Back in the Shadow Realm, things had been moving smoothly. One by one, Cynrik snatched the unconscious people. His timing coincided with the distance from the fight happening in the sky.
So far, they had gone unnoticed, and since he was strategically picking off those furthest away from the fight first, he hadn't drawn any attention yet.
"OI, Geralt pick up the pace, we don't have all day, and this fight is in the final stages." Cynrik's annoyed and arrogant voice caused Geralt to grit his teeth and speed up the extraction of casualties from the battle between Haylon and the Governor.
To his right was a translucent cube the size of a baseball field, where well over 50 unconscious people with varying injuries could be seen. That wasn't all either. Moving from one person to the next was Brance, as he rapidly healed those with severe injuries while using a combination of HolyFire and Light Mana to eradicate any Death Mana in their bodies.
"Instead of bitching, why don't you do something useful like your brother," Geralt grumbled under his breath as he peeked at Cynrik, who was high above monitoring the fight.
"Oh, and what exactly do you expect me to do? I can only cause destruction; Brancie is the combat medic. Plus, it's not like I am standing here picking my nose; I have to wait for you to knock out these asshats before dragging them down." Even from 50 meters away, Cynrik heard the remark and scoffed.
"Fuck if I know?" Throwing up his hands in defeat, Geralt burned through his Space Mana while Cynrik casually waved his arms to toss more bodies into the spatial cube.
"Knock out the Governor's wife while you're at it, she's in bad shape, and if Brance doesn't heal her soon, she'll die next." Sniffling and opening a golfball-sized portal near the downed woman, Cynrik stated loud enough for the Headmaster to hear.
"We can't do that yet, Cynrik; she is too close to the battle. If she suddenly disappears, I have no doubt we will swiftly end up on Haylon's radar, let alone the Governor, who is likely keeping tabs on his wife's condition." Geralt counted, causing Cynrik to frown.
Scanning the surrounding ruined grounds, Cynrik counted that there were only a few dozen people left, but more than that, he noticed more corpses were lying around than people they had saved.
However, his pupils constricted as he noticed faint movements coming from these corpses, a twitching finger here, a moving leg there, and his brain spun on overdrive.
'Son of a bitch…' Cynrik thought as his eyes darted toward Haylon, who had separated from the Governor and had his arms down and outstretched.
Like a puppeteer, the man's fingers rapidly moved in strange circles. Before long, all the corpses rose slowly and started looking around like mindless dolts in an attempt to get their bearings.
Then, like predators who had locked onto their prey, all the moving corpses turned and looked at the Governor's wife as she could be seen struggling to her feet and nursing a horrific injury on her abdomen.
With their target found, the corpses began shambling in her direction before breaking into a sprint simultaneously.
Above, Haylon smirked triumphantly before shooting forward with a ghastly scythe spinning in his hands and jumping back into combat with the Governor to keep him distracted while his puppets completed their task.
[BRANCIE, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD SCENARIO!] Cynrik shouted at the top of his lungs into the mind link as he slammed down his arms, expelling several long, inky black tendrils.
Down below, in the Spatial Cube, Brance flinched at his brother's words and frantically looked above only to find around 40 what could be described as fresh zombies sprinting full speed at the injured woman.
[Night of the living dead, my ass, that's straight up twenty-eight weeks later!] Brance replied while kicking off the Mana-constructed cube and flashing into the sky beside his older brother.
[What's the plan?] Without missing a beat, Brance drew his shields off his back and combined them into their Greatsword form.
[Ima pull all the unconscious down together and then aid the Governess from down here. I need you to devise a way to take out all the zombies in one move since if we waste too much time dealing with them, Haylon will catch on.] Cynrik stated as he did exactly as he said and shot out all the tendrils through their predetermined portals, wrapping them around the bodies of the unconscious people and pulling them into the Shadow Realm before releasing them and allowing them to float helplessly.
"Geralt, grab the floaters and shove them in your magic box; we have bigger problems to deal with," Cynrik stated as his eyes drifted side to side like a radar taking a tally of how many enemies there were.
"Huh? Oh…fuck, has Haylon progressed so far in such a short time that he unlocked the Necromancy Skill tree?" Stunned only for a second due to Cynrik's actions, Geralt quickly jumped into motion, grabbing anyone he saw floating in the zero-g environment while catching sight of the zombies.
"It seems so; I feel dumb for not concluding it was possible earlier. As someone who can use Death Mana, I should have predicted this outcome when I saw the corpses were left intact. Stupid…how could I have been so stupid." Berating himself aloud, Cynrik finished abducting everyone still alive and positioned himself directly under the Governess.
[Cyn, I have an idea, but it's risky.] Keeping pace with his brother, Brance held his Greatsword with one hand and waved his hand along the blade.
With the gesture, multiple small milky white orbs appeared one after another on the flat Greatsword and hungrily started drawing in Mana from their creator.
[Hm, oh, that's not a bad idea; the timing has to be perfect, though.] Catching onto what his brother was thinking, Cynrik nervously scooted away from Brance since he was getting a sketchy vibe from the orbs thanks to the heavy contrast in their Affinities.
Feeling he had put enough distance between himself and Brance, Cynrik raised his left hand and swiped at the air, causing 49 small portals to open in a ring around the Governess.
Each portal was too small to notice since they were the same size as the marbles Brance created in batches.
Cynrik finished his end of the plan at the exact moment the Governess noticed the horde rushing at her.
The poor woman gritted her teeth in agony as blood and pus oozed from the wound on her abdomen; even so, she exploded with visible Mana, prepared to go down swinging.
[It's now, or never, Brancie, you baseball those fucking scourges into the air, and I will pull the Governess down. Move on three.] Slowing his breathing, Cynrik focused heavily on two things, the movement of the zombies and the portals, which he expanded slightly, making them large enough so Brance wouldn't accidentally hit the edges of the barrier.
[3,] time seemed to slow down as the zombies crossed the 40-meter mark.
[2,] Feeling his Mana nearly empty out, Brance took a stance and slung his Greatsword over his shoulder, locking onto all 49 portals. He only had one shot, so it had to count.
[1,] Crossing the 20-meter mark, several zombies lunged forward while emitting gurgling sounds that could be heard thanks to the portals.
[NOW!]
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