The Zombie Tournament

Act 42 : Damsel in Distress

The group were wandering to the northern side of Ofta city. They planned no return to Militistaro’s barrack stronghold and having a direct clash against them, so their course has been drifting more to the northwest for the tunnel’s walkway route. Zeno Gunnar selected the small path that was aligned close to the mountain towards many other options that the wristwatch has offered. Damon has spied on their estimated road earlier, yet he found nobody was sheltered before them within the span of twenty-four hours. No other trace of creature along the way, as well, so their safety will be assured nonetheless.

(tap-tap-tap)

The leader stands before his subject, many would deem so towards Zeno Gunnar and his status as the spearhead of their current group, but the young knight placed himself on the rear in reverse. Their destination is esteemed at the front side area of the wagon. Long pathways beckoned in mysterious manner ahead of their group. Indeed, for him to stay on the back was too frivolous to unfold.

However, the young knight always has motives for the action implied.

No, it is never about Tanya Rushdi at most. He protected the back because of a chance to be flanked in either regions and having themselves under the tight situation by the pressure from both sides. Zeno Gunnar’s might will break open the rear in immediate fashion, so that they could escape back to Ofta in seconds without having to manage on defeating the other verge of their perpetrator at the same time.

A short hour later, Tonado’s group reached halfway of twenty kilometers stroll to the tunnel. The redwood trees obscured their traverse by their high-end wooden torso. Zeno Gunnar observed his head-captain’s news of victory for Gina Keaton, one of their female subordinates of the contest. She is an adept in close-combat trade-offs and a fluent martial artist in bare-handed attack. If Tony Simmons owned brass knuckles, the young woman wields artificial claws on both palms.

“They lost a zombie and most of them gotten injured after beating down Gorand Industries’ mercenaries, apparently. A sacrifice for humble winning to our group.” Zeno Gunnar muttered,”Tony Simmons had his ‘deva-state’ broken. We might be meeting up back to Gastamo because of this.”

(beep-beep)

Tanya Rushdi listened to her partner’s news broadcast and a little bit disgruntled by such devastating outcome. She flicked on the highlight repeatedly to ensure everything stood the same way with Zeno Gunnar’s abrupt reports, before then shook her head against the truth,”Deep condolences for your zombie collection, Tony. I wished you well.” Tanya Rushdi wrote on the augmented panel before her, blurting words out loud to focus.

“Wohoo! That’s our boss over here! I’m so proud to be the part of this group.”

Frank Terino, on the other hand, appeared overjoyed by their teammates’ close-knit victory. He bounces up to the news and overviewed Juno Rumondor’s figure on the snapshot in gleeful manner. The man’s beard twitches up and down against the flow of gravity. Instead of wallowing in sadness, Frank Terino promotes a happy face to the crowd, boosted up their morality by such horrific circumstances that happened.

(rustle-rustle)

Before the group could even muster on defence, their presumed threat appeared in glum. Damon has returned from his surveillance duty and being a little bit under the weather. He frowned to the unknown, kicked over the pile of grasses with an ire embedded to the force beckoned.

“Soldiers have occupied the tunnel’s entrance, Zeno. It looks like we have to turn around.” He said, pouted slightly.

“How many?”

Towards Zeno Gunnar’s confirmation, the half-zombie rattled,”A lot, and our firepower will be useless to blast them away without putting anyone in danger.” He said,”Your girlfriend has a certain possibility to be injured from our contact. No offense to you, ma’am, but I think you’re quite ragged on direct clash.”

It is never fun to be estimated as a burden. Damon’s choice of word tattered Tanya Rushdi’s stream of confidence and made her steamed up. She wants to disagree so much on the half-zombie’s blunt claim, but having no support from Zeno Gunnar to bolster. The young knight was in depth of contemplation on which way would be precise. He was more in qualms to the branched-up matters than being discontent against the half-zombie’s comment.

Tanya Rushdi has nothing but to scowl against Damon, which was benign to her glare all the time.

(tap-tap)

“Let’s check how many of those petty soldiers out there. If we can cleanse them out together with our strong zombies, We can do them out without needed to flee away.” Zeno Gunnar glanced at his informant to state his issue,”Don’t worry, I’ll do my white aura detection first to make sure of their counts.”

Damon confirmed every word by a slight nod, before then following the young knight’s suggestion with a tap to the brand-new objective from their current captain of the block,”Affirmed. I’ll be waiting here and do something with you after the cue.”

“What about us?”

Frank Terino’s question carried the young knight to think harder, mainly because he was forgotten of the stout man’s existence in general. Under the shade of redwood trees, Goni’s influence will be worthless and brought calamity to their group more than against the actual threat. The mortar shell’s blindfold accuracy is quite tricky to have at this point of time. For Frank Terino’s specialties, conversely, a sniper rifle could handle their blindspot and taken care of many unattended enemies before they hit them with a smash.

The young knight furled his thoughts and directed his index finger to the end of the road’s direction,”For you, Frank, that rifle could be handy for harrassing our enemies.” He muttered,” Use it wisely, okay?”

