Mindt: You said that all the city guards turn hostile if we kidnapped Sam. Does that mean that the city guards share general information instantaneously?
Aida: Correct. It's not instant like you said. It takes a few minutes. But at this point, every guard in the city is aware of our missing zombie friend.
Mindt: Good.
"Retro, give me the egg and alert the city guard that we found the zombie at the savepoint."
Retro nodded his head in the unique Bulgarian fashion and ran off. She hadn't told him her plan, but she felt a growing trust between the two of them. They were a team now.
Turning the corner into the alleyway, Vivashek stood with a broad smile on his disgusting troll face. He held his mace in his hand. Next to him, his lizard friend, Rammmmy with 4 m's, hissed. And they weren't alone.
More than a dozen other Nousheads looked menacingly at her. Every one of them was between level 5 and 7. She wasn't sure if they were all vengeance seekers like Vivashek, and she didn't want to find out.
"Well, well, well," Vivashek said. "If it isn't Mindt. I see you've gone up two levels in the last hour. Impressive."
"And I see you've gathered your hunting party. Ready to kill some spiders?"
She slowed her pace a little and tried to give nothing away. The hunting group fanned out, letting her walk right into the center of them.
"Oh yes," he said. "But before we do, there's something else we'd like to kill." He put a palm on his forehead as if remembering something. "Say. Where's your friend on UBR? You know, the one you met on a flight."
Murmurs sounded throughout the group.
"He's just behind me. Went to buy some flowers. Says he can't get fresh flowers on UBR, so this is the next best thing."
The group had fully encircled her. Holy shit, she hoped this worked.
Vivashek laughed. "Flowers? That's bloody perfect. We can put them on his grave. And yours."
"Fucking Synapto cunts!" someone from the group shouted.
She held up a hand, not showing a bit of the absolute terror she felt on the inside. In the distance, she heard the unmistakable crunching of the city guards' armor.
"You're going to kill me?" Mindt said. "After all the trouble I went through to bring you a gift?" She produced the egg from her inventory and held it so everyone could see. She spun around to the people behind her could see as well, but it was really so she could see the entrance to the alleyway.
Vivashek scrunched his face up. "An egg?"
When the first guard came into view, she activated the Rubber Duck Egg. Sam materialized next to her in a blink. One percent remained on his hydration meter.
"Guards!" she screamed. "These Nousheads have kidnapped the zombie!"
The hunting group turned in unison to see the guards rounding the corner. One. Three. Eight of them. All level 10. Retro trotted along behind them.
"Get to the savepoint," she whispered to Sam. "Go now."
She raised her voice in a shout. "They bragged that they stole him from the captain's interrogation room. I heard it from his own mouth!" She pointed to Vivashek.
"Is this true?" one of the guards demanded,
Vivashek looked stunned. "No. She lies!"
"We'll talk this over down at the Citadel," the same guard said. "Drop your weapons."
Everyone began shouting all at once. Pointing fingers and raising weapons, with clearly no intention of dropping them. Chaos erupted, with the hunting group aggressively shouting and the guards commanding them to stand down. She could see Retro in the back, his pick-axe and tortoise shield ready. She turned to see Sam just a few meters from the save point.
"Kill her!" Vivashek bellowed in the madness of it all, and she felt his heavy mace slam into her side. Ice shards peppered the ground as she crashed into the alley's stone wall, head smacking against the hard surface. The world spun around her. Even with her ears ringing, she could hear the sounds of steel on steel as the guards waged battle against the group.
Her Ice Shield at 40%, a shadow appeared before her. She rolled to the side. A mace came down a second later, cracking the wall sending pebbles every which way. Vivashek grunted with exertion. She targeted him with her Torpedo spell and fired, sending the asshole of a troll crashing into the center of the battle.
She took a moment to see where Sam was, and her heart sank. She watched as the zombie pounded on the magical barrier of the savepoint, unable to pass through. He turned and found her. The zombie. No, the man inside that shell. He knew it was the end. Their eyes met for one last time, and his hydration meter ticked down to 0%.
She closed her eyes, tears forming.
That's when all hell broke loose.
A deafening roar echoed, a sound so loud that she covered her ears and pulled her knees to her chest. When she opened her eyes, Sam had transformed.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Wiki: Corporeal Revenant (AKA Zombie). Level 20.
Putting the "apocalypse" in The Zombie Apocalypse, the corporeal revenant was once a human living peacefully in a non-hostile zombie. That is. Until you let that human die. Pretty sure that's second degree murder.
The transformation process occurs in several distinct stages:
Stage 1: The "Oh No" Phase
- Inexplicable improvement in posture.
- Eyes begin glowing red, though some subjects display a more budget-friendly orange hue.
Stage 2: The "This Isn't Good" Phase
- Rapid muscle enhancement and elongating fingers.
- Jaw unhinges like a snake through a process that scientists have described as "honestly, pretty gross".
Stage 3: The "Run!" Phase
- Achievement of running speeds that violate several traffic laws.
- Skin becomes armored, resembling beef jerky left in the sun too long.
- Emission of a high-pitched screech that sounds like a dial-up modem having an existential crisis.
Be advised, these types of zombies are hostile as fuck. This will probably be the last wiki entry you ever read.
Sam leapt onto the nearest living thing, a human Noushead holding a mage's staff. His claws sank into the unsuspecting mage and Sam's head seemed to fold backwards at the mouth. He snapped his mouth closed around the mage's head, completely devouring it in one bite. The decapitated body fell backwards as Sam lunged forward onto his next victim. He ripped the throat out of one of the guards and bit one of Rammmmy's arms off before Mindt could even make sense of what was going on.
