The Earth After Rebirth

Felix had saved him just in the nick of time with the same weapon he had created for him. He didn\'t need to be told twice, as he quickly took steps back, creating a great distance between him and the zombie.

"You know, I\'ve always wanted to dissect a zombie." Felix said innocently.

"Hey, don\'t get too excited, he\'s still your leader." Nikolai chimed in.

"So? He\'s an enemy now. He\'s clearly stronger than us, we shouldn\'t hold back."

He didn\'t wait for them to reply. He abandoned his priest duties and became a battle fiend with his butcher subclass. Kiro watched from inside his body impressed.

Felix threw his chain, aiming for his achilles tendon. Kiro understood immediately, as the zombie him was about to jump to avoid the attack, he took control of that foot which didn\'t leave the ground. His tiny saws managed to grab ahold of it and severed the tendon completely.

His body was that of an undead, decayed, so he couldn\'t heal it. The zombie however didn\'t let that stop him, he had a limp but he was still just as fast.

There was suddenly a gust of wind, he had used whirlwind to create blade winds that flew straight for them. Felix was a very agile one, he managed to dodge every one. The worst he got were tiny cuts on his face, which didn\'t make him bat an eye.

The blades went straight for the others, Hiro used his shield to cover himself. Ishaan used his force shield to cover himself and Nikolai. As hard as the force shield was, it couldn\'t keep all of them at bay.

Ishaan was dealt the worst hand, 3 blades pierced his leg. One had already reached his eye when Nikolai put his hand between the two, taking the hit for his comrade.

"Sh*t. Why\'s he so strong!" Ishaan complained.

"That\'s what we need to catch up to." Nikolai reminded him.

Ishaan looked up at him with glassy eyes, he\'d never had friends like these before in his life. People who would put themselves at harms way to ensure he wasn\'t dead.

"Thanks." He murmured.

Kiro came at Felix aiming for his neck with the sharp teeth he now had. Hiro was faster to get there, instead of putting his shield between them he used it to bash his head, causing him to fly back and ram into the nearest wall.

The spectres and Kel stayed out of it, they dealt with the zombies that surrounded them. They were doing a better job keeping them away from the fight. So they were surprised when the fight came to them instead.

Zombie Kiro got up looking furious as hell. Lightning crackled from his entire body, it was black and ominous. Even with his limp, it took him but a second to reach them again.

He was practically flying to them, his lightning fist ready to turn them all into charcoal. The others could feel that there was nothing in their arsenal that could contend with this next attack, but they still stood their ground, ready to defend.

They were all within Ishaan\'s shield, though they knew that, to Kiro\'s abilities that was akin to a paper thin wall between them and that fist.

He was meters away, his fist was about to hit the shield when he suddenly stopped. He stood there for a second, as a statue. The others took a step back, and then another.

Ding!

[A single minute has passed, the effects have worn off, your body is yours again. Be careful next time, guardian.]

His vision was quickly coming back. He slowly regained his colour, and the black roots receded until they couldn\'t be seen anymore. His consciousness went back to the driving seat, whatever was controlling his body was nowhere to be seen.

"Ahhh—" He screamed in pain.

He couldn\'t feel anything while he was an undead, but that pain seemed to have accumulated and as his body was rejuvenated, he felt every bit of it. It wasn\'t the worst pain he\'d ever felt but it was still something unbearable.

Relief could be seen on their faces, realising the effects that were binding him had worn off. If they weren\'t surrounded by enemies they would fall to the ground and celebrate their survival.

There was no time to do that though, they immediately took Kiro into the force shield and Felix started healing him.

"Don\'t, you\'re wasting good mana. Use it for others, I\'ll be fine." Kiro told him.

Felix nodded. He was a bit embarrassed that he had attacked Kiro seriously just a moment ago. Maybe if he\'d waited for a few seconds, the effects would\'ve worn off shortly.

Kiro noticed the bitter expression he wore, "don\'t be. If you\'d waited, you could\'ve all died. I was actually impressed, the way you took charge and connected the attack."

Felix smiled slightly, turning his back on Kiro and focusing on the ongoing battle with the zombies and healing his friends.

Kiro felt like he was dropped from a high distance and dragged throughout the entire world. His tendon had already healed, the effects of being under the zombie bite was taking a toll on him though.

He watched them cleaning out the movie theatre. Sad that he couldn\'t join them immediately. He was most impressed by Ishaan, amongst the 4 he\'d grown the most. He was previously wimpy but now, he looked like a real warrior and that made him somewhat proud.

Clearly the battle mage class wasn\'t so bad, it all depended on the person and how serious they took the game. Ishaan was very serious about getting stronger, he didn\'t like being a burden to them.

And before he knew it.

Ding!

[Congratulations After Dark, you\'ve survived a zombie attack. The theatre is just one of many, good luck on your endeavours. Rewards will be distributed after the final boss has been defeated.]