Chapter 5: The 'Ech'

"YeeeeeEEeeeeEeee"

I'm staring at this 'Ech's face that has been chasing us for a couple of minutes in terms of distance well its not even a meter anymore.

"YeeeeeaEE!!!!!"

It has a sharp teeth, elongated ears —which made me wonder if it was actually an elf— the upper half of its face that's supposed to have eyes were blank, its like the skin was used to cover the eyes. Its unnatural elongated arms and fingernails tries to reach out and grab the rear end of our vehicle but well they're not long enough.

*But if it continues with this speed it'll catch up*

"CRAP! it's catching up to us!" Shizuka screamed.

"Onee-chan don't take any turns! It'll catch up to us if we take any turns"

While Fumi was analytically panicking.

*This thing is quite troublesome, since it keeps screaming I can sense through Crisis detection that the other undeads are also approaching this direction even the ones that are in the direvtion that our vehicle is heading.*

I took a look at the cars back window that was broken there were some tiny sharp broken glasses the backseat where I'm currently sitting on is already cleaned out but it seems the window wasn't.

"I'll be taking this"

I pulled out one tiny piece of glass from the window right around the same size as my thumb I positioned it so that I can flick it. I focused on my hand activating partial Herculean Strength.

I could feel my hands nerves heating-up this means that partial Herculean Strength is taking effect.

"YEEEeeeeEEE!!!!"

"You're too noisy"

I Flicked the piece of glass and it shot out from my hand and headed straight for the Ech's forehead.

"?!"

The piece of glass went straight through the Ech's forehead leaving a gaping hole on its head.

The Ech ceased any signs of life —if it even had one— and faceplanted into the ground making a splat sound and its feet raised up facing the sky which once again touched the ground and the undead stumbled and rolled around like a wheel.

*Wow I'd never thought I could actually pull it off! Although my hand also went numb*

Partial Herculean Strength is a trick that allows the user to apply Herculean Strength to certain parts of the body the effect is much more stronger than normal since all the power is concentrated at a single body part, I've used this trick when I was still a C-ranker but when I started climbing up the ranks I realized that when I use Partial Herculean Strength my body undergoes a weakend physical state and in turn decreases my defense albeit it's only a small effect but that small difference is

Crucial in a life and death battle so I stopped using it .

This is the first time in a long while since my last Partial Herculean Strength so I was doubtful if it would actually work but as you can see it went off without a hitch.

"Shizuka-san, Fumi-san I've taken care of that thing"

I notified the panicking two in the front so that they could at least calm down a bit.

Reacting to my words Fumi turned around and Shizuka looked through the mirror.

Fumi was the first one to speak.

"It's gone"

"H-how?" Shizuka spoke up with a tinged of disbelief.

I can see her eyes through the mirror and they contained a hint of bewilderment and as for Fumi it's literally written in her face that she's just shocked.

I used Crisis Detection to see if the other undeads are still moving towards our direction thankfully they have all stopped. Well the majority of them stopped moving but there are still 3 undeads moving at our direction.

"YEEEeeeeEEE!!!!!!"

One loud scream came from afar and once again the other undeads started moving.

"Yeeeeeee!!!!"

A second Scream.

"YeeeeeeEEEEE!!!!" And a third scream can be heard from afar.

"WHAT!? THERE WERE MORE OF THEM!?" Shizuka Screamed.

"Ahh" Fumi was starting tear up too.

*I know that these kind of undeads are bad news but Shizuka and Fumi seem to be straight out terrified? Its as if they had a Trauma with this particular undead*

Following that train of thought I opened my mouth and asked.

"Why are you terrified?"

Shizuka looked at me through the mirror, her eyes were showing panic, anger, and annoyance.

"Why!? Why you ask!? Whenever there's an Ech and it screams it draws attention from the surrounding Zombies causing a Horde to move and follow it! You know what that Means for us Right!?"

*Yeah effectively speaking as long as that Ech follows us so would the horde its a cat-and-mouse-and-insect situation.*

"Gh!" A grunt escaped from my throat as I have just understood the gravity of our current predicament.

If this continues we'll be cornered by hundreds or even thousands of undeads. I checked the Undeads once again and I can't help but notice that there were a few who was noticeably faster in the horde and they were already catching up to the Ech's .

"yEeeeEEEE!!!!"

One Ech was running and jumping around the top of the buildings on the left side making full use of its long Arms and body.

"yYEeeeeeEee!!!!!"

Another one was running along the same road as us it swung its arms like crazy and its every strides were wide.

"EeeeeEe!!!" Another scream came from behind the buildings on my right hand side unlike the other two this screams, this one sounded awfully close.

I turned my head to my right in Instinct and just then my Crisis Detection blared.

Between the two huge building was an alley and in that alley was a tall running figure it was just a second that I saw that figure of an Ech and we passed that alley way but right after passing that Alley an impact hit the rear end side of our vehicle it was so strong and sudden that Shizuka lost control of the vehicle and crashed on something on the road causing the vehicle to a sudden stop.

