THE USELESS PRINCE

Furina was a human like Ash, but unlike him, she was only wearing the Academy uniform instead of the armor.

Although her outfit was quite durable and made from the best materials, it still couldn't hold up when the Zombies latched onto it.

Now, several places on her uniform were torn, definitely by those disgusting Zombies.

And worse, several wounds had appeared on her body without and were slowly dripping blood onto the ground. They were just small wounds, but since the number was quite large, Furina must be going through terrible pain.

She pursed her lips tightly, unable to hide the pain she was feeling.

"Furina, are you okay?" Ash asked worriedly.

"...I'm fine." Even though that was what came out of her mouth, her expression said otherwise.

She was definitely not doing well.

She only said that because she didn't want Ash to worry and neglect killing the Zombies.

Furina was indeed a wonderful woman, but if she was having a hard time, Ash would have at least wanted her to tell him instead of keeping quiet like this.

Suddenly, from within the Zombies, one suddenly jumped towards Furina, making her unable to react.

It quickly used its two arms and two legs to cling tightly to her body, causing her entire movement to slow down quite a bit.

With its sharp, knife-like hands and toenails, the Zombie clung tightly to Furina's body, creating more wounds, causing more blood to flow.

"Furina!" Ash shouted, ignoring the remaining Zombies and only caring about saving her.

With a decisive slash, he cut the Zombie in half, forcing it to leave Furina's body.

Because of this, the other Zombies took this opportunity to rush forward in more numbers, so many that Ash couldn't react in time or ask if Furina was okay or not.

"Damn it! Can't you guys just let me rest for a bit!?!?!?"

Ash ran and slashed wildly, indiscriminately. There were too many of them, so using the sword skills he had learned was useless and a waste of time.

Ash and Furina's swords flew back and forth, successfully slaying many Abyssal Creatures, but their numbers didn't decrease at all.

They rushed forward more and more, not giving Ash a chance to breathe.

He frowned, clenched his teeth, and gripped the hilt of his sword so tightly that blood could spurt out at any moment.

Launching more violent, faster, and more insane slashes.

The entire cave suddenly shook slightly because of the rapid footsteps, the painful screams of the Zombies, and Ash's crazy screams.

Blood had now soaked Ash's armor and Furina's uniform. Making them almost turn bright red.

A few drops of blood even accidentally entered Ash's mouth and went down to his stomach, but he didn't have time to feel disgusted.

Their swords could no longer retain the same color as before. They were bathed in the blood of the Zombies.

The purple aura surrounding Ash's armor was also gradually weakening over time because it had taken too much damage from the Abyssal Creatures.

And Ash's condition wasn't much better either as his arms were starting to lose feeling and his body was getting heavier.

Meanwhile, Furina's Star Domain was shrinking and the light was getting weaker, showing that fatigue was gradually taking over her body.

Her movements were no longer elegant, serious, decisive and strong like usual, but were mixed with exhaustion.

The fact that Furina could still continue fighting without the help of an armor like Ash was enough to tell that she was very strong.

But no matter how strong she was, she was still a human and had her own limits. And it seemed like she was about to approach that limit in no time.

Both of them were getting weaker, but the zombies were not slowing down, only increasing.

Even more desperate, they still couldn't find a way out

***

How much time had passed, Ash didn't know, he only knew that a lot of time had passed, but he and Furina were still in this damn situation.

Being hunted by Zombies that didn't have the word "tired" in their dictionary while the two of them were getting weaker over time.

Maybe seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, centuries, ... had passed. Ash didn't know either, he had lost the concept of time.

Ever since he had to confront these Zombies, he had no mood or time to think about anything else.

All he knew was to kill and survive.

But why, up until now, had they still not been able to find the light - hope?

They must have been in this not too wide but not too narrow passage for a very long time, but until now, it was still a straight line, without a single turn.

…However, at that most desperate moment, Ash heard a sound - the sound of hope.

"Furina! Do you hear anything up ahead?" Ash shouted, unable to hide his joy but still had to continuously slash away the Zombies.

Furina did not respond, only nodding her head tiredly.

As they continued to run forward, the sound became louder and clearer.

It was a rumbling sound like thousands of water arrows shooting down endlessly, mixed with the rustling sound of impact echoing from the distant cliffs.

It sounded quite similar to the sound of rushing, powerful water, like a fierce life force flowing in a rush.

'Don't tell me…' A sudden thought appeared in his mind, Ash seemed to have guessed where the sound came from.

And he was right.

After running for a while, Ash and Furina successfully reached a larger space, not just a normal one but an extremely large space, like a home for a giant.

Nonetheless, above was stone, blocking all sunlight. Below was a waterfall that was flowing extremely fast, ready to sweep everything away.

Ash and Furina… were on a cliff, with absolutely no way to go.

"ARE YOU JOKING?!?!?!?!?" He shouted, releasing all the frustration from the beginning until now.

Now, he was forced to choose, and worse, he could only choose 1 of 2, there was no 3rd choice here.

Ash could choose to return to the previous path, but that meant he would have to face a large number of Zombies.

The second option was to jump into the raging water, let himself be swept away and hope for a miracle.

He didn't have much time to think as the Zombies were closing in on the two of them at a breakneck speed.

And considering the two options he had, it was obvious which one Ash should choose.

"Hey Furina, do you trust me?"

"…Of course." She gave him an exhausted smile.

Hearing those words, a smile appeared on his face, and without any further hesitation, he grabbed Furina's hand and jumped down with her.