A pale grey arm swung past a muscular tanned man as he swung his huge quad headed axe into the pack of zombies in front of him, knocking down a row like dominoes. A greenish black ball of magic shot past his side, impacting one of the standing zombies in the face. A few feet on either side of the axe wielding man, were two young women, both wielding a bat as they kept the edges of the pack from surrounding the man in the middle.
The group of five had been on the move for over half an hour at this point, but they weren't even half way done with their journey to the student center. The distance between the cafeteria and the student center usually wasn't even enough for someone to walk 20 minutes, but the group was progressing slowly.
They had been stuck in an unending fight for the last 15 minutes as pack after pack of low leveled zombies were attracted to the noise of their fight. They were still slowly making progress as Sylas would make call outs allowing the group as a whole to advance some more distance, but it wasn't sustainable.
Sylas was exhausted, his mana supply low from firing [Rotting Bolts] repeatedly. The melee combatants were panting as they took down the last couple of zombies. Sweat poured down each of their bodies. Even Professor Medina was out of breath as she had volunteered to swap out with Sam and Diana a few times so they could take a quick breather which allowed her to level up as well.
The safety and rest that came with finishing off the last couple foes couldn't last long as there was another pack of zombies coming from behind the group this time. Sylas decided they would push forward in hopes of avoiding them. They only made it a few feet before a group came out from around the corner of a nearby building.
Sylas had some faint recognition of a couple of the people in the group as Swain called out "Josh! Brandon! Why are you guys here?"
Ah, that was why Sylas knew them. They were the teammates he had taken Swain away from at the beginning of the Integration. He didn't know the other two in their group though. The two groups approached each other with the new group eyeing Swain's axe.
"After you two left us," there was venom in Josh's voice as he spoke the first part, "We stayed in that building for a couple hours before another group came by looking for survivors. They were part of a larger group that was sending out smaller teams to look for survivors and check for clear paths around the campus. After getting back to the student center, where they're based out of, Brandon and I joined a team to go look for more survivors to help."
The way Josh said help sounded alarm bells in Sylas's mind as he noticed Josh's lustful gaze at the three women in the group, but he didn't interrupt so Josh continued. "We're out on our second trip, heard the sounds of fighting, and came over here to find you guys finished with your fight."
Josh looked around at the zombie remains slowly rotting behind the group. Without counting he could tell there had to be more than 40 bodies on the ground. What he didn't know was that some of the earlier zombies which were hit by [Rotting Bolts] had already become skeletons so the number was actually above 60.
Josh and Swain continued to catch up for a few minutes before one of the guys in the group got impatient and spoke up. "You can do this at the base. Are you coming back with us or what?"
Swain had stopped talking. He looked back at Sylas to see him slightly nod so Swain agreed to go with them. The new group motioned for Swain to follow them as they turned around to head back where they came from.
The group was led through several different buildings on their way back. Perhaps noticing the intrigued looks on Sylas and the other's faces, or maybe just wanting to brag, Josh spoke up. "We have a janitor in our group who's worked in the university for 20 years. He said he's worked in almost every building so once we found building blueprints in an office he was able to show us pathways through a lot of the buildings. It allowed the whole group to move safely and quickly."
His information was met with a couple of awed reactions which seemed to inflate his ego even though he wasn't the one who accomplished any of that. Josh pumped his chest out and started walking faster to showcase his pride.
Sylas was amazed at how quickly this group was adapting to their situation. After thinking about it for a few seconds he guessed it wasn't too weird seeing that his own group just killed around 60 zombies, who were living breathing humans less than 12 hours ago, and the group was fine.
Delving deeper into that thought, Sylas thought it was odd that he, and others, only seemed to be a bit perturbed by their first kills very early in the Integration. He didn't believe that so many people would be able to take the lives of zombies and not have deep emotional scarring that wouldn't allow them to fight again, but for some reason everyone seemed okay with the situation.
Not everyone could have a strong enough sense of survival to handle an apocalyptic situation, right? Maybe those of the older generations that said video games desensitized kids to violence were right and that's why they were all fine. Sylas chuckled to himself at the thought. Nah, there's no way that's the case.
