My weak little arms shook under the strain of the heavy box. The only thing that kept me going was adrenaline. I have to save Tom and Beep. While it may sound cold, I do not care for the other brats. I am not the type to save those who hope to kill me like Tom. Live or die, I do not care. It is strange comparing myself now to the person I was in the past. I was not like… this. If I had to describe my past self now, I was naive.. Though my past self would probably describe myself now as ruthless. While I refute such an idea, I know this institution has changed me, altered me. Yet, I do not know if it was for better or for worse.

The clattering of bottles made sneaking about quite hard in theory, but the undead were clueless, either not hearing it or just assuming it was nothing of note. My old buddies I ran from were hanging out where they last saw me, apparently thinking I would come back. But they were right. I needed to go that way to get to the courtyard from the building. While I could use an alternate, longer path, I do not fancy walking around outside to the courtyard alone and defenseless.

Thinking for a moment, I had an idea. It was quite simple really. Just use the holy water bottles like grenades! The priest might hate him for it, but it is life and death here! Sacrificing some bottles is much preferable to my life! However, I am not confident in my throwing arm just yet so I needed to either approach or somehow make a trap. The latter would be too time consuming however. If I arrive too late to the battlefield, this may be all for naught. Tom and Beep may buckle under the weight of the horde. No matter how overpowered they are (for their age at least), they do not stand a chance against the waves of ceaseless warfare. Their stamina and will would chip away as the enemy remained at peak condition from their tireless bodies and minds that only think to expand the black tide of death.

Putting down the box and grabbing one bottle, I activate “stealth.” The holy molotov cocktail in my hands strained under the grip of my hands. I was nervous, very fucking nervous. I did not want to, but I had to. Shifting ever closer, my senses scream at me to throw it and run but I knew if I wanted it to hit for sure, I had to get closer. Step after step, I make my way. Beads of sweat run down my face. Fuck fuck fuck. Finally, after an agonized series of steps, I stand a mere distance from them. Releasing my wound up energy, I send the bottle flying at them.

It lands in the center of them, sending bits of holy water everywhere. They claw at the sizzling spots where droplets of water landed on them. At the same time, they humorously bounced their feet up and down from the wet floor like they were barefoot on scorchingly hot pavement. A stab of my spear into the back of a zombie’s head alerted them to my presence, though they were limited in what they could do about it. Only the bone boy that got cracked on the door was reckless enough to attempt to charge at me only to fumble around due to the holy water. I contributed to the crack by stabbing into it and twisting with all my might, shattering the area around the gash while sending it to the floor, the later finishing it off. Only two zombies and a skeleton remained.

Taking out the skeleton was a priority, they are much more difficult to face head on. They have a special resistance to sharp weapons unlike their fleshy counterparts. The only reason my spear worked on the previous one was that the holy water debuffing it. If it recovered, it would be a supreme pain to deal with. I pushed it to the ground, making it flail about in pain. I can only guess what it is feeling right now. My guard down due to the ease of killing the previous skeleton, I froze as I felt something behind me dig their claws in my back. The zombies finally shook off the holy water. With the other end of my spear, I thrusted at the zombie behind me hitting it in the gut. I felt quite cool for a moment before it grabbed my spear and broke off the lower half of it. Shit.

Now with a new short spear, my methods of playing keep away with the zombies are dashed. I weakly kicked away the zombie, stunned for a moment struggling to process the situation. The other is not so absent, bearing its teeth at me, it attempted to bite me. Not wanting to back off from the skeleton, I blocked it with my shield. That turned out to be the wrong move as the other finished thinking and came in for a chomp as well. With little recourse, I block it with my leather gauntlet. Thankfully the bite was weak, it seemed that I was wrong in that the debuffs of the holy water went entirely away.

My only move, I shield bashed the other one and slid out my dagger (since the arm being chomped on was the one handling the spear). The stubborn zombie refused to let go, allowing me to finish it off with a dagger to the forehead. One other was recoiling from the hit as I tackled it and held it down. Here is some steel for you to eat. The short spear dove into its neck. Now for the skeleton… wait… where did it go?