Chapter 19: Blizzard

Noah's shot hit the zombie in the chest, but aside from a horrible scream, it didn't seem to have much effect. The zombie regenerated the wall before Marlen could reach him.

But Marlen wasn't going to stop; she used her momentum to leap over the hallway railing, go around the ice wall, and land next to the zombie. Whom was taken by surprise and barely managed to avoid being decapitated by Marlen's axe, which hit the zombie's shoulder instead.

A powerful blizzard was again detached from the zombie and completely covered Marlen, who was pushed against the railing and subjected to intense cold. Then, sharp icicles began raining down on her. Most of them did not pierce her armor, but one struck her thigh and another grazed her neck.

Adam and the others had no idea what was happening on the other side, so they concentrated on tearing down the wall. The blizzard blast and Marlen's screams of pain rushed them. Adam, with no charges on the flamethrower, was trying to hit the wall with the back of his gun to no avail. Noah, meanwhile, headed for the railing to repeat Marlen's leap.

Jane stopped and returned to the group. She then decided to use [Penetrating Shot]. She got down on her knees, pulled out an arrow, took a deep breath and activated her new ability.

The arrow charged with energy for a brief moment before shooting off at high speed. The projectile went clean through the wall and headed for the last position Jane remembered where the zombie was. To her luck, the zombie had not moved, so the arrow found its target.

The creature lost control over its powers momentarily, so the wall lost consistency and was blown apart by Adam's flamethrower.

The blizzard and icicles stopped, which gave Marlen a respite. Noah fell to her side a few moments later and fired again, this time aiming for the head.

The zombie had an arrow inserted in its stomach and now a shot in its head, but it didn't die. The ice in its body grew again, ejecting both projectiles. Adam attacked at that moment and hit it with the still-hot nozzle of the flamethrower.

He charged at the zombie, stuck the nozzle to its stomach and then pressed it against the wall. His enemy screamed in pain and his stomach began to melt. They both hit the wall together. Adam hoped to have another charge in the flamethrower to fire from that position, but the opportunity never came.

The zombie overcame its pain and concentrated to grow from the ground a wall of ice under Adam's feet. The wall surged with such force that Adam's head hit the ceiling and stunned him. Noah fired again, but the zombie, despite the pain, did not relent. He fired off a couple of spinning icicles as he readied the energy needed for another blizzard.

Noah dodged one of the icicles, but the other hit his flak jacket and pushed him against the railing. Adam, meanwhile, was having trouble getting up. He was still confused by the blow, a situation that the zombie took advantage of to try to kill him with an icicle.

Adam was saved because at that moment Jane, through the hole in the ice wall, shot an arrow that knocked the zombie back. Noah grabbed Marlen, who was barely conscious and tried to pull her away from the fight.

The zombie unleashed a new blizzard, much stronger than the previous one, and covered the entire hallway in an ice storm. Jane fired another arrow, but the blizzard deflected it and advanced furiously towards her. Jane threw herself to the ground and waited for the worst to pass. Miriam, who was next to her, decided to move closer to the wall and used her [Halo] skill when she couldn't get close enough to cast [Holy Light] on the zombie.

The halo was a support skill that needed all his concentration, so she could hardly do anything else while it was activated. From where she stood, she avoided the worst of the blizzard while the light from his halo reached his companions on the other side and weakened the zombie.

Adam, who had taken the brunt of the blizzard, felt his entire body being cut up by tiny pieces of sharp ice dancing around him. When the halo reached him, he felt a great relief as he felt the energy in his body counteract the horrible cold to some extent. In addition, the ice chunks found it harder to cut through his skin.

Adam realized that only in a few more seconds he would have another charge of the flamethrower, so he approached the zombie ready to finish the fight.

The zombie, for its part, was taken by surprise by the halo effect. His blizzard weakened and he lost his balance as it felt the sudden decrease in his ability to control the energy around him.

Out of the blizzard Adam appeared and the zombie tried to shoot an icicle. The result was a blunt chunk of ice that barely stopped Adam's advance.

The zombie stepped back and began to accumulate energy for a new spell, this time doubling the amount in the hope of achieving the same power as before. The result was successful, though it only managed to fire one. The icicle stuck in Adam's leg with the same force as before and knocked him to the ground.

For his part, Adam had retrieved another charge and this time fired from the ground and much closer to the zombie. The charge was not from the canister, so the flame was weak, however, this time it hit the zombie in the chest and the effect was devastating. The weak flames consumed the ice that made up the zombie and left a gigantic hole that gave off water vapor.

The hole began to close, but much more slowly than before. Noah, who had left Marlen inside one of the apartments, out of the effects of the blizzard, returned to the fight and, with the help of the halo, fired his weapon three times.

The shots shattered part of the head, one of the arms and the chest, leaving the zombie in an even worse state. From there, the battle ended without many surprises. Noah waited for another bullet and fired again, while Adam crawled over and used the flamethrower's muzzle to melt an entire leg off the zombie.

Seconds later, the zombie died and dropped a blue crystal, a book, and a chunk of ice.

[Blizzard (spell)].

[Accumulates energy to release an icy blizzard on your enemies, its power depends on the energy invested in the spell].

The chunk of ice turned out to be something Adam had never seen before.

[Piece of living ice (material)].

Adam asked the system about the material.

[A piece of living ice. It is resistant to high temperatures, but will melt sooner or later if not stored in the right conditions. It serves as a material for the manufacture of equipment, potions or in the performance of rituals].

Immediately after his death, all the ice that the zombie had thrown melted; leaving puddles of water in its wake.

"Where is my sister?" asked Miriam, who was completely soaked.

Noah pointed to the apartment where he had left her and Miriam ran off towards it, not paying much attention to Adam, who was also quite injured.

His body was covered with cuts and his leg was bleeding. In addition, he felt numb from the cold. Finally, Miriam returned and healed his wounds.

"Marlen is unconscious, she took a lot of damage when the zombie attacked her."

Adam nodded, relieved. But he also realized that this was already the second time the sisters had done something crazy when one of them was hurt. Miriam had jumped downstairs during the fight against the Berserker, abandoning the rest of the team, while Marlen had jumped over the ice wall and attacked the zombie all alone. He knew that at some point he should talk with them.

Jane, for her part, hadn't taken much damage, so she approached Adam relieved.

"Now there are only three zombies left, I can't wait for this to be over."

Adam avoided mentioning that the next step was to clear every building in the suburb, which included another superblock. Jane had enough to do with this building.

Adam hoped there were other groups cleaning buildings. Tracel probably knew something about them, so he decided to talk to him after the superblock cleanup.

"We should rest somewhere else, everything is soaked."

"Let's wait for my sister to wake up, I don't think it will take long, it's amazing how resilient our bodies are now."

The group went down to the second floor when Marlen woke up. She still felt exhausted, so it didn't take long for her to fall back asleep. The rest got ready to rest.

"This time it was pretty dangerous, I almost didn't made it." Was the last thing Marlen Said before going to sleep.

"Well, yes. I hope you two learn to keep calm when one of you is attacked, that can't keep happening," Adam scolded both sisters a little, but didn't touch the subject any further.