The smell of rotting flesh wafted into the air, hitting their nose. Kazuki gagged, his hands covering his nose. Lillan expression also darkened, she took a cautious step forward. Her eyes narrowing at the slumped figure.
A body of a man lay curled up against the wall—or what was left of it. His skin pale and dry like parchment, clothes tattered and caked in dirt. One arm was twisted under him and other draped limply over a burlap sack.
"What the hell..." Kazuki muttered, inching close despite the growing pit in his stomach.
Lillan crouched beside the body, checking any signs of life. "He is long gone." She said voice low. "No blood or cut. How did he even die then?"
kazuki leaned over her shoulder, his focus no longer on corpse. "Is that a ration bag?"
Lillan frowned and shot him a side-eye. "Seriously?"
"I'm just saying, he won't need it anyway."
He reached for the bag, prying away from the mans grasp. The fingers were stiff, and bag was coiled in his arms but with little maneuvering it came out.
As the bag came out of man's arms, the corpse twitched subtly. The arm rolling on the floor. Almost imperceptible jerk of shoulder.
Kazuki froze. "Did you see that?". The bag hanging limply on him.
Lillan didn't answer, she stood up. "Kazuki, step back." He did that. Her other hand hovered over the body frost spell ready at moment's notice. Then corpse's head snapped back, with sickening crunch, a hollow groan spilled out form his cracked lips. Cloudy eyes rolled back, an unnatural glint taking place in them. The limpy hand twitched dragging across the floor.
Before the creature could take a move again. The temperature plunged, a sharp spear of ice launched from Lillans hand, impaling the zombie clean through the chest. The body froze, frost locking it in its place. Whether or not it could rise it didn't matter. With it's circumstances it's certainly not moving anytime.
A sharp grasp rang out behind her. Kazuki's hand slithered against her shoulder. "Oh My GOD! Lillan look at this." She turned around fast, her purple eyes widening as her eyes settled on Kazuki's face tears and snort raining down like waterfall off the cliff.
He took another crunch. "Lillan, bread. Look." He held up a slightly squished and stalled bread on his both hands, in a protective embrace like he had found his holy grail. A short circuited in Lillan brains, she could feel something rising from her depths of heart. She moved a foot and snatched the rack.
Sighing. "Thank god! There is another one...Or else there would have been a murder today."
Sniffing and wiping his nose with sleeve, he laughed and choked. "Eazy, Eazy. No need for violence."
The time had aged the bread, making it a little hard, and a bit of fungi clung to the end like a greenish mushroom, which she scraped off with her cloak. She concluded her objective assessment: It's barely edible.
Yet, she munched on it like her life depended on it. Coughing midway through the bite, nearly inhaling a crumb, even then she didn't stop, powering through sheer will.
He thumped her back, Lillan flinching with each one. Laughing in pure ecstasy as if the sole survivor in post-apocalyptic world. "That is, it. Bread is life. Thousand times better than chicken." The system certainly disagreed but he chose to ignore the party pooper.
Lillan wheezed, eyes watery and one time when the Kazuki thumped her back in loud force. She stumbled forward, catching her just in time with one hand on the ground, the other still clutching the last crumb of breath like a lifeline. She was almost inch away from kissing the floor.
"Oopsie."
She ate the last bread crumb, washing down her throat. Then she stood up with vengeance in her eyes. "Oopsie?" She hissed, her expression twisting to man verge of insanity.
Kazuki raised his both hands in surrender. "Alright, alright! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to accidently—almost break your spine." Stepping back, his hands flailing, dancing like a wild animal. "I swear, it was for your safety... you know, just in case you choked on the bread."
She didn't relent, stepping one foot after another, blueish oceanic mana dancing in her arm, and shaping into a dagger. That spoke louder than words.
Run
Kazuki made a sprint toward the door. He didn't want to wait and find out what she was up to. A series of loud footsteps echoed behind him. She was chasing him, that meant she was serious. This time he had probably outdone himself again on stupidity.
Passing through the gate the sunlight shone in his eyes. Flaring his vision. Then, in blur of motion, something crashed onto his back, with a force that could rival a thunderstrike. She coiled with him, sending him crashing onto the ground with an audible thud.
Kazuki's breath was knocked out of him, body pinned beneath her. With his back to the ground. Lillan straddled him, knees digging into his sides. Her face hovered above his, her violet eyes burning with an intensity that sent a shiver down his spine.
"You think you can outrun me?" she asked, her voice dangerously soft, lips curling into a twisted smile. The dagger of ice she had summoned gleamed dangerously in her hand.
"You know I have been putting up with your nonsense since forest. Lillan this, Lillan that. Stupid jokes about chicken and bullshit about dragons and all the more..."
Kazuki's chest heaved as he stared up at her, panic rising. "Lillan, come on! I—uh—" His face crunched as if holding something back. Then his face found some hope, meeting her eyes. "Chicken jokes weren't that bad eh."
Lillan's eyes narrowed even further, her lips curling into a dangerous smile as her ice dagger shimmered threateningly above him. Kazuki's words seemed to only fuel her wrath, her grip tightening around his wrists, pinning him down even more.
Then a bone chilling sound rumbled above them. A low-hoarse groan from something half dead.
Kazuki eyes widen in horror, his eyes darting past her shoulder. "Lillan—!"
With a burst of panic-fueled strength, Kazuki threw his weight to side. She let out a startled yelp, not having the chance to react. Rolling off to the side. Just in time a spat echoed beside them. A rotting arm with chunks of flesh missing, slammed on the ground where they'd been.
Kazuki stood up, in time to see another zombie, on the opposite side of doorway. Kazuki's hands shimmered, with light flickering in and out. Under the sunlight, a gleaming dagger materialized in his hands.
The zombie lunged ahead with a snarl. It's eyes locking onto Kazuki with primal hunger.
Instead of avoiding the challenge, Kazuki jumped on the zombie. Unlike previous time he didn't ran away or hide behind Lillans back. Lillan turned just in time, her heat skipped a beat. Panic flared in her violet eyes as she saw him tackling an undead creature head-on.
"Kazuki, what are you doing?! RUN!" She yelled, her hands already had circles with weaving spells.
Just a zombies clawed swiped through the air. His hands moved dagger in an upward motion. Logically the claw should meet his face faster or at least in time as his dagger.
But then—
[Skill: [Mana Edge]: Grade: C Activated.]
Description:
[Imbue your weapon with mana to extend its reach with a sharp, invisible blade of energy. Enhances cutting power and range while active.]
A rush of mana surged through his veins to the dagger. It shimmered, growing faintly with bluish light. Then it stretched, extend beyond physical reach. A transparent blade crackled to life, humming like a charged wire.
SLASH.
The claw never reached him, instead, the extended blade cleaves through zombie's wrist. Black blood oozing out. The creature shrieked in a gurgled groan, lurching back.
His front half fell onto the ground with a thud.