29

I though I was being completely reasonable. These weren't human enemies. We couldn't expect them to act like humans. 

"Stop being paranoid," the sniper brushed off my concern. 

I pulled out one of the scent disguising potions. I had a huge target on my back as a five star class holder. I planned to keep myself off the menu. Smelling like a zombie had to help. I didn't want them coming after me. 

I poured the nasty smelling liquid all over myself, and moved away from the group a bit. A few of them looked my way. I knew the damn stuff was nasty, but it, thankfully, didn't linger, and would wear off after an hour or so. Plus the smell didn't stay in my clothes. I didn't know how that such a strong scent could be washed out so easily, but that was tomorrow's worry, and tomorrow's problem. 

I was just glad I didn't have to drink the damn stuff for it to work. Plus it soaked in weirdly quickly. I was dry within five seconds of applying the damn stuff. The vial was small. Maybe five ounces total, but it still shouldn't soak in that quickly. 

We started moving cautiously. Nothing was coming to us to we might as well go to it, right? I barely noticed when something rushed past me. It was just a quick breeze followed by desperate screaming. This creature was nothing like the zombies we'd fought before. 

It was fast, and agile. It used it bone spikes to maneuver through the trees at breathtaking speed. The damn thing had rushed right past me to impale the nearest person. It was too close. If I hadn't used that nasty potion I would probably be the one that had a spike driven into my leg. 

I knew that using my bow at this close of range was almost a guaranteed hit, but I'd be shooting into the group. This shot had to be lethal or this thing would turn on the rest of the group before I had time to make another shot. I took it's basic humanoid shape into consideration, and aimed for the head. I felt energy travel down my arm, and into the arrow. It glowed for a brief moment before I let the arrow loose. 

What happened next made me regret every life choice I'd ever made. I'd missed. I still hit the damn thing. Just not in it's head. I'd hit it in the neck. 

The damn thing looked at me with a human shaped face only with deep pits for eyes that had beady black shiny things for eyes. It's open maw was way to big. Going down through it's neck, and stopping on it's chest at nipple height. It's nose was just two irregularly shaped holes that looked like they'd been sliced into it's face. It didn't have ears. 

It's body looked like that of a holocaust survivor if you didn't take the boney spikes for arms, and the nasty maw into consideration. Tiny spiky teeth like that of an alligator poked out all along the edges of the maw as the creature leap at me. Then the arrow exploded. Blowing the whole things head off. I was in a complete panic as it fell on me.

I didn't even feel my back hit the ground after the impact. I'd seen zombies survive losing their heads so I one hundred percent expected this thing to attack me next. I scrambled out from under it, and leapt to my feet. I'd managed to get my hidden dagger out while scrambling, but the creature didn't move. I took a few seconds to get my heart out of my throat, and looked around quickly. 

Making sure I didn't hear or see anything dangerous. I looked at my hand briefly. It was the one that I'd opened up the mana channels in. That was how my arrow had gotten charged with mana in the first place. Maybe the arrow simply couldn't handle the power I'd put into it, and that was why it had exploded. 

I'd used ten mana in that attack, and it had done far more then any attack I'd ever launched. I'd absolutely filled the arrow to the brim. Far beyond what it could normally handle, and it had reacted like a shaken soda. The part that got me though was that I could do it again. I had enough mana to do it six more times right now. 

My mana regeneration would give me back seven mana an hour. There was a healer in the group, and they were focused on healing the poor guy who'd had his leg spiked. They were all either looking at the corpse, me, and the wounded man in stunned silence. 

"Pay attention," I snapped, "If that thing had aimed he'd be dead. The only person that should be focused on him is the healer."

"Why did it ignore you?" The sniper asked with suspicion. 

"Remember the nasty zombie sludge?" I frowned at him, "Did you think I wanted to smell that bad for fun?"

I reached down, and broke the ghoul down with the system's help. Collecting the blood, and the core quickly to make more of the nasty sludge. The larger more powerful core produced five vials instead of one. I passed those vials off to the group. 

"These should help you hide as well," I handed them off. 

"You can make them?" the healer frowned, "Why don't you have more?"

"I need a core, and the blood of zombies to make it," I frowned, "The government wants the cores. They've taken every single core I've collected. How am I supposed to make more without one of the key ingredients?"

Understanding seemed to dawn on them. I hadn't completed anything because I hadn't had the necessary supplies. I straightened slowly. It was too quiet. Then it was too loud. 

A scream rang out from the forest around us. It was a harrowing terrifying sound. Dozens of wails that sounded just a little to shrill to be human. None of them sounded as if they were far from where we were.