The Sequel to the Romance Fantasy Was a Zombie Apocalypse – Chapter 26

Tap—





Tapp!





– Kyaack!

“Zombies ahead, I’ll take care of them!”

-Keh?





Puh-urk!

The innocent zombie merely wandering the night streets met a grisly end as Arit slammed her spike club into its head.

“Miss, what’s the distance to the zombies?”

“We’re still clear!”

In the royal capital of Arcasia, where corpses roamed.

Three figures dashed through the dark streets, where even the streetlights were extinguished.

A nun brandished her thorny club, clearing the zombies blocking their path, while the butler ran behind, cradling the noble young lady in red pajamas. It was quite the peculiar sight.

But that wasn’t even the most eye-catching spectacle…

-Gyaaah!





– Kkkk, kach!

About fifty paces behind the three leading the charge, hundreds of zombies followed in an unrelenting swarm.

The sheer mass of the zombies not only filled the street but forced those at the edges to spill into the adjacent alleyways.

-Kuh-eh?

Zombies wandering aimlessly in the streets were swept away by the throng, completely oblivious to the chaos.

“Now that we’re this far, shouldn’t we start shaking them off?”

Esmela, glancing back at the pursuing zombies with a worried expression, asked me.

“Huff, huff… Just a little more, after we widen the distance!”

It had been around twenty minutes since we started running from the mansion.

In truth, we weren’t running at full power.

We feared that if we ran too fast, we might lose the zombies altogether, so we deliberately maintained a pace where we could manage the distance, leading them toward the city.

This was possible because none of the zombies chasing us were of the speedy variety that had initially raided the mansion.

As I devised the zombie-distracting operation, I had hypothesized that some of the faster zombies had likely broken into the mansion first, and since we had dealt with them, no fast zombies would remain in the remaining horde.

Fortunately, my guess proved correct, and we could comfortably keep our distance while luring them deeper into the city.

“Now that we’re here, isn’t it enough? You seem to be breathing harder; we should escape now!”

Noticing my labored breaths, Esmela was concerned.

Her claim held some truth.

Unlike the Prince’s wedding day, I had enough mana to last another ten minutes at this speed, but considering the unknown events ahead, it would be wise to halt our escape and conserve energy.

-Kack!





Whoosh-

“Ugh!”

In the blink of an eye, I twisted my body to narrowly avoid the grasp of a zombie reaching for my arm.

Moreover, it wasn’t just the speed, but zombies were now strewn everywhere within the very city we were running through.

I had to remain vigilant of the pursuing zombies from behind while also concentrating on dodging the ones in front, which was mentally exhausting.

Well, dodging them didn’t seem too challenging.

Since there were no special zombies lurking like before in the mansion, I could leap onto the roof of any nearby building and dash across the rooftops, changing direction at full speed.

Just as I was about to suggest this to Arit ahead—

-KAAAH!

From Arit’s right side, something dark shot forward at her like a lightning bolt.

“To the right!”

The speed was too rapid; I only managed to shout out the direction before it swooped down on her.

“!”

Whether she heard my warning or noticed it in time, Arit hastily swung her club horizontally in an attempt to block it, but—

Puh-urk!

“Ugh!”

The impact was much stronger than expected, causing Arit, who collided with the unknown entity, to lose her balance.

“Arit!”

I dashed towards her with all my might, positioning myself between her and the monster.

“What the hell is that…?”

I squinted in the faint moonlight, trying to identify the creature, but it remained ambiguous. Then…

‘System Eye.’

Paat!

[Zombie][Status: Normal]

[HP: 513/520] [MP: -/-]

[Strength: C-] [Agility: A-] [Durability: C+]

[Mana Amount: -] [Mana Manipulation: -]

[Intelligence: E+] [Skill: -]

[Traits]


[Sharp Senses (Ver.Z): A modified version of the skill this entity possessed in life. The range of the original skill, which applied to all targets, is now limited to only living beings, but in exchange, the radius has drastically increased to 1 km, ensuring it never misses the prey nearby. / Cannot level up.]

“This…”

It was a situation I couldn’t have anticipated.

How unlucky could I be to encounter a special zombie, different from those that raided the mansion, just wandering the street?

“What should we do…”

-GRAAAAH!

Zombies from behind were still hot on our heels, and now we had to face a swift one.

On top of that, this one seemed even faster than the ones we had faced at the mansion.

-Kuh?

It seemed that the other zombies wandering the streets had also caught onto our presence.

“Arit, we might need to shrink their numbers with a full-on confrontation here. Are you okay?”

“Yes… I’m fine. I was just a bit surprised by the unexpected ambush.”

“Wait… here?”

