Live Bait

Now, gather all your stuff, and prepare to leave, but I recommend that you travel lightly, we'll need to get to a sewer system nearby, it's the only way out of this mess, but we'll need to cross the open field before we get there," I said.

The woman spoke, "Those monsters are all over the place, how can we get through them? Most of us if not all of us will die before one of us could get to escape," she declared.

"No, if you're fast enough, none of you will die, I'll make sure of it, anyway, get your stuff packed, we'll be leaving in half an hour," I said then turned to Michael and said, "I need a moment with you," I said.

He nodded and comforted the people, when it is about his holy job, he is a saint, but anything else, this man's mouth curses so much it'll make a drunken sailor blush.

The two of us got to his room, and he asked.

"What's your plan?" he asked.

"I'll make a diversion, is there any way out of this place? Like a backdoor?" I asked.

Michael shook his head, "None of the sorts, why?" he asked.

"Hmm, I'll be using the same way I got in then, the undead will follow life signature, and would rather chase after a live bait than a hidden one. You'll need to make the best of the opportunity I'll be making you, there is a manhole right in the middle of the street across from the church, can you get everyone in it in say, three minutes?" I asked.

"It'll take a miracle to do that, but I'll do what I can, but you'll need to explain more, I can't just blindly trust you, you know," he spoke.

He had a point, "Then, don't do anything until you see all the undead in front of your gate had left, okay?"

"Right," he said still skeptical.

"Anyway, you have a bible on you?" I asked.

"I would hardly take you as a man of religion," he said.

"Just grab one, and grab one of your crosses, the fanciest one you have, and take them along with you," I said.

"For what reason? Believe me, I tried, even if I had my doubt if it would work, trying to exorcise these things was really futile," he said.

"It's not about exorcism, it's about symbolism, you'll need a cross and a bible, and a fuck ton of belief. Get the cleanest bible you have and the best-looking or decorated cross you can carry with you. You'll thank me for this later," I said.

He agreed and began rummaging through his stuff, making sure to sneak a chug of the wine bottle whenever he had the chance to.

I checked my gear and the weapons I had on me, the ones in my inventory and on my backpack. After making sure everything was there and ready, I calmly waited for the time to start this almost suicidal mission.

Time ticked slowly as if to add more to everyone's anxiety, thirty minutes felt short, but at the same time, absurdly long. Everyone downstairs was half panicking making sure that all their belongings were packed not that they had many of them in the first place.

The kids were reassured by their fear-stricken parents and were put at ease with comforting words.

I then cursed myself for making an absurd mistake earlier. When I handed Katakuri my only radio. I should have kept it with me and used it now to ask for reinforcements from Dilbert, a few trucks would have made this far easier.

But I immediately thought against it, they'll need to make way into a massive horde of undead which isn't simple, to save a few useless citizens. I couldn't be greedy to ask those people to sacrifice their lives for people they didn't know and wouldn't be of any use in the near future.

Dilbert would need the most he can from the people around him, and I can't be that type of a person who'll use that personnel for my own reasons.

I was mostly giving excuses to myself for stupidly giving away the only radio I had, but it was worth it, Katakuri's life is extremely important and so is his allegiance. John would probably send a large force to save him and would not have much personnel left for the Safe Zone's safety.

If I ask for more I'll stretch his already small force too thin, and this would cause problems in case of a breach.

The timer for the thirty minutes was up, and I declared, "Everyone, be ready, keep a lookout outside and make sure to only move when there are no undead or if the path is clear enough for you to make a break for the manhole," I said.

The group fearfully yet adamantly nodded.

"Michael, I'll leave the rest to you," I said and I climbed up the church's tower.

Once I was outside, I shuddered at the sight.

The church was surrounded by hundreds of undead and it wasn't going to be an easy task to pull all of these away without risking it.

I slowly made my way to the back of the church where there were a few undead then climbed down as fast as I could.

"HEY, FUCKERS!" I shouted, "Come at me!" and then legged it.

A few undead followed me, but not all, making me rather annoyed that I needed to pull the aggro off even more.

I turned to the first few undead, decapitating them in an instant. And then shoved my sword in the chest of one with blue shining eyes.

This was good because what happened next made it far easier to pull their aggro.

The blue-eyed undead was an evolved undead of the bunch, he was still a low-tier undead, but he had one thing that I needed, he had the ability to see life signature and at the same time a semblance of leadership towards the rest of the undead.

The sword piercing through his chest was enough to elicit a pained screech that pulled all the undead attention toward him.

I stabbed him a few more times and it was enough to cause the majority of the undead in the area to come my way.

Once that happened I made my way further back to pull them towards me even more.

I couldn't see if the church's front had been emptied out of undead, but looking at the mass of undead that were coming my way, they'll at least have lessened the pressure there.

Once I was far away after cutting the head of more than a dozen more undead I stopped and made sure all the undead coming my way had their eyes on me.

"Right, it's time to use that," I mumbled and pointed my hand forward.

"{Feast}" I cast, and immediately, my right hand turned darker than black, as it gained a layer almost like a glove.

I felt a sharp line opening in the middle of my palm and immediately, my hand increased in size, but not weight, and I elongated shooting towards the first few undead.

The hand transformed into a massive jaw that chomped on the group of undead, then continued chomping on the rest, gulping audibly. It ate the undead without even chewing and continued biting.

But it didn't last for long, as my hand shuddered and I received a notification.

[Use Time for absorbed skill {Chomp} has been exhausted.]

[The Skill {Chomp} had entered cooldown.]

[Cooldown Duration (1) hour]

The massive dark form of my hand snapped back and returned to normal.

"Shit," I cursed, it wasn't a mana-related skill but a timed one these are the worst, they can be used without needing resources but they usually had long cooldowns.

It's good that I learned a new thing about this skill but damn does it suck.

I ignored the notification for now because what I did was good enough to make me the center of attention.

I then spotted something from between the hoard of undead. The people from the church were running across the street.

Good, now I just need to keep the undead's aggro on me for a while.

And I made damn sure of that, by culling any undead that got close.

If I was in my prime, I could have easily destroyed this whole undead wave in less than ten seconds, but I'm far from that. The best I can do is take out a good portion of them before I fall to exhaustion, and I can't do that here.

I cut, slashed, decapitated, and slew as many undead as I could, as I moved around, making sure to keep my distance from the bulk of the undead group, if I were to make a single mistake and get caught between them I'll die.

I then pointed my hand again, {Grappling Hook}.

A massive chain with a crooked-looking hook manifested from within the small jaws in my hand.

The hook didn't seem heavy at all as I carried it, so I hurled it forward, and it shot with enough speed that it actually penetrated through the chests of several undead as if they were a brochette.

I grabbed the end of the chain and yanked on it, causing the hook to snap back, tearing through the undead it had penetrated before but at the same time making sure not to pull all of them towards me.

The hook snapped back into the mouth of my palm, and I used it again, this time cleaving through the undead with mighty weight.

I had an interesting thought afterward, and I made sure to try it.

The chains had made a good dent into the undead hoard that would be filled pretty soon if I didn't capitalize on it.

I rushed through the opening towards the church and summoned the hook again.

I threw it upwards toward the church's tower, and it bore through the concrete as if it was butter.

I then pulled the hook, but instead of pulling the whole tower towards me, I was pulled towards the tower, snapping towards it with incredible speed.

"Shit!" I cursed as I almost flew above the crowd of undead and headed straight for the tower, face first.