Lord Shadow-Chapter 22: The bridge of parting

The sun is showing, the mist is clearing, a beautiful morning…..if not for the 200 zombie’s attacking them Sofia mused, as her hand keep shooting to the horde.

She keeps her position stable.

She is focusing on the front while Azief is charging on the zombies behind them.

‘Hooh’ Sofia exclaimed as sometime she steal a glance at Azief position. I guess this zombie horde is not really a big problem for him. She mused

Azief is using his speed to charge the 100 army of zombies. He was like a beast that flitted around, leaving only dust behind him.

His sword is ready to reap some souls, and his eyes are full of killing intent.

‘YARGH!’ He yelled, giving himself some encouragement and he crashed to the horde, and he attacked, his dark blade emits its luster and first blood is draw.

First strike was a slashing right motion.

For a while the moaning and the groaning stop and Sofia could only hear the crisp sound of meat being sliced.

Ten zombies’ was slashed to two, their head flies in the air and drop to the tar with a thud, their bodies followed after.

Azief smirked.

He did not stop his attack, instead he follow up with a spinning slashing motions, his feet turn and his sword spins like a grinder machine.

It was almost like he was dancing in the bridge, with heads and limbs as his fireworks, the spurting black blood his decorations and the harsh sounds of his swords swinging right and left, his song.

It was beautiful.

On the other sides of the battle, Sofia is jumping around while aiming at the zombies head. Her accuracy is top notch and her agility is also not bad.

Her confidence against zombies is rising.

As long as she maintains a considerable distance with the zombies there is nothing to fear from them.

If she feels herself to be overwhelmed she will retreat for a while before using Rain of Arrows.

It consumes a lot of her Spirit but it is useful when using it against a horde. The Accuracy drooped but it inflicts a lot of injuries.

Azief is still mowing down the zombie’s horde on the back with relentless and fast attack, chopping down zombies like they were cow meat.

Black blood sputtered everywhere, heads rolled around his feet. For a while he truly look like a sovereign of darkness.

With a hood covering his face, with a black robe fluttering in the morning breeze and a black sword in his hand, and this many corpses around him, he looks like an undefeated Dark God.

Another zombies try to grab Azief when he is slashing one of the bigger zombies.

Azief swiftly sidestepped to the opposite direction and with a swift slash, the zombies head flew, black blood came out of its neck like a fountain, gushing out.

Each of the zombies that attacked Azief, he only need to sidestepped and slashed and their intestines would came out, their heads would flies, their limbs would be gone.

To Azief eyes, they are slow…too slow.

He sidestepped and he slashed. It is the same routine for each one of the zombies. Why should he change to other routine when this one works?

They are not ferocious beast like that Fanged Giant Cat which requires his full concentration and speed.

This is zombies and most of them is low level. There is a few who could run and stuff but even that few, compared to his speed is nothing threatening.

Then ten zombies leap to him.

Ok, this is unexpected Azief mused but he was ready to slash them with his active skills, Slashing Wind but then he was interrupted.

From behind him barrage of arrows rained down the zombies.

Each one of the arrows effectively and efficiently lodged itself on the brain of the zombies. Azief had to dodge the shower of black blood.

Azief look behind him and see Sofia smiling.

‘You owe me!’ She yelled.

‘I owe you nothing!’ he yelled back.

‘Hmmph!’ Sofia snorted.

He got it under control. She just loves to interfere.

Rain of Arrows and Accurate Shot. Two of Sofia skills that is very suitable for her archer profession.

Rain of Arrows creates a rain of energy arrows. It consumes a lot of the user spirit. Accurate Shot is used to shoot a powerful shot of arrows.

Another zombies leap up and Azief is once again interrupted.

What are you doing! He wanted to yell but he endures.

She uses her Accurate Shot. One of the arrows even penetrates a zombie head only to shot the rest of the three zombies behind it.

‘I’m going to activate Rain of Arrows’ she yelled. 𝘧r𝑒𝘦𝒘𝘦𝙗ｎovel.𝐜o𝒎

‘You need to be fast handling the back so we could defeat the front. They are hiding inside the buses and some of them are still stuck behind the big truck’ she yelled again, looking at the advancing stiff.

