The Zombie Tournament

Act 3 : For The Battle Ahead

Zeno Gunnar sits on the sofa of the lounge and waiting for someone in his silence. The young knight required permission from Maxim Dupont to look into his zombified families’ condition at the storage of the north. Many rich personalities were roving across the apartment’s entry. They are always look in a hurry and distinct to anybody else, even to their own relatives and friends, and bringing themselves to rush out from the rolling door without looking at their flanks to consider.

“Zeno Gunnar!‘been waiting long?” The man in glasses clamored.

His hairstyle changed considerably throughout a day of their latest encounter. As of this morning, Maxim Dupont selected prime-blue navy for the expression of his delight. Up to Maxim’s torso, the man picked a blazing-red tunic out of the long list of trend-setter’s desirable clothes. It might be deriving from his personal assistant’s categories of cool outfits to be fitted in her master’s wardrobe, a suggestion of Maxim’s designer, or merely a hunch from his own perception of style.

“How’s the registration? Having fun with them auto-teller, I presume.” Maxim continued on his greetings without waiting for Zeno’s reply to the rhetorical question of late. As the response, Zeno Gunnar grins a little.

“Well, It’s not really that hard. All I did was-“

The man in glasses halted Zeno’s explanation mid-sentence, “Yup, it is. Now, what’s your business, young man?” Maxim then whispered to his ear in dimmed tone of voice,” You’re not supposed to be here. What if my clientele recognized you?”

“I thought-“

“Yes, you are my friend, bla-bla-bla, but you’re also an entertainer wannabe tomorrow, Zeno! Please, do not come here unless there’s something so important.”

(click-click)

Maxim Dupont taps onto his wrist watch, swapping on the floating touch screen that appeared, and pressing the button to affirm on the choice.

“Here, permission granted. You can contact me better by the watch, remember?” The man in glasses said, fixing his glare to the young knight before him, “I’ve also gifted you ten thousand for those property of yours. Be prudent with that money, or else I’m not gonna sponsoring you anymore.”

----

No actual news from the man that hired him. The young knight has no ideal trace of the man’s character and the reason on his fame, but having an engagement with Maxim Dupont himself seems pleasant enough for a start. That was Zeno Gunnar’s intention from the very beginning, to spy over his own supervisor and gaining an upperhand for later usage, but the target unintentionally shut it down in advance.

Yet, he acknowledges a certain point of issue, that a pool of demand is there for a zombie gladiator to work on as an entertainer for the wealthy.

(Ting!)

The lift alarm’s ring once when it reached the 7th floor of the northern-area’s storage room. Zeno Gunnar wanted to examine Deino and Sanna’s condition before the battle begins. The information booth has given him a noteworthy material to bargain with. From the time when they got immobilized by the young knight’s pair of dark blade, Zeno has their feet reserved by dipping the limbs into salt and honey. As a result, It could save both of feet’s flesh from deterioration for weeks without need of a freezer.

“Time to turn on the controller. I have to do a practice with them a bit.” Uttered Zeno to himself as he thought aloud.

(Beep-Beep)

The young knight turned on the wrist watch for starting the nail’s engine of the two zombies’ in his disposal. He was reluctant for doing all of these to their dead bodies in last night’s ritual, especially after the rules has been unravelled, but a struck of his own intention beckoned to sustain his own spirit for training on tomorrow’s run.

‘The zombie’s brain has been turned on. Thank you for using the application’

(Beep)

Zeno Gunnar kneels to Deino’s container. No matter of how rewarding the cure is to his family, the young knight has to suffer on seeing his own father’s corpse moving in blank stare to murder other deceased personality’s around. He weeped tears on Deino’s corpse, looking at his lifeless coccoon ahead and cried.

”I’m apologize, dad, I will accept any punishment from you after all of this cruelty has ended.” He whispered, sensing a load of grief within his heart waning away after a session of whimper.

(clap)

“Graaaa.”

(Bang!Bang!)

Deino’s corpse instantly awaken after a few minutes of booting up. It starts to unleash the brute force as Zeno goes right close to its chamber, shredding down in terror to its surroundings afterwards.

“Father, please be calm down for a bit. I want to activate Sanna’s flip first.”

(Beep-beep)

“....”

Tons of smacks from Deino Gunnar’s muscular arms are shuttered down as Zeno ordered him to stay put.

“It works, I guess. My father’s somehow listening to my command.” Zeno nodded, then moving to the next chamber around the corner of where Sanna has nestled within.

(tap-tap-tap)

Zeno mildly hits the container’s exterior while walking across the corridor to Sanna’s domain. No feedback from the other zombies that were rested within, thus making him felt comfortable of knocking their walls many times for fun. In young knight’s knowledge, none of the living dead inside the storage room would thrash down their compartment if its owner not preferring them to be. They have to activate its mechanical brain on its temple before requiring them to bolt out from the cage under their command.

“Okay, it’s time for you to wake up, Sanna.”

(beep-beep)

“Raaaaawr..”

Sanna’s groan sounds more high-pitched than his father does. In reminisce to the past, Zeno Gunnar recognized Sanna’s pattern of voice is nowhere near to the one the young knight has heard from the man. His brother was reserved, keen to be noiseless and being distant to the crowd. Rather than polishing his skills of defeating a wild animal in a hunt, Sanna did better in humming and composing his music beside the stream of Hamnos River. He would refuse to laid fury upon his neighbors, even a gentle-reminder of misdeeds, eventually brought most of people to grant their respect for his tranquil minds.

In the same way to his father’s, Zeno kneels to Sanna’s grave to share condolences of his brother’s death.

“I’ll win this for both of you.” He mumbled, placing palms above his head for the end of the prayer,” I have to exercise with you, too, Sanna. Stay still for me, okay?”

