NOVEL NEXT Chapter 28: Safe Classrooms
<Alex, Real - Prepare, High School Gym Locker Room>
Alex stared at the locker room's door as it was flexing in and out, almost as if breathing.
They could clearly hear the undead trying to get through, mundane fingernails unable to actually make progress in destroying the heavy door. Still, they must have done something more violent to the door previously, because it looked to be on its last legs.
There must be something in the school that's a heavy hitter. It gave the door a couple of whacks, but gave up before it got all the way through… Alex swallowed at the thought of what might have happened if it had breached the door fully.
Natasha grunted as she got a good look for herself, choking up on her spear a bit to better be able to strike out through the door when he opened it.
Alex glanced back to Pilar. "Can you create a fireburst outside the door, or something like that?"
She shook her head. "I'm only a line of sight caster for right now. I could burn the door away and burst out, but that would be really wasteful on my mana."
Alex nodded. "Fair. We ready?"
Everyone made affirming sounds. "Alright, then. Let's get this done. Remember, if anyone is bit, let me know. If anyone has to take damage, let it be me."
They made another round of agreeing sounds.
He knew exactly how he'd do this.
<Alex, Imagining - The Plan>
Alex reached out and touched the brace, putting it into his Inventory.
The locker room door collapsed without the support, allowing a pair of zombies to stumble in even as they continued to scratch and claw at the falling slab of reinforced wood.
Alex struck with his dadao, trying to lean heavily on his skills for how to move to accomplish his task.
It was also the perfect time to test out Multi-Strike.
Two zombie heads popped free, and he slapped each corpse with a flick of Basic Life Transfusion, turning them to dust.
It was a perfectly executed start to their attack.
<Alex, Real - Prepare, High School Gym Locker Room>
He had this.
He began the process, removing the bracing by placing it into his Inventory.
Then, surprisingly, things went almost exactly as he'd imagined them going.
The only difference was that in reality, he actually experienced the use of his Multi-Strike skill.
His stamina flowed through his body and out his dadao before coming back in to create a loop.
That loop seemed to carry his arm forward without conscious effort or need for direction, and the dadao flicked out in two slashing cuts.
It also didn't behead the zombies, instead cutting through each neck and down into their armpit, but the results were about the same.
He was even able to dust them without noticeable trouble.
Hey, I'm getting a handle on what I can do.
Kill Notice:
You killed:
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 2
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 3
Reward:
Experience to be granted when in a safe location.
There was a pulse of fire. It was bright more than hot—at least from Alex's perspective—which warded away the zombies that had been right on the heels of the first two.
Alex threw a smile toward Pilar that she probably didn't see as he decided to be a little… crazy.
He felt like he understood his skills and abilities better now.
This should be great.
He jumped up maneuvering in the air to put his feet on the wall mid-jump, crouching as his momentum allowed him to pause there for just a moment before he used his considerable strength to lunge outward.
As he moved out through the crowd of zombies, he realized that either something that they'd done had called more of the creatures, or his pulse of Detect Unlife had just barely caught the edge of the group.
Because there were far more than ten.
I definitely should have cast Detect Unlife again before we started this…
Still, he trusted in his skills as he really had no other option.
He had these thoughts even as he flashed through the air and across the hall, his rope of lights creating a kaleidoscope effect with the shadows on the walls around the hallway.
Alex used Multi-Strike, Great-Blades Basic - Dadao, and Advanced Kinesthetics in combination, relying on the latter two for how to move, while using the former to make every strike into two.
He then slammed into the far wall, crumpling a few lockers with accompanying, overlapping, loud screeching crunches.
He had managed not to land head first, but he was still at least a little embedded in the metal.
Alex had a clear view of Natasha and Grant leaning a bit to look out through the open doorway from the locker room, even as all the zombies turned to look at him.
"I'm alive," he said, even as he tried to get himself out of the thin metal prison.
Unfortunately, he'd hit quite hard, and he didn't really have leverage to pull himself free as quickly as he needed.
So much for trusting my skills… spells. His eyes widened, and he used Basic Life Transfusion to send Life energy into the lockers with a destructive intent.
It worked way better than he'd thought possible.
With just three points of mana and eight of health, he obliterated the thin locker metal out a good foot from himself in all directions, turning the steel into rusted dust that rained down on top of and around him… along with all the contents of the lockers.
