Chapter 37: Chapter 37: A Cloud of Fire, Never Give Up
The group reached the rooftop as quickly as they could. Fortunately, no zombies had made it up there yet.
Moving to the northern edge, the spot closest to the Municipal Science and Technology Museum, Zachary Pierce took out his Longbow and Blast Arrows. He nocked an Arrow and drew the bow. There were so many zombies below that he didn’t need to aim carefully; he just had to shoot as far as he could in the direction of the large pit.
SWOOSH!
The sound of the Arrow cutting through the air echoed as it shot toward the zombie horde with incredible speed.
Before the first Arrow had even landed, Zachary Pierce was already drawing his second.
After firing ten consecutive Arrows into roughly the same area, the zombies below began to show signs of agitation and being set ablaze by the flames.
A small sea of fire had appeared.
This caused a brief pause in the otherwise orderly procession of zombies jumping into the pit.
Faye Yardley pointed at a zombie standing by the edge of the pit that hadn’t jumped in. "Look, one of their leaders. That one by the edge that hasn’t jumped. There should be others in different spots."
As Zachary Pierce aimed at the spot Faye Yardley had indicated, he felt a sudden wave of trepidation.
However, he didn’t lower his bow. Instead, he pushed through the pressure he felt, drew the bowstring to its limit, and released the Arrow with a SWOOSH even faster than the previous ones.
"Did you guys bring any Oil?" Faye Yardley asked the others.
Finn Ford nodded. "Brought some. You need it?"
Faye Yardley took out her slingshot. "Can we use this to shoot the Oil into that group of burning zombies?"
"I’m afraid the slingshot doesn’t have the range."
"A pity." Faye Yardley truly thought it was a shame.
But Gavin Donovan said, "Let me try."
Faye and Ford handed him the items without another word. They watched as he stood not far from Zachary Pierce, pulled back the slingshot, aimed with one eye, and fired the Oil as if it were a projectile.
No one knew how he did it, but the Oil actually landed right in the middle of the burning zombies. From the rooftop, they saw a fiery cloud erupt from the ignited horde with a BOOM, followed by even more zombies catching fire.
"Nice!" Finn Ford gave his remaining four containers of Oil to Gavin Donovan.
Caleb Colby scanned their surroundings. "Zombies are heading this way. I’ll go down and hold them off."
As he spoke, he headed for the stairs. Finn Ford followed close behind; it was too dangerous for one person to block the door alone.
With two people, they could watch each other’s backs.
Faye Yardley also noticed that the surrounding zombies seemed to be obeying some command, as the ones on the outer perimeter were now turning and closing in on their office building.
Her old longsword was already chipped, but it was still usable.
After firing another round of ten Blast Arrows, Zachary Pierce took out the Peerless Treasure Sword and offered it to her. "Take this sword. A sword or a blade should make no difference in your hands."
Faye Yardley shook her head. "No, I have a weapon. The sword can reach its full potential in your hands, and you’ll be better able to protect everyone."
’The Arrows will run out soon,’ she thought. ’The Treasure Sword would be completely different in my hands compared to his.’
Besides, she still had her Sharp Dagger and Finger Tiger.
Thinking of the Finger Tiger, she took out a pair, slipped one onto her left hand—the system instantly adjusted it to fit—and tossed the other to Gavin Donovan.
"Thanks, Boss."
"Our actions don’t seem to be having much of an effect down there," Zachary Pierce said, frowning slightly as he observed the situation below.
Faye Yardley hummed in agreement, her mood souring. She had a nagging feeling that if they didn’t stop them now, it would cause a lot of trouble later.
’It’s just a feeling,’ she thought, ’and this is just a Dungeon. We just need to survive for three days to leave.’
’What happens in a Dungeon shouldn’t affect reality, let alone the survival game world, right?’
’But is that really the case?’
Since she couldn’t puzzle it out herself, she decided to ask the others. It was always worth hearing a different perspective.
So, she explained her intuition and suspicions to Donovan Pierce.
Gazing at the dense horde of zombies below, Gavin Donovan immediately agreed. "The Boss is right. It would be best if we could deal with these things inside the Dungeon. If not, we’ll just have to farm it a few more times."
Zachary Pierce drew his bow and declared, "No matter how many zombies, demons, or monsters there are, no matter how treacherous the environment, they can’t stop us. Veridians will never give up in the face of any hardship!"
As his words faded, another Arrow flew from his bow.
He loosed nine consecutive Arrows at zombies even farther away than before. After he paused, Gavin Donovan used the slingshot to launch the Oil, igniting another fiery cloud.
The chaos among the small group of zombies didn’t affect the overall pit-jumping activity.
The zombie leader only directed a portion of the outer-ring zombies to besiege them and didn’t even bother with the ones already on fire. What made Faye Yardley and the others’ expressions darken was that the burning zombies didn’t run around in a panic; they just stood in place, wailing as they waited for death.
Zachary Pierce fired his last Arrow directly into the densest gathering of zombies at the base of the building.
Gavin Donovan also launched his last container of Oil down below.
A BOOMING cloud of fire erupted, setting more zombies ablaze.
"Should we go down and help now?"
As soon as Faye Yardley asked the question, she saw Zachary Pierce freeze for a moment. Then she heard him say, "I’ve completed the second-round quest to kill 500 zombies."
"Congratulations," Faye Yardley said, then asked curiously, "How much is left until the third stage?"
"Almost halfway there."
’How enviable,’ Faye Yardley thought. She didn’t say anything, though. The bow and arrows were hers, but since she didn’t know how to use them, there was nothing to say.
Zachary Pierce, on the other hand, felt a pang of regret. He should have let Faye Yardley take the final shot, but the system notification had come a little too late. He had long since silenced the "+1, +2 points" notifications from zombie kills.
Just as they were preparing to leave the rooftop and meet up with Colby and Ford, a few zombies managed to climb up to the rooftop on their own.
The group reacted quickly, drawing their weapons and moving to engage.
Even though Gavin Donovan knew Faye Yardley was capable of killing zombies now, he still chose to stay by her side and protect her.
Sure enough, for Faye Yardley, mindlessly killing zombies in a stairwell was very different from fighting them in an open space like this.
At first, she was a bit clumsy and flustered.
But with Gavin Donovan watching over her, she wasn’t injured. In the end, even though the zombie was more agile, Faye Yardley still managed to slice off half its head with her blade. Its Soul Fire was instantly extinguished, and its body, losing all energy, collapsed to the ground.
Just as she finished her kill, Zachary Pierce had already taken care of the rest.
"Only a few managed to climb up, after all. I’ll go down first. You two come down when you see fit."
After speaking, Zachary Pierce left the rooftop first. Faye Yardley and Gavin Donovan looked around and saw more zombies climbing up, which naturally had to be dealt with.
So, the two of them weren’t in a hurry to go down. It wouldn’t be too late to help below after they dealt with all the climbers.
"Boss, I finished my second-round quest too. I got a bracer that adds Constitution and protection, and enough food for a day’s worth of energy."
