11 Chapter 11

The armored zombies lead the way, plowing recklessly into car after car and smashing them to the side. They're cutting a straight path directly toward us, and with the regular zombies still chasing us from behind, we can only confront them and look for an avenue of escape.

The girl follows behind me as I rush towards the nearest armored zombie. I reshape a tendril into a drill similar to the ones I used to destroy the barrier earlier today. I pause for a moment to aim carefully before launching the drill at the armored zombie. The drill's tip scratches the surface of the zombie's armor before its furious rotations force it inside of the zombie's body. The zombie roars furiously while attempting to tear the drill from its chest, but between the drill's rotation and my attempt to force the tendril further into its body, it's unsuccessful. The drill bursts clean through to the other side of its body, raining down decayed blood and gore. Its body falls to the ground, squirming helplessly, but unable to move.

I grin as my blood-lust starts to flare up again. I look away from the armored zombies to notice that there are several normal zombie bodies around me, their heads have neat, circular holes in them that allow me to see the road beneath them. The girl is hard at work protecting me. I guess it is incredibly useful to have allies...

But the approach of the rest of the special zombies takes priority, as they're almost here. I let my tail brush against the girl's leg to signal that it's time for us to move again. I lead the way, this time not heading further down the bridge but to the other side of it, and just in time. As we start moving, a car explodes onto the ground where we were, rolling onto several other cars. In the distance are the armored zombies, lifting up more cars to throw at us. And behind them are the flame zombies, which rush out past the armored ones now that I'm not delaying them with my tendrils. They surge toward us, faster even than normal zombies. No, it's not just that they're faster, there are flames literally beneath their feet that launch them forward with every step!

A flame zombie quickly approaches, and its entire body roars up into a massive flame that makes me worry deeply about the flammability of my fur. The girl steps in front of me with her spear, ready to engage the enemy. The zombie apathetically launches itself into her spear which penetrates through its stomach. Its arms come down in an attempt to hug her and smother her to death in its flames. But I use my two normal tendrils to stop the zombie from approaching her, allowing the girl to pull her spear out and penetrate it clean through the zombie's skull.

The horde of normal zombies approach from behind us. My instincts warn me of danger from above; a sedan is arcing toward us, luggage and odds and ends falling out from open windows. I quickly grab it with my tendrils, not stopping its fall, but redirecting it into the zombie horde. The car crashes into them, splattering them gruesomely against the bridge, but it's still not enough. The horde is about to reach us, so I focus on using my tendrils to bat away at them to create more space. But their number seems to be almost never-ending, it takes all of my tendrils to keep them at bay. I use a similar approach as before, turning a tendril into a giant maul and slamming it into the horde. I feel a surge of satisfaction seeing crushed bodies flying away, some without heads. I turn to check the sky to make sure there aren't anymore cars falling overhead. As I do, I see fire approaching from the corner of my eye, but it's not heading for me.

A fire zombie approaches the girl from behind as she deals with the clever zombies that attempted to sneak behind us. Just as she stabs her spear into another one's head, I hiss at her, and she reacts instantly, rolling out of the fire zombie's way as it leaps toward her, arms outstretched. But she leaves her spear behind in the other zombie's now-dead body. By the time the girl gets on her feet and turns to face it, the fire zombie has reoriented itself and leaps into her, knocking her to the ground. It furiously lunges to bite into her throat. She raises her forearm up into its neck, desperately holding back its frenzied attacks as she gets her knees underneath it to launch it off of her with her mana-enhanced strength.

I swing my maul against the horde to give me some time to use my other tendrils to catch the fire zombie while it's still in the air. The tendrils penetrate deep into its body before they tear outwards, shredding its body apart, showering the girl with its blood. Large shadows fall over me as the armored zombies reach us from the front, all of them swarming onto my position at once along with another wave of decayed bodies.

I instantly transform all of my tendrils into giant mauls and swing them frantically as the zombies scramble to drown me in their flesh. Bodies fly outwards with every swing, landing heavily on the bridge or flying away into the water below. I screech madly as I summon another two tendrils despite my near-depleted mana, drilling them furiously into the chests of two armored zombies before they can crush me underneath their bodies. But it's not enough. There are more of them, so much more, and I'm finally reaching the limit of my mana. Fatigue spreads throughout my body as blood and gore cover my fur, none of it mine. An armored foot crushes into my side, digging far too deep into my body. I get launched into the girl, causing her to stumble against the guardrail of the bridge, before she lets me fall to the ground. The girl recovered her spear at some point and is furiously batting away as many zombies as she can, desperately trying to keep us alive. She screams incoherently, filled with fear and anger as the bridge shudders and more large shadows fall over us. I barely manage to force myself to my feet, gathering all my tendrils together for one last massive sweep, hopefully to buy us enough time to escape. They gather together into one single, massive maul the size of a large truck, the tendrils themselves forming spikes to pierce the zombies with. I launch it outwards in a sweeping horizontal arc, aiming primarily for the armored zombies. It crashes into them, shattering their armor and battering both us and the zombies with stone shrapnel. Fire and regular zombies alike get impaled by the tendrils' spikes, sweeping them along as my tendrils force them all off into the ocean. But despite all of that, there are still more closing in on us, drawn by all of the noise that we've made. And worse yet, I see dark, winged shapes in the sky closing in on our positions. My body begins to quiver with despair. I don't want to die, not here, and not to zombies...

My vision begins to darken and my limbs feel as if they're turning to lead. My body, mind, and instincts are screaming at me to flee, to start moving, but I feel so drained. If I could only use a tendril to grapple us away, to leave... but I need them all to keep the oncoming horde at bay. I don't even have the mana to transform them anymore; they're essentially just long whips ineffectually keeping them at bay. But even that doesn't last, as zombies start to get through my tendrils, rushing towards us while howling furiously. I release my tendrils and use the last of my mana to create a burst of fire in the direction of the horde, letting it wash over them and setting them all alight.

But now my mana is depleted, and the world is turning dark and cold. I don't have the energy to care anymore as I sense my body being lifted. I shudder as I wait for decayed teeth to tear into me...

Except rather than horrible pain followed by death, something warm surrounds me, pulling me in tight. A moment later and I feel a rush of roaring air, as if I'm on a roller-coaster right when it drops from the top of the tracks. My stomach feels like its trying to leave my mouth. Before I can even think about vomiting, I feel a massive impact vibrating around me, and suddenly I can't breathe. Cold water soaks into my fur. The panic of not being able to breathe gives me a spurt of energy, enough to let me struggle. My limbs lash out wildly. I feel my claws digging into something, but whatever it is, it ignores it, spurting into motion. Just as I'm about to open my mouth to stuck in water, unable to hold it any longer...

The girl and I surface. I take a deep breath, and promptly pass out from exhaustion.