"The scrolls, the circle, nothing is working..." June mumbled.
"Someone doesn’t want us to leave."
The group fell silent.
They didn’t panic earlier because they thought they could leave as long as they completed the teleportation circle inside the outpost. But they were wrong.
The zombies trapped them, and were getting closer with every passing second.
By sacrificing the initiates.
To test their theory of entrapment, June sent several initiates in all directions. All of them died within ten minutes.
After some time, more people were sent away. This time, they died in eight minutes. All of them... at once.
It had been six minutes since the third batch was sent away. June had her eyes focused on her system prompt, and then it happened.
[Warning: your troops are under attack!]
[Your troops: 8x Humans have been slain by a Grade-4 hybrid zombie.]
Once again, they died simultaneously, not giving her any information regarding the zombies’ positioning.
"Shit..." June cursed under her breath.
No one needed to ask her about it anymore. Her expression conveyed the results just fine.
"We’re like sitting ducks here!" Johnny yelled. "We have to get out of here. Fight our way through if we must!"
"Yeah, genius, we already knew that," Timothy, another enforcer, retorted. "How the hell do we do that? That’s what we’re thinking about!"
"Oh yeah? Can you even think with that tiny head of yours?"
"It’s been working just fine for a while now, dimwit—!"
The boys turned to June. Although they were of the same rank, whenever she yelled, everyone listened to her. This time wasn’t any different.
"Johnny is right," she said. "We need to fight our way through to the teleportation circle. But it won’t be easy. No, forget that. It’ll be impossible."
She continued, "So far, we’ve been outsmarted at every step. The zombies must have already guessed what we’re after and taken measures to prevent us from leaving this rain."
"Yeah..." Timothy said, slumping back onto the wooden floor.
Their minds went into overdrive, coming up with plans and countering them.
Last time they had escaped using June’s talent. Blaze must have realized that somehow and prepared countermeasures so that it didn’t happen again. That’s why nothing with teleportation worked inside the spire’s range.
The fact that he not only realized June’s ability but also effectively countered it all within a week showed his terrific intelligence.
The cult must focus all of its resources on stopping him. But how will they do that when they don’t even know what Blaze was capable of?
The cult was ignorant of what was happening there. That made informing them about Blaze even more important.
"We... must force our way through," June mumbled.
Timothy scoffed, only to realize June was being serious.
"You’ve got to be kidding me!" he said, glancing around to see if anyone else agreed. "You’re contradicting everything you just said!"
"Look," June said, placing some sticks and stones to explain her plan. "If we stay here, we’ll be surrounded by the zombies in less than five minutes. Do you think we can survive then?"
Timothy didn’t speak. Everyone knew the answer already. There were only seven grade-4 chosen among them. June was one of them, and she couldn’t even use her powers, which essentially left six grade-4s.
According to the cult’s teachings and their experience, they needed at least three grade-3 humans to take down a grade-3 zombie.
Using the same logic, they’d need at least three grade-4s to counter one grade-4 zombie. That too, if they were lucky.
Unfortunately, they had no idea how many grade-4 zombies were headed their way. If they stayed there, they’d die for certain.
"If we take the initiates’ running speed into account and the time it took for them to die, at most, the zombies can’t be more than half a mile from us," June said.
"I suggest we should all charge towards the circle and break through the zombie encirclement before they surround us."
"I’ll take the lead," Johnny said, affirming his stance with June. "I can burn through the zombies or distract them with my fire."
"I guess that’s it, huh?" Timothy said, shaking his head. "Alright then. The grade-4s will take the lead. The zealots will spread out and join Johnny in distracting the zombies."
"Healers will remain in the center," June said, lifting her crossbow. "So they can heal the grade-4s while bombarding the zombies with eradication spells."
"Who needs an elaborate plan when you can brute force your way out? "
"It’s not the time for your weird quotes, Johnny."
With a plan in mind, everyone got into formation. The initiates were to be used as meat shields and would walk ahead, followed by the grade-4s and the rest of the enforcers.
The zealots were split into two groups. One was positioned between the enforcers and the healers, while the second group was placed at the last to prevent attacks from behind.
"Alright, remember, we have to run, but do not break the formation!"
"For the Blightlord!"
The group ran with all their strength. No one cared about making noise or alerting the zombies. For all they knew, the zombies were already upon them.
"I thought they were half a mile away?" Timothy commented.
"It was a rough calculation," June retorted from behind. "Just keep running!"
As they closed to the spire’s boundary, Johnny felt something change.
The air before seemed to distort, like something was wrapped in an invisible cloak.
"Watch out!" he yelled.
The initiates turned around, only to get crushed by a massive hand that appeared out of nowhere. With a sickening crunch, three initiates were crushed to death as a figure emerged through the distorted space.
"What the hell is that?" Timothy questioned, coming to a stop beside Johnny.
A ten-foot-tall giant stood in front of them. It had the shape of a human but was anything but one.
The zombie didn’t have an inch of skin on its body, but was clad in bulging muscles. It also had shiny scales that had become fused with its muscles.
Behind the creature, half a dozen more corpses could be seen. Two belonged to the zealots they sent to alert the cult, and the rest belonged to the initiates June had sent afterwards.
Breaker had joined the fight!