Chapter 758 Side Path

Lee Seng lowered his sword as he straightened himself out. He let out the breath he was holding. He was more exhausted than he thought he was. Cthulu's Moon vanished in his hand as he turned and noticed the undead flower zombie laid in two pieces. Lee Seng and the group watched as the body fizzled into nothing. It left a putrid smell that burnt everyone's nostrils, forcing them to pinch their noses shut.

'Let's move before I throw up.' Lee Seng telepathically told the group. They followed the bend of the road for quite a while, noticing the varying degrees of broken cars grow. The road became less of a road and more stone and earth. Overgrown weeds grew from the broken cars, weaving themselves through the more rusted and empty car shells.

'Hold on a sec. I think I see something.' Keng lifted his hand. 'Over there.' Keng pointed and Lee Seng followed Keng's finger. Lee Seng lifted his foot and then set it back down. A blip of cosmic energy rushed outwards, pinging in the direction Keng had pointed.

'Eight or nine at least.' Lee Seng responded. Keng scribbled in the air. Runes appeared, melding together as Keng finished and lowered his arm.

"Cosmic Flame Hounds." Keng whispered. Silver flames ignited, forming a starry form of hounds. Five hounds stood at attention, looking ahead. "Go." The hounds ran off into the pointed direction. A hound split off to the left while another split off to the right. The hounds jumped and weaved through the cars and overgrown weeds, gathering the attention of the creatures ahead.

'When did you learn that?' Lee Seng asked Keng.

"Years ago. I needed a way to protect multiple people at once. This was based on another summoning technique." Keng answered.

"You don't get to see 'em often, though." Liz spoke up. Lee Seng turned to look at the group. The group seemed to be actively keeping their defenses up while the Glass/Observer stood in the middle of the group. "He doesn't like using it."

"They're a waste of energy." Keng replied. "I found them." Keng lifted his hand up. The hounds stopped as Keng's view  separated from his body, flying into one of the hounds. "There's… one, two… eight nine… Over sixteen of them that I can see."

"What're they?" Manny turned around and asked. "Are they dangerous?"

"They're at the edge of this large road that leads into the city… They look like zombies." Keng answered. "What do you want to do, leader?" Lee Seng looked at Keng and then at Manny. Despite Lee Seng's thoughts, Keng treated Manny like an actual leader. It was the second time so far, Keng had gone out of his way to ask Manny what he thought was the best course of action.

Manny pulled his map open and some of the members turned to look at it. Lee Seng found himself wandering over and peeking as the map's information updated. Five silver dots blinked on the map ahead. There were red dots about a hundred or so feet away from them and the red dots wer slowly growing.

"Right, here's the city." Manny motioned to the right. "We're down here and they're there." He circled each group and bit his lip. "Do you think they're fast, Keng?" The hound Keng possessed rushed forward, revealing itself. Most of the pack noticed the hound right away and turned their attention towards the cosmic hound. The hound slid to a stop and Keng watched. They slowly clambered into a quick run.

"They're runners." Keng answered. His arm dropped and the hound flashed back to its spot, cloaking itself in unison with the other hounds.

The zombies rushed to the spot, revealing over twenty zombies all clambering for whatever the other saw. Keng's face hardened. It would be hard to make it into the city from the large road.

"I don't think we should go that way." Keng told Manny and the others. "Is there another way on the map? Hide and watch." The hounds listened to their master's order as Keng's sight pulled from the hound and back into him. He blinked and turned, noticing Lee Seng wasn't at his side.

'I think we should check down there then.' Ritsuka pointed down the hill towards the thick forest.

'There's a set of walls there, though. It would be hard to move it.' Lee Seng replied.

"Not if Liv does it." Evan pointed out. They turned to look at Olivia. Lee Seng could still tell she was shivering.

'Did she catch a cold or something?' Lee Seng wondered.

"I can do it, but it'll be hard to keep it dismantled with the structure if it's too thick. One wrong move and that whole thing could go down." Olivia replied.

"You sure? You told me you weren't feeling too—" Liz turned to Oliiva.

"I'm fine. I can do it." Olivia cut Liz off. She looked at Liz and produced as much confidence in her face as possible. Liz sighed and nodded.

"Fine. Is there anything down there?"

"I can go ahead, quick." Lee Seng raised his hand. His hand shook slightly and Keng began to shake his head when Manny nodded.

"Go ahead." Manny looked at Lee Seng.

"Huh?" Ritsuka, Evan and Keng shouted in unison.

"Shhh." Calis lifted his finger up to his lips and shushed the three of them.

"Yo-you're gonna let him go just like that?" Keng asked. "Y-you k-know he was shaking earlier, right?"

"If you run into anything, don't try to fight it. Only look for a path to the nearest entrance to the city." Manny ordered. Lee Seng nodded and spun on his heel before looking at Keng. Keng tilted his head, eyes wide and Lee Seng simply smiled and ran off to the hill. Lee Seng did a little jump and disappeared.

Lee Seng glided down the hill without much effort. He secretly thanked the gods for at least allowing him to do something like this without losing his breath. He landed on the bottom, noticing the trees were bunched together.

'It's dark.' Lee Seng thought. He quickly adjusted to the dark with his dark vision and slowly made his way deeper into the thick forest. 'I bet this would look a million times nicer if the city wasn't left to die.' Lee Seng pushed away a low hanging branch and noticed a trial of energy in front of him. He stopped and looked around. He was far enough in that the way he came in was about to be swallowed by the darkness of the forest.

Lee Seng turned and heard a set of croaks. He turned and nearly jumped out of his skin as an undead flower zombie stepped out from behind the tree. It croaked as it slowly trudged along, not even noticing Lee Seng as it passed.

'Are these things really deaf?' Lee Seng wondered. He slowly made his way to the left, away from the energy trail and undead flower zombie. He went around the tree and avoided the bushes to not be heard. Each step was a gamble. Would the creature hear him? Would he accidentally step on a twig?

Lee Seng slowly went around. He flipped his map up and noticed a blinking star. Manny had marked where the nearest wall was. Lee Seng slowly trudged forward, hoping he wouldn't run into the undead flower zombie.

Another undead flower zombie stepped out from the right. Lee Seng stopped as the zombie reared its mouth towards the direction of Lee Seng. Another croak came behind Lee Seng. He gulped as the undead zombie in front of him fully turned its body towards him. It began to move as it croaked.

Lee Seng lifted himself up without hesitation and zipped off around the tree to his right. The two zombies stopped and turned to look at Lee Seng. They croaked and screamed. The entire forest lit up into screams. The zombies rushed towards Lee Sneg, grabbing at the air as Lee Seng immediately made distance.

'That doesn't sound good!' Evan telepathically spoke.

'We have to do something!' Keng told the group.

'W-w-w-w-wait! You're going to go in there with all those things in there? That's suicide!'

'It's not like Lee Seng has a choice now! It's kill or be killed!'

Lee Seng's hand lit up as he raised it up. He fired off a blast of energy and watched the zombie explode into bits. He pointed his hand and fired off another shot. The cacophony of shrieks only grew. Lee Seng could hear many undead flower zombies rushing to his location.

'Manipulate the darkness to my advantage.' Lee Seng thought. He floated higher in the sky, avoiding the snatch of a zombie. The darkness swarmed over him. 'Silent.' An undead flower zombie's head began to bubble. It pointed its head straight at Lee Seng and fired. Lee Seng moved out of the way, noticing the energy fizzling out. 'Ah, not now!'