Ten is able to avoid Strils gaze as he franticly scans the room to find the source of the golems. Strils looks around and sees that the golems are doing a lot of damage.
“Damn. DOULOS!”
The 3 zombies all raise their heads and stand at attention. They look at Strils awaiting orders.
“Destroy the golems.”
The zombies rush towards the golems and attack them. The golems are big but Ten sacrificed strength, durability, and intelligence to ensure he could summon more of them. The golems fell apart after a single strike from the zombies. But this was enough as it gave Ten all the time he needed to reach the ship. He places his hand on the ship and using some of Mai’s computing power turns the ship into dust leaving the MYOS that was inside untouched. The bags of MYOS fall to the ground. Strils sees the ship light up and disappears and is shocked.
“NO! WHO THE HELL DID THAT!?”
Ten having successfully completed his objective knows that he needs to get out of there or his life is forfeit. He grabs one of the bags filled with MYOS, places his hand on the ground, and summons some more golems to distract Strils and the zombies. But Strils now knows that the intruder is trying to stop him and that the golems are just a distraction.
“Doulus, find the rat that snuck in and bring him to me.”
Ten has reached the doorway from which he came and is about to run back to where Cleus is. He takes one look back to make sure he isn’t being chased. When looking back he locks eyes with a zombie. The zombie he locked eyes with starts to scream and starts charging towards him.
Ten’s expression goes blank as if he just saw death rushing towards him.
“Dude.”
He quickly regains his composure.
“Oh hell no.”
Ten starts running but the scream alerted the other zombies. Now all three of the zombies are chasing after Ten. Strils sees Ten run off into the cave carrying one of the MYOS bags. Strils’ face twists in anger because he knows that Ten now has proof of something he shouldn’t. Ten is running at top speed, and touching the wall occasionally to quickly bring forth walls that slide in to block his pursuers. The walls do slow the zombies down, but not by much as they just rush through the walls at top speed. Ten knows he just has to make it outside and then he should be able to get some help somehow.
Outside Cleus and Endo are still fighting. Endo has been making sure he stayed out of range from the domain that Cleus created. Endo is doing his best, but it feels like everything he does is countered by Cleus. So Endo tries something that Cleus would never expect. Endo jumps back and lowers his core, when he lands he places his hand on the ground and starts running in a low posture to the left. Cleus has never seen this move before, which means that Endo is either desperate or it’s an ultimate move that he has kept secret all this time. Either way, he is going to have to be careful.
Endo suddenly straightens his posture makes a sharp turn and runs back toward Cleus. He is holding his blood sword as he jumps up to deliver a downward blow. Cleus readies himself to receive the blow and counter it. But then Cleus hears something, it’s the sound of blood bubbling. And in a flash, he remembers when he and Endo were young and talking in the royal garden.
Endo was excitedly telling him about the technique his father the general invented. The technique used spilled blood, old or new, and then with a triggerable delay spawned spikes that would attack the enemy. And the signal for the spikes about to emerge was the bubbling blood.
Endo is about to reach him, but Cleus now knows he has to get out of the way of the spikes about to attack him. The spikes emerge like bullets from a gun and attack Cleus. Because he knew it was coming he was able to avoid any serious damage but he was still pierced a few times as he jumped back. Endo lands on one of the spikes and smiles. He looks at Cleus with a grin he has often shown him.
“Didn’t think you would be able to survive that one.”
Cleus is hurt and bleeding while glaring at Endo. Endo cancels the spikes and they return to their liquid form and fall to the ground. Endo seeing Cleus like that feels like he is back in control of the fight.
“Exactly. This is how it’s supposed to be. You bloody and on death’s door. Still can’t believe you dodged that. I never used that technique so how did you know?”
“An ex-friend once told me.”
This comment made Endo’s eyes twitch a little because the insinuation that they were friends irritated him.
“Time to end this.”
Endo readies his weapon, he is about to deliver the final blow. But then from behind a huge explosion happens. Ten, followed by three zombies spring forth from the doorway causing a huge commotion. Endo surprised, looks back to see what happened. This slight distraction was all Cleus needed.
Cleus uses the blood on his feet to create an explosion of blood. He uses the force generated to propel himself forward at top speed. Endo realizes his mistake of looking away in a battle and turns his head back to Cleus who is coming at him at top speed. Cleus is so fast that Endo isn’t able to react in time and stop the attack. So he has no other choice but to dodge by turning his body. Cleus doesn’t let anything stop him and performs the attack as intended.
A slash that’s so strong and clean that it creates a wind-slashing attack that hits the zombie that is about to reach Ten. The slash has sent Endo’s left arm flying. Endo screams in pain at the loss of his arm, Cleus sees that another zombie is about to reach Ten. Cleus starts running towards the zombie, but as he does he makes sure to catch Endo’s arm that was sent flying. When Cleus has the arm in his hand, he turns the arm into dust and whispers a curse that only the royal family knows.
The wound that Cleus inflicted on Endo was clean. Endo regains his composure as he focuses on stopping the bleeding. He then sees his arm evaporate and suddenly feels something burning in his arm. The wound is starting to glow a strange purple. The pain of the wound intensifies several times over. Endo screams in agony. He has no idea why the wound is burning like this. But he knows that he is in no fighting shape. Endo curses Cleus under his breath, turns around, and runs away.
Cleus jumps in front of the zombie about to catch Ten and stops the attack.
“Ten, you ok?”
“Yeah, I got what we needed.”
“Then …”
Before Cleus can finish his sentence a zombie comes from the side and tries to attack him. He dodges the attack but as he does the third one catches him mid-dodge and punches him. Ten sees Cleus flying after trying to protect him.
“CLEUS!”
The three zombies now turn their focus back on Ten, whose face has gone blank once again as he stares in the face of 3 zombies trying to kill him.
“Mai?”
“I got you.”
One of the zombies throws a punch towards Ten.
Chapter 65 fin
