Chapitre 421: Rescuing More Survivors

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Takanosu.

October, x785.

"Who are you?" The female squire asked harshly while pointing her magic pistol at Elicia. "And what happened here?"

"Okay, take it easy." Elicia said while raising her arms disarmingly. "You can put those weapons down, too. I'm not here to hurt anyone."

"That would be more convincing if you didn't just appear in here with three dead bodies." The squire replied sharply.

"Touché." Elicia replied with a wry smile. Then, she gestured towards the three dead men, who were still lying on top of the women they were violating. "But I think you should pay more attention to the whole situation. Look at those men and the women beneath them more carefully."

Though still suspicious, the squire and the five people, three men and two women she brought along with her all looked towards the dead men and the women in the room. And when they did, they all frowned in disgust. Then, after recognizing the women, their expressions changed once again.

"Leah! Sheila! Anna!" The squire shouted as she holstered her magic pistol and ran towards the three bound women. "We thought you were dead. How did you end up like this?"

Meanwhile, the three women, Leah, Sheila, and Anna, after seeing the squire, finally calmed down from their panicked state. Instead, their panicked expressions were replaced with relief. Then, once the men's corpses were pulled off them, the damn holding back their emotions was shattered as they began crying loudly.

Though the squire was the first to approach the bound women, the rest of her group also approached and helped to untie them. Meanwhile, they also kept a close eye on Elicia. Elicia, on the other hand, started using her magic without a care in the world.

"What are you doing?" A tall, burly man asked as he raised his magic pistol in Elicia's direction.

"Making something for those women to cover themselves." Elicia replied casually. "Besides, I'd put that gun down if I were you. My friend is starting to get antsy."

With that, Elicia dropped the [Hiding in Plain Sight] spell. In the next instant, Rei and Kohta became visible to everyone else in the room. While Kohta was still hiding behind the cover he found and had his rifle trained on the group of new arrivals, Rei was standing behind the burly man with the tip of her spear pointed at the back of his neck.

Naturally, seeing two people appear from nowhere surprised the other eleven people in the room. However, they were all smart enough not to make any sudden, hostile moves.

"So, are you ready to talk now?" Elicia asked as she finished weaving three blankets for the violated women.

"Yeah." The squire replied with a nod. "We need to thank you for saving Leah, Sheila, and Anna, too."

Then, the squire looked back at the rest of her group and gave an order.

"Lower your weapons." The squire said. "We need to focus on getting medical attention for these three."

Though reluctantly, the other five people who entered the room with the squire lowered their weapons. And once they did, Rei and Kohta also lowered their own weapons. Though, everyone kept their guard up.

After that, everyone left the room. Then, when they were able to get a little more comfortable, the squire finally got an answer to her questions about where Leah, Sheila, and Anna had been.

The day before, the three women, who were trained to defend themselves before everything went down, had volunteered to scout the surroundings. Unfortunately for them, the six men from the opposing factions ambushed them while they were out. As a result, they were captured and brought back to be the men's sexual relief.

Luckily, they were all brothel girls. So, having sex with men they'd rather not was not such a big deal to them. However, they were still scarred mentally by the rape. But since they had been through so much before all this happened, they were rather resilient.

"I guess that means you saved them." The squire, who the three brothel girls had called Asami, said after hearing the three girls' story. "Thank you for helping them."

"Don't worry about it." Elicia replied with a dismissive wave. "That's kinda the reason I'm here in the first place."

"What do you mean?" A short, skinny man asked.

"Well, my husband and I took an emergency quest to investigate the situation in this town." Elicia replied. Then, she pulled up the short sleeve over her left shoulder, revealing her guild mark. "We're members of Fairy Tail. I'm Elicia Marcus Taylor, an S-Class wizard."

Hearing that name, most of the hostility from the group of survivors disappeared. They all knew Fairy Tail's reputation, after all. On top of that, the women in the group's eyes all lit up, too. Elicia was a big name in Ishgar's fashion world. So, most of them owned at least one article of clothing from the Taylor Shop.

