CHAPTER 146: SURVIVE!

"Run, run, run!"

The undead anomaly watched the human survivors trying their best to escape the battlefield.

The evil grin had long been wiped from its face, and its eyes remained fixed on Kael in the distance.

What the human survivors didn't know was that it was restricted in its actions at the moment, and could only use its presence to deter them.

Just a bit of its leaked aura had been able to cross this great distance and render many of them unconscious.

That was the difference in race grade! It was of a higher rank of existence, and those with low strength would naturally succumb to its overwhelming presence.

Of course, it had already reined its aura in completely after seeing Kael make its efforts mute.

This didn't mean Nathaniel had been mistaken, though. Unlike the other races of higher grade who had been transported to other battlefields to allow the weaker races a chance to grow, the undead anomaly had personally raised its grade up from an unranked status.

So, its restrictions were merely warnings from the System of the punishment it would receive if it should act.

If Kael and the others had truly tried to escape the academy before, it would have taken action, punishment be damned.

But for now, it wasn't yet worth it. Why act when it had several others to do the job for it?

As long as it could have Kael's body, it didn't really care about the others. Though, Rose, Elena, and especially Alice did pique its interest.

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Leaving the massive clearing now serving as the battlefield, Kael and the others ran through the tall grasses that now reached up to their necks.

Hands moved erratically as they shoved the plants aside to make way. The group opted for darkness to better hide their presence, also hoping these unnaturally tall grasses could shield them from the undead's senses.

The sound of rough pants filled the area, but they didn't dare to stop.

In only twenty breaths, they had already crossed two hundred meters, although Kael would have liked to cover more distance. But they had no choice if they wanted to carry everyone along.

Behind them, the bears, boars and undead were already clashing together. Roars, snarls and shrieks pierced the night sky, and the sound of explosions resounded continuously. The ground beneath their feet trembled as if an earthquake were shaking the earth beneath them.

"We can't continue like this!" Elena's scream came from the vanguard, and Kael, who was at the rear, couldn't help but agree with her.

The sound of snarls was drawing ever closer, and it wouldn't be long before the arriving undead coming in their direction sensed them.

Kael thought about it for a moment before he shouted:

"How many of you can still feel your connection to the explosives?"

The group came to a stop as Elena encountered the first undead, a level 65 failed warrior. By now, Alice, Elena, Daniel and the others who had fought previously were already pushing close to level 40, showing just how astronomical the EXP Kael needed to raise his Primordial class was.

Even as fear gripped their hearts, many of the human survivors still nodded their heads, as they could still sense their connection to the explosives they had left behind, even if faint.

"Then at the count of three, we detonate them together! We take advantage of the chaos to escape. Kill any creature along your path, if you want to survive, you must grow stronger! Py!"

The little familiar, sensing Kael's message, flew out of Sophia's embrace and into the skies.

A few of the approaching undead, upon seeing the bird, quickly moved towards their direction, but Kael didn't care. His voice would have drawn them, not to mention it was only a matter of time before they sensed their collective vital essence.

"One!" Kael shouted, his eyes glowing brighter.

"Two!"

The others prepared themselves, with Nathan, Daniel and Elena, who were now clashing with zombies, also diverting a part of their attention to prepare.

"Threeeeee!" Kael roared at the top of his lungs.

Without hesitation, the survivors willed the explosives to detonate through their connection to them, Kael included.

From various portions of the battlefield in the distance, the sound of explosions suddenly rocked the night.

- BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

- RUMBLE!

In front of the spatial crack, many of the boars couldn't react before they were enveloped in bright yellow, searing flames.

Each of these bombs were of the Rare rank, and with their structure enhanced with mana, just a single one was enough to cover over a hundred meters in searing flames. And with several tens detonating together, the explosion could only be described as cataclysmic!

For a time, the pained roars of the beasts were swallowed by the sounds of explosions, with the undead creatures blasted aside in different directions.

