The Zombie Tournament

Act 1 : Thalsmia Kingdom

It is a drought season across the horizon for the last survivor of Numonia. The flourished city has been rampaged upon by the wrath of nuclear blast, decimated completely under rapid transformation of its citizen’s demise. Decayed corpses are roaming within the castle’s border and waiting for unfortunate beings to be devoured in an instant. The growls of death were scouring the rubble, relishing fleshes of wounds as a treat for their decaying throat.

Zeno Gunnar has been walking down the sandy hills of Numonia’s outside border for hours. He was tugging two man’s living corpses behind with his father’s horse-carriage. Sanna, his little brother, has been broadly changed of his form and appearance. Fully-fledged claws were adorned to his fingers, with swarm of hairs to the rear and a deformed head to the top. 

“Hraaaa.”

And It shrieks whenever Zeno peeking close to the wagon. Of course, The young knight fell into sorrow when Sanna’s dead body does the scream of hunger towards the brain, withstanding heavy burden of emotion he has to carry along the path.

(bang!bang!)

On the other end of the platform, Zeno has reinforced Deino Gunnar’s cage using many planks and their neighbor’s rusty fences of the front yard. He knows nobody would use it any longer. None of them has survived under catastrophic white glow of the nuclear explosion, so their fellow residents will be agreeing his decision to supplant their property without immediate notice.

(Bang!Bang!)

His father was smashing the cage window in its unlimited force of rage. A famed General of the country has turned into a robust abomination as the blast persists. A mighty Deino Gunnar has fallen without honor of being the city’s entrusted champion of the realm. No exact transformation on his figure, but a long gray hair across the back has showed of how plummeted his form would be under the tragedy.

“Father, please be rested. It’s morning already.” Zeno yawned to the groaning dead-meat inside the cage.

(drap-drap-drap)

In the wake of such damage to his spirit, however, Zeno has realized an anomaly to be investigated in his journey. His mother, being deceased by her own husband’s gnaw on the shoulder, never transformed in similar manner to Deino’s figure. It was laying no answer as to how it could be occurred, given that common blockbuster movies were portraying zombies to be infectious and easily spread through vectors of the body.

Zeno Gunnar has decided for Thalsmia Kingdom to be the first of them all. They have reason to commit such g******e, for them being a sworn-enemy of Numonia in centuries.

(swooosh!)

A sandstorm brewed from the north. It is regular phenomenon beyond the border these days, for bursting desert sands to rush in flat columns towards many cities down its path. Local kingdoms’ accomplishments to locate natural resources around their territory has resulted in excessive exploitation of land, thus making piles of digging sites across many landscapes of the world’s terrain. At most, it was gathered all over the northern side clusters of the great continent, harassing to the place where people lived in with mining’s leftovers in random occasion.

(wrap!)

Masking himself with late father’s scarf, Zeno mumbled to himself as the harrowing gales of winds proliferate.

“I have to shelter somewhere.” Zeno muttered. He paused a bit, thinking of some places for alternative to rest himself out. But then, a surge of inspiration hits the mind.

“Ah, I forgot of the control panel. There’s an answer to this matter, I suppose.”

Realizing something useful in Deino’s armor, He ransacked to many buttons under the lid of the golden vest’s control panel. Modern craftsmanship of Numonia has made anything looks neat and tidy with stints of electricity underneath. In their regular advertisements, many blacksmiths boast of their capacity to build a list of simple upgrades to the common ones they had in store. There are dirt gloves, climbing utensils, Handily-deployed knife under the legs, and so forth.

Additionally, people could put down request of their interest to be inserted on their customized armor, creating a mixture of innovation as it finished.

(click)

(clang!clang!)

A modified helmet has been equipped. It has identical shape to the ones they have to add manually, but showing an extra equipment in form of transparent glass over the face. Consequently, Zeno could gallop on his horse without having to be concerned of blurry vision any longer, searching for cure of his families’ transformation with ease.

---

By three days straight, Zeno embarked across such disastrous environment of the realm in a streak. He lacked a night-time sleep, deprived of meals and sustenance for his appetite. All of them for bringing no actual plan to run along the way to Thalsmia. Of all things considered, It is one and only adjacent castle of the city, so there was no further destination to be predicted out of whim.