"You said your husband came with you, right?" Asami, or Asami Nakaoka, asked curiously. "Then, where is he? I know he's not Alfonzo Marcus."

As she spoke the last part, Asami pointed at Kohta, who could only smile wryly.

"We're moving separately for now." Elicia replied with a smile. "He's been helping some of the people we rescued reunite with their families."

"Speaking of which, you're a squire, right?" Rei asked, cutting into the conversation. "Are there any knights here? Or do you know what happened to Captain Miyamoto?"

"Ah! Now that you mention it, you look a lot like Captain Miyamoto's wife… Just younger. Are you his daughter?"

"That's right, I'm Rei Miyamoto." Rei replied. "So, do you know what happened to my dad?"

"Unfortunately, I don't." Asami replied while shaking her head gently. "I would assume he's either at the knights' barracks in the town or at the shelter on the other side of the bridge."

"He might have even rushed home to check on your mother, Rei." Elicia said while patting Rei on the shoulder. "And since he's a captain in the knights, he's probably pretty strong. Strong enough to get to your house, anyway."

"Yeah, I know." Rei replied with a nod. "Dad is strong. Both he and Mom are the ones who taught me how to use a spear, after all."

"Anyway, can I ask why you came here?' Asami asked, bringing the conversation back to the original topic. "Oh, and what happened to the last of those men."

"Ah… Oops!" Elicia exclaimed as she just remembered the man she left dangling upside down from the third-story window. "Anyway, we can deal with that guy later. But we came to find food. There's a primary school full of teachers and students that were running out of food. So, we wanted to help them. Oh, and I think we'll be setting up shot there, too."

"Hmph! Well then, you better go look somewhere else." A man of average height with a muscular build said arrogantly. "Everything in this outlet belongs to us."

Hearing that, both Rei and Kohta narrowed their eyes. Meanwhile, Elicia tilted her head cutely.

"Do you really think you could stop me if I insisted." Elicia said in a friendly tone. Though, by looking in her eyes, you could tell she was not pleased with that response.

"Be quiet, Shimada." Asami barked. "They only want to help some children. And we have more than enough food to share. With those magic refrigerators, there is enough to feed an entire school for a long time."

"Is there really that much food here?" Kohta asked with an eyebrow raised.

"There is." Asami replied. "That's why, despite having an issue with the men from before, no one was willing to leave."

"I guess that makes sense." Kohta replied with a nod of understanding.

"Anyway, we only need enough food for a couple days." Elicia said, re-entering the conversation. "By then, we'll have this zombie problem taken care of. Right now, the reason we haven't wiped them out completely is because we want to get as many people as we can out of the blast radius."

"Blast radius?" all the other people in the room asked in confused, yet concerned, tones. "Are you gonna blow up the whole town?"

"Hahaha! No, we're not like the rest of our guild." Elicia replied while laughing uproariously and waving her hands. "But with Fonzie's magic, people nearby could be hurt if he uses it on a large scale."

'I don't think there will be too many people that can survive a whole street being flooded with UV radiation, after all.' Elicia thought to herself. 'Though, he'd probably rather use his [Super Flare].But I think that would destroy large parts of the town along with the zombies.'

["Yeah, hitting big parts of the town with a high concentration of microwaves isn't the best way to keep property damage to a minimum."] Scylla said in agreement.

"I see…' Asami said, sounding a bit apprehensive. "Anyway, I guess it shouldn't be a problem for you to have some food for the school."

"You really should come with us, you know." Elicia said.

"Hell no!" Shimada replied harshly. "We're perfectly safe here."

"I'm not so sure about that." Elicia said, her expression turning solemn. "Both Fonzie and I found a horde of those zombies coming this way. And quite a few of them are the super-strong ones."

"Are you serious?" Asami asked, her expression turning solemn as well.

"Yeah, there are at least five hundred of those things now. And there were almost a hundred strong ones in the group." Elicia replied.

In fact, Elicia had been tracking the group Shido was leading the whole time. So, the numbers she just gave were current numbers. And she was sure that the numbers would rise by the time the horde passed the outlet.

