Chương 6: The Walking Dead

Felicity galloped at full speed. The horse's hooves struck the ground in a frantic rhythm, kicking up clumps of earth and clouds of dust as the wind lashed against the two girls' faces. Felicity held the reins firmly, her eyes fixed straight ahead, showing no intention of slowing down in the slightest. Leah, on the other hand, was forced to cling to Felicity's sides to keep from being thrown from the saddle. Her face was tense, and her hair was completely disheveled by the wind.

"Slow down, or I'll fall!" she shouted. Felicity did not answer. She continued at that breakneck pace, completely ignoring her companion's protests. When the cemetery finally came into view, Leah managed to make out something beyond the first rows of gravestones. Thousands of corpses were moving in unison toward Xia. They advanced between the broken tombstones like a putrid sea, dragging themselves forward with irregular movements.

Some were still walking on their own legs, while others crawled across the ground, using their hands to pull themselves forward. Their gaping mouths emitted guttural noises as they desperately tried to reach the woman at the center of the cemetery. Xia took a deep breath. For a moment, she remained motionless. Then she moved. Her sword traced elegant arcs through the air. Every movement was precise and refined, almost completely devoid of wasted motion.

The blade passed through the bodies with unsettling ease: heads and limbs fell to the ground one after another, while the corpses were cleaved apart with almost surgical precision. Xia continued moving back and forth among the dead, never allowing herself to be surrounded. A short distance away, Lucas Morte controlled every single corpse with his sword, moving it like a puppeteer manipulating thousands of invisible strings. Did you know this text is from a different site?

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"How long do you think you can last?!" he shouted, grinning beneath his mustache.

"You're finished!" Xia stopped. She closed her eyes. For a brief instant, everything seemed to slow down. Then she opened them. Her blade cleaved through the air itself. An invisible wave spread out before her, cutting through the mass of corpses and cleaving dozens of them in half in a single instant. The bodies struck by the attack collapsed among the gravestones, splattering rotten blood and chunks of flesh across the ground. Xia did not stop.

She spun around and unleashed a vortex of air that lifted numerous corpses from the ground. The bodies were violently dragged upward, while the current tore them apart before hurling them into the distance. And yet, the dead did not seem to diminish. They continued advancing. One after another, they climbed over the corpses that had fallen before them, scrambling across the bodies to reach Xia. They clawed at the ground, bared their gaping jaws, and lunged at her with animalistic ferocity.

That was when Felicity and Leah finally reached the cemetery. They dismounted and passed through the entrance, advancing among the broken gravestones. A terrifying sight unfolded before them. Leah remained motionless for several seconds, unable even to find the words.

"What the hell…" she muttered in disbelief. Felicity quickly assessed the situation.

"Stay by the horse", she ordered.

"You're going alone?!"

"You'd only be a burden". Leah gritted her teeth, but Felicity had already drawn both swords. She charged toward the corpses. Her blades sliced through the air, generating powerful invisible slashes that mowed down the dead before her. Felicity advanced without hesitation, cutting down one body after another and carving a path through the mass until she reached Xia.

"Looks like you could use some help", she said, without taking her eyes off the enemy.

"I wouldn't mind", Xia replied. Lucas smiled smugly.

"Demon, you've spared me the trouble of finding you", he snarled.

"It's time I took your head once and for all!" His sword ignited with a black aura. At once, the corpses increased their speed. Their assault became even more violent. They hurled themselves at Felicity and Xia with animalistic rage, attempting to overwhelm them through sheer numbers. The two women stood back to back. Their blades began moving almost in unison. A strike from Felicity was followed by one from Xia; whenever a creature managed to get past one of them, the other immediately cut it down.

Their blades severed dead flesh and bones, mutilating and annihilating every corpse that managed to draw near. But their numbers seemed endless. For every corpse they cut down, another took its place. The two women's breathing slowly grew heavier. Their arms began to burn from exhaustion. And despite everything, the dead kept coming.