Numortaaz (Part 1).

Several months later. Gurong Town.

It was a strange place on the verge of a swamp with a unique spirit beasts roaming around. Why strange? Not because Aiden had no information about it, but because of people. If said more strictly, this place is an outlaw den, yet law and order were obvious to see.

They stopped here by chance and getting out now will be a cumbersome task filled with deadly dangers. Not because of the tenants, but the ones who now stood at the bottom of the walls, surrounding the city.

'What luck do I have to receive such treatment? Do I need this protagonist halo, where one will step in every pile of dung on the road no matter where it scattered? Spare me please…'

"Kid, you really came at a wrong time." – it wasn't gloating, the bearded man in front of him with a cloak over his shoulders watched attentively the fair-faced Aiden and sighed. – "We are facing real war here, if you go, savage tribes will catch you and use as food for their beasts."

Aiden frowned slightly. This was a place they, straightforwardly speaking, escaped to under pursuit of a large number of humans, that were better described as insane beasts.

"We are on a way to Imperial City. This little girl here needs a proper academy to train in and I thought about introducing her to one. Who would have thought your town is such a death trap? Is it always that way?" – Aiden looked from the top of the wall at the full-fledged army beneath.

"If you are asking about years of history than no, and that is strange. Actually, we had an amicable relationship with savage tribes several years ago, but now it started to get worse, especially with the new chief. He could unite the broken and created a force of notice." – the man sat on the stone that was a part of a tower several days ago and took out a smoke. – "Want some?"

"I don't smoke."

"You?" – he offered one to Sena to which she hid behind Aiden even deeper.

"She is a kid, an old man. Don't tease her like that." – Aiden warned with a straight face, fully showing how irritated he was.

"Don't give me that look lad. We can die any hour, why not lighten the mood a bit." – the man dismissed all and every with one wave of a hand. – "Well, the only good thing these tribes know nothing about traversing swamps and can't attack us from the southern side. Otherwise, we wouldn't have held the fort until now."

"So, you can't retreat through the swamp?"

"Yeah, if you are tired of living and want to find a strange way to commit suicide than go do just that." – the man laughed with indignation. – "Spirit beasts of a swamp are the real deal and navigating through it is another headache. No one could approach the center of it and you better not try it too. It is a cursed place I tell you."

Aiden sighed. They are really unlucky. Who would have thought that taking a short path through the forest will lead to such misfortune?

= Master, I detect demon powers from the front.

'Yeah. I can sense it even from here. This entire army is acting strangely and seems corrupted. I don't think my martial spirit can purify anything with such significant size.'

= Of course, you can't.

'They are kind of strange. I can't detect any life.'

= My scan shows that they indeed are not alive.

A chill runs through his back.

'Are you saying they are zombies?'

= Affirmative. They are indeed just that.

"Day just getting better and better." - he said it out loud while sighing. Aiden never in his dreams thought what they will fight are real zombies, not some tribesmen. That just became even more complicated. Who knows what abilities they have? Or is there a rule of one bite? Will you become like them from it?

But that's not all. If they are undead, then they didn't need to breathe. Aiden looked at the swamp and suddenly scowled in indignation, remembering a movie where skeletons attacked a fortress just by walking through the seabed to the shore.

"Old man. We are in trouble." – Aiden told everything whether they will believe him or not.

"Lad, just spill it out, don't wander around the bush like a virgin girly." – Aiden really wanted to give him a beating for a change of scenery, but not now.

"I can't sense any life force from them, they are walking dead." – the old man looked at Aiden as if seeing a ghost. – "Killing them is possible only if we smash the energy center. Head, heart, or maybe solar plexus, depends on where it is."

The old man finally lost it. He always found it weird that they won't fear death and wounds and stay eerily silent all the time, but it turns out like that!

"Fuck me!" – he cursed, realizing something while watching the swamp. Looks like they both thought about the same thing.

"I don't swing that way!" – Aiden exclaimed, lightening the mood. Well, the interlocutor didn't mean it to be literal.

= Master, I have a proposition. To put it simply, the attribute of your second martial spirit is life. This army essence is close to death.

'So, playing in contrast we can try to stimulate its untapped potential and make it evolve under stress.'

= Yes.

'Plausible, but how risky it is to actually swallow death essence in your body.'

= Life at risk is what you need.

'I'm in.'

= Master is a suicide seeker, I knew it.

'Did you just curse at me?'

= Of course… not!

'Even that pause was deliberate! I can tell that for sure! Nexus, you are getting surprisingly lifelike nowadays. Or am I missing something?'

= Yes, you do. I never said I am not alive. Yet I'm not truly living and my sentience is limited to your wishes.

Aiden was shocked for a while there. So, it was true all along and Nexus really is a sentient being!

'Well… let's talk it out later, now we need to survive. What about death essence and how much do I need?'

= Can't calculate for sure, need to fight them first.

Aiden nodded and went down to the inn and met Sena who was currently cultivating in the silence of the war-ready town.

"Sena, for now, you only need to cultivate and strengthen your energy control and density. Don't go out, it isn't safe. All will be over soon."

Aiden went back to the watch post, hearing not the roars of hundreds of throats, but the eerie silence of lack of living. It was bone-chilling calmness before the storm.

Just as he thought of asking about the attack, the army made a wavelike motion and rushed to the walls like a tide of vast amounts of water. They were agile for zombies, but just as stupid, rushing to the barricades directly only to be shot with crossbow rain of bolts.

They didn't shout and even while receiving the first volley of arrows from the defenders didn't scream in pain. Little to no enemies fell to the ground and Aiden saw that it was not the ones hit in the head, but solar plexus where daintian is. In comparison injury to the brain seems to only incapacitate them for a short time.

'So if I destroy their base of cultivation they will die permanently.'

"What monsters!" - whispered one of the soldiers on the wall.

"Men!" - thunderous voice spread out through the lines of defenders. - "Attack to cripple cultivation, nothing else works to kill them for good."

Aiden unsheathed his sword and infused it with Dragon Sword Aura. Attackers were very good at climbing walls, they did it with the pure power of their bodies, implanting nails and fingers into the stone. If such a strike reached a normal person one can only dream to survive.

He flickered through the top of the wall and pierced one of undead directly in the solar plexus area, killing it. Death force was absorbed through the use of Divine Forge Rings and stored in Lonzaik in crystal form.

= Master, by my estimation you need about a two hundred of such crystals to tap the potential of your second spirit.

'That's a lot. But at least this is a definite goal and not some roaming around.'

He continued the fight, gazing along the wall. There were a couple of troublesome places that appeared due to a lack of masters. Aiden hastened himself, running into the first group. Two spirit masters, there were fighting with a whole dozen of zombies.

Aiden shifted and pierced through one then slashed at the second and created a wave of dragon sword aura, that enhanced his spirit power to be sharper and firmer. It directly blew half of the creatures off the wall and injured the other.

Meanwhile, the duo receiving help acted with diligence and attacked staggering zombies in dantians, directly killing them one after another, letting Aiden harvest residual death force for himself with zero effort.

"Thanks, young man. When all of this is over, I will drink for your wellbeing." - the old man with dense mustache gave Aiden a thumbs up.

"Make it a whole bottle, old man." - said Aiden, while passing to another fierce skirmish. Like that he shifted through the wall and accumulated quite a bit of crystals for himself.

Fight with zombies entered a stable pace, but it was a battle of Pyrrhic victory, as the ones they killed never were alive in the first place. A true war of attrition with no bright end was looming over Gurong Town and its people.

Assault lasted for an hour before receding.