"If she's telling the truth, we should go with them." Asami said sternly.

In response, the three brothel girls, the two women that came with her to investigate the screams, and one of the three men agreed. However, Shimada and the burly man from before were strongly against relocating.

"Even if we believe her, we still have to leave here and walk to that school." Shimada argued. "And that's not a short walk. We'd be in just as much danger as if we stayed here to fight the horde."

"We don't have time to debate this." Elicia said. "They're going to pass this building sooner or later. And personally, I'm not planning on being here when they do. Otherwise, we won't be able to get the food to the school. So, make your choices quickly."

Unsurprisingly, Asami and the other six who agreed with the relocation decided to follow Elicia, rei, and Kohta back to the school. Meanwhile, Shimada, the burly man, and the other people in the outlet decided to stay behind. As a result, only seven people chose to stay behind in the outlet.

So, with the number of mouths to feed in the outlet reduced, Elicia and Asami's groups loaded as much food as they could into the back of the Escalade. On top of that, Elicia created large bags from her threads they fastened to the top of the vehicle, as well.

Despite taking so much, there was still enough food for the seven remaining at the outlet to live comfortably for the next week or so. Unfortunately for them, when Shido passed by the outlet with his horde a couple hours later, he had the zombies break in, kill all the men, and bring all the women to him.

At about that time, Elicia, along with all those who chose to follow her, had arrived at the primary school. Unfortunately, they were slowed significantly by the people who had to make the trip on foot. Still, with only a few run ins with normal zombies, they all made it to the school without taking any damage.

Meanwhile, Alfonzo, Saeko, Saya, and a spear wielding woman they picked up along the way had made it to the Takagi mansion around the same time Elicia returned to the school. Unfortunately, there were quite a few zombies between the school and the mansion that needed to be cleaned up. And the reason for that was probably due to the fact that there were so many people gathered there. So, the noise they made was impossible to hide completely.

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Chapitre 422: The Spearwoman

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Takanosu.

October, x785.

While Elicia, Rei, and Kohta were headed to the shopping outlet, Alfonzo, Saeko, and Saya were headed to Takagi mansion in the Humvee. However, they came across quite a few pockets of zombies on their way. So, they dealt with them in a way similar to how they dealt with the ones outside the primary school.

"Alright, that's the last one." Alfonzo said as he finished electrocuting a normal zombie. "Let's get back on the---"

Before he finished his sentence, however, Alfonzo heard the faint sound of banging. On top of that, he could hear the faint voice of a woman asking to be allowed into somewhere.

"What's wrong, Alfonzo?" Saeko, while sheathing her katana, asked as she approached the Humvee.

I'm hearing the sound of banging coming from that direction." Alfonzo said while pointing in a particular direction.

"Really?" Saya asked suspiciously. "I don't hear anything."

"You haven't been manipulating your magic power for very long." Alfonzo replied as he returned to the Humvee, as well. "With more training, you'll be able to hear stuff like that, too."

In response, Saya only snorted before dropping back into the Humvee's back seat through the hatch on the roof.

"Are we gonna check it out?" Saeko asked as she put her hand on the passenger side door.

"Yeah." Alfonzo replied. "I can sense another two groups of undead approaching that location, they're probably being attracted by the noise."

With that, Alfonzo and Saeko climbed into the Humvee before Alfonzo started the engine and started driving.

Meanwhile, a relatively tall, beautiful, buxom, light brown haired woman with red eyes wearing a long white coat with red trim over top of a white blouse, a black leather corset, black leather pants, and black leather boots with a red spear and a bag filled with scavenged food strapped to her back was standing outside of a house several blocks away in a residential neighborhood.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

"Hey, what are you doing?" The woman asked. "Hurry up and let me in. The undead are coming this way."

"No, it's because of you that we are stuck here." The voice of a man came from the other side of the door.

"What are you talking about?" The woman asked in a disbelieving tone. "I saved all of you from those things. I'm the one who has been keeping you all fed, too."

"Please, Mrs. Miyamoto, just leave us alone." Another man said in a scared tone. "We want the chance to return to our families. But you just want us to stay here."

