue, I was incredibly alert as I had no idea what to expect from these zombies, so far the only thing I knew was that they could think up basic tactics like surrounding someone and make simple conjectures like ramming a tree to get the woman, combining all of this I figured that I couldn’t use a simple tactic like before when I took down those other zombies, I could predict that these zombies would simply avoid those obstacles like it was nothing which is why I didn’t even try.
I could only rely on my own skill and with the way these zombies moved I was confident I would easily win even if 2 or 3 came at me at once.
-Hey ! Be careful ! The one on the far left is holding a knife behind his back !
-What ?! They know how to use weapons ?!
Getting quickly warned by the woman I paid my attention towards the zombie on the farthest left side of the formation and as if realizing that the jig was up, the zombie no longer bothered to hide the knife behind its back as it openly showed me what it was holding.
I was honestly shocked by these turn of events, calling them zombies at this point was also starting to become more invalid as they continued to surprise me with their acts of ingenuity.
-I need to end this now..
Not wanting to have them surprise me anymore I quickly decided to getting into battle.
Choosing my opponent I immediately decided that the on the far left with the knife would be the first to go, reason being that he was the most threatening of them all while also being on the edge of their formation.
My actions didn’t go unnoticed by these undead either as they quickly responded looking as if they understood my intentions by using the knife wielding zombie as a bait while changing their formation to ensnare me better.
I personally payed no heed to their movements as they were still too slow for them to catch me.
-You’re first to go rot face !
I shouted, instantly getting close to the knife wielding zombie as I charged over, the zombie not responding at all instantly swung his knife the moment I came into his range, I was once again surprised by his action, even though I expected the swing what I didn’t expect was how clean and precise the swing was, he didn’t just haphazardly swing at me but also used his undead physiology to make a normally impossible arc with his swing.
But unfortunately for him I dodged.
And with that a huge opening presented itself, with how wide the swing was it created a equally large gap for me to step in as I stabbed him in the eye with one hand while using the other to hold his wrist holding the knife.
The result was instant death, loosing his grip and his life the zombie fell as it let go of his knife which I picked up just as he fell.
-One down 19 more to go.
Getting another knife I stored my newly acquired knife while turning towards the others.
Seeing their comrade die like this, the zombies weren’t disturbed at all still intending on using their ineffective tactics on me and after realizing that they weren’t that threatening even with their superior intellect, I continued to decimate them freely, it was only after killing half of them did they finally realize that their tactics were useless which forced them to change their plan.
-What are they doing now ?
Having already killed half of them the bodies of their comrades littered the earth around me, as soon as I killed the 10th zombie they immediately changed course and started to congregate with each other forming a tight group, seeing this I immediately understood their reasoning, since they couldn’t catch me or deal with me individually they decided to instead group up like this so they wouldn’t need to fight alone, but unfortunately this made them even slower then before and while admittedly I couldn’t as easily approach them like before I didn’t believe I needed to.
Looking around I found and picked up a thick, sturdy and long branch, using my knife I made one sided pointy quickly fashioning myself a wooden spear, the amount of time it took to make this was only a minute or so and the zombies were still no closer to catching me while I was walking circles around them not minding them at all.
The woman who was witnessing all of this was the most surprised out of everyone here, honestly she looked as if she had just escaped death while also showing a expression of disbelief maybe because of how easily I dealt with this group of zombies all by myself.
-Hey ! Hey ! Whats your name !
Being suddenly asked what my name was just as I was about to stab the zombies with the spear made me stop what I was doing momentarily as I turned towards her smiling slightly.
-I’m Tommy ! Tommy Malloy and you ?
-Ah !…I..I’m Valery ! Valery Carman
-I see Valery…Alright Valery I finish up here quickly then I help you get down, we can talk later then, is that okay ?
She looked a bit surprised for some reason but quickly nodded her head looking exhausted and relieved at the same time while smiling wryly.
-Yeah thats..fine and again..Thank you !
-No problem !
I said, finally thrusting my stab as I stabbed through the mouth of one of the zombies.
A Place Of Legends 