WhooooOOooshHHh! Boom!
A thin, guided arrow shot through the crowd of zombies before smashing into the asphalt below.
"Damn it." Chen scoffed, seeing the results.
A thousand dead bodies lay strewn over the ground. However, there were still around seven thousand zombies in the streets.
Ironically, the zombie army's size was the reason it hadn't breached the eighth floor. With hundreds of sick people smashed against the door, none could touch the door handle.
Moreover, countless died of asphyxiation pressed against the walls, creating a buffer wall.
Between the dead bodies and smashed claustrophobic environment, none could build momentum to break through the wall or reinforced door.
It was a miracle that the group couldn't believe.
"Is it even possible to curve it at the last moment?" Chen asked, "Or was that just lucky?"
"Just look up like your eyes are rolling to the back of your skull." Aaron said, standing and watching the progress, "And then cut the direction at that moment. Otherwise, it'll reverse course immediately."
He waved his hand lazily, creating an arrow-sized Qi bolt. Then he swiped his hand, and it shot through the window and into the crowd of zombies.
Once it pierced through three sick people, he looked to the sky without bending his head, and the arrow shot up.
Everyone watched in disbelief as the arrow returned to the eighth floor, albeit far away.
"Damn...." Denzel said in awe, looking at the twisting arrow moving up and down, "Is that shit unlimited?"
"Unfortunately not." Aaron chuckled, "As far as I know, it can only move in the direction you send it out. So you can use it like a sewing needle, or a snake, whichever image helps you the best."
"That's still fucking cool! I'm going to--" Jackson cried, standing up weakly but falling back to the ground.
"I know you're excited, but you gotta recover your strength, kid." Denzel chuckled, "You're way too excited. Just focus on cultivating, and we'll keep working on it.
Moe, Renton--are either of you going to try?"
"I'm not." Moe said dryly, "I'll take my chances with the cultivators and 'Immortals.'"
"I'd rather not get near that window again." Renton said bitterly, "Can't you let us check on the barricade? It's making me nervous not knowing if it's been breached."
"No." Eric said coldly, "You'll hit the second floor and hop out the back window, escaping while the zombies are distracted. You're nothing but trouble."
"You're treating us like we're conniving like little miss can't-save-you-from-ourselves." Moe scoffed, "We're not like that."
"We all know you're plotting to escape, so stop the act." Chen scoffed, "It just annoys us more."
"Don't talk for everyone." Renton scoffed, "Not everyone's okay with natural selection training. What do you think, Denzel?"
The dissidents in the group were Brenna, Wilson, Renton, Moe, and Denzel. In the beginning, the most vocal was the buff black man looking out the window.
"Considering that one of you tried pushing Aaron out of a window, I'm gonna call bullshit." Denzel said dryly, "And you're annoying the shit out of me, too. So keep me out of it."
"What!?" Moe snapped, "When did you become that bitch's dog!?"
"I'm not anyone's [dog]." The black man declared, giving her a murderous glare that shut her down, "I don't like getting treated like shit or the idea of second-class citizenship.
But now I understand that things are gonna get worse once we meet the other Immortals if we don't prove ourselves. So I'm doing what I can to keep ahead before the shit goes down."
"That's the problem, isn't it?" Moe asserted, "You're following along with this BS when the Ice General will let her spoiled kids beat you up, spit on you, and even murder you.
If she's the type that would allow her people to do that to you, why could you want to follow her? When did you get so stupid?"
"Shut the fuck up, Moe." Denzel said coldly, "I complained about our living conditions, but I was never stupid or suicidal. You're being both, right now."
Moe stood up in anger and stomped over to the man. However, everyone froze when they heard people outside the window.
"Get down!" Aaron ordered forcefully. When the frozen woman didn't comply, he released his cultivation base, and she dropped to the ground.
Everyone listened in dead silence as a group of three walking on top of the strip mall rooftops came into view. A well-dressed Asian man, a short-haired brunette, and a petite pink-haired teen.
"What are a bunch of teens doing out here?" Denzel whispered.