(clap)

Sanna’s mindless wrath has ended in similar manner to His father after the young knight’s order received. After five minutes passed, His little brother sits in the center of the chamber, leaning down to his spine in motionless mode by the course of Zeno’s order to the creature before.

(beep-beep)

Once the young knight applied his card to the scanner, Sanna’s container gate became unlocked. Zeno Gunnar carried Sanna’s body on the back. His tears are flowing back once more by the thrust of memories. He recalled of Sanna’s injured legs incident of two years back, the day where he was still a freshman of Numonia’s knight school. That time, Sanna fell down to the river after the small bridge of their village got crumbled down to pieces, and he crashed out into the very depth of the stream soon after.

And now, he has to lift up his brother, dead and decayed for the visitor’s recreation of their holiday.

----

Zeno Gunnar’s next destination is the western farcorner’s area of the city. He wanted to visit the most refined craftsman of Minopia, whom inhabited there for decades. Many called him as “the child of God” for how reliable the bearded man’s invention to the battle. He was once regarded as the tailor for “Major and Minor”, the two renowned zombie collectors of the city. The first in mention collects many forms of zombies across the cultivation points of the living dead and having many of them weaponized to the bottom of their feet. As of the latter, “Minor” has only a number of them in his pool, but mostly rare-breed ones with natural ability of their own.

(clang!clang!)

The young knight has remained in his seat for awhile. Zeno Gunnar was anticipated Deino and Sanna’s refurbishment, which was sorted in two hours after his arrival to the region, but somehow haven’t finished in time.

(tap-tap-tap)

No wonder, the young knight finally fell impatient of the unfinished work’s lengthy duration and roaming around a few times in a rush. A rug underneath has drown as the victim of the man’s inability to contain his annoyance, especially since he was swallowing the “child of God” expertise with expectations to behold.

“How’s my order, Zellot? Is it complete?”

“Not yet done. I have to put something up for first-timers like you too, you know?” The old man answered,” To fix all of these need concentration, so be quiet for me, alright?”

(clang-clang)

After an extra hour taken to fill the room for his creativity, the bearded tinker displayed his handicraft to the young knight. He tweaked Sanna’s legs with two pistons on its calf, with Deino’s muscular brawn steadily improved by added metals down the biceps.

“It’s all set, boy. Your father’s legs would be as good as new!” The old man uproared, telling the young knight of another masterpiece that he made,”You will be the winner with this pair if you know their true talent, Gunnar.”

“What is it? I don’t really have much in me, since they’re trying to beat me up back then.”

For showing of his findings, the old bearded tinker pats Deino’s shoulder in beaming smile, as if he’s the actual owner of the two, “This bigger one right here, he has undefeated guts. You will often see him going berserk and uncontrollable, even with coffin nails of yours.”

“For the smaller lads, I sense a magical properties of him to use.” Zellot explained.

---

As the repair and modification settled down, it is the best opportunity to test them out. Zeno Gunnar decided to go for “Titania” trial facility of the southern border to run a practice with his zombie squads. So far, the young knight has learned of his father’s unbreakable vigor and almighty strength. He has no doubt of Deino’s abilities as a warrior, including on being a fearsome beast in the ring, but the man’s berserk traits is a nuisance to encounter against.

On the opposite side, he has a qualm of Sanna’s true power. Other than speed-running, Zellot the blacksmith has said of his brother’s magical properties that aroused his curiosity to the top. The only way to achieve this will be only from direct exercise, and Titania’s chamber would be a clean way to start.

For the first segment of training, Zeno arranged a stack of dummy before Deino’s pulsating energy. He switched on the “rage” feature of the controller to awake the zombie’s thirst for blood.

“Engage, father!”

Deino’s eyes boiled red in advance to the fury of the dead man’s golden sword in his right hand. He sniffed all of the dummy’s bowels, seeking to the vital fluids for a sip of taste.

(s***h!)

A first swing beckon, and three of the dummies fell.

(s***h!)

The second swing cracked the wall a bit.

(s***h!)

“Okay, that’s enough, father.” Zeno ordered, stopping Deino’s rampant annihilation to the row of dummies that were situated prior to the battle. Most of the chamber’s floor has begun to c***k ahead of the third strike of the man. The dummies were torn to shreds in the first swing, even though all of them were built in titanium plate.

In short, it is a total domination to the platform for Zeno’s father, without the zombie himself to wriggle a lot inside the ring.

(zuu-zuuu)

Zeno Gunnar then returned his father in freezing state before deploying Sanna’s lifeless body to the game. He puts one of his dark sword to Sanna’s left hand and commanded him to clench a fist on the hilt.

“Okay, now I have to teach you swordplay, Sanna. Watch my lead.”

(swoosh)

The young knight has shown one of his benchmark skills of Numonia’s swordsmanship. He swept a full 180 degree of strike ahead of the chest in parallel to the dummy before them. In a normal speed of Zeno’s assault, the dummy has been sliced up spotless above the waist, separating the upper top to the lower bottom of its structure.

“It’s your turn, Sanna.”

(bwoosh)

All of sudden, the black sword in Sanna’s palm furnished in white flames. The living dead’s mirror motion of Zeno’s strike has an additional damage input in a form of the ravaging fire.

(bwoosh)

A second attack follows, now with ice inscribed to the sword’s steel. It chills the environment by the course of Sanna’s swing as it streams to the lower part of the dummy’s figure.

(beep-beep)

“Okay, time to stop. I’ve figured out something from your power, Sanna.” Zeno mumbled to the undying body of his brother ahead of him, patted on his shoulder a few times for compliment.

”It’s amazing! We’re gonna win this game for sure, father.”