Just when we were preparing for an unscheduled fight after being unexpectedly ambushed…

“Hey! Over here!”

“?!”

Everyone jumped, startled by the sudden voice of an unfamiliar man calling us.

“What’s going on? Who is that?”

“This way! There’s a safe spot over here!”

Though we couldn’t see him due to the darkness, the mysterious figure seemed to beckon us from a small alley to our left, from the direction we were running.

“First, shake off that speedy one, and hurry over here!”

His words had us three exchanging glances, unsure of how to respond.

“What should we do…?”

Arit asked me for advice, bewildered.

-Kak! Kyaak!

The original pursuer lay waiting in the shadows, eyeing us to strike while the others from the mansion were closing in fast.

“Hurry! No time!”

“Damn it… Let’s go!”

With the man’s urgent call, I took a leap of faith and dashed towards the alley.

“Earth Manipulate!”

Suddenly, Esmela cast ground manipulation magic onto the floor.

Gugugugu!

Two enormous earthen walls, double my height, surged from the ground—one directed at the zombie attacking Arit and one towards the ones chasing us, blocking their path.

“It’s only to buy us a moment! Quickly, run now!”

“Thank you, Miss!”

Without looking back, we dove straight into the narrow alley.

“Hurry and get inside!”

We finally discovered where the voice came from as we reached the end of the alley.

“What the…?”

Peering into the darkness, we saw the man partially emerging from a manhole leading to a sewer.

Clank, thud!

“That’s it. Hiding here, typical zombies won’t find us… plus, ‘Stealth’.”

…

Rustle, rustle.

Just after we descended down the ladder leading through the manhole and closed the cover, the sound of zombies swarming above our heads reverberated through the ceiling.

-Gek…?





– Kieeek…?

“Shh, quiet… With the stealth magic active, as long as we don’t make noise, even that oddly fast one won’t detect us.”

We all held our breaths and waited for the zombies above to pass.

-…Grrg.

“…I think they’ve left.”

Within minutes, we heard them retreating, their footsteps fading as they walked away from the alley.

“Great, we’re in luck… but let’s stay away from the entrance for now.”

Shuff-shuff.

We stepped back, keeping distance from the entrance.

No moonlight penetrated the sewer, so I could barely discern that the man was still there.

However, I noticed that his footsteps seemed to be uneven, as if one leg was injured.

“Here seems safe enough. However, let’s keep our voices down. The stealth magic I can use has its limits when it comes to concealing presence.”

“Thank you very much.”

Arit expressed her gratitude to the mysterious man.

“No need for thanks. I have something I need from you all as well. Was that person in front a member of the clergy?”

“Eh? Ah, yes… for the time being.”

Taken aback by the unexpected question, Arit replied.

“Ah, I didn’t miss the mark. Phew~ That’s a relief! The heavens haven’t completely abandoned this Zeck after all.”

The way he said it, it sounded like he was genuinely relieved.

But his voice had a certain familiarity to it.

“Zeck…? Could it be…?”

“Uncle Zeck?”

“Huh? What? Why’re you calling my name… Wait a sec, I feel like I’ve heard that voice before.”

I cautiously called out to him, and he seemed to recognize my voice too.

“Is it really Uncle Zeck?”

“Yup, that’s me. Who are you? Damn it, it’s too dark to see your face! Anyone got a light?”

“Just a moment… I’ll bring forth the light. Light, shine forth and illuminate the sight of the blind.”

Arit clasped her hands together and uttered a short prayer.

Paat—!

A small light, akin to a bulb, appeared brightly in front of her, flooding the sewer with light.

“Ugh…!”

The harsh brightness startled me, and I instinctively raised my arm to shield my eyes.

“Eh? Lanit! It’s you, Lanit! What a coincidence!”

The man recognized my face and called out with excitement.

“Ugh… Just a second… still adjusting to the light…”

“Ha ha! What’s with you being so dramatic over a little brightness?”

The man laughed heartily, his coarse yet familiar voice echoing in the sewer.

“Ha…”

Finally accustomed to the brightness, I focused on the person in front of me.

A rugged middle-aged man, with dark brown hair mixed sparsely with short white strands, his stubbly beard covered his jaw and a long scar ran vertically near his eyes.

He towered over me, at least 15 cm taller, dressed in thick leather armor, with a hefty iron sword strapped to his back and two daggers hanging at his waist.

“…It’s been a while.”

I greeted him, filled with joy at this unexpected reunion.

“Yeah, has it been two years? You lazy kid. We were in the same royal capital, yet you never showed your face at the Hunter’s Guild? Enjoying being the butler of House Herta, are you?”

The burly warrior in front of me replied with a warm grin, returning my greeting.