章 70: Lesson

The rotting zombie took slow and deliberate steps towards Arthur and the young man tried to suppress the panic that was trying to overwhelm his mind.

The dangerous thing about the zombie was not its speed but its relentlessness. However, something that was even more dangerous than that was Arthur losing his cool. If the young man allowed himself to lose his footing, then truly he deserved to lose.

The distance between the two started to close. The rotting zombie got the furthest it had ever come to Arthur. The young man could even smell the rotten breath that came out from the monster's mouth.

If Arthur had not exhausted so many energy and time on blasting the zombie with so many instances of vocal materialization, the close-quarter combat would not have placed the young man in such serious disadvantage. He was far too fatigued to deal with a monster that would give it its damnest to bite off Arthur's face.

Arthur was caught in a pickle but the young man told himself not to panic. It was perfectly fine to acknowledge the danger that he was in but it was not fine to allow that to muddy the clarity of his thought.

'There is a solution to every problem.' Arthur reminded himself.

As the rotting zombie inched towards Arthur, the young man studied every inch of the monster's body as he tried to figure out a solution to stop its movement.

Suddenly, a pearl of wisdom that he had learned from way back when bubbled up in Arthur's mind.

A familiar female voice could be heard saying, "Be that as it may, you could have just chopped the head off, there's no need to smash the head into mush."

Yes, that was the pointer that Arthur was given on his very first adventure. This was when Felicia was jokingly mocking Billy in Arthur's presence.

'An upgraded version zombie is still a type of zombie, right? So this should be able to work just fine!'

Rejuvenated, Arthur gathered his voice and launched what he hoped would be the last shot of vocal materialization. The voice coagulated in the air in the shape of a blade and it flew at full speed, aiming right at the rotting zombie's neck.

The rotting zombie, for what it was, continued to march at Arthur, oblivious to the attack that was heading its way. The monster did not have the mental faculty to process such information, all that drove its mobility was the desire to consume Arthur.

Therefore, it did not evade when the vocal blade was coming right at it. The blade struck right at the rotting zombie's neck. It came up to some resistance from the rigidity from the spine.

The zombie groaned as it extended its arms forward, trying to grab Arthur. Even with the literal knife hanging over its neck, its movement was still so singular, its purpose so focused.

Arthur increased the power in his vocal materialization. It slowly saw through the rotting zombie's neck before lopping the skull right off.

The skull disconnected from the zombie's body and bounced into the wall carried by the momentum of the voice.

Arthur ended the shout but the young man still did not let his guard down. He had learned from his previous lesson. He knew how disgustingly persistent the rotting zombie could be.

Yes, he did learn from Felicia that the best way to deal with zombies was to cut through their heads but rotting zombie was ultimately a different entity from a common zombie and the young man could not be sure the same method would be effective on both.

Arthur focused his gaze on the rotting zombie whose head was now lost. The rest of the body spasm for several seconds before it plopped to the ground. Without its head, the monster felt like it had lost its will and returned to the state of being nothing more than an undead husk.

Arthur launched a weak shot of vocal materialization at the headless body. The monster was shoved along by the voice. Arthur did not sense any resistance from it. The young man finally sighed in relief.

'Thanks, Felicia, you've saved me again.' Arthur paid a thank you for Felicia inside his heart. He would not have survived this ordeal without the lesson from his friend.

Arthur leaned against the wall for support as he tried to regain his breath. This battle was quite draining. He picked out a vial of health potion from his pocket. He had 3 vials left.

He gulped the whole vial down in one go. It was refreshing.

Arthur had the potion for its soothing effect on his sore throat and not because he needed some medical attention. The liquid was like a balm running down his throat that was hoarse from multiple use of his power.

When Arthur got enough rest, he dropped the empty vial aside and picked himself up. The young man inched closer towards the rotting zombie that he had just defeated. When he was resting, Arthur still kept his eyes on the monster. It had not moved an inch, confirming that it was really dead.

The way to stop a walking dead was not the only thing that Arthur remembered Felicia telling him. She also gave him a pointer in the value of the zombie's brain as alchemical ingredient.

Arthur found the rotting zombie's head and made an incision around the skull. He gathered all the materials that he could.

Arthur proceeded to loot everything that he could from the rotting zombie before continuing with his journey.

The young man turned to look away from the zombie. He proceeded to move away from the alcove and back to the junction.

"It's time to move on. This hopefully will be the ticket to my way out of this maze." Arthur still gathered his voice for an attack even though the zombie had already been defeated.

Weirdly enough Arthur did not aim his attack at the zombie but down the dark corridor…