Code Collector

"What are you doing, Chen?!" Jack growled. He approached the man who was still under Allen, his eyes raging with anger. "You don't know what you've done."

"I do, old man," Chen laughed hysterically. "I am reviving the horror that was brought upon me by the hands of the Fire Dragon. I'm reliving that moment, that time when I finally woke up from my endless nights of terror."

"That's the time you completely broke," Jack whispered. "It was my fault. If I just made you see a doctor earlier in your life, this wouldn't have happened. I'm sorry, Chen."

Chen's face softened. He looked at Jack who had nothing but misery in his eyes. The feeling of regret and resentment was evident in the old man's face as tears slowly crawled down his cheek.

"W-What are you…" Chen paused and looked away, seemingly to avoid the old man's gaze. "It's too late now anyway. The Fire Dragon's servants will come and we'll all die."

"No, we won't," Gary said. He raised his right hand and slashed it forward, signalling for his men to come out of the shadows and surround them. "These men are highly capable. We know how strong those zombies are, but they're still zombies. They don't have tactics like we do."

Allen was surrounded with nine men with just a bit lower or at least equal to Jack's strength. The men didn't hide their powerful aura at all. They were flaunting their powers, fully knowing that they are capable of defeating any enemy.

The team of hostages was led by one of Jack's men towards the inner circle. They were told to rest there since their bodies are too weak for combat. After all, even when they were at the peak of Haven, they were still from Haven. The zombies will easily take them down if they try to fight.

"They're coming," Jack said. He opened his hand, something Chen saw and misunderstood. The latter thought that the old man was offering his hand for him to take, but he was only summoning his weapon, a giant flail.

"Wow," Allen whispered to himself after seeing the weapon. It was flail with a diamond shaped-ball that was filled with thorns in every side. The handle was made of iron but was wrapped with wood and then cloth so the user wouldn't injure themselves while using it.

Jack's men also summoned their weapons one by one. They were freely showing off while exuding the power and authority over everyone else in the abandoned factory.

Creak.

The metal door fully opened and a flash of several humanoid figure leaped out. Their movements were fast and agile, that even Allen was having a hard time looking for even one of them.

"Oh, they're quick," Jack chuckled. "Let's see how quick they are when we fight them."

Jack spun his mace as his eyes followed one of the zombies. Each and every one of the zombies were jumping all around the hall in swift motions. They were so fast that it seemed like the entire building was filled with them. Their silhouette was all over the place, giving no time for the Hunters to react.

"Can you do this, Lay?" Jack asked one of his men who had a sniper rifle. "You're mostly someone who can't handle extreme movements, so you should be careful."

"F*ck off," Lay scoffed and kneeled on one knee. He placed the end of his rifle on his shoulder while he aimed at one of the zombies. His gun was moving quickly, as if following the zombie's movements in real time. "Blazing Shot!"

Lay took a deep breath before twisting his body and pulled the trigger. A thin beam of light exploded from his gun, shooting at a seemingly random area. The beam of light traveled in a flash, and a thud sounded from the darkness by the corner of the room.

"One down," Lay said, taking his sight off of his scope and looked at Jack. "Don't underestimate my Instincts, old man."

"Okay, okay, whatever," Jack shrugged and chuckled. He looked at all his other men and nodded. "Let's go take down all the others."

In a flash, all the men that were surrounding them vanished. Only Lay and another man who was carrying a feather pen stayed. The latter approached Jeremy and smiled. "Hello. I'm Antoni. Do you want me to heal you?"

"I-I…" Jeremy stuttered. "Okay?"

He then felt the burst of aura from the angry healer behind him.

–

"Bang!" Jack laughed as he launched his mace on a broken crate. Right by the diamond ball of his weapon, a zombie's foot was left detached from the rest of his body. "Aw, it seems like my reflexes are getting weaker."

"That's because of your age," one of his men said. He was carrying a spear to which he spun and threw behind him like a javelin. His weapon shot to the wall and pinned a zombie by its shoulder. "I guess I'm kind of old too. I aimed for the heart."

"Rourke, you're only twenty-eight!" Jack growled. "If that's old, then I'm–"

"Ancient!" another one of Jack's men yelled. "Sorry, Rourke, but Franco will take this kill. Thanks for the javelin throw though."

Franco was a shorter man that carries a dagger with him. Unlike the others who were wearing long coats that covered most of their bodies up to below their knees, Franco was wearing a shorter coat that barely reached his thigh.

The coat was open, revealing his skin tight shirt and a pair of shorts that looked uncomfortably short. "Franco is coming, little zombie!"

The zombie shrieked as it watched its body getting pierced by the weapon. It shook its body to try and take away the spear, but he saw Franco approach him, making him shriek even more.

"Hiya!" Franco leaped off of the ground, rising up to the zombie's level. He was grinning from ear to ear as he saw the evident fear in the zombie's eyes. "Die!"

Just when Franco was about to swing his dagger to cut the zombie's head off, he was tackled to the ground with another one. The man crashed to the ground with the zombie who was trying to bite his hand off, but Franco already had his dagger on the zombie's neck.

Slash.

With a single swift motion, the zombie's head rolled to the ground. Franco pouted and sighed, only watching Lay leap and with a blink of an eye, remove his spear and pierce it through the zombie's head.

"Bummer," Franco groaned. "I wanted that kill."

"Maybe perhaps if you weren't such a kid, you could've seen the other zombie coming," a voice said from beside Franco. It was another one of Jack's men. This one had a staff in him. 

"What do you know, Peter?" Franco crossed his arms. "It's not like you've killed one already."

Peter pointed his free hand behind them. When Franco turned to see, he gasped at the sight. Peter had just gone out of the room where the cocoons are, and it seemed like only half of the cocoons have hatched.

The rest of them were burst open and the zombie inside was mutilated as though it was ground meat. A satisfied smile rested on Peter's face as he saw the disbelief in Franco's face.

"You really shouldn't judge mages," Peter said. "Come on, let's go back to Jack."

Franco rolled his eyes and followed the man. They called out Jack's attention as they slowly approached him when something out of nowhere walked past them.

Both Franco and Peter froze as they felt a cold breeze near them. It was odd since it felt like everything was on fire, but the air around them was cold and damp. They looked at each other before blood dripped from their mouths. "What the hell…"

Multiple cuts suddenly appeared on the men's bodies. The cuts gushed out blood that pooled the ground before they fell down face first.

"Peter! Franco!" Rourke yelled. He took one step forward and his body suddenly spun. He could only watch his vision get blurry as he was spinning in the air like was a roasted chicken.

"Blazing Shot!" Lay shouted and fired a bullet from afar. The beam of light from before was fired in his weapon, but this time, nothing was hit. "Impossible! I saw the peculiar movements in the air and followed it. Why didn't I hit the beast?"

Lay sighed and suddenly felt the cold breeze. He looked around and felt his body get weaker. The man forced his eyes open, but the power of drowsiness was overpowering him. "What happened…"

"There's another one!" Jack yelled. "This one's more powerful than the rest, so be careful."

Jack was spinning his mace as he felt the air around them. He knew that the beast was lurking somewhere, but he didn't know its exact location.

Screech!

Jack grunted and slammed his mace to the side. His weapon slammed on something, and when Jack removed it, he gasped at the sight.

It was a tail of a lizard.