"W--!?" Shizuka tried to scream but I hurriedly moved from my seat and covered her mouth.

"!?" I also did the same for Fumi.

They were puzzled of my sudden action so I signaled them with my eyes to look behind me, they followed and I can see in there expressions that they just understood the situation.

I slowly removed my hands from their mouths and moved my index finger over my lips signaling them to stay silent. I turned around to look at the culprit of our sudden crash.

It stood in the middle of the road taller than an average person its elongated ears, its open mouth showing its sharp teeth and most of all its non-existent eyes and now its left shoulder was dislocated and its left arm mangled and dangling its skin from its shoulder up to its neck was torn from its muscles allowing me to see its internal muscles, a single rib bone was jotting out from its body. No doubt this was the Ech that crashed into our vehicle.

I checked my Crisis Detection and noticed that the moving horde has now stopped and so did the other two Ech.

*Did they think that we're dead?*

The injured Ech moved in our direction but it no longer had its previous speed, Its strides were still wide but its legs were wobbling with every step it took.

"yee?" It raised its right arm and swings it left and right as if looking for something but due to its height it touched nothing but air.

*Why can't it find us? The crash was so loud I'm pretty sure it could be heard a couple of hundred meters and moreover the vehicle is still releasing sizzling sounds*

It was certainly loud when we crashed and due to that the head of the vehicle was somehow creating sizzling sounds there's no way it can't hear that sizzling sound and pinpoint our location.

*.... unless it considers the crash and sizzling sound as something produced naturally?*

Shizuka said that an Ech can differentiate between a natural and man-made noise, but maybe Ech's consider a crash and sizzling sound as natural noise? If so then if we just stay silent and let it think that we're not here then we could survive this encounter.

I slowly turned to Fumi and Shizuka signaling them again to stay silent.

"ye?"

*Just go away already!!*

I also don't want to deal with a horde inducing undead when I'm in a weakend state.

A couple of minutes passed but the Ech was still standing near us unmoving like a statue and through Crisis Detection I can also tell that the other two was also not moving.

Both Shizuka and Fumi were already mentally exhausted if this continues it would be unavoidable for them to mess up and cause noise.

I wasn't taking action because I didn't want to risk our current situation but if this continues we'd be in the losing side.

*I need to do something!*

I don't now if it was luck or something but the Ech fill to its knees and fell flat to the concrete ground just then my Crisis Detection didn't consider it as a threat or enemy the same goes for the other two which would mean that..

*Their dead?*

"+For the love of Hades!! this wasn't supposed to be part of my jurisdiction! Alsyel could you do me a favor and stop getting yourself in a life and death situation!? I did say we can't have you dying in this world but I didn't say you can't die!+"

An angry voice echoes in my head.

"+Thanks to you I'm gonna be in trouble too! I had to illegally kill off three material beings just to prevent you from dying! Now be a good asshole and don't get in trouble cause next time you'll die for sure!+"

The voice was then cut-off

I seriously owe my Grim Reaper my life now.

The tension in my body eased but the same cant be said for Fumi and Shizuka although they know the implication they were still confused. Both of them stared at me as if to ask if it was finally safe I couldn't bear to see them like this so I nodded and reassured them.

"It's fine we're safe now"

""Pwahhhhh..."" Both of them released there controlled breaths.

I can't help but notice that Shizuka's hand was still shaking but she tried to stop it with the best she could and she calmed down.

Fumi was also shaking but unlike Shizuka she can't stop, Shizuka noticed her and reached out to her, she pulled her and embraced Fumi.

"It's fine now, were safe. Big sister's here so its fine..."

She tried to calm Fumi down for a couple more minutes and it seemed to have work as Fumi was now sleeping.

"I'm sorry Al but could we let her sleep for a couple of minutes?"

I checked our surrounding with my skill and concluded that it was safe for now.

"I don't mind, we should also take this time to calm down and plan our next course of action." I suggested.

Shizuka nodded and placed Fumi in her seat.

"The car's a bust so we can't use it now, we'll have to continue on foot it's just that.... I don't know where we are now.."

Shizuka and Fumi are the only ones who're familiar with this world which means if she doesn't know something then I wouldn't either.

*If only I still had my mapping Skill*

The mapping skill automatically maps out an area that the user has travelled its very useful on dungeon diving.

"...we could try and find a map"

Shizuka added.

"A Map you have maps for a city?"

"Ah? no we don't have any in our possession right now, but there is always a map on Bus stops"

It seems Shizuka misunderstood my question. Its very unusual for a city to have a map, putting a map for public access is basically asking for an invasion to happen.

But that doesn't seem to be the case for this world.

*Maybe there aren't any wars in this world?*

"Once Fumi wakes up lets look for this 'bus stop' and map" I suggested.

"Yeah I think that's our best course of action now we'll just have to wait for Fumi wake up."

Both of us looked at the sleeping Fumi who was now sleeping soundly.

*The world is unfair whichever it is huh?*

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