"Killing you if you don't shut the fuck up." Aaron scoffed murderously, "Don't underestimate people, especially when they're clean dressed. Just watch."
The black man looked at the group again with full concentration. When he did, his heart nearly stopped when the pink-haired teen glanced at him for a split second.
-
"Are they there?" Rein said without glancing at the building, walking casually.
"Yeah, the whine nuggets are in the building." Kiera said in annoyance. She stopped, looking ahead of her at the area outside the area below the window.
"What type of low-grade hillbilly hack attack is this?" She asked the other two, "Are they just spitting death on these things randomly?"
Countless bodies were strewn over cars and roadways, creating rivers of blood. However, the terrain was uneven, due to the random bodies stacking up. There was no methodology to the attack; it seemed like they were shooting at them randomly, killing them one at a time.
"I don't know." Steve said, "But isn't that better for us? They did 100% of the work for us by setting up a perfect demo stage; isn't that a great thing?"
"Not really." Rein scoffed, "We're supposed to teach these people what they're up against. We're just putting things into perspect, we can't break their will to figh--Kiera, what the hell are you doing?"
"These people don't know Kazey's greatness." Kiera replied, pulling back her hand, "So we're going to bitch slap that truth right into them. That's what I came here to do, and what I will do."
"W-Wait, Kiera!" Steve called out, "We're--"
-
Aaron, Denzel, Chen, Jackson, Moe, and Renton watched in a trance as the pink-haired teen pulled her hand back. They didn't know what was going to happen.
A moment later, the entire street around the zombies warped as if the people were looking through clear, contorting smoke.
It wasn't just the area outside of the area. It spread out over a city block, filling up the buildings in the area as well. The zombies groaned, feeling their lungs burning.
-
"KIERA, YOU CAN'T IGNITE THAT!" Rein screamed, "PLEASE--"
-
They heard the short-haired brunette plead with the fiery pink-haired teen, but it was already late.
A golden-red shooting star cut across the area, causing the entire area to warp. A split second later--
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
CRAaaaShhHSHhhhHhhHhhH!
--the Lainwright soldiers flew backward when a massive heat wave crashed into the building, shattering every window and flinging them across the sales floor.
They flew into multiple desks, pierced with shrapnel and broken furniture. A normal mortal would've died instantly from the head, glass, or force.
It wasn't over, either.
BOOOOM! Boom! BOOM! Boom! BOOM! Boom-boom-boom! BOOM!
Cars blew up as their gas tanks exploded, shattering windows in every nearby building.
Every explosion rocked the foundation of the building, making it shake around the team. Moreover, the compressed oxygen on the lower floor caught fire, burning the foundation.
In the blink of an eye, the sturdy building that had survived decades in a peaceful world began crumbling to the ground.
Eric and Layla, who had been watching the barricade, shot over to the team.
"ARE YOU OKAY!?" The bald Hispanic man asked.
Every team member was unconscious or groaning when they ran up, most with third-degree burns.
"We need to get these guys out of here!" Aaron yelled, one of his eyes bleeding from glass shrapnel, "Be careful; there's glass everywhere!"
Every window on the floor had exploded, sending large bulletproof glass shards into everyone's body. It was a brutal sight that pierced through Eric's heart.
"Snap out of it, soldier!" The red-haired Lieutenant Captain yelled, "This place could go down at any moment. Unless you want thirty floors crashing down on us, help me out!"
The bald Hispanic man shot into action, grabbing Denzel, wheezing with a massive piece of glass stabbing through one of his lungs.
Then he grabbed Jackson by the arm as Layla picked up Moe.
"Please don't be dead...." Aaron grabbed Chen and Renton with an aggrieved expression. "We're so fucked if you killed yourself."
The red-haired soldier couldn't care less about what happened to the team members. He feared the consequences of Kiera killing herself.
Aaron didn't have long to think about it, as the building's roof collapsed on top of him.
As he prepared to die, a pink blur crashed through his vision, and he felt a brutal force crash into his chest, knocking him out and sending him across dead space horizontally.