Chapter 8: RUN

With three zombies around him and a whole hoard of them coming in from the back, Ryo was in quite a difficult spot.

"Fuck this, I'm out of here," he says and gets up.

Ryo runs as fast as he can. Faster than he did before, weaving through the three zombies in front of him like a snake running from a hungry eagle. Ryo takes a stance and starts running towards the car to avoid the zombies. But for some reason, the car was getting faster and faster until he could no longer catch up and was left behind. Then suddenly a thought came to him.

(So basically that car wasn't moving at full speed when it crashed into me. It's either that or that Kurayami guy used his ability to make the car move faster again.)

Ryo felt abandoned but didn't let that quench the fire that is his will to survive. With both determination and fear, he runs faster once again. But it seemed that this time it wouldn't be as easy as running away. One of the zombies leaps at him with the intent to kill and almost rips off Ryo's head with a swift bite but thankfully, Ryo is able to dodge it before it hits him. One after the other the zombies leaped at him like a ferocious pride of lions going after a single gazelle. One of the zombies chooses to attack his legs but Ryo notices and leaps backward to avoid it. From the frying pan into the fire. One could say that this sentence best describes what happens next. When Ryo leaped backward, before he could hit the ground he saw an especially monstrous-looking zombie. This one had bone covering its body with bone spikes coming out of parts of its body and stood at a staggering height of three meters. Its skin color was brown and its eyes were sparkling red rubies, it also had long black hair. The most noticeable feature of this zombie was its gigantic right hand which had no fingers but only one large spike. It wore its bones like a set of armor from a horror film and this zombie's gender seemed to be male. With just a look, Ryo could tell that this particular zombie was way more powerful than the others. After examining the zombie from the air, Ryo finally reaches the ground and lands face-to-face with the monster.

When he looked into the zombie's eyes, memories of past events started to flood his mind. He remembered that the last time he fought a zombie head-on, he had his ass handed to him and couldn't even fight back. What stood before him was a zombie that looked like it could give the previous one a run for its money.

"Swish, Boom"

Within an instant, Ryo found himself flung several meters away with a gaping hole in his belly and hitting multiple stones destroying about five stones until one stopped his movement and just cracked a little. The bone-bodied zombie used its smaller left hand to send Ryo fling with just a single punch.

It didn't take long for Ryo to realize that this zombie was way out of his league. It just one-shot him.

Ryo was dazed not only by the pain of having a hole in him but by his absolute uselessness while lamenting his weakness. For some time he has had his ass handed to him by one thing or another. This frustrated him and prompted him to cry.

"Fuck. Why can't I be fucking useful?" He says while trying to hold in his tears

As a single tear fell down his cheek, the silhouette of a man was cast upon his face. This man was none other than Kurayami Katakuri and for some reason, this gave him some comfort.

The man looked Ryo in the eye and said

"Yo kid are you alright?"

"I don't think this can kill me," Ryo replied

"You did well to run away while you could. But as you can see running can only get you so far. What you need is not only the ability to run but also the ability to fight back. This world of ours is a dog-eat-dog world. You cannot make it if you are weak" Said Kurayami with a deep narrative voice.

"I will help you to get that power if you want me to but for now follow my instructions. Your power has something to do with crystals, right? I want you to create a pillar as big as you can to lift you as high as you can. Can you do that for me?"

"Umm, I think I can." Answered Ryo.

"I don't need an 'I think' but a full confirmation. Now can you do it or not."

Ryo was a bit hesitant to answer the question. After all, he couldn't even control whatever power he had properly. But even with these thoughts in his mind, Ryo decided that he could do it regardless.

"YES. YES I CAN" he screamed with determination and willingness to live

 "Then get to it." Said Kurayami.

Ryo wasn't sure he could do it. He reached deep into his mind and calmed himself. It wasn't the first time he made use of his ability so he was sure he could at least produce the crystals.

It didn't take long before Ryo's eyes started glowing gold like they did the last time he made use of his powers. Gray crystalline energy began to surge out of Ryo's body creating a display of lights that would mesmerize the mind

(More. I need more. I have to use more power.) He thought.

Soon after the amount of energy coming out of Ryo's body was now almost covering his entire body. The energy looked like frozen plasma but was not cold and glowed a radiant gray light.

(Let's go mother fucker) Ryo thought before releasing all of the pent-up energy.

Within a second, a pillar about fifty meters high and ten meters thick was erected.

Although he managed to erect the pillar, Ryo was still bleeding and hence his life was somewhat still in danger.

Kurayami looked at the pillar with awe of Ryo's achievement. He was impressed and screamed out.

"Yo kid. You did great. I'll handle the rest."

Ryo felt a sense of relief and proceeded to see what the man would do next.

"Well let's get this over with," Kurayami said in a soft voice while facing the horde of monsters.

Kurayami's eyes slowly started to glow with purple light. He stepped closer and closer to the monsters and said.

"Today isn't your lucky day."

The ground that they were all standing on started to melt and turn into liquid. The liquid sand had not been heated but had now become a sticky viscous liquid. Although the zombies struggled, they couldn't do much and sank into the sand one by one. Although most of them sank into the sand, the bond-bodied zombie leaped high up causing the air to crack like a bullet was fired and aimed to drop directly on Kurayami.

The zombie pointed its large bony right hand at Kurayami as it feel.

"Booooom."

There was an explosion of sand and Kurayami was hit with the massive impact from the zombie. The impact was so strong that it caused some part of Ryo's pillar which was about ten meters away from Kurayami to crack.

"That's just weak." Said Kurayami.

As the dust settled, it was revealed that Kurayami was completely unharmed but the zombie's hand that hit his face was completely shattered.

"Okay, Okay, that's enough play for today." Said Kurayami

Kurayami made a small piece of land, a cube of about five meters smooth, clear, and hard. He then held the huge zombie by its head and smashed it down to the ground over and over again until its face was nothing more than a lump of bloody meat.

"BYE, BYE," said Kurayami as he smashed the zombie's head creating a splatter of meat, bone, and blood out of its skull. Kurayami then started walking towards the crystal pillar but was stopped by the wales of the zombies that he had sinking in the sticky sand.

"Oh almost forgot," Kurayami said and then used his power to harden the sticky sand creating large two-meter spikes impaling the zombies in the ground from all sides. Once there was now no more sound he returned the sand to its original state and started walking towards Ryo's pillar. When he got to the pillar, he instantly appeared at the top by moving at speeds most people could not comprehend.

Kurayami stared down at Ryo who was lying face down with blood coming out of his mouth and said.

"I'm done. Let's get you somewhere safe."

Ryo felt safe but at the same time angry because he was once again about to lose consciousness which made him furious but too injured to talk, he said nothing.

(Ah fuck. Here we go again.)He says before passing out in a pool of blood.

To be continued