It was never pleasant to have books fall on his head.
Regardless, he was able to move and just in time.
The closest zombies were reaching out to him even as he got his feet under himself and struck out with his dadao.
He bent and twisted, vaulted off of one hand, and cut the low leveled zombies down by the score. He moved like he never had been able to in his life, and it felt good.
His sword truly felt like an extension of his body, just like the stories swore it would, and he found himself practically giggling with glee at his utter supremacy.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
From the relatively safety of the locker room—if the movements of their lights were any indication—the others seemed to be striking out at the back line of the undead even as Alex kept the attention of the majority.
<Grant, Real - Prepare, High School Locker Room>
Grant clutched his war-hammer which was comfortingly similar to the sledgehammers that he'd used for years. It was odd how easily he could swing it here in this System created world, but he felt it was an overall win. Even at his fittest, he couldn't swing a twelve pound sledge as well and consistently as he could now.
And this one has a spike on the back.
But he was distracting himself.
Alex was out in that mass of zombies—a bobbing and weaving glow in the otherwise shadowy horde—and Grant really should help.
Breathing through his nose to not fog up his face shield, Grant stepped forward, swinging horizontally and activating his Focused Blow skill.
He didn't need it to kill the zombies in question—as his blow did in fact blow through three in one motion—but it had a wonderful effect hidden in the wording.
Focused Blow
A bludgeoning weapon hits hard, why not focus that power to hit harder still?
Spend stamina to concentrate all the energy of your blow and move it in the same direction, at your choosing.
Aside from making his hits more effective, it also meant that his blows didn't cause splatter. All of the gory results of his attack moved exactly along with the directionality of his strike.
It wasn't even that expensive on his stamina, and with these enemies, it was well worth the price.
Grant stepped forward even as the top and bottom portions of the zombies were still falling.
To his left, Natasha was lancing out with her spear so quickly that he could hardly follow the motions.
On his right, Pilar was using bits of magic to kill those that would have gotten around his and Natasha's weapons.
John had guns at the ready, carefully keeping them pointed toward the ceiling as he picked his targets, only leveling the weapons just before he pulled the trigger.
All together? They were doing a pretty good job even if he did say so himself.
<Alex, Real - Prepare, High School Entry Hall>
Finally, it was over, and Alex came back to rest on his feet, a final strike beheading the last zombie shambler.
Kill Notice:
You killed:
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 4 x 6
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 3 x 8
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 2 x 14
Zombie Shambler (Common), level 1 x 12
Reward:
Experience to be granted when in a safe location.
Even as the final head was still moving upward—and the body falling downward—Alex's Danger Sense screamed for the first time in the encounter, and he raised his hand, palm facing down the long hallway, deeper into the school.
A beam of power that was practically vanta-black in appearance—and only a pencil's width—streaked down the middle of the hallway.
It had been aiming for Alex's heart, but it struck his upraised left hand instead, briefly connecting him with the caster who'd sent the attack his way.
This time, Alex had enough presence of mind to feel his energy moving through his body, concentrating on his upraised palm in the uniquely interesting patterns of Life's Active Defense.
His eyes went wide at what he saw happen to his health and stamina bars.
He took more than ten points of damage in each, meaning that the simple seeming attack should have done more than one hundred base damage to him. Hitting in his heart? He wouldn't be surprised if it had done much, much more than that.
That was almost as much as John's attack would have done, so whatever the magics were, the attack was equivalent to a magically enhanced firearm.
Apology Tutorial Notice:
Damage halved due to life-aspected defense.
Alex felt his face twitch.
The attack was in the neighborhood of twice as effective as John's mana augmented pistol.
During the short existence of the spell, Alex's eyes had obviously tracked down the beam, and he saw its source in what little light reached that end of the hallway. It was an almost skeletally thin creature wearing black robes. The face was feminine but only in the vaguest sense, and the eyes were filled with a sickly purple light.
Alex Analyzed practically out of reflex.
Zombie Plague Witch
Level ?
This creature's spark was just as twisted as all undead he'd seen, but it was somehow twisted… differently? It also seemed to be fizzling… yeah, he really had no idea what any of it meant at the moment.
Just as Alex was about to use his remaining stamina to run for his life—his Multi-Strike might have been a little overused, taking him to a bit below half in that resource—John's guns barked a staccato of incredibly rapid shots.
