One Shot, One Chance

Elrich placed the arrow on the strings of his bow and slowly drew it until it was at full extension.

At the current moment, the arrow would not be able to make it to the zombie, we would have to wait until it let go of the pressure again. As we stood, basically frozen, it continued smashing my Minions. At this point in time, there was very little I could do except distract it. I still had around six Minions who were uninjured. I tried to manoeuvre them around as well as I could, however, there were only very minimal effects.

Then, the pressure was released.

As soon as Elrich felt the release, he let go and shot the arrow. It flew through the air, whistling as it travelled straight to the zombie's head. It was the longest second of my life as the two of us watched the arrow.

Splat, it pierced straight into the zombie's head, sticking itself in like a spike.

The zombie fell to the floor and tried to rip the arrow out of its head.

"No good, that wasn't its weak spot," said Elrich.

The two of us watched as the zombie snapped the arrow straight out of its head, throwing the shards onto the ground.

"Crap, I only have one arrow left."

Since the zombie was trying to recover from being shot, it didn't reactivate its ability so I decided on another plan. It swung its arms erratically, smacking several of my Minions who were charging at it.

However, that was what I expected.

As my Minions in front fell to the ground, my goal was revealed. Behind the meat shield of Minions, stood my Warrior Minion. With its newly upgraded weapon, I trusted that it would be able to deal significant damage.

It had managed to get close enough to the zombie to slash it with its sword. Strike after strike, my Warrior Minion cut into the zombie's flesh. The zombie still hadn't reactivated its ability. I concluded that it was likely that the zombie needed to concentrate in order to activate it, or at least not be actively getting bashed.

As my Warrior Minion fought the zombie, both Elrich and I saw what we needed to see.

He quickly pulled out another Curwick arrow and drew his bow.

The zombie's weak spot was its heart.

The arrow flew through the air, straight towards the zombie.

There was a satisfying squelch.

Then the zombie fell to the ground.

Slowly, it began evaporating, like water on the sidewalk. Its flesh gradually melted, leaving behind nothing but a disgusting green goop.

Both Elrich and I took a deep breath.

"Thank goodness."

"You weren't lying when you said it would be tough."

I sat on the ground and looked up at the dark, endless sky.

With the much-needed break, I reorganised my Minions and brought all the injured ones back to allow them to heal. Almost all of my Minions were injured in some way. Elrich and I decided that we would sit out and keep watch until my Minions had healed for some time.

"You said you weren't that good with the bow, but from what I could see, you were really good."

"I mean, I'm not terrible, but compared to my sister, I'm nothing."

"How strong is your sister?"

"Let's just say that if she wanted to, she could defeat an entire army consisting of special zombies."

"Seriously..."

"She can shoot several arrows at the same time with pinpoint accuracy. I can only really hit a general area from a relatively short distance away. She can hit objects from hundreds of metres away."

"Wow, she sounds amazing."

"She really is."

He sighed.

We outside, periodically looking around for any stray zombies.

"I think we'll be good to get some sleep now."

"Yeah." He agreed.

We made our way back into the hut. Rosie was sitting on the bed anxiously waiting for us.

"You didn't get any sleep?" I asked.

"How do you expect me to get sleep when you two are risking your lives fighting zombies outside?!"

"Ah."

Awkward.

We decided to call it a night and found various places around the hut to sleep. It wasn't great, but at least it felt more secure.

My Minions stayed on watch the rest of the night.

*

I was woken by the sound of Elrich fiddling with some arrows.

"U-uh... what time is it...?"

"I don't know, but it's somewhat bright outside."

I slowly lifted my body up and pulled myself to the door of the hut.

It looked like it was before midday based on how bright it seemed. Suddenly, Elrich approached me.

"You humans have these abilities called 'systems', right?"

"Yeah, although they're not really 'abilities'."

"Ah, so what does your system do? Well, aside from all the Minions."

"Well my system is based on Minions so I can level them up and stuff, like a video game," I explained the concept of systems to Elrich.

"I see, so that's what it is."

"Oh, okay," he continued, "so do you want me to hunt some animals so you can sell the drops to the shop?"

"Yeah, that would be really helpful."

"Alright, I'll just quickly polish my bow."

He grabbed something out of the backpack he was carrying.

Well, I should send my Minions off on expeditions now. I turned on some of the code I had previously written and watched as all of them went off into the woods. I needed to decide what I was going to do.

The second hut was nearing completion so my Builder Minion would be available again. I looked through my crafting menu and looked through what things I could craft.

As I was looking through my crafting menu, I was suddenly distracted by the sound of something coming from the forest.

It was a very faint sound, I barely even noticed it.

Even so, it sounded like the voice of a person.

Someone was crying for help.

Well, there wasn't much else for me to do, I guess I'd make my way over and see what it was. It would be good to keep increasing the size of my group.