Now, Azief understand. She helped because the front needs his melee attack. After all her specialty is long range attacks and his was melee combat.

Azief could understand her fear towards the zombies. If not for that damn fear, she would be a fine companion Azief just look at her and nodded.

‘Careful with that’ Azief yelled when Sofia activated Rain of Arrows. He is still worried about the range of the attack.

Even though rain of arrows is not as effective as Accurate shot it is an AOE attack.

If it was humans they are fighting right now, many would have died or suffer injuries, their bodies would be riddled by arrows.

But fighting zombies, it does not have meaning unless it hit the zombies head.

‘Come on quick Azief. The front is coming faster!’ Sofia is overwhelmed now and she couldn’t retreat no more.

If she retreat again she would be truly trapped and bring trouble to Azief who is killing the back. 𝐟𝚛e𝐞𝙬𝗲𝒃𝓷𝒐𝘃e𝒍.c𝑜m

Every time Azief stamina runs low, he drinks the vials. Even though skill book and item hardly come by right now, the vials drop as usual.

Most of it is stored inside his ring. The other is stored inside Sofia storage rings.

‘Wait a moment!’ He yelled back.

‘I’m almost finished’ and he gripped his sword tighter.

By now the back has decreased its number by 50 zombies. This time the attack of the zombies becomes intensified.

The zombies become faster.

Some of them try to grab Azief again. Azief rolled on the ground escaping from their grab and taking some distance and he activated Slashing Wind and about 25 of them were cut into two.

They still crawled with their intestine dragging on the bridge, looking at him with that empty hole where it used to have eyes.

Azief while attacking the other zombies smashed the crawling zombies head with his feet.

Every time he stomped the zombies head, the tar cracked because of his powerful stomping. He realizes it too that the ground cracked.

He is becoming strong he mused.

Then with one last slash, the final zombie on the back finally all neutralized. Then a message appears.

YOUR SOUL ABSORBING ABILITIES HAVE REACHED THE REQUIREMENT FOR EVOLUTION. CHOOSE YOUR DESIRE SHADOW LORD ITEM TO EVOLVE.

‘Clothes of shadow lord’ he said. He has been thinking about this for a long time and he unhesitatingly chose the clothes of shadow lord.

THE CLOTHES OF SHADOW LORD HAS EVOLVED TO BE THE ROBE OF DARKNESS.

ROBE OF DARKNESS

INCREASE VITALITY BY 50

STEALTH STATS ACQUIRED

YOUR MOVEMENT WHEN HIDING WILL BE HARD TO BE DETECTED.

WHEN YOU ARE ANGRY OR YOUR MOOD IN AN UNSTABLE EMOTIONAL LEVEL, THIS ROBE WILL EMIT A BLACK AURA SHROUDING YOU WHICH WILL GIVE A BOOST OF 5 PERCENT TO STRENGTH AND AGILITY.

– HAVE ABILITY TO SELF TRANSFORM WHEN IT REACHED THE SOUL REQUIREMENT

Whoa! It rises a lot. He inwardly rejoices.

Vitality increased to 50. Like I thought! Choosing a unique class would always give you powerful stats.

Smiling Azief yelled.

‘Hold them back for a while Sofia. I’m coming’

‘Alright!’ she yelled back. Like she got any other choice she mused. Sofia uses her Rain of Arrows again.

Her spirit is almost depleted from the constant usage and now she is just waiting for Azief to come help her.

Azief on the other hand is busy gulping vials of stamina potions, health and spirits potions. He looted all the gold, copper, and silvers.

Sometime he looks at Sofia and confirming that she could still hold on, he continued. She needs to be tempered by fire he mused.

Not to mention if worse comes to worse, with one leap he could arrive at Sofia position. As he search the battlefield, he found only one items and one skill books.

For now he put it inside his storage rings first. Then he rushed to Sofia aid.

‘How is the situation?’ He asked when he arrived at Sofia. Sofia barricaded herself behind a large car while sometime she snipes from the sides of the car.

‘They are slowing down because of my attack’ she said, while not forgetting to compliment herself.

