Chapter 97. Life of a hero (5)

POV: Merry Paper

*Boom

I felt a heavy hit on my shield and the next thing I knew I was in the air flying backwards.

It felt like I was hit by a truck, and this wasn't even his full strength, before I could even fall to the ground, the Zombie Lord jumped once again but this time on top of me.

My back and chest hurt a lot from that hit, I couldn't even check my health but I'm sure that just took half of my health.

The only reason I'm even alive was because of the armor.

I took a breath of air once my lungs were back to normal, but the pain was still there. This is terrifying, I don't know if I can win this fight.

His arms were high in the air ready for another attack, but suddenly he was pushed off me by an iron golem.

The Cavaliers have arrived!

"Hero, eat a golden Apple!"

Bobby's voice cut through all the pain and confusion in my head and I could finally think about my next action.

I took the Apple and ate it, I also took some potions and drank them, there's no reason to hold on to items now.

"What abominations are you? You're not alive nor dead, you don't have flesh or bone, what madman created you?"

The Zombie Lord was facing now three golems and more were on the way, one of them was trying to hold the huge monster in one place, while the rest kept showering him with heavy punches.

This seemed to confuse the Zombie Lord, they were stronger than anything he's ever fought with, and more resident than any wall he's ever punched.

Unfortunately, while it looked like the golems were winning, I could already see the cracks forming on the majestic golems, so it was only a matter of time before they would be destroyed.

I got up and looked at the rest of the battlefield, the zombies kept burning which meant the Zombie Lord was only getting stronger. The armored zombies were putting up a pretty good fight against the army since they didn't feel pain and were stronger with the blessing of the void, and Bobby was concentrating and giving simple orders to the golems with the second prince not too far away from him.

I felt my health returning to its peak, but just in case I checked my state where I saw something unpleasant.

My health was full, and I had a few buffs from the apple and the potions, but between those buffs, a debuff appeared in the shape of a zombie's head.

When I clicked it told me that it was Infected 1.

No details on what it does, but it was surely a bad thing since it came from the Zombie Lord.

"Be careful not to be hit by the Monsters, there's a chance you'll get a debuff!"

I yelled towers Bobby and the Prince hoping they would understand me.

I didn't know if only the Boss would give the status effect or his minions as well, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

The crossbow was back in my hands and I carefully aimed at the Zombie Lord who was overwhelmed with all the golems on him, There were so many around him that it was hard for me to get a good shoot.

Suddenly he jumped out of the golem pile and landed close to Bobby, this made me panic and the Prince as well.

The Zombie Lord seems to know that Bobby is the one controlling the golems and he hits him with all his force.

Still, Bobby held the second-best armor besides mine and with a shield, he only flew back for 10 blocks.

I didn't give a chance for the Zombie Lord to jump on top of him like he did it to me, so I ran with my buffed speed to slash his leg.

The fire started to spread on the rotten flesh and a scream of pain followed, his attention was on me once more.

"Pesky little hero and your resistance against the mighty Void, if the System didn't protect you it would be so much easier."

His fist was up in the sky, but this time I didn't block it with a shield but put two cobblestone blocks on top of each other to stop his attack.

This worked wonderfully, but the blocks were smashed with only one hit. Fortunately, the blow was less powerful now so I could easily block it with my shield without feeling the force.

I even managed to slash his arm back, but my hopes were crushed when I saw that his leg was already healed which meant his regeneration could keep up with my attacks.

Red arrows were shot in the head of the monster, the Prince was fighting as well and I could see that the army dealt with the smart zombies.

Some of them were dead while others were held captive until they were cured, it was a tough fight but now they could fully concentrate on the Boss.

There was hope for this fight.

I slashed, arrows were shot, the golems arrived once again, and punches were exchanged, the Zombie Lord was getting more and more hurt and I could see that his regeneration couldn't keep up.

Bobby seemed to be back on his feet, and for some reason, he got closer to the fight.

"Golem 2,4 and 5 get out of the fight and come towards me!"

He yelled between all the war cries, but the golems still followed his command.

All the ones that he called were the most damaged, there were cracks all over the iron skin, and one of them even had a missing arm.

Bobby just got closer to them and put iron ingots on their skin.

Like magic, it got absorbed into the damaged golem and the cracks disappeared.

When it got to the golem with a missing arm, the regeneration was slower but I could see a new arm growing, and he was back to fight.

Three golems usually tried to hold the Zombie Lord, the others kept hitting him in the chest or legs since they could reach his head, but that didn't matter since we could shoot it with our crossbows, and all the arrows landed on him, the only thing that was heard from the Zombie Lord was screams of pain.

It held like this for a few minutes and the wounds were piling up, I could even see his bones now, but even with all this damage he wasn't dead.

"Oh ruler of the Void, bless me with strength otherwise your follower shall perish without completing his mission!"