“Right away, boss.” Frank Terino saluted, quickly wander to their wagon for retrieving Rudolfo’s artifact to the game. However, as something was stuck in between his mind, the man awkwardly returned and scratched his hair in confusion,”Do I have to shoot by my own will, or do I have to wait for your approval first?”

“Just bangarang that pesky bastard once you settled down there.” Zeno Gunnar mildly answered,”Don’t forget to cherry-pick the lonely one first. And for you, Tanya....”

Tanya Rushdi has been waited for so long. Zeno Gunnar was leaving under the question of her ability at the moment. She was stranded under the presumption of frail stature and being thrown out from the open-warfare by restraining order of the captain himself. Of course, her belief of uniqueness and accountability of being Tonado’s warrior were prone and goes unstable in the meantime, merely due to doubts from her own teammates in a glance.

“Yes, darling?”

The young knight gazed at her, fixated both of his palms to her shoulder, and speaking soft to her ear,”I want you to do me a favor here. Please, stay before the wagon and protect our stuff at all cost.”

The blonde shifted to bloom in wrath. An underestimation at its finest, She thought, and it was from the man that Tanya Rushdi has ardently in love with. Never in this world for a man to look down against his woman’s ability. No time to argue against insolence, as it only caused her to aggravate and subdued by the virility of a man.

“Talk to my hand if you want to speak about it.” She flaps her left palm before Zeno Gunnar’s eyes,”If you wanna act so damn masculine, don’t make me a victim with those silly order of yours.”

Without further ado, Tanya Rushdi choose to be opted out from the pecking order and walking south to Ofta. The young knight has no knowledge of her sparkling ire. Everything that he was spouting about is normal to the man’s eyes for their usual tactics upon the battlefield, so Zeno Gunnar sensed nothing but a logical way to do things to protect her out from harm.

Zeno Gunnar tilted his head as his soulmate departed, looking at Tanya Rushdi’s silhouette venturing out from his reach, until another form of shadow snatched her out from sight and running to the depth of redwood forest.

“No!” Zeno Gunnar screamed,”Took the helm for me, Frank. I have to search her out.”

“Aye!”

To the problem that persists, Damon approached him and sprints ahead of the man’s way, interrupted his concentration by a glance of query,”Do you want me to help out, Zeno?” He asked, wondering of their captain’s response to his offer.

“Nah, I can do this myself.” The young knight hastily replied,”Just wait for my command if there’s a problem out there, Damon, then your help will be greatly appreciated.”

----

Zeno Gunnar and the twin black sword was roving the ebb and flow of redwood forest in utmost vigilant attitude up front. In every spasm and rustle of the woodland chamber, the young knight’s instant jab will arrive. There are a pair of redwood trees that has become the first casualties from his madness. He knocked them down in a single strike of horizontal sweep, enforced a daunting rule to the living wooden frame around him by the swift incursion of the blade.

“Where’s that man?” the young knight shrouded himself in anger. Tanya Rushdi is everything to him at the moment, and being unable to find her means a total failure of a knight in his mind. Zeno Gunnar was lost in disappointment to his own mistake of leaving her out from his protection. To circumvent his bad decision, the innocent trunk of a tree will have to be sacrificed in place.

(brak!)

Another one got busted by the sharp edge of his black sword. Zeno Gunnar’s raw strength could swerve a clean cut to the tree’s innards, despite its more than five meters diameter at most. His white aura has been much brighter in color nowadays, and it is thanks to the constant usage of the special power to the game in the past weeks. The young knight activated his blue-generated force in switcheroo by the near-end of white aura’s one and a half hour duration.

“That’s unusual...” Zeno Gunnar mumbled.

In his vision, an unfamiliar shape of wound has been punctured to the nearby trees on his proximity. A mark of wolf’s claw and one sign of resistance by the fallen redwood to the right. The beast apparently struggled to keep his prey intact, and the victim could escape for awhile because of its flawed entrapment afterwards.

Indeed, it makes the young knight shuddered. If it is his soulmate involved, what would she ended up to be?

Zeno Gunnar tried to keep an eye on the visible footsteps on the ground. Deducted from its shape’s complete contour, one could determine the track’s freshness, and the young knight presumed that the unknown victim in this scenario could escape with ease.

“Hey, is that Tanya's...?”

A round titanium defense was Tanya Rushdi’s special kit on the battlefield. Across the top side of the shield’s edge, Juno Rumondor has made a slight curve for a sneak-peek to the front line ahead. He carved the similar form of structure to the bottom one, as well, since it has no precise upper side position to be considered throughout.

“Kyaa!”

(tang!)

The howling scream tilted Zeno Gunnar’s ears up. It is Tanya Rushdi in a short assumption by the man’s recognition on the pitch, but there is no time to weigh up things for rescue. She is under the threat of a beast, and there is nothing to hope for otherwise.

“I could only do the white aura for an hour, at least. Time to make it count.” Zeno Gunnar uttered.