Beyond the Human Species

After a few minutes of being in a daze, James regained his senses and looked around him, only to find that there were around 2 zombies which had broken off form the large zombie horde and were headed to his direction.

Panicking slightly at the fact that he was not under the protection of Merlin anymore, he quickly searched his body for a weapon like a knife. Sadly, he couldn't find anything, and the zombies were closing in, with about 80 meters between them.

In despair, he placed his hands onto the floor behind him, only to feel something cold.

Turning around, he saw that it was one of Merlin's rods. Seeing this, a gleeful smile came onto James' face.

In reality, Merlin had allowed the two zombies to leave his points bag, and had also left on of his rods there. This was to see just how useful James would be, and whether he would be able to work properly under pressure. Merlin had no use for the weak, and the cowardly. All he needed was warriors with courageous hearts, and strong physique as well as mentality. Only such people could become his direct subordinates.

An example was Sean. Although he was slightly weaker than the normal soldier, he was decisive when choosing to follow Jon, as well as when attacking the person coming from behind him. At that time, unknown to Sean himself, Merlin had accepted Sean as his second in command. The problem of being weak could be solved once the tutorial period got over.

…

With the rod in hand, James centred himself before charging at one of the zombies.

'Hmm, this kid is good. He decided to charge at one of them, to prevent the two from surrounding him.' Nodded Merlin in approval.

'But if he cannot kill the zombie quickly, his back would be exposed to the other one that will come rushing to him.'

Just as James was about to use his final slash to break the skull of the zombie in front of him, he heard the footsteps of another zombie. Realising what had happened, James pulled back his swing slightly, so that it would miss the zombie in front of him, just grazing by his eyes, and continued in a circular path to finally land a hit on the zombie behind him.

Unfortunately, it only hit the shoulder of the zombie, dislocating it.

Merlin was actually rather impressed by the quick thinking. Initially, he had thought that James would be put in a tough position, and might even get bitten. However, that move was simply brilliant!

James had not only blinded the first zombie, but also pushed back the attack from the second zombie.

One should know, that facing two zombies as a normal human was like facing 2 football players, a little slower than normal humans, but they make up for it with their unending stamina and disregard for their own bodies.

Handling 2 of them like this is simply incredible for someone like James. At this point, Merlin decided to intervene since he had seen enough to convince him of James' attitude and aptitude. He would most definitely become a strong leader if he was given enough points after the tutorial.

In an instant, the two zombies around James dropped down, their heads having caved in from Merlin's rod strikes.

Seeing this, James dropped to the ground, completely exhausted both physically and mentally. He had had to swing, dodge, and run for only a minute, but he had to use all his strength each time he swung the rod, not only due to its weight, but also due to the fact that weak attacks simply couldn't break through the zombie's bones.

Looking at how effortlessly Merlin was beheading the zombies, James suddenly had a newfound respect for Merlin, not only because of the fact that he saved him, but also due to the fact that his strength was simply incomparable to a being inside the human species.