The Zombie Lord yelled at the sky with his final breath.

Suddenly the air around us turned much colder, and we all stopped waiting to see what was happening.

The cloth that covered the Zombie Lord's eyes suddenly got burned by a black flame, and all I could see was his closed eyes, but once he opened them I could see nothing.

In his eye sockets, there was deep darkness, it was like looking into the void.

I shivered like something powerful was looking over me.

"I see, thank you for your guidance almighty Void."

He was once again calm and collected, and then all the Flesh that was missing was suddenly regenerated, I could feel his strength rising to new peaks.

Screams were heard from the army, but it wasn't from the soldiers, but from the armored zombies instead.

They were on fire for some reason, even if the blessing was taken they shouldn't burn because they had a helmet, the rest of the zombie army was burning as well, which meant one thing.

The Zombie Lord was at his peak once again, maybe even stronger.

He was held in one place by four brave golems, but that didn't stop him from jumping out of there like it was nothing.

His jump was powerful as always, and this time he landed in the middle of the army raising a cloud of smoke that covered everything.

But this smoke was weird, it wasn't gray like normal, instead it was green like it was poisoned.

It didn't last for long, but once we could see the army again they were on their knees coughing their lungs out.

"Attack him!"

Bobby yelled at the golems, I continued to shoot my arrows and the rest as well.

The Zombie Lord keeps smiling and punching the soldiers that died in one hit.

Before the golems arrived, he jumped once again but instead of attacking me or the Prince, he landed right on bestie Bobby and punched him.

He had his shield ready luckily, so he was only pushed back for a few dozen blocks, unfortunately, he didn't manage to land since the Zombie Lord jumped on top of him like he did it to me.

I could feel the pain just from my distance, and it wasn't a good sign.

I was afraid that he would be killed right there, but instead, he did something way worse.

He lifted him in the air with one hand and said something that sent shivera down my spine.

"Join me."

Then a powerful force enveloped Bobby as he screamed in pain, it was a short transformation but now he was a zombie, just like the others.

The Zombie Lord laughed out loud at his accomplishment which only angered me more.

After he had his fun he gave his first command.

"Kill them."

It was a cold voice but filled with power, and Bobby raised his hand and did something that nobody expected.

"Kill them all."

He gave an order with a cold voice, it felt much different than the other smart zombies, and he didn't fight back.

As he gave that order, the iron golems attacked the nearby soldiers who were starting to recover, but once the golems were on them they could only run.

Those golems were like miniature bosses, we could bearly handle one, but we couldn't handle 10 more.

"Retreat!"

The prince yelled and we all left at great speeds.

We were still affected by the speed buff so the golems didn't have a chance to catch up with us.

Unfortunately, after a few hundred blocks the soldiers started to be caught uncontrollably once again.

"Drink milk, this is still a debuff!"

The Price gave an order and everyone followed it.

Luckily this seemed to do the trick, as they were feeling much better and some of them even lost some of the green skin.

That was dangerously close.

"What are we going to do now, we can't let Bobby to that monster!"

"Bobby is under his Influence and we can't do anything about it, we have to get back to the castle, we don't stand a chance against the golems now."

The Prince responded with authority, I knew he was stressed as well, but someone had to lead, and I was not in the headspace for that.

We kept going, all of us were tired but we all knew if we stopped there we would die or become part of his army, and nobody wanted that.

My mind was still in shock, Bobby was gone, and we lost the fight and made our enemy even stronger. How could we face the people back home, how could I face Trader and Froggy now?

Where did it all go wrong, was it an impossible fight from the beginning?

Wouldn't it be better if I didn't bring the golems to the fight?

Questions and guild were all on my mind, I don't even remember how we got back to the castle, the only thing I remember was that I was tired, I was scared, I didn't know what to do, I only absent-mindedly followed to the prince to give the report.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, I was too tired, I could see their face covered in fear and the only thing that I heard was:

"We got no choice, we have to leave this place."

This woke me up from my sorrows, I was now angry, how could they abandon their people now when it was most needed?

I was angry at myself for not having the ability to fight back, I was angry at the world for doing this to those poor villagers.

Flashes of people from Bobby's village came into my mind, their smiles full of hope and hard work, it would all be for nothing if the Zombie Lord won.

I didn't know how to defeat such a monster, but I knew someone who could defeat it.

I ran back to Bobby's room, on one of the shelves stood four ender pales comfortably on pillows, my heart started to beat harder and I broke Bobby's Perl.

Maybe there was still a chance to save him, I had the weakness potions and the Apples. He only needed to be here to get the cure.

But no, the Perl was broken and Bobby wasn't here.

With a little more hesitation I looked at the rest of the perls.

I broke another Perl, and a confused Trader appeared already in full armor.

"Trader, Bobby got inflected!"