As Bloodfall’s team drew closer to the Foundry, they soon discovered that all the zombies on the road had vanished!
This stretch of road turned out to be the easiest part of their journey so far.
Claire Chapman clicked his tongue. "Looks like the fight started a while ago."
"Yeah. And it’s intense."
Paige Sumrs’s hearing was far superior to everyone else’s. She was the first to pick up the distant, overlapping sounds of battle.
Soon, the others also began to hear the roars of the Zombies!
Instead of fear, the group was excited, each of them looking eager for a fight.
They had been in such a rush to get here that it felt like they hadn’t had a good fight in ages. They were itching for so action!
But at Claire Chapman’s command, they imdiately reined themselves in. They found a hidden earthen slope, parked their vehicles, and began to observe the battle.
Claire Chapman’s eyesight wasn’t as keen as Paige Sumrs’s, so he used a pair of binoculars.
After watching for a while, he silently passed the binoculars to the teammate beside him and cursed, "What kind of shitty captain just tells their team to charge the main gate? Are they trying to see who can die the slowest? What a complete moron!"
Paige Sumrs frowned and pulled back her focus, nodding in agreent.
The other team was surprisingly large—at least twice the size of Bloodfall. Even more surprising was that they were quite strong.
But a hundred or so Superpower Users were all clustered together, making a direct charge for the Foundry’s main gate... which was where the Zombies were most concentrated. They were imdiately bogged down. At the sa ti, all the nearby Zombies were drawn in, completely swarming them!
In short, they were asking for it.
It was just a sha about those Superpower Users; their numbers were visibly dwindling.
She mulled it over for a mont, then turned to Claire Chapman. "What’s the plan? Are we helping them or not?"
Claire Chapman gritted his teeth. He took the binoculars again to study the situation carefully before finally nodding. "We’re going in."
"Alright."
With an agreent reached, they imdiately planned a route and assigned roles: a rescue team, a rearguard team, and a support team, each with specific duties.
Paige Sumrs, with Ben in tow, naturally took her place on the rescue team. They were more suited for the front lines.
Claire Chapman, anwhile, would act as the overall commander and lead the support team.
Before they moved out, he warned the squad leaders, "If the Zombies are too much to handle, or if that other team tries anything funny, signal imdiately. Full retreat. Got it?"
Everyone nodded in understanding.
Paige Sumrs knew exactly what he was worried about.
First, just from what they could see, the Zombies were not only nurous, but so of them looked particularly tough to handle. Bloodfall was a small team; their plans had never accounted for a direct, head-on confrontation with such a massive horde. He was worried his people wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Second, in these tis, rescuing people didn’t always earn you gratitude. She knew this better than anyone; it was common for the people you saved to turn around and stab you in the back. Besides, both teams were after the sa objective, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to call them rivals. With a captain that foolish, there was no telling if the other team would see the bigger picture. They had to be prepared for the possibility of being double-crossed.
On the other hand, there were simply too many Zombies. If they chose to just watch, it was only a matter of ti before those Superpower Users were wiped out. Then Bloodfall would have to face the horde alone, which would be extrely difficult. If the two teams worked together, the worst-case scenario was splitting the resources, but the risk to them all would be significantly lower.
This was one of the possibilities they had discussed in the car earlier.
Just as everything was ready and Paige Sumrs was about to lead her group out, Sean Raines suddenly called out to her.
"Take this." He pressed a piece of talisman paper into her hand, speaking just loud enough for the two of them to hear. "Ben is getting too ’agitated.’ Use this on him. You have to!"
Paige Sumrs froze for a second, then imdiately clenched the talisman paper in her hand.
She glanced at Sean Raines and t his knowing eyes. ’He must have noticed sothing,’ she thought. But there was no ti to talk. She could only give a slight nod. "Got it. Thanks."
Sean Raines shook his head silently and stepped back, a worried look on his face.
Paige Sumrs turned away crisply. "Move out!"
The rescue team moved stealthily toward the sounds of battle. Along the way, Paige Sumrs noticed that Ben was, just as Sean had implied, not his usual self. He seed restless and agitated, especially when the roars of the Zombies reached them.
Without hesitation, when no one else was looking, Paige Sumrs slapped the talisman paper onto his body.
The markings on the talisman paper flared brightly for an instant before fading. The paper itself then burned away to nothing... Ben seed to feel sothing and turned to look back at her.
The calmness was gradually returning to his eyes.
Paige Sumrs let out a sigh of relief and gave him a smile. One after the other, they picked up their pace and took the lead, guiding the rest of the team toward the besieged group.
No one made a sound. Silent yet unstoppable, they were like a newly unsheathed blade, tearing through the Zombies’ encirclent.
In this type of battle, Paige Sumrs didn’t use her Crossbow, instead opting for an unusually shaped long knife.
Its hilt was rather long, making it easy to wield with two hands.
The spine of the blade was thick and heavy, while its edge was razor-sharp. The tip of the long knife was curved to one side, sowhat resembling a scythe.
At the right angle, any part of the blade could deliver a fatal blow.
Combined with her astonishing strength, it was basically one swing, one Zombie head.
As for Ben, the Low-level Zombies seed to have an instinctual fear of him and wouldn’t attack him directly. He, in turn, had no desire to kill them. He focused his efforts on protecting Paige Sumrs, and the vast majority of attacks aid at her were blocked by the Earth Shields that flickered in and out of existence around him.
With him guarding her, Paige Sumrs’s assault grew even more ferocious. She was practically unstoppable.
At the sa ti, the other mbers of Bloodfall were performing admirably as well.
Their pent-up desire for a fight erupted all at once. With their fierce vice-captain clearing a path, they unleashed a barrage of different superpowers.
In no ti at all, they had carved a path through the dense horde of Zombies!
The trapped Superpower Users naturally spotted them. Realizing it was a rescue party, many of their spirits lifted, and looks of joy spread across their faces.
Paige Sumrs’s gaze swept across the group. She guessed that the disheveled young woman being protected in the center was their captain. Her heart sank. ’Don’t tell she’s another Nora Lowell,’ she thought. ’That would be awful!’
But she had no ti to dwell on it. She yelled to soone at her side, "Frank, get them to fall back! I’ll cover the rear!"
"Yes!"
Frank sprang into action. He and the other mbers of the rescue team began organizing the other Superpower Users, ushering them through the path they had cleared to safety.
The other team was cooperative, following Frank’s directions without any argunts or pointless heroics.
The retreat went smoothly.
Paige Sumrs could no longer afford any distractions. More and more Zombies were now charging toward her, the most obvious target. She had to give it her all.
"Ben, with ! Hold them back!"
’We have to buy more ti for the others!’
With that, her movents suddenly accelerated. She was as nimble as a butterfly, dancing between the Zombies. Heads rolled wherever she passed.
Before the headless Zombies even had ti to collapse, she was already on to the next.
The retreating group glanced back and saw the spectacle, their eyes struggling to follow her movents.
Amidst a sea of grotesque corpses, her slender, graceful figure was a breathtaking, heart-stopping sight!
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