Life on the Line

The zombie licked his lips at Rowan as he thought about what he would taste like, and it was all the incentive he needed to charge. He came thudding across the floor with a heavy step while at the same time Rowan dashed to his left. He moved faster than he ever thought possible as he reached his top speed and almost cleared most of the auditorium. He smashed into the bleachers on the other side due to the surprise and sat there in a heap as the zombie changed directions. Rowan had inferred that the stats of a normal person were five based on the starting line that the officers also gave him.

His current stats were all at twenty thanks to the massive increase that the passive skill tier zero soul gave him. So his current capabilities were four times that of a normal person. Needless to say, it was a lot to get used to and even more so in a scenario like this. It wasn't until he collided with the bleachers that he realized the same may be happening for the zombie as well. Rowan realized that a clock had begun to tick in his mind , between him and the zombie in front of him, whichever one of them got used to their new and improved body first would be who survived this encounter.

Rowan leapt from the heap and charged straight at the zombie. The zombie threw its hand up as it charged but Rowan could feel the ground tremor right to his right, which caused him to sidestep and avoid the spike that rose from the ground. He reached the zombie, and it threw a punch that caused the wind to whistle and Rowan slid on his knees on the linoleum floors and slashed at full speed with the scalpel. His hand was a blur in the madness of the encounter as a line of blood shot from the zombies' Achilles tendon.

The sharpness of the scalpel and the speed he was capable of helped him slice through its flesh that had managed to stop the bullets from the officers. Rowan used the inertia from the slide as quick as a flash. He hooked his arms around one hulking leg and shot himself towards the other leg, scoring him another attack and another cut tendon.

Rowan shot back to his feet at the same instant that the zombie smashed its hands into the ground, shattering the surrounding flooring and raising a ring of earth. At the same time Rowan watched as, between the spike, it picked up a piece of zombie corpse and shoved it in its mouth and swallowed it after big bites. The blood stopped spurting from its body and it smiled at Rowan with pieces of flesh visible in its teeth.

Rowan grimaced as the cannibalistic in its name now made a lot more sense. The zombie stomped and the entire floor moved like a wave, which shook him off balance. The zombie leapt forward with all its strength and was in front of Rowan in moments with a massive fist hurtling towards him. Thanks to the unsteady footing he couldn't dodge in time so he put both arms in front of him right as the fist connected. The force of the blow was incredible and if not for the increase in his stats, he knew it would have snapped both of his arms like twigs. He went flying backwards like a cannonball and flew right into the doors that held back a horde of zombies.

Luckily, he had skipped across the floor first and that had taken some of the momentum away, otherwise he would have burst through the doors and into the waiting arms of the zombies. The glass panes in the center of the door did indeed shatter, causing several zombies to reach through toward him. He rolled out of the way and coughed and noticed a bit of blood in it. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and the zombie flashed him another grizzly smile as Rowan charged in once again.

His advantage was his speed in this case, so he stuck in close and dodged the first punch while he used all of his knowledge of the human body at the same time. He cut the tendons in the wrist while the arm was outstretched before also getting to the elbow and shoulder, completely disabling the arm. The zombie roared in pain and swung wide with its other arm.

Rowan ducked the swing and sliced the tendons in the ankle before rolling on ground to dodge another spike. He slashed through the tendon in the ankle and the zombie fell to one knee. Rowan came out of the roll and used his hands to spring back into the air and onto his feet. The zombie had inadvertently moved away from all of its sources of recovery by scattering the zombie bodies in the wake of its earthen attacks. It used its remaining active limbs to climb back up and roared so loudly that the air vibrated and the floor shook.

Rowan couldn't let this opportunity pass. He charged in once again and right as the zombie threw its punch, Rowan swung on its arm like it was a gymnast's high beam before standing on top of its arm. He ran down the arm in two steps and leapt and was upside down in the air before it could even react as he swiped at the base of the neck, opening its flesh and, in the same swift motion, stabbed at the brain stem.

It wasn't until he heard a slight ting sound that he realized that he had fallen for the zombie's trap. The scalpel blade snapped off and left him wide open for the zombie's powerful swing. The fist connected while he used his left arm to block the blow but without both arms to share the weight of the blow there was a snapping sound as his arm broke and he shot out like a cannon flying towards the bleachers that they originally hid under. He clenched his jaw and looked at the bleachers as he flew towards them as he angled his body to pass right through the gap which caused him to tumble to the ground and smash into the wall right next to Camille and the frightened and crying child.

Rowan slid his back down the wall and took a deep breath as a wound that had opened on his head when he slid into the wall leaked down his head and into his eyes. Rowan had wanted to save the skill points, but what was the point of saving it if he was going to die, anyway? He emptied ten points into strength and another ten into agility and used the single point into mind. He did not know it at the time, but the one point in mind would be the true deciding factor in this battle. He felt strength surge into him while the broken arm started to itch unbearably. It was healing slowly but surely, but it would not heal in time. He turned to Camille. "Grab the child and run now! It's coming."

Camille knew better than to not listen, and she picked the child up and dashed right as she could finally feel the tremors of the stomping zombie, now in its prime. Rowan had lost the race to familiarity. The zombie took the most direct route and smashed right through the front of the bleachers. There was no one to see it, but an orb of cyan mist formed to his right behind him while he rolled out of the way. The bleachers groaned like they were going to collapse as the zombie roared and spikes shot from the ground.

Rowan's mind was clearer than it had ever been as he timed it perfectly and grabbed onto one of the spikes right as it rose and shot himself into the air, while at the same time he grabbed onto a metal beam and steadied his feet. The cyan gas slowly began to surround him, almost as if it was following his will. His speed increased astronomically, and he shot between spikes and metal beams, becoming a blur in the process. The zombie was too slow to follow him any longer as right he suddenly appeared behind the zombie's neck once again.

The cyan gas coated his feet as his leg moved with the elasticity of a whip as he mustered all of his strength and kicked right where the knife had embedded itself previously. His toes broke on contact but the broken blade had rocketed forth and shot through the brainstem and out of the zombies throat and into the wall as its eyes went wide as it fell to its knees and collapsed to the ground right as the bleachers fell around them both.

Rowan saw a message flash before his eyes, but he never even had the time to look at it as the bleachers collapsed. Camille's eyes went wide. She bent down in front of the young girl. "I need you to wait right over there by the stage where it's safe. I need to go help Mr.Rowan." The young girl nodded and sat on the stage where Camille placed her. She started picking through the rubble and noticed that while his breathing was light, Rowan was still breathing.

The cyan light had long since faded. She carried his unconscious body to the stage and laid him there as she bandaged the wound on his head and the various wounds on his body. Grabbing the earthen spike had removed the skin from his hands, causing them to ooze blood.

She heard periodic clicks along with a grinding sound as his bones realigned themselves into his unconscious state. Rowan, on the other hand, was having a dream. A man clad in the most magnificent armor he had ever seen was battling amongst the stars and throwing punches that were shattering the surrounding planets. He killed all the enemies that came before him without ever letting a drop of their blood so much as touch him.

Finally, some terrifying entity appeared in front of him and he drew his sword and, in a single beautiful stroke, he killed his foe. The vision started to fade and an elegant man in a butler's uniform took form in the darkness. "That is your goal, young one. Strive to be even greater than that slash and I promise the excitement will never fade. I look forward to seeing you grow."