Chapter 76: Exhaustion

Zack was about to reach his limit, which bothered him. What had he accomplished in this fight? Nothing. That was the truth. He'd only fought a bunch of Stalkers until being wounded by a Breeder attack, pathetic. Zack's ego couldn't take that. He knew full well that a lot of people thought him insufferable and arrogant, but he didn't care. All he cared about was what he thought about himself. Empathy? Solidarity? A waste of time.

He was a selfish being and enjoyed being so. From the beginning he had loved this new world, a world where the strongest was the one who stood above the others. That was why he had looked Adam's group over his shoulder when they had lost Jane, why he had recently set out to outdo Adam when he realized the boy was tougher than he thought, why he vowed to kill the Berserker with his bare hands and wipe away his shame for what he had gone through in Block 2.

So he also raised his sword again to destroy the next Stalker in what was beginning to be a long and disorganized line. The bridge was becoming congested by the absurd amount of zombies concentrated there, all trying to reach the exhausted Zack.

The Berserker was fighting very close to him, so he had to be careful. However, at the moment, ironic as it was, that half-dead zombie wasn't half as dangerous compared to the sheer number of Stalkers approaching. However, their defense would only hold if they managed to kill the Berserker.

So Zack left his post to another warrior of his group and approached the Berserker, ready to finish him off once and for all. The problem was managing to stay awake until that moment. The exhaustion caused by the potion and Arlem's healing was irritating. Zack wanted with all his might to stay up and fight, to kill the Berserker and the Warrior and win level after level.

So, he continued to stand. Zack couldn't explain how he had managed to endure so much, but he was sure it had to do with the System. He couldn't deny that it was terrifying to think of the power he had over them, but at the same time it was intoxicating. Suddenly, a Stalker in his path jumped at him and managed to bite his left arm. The pain brought him back to reality, for he had been raving. Instead of concentrating on the fight, he was thinking stupid thoughts. He wasted some time searching for an antidote in the bag on his back and then threw all unnecessary thoughts out of his head and focused on the next Stalker in his path.

His sword felt heavy, but still the Stalker ended up cut in half. Finally, after an eternity, he reached where the Berserker was. His other men continued to attack the Berserker, but they weren't doing much damage, mainly because his thick skin was almost completely intact.

Almost the key word in this situation, as Zack's target was Anin's dagger, still stuck in the Stalker's eye. However, his plan needed to take the Berserker by surprise, so he began to surround him. However, that meant getting close to the Stalkers gathered on the bridge. Luckily, the Berserker was hitting nearby zombies, so they all stayed away from the beast, which made his job easier. When he was finally in front of the Berserker's back, Zack screamed at the top of his lungs in an attempt to clear his exhausted mind and then simply jumped on the zombie.

A power fight against a Berserker would be utter stupidity, so Zack was counting on being brief. His jump led him to hold onto the Berserker's back. His idea was to jump onto his neck, but he didn't succeed. So he held on for dear life while activating his [Steel Body] skill and withstanding the Berserker's wrath.

After a horrible instant in which Zack felt like he was on an out-of-control roller coaster, the zombie was again attracted by the warrior of his group and Zack managed to climb up the zombie's back until he reached its neck. From there, just as the Berserker raised an arm and tried to remove it from his back, he managed to reach out, hold Anin's dagger and press down with all his might.

The Berserker lost control and screamed, full of rage. Moment that Krieg took advantage of to shoot inside his mouth. Zack, for his part, lost his grip on his legs and was left hanging by one hand. He had reached his limit, so he no longer understood very well what was going on around him, he only knew that he had to keep pushing.

Zack's extra weight caused the Berserker to lose his balance and lean dangerously backwards. Which allowed him to drive the dagger deeper and succeed, at last, in penetrating the brain from one side to the other.

The Berserker stopped screaming and fell to the ground soon after, where it lay motionless. Zack was rescued by his men, but by that time he was no longer conscious.

The Stalkers continued to attack with intensity, but the combat had already become much easier. The zombies weren't smart enough to jump over the railing and storm the first floor of the building, so they were simply fighting for a place on the bridge.

Menil, meanwhile, was in trouble. The tornado had started close to where he was, so he hadn't had much time to hide. He was barely able to enter the building when the powerful winds reached him. Unable to close the door, Menil ended up being thrown onto the roof of the apartment and then hit by thousands of flying debris everywhere. When the powerful spell ended, he was in bad shape. His clothes had turned to rags and, more importantly, the backpack with the health potion Leonard had given him had also met the same fate.

Menil tried to get up, but he was too weak. He ended up lying on his back, staring at the ceiling of the apartment and listening to the fighting outside. He didn't think he could fight anymore, so he would have to stay here. He thought about how his brother would be. Nila was prone to panic in unexpected situations, which hadn't helped him with the System's arrival.

The system was his next thought. Why had he created something like the infected? Not that he was complaining, for he would rather be one of them than be a mindless zombie. A shiver ran through his body at the thought of the latter, for the Breeder did not give the impression of being mindless.

Returning to the previous line of thought, Menil wondered why the System had created the three races. Could it be that more existed? He didn't understand and doubted he would ever understand in his lifetime. He closed his eyes and, despite the risk he was taking, gave in to exhaustion.

Adam struggled up from the ground. The tornado had left him with numerous wounds and fractures, so he had to resort to a health potion. Unfortunately, all of them had broken and he had no choice but to pick up the liquid in his backpack with some difficulty and drink it. The resulting effect was not as good as drinking a full potion, but it was enough to get Adam moving comfortably. The problem was dealing with fatigue and hunger.

He finished climbing the stairs to the second floor and stopped to watch the group of Stalkers trying to enter the building. Worse, Adam looked up and noticed with trepidation that in the parking lot there was another group of zombies, but these were not Stalkers. The group consisted of some zombies like Crawlers and Brawlers, but there were many zombies he had no idea about. Some of them he couldn't see in detail, as the darkness hid their features, but Adam was sure there must have been dozens.

A horrible lump rose in his throat. There were too many of them, could they hold out against that second horde? Adam didn't know, but he pushed those thoughts from his mind and decided he had to help.

In his hand appeared a Rock grenade. Without much thought, he tossed it towards the huge number of Stalkers on the bridge and frowned as he watched the grotesque scene that followed.

The grenade exploded and sent everything flying, literally. The Stalkers were blown to pieces in an instant, as if they were nothing. Adam was surprised by the power of the ability, which connected with what had happened with the strange zombie that could hide in the shadows. Adam was beginning to think that maybe he had overestimated the zombies. Now he was sure that his level allowed him to easily fight a zombie at the level of a Berserker.

As he thought about this, he threw another grenade to eliminate the surviving Stalkers.

At that moment, he realized that to get to his level he had needed to kill a large number of powerful zombies, which he would never have killed without the help of his group.

As he thought, the group of evolved ones moved towards the superblock, so Adam threw one more grenade before he was interrupted by a horrible noise on the upper floors.

Adam diverted his attention to the outside. The surprise of finding the huge group of Stalkers, had made him forget that something had caused the tornado to appear. As he fought against the exhaustion he felt, he ran towards the upper stairs until he reached floor 4. There he met Tarin and Ivy, who were carrying Noah.