Return of the Woodcutter

SECOND MONTH OF SURVIVAL, AROUND ONE HOUR BEFORE THE END OF THE RED TRIAL.

Brutalina watched the Ryu siblings with a bored expression. It had been interesting to monitor those prodigies at first, but they adapted to their current predicaments at lightning speed.

The goddess thought it was because of their previous life's training and occupations—which was in a way—but realized she had also given them too many advantages. Weapons, cars, fuels, alcohol, etc. Those were there for the picking. Coupled with the siblings' expertise, it could only become a boring show to watch. No tension, no predicament, no surprises.

Brutalina envied Belmand, who seemed to enjoy himself at every turn to the point of staying awake at all times. After all, a black challenger never tamed an evol monkey in the past.

The gods had gifted those creatures with incredible evolving abilities. Even if a divine being descended, those creatures could match it after the second month. The stronger the challenger was, the faster they learned. The weaker the challenger was, the slower they learned and the easier they were to deal with. Easy being relative.

She sighed. Even Filona went to help Zalon prepare for the second trial because she was bored. Then an idea sparked.

'If it's too easy, I just have to make it harder. Hehehe…' she thought, proud of her brilliant idea.

***

SLASH!

A zombie's head flew over the parking lot, rolled, and stopped against a pile of corpses.

Ogoro, wearing his medieval armor, opened his visor, lit a cigarette, and took a puff. Since last week, the zombies attacked twice a day. Today, however, they have attacked every three hours.

'But that wave should have been the last.' Ogoro thought, the first puff relieving some of his stress as he glanced at the huge notification window in the sky.

[Remaining time: 54 minutes and 14 seconds]

[Remaining time: 54 minutes and 13 seconds]

[Remaining time: 54 minutes and 12 seconds]

Tsk.

He clicked his tongue. That thing has played with his nerves since it appeared this morning. Ogoro felt uneasy watching it.

"Don't lower your guard," Sheyla said, walking out of the police station. "There might be one last wave."

Ogoro sighed, the fact that his sister even spoke of that or simply uttered a somewhat long sentence rekindled his stress.

Sheyla tugged at his armor. He glanced at her to find worry depicted on her face. His sister only did such a girly thing when deeply worried. To reassure her, Ogoro activated his gift to check out the surroundings.

—Gift: Acute fifth sense—

He took off his gauntlet and placed his right hand on the ground. Vibrations coming from every direction entered his hand, muscles, bones, and reached his brain.

Sheyla's slight shakings, the worms eating dirt in the nearby park, and fast-approaching tremors from three directions.

Ogoro heightened his fifth sense and reached further east to find no end to the tremors. West, still no end. North…

"Shit!" He said, pulling out a bow from his inventory. "Fast approach, three or four kilometers away! East, west, north! Numbers unknown. Estimated arrival time three minutes."

Sheyla's blue eyes shook with fear. That kind of attack had never happened before. According to Ogoro, it also appeared that zombies were not walking, nor running, but sprinting in their direction.

Ogoro placed his unarmored hand on her shoulder. She gazed at him. He gazed back at her with eyes filled with determination and the will to survive.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded before racing for the police station's rooftops.

Ogoro took a long puff. Cinders rapidly replaced tobacco. He then let out a small white cloud and pinched away the butt before opening the gates.

In the street, he appreciated one last time the peaceful night air before it would inevitably turn chaotic once again. In the sky…

[Remaining time: 50 minutes and 00 seconds]

Ogoro emptied his Molotov cocktail stock, keeping only one just in case, and placed them on the cars by the entrance. He then lit a fire using trashes and clothes. Settled his arrow-filled quivers, spare weapons next to him.

Ready, he waited for his sister to open the hostilities.

[Remaining time: 48 minutes and 00 seconds]

"WOOAAH!"

Screams from horror movies pierced the night, echoing through the empty streets, soon to be filled with flesh-eating monsters. Ogoro closed his visor and prepared mentally to be seriously outnumbered.

