Defiance of the Fall

alls toward them.

The aim of the first spell was perfect and it hit one of the zombies straight in its throat, but the other one was unfortunately aimed toward the ground, and wouldn’t be able to do any damage.
But just as Zac considered throwing a rock to kill the other attacker something shocking happened.

The first zombie fell backward from the attack, felling the second one who was a few steps behind.
Both the undead fell down on the ground, and the unharmed zombie coincidentally fell into a position where the second fireball hit it straight in its head.
The two struggled for a while, but Zac could sense that the fireballs were infused with the Seed of Tinder, and there was no way they would survive.

The remaining zombies ahead were soon killed by Kenzie’s real attacks, and she moved on without giving the two zombies behind a single look.
It all looked like a great coincidence things worked out, but Zac knew better than to believe that.
It was no doubt Jeeves who helped her out.

At least he hoped that was all it did.
If it was actually taking control of her it was a whole different issue.
It was something that had bothered him ever since they fought the cyborg.
Jeeves and whatever was planted inside the foreman might have come from the same people, and they had no idea if there were some failsafes in the AI that would turn Kenzie into a monster.

“Do you see what I mean?” Ogras said as he slowly shook his head, clearly having a hard time believing what he just witnessed.
“That girl is another type of monster.
What kind of scary woman was your mom to give birth to evil stars like the two of you?”

’

“Well, Kenzie was always the smart one,” Zac coughed, not sure how he would lie his way out of that one.
“I guess she got pretty good at fighting zombies during her time at the Dead Zone.”

Kenzie noticed the attention soon enough and stopped her onslaught, instead opting to walk over to the two.

“Are you ok?” she said with worry in her eyes.
“I’m sure Alea will be fine.
I bet she will be back on her feet by the time we get back to Port Atwood with these people.”

“I’m ok,” Zac smiled, but he wasn’t sure how he really felt.

His rage had subsided after exhausting himself against the zombies, but he was choked up by a feeling of impotency.
There were too many things to do, and it felt like he was spread so thin that he would fall apart.
Worse yet was that his people kept dying and there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“How are the rest?” Zac finally asked, even though he was afraid of the answer.
”How many did we lose? ”

“Half,” Ogras sighed.
“Just above half of the people who set out from Port Atwood are still alive.
Most of the casualties happened two days ago, but there were constant losses during their escape.”

“Half,” Zac numbly repeated.

“The good news is that our fighting capabilities haven’t decreased nearly as much,” Ogras said.
“Most of the casualties were the recruits and the non-combat classes.
Only 12 of your Valkyries and 17 of the demon warriors died.
And you know that the most effective way to get stronger is by pushing oneself beyond one ’s limits.
The survivors can no longer be considered recruits, they are a true army now.”

’

“Still,” Zac sighed.
“Thousands of our people have died.
And for what? The Undead Empire didn ’t even lose a general, and their horde is currently on its way to finishing the array.”

“People fall against the invaders every minute all around the globe,” Kenzie said with a shake of her head.
“We can’t let it weigh us down.
We do what we can and the cards will fall where they will.
It ’s not your duty to save the world alone, we ’re all in this together. ”

Zac looked with surprise at his sister, not expecting such a viewpoint from her.
He would have thought she would be even more broken up about it, as many of those who fell were people that Kenzie socialized with during her stay at the Academy.
Meanwhile Zac hadn ’t even met most of them.

But he soon realized that while Kenzie hadn ’t battled nearly as much as himself she might have lost even more.
He knew she had been forced to witness one person after another dying around her.
First the Tutorial where less than half survived, then being dropped off right next to the Dead Zone.

She never spoke much about her time there, but her occasional comments had pictured a pretty bleak existence even before that old dog started to lust after her.
Most of the friends she had made the last year had already died.
Zac was much better off in that regard.
He hadn’t really lost anything so far, which might be why these deaths felt so heavy on his shoulders.

“We’ll let everyone rest for 8 hours,” Zac said, changing the heavy subject.
“After that we’ll change course and head for Erdenet.”

Advertisements

The army of Port Atwood hadn’t known about the much closer teleportation station owned by the Sino-Indian Alliance, and they were currently heading for an array that was weeks away.
Zac couldn’t spend that much time protecting the army, so he would change course.
The return trip would still take over twice as long as it did while he zapped here on his flying treasure.

He didn’t have the time to divert his attention too long, and he needed to get back to closing Incursions.
Whittling down millions of low-leveled zombies was a waste of his time, and his strength was better spent on putting out the other fires on Earth that others were unable to deal with.

Ogras and Zac went back to the army, but Kenzie wanted to help out with cleaning out the remaining undead in the area so she stuck around.
When the Port Atwood Army heard that they finally would be able to rest most of them simply crumbled down on the cold ground, not even bothering to take out anything to sleep on.

In just seconds snores echoed across the area, while a small group kept watch in all directions.
Normally there would also be a group responsible for looting the army, but the zombies carried nothing of value.
Zac and Ogras stayed in the middle of the army, each taking out a few crystals to regain their spent Cosmic Energy as quickly as possible.

“That was in the nick of time,” a rough voice came from close-by, and Zac opened his eyes to see Ilvere and Janos walk over.