Into the Zombie World

After a few minutes, Damian and Burge finally arrived at the fight scene. There were broken twigs and damaged grass everywhere testimony of the fierce fight that had happened earlier. 

"What a shame. They're already finished fighting." Burge said in regret while hiding at the back of a huge tree trunk. 

"Indeed. I don't know who fought in here but one of the other parties was definitely a mutated animal." Damian replied with a nod as he gazed at the long trail of blood on the ground. 

The trail of blood extended from the broken car up to the inner part of the dense woods. He guessed that a mutated animal must have dragged its victim towards the woods to complete its kill.

Seeing the calm surroundings, Damian proposed to follow the trail of blood and see what kind of creatures had fought here. 

Burge readily agreed but he didn't forget to warn Damian of being careful. Who knows if there are also other parties like them, trying to farm from others' hard work. 

The two proceeded carefully and as they arrived at the last part of the blood trail, they noticed a humanoid figure lying down under a tree. At first, they thought it is a human but upon closer inspection, they realized that it was really a human, first, before it became a zombie. 

They surveyed their surroundings and after deeming it as safe, they approached the body closely to observe it closely. 

"So, I guess it's not the Beheader, huh." Regret was apparent in Damian's eyes as he gazed at the zombie's dead body that was full of small holes. 

The Beheader was someone who beheads it, enemies, it was their only lead about the Beheader. If only the zombie they saw this time has its head beheaded, they can make it as a lead and follow the trail. 

Finding the Beheader will already gain them some rewards, how much more bringing it over. 

Burge also shook his head but for a different reason. "No! We can't be sure yet. Who knows if it's only a coincidence that the Beheader manages to behead those people and zombies? We are not even sure yet if it's actually true or just a scheme constructed by the opposing gang to lure us out." 

With the mention of that, Burge could help but shiver. His balls shrunk as the cold from his spine traveled down to it. 'I hope I'm wrong!' He thought.

"You're right. So? What do we do now?" Damian stood up and stared at Burge. 

"For now, let's try to track the creature responsible for this zombie's death. Based on its wounds, it must be something like a huge porcupine. Who knows, we might be able to obtain mutated weapons out of it." Burge said.

"Right, but do you know how to track?" Damian asked perplexed. 'Dude, we were only bar bouncers just a month ago, how could we know about tracking!'

Burge tilted his head in confusion and stared at Damian. "Don't joke with me, aren't you reading that novel titled 'I can track everything?', surely you've learned something out of it? Don't tell me you're just reading without understanding its content?" 

"No fuck! That dude has a System, how can I compare to that? Besides, that novel isn't that kind of tracking as a scout will do. And… I only read the free 20 chapters of it so far before the outbreak started." Damian said reluctantly and with a hint of melancholy with his voice. 

"Damn, you're not even willing to go beyond the free chapters just to avoid paying for chapters?" Suddenly, Burge saw Damian in a different light. 

"Enough with that, I guess we could follow like a path on here, maybe the creature used that path?" Damian said hurriedly. 

"Ooh, you mean that path?" Burge said as he pointed at the newly created path in the distance. The grass was tilted to the side on that part indicating that someone or something had just passed by there just a moment ago.

Damian enthusiastically nodded his head upon seeing that. 'Phew… Save!' He thought. 

"Let's go!" Burge shook his head and said. 

…

At the same time in the abandoned house. 

"Let's go, that rest is enough!" Nile said as he hopped onto Maximo's back while Croco hid on the grasses and trees, Ogis had also positioned himself atop the humongous tree branches as their lookout and scout. 

Ogis' broken wings are only partially healed so he could only do branching for now. However, due to him eating two apocalypse berries, Nile estimated that he should be able to recover before night. 

From time to time, Ogis would use the telepathic ability of the earrings to communicate with Nile. It really understood Nile's instructions and even did more than that. 

'I see a car!'

'I see a dead zombie?'

