The two of us stared at the now zombified Jason feeling a mixture of emotions. He still held his katana, and by the way he wielded it, I could tell that his skills had not diminished at all.
"H-how?! How did this happen? This wasn't supposed to happen at all."
Liora wore a horrified expression. She clenched her fists and began to breathe raggedly. I shared her sentiment. Not because I cared about Jason, but because this made no sense. Given the skills he displayed, it was unlikely that a zombie had killed him.
The chest area of his school uniform was covered in blood, but there were no visible bite marks. Liora stepped forward to face him, but I grabbed her by the shoulder.
"You go on ahead. I'll be right behind you," I said.
She didn't object; instead, she nodded and said, "Be safe."
The moment Liora moved to go down the stairs, Jason charged at her. He swung his katana directly at her neck, aiming to decapitate her with a single strike but just in the nick of time, I parried the blade with my claws.
A loud metallic clang echoed as sparks flew to the side. It seemed my hypothesis was correct; his skills hadn't dulled despite becoming a zombie. The moment I parried his strike, he seemed to lose interest in Liora completely.
His cold, empty eyes locked onto me. He then assumed his sword stance, placing his blade right between us. In the next instant, he closed the distance within a fraction of a second.
His blade whizzed through the air in a magnificent arc. I narrowly escaped its path and clawed at his midsection from below. Blood and guts poured from his stomach, but he didn't even flinch before launching another attack at me.
With the same gracefulness he had displayed before.
SWOOSH!
The blade grazed my cheek, creating a small cut. Blood trailed down the side of my face, but within half a second, it had completely healed. The blood retreated back into the wound as it closed up. It was as if I had never been cut in the first place.
These zombies were really something. Here he was, with a wound that would kill any man or beast and yet he was completely unaffected. Even though his entrails dragged on the ground. During our brief back and forth, I managed to rip off his shirt, and what I saw confirmed my suspicion.
On his chest, directly over his heart, was a wound. He had been stabbed by something sharp. It was unlikely that a zombie had caused such a wound, so it meant he had been killed by a human. But who?
Because I was busy fighting off the zombies, I had dropped my surveillance of the building for a while. It must have happened during that time. Due to the strong scent of decay surrounding him, I couldn't even pick up the scent of his killer.
Even with his entrails trailing behind him, Jason still moved with exceptional speed and precision. Every strike was lethal.
[DING!]
[Lesser grade poison nullified.]
Poison? I was poisoned. The realization hit me. If it weren't for my supernatural healing, I would have been done for. The poison must have been coated on his blade, and it was odorless too. My guess was that it was a skill he had unlocked, just as I had with my Thermal Vision.
Drawing this fight out would be bad for me since I didn't know what other skills he might have up his sleeve. So, for the first time during our battle, I attacked first. I struck from below, diving underneath his incoming blade. It whistled past my ears with a metallic zing.
Jason didn't skip a beat; he followed up immediately, but he was too late. Within a fraction of a second, I tore through his right leg. My claws ripped through flesh and bone as if it were nothing.
He immediately lost his balance, but before he could hit the ground, he spun his body at an unnatural angle, aiming to decapitate me once again. I caught the blade with the tip of my claws and smashed it.
[You have gained 3 core points for destroying a sacred artifact.]
It was a pity. If Jason had been given the chance to nurture his talents, he would have grown to be a formidable warrior. Whoever managed to kill him must have been either exceptionally powerful or exceptionally cunning.
Jason released a loud growl that echoed through the empty staircase. It resembled the death cry of a wounded animal aware that its time was up. The sound was deafening to my sensitive ears, and as if by instinct, I grabbed his head and smashed it against the floor.
His head exploded with a loud splat, splashing vile blood and brain matter all over my uniform.
[Level 5 zombie killed. You have gained 30 core points.]
Level 5? It made sense. Everyone else was leveling up faster than me.
[You have ascended to Lv. 3:
+30% Increase in your Claw Sharpness]
I stared at what was left of Jason with a frown. I disliked feeling toyed with or being forced to act because someone was scheming behind the scenes. I stayed because I was sure everything was in the palm of my hands, but now things were getting annoying.
With a tired sigh, I tore off a piece of Jason's clothes and used it to wipe the blood from my hands and face. When blood dries under my claws, it's always a pain to remove. Afterwards, I went down to the bottom of the stairs where Liora was waiting with a grim expression.
"Did you, umm… take care of it?"
"I did. No need to worry about that mess anymore. We should hurry before more zombies show up."
Liora nodded, and the two of us went back to the auditorium, killing any zombies we came across. When we arrived, Liora informed everyone about what happened to Jason. She made sure to tell them that she was the one to put him down in the end.
While she spoke, I listened attentively to everyone's heartbeat. The rhythm of a person's heart can reveal so much: whether they are lying, their health, fear, vitality, and sometimes even lifespan.
The president and vice president took the news especially hard. The president was saddened by the loss of another student, while the vice president seemed angry about losing a fighter.
On the bright side, their mission appeared to have gone smoothly. They had successfully retrieved a lot of food from the cafeteria. According to them, the person to praise for their success was Victor.
They spoke at length about his strength and how he protected everyone. To thank him, they decided to give him most of the food they secured, but Victor refused, saying everyone should receive an equal share. This greatly improved his standing among the group.
They all circled around him as they ate. Well, all except two. I wasn't one for crowds, so I decided to sit by myself. As I sat down to eat, a shadow loomed over me. It was Sarah. The shy girl stood over me with a slightly flushed face. She took a deep breath, clenched her fist, and bowed her head.
"T-Thank you for going out of your way to help me! I greatly appreciate it! Uh, um… if it's not too much to ask, may I have your assistance applying first aid? If you can't, it's no big deal! D-Don't feel pressured, umm…"