Chapter Eighty One - Battling Upon Two Sides

The wall sealed behind them, the earth manipulated from both sides of it to not only cut this portion of the zombie forces from the main tide, but also capturing and crushing undead rodents that could not escape in time.  Half of one rat dropped to the ground, scrambling at the dust with its front paws as it dragged its severed corpse into the long grass.

The armless zombie swung its upper body, regaining its balance with strong flexibility; the fact it had no limbs did not seem to phase it at all.  Its eyes darkened as its vision fell upon the feast surrounding it, its senses filled with the aroma of living flesh and viscous drool began to drip from its mouth.  Unable to restrain itself, it threw itself forward at the nearest target, the muscles in its thighs not wasted but like thick, taut springs.  It easily ignored the soft thuds as lengths of metal sank into the depths of its body and the ice wall that appeared before it was shattered with its momentum.  However, it did make it fall short and its teeth fell short from sinking into hot flesh, not even scraping a taste causing it to roar in frustration.

"Move idiot!" Harry pulled Thomas from his horrified daze and much further from zombie that had landed only half a metre from him, its jaws snapping at his face and dousing him with its disgusting breath.

The man was still a trained soldier, however, pulling himself together in the next heartbeat, his shock from witnessing the fearsomeness of this evolved monster finally shed from his shoulders.  He threw a knife at the monster, aiming for its neck, but landing in its chest beside the bolts still embedded in it. 

Needle like spikes rose from the ground, piercing a few of the rodents, if not killing them outright at least immobilising them.  Harry and Arthur used baseball bats to finish them off swiftly.  A squirrel with one eye dangling from its socket and long cracked teeth hanging from its bald face squealed as it leapt at Patrick from behind, landing on his shirt.  However, it fell in the next moment, twitching violently as tiny specks of light crackled along it remnant fur.

The armless zombie was ready to move once more, not feeling the pain of the various metal objects sticking out of its torso, nor the spines and jagged edges of the earth beneath its massive feet.  It tensed it's muscles once more, its thighs thickening as it prepared to leap once more.  Yet a moment before it could spring forward, a wide knife sliced into its legs.  It should have been a shallow cut, for its skin was quite thick even if its insides were rotten, but the metal blade continued to sink in slowly until it reached the solid bone before finally stopping.  Its leap was weakened, ineffective and its roars began once more as it flung its upper body around trying in anyway to close the distance between itself and the food.  The scent of sweat was becoming especially intense, driving it wild with hunger.

More objects embedded themselves into its legs, sinking into the depths of its flesh making it as weak as a fledgling corpse and it keeled over, no longer able to maintain its balance and fell to the ground with a thud. 

"I want to test something," Zak murmured. Faith and Theo beside him nodded in unison, meaning to cover him from any surprise attacks as he focused.  A couple of weeks or so ago, Zak could only summon the light into his finger tips, now his whole hand began to glow.  Around him, the undead rodents actually began to hesitate, even creep backwards and away from him, repelled by the light he projected.  The large, fallen zombie began to scream as the glow came nearer and nearer to its face, no longer did it want to eat, it only wanted to flee.

The light couldn't last for a lengthened amount of time and although Zak had been successful, he had no clue of what to do next, so his hand returned to normal and a could only use the altered pipe to slice into the zombies head with all of his might.  After a second swing, the light in its black eyes finally died.

Outside of the wall, the battle was also coming to an end.  The sharp-clawed zombie had completely lost its weapons and could only shuffle on the ground in vain.  Aslan had completely subdued the remaining rodents, while Dexter upon the wall ahead seen off many attacks from above.  Chang Min thrust his blade through a half rotted badger, removing its unlife with a direct hit to its core.  Ren Zexian's sword was no less stained, however, the bright eyed zombie and its Master had been too cunning, using the ability of wood to create a mutant forest wall and the distraction of numerous small minions.

When the wall had finally collapsed, either wilting or even crumbling to dust, the dark zombie King and the jawless zombie were nowhere to be seen.

