Chapter 32 - Freeing the Town 3

"Do you really think that's the best use of your time?" Rynold asked Jack. He didn't think that the smoke coming from the town signified anything worth his time. Arguably, the idiot that asked the question should be resting rather than thinking of dumb things.

Jack chuckled at Rynold's response. It was fun to think about things like that once in a while but he did it mostly to ease himself from getting too serious and make a mistake in any upcoming battles.

He knew for a fact that thinking too much of the things that might happen is a luxury that they can't afford right now. The only thing that they could do is to keep charging forward and hope for the best.

"Fine, fine," Jack changed the subject. "We should probably get going now. Skye, you ready to go?"

Skye simply nodded with a serious and determined look on her face as she stood back up. She definitely wasn't going to give up now that they're already here.

"Alright," Rynold confirmed the team's condition. "This time, we'll play it a bit differently. X and I will play vanguard and try to take as many hits as we can while you guys kill the creatures off. This way you guys can get experience and won't get tired at the same time."

"That'll work?" Jack doubted the plan, thinking it won't be effective all the time. Especially if they were up against creatures that overwhelmed both Rynold's and X's capabilities.

Rynold raised an eyebrow and said, "got any better ideas?"

Jack only embarrassingly laughed in response. He didn't have to cast doubt most of the time to Rynold, seeing firsthand how effective of a leader he is. But it certainly couldn't hurt for them to be cautious from time to time.

"Let's get going then, shall we?" Rynold smirked with confidence. "X, let's go!"

To his surprise, the Mech Knight actually nodded as he acknowledged the command. It then slowly moved forward at a relatively brisk pace. The changes to its consciousness finally started to show their full capabilities as the team slowly moved forward towards their destination.

A slash could be heard from the distance. It was Oliver and Jack as they made their way through the shroud of ghouls that were in their way. Believe it or not, Oliver was actually showing signs of being tired while Strider was conveying his masters' will.

They were both fighting their hardest as they made their way to the left entrance to the town. They were ahead of both Rynold's team and Shyft, making them the first to arrive.

Oliver, however, didn't actually know this since he was too busy dealing with what's ahead.

Ghouls were spotted dotted across town and it wasn't even the whole town that Oliver was seeing. Since buildings obstructed his view on what's actually going on with the whole town, Oliver could only base things on what he saw when he first entered the town.

'Not the time to think of what's going on,' Oliver thought as he drew his dagger and slashed it in a crescent motion against an incoming ghoul.

The plan was simple. Converge at the center fountain found at the center of the town while clearing ghouls along the way. The goal was to kill off ghouls to make sure that the town was safe again. It wasn't a race of who could get to the center first since they were risking their lives to fight for survival.

Even if Rynold did explain everything clearly so there wasn't any confusion, Oliver was still determined to arrive at the center fountain first. Rynold explicitly said that it wasn't a race but his competitive spirit still made him go at it harder than he should.

[Level up!]

Oliver finally managed to level up once throughout this whole ordeal but he didn't have the time to put his points in his Attributes because he was too busy with the task at hand.

Hoping to catch his breath, he looked around for a safe place to rest. He noticed that the rooftops seem to be empty. The rooftops of two-story buildings made of brick and mortar seem to be the perfect place to rest for a while.

He lept up from the crowd of ghouls that he was surrounded with and tried to reach the nearest building to him, hoping to use the windows as footholds to get to the roof. But, it was for naught.

A Stretch-type Ghoul suddenly reached out and slammed Oliver to the ground. He coughed up blood from the attack as the limbs were too fast and unexpected, making him unable to guard against the attack.

Strider tried to fend off the ghouls that were coming for his master. The wolf was trying his best to defend Oliver as he tried to get back up from the ground, his muscles screaming at him to not move.

The number of ghouls was near countless to the staggered Oliver as he readied his weapon for the fight to come. The Stretch-type Ghoul was their biggest threat.

"It's... not over yet!" Oliver yelled as he steeled his determination.

From an unsuspecting window, a pair of eyes were looking down at Oliver. The stranger had admiration in their heart as they looked down on the man that they don't recognize who was fighting his hardest.

Meanwhile...

Shyft was pushing through the right road. It was a lot less hectic now that he was stronger. It was easier, by a lot.

The number of ghouls that he started out with this path was a lot less than where Oliver was right now. Regardless, there were still difficulties up ahead as Shyft wasn't even near the town yet. Truth was, Shyft was pushed back before because he had no means of using the system. Otherwise, he would breeze through the path pretty easily.

Currently, though, the struggle that Shyft had made over the past few minutes has been worthwhile as he had gotten stronger. How much stronger has yet to be measured since even the basic low-leveled ghouls turn out to be cannon fodder.

Shyft continued to run forward, side-stepping and stabbing with his spear whenever necessary. He had gotten to the point where he recognized that he was about halfway. He kept going forward until his attack didn't seem to work against this type of ghoul.

"Haaah!" Shyft stabbed once more, using the same move that he had used before.

This time the result was different, although not in Shyft's favor. The spear broke in half just as soon as the tip got into contact with the ghoul.

If Shyft hadn't spent all his available points and spent it on his Perception Attribute instead, he would have received the skill [Scan]. Furthermore, he would realize that this ghoul was a new type of ghoul that neither Shyft nor Rynold and his team had discovered before.

Meanwhile, at Rynold's location...

"Ahh!! You're killing me, man!" Jack shouted high up to the sky.

"Focus, damn it!" Rynold snapped Jack from his derangement.

They were fighting against a shroud of ghouls when Jack lost it. He was tired and grumpy, screaming was the only way to release his pent-up frustration. He spent so much Mana to fight against the ghouls but the numbers didn't seem to drop.

Rynold, on the other hand, was getting annoyed too. Being tired wasn't an option for him as he was currently facing a ghoul army.

'This doesn't make sense,' Rynold thought, this number of ghouls from a small town doesn't make any sense. Rynold could remember the population of their town to a small hundred but how come there were so many ghouls now?

Didn't ghouls originate from people who were exposed and mutated by the Red Rain? How are so many ghouls located in one place, and Rynold's hometown of all places?

These questions were asked by Rynold but there was obviously no response because no one had the answers. He couldn't spare any remaining brainpower to theorize upon these questions because they were overrun by ghouls.

"Damn," Rynold then let out a string of curses that was later remembered by Skye as highly inappropriate. "X, just keep them busy! Jack, Skye, follow me!"

Rynold swung his Mana Gauntlets to knock a bunch of ghouls back and ran straight to their destination. The radio tower.

The building was one of the highest ones that were made of concrete rather than brick and mortar. It was one of the latest additions to the town, infrastructure-wise.

Jack and Skye followed Rynold who stopped by the entrance of the radio tower. He tried to open the glass doors but since it was automatic, the door didn't open. 'The power must've run out,' Rynold thought.

Jack came up to the doors and slammed the butt of his rifle and broke the glass, shattering it to a million pieces. "We have to keep going," Jack said to Rynold, with a determined expression on his face.