'Are these people serious?' The woman, Mrs. Miyamoto, or Kiriko Miyamoto, the mother of Rei Miyamoto, asked herself as her hand fell weakly to her side. 'They begged me to take them in and keep them safe because I was the only one who could fight. And now they're saying it's my fault they've been stuck in this house?'

In fact, this was not Kiriko's fault. Instead, it was thanks to a new survivor they took in the night before. Like the others, he claimed he was unable to fight. So, when it came time to scavenge for materials and food, Kiriko once again went out alone.

However, while she was gone, the new man somehow got into the heads of the few people Kiriko had been keeping safe. With words alone, he was able to turn everyone in the house against her by blaming her for their current situation.

"You should just leave, Mrs. Miyamoto." The man Kiriko had accepted into the group only the night before said from the other side of the door in a smug tone. "We all agree that we no longer want to be beholden to your whims any longer."

'So, it was him… Son of a bitch!' Kiriko roared in her mind. 'I had a bad feeling about him from the moment I met him. But I ignored that feeling, wanting to help as many people as I could. *Sigh* I guess that will teach me to ignore my instincts, won't it?'

"Fine…" Kiriko said while clenching her fists and gritting her teeth. "I hope you don't regret this when it comes to finding food later."

"Speaking of food…" The traitorous man muttered as if he had just remembered. "Why don't you leave the food you found behind before you leave?"

Hearing the smugness in the man's tone, Kiriko had to resist punching a hole in the door with her spear. Instead, she took a deep breath to calm herself down. Then, she took a step away from the door before raising her voice again.

"If you want it so bad, why don't you open the door and take it from me?" Kiriko asked, still resisting the urge to unstrap the spear from her back. "If you do that, I'll leave without a fuss."

The response Kiriko received was a few moments of silence. However, the silence did not last for too long.

"See? This is the kind of person who was claiming to keep you protected." The traitorous man said loudly. "She's holding the food hostage to force us to let her inside. Is that really the kind of person you want to lead you?"

Once again, Kiriko was dumbfounded. On top of that, she could hear the people in the house agreeing with what the traitor said.

"If you were really the kind of leader you claimed to be, you would just leave the food behind and be on your way." The traitorous man continued. "So, why don't you show them what kind of leader you are one last time and leave the food before getting out of here."

Shaking her head in response, Kiriko pulled the spear off her back. However, instead of thrusting it towards the door, she looked to either side at the zombies that had been attracted by the banging and yelling.

"Damn it…" Kiriko muttered. "I got too wrapped up with those fools. I stopped paying attention to my surroundings. "Well, I guess I'll do one last good thing for these people before I die. At least I can thin out these numbers to give them a chance."

With that, Kiriko took her fighting stance. Like Rei, Kiriko also had a more than decent amount of magic power in her body. Unlike Rei, however, she had been trained to use it. She never taught her daughter to do so, though.

When Rei was young, both Kiriko and her husband wanted Rei to have a safe and happy life. So, they did not want her to be a wizard. And the reason for that was because as wizards, they knew how trouble seemed to be easily attracted to them in some way or another.

"[Physical Enhancement Magic: Full Body Enhancement]." Rei chanted before taking a step to her left.

*bang!*

In the next instant, a magically enhanced zombie whose power was nearing the A-Class slammed his fist down from above, creating a crater in the street.

Immediately, Kiriko could hear the sound of the people in the house panicking. However, she did not have the luxury to pay attention to them. Instead, she swept the butt end of her spear at the enhanced zombies' legs, knocking it off its feet. Then, before it could fall to the ground, she thrust her spear through its head.

A moment later, with the zombie still hanging from her spear, Kiriko took a step towards the zombies on her left and hefted her spear back into a throwing position.

"[Spear Magic: Gungnir]." Kiriko chanted as she threw her spear at the group of zombies in front of her.

In the next instant, the spear in Kiriko's hand turned into a red streak of light as it covered the distance. Then, it pierced through the front most zombie. At the same time, the head of the zombie that was still pierced on the spear exploded on contact with the other zombie's head.