The man had stepped out of the locker room, weapons raised. "It's another of those robed donkeys!"
The shots tracked with the witch as she tried to dodge—not by any means of magic as Alex sensed nothing of the sort. John was just that good. The rounds hit hard, painting the wall behind the monster with its blood and viscera.
John let out a happy laugh. "Kill notice. Oh! It was level 11." He looked around. "Nice work, Alex, if a bit… unconventionally done. What levels were these?"
Alex sighed, a bit sad that he hadn't gotten anything for the death of such a high level creature. Still, it wasn't like he'd actually done anything to bring it down. John would have killed it whether Alex blocked the attack or not. "They were a mix of levels one to four. How were you able to track her movements so well?"
"I hunted a lot, and I was a competition marksman… yesterday." He huffed a laugh. "These weird skills make it even easier to track a moving target than ever, too." He shrugged. "Plus, like I said, I shot one of those before, and I wasn't about to let another one get away."
With the immediate threats dealt with, Alex went through and pulsed Life into each body, including the witch's—though, he did that one quickly and carefully given how far it was from the locker room door. For each pulse, he focused on trying to really feel his energy as it tore apart the zombie bodies.
As he did so, he spoke to himself without thinking, "I might need to capture one to practice on."
The others had been collecting… something, he wasn't sure, but at his words, they all turned to look at him.
He noticed their gazes and looked back, "What?"
"You want us to trap a zombie so you can experiment on it?"
"Well… sure? That's not actually what I said, but it amounts to the same thing, I guess."
Natasha just chuckled to herself, shaking her head and returning to…
Alex sighed.
She was collecting the zombie dust while the others were seeing if any of the undead had had anything of worth in their clothing as that stayed behind, left relatively clean.
Alex stifled a yawn. He was feeling tired.
It was odd to see his stamina below half and to feel tired at the same time. He wasn't sure if they were directly connected, but they at least seemed to be correlated.
Regardless, the hallway was clear of zombies for the moment, and they could see at least three sealed classrooms, maybe more.
Alex pushed himself back to his feet—not remembering having sat down—and moved toward the first door.
Well, here goes nothing.
He walked up and knocked on the doorframe.
He could sense that the force-aligned barrier was in the walls too, but at the entrance, it only protected the door, not the frame around it. "Hello!"
He tried to call quietly, knowing that was a bit of a contradiction in agendas.
"Is anyone still in there?"
A moment later, the door opened, not weakening the barrier in the least.
A middle-aged man with what Alex would call a villain goatee and wings of gray in his hair regarded Alex critically. "Who are you? What happened to the undead?"
"Well, I am Alex. I dispatched the ones in this hall, but I would bet that more will be coming soon enough."
He hesitated for a moment. They didn't actually have an easy barrier for the locker room door anymore… but that was hardly important.
"We have quite a few people gathered in the gym, and are working to clear the school. I was able to get the lockdown in place."
The man nodded. "Thank you for that. It strengthened the individual classroom defenses as well, even if it did put them on a timer…" He seemed to consider before asking, "Why are you helping us?"
There were some teens peeking around him with obvious hope and interest.
Alex smiled, thinking of the wording of his quest as he answered, "We're all friends here. We have to help one another out in times such as these."
The teacher nodded slightly. "Can you guarantee my students' safety?"
"I will do my utmost, but I know that I can't do anything for you, here. I can't secure this hallway at the moment, and I don't know that I will be able to any time soon. Once we pull back to the gym, it might be quite a while before we come back this way."
The man frowned in consideration, then nodded firmly. "I'm Mister Miller… Brian." He gave a wry smile. "I'm used to speaking with the kids."
"Good to meet you, Brian. Shall we get your kids out?"
"Yes, thank you."
He interacted with a panel beside the door, and Alex sensed it scanning the teacher before the field deactivated.
"This way, students. Let's go."
The teens followed Mr. Miller across the hall and through the men's locker room, listening to Natasha and Pilar's directions. The presence of the two women seemed to make the girls more comfortable with going into the boys' locker room.
Imagine caring about something like that at a time like this… Alex shook his head and gave a half smile.
There were nearly thirty of the kids, despite the classroom looking to be a computer lab of some sort. Big classes.
Alex looked at the five other shielded classrooms, as well as eight with broken doors instead of defensive fields.
Alright, one down, five to go.