YM778.TV Chapter 39: Cleared
There were so many that they almost formed an actual sea. Their movements were erratic but frenzied. They tripped and fell but never stopped pursuing him like moths attracted to fire.
For the record, it\'s not like Cedric was being idle. He was moving. Sword flashed as he carved a path through the hordes of zombies coming his way. It\'s just that there were too many that spawn at once that, even with his frankly absurd killing rate, he\'s still being mobbed.
Believe it or not, he\'s forced to face a horde of nearly 500 Zombies, all spawning at once with each passing minute. The majority were ordinary, others were mutated.
This Hell Dive started 30 minutes ago, yet it already reached this point of madness. Frankly, anybody who sees this wave would have doubts about their survival. Not Cedric though...
His body blurred, disappearing like a ghost. When he reappears, and only briefly whenever he does, several zombie heads would either explode or become detached from their bodies.
His longsword was covered with a thin veil of bluish light. It looks underwhelming but make no mistake, it\'s that same energy that allowed him to slice through hordes of zombies like a hot knife through butter.
By now, Cedric was already covered with filth and grime from all the zombies he killed. Sadly, there\'s just no time for him to relax or wipe it off since there\'s always a trail of zombies behind him. They didn\'t know the meaning of exhaustion so Cedric always had to stay alert.
Amidst the regular zombies were the mutated ones. At this point, there\'s at least one of each type harassing him through whatever means necessary.
Try as he might to target them first, the sheer number of ordinary zombies throwing themselves at him made that challenging. Still, Cedric refused to be stopped.
He never stayed in the same spot for more than a second. He roamed the battlefield like a wolf unleashed on a herd of sheep. How many stepped forward was also how many died. Cedric was intent on killing every single one he encountered since, even a single one\'s value was low, a Demon Soul was a Demon Soul.
Cedric wasn\'t broke, Demon Souls-wise. Hell, he still has millions in his savings simply because he didn\'t need much to begin with. That being said, he\'s no idiot who would refuse a, practically, free Demon Soul.
With his speed, it\'s hard for the zombies to keep track of him. Only mutated ones could react to him and find him in time. Alas, this only applies this early on the run.
The zombies he faced evolve in strength, speed, and numbers the longer he\'s here so it wouldn\'t take long before they become even more challenging than they are right now.
Covered in his light but sturdy armor, Cedric had some level of defense going for him. While his goal was to, preferably, not be touched by any of the zombies at all, he truly couldn\'t dodge everything. Yes, even with his supercharged senses and evolved physique, he couldn\'t.
Still, his armor was still intact. He had only suffered from a handful of blunt attacks since the start of the Hell Dive so he\'s still fine.
Cedric was also wearing the White Mask that the Chief gave to him. Its purpose was to prevent anybody from discerning his facial features, and he could tell that it was working his magic thanks to his senses.
He had to hand it to the demons, they know what they\'re doing. While he\'s aware that, at the very least, someone from many hordes of the zombies he killed so far, was sent as a spy to gather intelligence about him, he wasn\'t able to clearly differentiate them from the others. And yes, this is also the case even with his absurd senses.
These demons are way too cunning. They had the means to silently and effectively spy on humans without being found out. It\'s very irritating but he\'s helpless against it. He was the one that fucked up and now he had to face the consequences of his careless actions.
Still wondering if the mask was even a need at this point, Cedric continued wearing them anyway. Better be safe than sorry. Even so, however, he did try his best to showcase a level of strength that seemed \'convincing\' for his performance.
Frankly, Cedric could go much faster than this. He could kill more efficiently and more quickly than this. But he purposefully held back for the sake of deceiving the enemy.
Alas, he still hasn\'t found a reliable way to solve his problem but for the most part, that\'s still okay. With his level of performance, he shouldn\'t be too eye-catching for them just yet, just worthy of attention, nothing more.
He could still continue his act without damaging his rate of progress, and each time he succeeds, he\'s only bringing more time to himself.
Taking a deep inhale of the putrid air in Purgatory, Cedric winced due to the sheer odor, yet underneath that, he could also feel his pulse thrumming under his skin.
His Ki billowed within his body, coursing like raging water through his bloodstream and making him feel alive. Despite the sweat running down on his face underneath the mask, and how his back felt drenched, Cedric didn\'t feel exhausted just yet.
He could feel his body on metaphorical fire. He remains fast, deadly, and silent throughout the battle. He charges with the sword in hand, completely unafraid of the horde coming his way.
\'I should probably start looking for AoE Skills...\' he muttered to himself as soon as he was finished decimating another cluster of zombies with minimal action.
In all honestly, the only sword skills he possessed as of currently were nothing more than the combined basics of sword-wielding and his Ki. Cedric didn\'t have anything that he could use to kill enemies in larger groups with one attack.
Don\'t get him wrong, his method was still effective. While it might be the only thing he could rely on for now, it\'s sufficient at the very least. It gets the job done so you won\'t hear him complaining.
Besides, even though he wanted to learn more skills, people are stingy you see. Nobody would sell AoE Skills for Tier 1\'s since that\'s reckless and nobody could buy them.
Well, a few Tier 1\'s who are born to a rich and lucky family could. So could he since he\'s a millionaire, but again, nobody sells them in the shop. If they do, they\'d target the stronger market first; Tier 2 and above...
It\'s a shame really, but there\'s nothing he could do about it.
Schwing! Schwing!
The sound of his blade cleanly slicing off or poking zombie\'s heads continued. Cedric brandished his sword with machine-like precision as he decimated hordes of zombies in his wake.
Just then, he felt another probe going off but didn\'t react to it. He maintained his pace, seemingly not sensing anything while in truth, it was as clear as day for him.
Sadly, he just couldn\'t track where it came from so even though he wanted to take them down as a priority, he couldn\'t since it\'s only a fruitless endeavor.
The mask once again did its thing though, and he could\'ve sworn that he almost got a reaction for that but that might\'ve just been his imagination.
Either way, he continued his slaughter...
Time passed by and soon, the first two hours and bosses of his Hell Dive breezed past him. Somewhere along the run, Cedric lost count of how many zombies he had killed.
His entire being was soaked in all sorts of dirt, grime, bits of flesh, blood, etc. Even with the mask on, his face was still dirtied by them. Hell, he might\'ve ingested some things that splattered on his face at one point, who knows?
Cedric got so absorbed in his vendetta against the zombie horde that he had relinquished all other thoughts that had nothing to do with killing zombies. His many, many thought chambers focused on a singular task. He had but all stopped caring about the probes toward his real identity at this point.
With the horde continuously evolving, it reached the stage where Cedric could safely stop holding back since it was no longer necessary. In fact, it would be detrimental if he did so since he\'s risking failure.
Not only did the Hell Dives become more harder the higher his streak goes, but it\'s also evolving in real-time. Truly a seemingly impossible task but Cedric nevertheless pushes on.
Cedric\'s focus was so sharp that he almost had a whiplash when the final boss appeared. A giant zombie unceremoniously appearing out of thin air would probably do that to anybody. Thankfully, Cedric didn\'t take too long to recover his focus.
And so, after clearing the rest of the zombies as well as the final boss, light engulfed his entire body as he disappeared from Purgatory, appearing on his hut within the walls of RMC.
Still panting from exhaustion, Cedric heaved his body towards the nearby creek, completely missing the fact that his monitoring chip...
...has now turned green.