Domain Skill

Matthew sighed. He began to feel his heart tighten with a sense of apprehension and urgency.

Matthew looked around and noticed that everyone was tired and panting, recovering from the battle they had just attended. He got up and walked over to Bethany who was lying on the floor surrounded by pools of blood. There was no zombie corpses since Little Black had eaten them all and managed to evolve to level 3 because this.

He held out his hand to Bethany and pulled her up with a smile on his face as he said, "Congratulations Bethany, you fought well. I'm sure you must have gotten great rewards from this battle. I hope this can help you get stronger so you can fulfill your goal, whatever it is."

Bethany stared at Matthew for a few seconds and began to smile at him. "Um. I leveled up to level two in this battle and got a new skill. Not as impressive as Little Black but now I can fight better." She said.

It was a surprised that Bethany had gotten a new skill, but Matthew couldn't help but feel curious about her new skill.

"I know it's rude of me to ask this, but would you mind telling me what skill you got?"

Bethany thought for a moment and nodded as she spoke, "Sure, no problem. You're my leader, you should know that anyway. It is a common grade ice domain skill. I can invoke a frozen region around me that prevents my opponent from moving. I don't know if in the future I can use it to attack, but even if I cannot, this skill will be useful for me in the future, especially if I continue to wear a shield and a short katana, since my agility is extremely affected by it."

While Matthew and Bethany were talking, the group's current temporary base was being debated by members of the group, specifically Thobias who was questioning Terry and Julie's loyalty.

"What the hell are you doing? I have not said anything to you before because I found it impolite to speak in front of Matthew since he decided not to continue with the subject. But what gives you the right to question him and want to kick him out of the group when he was hit by a zombie?"

"We made it clear to you that if you decided to follow us, you would have to respect Matthew's decisions and respect him. No one is forcing you to follow us. You are free from any moment."

Terry had an indignant expression on his face as he replied, "You're accusing us wrongly. I just did what I thought best for the group. I was wrong, but I just wanted to protect ourselves. And I thought you were smarter than this, Thobias. Risking his life at a chance that Matthew was not infected."

There was a hint of disgusted look on Thobias' face as he faced Terry. "I may be a coward, but not an ungrateful one. Matthew saved my life and I owe my life to him. Do you also owe your lives to him or do you think that if it were not for Matthew you two would be here now?"

The atmosphere between them was tensed because of this discussion. With a tearful expression, Julie stepped in to intervene. "Thobias, we were wrong. Please forgive us. Terry, what Thobias said is true. It's thanks to Matthew that we're still alive. We should at least keep close to him."

As this discussion seemed to have come to an end, on the other side, Matthew and the group rested from the battle and were prepared to have a second round of fighting the zombies.

Standing up, Matthew sighed and as a thought came into his mind. "Today will be a long day. The morning has barely begun and we will fight for the second time against a lot of zombies. At least it seems like a rewarding day. I expect to gain at least a few more levels and evolve Little Black to an uncommon grade."

As he was thinking about this, he heard Tom's voice speaking to the group. "Our first battle of the day was better than the days before. If we continue this way, we'll be clearing one of the roads. We'll continue at this pace and we will not lose any limbs this time."

After that short speech, the group felt more encouraged and ready to start the new battle. They raised their weapons in the air as if they were celebrating and preparing for the battles they would face today. Then, they ran out into the horde again.