The Dependable Captain and the Noob

Luke was not much of an archer, but he was managing fine. Regrettably, for him, his arrows weren't capable of killing the deadmen, barely slowing them down. Luckily, he was not alone in this.

Luke shot the arrow. It hurled through the air to penetrate behind the neck of a deadman. It howled and turned, forgetting about Elise, who, however, didn't let go of her target. Her machete glowed red for a moment, and she rammed it against the zombie's skull, plunging with all her effort.

Meanwhile, the other one behind her took a turn to take a bite of her, but Luke shot again. It pierced into the chest of the zombie, only slowing down a little. However, that nick of time was enough for Elise to get back in time.

She ducked, evading the deadman's claw, and shoved her machete into its neck. Elise was a woman of a thin frame, but she has superhuman endurance and strength. Unfortunately, she was not so familiar with how to use it to her advantage.

She twisted her body around it to escape from another one's attack. The severed head fell to the ground as disgusting blood sprayed in the air, some of it smeared on Elise's fair face.

Her face, which was determined so far, twisted into an ugly expression as her eyes wandered around as if she was having a panic attack.

"Shit," Luke cursed. "Calm down, Elise. We talked about this yesterday. There are only three of them remaining. You can do it."

He didn't know Elise for long. Well, about a day and a few hours. They met by chance in the game after going through a couple of hellish hours. So, they decided to help each other survive this. So far, their partnership was going—he wouldn't call it well, since Luke would want nothing less than his teammates with him.

Sadly, this game wasn't anything like what he experienced before. Even when contracting his friends and teammates in the real world, he couldn't get his head around this place to meet up with them.

Well, this was barely been the second day, and they were managing fine. Luke helped her watch her back and also sometimes in close quarters, while Elise kept him safe.

He also gave her some advice on self-defence, which seemed to be the only reason she was remaining with him. So their relationship was going well. Luke taught her the basics of self-defence as they both hunted together, which seemed to be the only prospect of the game so far.

This girl would've been a disaster if not for her superior body and healing ability.

Elise seemed to hit the lottery in the last two days, winning the brand-new VR headset through a contest and even getting a great reward from the lucky draw.

Well, Luke had one card up his sleeves as well, so he wasn't complaining, just that this girl couldn't control herself when she gets in contact with blood.

Things get twisted even more so whenever Elise gets in contact with the disgusting blood of the undead. At first, she went into full hysteria, and Luke had to carry her yesterday. While all the other occasions, she just vomited out everything. Luckily, he found a safe place to crash in last night.

And it seemed this time it won't be any better, just that they were not nearly finished yet.

Elise threw up whatever she ate last time as she screamed. Sweat dripped down her face as she cried. Well, she seemed in her late teen years, so not so embarrassing for her to cry, not to mention her circumstances.

Luke gritted his teeth. "Hold on," he called, bringing out a long knife from his belt. "I'm coming."

Luke was barely a dozen metres away, hiding in a hedge. Getting into the conflict barely took a couple of seconds, as Luke shoved his dagger into the back of the head of a dead man, lunging in. Without mana empowering the blade, it was a lot harder for him to penetrate the skull, so he shoved a kick to its hips with much force, forcing it to the ground.

Luke rammed his dagger into its neck and continued until it stopped struggling. That took half a dozen hacks.

[You have killed a Deadman (Common), a threat to Avalon and the Universe. You have gained 5 Avalon credits.]

Luke couldn't wait to collect the gems, as the girl was in need. But before he could reach for her, he saw Elise's body flinging away in the opposite direction of his. That was going to break more than a couple of her bones, but then again, Elise seemed to be particularly sturdy with high endurance, even with her slender frame.

She endured injuries that would give make him bedridden for a week, and she went on after that. Luke hoped it was one of those times.

The deadman that flung away Elise rushed at her, screeching all the way, while the only remaining counterpart attacked him. Luke had faced Deadmen, completely focussed to end this quickly. He was already familiarised with their ways of attacks.

It came with a lurch of claws at his chest, but Luke evaded taking a step back, then another claw, but this time, Luke rammed his dagger into its claw, waiting for its move. The dagger dug into its palm entirely and Luke twisted it back.

Luke jabbed a punch in its face with his other arm. The dead man jerked back as he withdrew his dagger and rammed it again into its face. It penetrated through its disfigured nose as he pulled downwards, finishing what he started. Technically, it was Elise who started, but it worked for him, too.

[You have killed a Deadman (Common), a threat to Avalon and the Universe. You have gained 2 Avalon coins.]

Luke's mind rang as he turned to Elise who was in mortal danger from the deadman. He drew his bow and arrows again and shot, aiming, which barely took a nick of the moment.

The arrows hurled into the back of the zombie as Luke shot again, drawing closer.

"Elise, are you alright?" he called, and though she didn't answer, he only saw some scratch marks on her body, in one piece. Another feature about this girl was that she seemed to have some healing ability as well.

Zombies were things of madness. After getting hit by Luke's arrow several times, it abandoned Elise and came after him. That easily. It almost got Elise, but instead, it chose to die in Luke's hand without enjoying the tender flesh of a teenage girl.

Luke rushed at Elise immediately. She was groaning on the ground, eyes wide with horror and disgust. Her face was pale, as if she had eaten nothing for a week. Her superhuman endurance and healing power had some drawbacks too, but it was only a little, considering how much useful everything else was.

"Are you alright?" Luke asked, drawing a flask of water from his back. Glittering tears shone in her eyes, as Luke held the flask in her mouth.

She drank a couple of mouthfuls and seized the flask to pour everything out on her face to clean off the disgusting blood. Luke found the claw marks she took already closed up, though she seemed thinner than yesterday.

She coughed a couple of times and gave him back the empty flask. "Thank you."

Luckily, he brought water with him, or he didn't know if she could carry on anymore after this.