'Stop. Let's be positive for a change. I have a full armor to protect me against bites and the such.'

Arrows flew north and east in a seemingly unending stream, shooting down crazed zombies.

'I have the best marksman I know covering me. And,'

He lit an arrow tip on fire and aimed for the car barricade west side.

'Deadly traps scattered around.'

He released his grip. The arrow flew on top of incoming zombies' heads, entered a car's opened gas tank, and ignited the fiery liquid.

BOOM!

Rotten meat paste spread, repainting the surrounding walls. The explosion ignited the surrounding cars, creating a chained reaction.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

'Oh, gotta thanks Sheyla for that one.'

Suddenly, as if they had passed the words to one another, multiple explosions resounded north and eastside, creating firewalls separating the street in two but also the zombies.

[Remaining time: 40 minutes and 00 seconds]

Ogoro sent multiple arrows west side, taking down as many enemies from a safe distance as possible.

On the rooftop, Sheyla never stopped firing—one shot, one death. From up there, the sight brought her even more despair. Furious zombies filled the streets as far as the horizon. No special-type as of now, but it must be hiding amongst the crowd.

For the moment, faced with a firewall, zombies halted their steps. Those on the other side, however, were running madly towards her brother.

'Concentrate.' She thought.

She redoubled her effort, bringing down as many zombies coming as she could, but still, some of them managed to pass her arrow rain.

'Concentrate.'

Her brother, for now, pushed back those coming for him with a flurry of blades. He had apparently stuck spare weapons in concrete, quickly swapping between them when needed, since he couldn't handle the inventory swapping properly.

[Remaining time: 35 minutes and 00 seconds]

'Concentrate.'

The firewalls dwindled, leaving gaps for zombies to use. Then, something bulky, grey, and fast charge the car barrage westside, obliterating it. Zombies poured in, and so did the special-type.

It charged toward her brother, pushing aside its own kin like they were mere flies.

Her eyes widened, and two choices came to wrestle with her thoughts. Takedown that beast or keep shooting at incoming zombies from all sides to prevent them from overwhelming Ogoro.

She inhaled, exhaled.

'I'll do both.'

—Gift: Thrill of the hunt—

Time seemed to slightly slow down as she entered some sort of inferior version of a bullet-time state. Her muscles ached, almost tearing apart at the new influx of power. She greeted her teeth through the pain and rained death upon her enemies.

[Remaining time: 33 minutes 00 seconds]

The inventory had the drawback of hindering one's vision, but with training, Sheyla could now use it as a quiver while minimizing the flaw.

Her moving fingers blurred under her speed. Blood dripped down the bowstring as she repeatedly opened her inventory to pick up an arrow, closed it, aimed, drew, and shoot.

Two arrows reached the special-type but got stuck in its muscles, unable to dig further in.

The thing was covering its head, making it impossible to aim there. Sheyla shot down three more zombies and aimed for the hulking creature once again. Lower this time. Luckily, the arrows lodged into the creature's joints, slowing down its charge.

On the road, Ogoro struggled to keep the zombies at bay. He felt their growing numbers would soon be unmanageable. He wanted to retreat behind the gates, but the special-type would just obliterate the barricade. The siblings needed to take it down before Ogoro could retreat.

Determined on killing it before it was too late, Ogoro pushed the nearest zombie aside, grabbed a spear, hurled it at the monster.

BAM!

The iron tip dug into its chest, but couldn't pierce the heart.

"Shit!" He said, slicing a zombie who was clinging to him. Threatened to be overwhelmed, Ogoro was forced to retreat behind the barricades, brushing away any zombies.

Sheyla focused her shots on covering his retreat. Once inside, he closed the gate, rushed behind the first car barricade they had prepared.

Panting, almost out of stamina, he took out a bottle of fresh energy drink to ease his thirst. Apparently, the inventory had the neat function to conserve an item in exactly the state as it entered it.

"Aaaah…" He voiced out a satisfying sound.

BOOM!

