Novel Full 167 Trio by the gate
“I think we no longer need to fear the night battle!” Daria’s words came out of nowhere. Yet, for how obvious they were, it took everyone in the group far longer than they should realize.
“Oh right, you get stronger when in shadows!” Mathew called out, shooting his hand up only to smack his face with it. “How could I miss that?”
Mathew’s words formed a question, yet no one was expected to give it any answer. It was just Mathew’s whine against the world that gifted him with such inferior intelligence.
‘Or is it that simple?’ he then thought, lowering his eyes and killing his excitement for the sake of coldly analyzing the situation.
“Dear, it is true that you might turn the scales of the conflict on our side,” Mathew admitted, only to shake his head. “But I wouldn’t say that fighting during the night turned out into something we are good at. We can’t rely on you to kill the entire zombie army after all,” he elaborated on his way of thinking.
“Well, that might be true,” Daria was quick to admit. A bit of her enthusiasm vanished… but the energy behind her eyes was far from all gone. “But still, it’s another triumph card for us to play, isn’t it?” she then cheekily suggested.
“That’s right,” Mathew nodded his head only to turn his head and throw a scanning look at the area.
While he and Daria talked, both Leila and Nadia were too immersed in their own training to pay any attention. And while Nadia was busy striking the air with her hands, Leila remained still.
Yet, a single look at the girl’s focused face was enough to tell she wasn’t just wasting time.
“I think we can’t really waste much more time,” Mathew muttered when he turned his eyes towards the line of the horizon with only a small part of the sun still visible above it. “Well then,” he added only to then clap his hand. “Everyone, the time’s up!”
Not a single one of them managed to grasp the full potential of their improved selves. A period of just fifteen minutes was way too short for it to happen. And yet, Mathew felt that he had no other choice but to keep pushing through the list of the things they had to do.
‘I really hope we will be able to take things easy for a while once we are done with this,’ he thought, moving up as soon as the two other girls broke free from their focus and looked towards him.
“Gather by the gate. I’m going to sprint to check the situation on the map,” Mathew issued his quick orders before running off towards the compound.
All fresh thanks to the touching grass feature and with his body now supported by the strange energy of the system, Mathew could cover the ruined area, several sets of stairs, and then two levels worth of climbing the ladder in a matter of minutes.
And before the original timer of the fifteen minutes of brake was up, the young man was back at the gate, ready to deploy with the girls.
“What’s the situation?” Nadia asked, doing her absolute best to keep a straight, emotionless face.
‘We really shouldn’t bicker like that,’ Mathew thought in exchange. ‘We don’t know how long we have left to live, and here we are, unable to speak to each other normally over a stupid quarrel.’
The young man wished to scream his problems out… But he ended up keeping them to himself.
“I’m not sure if you noticed it before, but I saw some zombies that nearly overwhelmed my mind with their aura alone,” Mathew announced.
“Yeah, it was hard not to notice them,” Leila confirmed Mathew’s hunch. “What about them?”
“Well…” Mathew hesitated a little only to raise his hand to his head and scratch the back of his ear. He then turned his hand and pointed it towards the gate nearby. “They are right here.”
The sight of zombies trying to make their way through the solid panel made up of steel plating and the iron frame was so common that everyone got used to it. As such, they hardly paid any attention to the zombies whose turn it was to make some noise by the compound’s gate.
“It was a wise idea to check out the map, then,” Daria muttered, her eyes flashing up. She then stared at Mathew’s side, making it impossible for the young man to ignore her gaze.
“What’s up?” Mathew asked in a tone that revealed he had already given up on trying to persuade the girl not to do whatever popped up in her head.
It was a rare sight, yet, her face appeared just like Leila back when she suddenly revealed her dark side back on the first day of the apocalypse.
“Can I try to take them on?” Daria pleaded, putting her hands together and lowering her head, only to look at Mathew’s face with upturned eyes. “Pretty please?”
“I won’t let you go alone,” Mathew quickly replied, shaking his head to accent his response. “You might spearhead our expedition, though,” he then added.
Daria’s lips twitched a little only to turn into a bright smile.
“That’s more than enough,” she thanked, only for her smile to turn smug before taking a devilish hint.
‘She is out for blood,’ Mathew thought, a smirk making way to his own lips. “Well then, without any further ado…” he spoke up, only to unsheathe his saber and take a step towards the gate.
“We go!” Daria shouted happily, taking a leap directly over the wall only to then land just a few steps away from the zombies at the gate.
‘This lass…’ Mathew held back a curse that welled up in his mouth, opting to focus on following the girl instead.
He took a small distance to run up and gain some momentum before jumping up, using his hands to prompt himself up the edge of the wall before following after Daria to the outside.
Puff…
Mathew softened the impact of the landing by bending down on his knees. His head turned to both sides, allowing the young man to quickly register all the important elements of his new surroundings.
And as soon as his eyes laid down on the three zombies that scared him so much before…
A dark shadow flew past Mathew, at a speed that he wouldn’t expect even Nadia to perform. His eyes followed after the shadow, only to see it clashing with the three, seemingly normal, zombies that stood up from the crowd of small fries.
‘There we go!’