‘The bus is slowing them down’ Azief said boringly as he look at the zombies, stuck at trying to pass a fricking bus.

Stupid stiffs he mused.

‘Heh. I help’. She said proudly

‘Fine.’ And Azief analyze the battlefield as calm as possible.

His heart is still beating erratically, pounding like a drum after the last battle and now he need to risk his life again but for some reason; it’s not as scary as the first time.

‘I guess, you got accustomed to it huh, heart?’ He said it to himself, barely a whisper as he smiles bitterly.

There is a bus in the middle of the bridge.

Probably it lost control during the fall and slide thus obstructing the other vehicles and right now stooping the advance of the zombies.

Though there is a gap since the bus did not cover the whole bridge.

It is easier for Sofia since she could shoot an arrow of any zombies who went through that gap.

It could be said, that it is a dinner serve in a platter.

But before long the zombie manages to tear down the hull of the bus and the bus no longer become a buffer.

‘Did you level up?’ Azief asked.

‘Level 16.’ Sofia reply while taking a breath

‘Good’ he said.

‘It’s my turn then.’ And he smirked.

‘Your clothes are different than the last time I see it’ Sofia asked, realizing there is something different about Azief new clothes.

‘Well’ he said nonchalantly and then he runs towards the zombies hordes. He was excited and the black aura shrouded his attire.

Sofia looking from afar could see the black aura shrouding Azief is shocked.

What other things he has under his sleeve? she mused

This time Azief ignored any defensive maneuver, instead choosing to slash as powerful as he could.

He was almost like an unstoppable tornado fighting with the zombies.

Limbs fly out, heads scattered through the bridge like some decorations, and blood flow like it just rained.

It took about 15 minutes before the whole zombies on the bridge are eliminated.

And shockingly it is done only by one person…..with some help from the back, Azief had to admit.

Damn, I could have done this all alone he mused.

Sofia level up to 19 and Azief is standing on the middle of the bridge like a victorious general.

Azief don’t know why but as he level up the feeling that he is strong could not be denied. Another message popped up.

YOUR SOUL ABSORBING ABILITIES HAVE REACHED THE REQUIREMENT FOR EVOLUTION. CHOOSE YOUR DESIRE SHADOW LORD ITEM TO EVOLVE.

‘Now this is fortunate. So, my items are evolving again.’ This time he tries to upgrade the Dark Sword Of Souls only to be greeted by the rejection message

INSUFFICIENT FOR EVOLUTION.

It seems that to evolve the first stage of the Shadow Lord items it will take about a hundred or more zombies.

But for the second stage of evolution it might double that requirement.

Sofia on the other hand is collecting the loots. Many vials were dropped this time, and there are also some skill books and items.

Azief then try not to evolve his item.

And the windows disappeared. But when he touched the evolution trigger menu in the status windows the same message greeted him.

This time his mind begins to formulate plan.

Should he wait until the evolution reached the peak for the second stage evolution? After thinking for a while he decided against it.

‘I evolve TROUSER OF SHADOW LORDS.’

THE TROUSER OF SHADOW LORD HAS EVOLVED TO BE THE LIGHTWEIGHT TROUSER OF DARKNESS.

LIGHTWEIGHT TROUSER OF DARKNESS.

INCREASE AGILITY BY 15

YOUR MOVEMENT WILL BE FASTER.

WHEN YOU ARE ANGRY OR YOUR MOOD IN AN UNSTABLE EMOTIONAL LEVEL, THIS TROUSER WILL EMIT A BLACK AURA SHROUDING YOU WHICH WILL GIVE A BOOST OF 5 PERCENT TO AGILITY.

– HAVE ABILITY TO SELF TRANSFORM WHEN IT REACHED THE SOUL REQUIREMENT

‘Huhuhu’ he laughed.

‘What?’ Sofia said as she heard the voice.

‘Nothing’ he replied, his cheeks was red because of embarrassment. He was too excited.

Thankfully his face is hide by the hood if not he really could not endure the embarrassment.

After finish collecting the loot they rest in one of the abandoned car. It was a minivan. Surrounding them was hundreds of zombie’s decapitated head and limbs.

‘What did it drop?’