The Molotov cocktails he had placed outside ignited with one of Sheyla's fire arrows and spread to the surrounding cars barricading the gate, blowing up zombies.

[Remaining time: 25 minutes 14 seconds]

"Pfiou… let me rest for a minute, please," Ogoro said to the raging zombies behind the gate. All he got as a response were roars and air bites.

On the rooftop, Sheyla's bloody fingers trembled as she forced herself to draw one more arrow.

'One last one.' She thought.

BAM!

'One last… one.'

BAM!

'One… last…'

Her last arrow flew towards Ogoro and rebounded on his armor. Her brother looked up, sending her a quizzical gaze. She quickly hid her bloody hand and waved to apologize.

[Remaining time: 23 minutes 10 seconds]

BOOM!

The hulking creature sent the front gate flying, sending in hoards of zombies. Ogoro clicked his tongue, took a last puff, and threw his still-lit cigarette at a pool of liquid that ignited upon contact.

Fire rapidly spread to the car barrages, creating yet another explosion. Pebbles, pieces of concrete, and metal rebounded on Ogoro's armor as he retreated back to the police station's entrance.

The thick concrete walls surrounding the station started to crumble because of explosions. If he stayed in the parking lot, he would get overrun.

Once inside, he barricaded the glass door with whatever he could find and took out his bow. Then he noticed that his sister had stopped firing for a while now.

'Triple shit! Please be safe.' He thought, rushing through the corridor, leaving behind his fragile barricade.

[Remaining time: 20 minutes 00 seconds]

Ogoro reached the rooftop to find Sheyla fighting what they both called a "striker," the first special-type they had encountered. However, she seemed to be at a disadvantage because of a wound.

He rushed past ventilation systems toward the striker. Too captivated by its prey, the special-type only realized at the last second that someone else had joined the fray. Its head detached from its body as it collapsed.

"Sorry, Goro…" she said, showing her fingers. The wound dug deep enough to see her bones.

"Did you—"

A frightening howl interrupted him, bringing back his mind to a more urgent problem. A deadly one.

"Tsk." Ogoro clicked his tongue at their approaching doom.

There was no point in barricading the rooftop's entrance since the hulking monster would just run through it.

They could certainly use the surrounding ropes to escape or stall for time, but with Sheyla's hand in that state, it would take a while to cross over another building, leaving them defenseless against whatever that thing was.

With its strength, if it somehow pulled on the rope they were climbing on, it could lead to a deadly fall at best.

Both of them were aware of that fact. It didn't take a genius to figure this out.

"Use the escape rope leading to the city hall," Ogoro said, pointing eastward. "Don't wait for me, I'll hold them back as long as I can."

"But—"

"Listen to me for once! You stubborn girl!" He said, grabbing her shoulders.

Sheyla's eyes shook from the confusion and fear. Her brother has never acted this way, even during their last job that had proved deadly. Usually, it was the other way around.

"Please."

That single word crumbled Sheyla's defenses. Tears poured down her cheeks. Ogoro's eyebrows lifted from surprise when she gave him a hug.

"Come back alive, onii-chan." She whispered before escaping.

'That's new.' He thought, smiling tenderly, 'such a pity that I won't be hearing that again.'

He turned to the opened door leading to the rooftop and walked towards it.

Step.

He cut off the strings tying his shoulder pads to his body, so he could relax his tensed arm muscles.

Step.

Threw aside the helmet that clogged his vision and made breathing difficult, so he could see better.

Step.

Freed his hands from the shackles his gauntlets imposed on him, so he could move as he wished.

Step.

The building trembled under the hulking monster's steps, but Ogoro did not. He held his ground, katana in hand. Shakings were nowhere to be seen when his right leg reached backward to find balance.

"WOUAAAH!"

Ogoro stood calmly in front of the roaring special-type, with one regret; being unable to accompany his sister into her new life. Then, thinking back to their first day here, a realization hit him, giving him yet another regret.

"Hey, I actually never got to use that adult magazine."