Chương 17: Souls Of The Drowned (1)

Honestly, this could be a badass fight scene. The storm in the background enhanced the feeling of the battle.

I had to admit that I felt like the main character for once. No wonder readers go crazy during the fighting scenes and drop me a lot of gifts.

Who didn't want to experience such a thrill in their life?

Taking a deep breath, I summoned the hottest flames I could manage. My headache from earlier was still present but I ignored it.

Both of my hands started glowing brightly due to the glow of the blue flames I summoned.

Raindrops coming closer to my flames evaporated in the blink of an eye. The flames were hot enough to burn through the flesh and bone of a normal human being in a matter of seconds.

Vin prepared her attacks as well. The wind around her arms created a water repelling barrier of sorts, preventing water from touching any portion of her arm.

[ Michael: Let's combine our attacks and run.

Vin: You are planning on making them chase us through the city?

Michale: It has a purpose, dumbo. No one else can target us as long as the zombies are chasing us. They will keep the other Tier 9 monsters away as well.

Vin: Oh… ]

The plan was simple. We would run towards the safe zone after attacking and killing a few zombies. Once they started chasing after us, monsters that did not travel in groups or hordes would stay away from the zombie pack.

After all, the zombie bite could infect the monsters who were weaker than them.

Once the zombie horde entered the five meter range I had been waiting for, I signaled Vin to release her attack.

The blond girl shot numerous wind spheres from her palm. I followed her attacks by shooting balls of flames behind her spheres.

Combining with the spheres, the blue fireballs evolved into huge blue spheres the size of two footballs combined together.

The best thing was that both of us could control these spheres.

I also received another pleasant surprise seconds after merging the fire with the spheres.

[ Your actions have given rise to a new skill! ]

[ 'Flame Manipulation' is unlocked. ]

This was the last of the three major skills that I wanted to unlock as soon as possible. What a perfect time to unlock it.

===

Flame Manipulation: This allows the user to manipulate the flames into any form they want.

- This skill has no level.

- You can manipulate fire into any form you want as long as your emotions are stable and you have enough mana to control the fire.

===

With this, I got the three most important skills underneath the Pyrokinesis ability I required to dominate everyone.

But this was not the right moment to think about that.

A total of 8 spheres had been formed by the combination of mine and Vin's attacks. I controlled four of them whereas Vin controlled the other four.

Together, we forced the spheres towards the front of the zombie horde.

"Ughrwa!"

"Gugha!"

The zombies hit by our attacks howled in pain as I manipulated the flames to wrap around their bodies.

[ Infected Zombie has been killed.

10 glens obtained ]

[ Infected Zombie has been killed.

10 glens obtained ]

[ Infected Zombie has been killed.

10 glens obtained ]

Three zombies died this way, earning me a total of 30 glens. Well, earning glens wasn't my main goal for the time being.

"Now, run!"

I turned in the opposite direction and started running together with Vin. In total, we killed 8 zombies, leaving the horde with 22 zombies

The zombies marked us for attacking their horde and would now follow us until their death. It was an interesting mechanism I developed to make the zombie fights a bit more impressive.

[ Vin: Do you know where we are heading?

Michael: Well, we will definitely get somewhere. Just ensure we don't run into other monsters traveling in hordes. ]

To be honest, I had no idea about where I was headed. I rarely visited this part of the city in the past and since the MC was never supposed to be here, I never described the area in detail.

I tried thinking of my novel. Maybe some random information would help me.

Unfortunately, no words appeared in my mind. A window didn't appear in front of me either, making me sigh.

I glanced around to see whether I could spot any broken signboards pointing toward the city center. The storm, however, prevented me from seeing anything clearly.

The storm was also making movement difficult as it continued hitting me across my body. It didn't hurt but it wasn't very pleasant. Walking with drenched clothes wasn't fun either.

Another problem was approaching as I noticed a huge crater in the road I was taking. Cursing, I sent a message to Vin to change directions.

