Chapter 104: Old Haunts

Chapter 104: Old Haunts

Bee trudged back to the castle, a bit disheartened. Still, she carefully watched the side of the road and checked over her shoulder regularly. She was aware that this plan had been partly her idea, but that didn't stop her from feeling down.

She regretted being so harsh on Tony before leaving. When they got back, she would probably have to apologize to him. Now that she had enough distance from the problem, she might be able to admit to a certain amount of jealousy. It really didn't matter to her that he would be getting all the experience for a little bit. That was a good thing. No, it was that she was Void’s disciple first.

Intellectually, she knew it wasn't entirely rational, but this was the first time Tony and Void would spend time together. It was hard not to feel cast aside for a more promising disciple. What if he got the priest class soon, too? Then would she even be special anymore? Tony could already understand Void, even if not quite as well as she could.

Shaking her head, she tried to drive the doubt from her mind, though it ate at her relentlessly. Watching the undergrowth pass slowly by, Bee started wishing for a small zombie attack. Just a small one, to give her something to do.

Silas had been right. At this pace, they would make it to the castle just before sunset. If she was on her own, it would have only been a couple hours of running. But concern for her companions kept her at a slow, plodding pace. One thing that concerned her was that there would likely be at least a crowd of undead waiting for them, if not a more devious trap. If they sensed the life force of the family in the castle, that would be more than enough to draw them around, especially if there were some already in the area.

Bee kicked a rock and sent it flying into the trees. This sucks, she thought. Her foot pulled back to kick another stone, then she paused. She hadn’t heard the first rock fall to the ground. Instantly, Bee reached for her broom. Something was wrong. She queried her pathing skill for the nearest undead. It was an action taken on a whim. The skill had been growing recently with her use of it in combat, and she wasn't sure what else it could do.

Before she even felt the results, she wanted to smack herself. Setting up a whole symbol system with Void wasn't necessary at all. She could find her master and Tony anytime that she wanted with this.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

The response of her skill completely derailed her thoughts. Holding up her hand, she halted her small party, "Wait."

Picking up a second rock, Bee hurled it with a lot more strength at a particular point in the trees. She heard a squelch and a thud as a zombie fell out in front of them, its head caved in by the rock. Silas's wife screamed.

This set off a whole chain of events. A dozen yards in front of them, two ghouls poked their hands through the ground where they had buried themselves under the road. From the sides, a few zombies broke through the treeline. Three from each side, though her rock had dealt with one on the left already. One of the other two zombies had a rock partially embedded in its gut.

---

I chirped happily from Tony's arms. We were making decent time toward the city as we trotted along. I asked Tony how many more farms there were. He wasn't able to tell me right away but counted on his fingers as he went through his memory. "At least five, I think."

That wasn't the most helpful answer. I preferred precise numbers, but it was better than nothing. We had been able to get to two or three farms a day while we were all in a group, and I didn't think we would be any faster without Beatrice. So it would be two to three days before we finished searching the valley. Our success rate wasn't great so far; maybe we would find one more family, but the longer we took, the less likely it would be.

***

The next farm we visited was the same. We built another cairn and lit another torch, then moved on. We found two more farms like this. Tony had stopped talking after the third one, and by the fourth, his face was entirely blank.

It was late at that point, as Tony had insisted on pushing on to check one last farm. However, there was no way we were going to make the next settlement today. As it was, I had already watched Tony fall on his face on three different occasions. I found it funny, but I wasn't quite able to pin down why.

As Tony settled down to sleep, I once again started to ponder the meaning of humor.

—

Bee ran to intercept the two zombies on the right, hoping to finish them off before the three on the left reached her wards. The ghouls weren't really something she was worried about. They were so slow it would take them a while to get to her. Once their trap had failed, the two weren't much of a threat.

Broom in hand, she angled the knife and speared right into the eye of the one with the rock in it. Immediately dropping it. It was only level 22, so she didn't expect it to be difficult, but she was half surprised that it fell so quickly.

Because of her surprise, she over-extended slightly, and her pathing skill urged her to roll forward to avoid the arms of the other zombie. She hesitated too long, as she was worried about leaving Silas and Lily exposed.

The only way to avoid the grasping hands of the much higher-level zombie was to fall backward. With her high agility, she was able to turn it into a backward somersault and end up on her feet, but it had already taken too long. She wasn't going to be able to finish this zombie and intercept the three coming from the other side.

She backpedaled, throwing a glance over her shoulder to see the old couple running away as fast as they could. Good, she had a few more steps to work with.

As she moved backward to keep the four zombies in front of her, she started making probing attacks to bait them into overextending. Maybe she could take one out before they could get past her. Two of them were above level 30, and they seemed to have a slight bit of intelligence, at least enough to tell a feint from a real attack.

The other two were not as clever. One she was able to trip with her broom end, and the other three tried to grab her when she was relatively close. The tripped zombie didn't fall completely, but it was as good as she was going to get.

This time when she lunged, she didn't over-extend and pierced the other lower-level zombie just enough to drop it before getting back into her defensive position. With only three zombies left, this shouldn't be much of a problem, she thought.

Though, somehow, the slight bit of cunning in the higher-level zombies told her otherwise.