Chapter 53: Race against time (4)

Luke frowned when he saw numerous corpses of mutant zombies around him fallen on the ground. It didn't take long to finish them off, but what was weird was the fact that he didn't level up. It was starting to get hard… or maybe he just leveled up too fast in the last three days. Nevertheless, at least the monsters dropped quite a bit of items… as expected. Stronger monsters have more chances to drop anything. Thanks to that, Amanda's group obtained better gear.

"Defensive items are really hard to find, huh," Luke muttered while he was gathering the potions.

Luke didn't need low-level items, so they agreed to leave the potions with him. Once that was done, they hurried to open the path on the street for the pick up to pass. Thanks to the fat zombies, the vehicle couldn't just run over them.

When they turned right after reaching the hospital, Luke wondered if he shouldn't make a stop somewhere to gather more needles. While fighting up close and using SP to use only Stinger, the utility of Weapon Augmentation was higher. However, when Luke saw many zombies ahead, he confirmed that he wouldn't have time for that…

"Just keep going," Luke said. "We will deal with the enemies and prevent them from hitting the pickup."

Everyone picked the bows and crossbows and began to use them. Meanwhile, Luke grabbed some packs of needles and began to use Weapon Augmentation alongside them. By concentrating enough, he could hit the heads of the mutant zombies when they were thirty meters away from him. Still, only the fire zombies fell with a single hit.

While Luke was using his SP, Shalia used his MP. Since she was more skilled, her magic attacks were more powerful, and she never missed them. However, Luke felt like a boost in strength would grant his needles the extra power to kill even the fat zombies, but Rina was so down that she didn't feel like she was needed. Luke wondered if he should let her feel like that for a while longer as punishment or if he should make her help in order to avoid future problems. According to Rina and Shalia, the more mana of Luke they use, the stronger the connection between them becomes, and Luke was already noticing a difference. Shalia could make Luke recover six more of MP per minute, while Rina's recovery was only making Luke recover five of HP and SP per minute.

In the end, Luke decided to let Rina help once they found a real horde blocking their path. His attacks were working and protecting the vehicle from attacks, so that was fine. Besides, the fat zombies couldn't keep up with the speed of a vehicle, and they took a long time to get up once they fell.

"When the number of enemies is small ahead, focus on attacking the enemies on the ground," Luke said.

It wouldn't make much difference for him, but all experience points were welcome, even more so to those who under-leveled.

When the group approached the 8th street, they found a massive horde right on the crossroad. It seemed that the zombies really knew where they should be to be a real pain in the ass. In any case, that number of targets… it couldn't be compared to the one Luke fought at night. It was at least three times larger.

"We should lure them out and slowly kill them with long ranged attacks while we retreat," Amanda said.

While that was possible, it would only work if Luke used his needles. With the crossbows, his power still wasn't enough to kill even the fire zombies. However, if he levels up once and levels up Archery as well and then puts all the points into intelligence, that will do the trick. In fact, he was probably pretty close to reaching that. However, Luke knew that it would take too much time, and they didn't have that much fuel available.

"You guys keep doing your things," Luke said and then jumped from the pickup.

Luke dashed toward the monsters again, and the others only saw him, a man trying suicide. While they saw him fighting against a large group of monsters before, the number now was just too different. Luke was bound to get hurt, and considering how much blood the enemies drop when he attacks them… However, they didn't know that Luke had Viral Resistance. It was the perfect skill to counter the zombie virus. However, at level one, the skill could only counter the effects of small wounds. So, Luke couldn't get careless.

Before equipping his second sword, Luke bombarded some enemies with Spark Balls, and while they were paralyzed, he beheaded after activating Dash. The skill increased his moving speed by ten percent at level ten, and thanks to the boots, Luke's speed increased by thirty percent. At the cost of only two points of SP per second.

In the blink of an eye, Luke appeared in the middle of the zombies' horde, but before he could retreat, he saw numerous arms blocking his path. The sheer number of zombies was that troublesome. Fortunately, Shalia created two gigantic ice saws and beheaded the zombies that got too close to Luke.

"I can only keep those for ten seconds…" Shalia said.

Shalia couldn't make them fly, so the number of zombies she could kill would depend on how much Luke could move. Without any hesitation, he used Stinger time and time again, making blood and putrid pieces of flesh rain over the area. At the same time, they killed dozens of zombies together.

You obtained 06 experience points.

You obtained 06 gold coins.

You obtained 06 experience points.

You obtained 06 gold coins.

...

While watching Luke kill zombies like a typhoon, Amanda, Celia, and the others attacked with their weapons, but their mouths were still hanging open. Luke had gotten so strong, but it seemed that he wasn't satisfied yet… even when he probably had the power of a tank while moving like that. They wondered if it was just his lust for power or he had other goals… However, they soon recalled that some individuals will get super stronger while using bombs and heavy artillery to kill the zombies. Luke probably didn't want to get behind them. Otherwise, with the world in that state, he would have to follow the orders of others. With that in mind, the group finally noticed the real importance of having power… without it, they will always end up becoming someone else's puppet.