Chapter 58 Teamwork

Because Ailee was an archer, she was the one to receive the [Higher Vision(Passive)] ability crystal of the old nurse.

That allowed her to see the otherwise imperceptible movements near the Zombie Centaur’s rotten head.

It was a second brain that seemed to pulsate, which was quite odd for an undead to possess.

A bad feeling had overcome her when Dilan had attacked, which was why Ailee urged him to retreat as quickly as possible.

Under normal circumstances, Ailee would never say something during a fight unless it was absolutely necessary.

As such, the moment Dilan heard her voice, he changed his trajectory immediately.

Twisting his body midair, he swung around and one of his feet touched the body of the Zombie Centaur.

Kicking hard, he catapulted himself away from the monster.

He crashed to the ground, and nearly lost his grip on the longsword.

But he had not broken any of his bones, which was a relief.

After a fraction of a second in which he regained his senses, Dilan pushed himself off the ground and forward.

Even the Zombie Centaur lunged forward and one of its arms lunged out to reach for him.

He knew that it was impossible to evade the attack as he could see its fist smash into his jaw.-.

Wanting to block off the attack, Dilan lifted the longsword that clashed with its arm.

With the flat side of the longsword in between the Zombie Centaur’s arm and his unprotected body, Dilan tried to overwhelm his opponent but it used its brute force to push him back in no time.

Dilan’s feet were being forcefully dragged back despite him trying to overwhelm the Zombie Centaur when suddenly it closed its fingers around Dilan’s sword, tightly gripping the sword blade.

‘It wants to disarm me?’ Dilan wondered, just to see that this was not the case as the other arms of the monster shot out at him.

Its sole goal was to prevent Dilan from moving.

His opponent aimed to not only block him but not give him any room to move. Dilan had two choices; either he could try to endure the attacks and find an opportunity to retaliate, or to let go of the Captain’s Sword!

With five seconds left in his strongest state, he shot forward half a meter before he jumped with all his might.

Both of his arms were tightly holding onto the longsword as he propelled himself into the air.

In the blink of an eye, the longsword’s blade cut into the fingers of the Zombie Centaur, slicing them off neatly.

In order to use the longsword properly, enough speed and strength were required, thus after replacing his weapon’s effect with the Clawed Gloves, he received the boost in strength that he had required.

Using his already higher Agility to his advantage, Dilan slashed out with the longsword once again.

He was still mid-air and within the reach of the Zombie Centaur but that did not bother him as he cut through the arm that was the closest to him.

At the same time, he felt that his legs had been scratched.

But instead of taking a look at his legs, a single glance towards the Log of the ancient showed him the number of zombie scratches and bites he endured.

[0/4]

Seeing that he had already used up every single chance to be scratched, Dilan frowned before catapulting himself ahead the moment he landed on the ground.

When Ailee had told him that there were two active brains in the Zombie Centaur’s body he had shot her a disbelieving look.

However, the more intently he looked at his opponent, the more obvious the location of the second actively working brain became.

As such, he knew that the longsword was the key to finishing the fight against the Zombie Centaur.

With that in mind, Dilan ignored everything else as he pierced the longsword straight through the chest of the monster.

Its tough upper ‘horse’ body and thick hide was hard to penetrate, but Dilan exerted his physical strength to the limits to cut through its highly resistant and defensive physique.

Having coated the longsword’s blade with more than one unit of mana, Dilan kept pushing it harder and could tell that he reached the designated target.

The blade had finally pierced through the second brain.

A moment later, when he knew that his attack had been successful, he reluctantly let go of the Captain’s sword as he threw himself towards the right.

Merely a fraction of a second later, the remaining three arms of the Zombie Centaur slashed at the location he had been standing a moment ago.

It was certainly advantageous for Dilan’s speed to be so high right now.

However, even then, he couldn’t help but feel that it would be close to impossible to finish the Zombie Centaur in the next three seconds…at least if he were to be alone.

Fortunately, that was not the case as two Lightning strikes shot through the hall of the third floor.

Kathrine had taken her time to change her position, and aim accurately before shooting out.

After all, Dilan was unlikely to be able to hold the attention of the Zombie Centaur for more than 10 seconds!

With that in mind, Kathrine had given her best.

And it was exactly because of this fact that her two shots pierced through two of the monster’s upper arms, tearing them off as if the pages of a notebook would be forcefully pulled off its binding.

Kathrine was not the only one to rush to his aid. Even Ailee decided to make use of the self-crafted weapons.

In no time, she had already knocked her newly manufactured arrow on the Cold-Steel bow.

Ailee pulled back the bowstring completely, and her eyes began to gleam faintly, just for the air around her to turn eerily cold as she let go of the bowstring.

She shot the arrow at the Zombie Centaur, aiming for the huge cut in its head.

Dilan had created a perfect opportunity for her, and Ailee wanted to make use of this.

As such, she overcame her fear when the Zombie Centaur moved to look at her with its eyes filled with wrath and her arrow pierced into the Zombie Centaur’s head.

Yet, instead of being overjoyed, Ailee’s face paled the moment she let go of the bowstring.

“I missed”

Even before Ailee had said it out loud that she had missed, Oliver had rushed out. He had perceived that something had been gone wrong with her shoot and that it was on him to to something.

Thus, he used all his strength and the [Violent Strike] ability in order to slash at the Zombie Centaur’s arm that was about to reach Dilan.

Dilan would have been a fraction of a second late to get up from the ground, even with his high Agility stat.

His brain had required a short moment to perceive the situation as well, after all.

That meant, the fraction of a second would be more than enough for Dilan to be attacked, and to possibly die.

Under normal circumstances, Oliver wouldn’t have moved, but it was his task to protect Dilan in the worst-case scenario.

And true to his job, Oliver had rushed to his aid after noticing that Dilan’s robe was torn in two spots close to his right upper arm.

He saw that the edges around the torn area of the robe were gleaming in a faint blood-red hue.

Oliver saw exactly the same around Dilan’s legs, a tiny spot where his tracksuit had been torn open on each leg.

Clearly recalling that Dilan’s passive ability allowed him to be immune to zombie infections for a total of four scratches or bites, Oliver realized the obvious fact that the last arm of the Zombie Centaur would end Dilan’s life as a human being!

A fierce desire to protect his friend and trusted ally flared in him and Oliver blocked the arm by slashing out as viciously as he could.

This was barely enough for him to get near Dilan, but he failed to block the attack perfectly.

The war dagger was stuck in the Zombie Centaur’s arm, but that did little to deter their mighty opponent.

As such, the arm simply continued to reach for and grab Oliver, flinging him two meters through the air.

Once again, Oliver noticed that he was way too weak, and that he had to become more powerful, as quickly as possible!

Otherwise, he would die.

And it was at this moment that he saw how Dilan shot up from the ground, closing the distance towards the head of the Zombie Centaur in an instant as his hand shot forward to tear its brain apart.

Using his last remnants of mana, the Clawed Gloves’ were sharpened drastically, piercing through the narrow gap of the Zombie Centaur’s skull as if it was a piece of cake.

Just a moment later, Dilan noticed an itching sensation all over his body. His stats were drastically reduced in an instant.

This sudden feeling of weakness took him off-guard and he staggered back.

Losing his balance, he slumped to the ground and heard a deafening thud as the Zombie Centaur’s heavy body followed suit.

‘So strong…’ Oliver could only be in awe, fully aware that both the Zombie Centaur and Dilan were existences far stronger than him.

Clenching his fist, he knew that it was time for him to buckle up, to face the dangers of the wide world if that meant that he would be able to become stronger!