If any rodents were left, they quickly scuttled away, disappearing into the surroundings, no longer attacking, while the few flying zombies travelled along the dying winds southward, where Ren Zexian suspected that the King had also retreated towards.  He shook the green and red remains off of his sword, whilst tossing balls of black flames onto any corpses close by.  Chang Min finished off the declawed zombie before moving to the wall to complete his hasty work upon its outer structure.  As he ran his hands over its surface, sealing any cracks and hardening the dirt as he went, his lips curved as he noticed the spiritual energy of his apprentice within the inner portion of the wall.  It seemed Cole had had a similar notion to himself.  He nodded, most satisfied with his first ever apprentice, his heart beating with glee.

Ren Zexian watched as the corpses burned, controlling the fires so that they did not burn any of the grass and foliage untainted by the zombies innards.  The smoke pouring off of them still contained yin energy, yet it seemed purified which gave him relief.  If the poison yin could be dealt with this way, there was hope that the balance could be restored, thus this world could be restored.  Unfortunately, even if his flames could do this, did not mean he could burn the entire world and allow it to resurrect like a phoenix from the ashes; there was life still dependant on this world as it was.

The two men did not hurry to rescue those trapped inside with other zombies; every Cultivator knew that the more their juniors were assisted, the less strength they would have in their futures.  Overly protecting them would be detrimental to their growth, so only once the ash was caught on the wind and sent into the distance did they leap over the wall. 

Dexter was resting on top after seeing that the zombies that had breached the wall had been dealt with, lazily closed his eyes to circulate his spiritual energy and regain a bit of strength.  He'd practically drained himself frying all of those flying zombies, he didn't even have the will to move now! 

After the largest zombie had fallen, the soldiers and survivors had remained cautious for a while.  A few of the remaining undead rodents had attacked them, but there was no coordination and although they were small, they were weak and were killed off one by one.  After no more attacks came in the following minutes, they slowly began to let down their guard and the soldiers let the previously unasked questions spill from their tongues.

"How comes that squirrel died went it touched you?" Luke asked Patrick, as the smaller man continued to scan the long grass.  "I thought you were dead for sure!"

Patrick waved away the notion, pretending as if he had not been completely freaked out when he felt the critter cling to his clothing, ready to take a bite.  "I've a body root, Ren calls it a Spark root.  Basically I can make lightning run over my skin like a shield.  Ah but I can't project it like Dexter can!"  His tone indicated that the matter had been completely under his control, when in fact it had been a bit of a fluke!  He'd never needed to activate the ability before so his control of it was actually weak.  Fortunately, instinct had given a helping hand!

"You created those spines?" Thomas pressed Cole, who met his hostile stare with an even more hostile one of his own and sparks seemed to form between them.

Cole inwardly sneered, he knew this type.  There were many of this type in prison; trying to be the bigger man with intimidation, waving about what little strength and authority they thought they had.  "I did," Cole finally agreed.  There was no point hiding his abilities in front of this person who somewhat shared them.  He suspected that this soldier was disgruntled that his own power was just so weak, unable to accept that someone other than Chang Min had talent in this element.  "I've been practicing under Chang Min's guidance for three quarters of a year, I'd be useless if I couldn't do this much."

He brushed past Thomas without another word, then focused on the ground thinking to do a last sweep to make sure that there was absolutely no more hostile movement.  This was something Chang Min had taught him recently.  He felt his sour mood ease as he thought about his small Master; the man only reached his chin in height, was so strong but not in the least bit arrogant.  He laughed more than Ren Zexian and while serious when necessary, could be a little more playful when he wished to be.  He was so beautiful when he fought with his sword, his movement like dancing.  Ren Zexian often chided him for excessive movements, but those movements were hypnotising.  It would surprise Cole if he couldn't stop enemies in their tracks by them alone.

Wrapped up in his thoughts, he only noticed the subtle motion at the last possible moment and by that time, Jimmy had already shouted from panicked and pain.  He turned to see Monika red eyed as she thrust a bolt through a rat that had only half a body, blood still dripping from its sharp teeth.  Jimmy's ankle had a piece of flesh missing, the edges of the wound had begun to turn black.