Guided by the incantation, a massive pressure, far exceeding his estimates, instantly weighed down on Louis's nerves.
The mangled wound stopped bleeding at a visible rate and began to heal slowly.
Although it still looked gruesome, at least there was no longer any need to worry about infection or suppuration.
As for Louis, after finishing the spell, his vision went dark, and his body swayed, nearly causing him to collapse.
"Huff... huff..."
He leaned against the wall, gasping for breath, his face even paler than Merle's.
Even though he had been mentally prepared for the difficulty of casting spells on others, the immense exhaustion still exceeded his expectations.
Louis felt as if his body had been completely drained; even lifting a leg required a monumental effort.
But he knew that now was not the time to rest; the two of them were not yet completely out of danger.
After carefully bandaging the wound with gauze, Louis looked around. The wind on the rooftop was strong and the sun was harsh, making it unsuitable for an injured person to rest.
So, gritting his teeth, he slowly dragged the unconscious Merle into the shade of the fire escape.
However, just as Louis finished everything and planned to rest for a while, a strange noise accompanied by low growls came from downstairs.
It seemed that the Walkers on this side had also been attracted by the commotion and the smell of blood on the rooftop.
"Merlin's dog shit!"
Slumped on the cold floor, Louis finally couldn't help but mutter a curse.
His current situation was absolutely dire.
His brain was buzzing and in a state of chaos because of the recent "Episkey." His body was also in a state of extreme weakness, making it difficult even to stand up; his combat capability was practically zero.
And Merle, whom he had gone through so much trouble to save, had passed out completely, lying on the ground like a pile of limp mud, with no telling when he would wake up.
More critically, the Walkers downstairs, attracted by the scent of blood, had already begun to emit heart-wrenching growls and thumping sounds.
Although he had the Invisibility Cloak on him and didn't need to worry about his own safety, he couldn't possibly cover both himself and Merle with this precious cloak.
Not to mention whether the Invisibility Cloak was large enough; if Merle were to wake up while they were sharing it and discover the existence of this divine artifact, God only knew what this perverse and violent man would do.
In Louis's current state, with his brain lagging and his limbs weak, if the other man really tried to seize it by force, it would be hard to resist.
Louis knew that in the later stages of the original plot, Merle was actually quite a loyal person. Even if Louis revealed a bit of his uniqueness, Merle might not necessarily turn on him.
But he didn't dare gamble, nor did he want to test human nature in the apocalypse.
Until he learned the broken, "bug-level" spell "Obliviate," he would absolutely never reveal his magical peculiarities to anyone uncontrollable!
But if he left Merle here alone now, wouldn't all the effort he put into saving him be for nothing? That would be too much of a loss.
"Whew..."
Louis took a deep breath, forcing his mind, which had become muddled by weakness and anxiety, to calm down.
He took a piece of chocolate from his backpack, tore open the wrapper, took a few large bites, and then unscrewed a water bottle to take several gulps, using the sugar and hydration to force a bit of physical recovery.
After resting for two minutes and ensuring he had regained at least some mobility, Louis's gaze became determined once more.
He walked to the other side of the rooftop, laboriously dragging over the corpses of the Walkers he had just killed with the steel spike. He piled them on top of the unconscious Merle, using their thick stench of decay to mask Merle's scent as a living human.
Only after finishing this did he put the Invisibility Cloak back on and head downstairs silently.
He must find a way to lead away the Walkers downstairs that had caught the scent!
Otherwise, if night fell and Merle hadn't woken up while he himself still lacked combat strength, they would be doomed if the horde of Walkers discovered them!
Whether it was because the scent of blood on the rooftop was too strong or because of the loud commotion from the earlier thunder, there were far more Walkers gathered downstairs than he remembered from the original plot.
Although it was nowhere near as exaggerated as the swarm on the other main road, there were still twenty or thirty of them.
They were currently wandering aimlessly through the annex building where the fire escape was located, completely blocking his and Merle's path.
Louis knew very well that with his current pitiful energy, he didn't have enough to cast the Levitation Charm again to throw the steel spike.
And with only his current arm strength and bottomed-out stamina, trying to throw that heavy steel spike as accurately as a dart into a Walker's brain was pure fantasy.
"What should I do...?"
Just as Louis was at his wit's end, he discovered a large floor-to-ceiling window in a room downstairs that stretched from the ceiling to the floor.
Even better, the lower part of this window was already broken, forming a huge gap.
A brilliant plan instantly formed in his mind!
Louis immediately sprang into action.
First, he pulled out an electronic alarm clock he had recently found at the hospital, then tore a large piece of thick curtain fabric from the window and distorted it into a long strip of cloth.
Finally, he found a sufficiently long piece of steel pipe in the utility room.
He tied one end of the cloth strip tightly to the steel pipe and the other end securely to the electronic alarm clock, creating a simple but sturdy "fishing rod."
Louis took this peculiar "fishing rod" and returned to the floor above the floor-to-ceiling window.
He found a room directly above the broken window downstairs, set the alarm time, and then extended the long steel pipe out of the window.
The dangling electronic alarm clock, after some rough calculation, hung exactly in front of the gap in the window downstairs, about half a meter off the ground.
Louis used strong duct tape found in an office and several heavy fire extinguishers to firmly secure the end of the steel pipe to the floor, ensuring nothing would go wrong.
After finishing everything, he put on the Invisibility Cloak again and silently returned downstairs, trying to draw in the Walkers from the other floors as well.
Seeing that the time was about right, he picked up a piece of rubble and threw it hard at a metal cabinet in the distance!
Clang!
The crisp sound instantly caught the attention of all the Walkers in the hallway!
They all turned their heads and staggered toward the source of the sound—the direction of the floor-to-ceiling window.
A few seconds later, the electronic clock hanging outside the window emitted a rapid "Beep, beep, beep!"
Now, all the Walkers were completely lured!
As if seeing the most delicious dinner, they scrambled to rush toward the alarm clock outside the window that was constantly making noise!
Then, like dumplings being dropped into a pot, they "jumped" one after another out of the large gap in the window.
From below, a series of dull "thuds" of heavy objects hitting the ground could be heard.
Louis looked at his "masterpiece" and nodded with satisfaction.
Even if this device still carried some risk, it would at least draw away most of the Walkers before the alarm clock ran out of battery. Once he returned and used the corpses on the roof to mask his own scent, he should be able to get by.
He tucked the Invisibility Cloak away close to his body and turned to return to Merle's side upstairs.
However, the moment he sat down next to Merle, a wave of intense, irresistible fatigue and dizziness swept over his brain like a tide!
Days of travel, high mental tension, physical exhaustion... all the negative states erupted at once, completely crushing his already strained nerves.
His vision went dark, his body swayed, and he finally collapsed helplessly onto the cold floor, losing consciousness completely.