41 ◇The Awaken Metal Wielder◇

"Damn. Not dead yet?" Lu Xing said coldly, his anger causing him to forego any unbidden fears over acid possibly falling onto his right arm.

The girl from before was sobbing as she watched in fear from many feet away. Her desire to run being outweighed by the guilt of seeing Kuan Mo die. Add the shock from everything up till then, and her mental state was slightly unhinged as well.

Suddenly her inner consciousness felt as though something had opened, and from it poured an unknown strength...

Her eyes began to glow.

All she wanted was for the thing to suffer as it had made everyone else suffer.

Just as suddenly as she had thought it, the metal frames, hinges, and objects anywhere within a 10 feet radius began to rattle.

Unawares, she wished that she were strong enough to fight it...crush it...

Suddenly every single piece of metal flew free from every shop around her and seemed to melt only to meld together, becoming a steel wall before her...

The sudden racket caused Lu Xing to glance at her, and he instantly shadowstepped to her.

Meanwhile, the Acid Spitter was busy gurgling as it gathered the proper amount of acid for its next attack.

"Listen, you need to mentally shove the metal towards it." Lu Xing instructed the moment he reached the girl's side, she stared at him stunned by it all.

Lu Xing gave her a slap, and firmly pointed at the metal wall.

"This is your power, your ability." Lu Xing emphasized, "Now if you want to live..use it."

She finally seemed snap out of her stupor, and nodded as she turned to face metal wall, then physically acted out the motion of pushing it towards the zombie.

It instantly moved, as though she had truly pushed it.

"As soon as it reaches the two feet of it..turn the wall into a bunch of spikes." Lu Xing ordered.

The girl wasn't sure if she could do it but a part of her felt like she could.

Turning to face them, but instead faced with the metal wall, the Acid Spitter was about to move when the wall reached him by two feet.

'Please turn into spikes..spikes...SPIKES!' the girl mentally chanted.

Then the wall turned into spikes, and instantaneously pierced the zombie in multiple places.

☆☆☆

"You think Bro's okay?" Xiaolang asked Mr. Wu for the fifth time since they got to their agreed spot.

Mr. Wu was on his last cigarette by then, and practically beginning to question his life choices at the thought of using up his last pleasurable thing in life.

"For the last time," Mr Wu said irked as he took a long smoke, then puffed out a cloud into Xiaolang's face, "Your boyfriend will be just fine."

Xiaolang was coughing out, and tearing up while he somehow managed to glare at the teacher.

"What is wrong with you! There's a baby in the back seat!" Xiaolang looked to check up on the kids and was relieved to see Xiulan fanning the smoke out the open window, away from her baby brother, "And for your info, Bro is not my boyfriend."

"Oh." Mr. Wu said his brow cocked up, "Then you're free?"

Xiaolang turned red, he began to sputter out, "Nn..nn...oooo!"

"Kid...make up your mind." Mr. Wu said feeling amused.

"Aggghhh..."

Suddenly the noise interrupted his amusement,and Mr. Wu turned to look out at the bed of the truck just in time to catch his student's struggles at shaking off Lu Xing's time pause.

"Looks like sleeping beauties up." Mr. Wu said sarcastically and continued to smoke.

Xiaolang looked at Mr. Wu in disbelief before hoping off the truck to help out the newcomer.

"I ain't no nanny." Mr. Wu muttered.

"Ah...umm..." Xiulan squirmed in the back, "I gotta go peepee mister."

The look on Mr. Wu face suddenly blackened.

☆☆☆

Lu Xing had the girl slam the spikes into the zombie over and over again until no more but a pulp of yucky slabs of shredded zombie goo remained.

'If only...I had known sooner...' Lu Xing thought regretfully.

After Lu Xing knelt down and stopped the girl from going on ceaselessly,he found himself patting the girl's back... People finally coming out from their hiding spots. Some went to check up on the remains, others attempted to make calls using their cellphones...

Only a small handful came up to Lu Xing and the girl to ask if they knew what had happened...and where the guy called Kuan Mo had gone.

Lu Xing ultimately had someone the girl knew, take her, but she seemed unwilling.

"You'll be fine." Lu Xing said, grabbing her hands, "You're strong and capable...from now on, you'll be the one keeping everyone safe."

The girl's eyes had reverted back to their normal dull hue, though she was still in some shock, but could feel herself flow with such powers...

"I..could've saved him? Couldn't I?" She asked, everyone seemed confused, but she could begin to grasp reality.

Lu Xing looked at her...he didn't know which of the two were crueler...a lie, or the truth.

"Maybe...but if you don't want to see anyone else die in front of you..." Lu Xing said gesturing at the people around them, "Then get stronger! Kill more of these monsters! Don't stay back! Take action!"

Her lips trembled, but she rubbed the tears away and began to feel for untouched metal. Shocking the people around her, she could feel the metal flying towards her up until they lined up before her. She willed it into spiked pipes enough for the people around her to carry on them.

After she explained to everyone what had really happened,and they had only to happily taken up the makeshift weapons..did she turn towards Lu Xing.

"I can do this." She said, "I'm Linalee, you are mister?"

She stretched out her hand.

Lu Xing looked at her, then took the trembling hand, "The name is just Wu."

Linalee gave him a small smile, "Ok, Mr. Wu. Do you know what we should do next?"

Looking around at everyone,Lu Xing could tell some of these people would not make it.

He leaned into her ear, and whispered, "I'd cut my losses and take only the people you absolutely trust out of this place."

No one else heard him, and the girl gave him a horrified look.

Lu Xing shrugged and got up.

"There's a kid downstairs, anyone related to him?" Lu Xing asked nonchalantly as he looked around at people's faces.

The majority of people's faces blanched at the thought of heading back downstairs.

No one spoke up, and most looked away.

Seeing this, Linalee turned away, ashamed by people's reactions.

"Is he ok?" Her friend from earlier finally spoke up seeing how no one else was saying a thing, "I don't know the kid, but he was suppose to go with group B. Kuan Mo had us split up, and our group was group A."

He pointedly looked at some of the grownups who were now busily staring at their feet.