Seraphine stepped out of the room, her boots crunching against the broken stones and jagged concrete scattered across the ground. The air outside was heavy, thick with the stench of decay.
And then she saw them.
Hundreds of zombies....
The sight was enough to make anyone's stomach burn.
The zombies were scattered across the open area, some twitching aimlessly, others tearing at unidentifiable remains.
They were far enough away that they hadn't caught her scent or heard her footsteps yet, but the sheer volume of them was suffocating.
She knew she couldn't just charge in--no sane person would fight a hundred zombies head-on. She wasn't the protagonist of some story either.'
Her mind was racing. She needed to draw their attention to the opposite side, far enough away so Rina and the others could escape toward Gymnasium.
Several ideas flickered through her thoughts: throwing debris to create noise, using her frost spell to shatter concrete for a distraction, or even baiting them with her own movement before slipping away.
But each plan carried risk.
Seraphine exhaled a long, steady breath, her grip tightening on the hilt of her sword.
She had already decided to become stronger, and as her father had always taught her, strength was a prize won only through risk. Staying safe in the shadows wouldn't sharpen her skills or level her abilities.
She stepped out from behind the debris, fully exposing herself to the open plaza. With a deliberate, forceful motion, she swung her sword against a jagged metal beam sticking out from a collapsed pillar.
CLANG !
The sharp echo rang through the ruins, bouncing off broken walls.
Immediately, the nearest zombies snapped their heads toward her, their hollow eyes locking onto the sound.
'Here they come,' she thought, her grip tightening.
The first zombie, a tattered remains of a man in a lab coat, lunged at her with its yellowed teeth bared.
Seraphine didn't panic. She stepped lightly to the side, letting the creature's momentum carry it past her. In one fluid motion, she brought her blade down in a powerful vertical slash across the back of its neck.
The head separated instantly, rolling across the cracked ground.
A series of glowing notifications flickered in her mind...
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{ [ You have successfully killed and absorbed the Dharma Power of level :1 - 'Zombie Student' ]
[ You have acquired 300 Dharma Power (DP) ]
[ You have leveled up!! (LvL : 2-->3) ]
[ You have received (2) Attribute Points (AP) ] }
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Killing a zombie was pretty much easy, you just need to slice the head off their body.
But Seraphine knew the real danger wasn't in the zombie-it was in their swarm. If they rushed her all at once, then it would practically be a death sentence.
And that was exactly what was happening now.
From the front, a tide of zombies surged, their grotesque figures stumbling and sprinting toward her. She could clearly see the chaos about to unfold.
Seraphine didn't waste anymore time as she dropped to one knee, pressing her hand gently against the cracked ground.
She invoked her Frost spell.
Ice sparkles poured from her palm, spreading across the road in veins of frost. The surface shimmered as the cold spread outward, coating the rubble in a thin, brittle layer.
The frost spread in all directions, glowing faintly under the dim light.
It didn't freeze the road entirely, only the surface. But that was enough. A single thrust of her sword could shatter the ice floor.
Her mana drained exponentially...
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ATTRIBUTES :-
• MANA : 10 (-9)
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Seraphine's frost spread across the ruined road. She had frozen a thirty-meter radius around her, creating a shimmering, treacherous arena.
She stood calmly, sword in hand, waiting.
The guttural cries grew louder.
"Graccck." "Groooook."
"Greeeekk."
"Goaraaak."
"Greeeo…kk… groooaek."
The zombies were practically racing one another, driven by a mindless hunger to be the first to tear into the living human standing before them.
The frontmost zombie finally took the bait.
(._.)
The moment its decaying foot hit the ice, it found zero traction. Its leg whipped out from under it, and it slammed face-first into the frozen surface.
The momentum of the horde became their greatest enemy.
Some zombies slided helplessly across the ice like pucks; Others followed, sliding uncontrollably across the ice. Some fell and rolled, limbs flailing. Others skidded violently, colliding with each other in chaos.
The horde erupted into a cacophony of panicked sounds:
"Grooookkk."
"Grok. Gok. Gok. Gok."
"Groooark."
They scrambled to stand upright, their dull minds were unable to comprehend that why the ground had betrayed them.
They ended up kicking and colliding with one another, spinning off in random directions.
The terrifying charge had turned into a pathetic, sliding circus.
Seraphine watched it all unfold, her lips tugging into a smug smile. 'Perfect, Just as planned.'
They were no longer a threat now.
The zombie skidded across the ice, knees scraping, head tilted upward-stopping directly in front of Seraphine in a pose that more or less looked like a marriage proposal.
'Seriously?' she thought, but didn't waste a second. Her blade swung in a clean arc, severing its head.
The skull rolled across the frozen ground, blood spraying from the neck like a broken fountain.
Seraphine moved through the ice with effortless grace, years of ice skating experience as a child made the treacherous terrain feel like a personal playground.
She began beheading the zombies one by one. They were pathetic and sprawling on the ground, flailing like newborns.
One slash..
Another...
Then another....
Each strike was flawless, heads rolling and bodies were collapsing.
The notifications rained inside her mind, but she was used to it now.
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{ [ You have successfully killed and absorbed the Dharma Power of level :1 - 'Zombie Student' ]
[ You have acquired 300 Dharma Power (DP) ] }
{ [ You have successfully killed and absorbed the Dharma Power of level :1 - 'Zombie Student' ]
[ You have acquired 300 Dharma Power (DP) ]
[ You have leveled up!! (LvL : 3-->4) ]
[ You have received (2) Attribute Points (AP) ] }
.
.
.
{ [ You have leveled up!! (LvL : 3-->4) ]
[ You have received (2) Attribute Points (AP) ] }
.
.
[You have leveled up!!]
.
.
[You have leveled up!!]
.
[You have leveled up!!]
.
.
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She cut down one zombie, then another, and another--a flawless sequence of precision slashes.
White lights began to emanate from the headless corpses, indicating item drops, but Seraphine ignored them as she was in the middle of a total massacre.
Midway through the slaughter, she caught sight of a group of five girls moving through the chaos unnoticed. Rina and Seraphine locked eyes for a brief moment, exchanging a silent, resolute nod.
Rina's team, carrying the injured Lisa, sprinted toward the gymnasium as their last hope of safety.
Seraphine turned back, her grip tightening on the hilt, she didn't let her focus falter for a second. She couldn't afford to falter. Not now when their survival depended on her holding the line.