Both of us could easily cross the crater with the help of Vin's skill but the zombies would fall inside.

This led to us entering an alley to avoid the crater.

I paused briefly to see that the horde was still behind me. It looked like a few zombies had been killed somehow, reducing the number of the horde to barely a dozen.

Other humans were definitely present in the area which meant more trouble. With a sigh, I took numerous turns one after the other, pausing sometimes to let the horde follow me,

At this point, Vin could tell I had no idea where we were headed and that I was just trying to find a way to reach the city center by relying on my luck.

[ Vin: Michael, don't lead us to a dead end. Having this zombies behind us would be pointless if we have to kill them to get out of a corner.

Michael: I know… ]

Fortunately, I could see the current alley opening up into an empty street. I did find it strange that no human or monster was present in the alley but then, many things could explain this.

As me and Vin emerged out of the alley, I sighed in relief. A semi destroyed sign showed that the city center was north of our present location.

Sadly, the sign didn't tell the distance of the city center. Oh well, it couldn't take more than ten to fifteen minutes.

I turned around one last time to check on the zombies. Much to my surprise, the zombies stood still a their spots.

To add to my surprise, the zombies started moving straight across the street as if they had entered a trance of sorts.

"Vin, are you seeing… Vin?"

Vin stared at the zombies with a dazed expression. Suddenly, she started moving in the same direction the zombies were walking in.

Something was definitely wrong.

I raised my head to stare at the other end of the street. A dome-shaped building stood in the center of what once was a neatly kept garden.

Now black ash covered the entire area and the dome shaped building had a hug zigzag crack running throughout. Numerous windows had been shattered and pieces of glass was present around the building.

For some reason, swimming goggles and swimming caps were sprawled across the ground as well. These items were only found near swimming pools or shops that sold sportswear.

The building was definitely a swimming pool. I was sure of it.

Swimming pool…

Something tucked at the back of my mind. I forced myself to remember what it was since I felt it was important. In response, a window appeared in front of my face.

[ Fish Brain memory prevents the 'Author's Skill' skill from being fully used. ]

I immediately cursed.

What sort of bullshit was this? I definitely did not have fish brain memory!

I decided to follow Vin and the zombies to see what caused them to blindly head towards the destroyed swimming pool.

Even though I didn't remember the exact details, I had an idea of what was happening.

One thing was clear, this dazed state was the reason for the area around the swimming pool to be empty. Something prevented other creatures from staying in the area.

I, however, had not been effected by it and did not entered the same trance like state.

Maybe I am better than I give myself the credit for. I was the author after all!

Slapping myself on the face, I forced such thoughts out of my mind. Arrogance and carelessness was not something I could afford when one of my allies was in such a situation.

"In real life, these situations look so horrifying…"

When writing about the description of the apocalypse, I just wrote words like 'destroyed' or 'broken' to signify how most places looked.

In reality, it looked horrible.

On coming closer to the building, I saw that the infrastructure suffered more damage than I expected.

The walls around the dome shaped building were barely standing straight. One more earthquake or a major explosion could lead to the collapse of the entire building.

Furthermore, I could see holes and gaps in the walls as if someone had intentionally destroyed those areas. I guessed that a fight happened in the swimming pool after the appearance of the skills.

The earthquakes could not have destroyed the building like that. It was the work of skills and magic.

Vin and zombies soon entered the building. The automatic glass doors at the entrance of the building had been destroyed.

Glass covered the ground in every direction. Without shoes, your feet would be treated to a nasty amount of cuts.

Carefully avoiding the glass, I stepped towards the entrance of the building. Vin and the zombies avoided the glass and were already inside the building.

The moment I stepped foot on the floor of the building, a wave of energy passed over me, followed by the appearance of, as you might have guessed, blue windows.

[ Warning! ]

[ You have entered the territory of the Ahuizotls! ]

[ You have been marked by the Ahuizotls as a hostile being for carrying the power of flames! ]