With a thunderous boom, the shotgun blasted out 12-gauge pellets, but they missed their targets. Takashi was nearly knocked over and looked at the approaching undead in disbelief and shock. Kohta immediately told Takashi what he was doing wrong and instructed him on what to do. Takashi followed Kohta's directions and this time managed to kill some of them.
As Kohta began firing shots, taking down the undead with well-placed headshots, Takashi ran out of shotgun shells and fumbled with fresh cartridges in his pockets, dropping some to the ground. The BX droid ejected itself from the car trunk and charged into the horde with its saber drawn.
At that moment, Aurélien and Saeko had exited the Hummer, weapons in hand.
"Takashi! Get Rei to safety! Saeko and I will cover you!" Aurélien shouted.
"No! It's too dangerous to face that many undead with swords!" Takashi shouted back.
"Just grab Rei, you idiot," Aurélien snapped before turning to Saeko. "Ready?"
Saeko smiled at Aurélien, and he smiled back—both instinctively recognizing a fellow warrior before diving into action, killing as many wretched undead as possible. Black blood splattered across Aurélien's face as he severed the head of another creature, baring his teeth in a fierce snarl and roaring a challenge. His mechadendrite whipped around him, preventing the abominations from overwhelming the technopriest.
Takashi had dropped his shotgun and stood beside Rei, grabbing the M1 rifle. With Kohta's instructions, he fired, though he kept missing his target.
Suddenly, eight undead with bloated bellies appeared forty meters from the group. Their mouths opened in three segments, revealing a bright neon-green light deep in their throats that grew more intense. Within seconds, the swollen monsters vomited globs of green liquid, aiming at Aurélien.
Sensing the threat, he used his mechadendrite to shield himself. The liquid, indiscriminate between friend and foe, affected the undead around him as well. Upon contact, the cadaverous melted down to half-rotted stumps. Aurélien saw smoke rising from the metal armor of his mechanical weapon, but fortunately, the acid wasn't strong enough to melt it. Sheathing his blade at his belt, he grabbed his Beretta with his left hand and tried to eliminate the new threat.
"Kohta, focus fire on the ones that can attack at range!" Aurélien ordered. Following his command, the sniper blew off the heads of several of the new undead. Conveniently, it seemed that this regurgitated attack required a bit of time to recharge.
Aurélien noticed that despite his group's efforts, they were losing ground, with only a few meters between the horde and the barricade. Despair rose in him—but also a resolve. The resolve to take as many monsters with him as possible.
He wasn't the only one thinking that way. Takashi, out of ammo, had begun using his rifle as a baseball bat. Aurélien also saw Saeko crushing the skulls of attacking enemies, but lost in her battle frenzy and slowed by fatigue, she didn't realize she was pushing too deep into the horde.
Aurélien used his mechadendrite to pull her back toward the Humvee. His attention too scattered on the battlefield, he failed to notice a stalker approaching stealthily, using cadavers for cover. It wasn't until the creature charged him from less than two meters away that he saw the threat. His mechadendrite, having just dropped off Saeko, tried to return to protect its master, but it was too far to make it back in time. Aurélien jumped back to dodge, twisting his left arm toward the stalker in an attempt to blow its brains out with his Beretta.
It failed. The undead creature sank its teeth into his left forearm. The shock made him drop his Beretta.
Crying out in pain, he flailed his arm in a desperate instinctive attempt to shake the monster off, but it clung on like a rabid dog. Furious, Aurélien drove his sword into the stalker's skull, finally freeing his arm.
Retreating from the fight, Aurélien returned to the temporary safe zone, black and red blood dripping from his wound. Within his arm, he could feel his mana battling the infection, but he knew the little mana he had wouldn't hold out for long. The technopriest collapsed to the ground, his back against the Humvee, facing the horde.
Undoing his belt, he used it to slow the blood flow by tightening it around the bicep of his infected arm.
Saeko approached Aurélien, her hair veiling her dark gaze. She didn't understand what had just happened. One moment she was lost in her murderous frenzy, the next she was flung toward the Humvee. She saw that Aurélien had been bitten by a zombie. She cursed herself, blaming her loss of control and the pleasure she took in battle. Now the man before her was paying the price.
"Saeko! Saeko!"
Aurélien's cries brought her back to reality. "Saeko! Cut off my arm!" he said, rolling up his coat sleeve to reveal dark veins spreading across his arm. For a moment, hesitation flickered in Saeko's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by resolve as she took his blade. Without delay, she sliced through the technopriest's arm at the elbow.
Aurélien screamed in pain. With Saeko's help, he applied bandages to the severed limb, trying to avoid bleeding out.
Despite the dozens of corpses on the ground, the horde seemed endless, drawing stronger undead with every wave. The BX droid experienced this grim reality firsthand when it was overwhelmed by five stalkers who tore it apart, their lack of flesh to devour driving them into a frenzied rage.
"So, this is how it ends?" Aurélien groaned in exhaustion, rising with his sword in his one remaining hand. Adrenaline kept him going, though he knew it wouldn't last.
"At least we'll die together, right?" Saeko said. Aurélien looked at her and smiled. "It's been an honor to fight by your side, Saeko. Take care of yourself. I wish I'd gotten to know you better," he replied, then suddenly charged the undead horde. "Come on, bastards! Come get me! Who wants a piece of Aurélien?!" he shouted as loud as he could, his mechadendrite tearing into the monsters around him.
"A-Aurélien?!" Saeko cried out before running after him into the horde as well.
Slaying as many as he could in front of him while emitting a long, piercing whistle, Aurélien diverted the undead's attention away from the group. He dragged his sword along the brick and mortar of the walls, sparking and making a loud scraping noise. Aurélien sprinted up the stairs near the road, with Saeko following behind, banging her bokken against the railings to create loud, echoing metallic rings. Aurélien was surprised to see her behind him, thinking she had stayed with the group. His plan had been to distract the horde even at the cost of his own life. But unfortunately, only a few undead had followed them up the stairs.
"Damn it all! That was supposed to work!" Aurélien spat, looking sadly at the group still trapped by the fence. Saya had climbed down from the vehicle and armed herself with Takashi's shotgun, ready to fight.
Then, out of nowhere, men and women in firefighter gear rushed toward the fence and used extinguishers to repel the staggering undead. Several of them were also armed with assault rifles and took down the nearby stalkers.
The firefighters then helped Takashi and the others to safety on the other side of the fence. Takashi looked at Aurélien and Saeko and waved at them.
Aurélien waved back but clenched his jaw as he looked at the undead mob. "There's too many, we can't make it back!" he said in frustration.
"That's right," said Saeko, and she shouted to Takashi, "We'll find you all later!"
Takashi waved his arms and nodded to show he heard. Then he turned to the lead firefighter and thanked them. The firefighter took off her helmet and Saya squealed with joy, running to embrace the firefighter—her mother.
"They're safe," Aurélien said in relief. Looking at the horde and then at Saeko, he said, "Come. We'll take a detour, my house shouldn't be far from here. We'll regroup with them later."
Saeko nodded in agreement, and the two sprinted down the street, not knowing exactly where they were headed—but knowing they could rely on each other, and that was all that mattered.
As they ran through the streets, dark thoughts resurfaced in the girl's mind as she saw her companion's missing arm. She felt guilty for what had happened, yet Aurélien showed no resentment toward her. Was it because he kept his anger bottled up? Or was he just waiting for the right moment to make her repay the debt? She didn't know—but she felt ready to face the consequences of harboring a monster within herself, and for letting it loose.