Py took advantage of the chaos, and with a resoundingly piercing cry, her eyes took in the undead before the group and those approaching.

Kael wasn't the only one growing stronger. Another reason why his growth wasn't as pronounced as those of the first order was because he was sharing some of his EXP with his familiar. Just like him, Py was now also a level 22 familiar, and while she couldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as true Mythical beings, as she wasn't of flesh and blood, her skills at the moment carried a tenth of those a Mythical Phoenix would possess.

With a single flap, her body separated into five, and with another flap, she became ten. By the time she arrived above Elena's position, over fifty clones of the little familiar flew in the skies, their piercing ruby eyes fixed on the vile undead.

All the clones raised their heads, their beaks, and with another collective cry that culminated into a deep soundwave that blasted a massive hole into the dark and gloomy skies, the phoenixes suddenly plunged down from above.

- BOOOM! - BOOM! BOOOM!

Over fifty rounds of explosions rocked the night sky once more, the earth trembling and the heavens rumbling. The devastation Py alone caused was more than half of what the Rare-rank explosives the entire group had contributed dealt.

"Charge!"

Kael roared again, and emboldened by the levels they had received when their explosives detonated, the survivors charged forward with battle cries as they gripped Alice's blue swords in their hands.

"We must survive!"

They screamed together, and without hesitation, they threw themselves at the undead who had not died from Py's attack.

The grassy fields around them were already incinerated, exposing a massive clearing, and by now the flames were starting to spread, covering the entire area in smoke and lighting the dark, gloomy skies.

Yet, the survivors didn't care. While shouting down their fears, they quickly plunged their swords into the now-rising zombies, Alice's blades effortlessly sliding past the thick bony plates already weakened by Py's flames, and they reaped their corrupted lives.

For a minute, the wet squelching sound of blades tearing into decayed flesh filled the area.

And yet, they were not without casualties.

One of the young female students gathered her courage and plunged the sword into the back of the over five-meter-tall abomination still on the ground. On a normal occasion, she wouldn't dare to even draw close to such a creature, but now she didn't care. She simply wanted to survive. She wanted to live past this night. She hoped to see her parents once more.

Emboldened by her wish, she cried out, drew the blade out and plunged it into the creature's back once more.

She repeated her actions again, and again, but the body before her still twitched.

The vitality and constitution of this level 55 zombie was just that high, enough to throw one into despair.

But she refused to fall into that pit again. She would take control of her own life and...

Just as she redrew the blade and was about to plunge it down once more, this time into the back of the abomination's neck, the creature's right hand suddenly grasped her thigh, effortlessly covering it in its grip.

A pained cry escaped the young girl's lips. From where the claws of the undead pierced into her flesh, her skin turned greenish-dark and the rot of corruption began to spread out.

A golden beam suddenly fell from the skies and upon her, washing the corruption away. But that did nothing to stop the massive hand which still had her in its grip.

Before she could react, another hand gripped her left thigh this time, and just as a sense of foreboding was starting to bud in her heart, the undead suddenly pulled.

"No---"

The girl's piercing cry was abruptly cut short as her body was torn into two halves, her blood raining upon the monster, which unhinged its jaws and released a manic roar.

Kael noticed this sight from afar, but his hands were tied dealing with a level 70 undead before him. He could only dodge around the creature's rampage and could only watch as some of the survivors were killed in the most gruesome ways possible. Even under the effect of Godly Focus, his heart still filled with great sorrow.

"Kael..."

A piercing sword cry suddenly came from behind. Two lines, one horizontal, the other vertical, both forming a cross, split the undead before Alice before flashing before him.

With the warning, he was able to swerve to the side just in time for the cross slash to blur past him, dividing the level 70 zombie into four big piles.

He turned to Alice, whose gaze was turned to the battlefield in the distance. Kael followed her line of sight, his eyes soon falling upon a level 93 Epic-rank bear barreling through every obstacle in its path and charging towards them with menace in its eyes.