Max and Albert heard the eerie voice. They were immediately on guard, knowing that the enemy was lurking nearby.
A laughter, that of a maniac, echoed throughout the walls. Max was searching for the owner of the voice, trying to ignore his fear of mysterious people.
???: So, you have chosen to die. I don't know how you found this place, but I'll be happy to let you enjoy my Castle of the Dread.
Castle of the Dread?? Max wondered what it meant, and he was tensed. He was trying to anticipate an attack from the porcupine man.
Suddenly both of them heard rumblings all around the castle. Something was moving inside. Something huge. Max steadied himself, as the ground underneath him started vibrating. As the sounds grew louder and louder, they realised that it was coming toward them.
Suddenly, all of the sounds stopped. And all they could hear was a single, measly sound of footsteps.
They both turned to the general direction of the sound, and in the corridor ahead of them, on the opposite side of the gap, was a man.
He was dragging his feet, and had cuts and stitches all over his body. His eyes were bulging out, round and white. The area around his eyes, were a dark red, the colour of dried up blood. His lips were missing, as if they were melted, and his yellow teeth were visible, mostly broken. His joints looked dislocated. His leg was in a horrible condition, as if broken with a hammer, and he just looked straight at the duo.
Albert: What..?
Max: Ewww....yuck...!!
Max saw that, it's skin was falling off, revealing his broken bones inside. The man's body was a complete mess, as if he were a zombie. And Max, hated zombies. This would have been a different situation if Lonnie were here. He was fearless.
Max: That guy looks gross..!!
Albert: You need to steady yourself for a fight, Max! There are more..!!
Albert said it, slightly sweating. He put his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to engage.
Suddenly, the zombie looking guy screamed and started running to his right. This was problematic to Max, as it was the direction he needed to take to reach Max. Despite being a zombie, he was very fast, even while dragging his feet. And from the door that was directly opposite from Max, came even more zombie-like people. They were all screaming and roaring, and suddenly the sounds of huge stampede resumed.
Albert: Someone is using a Blessing to manipulate the passage of sound, I think. Tsk-
Albert grunted as zombies from all sides started running towards them. They should have run to any of the doors present in that floor, but it was too late.
The first zombie had already reached Max, but Max was too terrified to fight it. Upon close inspection, this zombie was wearing tattered, dirty clothes, which were filled with fungi and almost decaying. It was a corpse brought to life.
Albert: Duck..!!!
Albert ordered Max to duck. Which he thankfully did. Albert pulled out the Excalibur from his sheath and in one swift swing, he cut its head out. The head went flying down to the hallway in the middle, four floors below.
???: Wowwww!! Do we have a challenger up here..???! That's amazing!!
The mysterious voice started up again, acknowledging Albert's strength. Max deduced that this man was closely seeing them in surveillance.
???: So tell me, Mr. Tresspasser..do you have a Blessing?? If you do...then which one is it..??!?!?
Albert didn't answer, being the stoic man he was, and kept slashing the zombies that had already caught up to him.
Another one of the zombies started attacking Max, but Albert was preoccupied. Until now Albert had taken care of every one of them, even the ones on Max's side. Max realised that he was just being a burden. And it's stupid if he thought he could save others, when he himself was the problem.
Max remembered that Lin saved him from getting captured. He didn't know if he did it to protect him or because he hoped that Max would save him later on. But all he knew was he HAD to save him. And Melissa. And Chuck! All of them, without fail.
Max raised his right arm, and punched the zombie in the face. It was his human hand, but the head still flew off his neck and he fell down. Max was confused at first. He had instinctively used his right arm, which was his dominant arm, forgetting that it was just a normal arm. But he didn't realise that even this arm of his, was powerful.
Max:: What the..?
Albert: Relax. My Master did tell me once, that every incarnation of the God has some amounts of superhuman strength no matter what!!
Max nodded. His body was a weapon, not just his left arm!! Max had been dodging all of them using the power of his eyes until now. Now that he had seen his power firsthand, he used his strength to punch another one in the chest. Doing that made the zombies chest swell up and it's rib bones splitting and breaking out of it's skin. Max smiled. It was time to bottle up his fears and jump in on the action. With the devilish smile on his face when he gets confident, he turned to Albert.
Max: I got this now..! You take the guys on your side. I'll handle mine.
Albert smiled. And he continued slashing the people in front of him. But they quickly realised another problem. The space around them was running out, as zombies kept running in from the opposite door. Soon, there will be no space left for them to stand on in that corridor. Sure, they could go back into the door from which they came from, but that would defeat the purpose of their battle in the first place.
Max: This sure is a problem!! We will be squished to death!!
Albert: I agree. We need to do something..!
As Albert was wondering...Max saw down. The huge gap in between the corridors leading to the ground floor. If Max could lure them there somehow, he could fight a bit more freely.
Max: We need to go down. I can see another entrance there, that leads deeper into the castle!!
Albert nodded.
Albert: But how do we do that..??
Max thought for a second, while fighting the monsters. He then looked at his left arm. He could somewhat feel the pain whenever he punched with his right arm, but he could feel nothing with his left one. The hand with the Universe was cold, and he could actually sense stuff, but never pain. It was almost like a shock absorber. He also recalled the moment in the Dome, where he stopped Albert's blade with his arm, and it absorbed it's impact. So if he could pull off one stunt as he wanted, he saw a solution. And all this needed was a bit of courage.
Max: Hey Albert.! I have an idea!!
Albert turned to him, expecting a solution. Instead, Max just jumped off the railings to the ground.
Max stretched his palm to the ground as he was falling with increasing speed. He was hoping for this plan to work, even though it was reckless. A bunch of zombies had jumped after him on all sides, some were stuck to the rail guards unable to move. Albert looked at him with a worried face, all the while fighting against the zombies.
Max used all that he had to make sure that his palm is the one that touches the ground first, and fortunately it did. And as he had hoped, all of the impact was absorbed by the arm, and he simply bounced off a meter high, as if he were a balloon.
Every zombie that followed him had the opposite effect as they hit the ground with a splat breaking their own skulls and killing themselves in the process, as if they were not already dead.
Max landed with a flip mid-air. As soon as his feet met the ground, he realised that his hand might come in handy against foes who can deal a lot of damage. His left arm, was practically invincible!!
Max: Yeah...now let's see if you can try me..!!
Max gave out a devilish smile, ready to fight against the creepy zombies.!