THE THIRD CALLING (3)

With less than an hour to midnight and ultimately New Year, the tension in the world could not be described, unlike Mateo's tension which he expressed by making a fist and releasing it in quick succession.

He was currently in his room, dressed in light military wear as his darted between his bedside clock and the guns, explosives, magazines and knives that lay in neat arrangement on his bed.

These were the only things he was sending to the DEAD-ZONE since he felt that he didn't need the tank this time, and hunger and thirst were absent for those 24 hours, making food and water unnecessary.

He had already been checked on by both family's members as well as Amber and Amy, the latter's shy attitude of being in a boy's room was funny enough to relax him.

Midnight finally arrived, and not a second too soon as Mateo saw the timer of transportation had reduced from 5 minutes to 30 seconds.

Grabbing everything on the bed, he closed his eyes as a blinding flash of light shone and the next time he opened them, the scenery had changed and he found himself looking at the same image he had seen twice before, the DEAD-ZONE.

Wasting no time, he pulled the rings off two pf the grenades and threw them at the zombies gathered at the wall of the fortress he was situated at.

Clearing the area with the blast, he jumped down the 8 meter wall, a feat achievable only because of his 18 points of endurance (initial 5 +6 stat points, ×1.5 from levelling up and the last 2.5 from being abused by beast cubs).

Sticking the landing without a problem, he scratched himself lightly with the sterile machete he picked from the house. The scratch was just enough to draw blood, but not enough to cause him to bleed to death, perfect for what he had in mind.

Humming, the dark red ring on his finger did its job and brought forth the beastial warriors. Just like the first time, the warriors were only 5 in number, but this time, they were 4 meters tall, twice their previous height.

These were not the only visible changes. Earlier, when summoned, they looked semi liquid and a bit transparent, but now they looked solid and opaque, a result of about 4 months and 20 dungeons worth of blood.

Another change occured, this time to their claws, which had become at least 5 inches longer, marginally thinner and more curved, making them deadlier.

The last visible change was the presence of armour. Though hardly visible, the blood warriors did indeed have blood armour over their compact bodies. This was discovered during the experiments Mateo conducted to see the effects of different blood absorbed by the ring.

The blood of the bone -plated rhinos gave the warriors a protective covering, while the blaze cheetahs blood gave them a speed boost which they were clearly making use of on the battlefield.

Tearing through scores and scores of Tierless undead the blood warriors looked like they were on vacation while their summoner, Mateo was enjoying his self imposed vacation by laying on his bed which "accidentally" got transported with him.

Watching the amount in his finance tab increase without lifting a finger to kill was like a slice of heaven and he soon found himself drifting off into sleep.

High above in the clouds, FragHIM watched as his favoured acquaintance took an ill-deserved nap and decided to help him by sending a real challenge his way, after all, like the famous saying goes, 'no pressure, no diamonds' and he was sure Mateo had the potential to be a diamond.

With a wave of his divine looking hand, their part of the DEAD-ZONE bubbled, breaking some barriers meant to protect participants, and releasing some undead horrific enough to give grown men nightmares.

Mateo was woken by the feeling of rushing wind as the floor was approaching rapidly. With less than a metre to hit the floor, he barely managed to maneuver his body and land on his feet in a squatting position with an outstretched hand on the floor, just like a hero of the past.

Rolling to disperse some of the force, he was narrowly able to dodge the falling bed who wanted to be on top for the first time.

Knowing from experience that all things sent into the DEAD-ZONE would return to how they were, he wasn't really bothered about the broken bed. He was however interested in what caused him to wake up from his lofty sleep.

Scanning the surrounding with tired eyes, Mateo took in the scenic change, as where there used to be droves of undead wandering about aimlessly, now lay their rotting remains doomed never to roam again.

Seeing a balance of 5000 coins in his finance tab made the rude awakening more manageable, but he still wanted to find the cause.

Looking around once more, he saw some movement eastward of his location accompanied by random clouds of dust.

Starting out with a light jog before breaking into a full sprint, he was able to reach the location in 5 minutes.

Standing before him stood 4 out of his 5 summons, surrounded by a group of undead quadruped beasts with a nasty feel about them. These were the first beasts he had seen since entering the DEAD-ZONE and as such he felt a little fearful of them, not like their hoarse cackling helped the situation.

Occupied by the 4 blood warriors in front of them, the group of undead hyenas didn't hear the one sneaking up on them until it was too late and a bullet tore through one of them, killing it in one go.

Capitalising on the momentary destruction, the blood warriors were able to kill three before jumping over the group to regroup with their leader.

Being the subject of so many hungry stares, it was obvious that Mateo would be a bit shaken, but with his personal bodyguards shielding him, the fear he felt waned.