Of course, despite being an opponent to Numonia, nobody would actually recognize him and terminating the progress to enter the city’s border. Zeno’s fair and harmless appearance could also provided an upper-hand advantage to the examination process.

(bang!bang!)

Zeno sighs as Deino’s living corpse bashed the wagon’s defense, “Yeah, I have to do something with this wagon, too.”

---

(tang!tang!tang!)

Seven Kilometers short to the city's main gate, The young knight was occupying himself with a lot of planks to dim deathly sound of Deino and Sanna’s deathly growl. He put off the armor sets midway for a small time to breathe. Otherwise, Zeno Gunnar remembered of how well-known his father’s armor was to the warrior of Thalsmia. A golden terror, one might say, for how Deino Gunnar has mongering their will to fight. By the time his presence was estimated, Thousands of common Footmen will choose to desert, therefore intensifies their chance for victorious battle.

That's why, If someone’s bold enough to don the vest, it means a kill-on-sight order to the person’s wager and a hell of warfare in full day.

“Fuh, it should be safe for now.” Zeno wipes off the fluids down his forehead,”Now, to conceal my identity....Ah, that rug would do.”

In an hour, Zeno has sewn clutters of rugs he had and assembled an ugly shirt for cover. A regular footman would left him behind if he dressed-up like a peasant of the town. No one to be worried for in the battered road, as much, due to lesser business after such rowdy sandstorm before.

“Right, how about the horse?” Zeno thought aloud. The young man drifts his fingers to the chin, then nods to himself of the answer,” Ah, who’s gonna recall a creature in speed, anyway? Time to go!”

Thalsmia is on sight after a small trip across the Hamnos River. The waterway spans alongside the two kingdoms’ border and connecting the dot amongst their complicated relationship in decades. Queen Samantha of Thalsmia has a grudge towards King Burdoin of the opposite castle, as they had been in marriage formerly, hence warfare beckons once in every year after their disengagement occurred.

As expected of an unknown arrivals, a squad of footmen put their electrified spears to the front. One of the quartet shouts towards Zeno in advance.

“Halt! State your business, peasants.” The soldier said,” What’s in the carriage?”

“I’m carrying toxic substance for Queen Samantha’s poison meal to King Burdoin. A gift, you can call it.”

The four soldiers are bemused of Zeno’s answer, but yielding themselves nonetheless. No person of the kingdom would question Queen Samantha’s motives to murder King Burdoin, including her explicit method to pursue.

(drap-drap-drap)

A metal horse gallops within the city’s stronghold to the heart of Thalsmia. The city’s builder has constructed every sort of structure in contrast to their fellow kingdoms around the block. Zeno perceived round rooftops and red bricks of walls sitting near the lane of carriage in the middle. They also refined the path for wandering off the city with partitions in-between, putting a difference to saddles and feet for traversing along the way around the kingdom.

(compressed bang)

Zeno drifts in perspiration by the course of Deino’s havoc within the carriage. he has extended the wagon’s protection to padding holes with metal bars he had collected from Numonia’s rubble, yet his late father’s corpse were standing strong to put on a hell of pressure onto the fortification constantly.

(c***k)

“Oh no..... I have to-“

(brak!)

The young knight has absent of one issue to Deino’s living corpse. It could carry on the iconic Greatsword to breakdown heaps of metals afterwards. A mighty Deino Gunnar has no bounds on mobility, despite lack of motors down the waist, as he proceeds to utilise arms for movement on the road.

“Graaa!”

(s***h)

“Aaaah!”

Deino’s zombified body cuts down an arm from innocent bystander’s unfortunate placement on the road bedside areas. He snatched it up as the limb furled above them, snapping a bite for the taste immediately to contain hunger of fresh meat down within.

(Chomp-chomp)

(s***h)

He finished on devouring one and continued to have another from the injured man of the block, before moving to the next victim after cleaning up on the first target’s entire body in a flash.