"Oh shit," she said to herself. There were maybe 4 or 5 people between her and Sam. She wouldn't last a second against him. A crossbow bolt came out from the crowd and stuck into the zombie's chest, followed by a spell, some sort of wind magic, which didn't seem to do shit. A health bar appeared, but barely went down.
She scrambled to her feet as Sam ended the lizardman with a bite to the face, blood splurting out in gushes.
"To me!" a guard shouted. "Form a li—" He never finished the command.
Sam was killing people faster than she could get away. The guards stood their ground but the other under leveled Nousheads were beginning to run for their lives.
She heard a scream a couple meters behind her. She targeted the wall above her and fired a Torpedo causing a shower of debris to fall behind her. She had no idea if that would do anything to slow Sam.
More guards ran past her to engage with the zombie and she found herself running side by side with Vivashek. He had dropped his club in the carnage, but that didn't stop him from ramming a shoulder into her, causing her to trip and fall against a wall. She stole a glance at Sam, and saw little sparks of lightning coming off him as the guards prodded him with spears. It was Retro's Storm Chaser aura, she realized.
She cast Oops I Dripped It Again over the zombie, and a pool of water formed over his head before splashing to the ground, making everything wet. The lightning sparks instantly doubled in size. Sam's health bar sank down to 85%.
They weren't doing enough damage. Only three of the guards remained.
Back on her feet, she ran out of the alleyway to find Retro.
"I cast my lower defense spell on it, but it's too strong," he said.
All around them, NPCs and Nousheads ran. Everyone except Vivashek. He was eating something, a mushroom. There was a strange sound effect like an ascending arpeggio, and he grew at least another meter taller, muscles bulging like a ripped bodybuilder. He picked up a fruit stand like it was nothing. At first, Mindt thought he intended to fight Sam, but then he threw the fruit stand at her.
For the third time in two minutes, she found herself smashed against a wall. Her Ice Shield was gone, and her health was at 60%. Worse, she was pinned under the fruit stand. That's when Sam emerged from the alleyway.
His first target was a laughing Vivashek, whose laughter quickly turned to screams of terror as Sam leapt onto the troll and began biting him to shreds.
She clicked on a health potion, topping off her health, but it would do no good. Sam would be done with Vivashek in seconds. She looked around for something to help her lift the stand off her and found Retro lying prone on the ground. "Stunned" appeared over his head.
The ghost of Vivashek hovered over his corpse, looking bewildered, and Sam turned his attention directly to Mindt. Sam's health was at 70%. The raging zombie single-handedly killed all the guards and several Nousheads and all they did was 30% of damage.
"Oh shit," she said again.
She Torpedo'd the fruit stand, causing the splinters of it to pelt into Sam, who just made an ear-piercing screech in anger. She fired one Torpedo after another at Sam, completely emptying her mana. Each Torpedo sent Sam back a step, but it did not send him flying like all the other mobs. She used her mana potion, and emptied her mana reserves again with another wave of Torpedos.
Sam recovered in no time at all, his health at 65%. He lunged at her and sank his claws into her belly, lifting her off the ground.
Wellness: You are experience massive bleeding. God, this is so depressing. Come now, sweet death. I am ready.
Sam loomed over her, his jaw unhinging with a sickening crack. She could feel his rancid breath, hot and putrid, as his maw stretched wide. She saw rotting teeth, strings of dark saliva.
Time seemed to slow. This was it.
But then - Sam's head was gone.
Puzzled, she looked down to the headless body, and she fell as the strength of the claws holding her up gave out. The razor like claws ripping out of her was agony, and she collapsed in a heap.
A figure approached holding a sword in his hand, and he cast a healing spell on her. Her health bar went from 10% to full. A slew of notifications filled her vision, but minimized themselves so she could review them later.
"Can you stand?" the figure said with a piece of candy sticking out of his mouth. The name over his head was Lord Roland of House LaMonica.
Exhausted, she struggled to her feet. Roland cast another spell on Retro, who blinked dazed.
Wiki: Lord Roland of House LaMonica. Level 85.
This is a Hero NPC.
This is a head of a House.
Born to a powerful noble house, Roland surprised many by eschewing the traditional path of court politics to join the city guard as a common recruit. His rise through the ranks was steady but unremarkable until the Plague Year, when he refused orders to barricade the poor in their district to contain the disease. Instead, he turned the Citadel and guard barracks into emergency hospitals and organized the distribution of medicine to all citizens, regardless of status. His actions cost him politically but earned him the undying loyalty of the common people.
Now, twenty years into his command, Lord Roland's name has become synonymous with the guard itself.
Plus, he's got a serious sweet tooth.
"Close call," Roland said, pulling the lolly out of his mouth with a pop. He waved it around, gesturing. "And a big mess."
A small crowd gathered, NPCs and Nousheads alike, including the Noushead with the black and purple plate armor she saw earlier that day. His name was Butterknife.
Roland knelt over a fallen guardsman, speaking solemnly in a low voice, before rising again to speak with Mindt.
"Good men fell today," he said. "A zombie transformed into this monstrosity?" He pointed his candy at the headless corpse of Sam.
Still catching her breath, Mindt just nodded.
Frowning, the nobleman said, "Dire news. We will need to purge the zombies outside of the city before any more can transform."
"Wait!" she said desperately. "Lord Roland, there's something you should know." She turned to the crowd of Nousheads gathered. "There's something you all should know."
All eyes fell on her.
Before she told them all she knew about the Zombie Apocalypse quest, she went to Retro and hugged him tight. "I'm glad you're okay," he said.
They broke off the hug, and she said to him quietly, "I have a strange request."
"Sure," he said.
She looked at ghost of Vivashek, and said, "Can you buy some cheap flowers?"