'I see maggots!'

…

Ogis kept on updating Nile in every situation that his head started to hurt not because of the vast information he was receiving but because of annoyance. It could not be avoided as Ogis' voice was really too high. Even by telepathy, he could still hear the eagle's ear-piercing voice.

"Stop that Ogi, just reports to me the important things!" Nile couldn't take it anymore so he decided to tell it again while rubbing his forehead. 

A moment later, Ogis finally showed its usefulness as he spotted his first 'live' zombie for today. Immediately, he reported it to Nile which made the latter gloat in happiness.

'Zombie… zombiee… level one! Ahead!!"' 

Aside from having his unusually sharp talons, Ogis' eyes were also extremely sharp. It could help Ogis determine the level of the creature he saw. Of course, he previously would only address them as, weakest, weaker, weak, same, strong, stronger, and strongest. However, Nile already explained the proper level system to Ogis, and fortunately, it seems that it worked quite well this time. 

By comparing his strength to his opponents, Ogis manages to avoid certain dangers up until now. The fight with the zombie earlier was due to his negligence. 

There was a nest full of eggs around the area they fought earlier. As we were flying from the sky he saw those eggs and deemed them as his breakfast. However, he didn't expect that a zombie was also vying for those eggs that he had set his eyes on. 

While he was busy eating, he didn't notice the zombie approaching him from behind. The fight then escalated really quickly. Fortunately, he could fly, or else he might have already been done a few seconds after the zombie struck him. 

However, as he was about to leave right away, he noticed the zombie fetching something from the nest. His eyes went sour as he saw the fresh egg that the zombie was holding. 

Nothing could be said anymore as Ogis hurriedly dived down to start the round 2. However, he clearly didn't know the gap between him and a 'strong' creature. 

Fortunately, Nile and the others arrived at the scene. At first, Ogis was really mad about the situation, a crocodile had pinned him down, not to mention that the crocodile was only 'weaker' than him according to his eyes.

However, after tasting defeat and almost succumbing to his injuries, Ogis was finally happy as he recovered instantly with a wave of his master's hand.

And with that, he instantly deemed himself as Nile's pet, just right the moment he put his ring on the eagle's feet. 

With a smile on his face, Nile nodded his head as heard the eagle's report. And with a wave of his hand, a dark green silhouette brushed past their shoulders.

The dark green silhouette moves to their front and continues its fast feed until it arrives at an area covered with grass. 

The dark green silhouette was actually Croco. His task was to neutralize or kill the zombie as soon as, and as silently as possible. That's the way of the assassin. 

Swoosh!

Croco arrived at his destination and immediately retracted his right arm blade ready to attack. 

Slash!

Cut!

Croco brandished his sharp blade on the bunch of grass trying to hack away the zombie hiding from behind it. 

However, after a few minutes, the grass was already trimmed to half but the zombie was still nowhere to be found. 

Croco couldn't help but blame his blade, he thought that it had already gone rusty as it did not even manage to kill the zombie hiding behind the boss.

"Look out!"

Suddenly, a shout as loud as thunder suddenly echoed inside Croco's mind. It was the voice of their owner. He did not delay any longer as he retreated swiftly, away from the dangerous bunch of grasses.

At the same time he retreated, a head suddenly emerged from within the grasses staring right into Croco's soul. 

Snap!

It was level one zombie and it just made a snapping sound by moving its jaw up and down. 

If Croco had not retreated, a part of his precious leg would surely be eaten off. 

It was because the zombie was actually mutated, not to mention its strength that is already approaching the threshold of a level two creature. 

It was fortunate though, as the mutated zombie was actually a person with a disability before. Both of its legs were limp and could not walk. 

So instead of hurriedly following Croco, the zombie actually made a roll before crawling towards Croco at full speed comparable to that of a snail.

Croco snorted and approached the disabled zombie with a huge stride, just like a boss.

….

Thanks for reading.