“Urgh. I have to do something.” Uttered Zeno, as he fell astonished to scale of power his father could bring in escapade,” I hope my sword could beat him up somehow.”

Without further ado, Zeno unsheathed the black metal of his own for fighting Deino’s living corpse. He knows for certain that having one would be insufficient, thus its twin emerged. He received the pair as a token of appreciation from Numonia’s school of martial arts for records he made in his period of being a student. It was a proud memento of the past, as Deino Gunnar himself was the one to hand it down for the young knight back then.

But today, He has to harness Deino’s void wrath, binding the knot of respect in disdain.

(clash!)

No matter how excel the young knight was in battle, Deino Gunnar deflects Zeno’s advance, out of the opponent’s prediction of the respond. For a national treasure to be on hold by mindless beast is too dangerous to be happening onwards, but Zeno’s swordsmanship is never in-par of Deino’s experience to have it contained anyhow.

(tang!tang!)

Zeno tries to wind down a bit by the edge of the second sword in hand. He flanked Deino’s stance from the back, but incapable to withstand the beast’s monstrous agility and continuous barrage of assault a short time after.

(crash!)

“Argh!”

The golden sword’s righteous blast knocked away Zeno’s guard to hundreds of meters out of its reach. To add of his pertinent defeat, the pair of dark steels were thrown up by such unwavering display of might from the legendary warrior of Numonia before him. Its metallic structure stands firm , but still inadequate to withstand such enormous beat down of the weapon’s perpetual vibration in combat.

(jump!)

Deino’s living corpse springs up to the air and drawing his almighty sword to the back for an ultimate strike. It is useless, in spite of added-power to its uplift momentum, because Zeno has dodged to the side ahead of time.

(tap-tap-tap)

Zeno hovers to the location of the black swords at once. One of them caused a bowl of crater and wrecking pavement block’s formation, while the others nested within clutch of nearby building’s concrete wall. However, Deino’s rage follows him around.

The zombie is still in berserk mode and desiring tons of casualties for its sacrifice.

(tang!)

The young knight knows of sudden approach from the legendary slayer of old. Deino would never doing so if he is still alive, but surely had learned of such dirty strategy of outplaying the enemies to the edge. For returning the favor, Zeno turned his body sideways as a momentum to parry the beast’s upcoming assault before the Greatsword’s dimension separated his body into half.

(swoosh)

He choose to quickly squashed it off in full power than having to survive under the danger of being overpowered by Deino’s brute force. The black sword could do just that if there’s no extra energy to spend, hence making a space for Zeno to flee.

“Ugh, what to do.... what to do.....” Zeno muttered to himself as he runs down the city block,” Ah, I have to snatch the other part....”

As the young knight searched for the second sword’s location, a mysterious person tossed some nails to the man. It commands him by a slight movement of hands towards the two beast behind, “Stick those to them. It’ll freeze their body out.” He ordered, pointing at them a few times for the code.

Knowing a stranger has came to his aid, Zeno puts down a question to the face.

“Why would I do that?” The young knight answered, waving his right hand a bit to test out the nails. It is quite magnetic to Zeno’s palms, even though no metals for the irons to stay in that manner whatsoever.

“Just do it, son. I have something to tell you for those beasts, but it requires-“

(zuu)

Zeno flings a nail to Deino’s direction. All of sudden, The pointy area of its small structure abruptly stabs to the old man’s temple, reflecting a way of heat-seeking missile in hunting its target for doing its job perfectly.

(ting!)

(beep!beep!)

A yellow light emerges from the nail’s top. Suddenly, Deino’s figure has gone idle in the wake of forced penetration of such a small iron to the head. It goes the same to Sanna’s speedster sense over the wagon, whose body was in handicapped state, and brought the two into halt as the stranger has said.

The unknown personality offered his right palms to the young knight, whose expression still lies in confusion of the technology he just use,

“Let me shake your hands, son. I have to do this, or else my boss would be mad of me.” The man said to him, furnishing a smile to his face in similar pace to the hand.

“Welcome to Minopia, my friend. I’ll assign a launcher for you to the actual venue, as your place has been reserved.”