‘A few skill books and a lot of vials.’ Sofia reply

‘How many skill books?’ he asked.

‘This is the most important.’ He stressed.

‘Three.’ Sofia answered

‘I’ll take two you take one’ Azief shamelessly said.

‘What! I should take two, you should take one’ Sofia countered.

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m a woman and weak.’ She said confidently

‘You don’t seem weak to me when you shot those zombies head to smithereens.’

‘My appearance deceives you. I was afraid, so afraid’ she said suddenly showing a scared expression.

‘Your acting ability is lousy’ Azief said boringly.

‘Tch. Count it as you just concedes it to me. My level is weaker than you, and even my skills are not as many as you.’

Azief look at the woman…and then he sighed.

‘Fine, I might not be a good guy, but I could not let be so selfish.’ After this they will also separate.

Consider it my lost he thinks inside his head.

‘Fine, you take two but I will choose what skill book I want.’

‘Fine’ Sofia cheerfully responded.

Azief then took the books and examine it.

Levitation

Swift Kick

Fear Aura

This is the three skill books Sofia found. Levitation enables a person to levitate 100 centimeters from the ground.

That is all that it does. But Azief is sure that if he could level up this skill it could even exhibit signs of flying.

Swift Kick is an active skill. To execute it would consume 40 spirits and it will send a fierce wind gale kick at the target, dealing a lot of damage, presumably.

Fear Aura is giving a fearful aura to beast and zombies. Maybe if it is leveled up it will even works on humans.

‘Come on, choose one’ Sofia said impatiently

‘Ok, fine, wait a bit’ Azief said.

Then he choose Fear Aura

SKILL: FEAR AURA

YOU CAN EMIT AURA OF FEAR AFFECTING THE MENTAL STATE OF BEAST AND MUTATED SAPIENS IT WILL ALSO MAKE THEIR MOVEMENT SLOWER AND THEIR SPIRIT WILL BE LOWERED BY 2 PERCENT. A PASSIVE SKILL. TO USE IT, ONE NEED TO WILLS IT, THINKING IT IN THE MIND.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN THE SKILL?

‘Yes’ Azief reply.

‘You’ve chosen, right? Sofia asked impatiently.

Azief nodded and Sofia grabbed the two books an quickly learned it. Light shone down on her and she smiles.

She gets out of the car and suddenly she released a kick to the air and a wind gale erupted from the tip of her feet sending itself to the air.

Powerful attack he inwardly thought.

After they drink stamina vials and spirit vials they continue their journey. This time, since the zombies on the bridge have all been annihilated, they should have take their time.

But Sofia was anxious and keep running and as they jump through the cars and vans that obstructed the streets finally they get pass the bridge.

Looking in front of them both of them look at each other with a wistful expression.

Sofia then said

‘I guess this is it?’

‘Yes.’ Azief reply.

They have talked about this. Now Sofia is stronger than before, and braver, she could go by herself to her mother.

Of course she would still be in danger but it’s not like Azief is invincible. In their new world, all places is full with dangers.

He is not strong enough yet to guaranteed she would be safe with him, not to mention he accompanying Sofia was a short term plan.

‘We separated hall and half?’ she ask

‘Okay’ Azief replies.

Sofia give the vials, separated half of it for her, the other half for him.

Azief could see she is anxious to go to her village by now Azief knows that she lives in the Wide Swamp village.

Azief live in Stone Cape Village.

After the bridge they would pass a sawmill and then they will be an intersection.

Entering that intersection would lead to his village. Going forward will go to her village. She could not accompanied him to his house, and Azief would like it that way.

This is his problem, he would solve it by himself.

Then Sofia extended her hand.

‘Thanks for all the help.’

‘Don’t ‘Azief said.

‘I didn’t do nothing much. It is mutual benefit.’

‘Hmph’ Sofia smiles

‘For a man who doesn’t like to be hero, you sure look like one.’

‘What?!’ he said flustered.

‘Until we meet again’ she said as she dashed forward from the bridge running with her fastest speed.

With the sun just getting up, her figures were like a heroine and Azief couldn’t help but smile.

This time, his feelings weren’t as heavy as before. Smiling he too dash forward, rushing to go….home.

***