The groups came out of another building when they saw a pack of zombies in their path. The impatient boy from before, who had been introduced as Brody, almost yelled "Alright! Let's go!" at the team as he ran towards the group. Josh and Brandon brandished their bats while Brody and Eric, the other guy from their group, both had tire irons in their hands.
Swain immediately followed their group to assist, but as Sam and Diana stepped forward Sylas placed a hand on one of their shoulders, stopping them from advancing. In a low voice he warned "Something is off with their group. Hold back when you help them." Diana looked confused, but nodded, while Sam had a look of enlightenment on her beautiful face.
Sylas ushered them forward as he grabbed his wand that was sticking out from his pocket. He shot a [Rotting Bolt] at the pack, doing his best to randomly hit a zombie rather than aiming for their head like he had been practicing.
The pack of 15 was brought down swiftly even with Sylas, Sam, and Diana each only taking down one each. The group of boys was looking at Swain with envy tinting their vision after watching him take down two zombies per swing with his large quad headed axe.
Seeing it in action, Josh asked Swain why he had a huge axe and where he got it since the last time they saw him, Swain only had a bat. Swain regaled them with the tale of their fight against the first zombie pack they encountered and the Baron zombie. In typical Swain fashion, he embellished it to the point that the group of boys had trouble deciphering what parts were true.
"Damn, if you didn't want to tell us you could've just said so." Josh grumbled at the end of the story. Diana didn't like that Swain was being called a liar and spoke up "He didn't lie. Well, at least not really. That all happened, just a little less intense than he said."
Swain's chest puffed up hearing Diana defend him, but it seemed to piss off Josh. "You're saying, less than an hour after all this shit started, two of you, armed with only bats, fought a large pack of zombies, lead by a higher rank zombie, which our group hasn't even seen a higher rank, AND THEN" Josh's voice got louder to emphasize the point. "A large axe just poofed out of the air to reward you? Yeah right."
Sylas was chuckling to himself as Josh had a little meltdown, but Swain didn't like being called a liar when the parts being called out were all true. "I understand it's hard to believe, but it's true. Look, I even got these boots." Swain pointed down at his [Bird Booties] which were leather boots covered by bird feathers.
Josh didn't believe him and started making fun of him for wearing his mom's arts and crafts. Swain was starting to get upset so Sylas stepped in. "Just use [Analyze]. Only objects imbued with mana show a result and unless you know how to put mana into an object then it has to prove it's from the system."
Josh looked at him like an idiot. Realizing the likely problem Sylas guided them "Look at an item, person, or enemy, and think about wanting to know their stats. It doesn't really work on other people or enemies if they are near your strength or stronger, but you should be able to use it on Swain's boots."
The new group stared at Swain's boots until a second later Brody exclaimed "I see it!" and the others followed and agreed quickly. After they looked at the boots and axe they had greed in their eyes. They then tried to analyze every piece of clothing and equipment the rest of Sylas's group had, but got no results. What no one in the two groups knew was that ambient mana could affect the [Analyze] skill's effectiveness. Sylas's Intelligence was so much higher than theirs that the mana that was naturally drawn to him was disrupting weaker [Analyze]s.
With a grumble about fairness from the boys, and a laugh from Swain who felt vindicated, the two groups moved out again towards the student center. Their journey only lasted a few more minutes as they snaked in and out of a few more buildings.
In front of them they saw the student center. It was one of the largest buildings on Silver Oak Campus as it housed most of the administrators that helped students with anything regarding university such as scholarships, finances, work study programs, guidance counselors, and so much more. The building also had many rooms students could rent for get togethers or study groups.
Finally getting to their destination, Sylas and the others were happy to be able to rest for the night as the sun was getting lower in the sky. The boys led their group into the student center which was surprisingly clean.
Swain let out a sigh of relief and said "Just show me where I can sleep. I need a nice full night of rest after that onslaught of zombies right before you found us."
Brody smiled saying "Sure, right after -"