On top of that, Kiriko's spear continued flying forward, piercing through the necks, heads, and chests of all the zombies behind the first one, eventually losing momentum after piercing through at least fifteen zombies.

"[Return]." Kiriko chanted as she held her right hand towards her spear.

A moment later, the red spear, which was pierced into a zombie's upper chest, flicked upward, freeing itself from the zombie's flesh, slicing the zombie's head in half in the process, before spinning back through the horde as it returned to Kiriko's hand.

Easily catching the spinning spear, Kiriko was just in time to parry the outstretched arm of a normal zombie. Then, she lowered her head to avoid a bite from a magically enhanced zombie while simultaneously stepping backwards, placing the butt end of her spear between the enhanced zombie's legs, then raising it to throw the zombie into the normal one in front of her.

As a result, the magically enhanced zombie's open mouth closed on the normal zombie's arm. Then, while distracted by the meal it just bit into, Kiriko stabbed her spear forward, piercing both zombie's' heads with one thrust.

Retrieving her spear, in the next instant, Kiriko whipped its bladed end around in a circle, cutting through the heads of a dozen zombies that had approached in the meantime.

Realizing that she had been surrounded, Kiriko took advantage of the space she created for herself, slamming the bladed end of her spear into the ground and using it to fault high into the air.

'Even though they don't deserve it, I should draw these things away from them. *Sigh* I really don't want their deaths on my conscience.' Kiriko thought as she flew towards the edge of the horde of zombies.

A moment later, while still airborne, Kiriko raised her spear above her head while charging it with her magic power. Then, while approaching a zombie from above, she swung it down with all her might.

"[Spear Magic: Meteor Strike]." Kiriko chanted loudly.

*Boom!*

In the next instant, Kiriko's spear head cut straight through the zombie she had targeted before slamming into the street. Then, immediately upon making contact with the street, the magic power Kiriko charged into the spear was released. As a result, a shockwave sent all the nearby zombies flying while a crater was created in the ground.

*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*

"Come on you undead sons of bitches!" Kiriko shouted as she leapt out of the crater and slammed the butt of her spear into the ground repeatedly. "I was expecting more from an entire horde of you ugly mother fuckers."

Immediately, the zombies, both normal and magically enhanced, were attracted to the sound Kiriko was creating. As a result, they completely ignored the panicked sounds coming from inside the house.

Naturally, the first to arrive at the source of sound was a magically enhanced zombie. And like she had done before, Kiriko thrust her spear at its head.

*Clang!*

However, before her spear could pierce its skull, the zombie opened its mouth and bit down on the spear tip, stopping it in its tracks.

'Shit! This one is a lot stronger than the rest.' Kiriko thought to herself as she tried to pull her spear back.

Unfortunately, Kiriko was unable to pull her spear away. On top of that, two weaker magically enhanced zombies were approaching her from either side. So, at this point, she only had two options, continue struggling to free her spear, or abandon her spear and fight barehanded.

Although fighting barehanded was a possibility, Kiriko's combat prowess would drop drastically. So, she gave up on fighting barehanded immediately.

'Damn, I would have liked to get a bit further away from the house before dying.' Kiriko thought to herself as she threw a kick at the S-Class zombie's legs. 'But I did all I could for them. I hope they can appreciate my last show of kindness.'

With her kick having next to no effect on the zombie, and her spear lodged between its teeth, Kiriko had all but given up. Before she could close her eyes, however, a pair of kunai, crackling in violet arcs of electricity, flashed past her.

*Boom!* x 2

In the next instant, the heads of the two magically enhanced zombies on either side of Kiriko exploded.

"What the hell was that?" Kiriko wondered aloud.

*Vroom!*

Instead of an answer to her question, Kiriko heard the sound of a magic engine. Before she could look in its direction, a shout from the distance stopped her. Instead, she followed the instructions that were shouted from the distance.

"Let go of the spear and get down!" Alfonzo, while driving the Humvee towards the horde, shouted at the top of his lungs while his left arm was sticking out of the window with his palm pointing at the horde. "Get down on the ground and dig your fingers into the street! Hurry!"

Doing exactly as the shout told her to, Kiriko dropped down to the ground on her back. At the same time, she dug her fingers into the street.

'Fuck! I just broke a nail.' Kiriko thought while trying to escape reality for a moment.

At the same time, Kiriko noticed several short spikes piercing the ground around her. Then, she heard the chanting of a spell.

"[Electromagnetism Magic: Lightning Shell]."

A moment later, a violet flash passed over Kiriko. On top of that, this flash was discharging small bolts of electricity, which were mostly drawn to the spikes in the ground next to her. However, she was hit by one, as well. Luckily, she had dug her fingernails into the street, partially grounding the shock. Meanwhile, the rest of taken care of by her natural defenses.

The rest of the flash, on the other hand, continued forward, obliterating the zombie with her spear in its mouth, before continuing on to the rest of the horde. Then, when it reached roughly to the center of the horde, it exploded into bolts of horizontal lightning.

*Boom~~~!*

"I guess that's the end of my spear." Kiriko muttered, though no one would be able to hear her over the sounds of striking lightning. "Those ingrates are probably dead, too. Oh well, I did what I could to save them. This wasn't my fault."

By the time all the sound had ended, and Kiriko's eyes returned to normal, Alfonzo had parked the Humvee next to her.

"You alright?" Alfonzo asked from the driver's seat while looking down at Kiriko.

"Yeah." Kiriko replied as she sat up and pulled her fingers out of the street. "I broke a nail, though."

"I'd say that's a pretty small price to pay for surviving a horde like that one, don't you think?" Alfonzo asked with a smile.

"Yeah, and if that were all, I wouldn't have anything to say." Kiriko replied. "But the spear I've been using for decades is gone now, too."

"Oh, are you talking about this spear?" Alfonzo asked while lowering a red spear with a zombie head biting down on its tip. "I could tell this was a pretty good spear, so I decided to save it."

Hearing that, Kiriko looked up at the spear that was floating down from the sky. Then, she jumped to her feet, grabbed the spear's shaft, and yanked the zombie's head off the end.

"I'm glad I didn't lose you." Kiriko said with a smile while holding her spear. "It would have taken forever to find another spear as good as you."

After gushing over her spear for a few moments, Kiriko finally remembered the people she was trying to protect. Then, she looked back at the explosion sight, expecting to see a large crater and the debris of destroyed houses. And although she did see a large crater, it did not extend past the edge of the street. Instead, lining the road was a row of large metal spikes.

"Well, at least my effort didn't go to waste." Kiriko muttered.

"Oh, were you trying to protect the people in that house?" Alfonzo asked while pointing at the house with the people that betrayed Kiriko.

"Yeah, one last act of kindness before I left." Kiriko replied.

"Well, if you're leaving, wanna catch a ride with us?" Alfonzo asked. "We're on our way to Takagi mansion. "Their little princess is with us, too."

"Don't call me that!" Saya shouted from the back seat.

"See." Alfonzo said with shrug.

"Wait, Saya?" Kiriko asked, finally looking into the interior of the Humvee. "You're okay. How are Rei and Takashi?"

"Hi, Mrs. Miyamoto." Saya said politely. "they're fine. This guy and his wife saved us on the first day. Right now, they should be near the primary school with Takashi's mother."

"I see, I'm glad you're all safe." Kiriko said in a relieved tone. Then, she finally looked at Alfonzo for the first time. "I should have known it was you after seeing the spear float, the electric spell, and the metal spikes. Thank you for saving me, Master of Metals, Alfonzo Marcus."

"No problem." Alfonzo replied nonchalantly. "It's part of my job. Anyway, you wanna come with us to Takagi mansion?"

"Of course." Kiriko replied as she pulled open the back door.

"Wanna say anything to the people in that house before we leave?" Alfonzo asked as Kiriko shut the door behind her.

"No." Kiriko replied bluntly.

Shrugging his shoulders, Alfonzo stepped on the accelerator and continued driving towards the Takagi mansion, completely ignoring the shouting coming from the people in the house.