This Hero is Sleeping!

"You dumb piece of shit, why did you do that?"

"It was deserved, Claude."

Claude shook Elric in rage. The poor old zombie, it didn\'t even try to attack them. It was shocked, stunned, and stupefied, just as much as all of them were! The poor old man didn\'t even have a mind anymore and it was still that stumped! The only instinct that it held to go and eat flesh was overriden by the sheer absurdity of the experience.

"You wronged him much more than he wronged you, Elric."

"Oh no, I\'ve become what I hated?"

"Can you two shut the fuck up?" Erika snapped. In front of them was a stage being set up for the Maris festival, the chairs and tables all around were razed to the ground as if a roadroller had just been driven over it. The stage itself was filled with drips and drops of blood and flesh that the many zombies had scattered around. Barely gaining enough cover behind a set of trash cans, the group peeked out.

The clearing was the first place they ran into after leaving behind the hotel. With the fountain of Maris in the center and the canals flowing all around it, they expected many people to have been stuck here.

But, unfortunately, only zombies remained in the place where people would have been celebration a festival of life and yield.

"Can we somehow burn this place?" Quinton asked, remembering how he had fought along with Claude previously. "The chances of someone running into this is high—"

"—AAAH!"

A short yet loud scream shattered their ears and their line of thought. All of them stared at each other with widened eyes.

It came from further down the alley where they stood.

Their fears came true without a second\'s delay. 

"Grrrr…."

"Kraaa…"

The vast group of zombies behind had heard it too. The ants had found their sugar, the scream had likely called together all the zombies around and toward who it came from.

"C-claude… we should probably help…" Quinton said again, hesitant. 

"I agree, maybe the vampire would have caused it."

It was tough to decide anything, but Claude shared both of their sentiments.

"Before anything," Claude sighed. He turned to Erika and asked. "Can you use the [Create Water] skill?"

"Spell, you mean. And yes, of course I can?"

"How much water can you create if you use all your mana?"

Erika tilted her head.

"I\'ve never tried… Maybe, enough to drown a building or two?"

A smile spread on Claude\'s lips. That much water solved most of his worries in a single go.

"Let\'s move," he said.

The zombies behind, the group jumped off the ground and went deeper into the alley. Their stances low as they took the cover of the buildings all around to navigate. His bow nocked, Quinton scouted every turn as fast as he could and urged them ahead. Taking the rear were Claude and Jamie, the two strongest members, while Elric and Erika handled the front, and useless Mr. Puzo in the center.

Quinton tried his best to locate the trail of the woman, but there were just so many it was impossible to single out. Relying on his instincts as a scout, he guided them toward where the sound came from.

"Q-quinton… I think those things would catch up!"

"There\'s a whole parade of them, move faster!"

Quinton gazed around the streets, cover was running out too. He found an alleyway at one end and smiled. Since the city was laid out in blocks with the canals in between, the geography could be guessed to some extent. Thin at the center and widening out at the rear, all the blocks were likely similar in shape. The structuring of the buildings was a problem that could be different everywhere, but the streets helped more than enough in providing the right breathing spaces between each building in the blocks.

If he put all of it together, it was rather easy to guess where the next alleyway would lead as long as he knew the directions.

"Come along, we\'ll take a shortcut."

With Quinton in the lead, they set off again in the narrow alleyways.

"Claude, to the front!"

The formation changed into a needle as Claude and Elric guarded the front, Quinton and Elric in the center, and Jamie and Erika at the back. Claude smirked and tapped the gem on his amulet twice. A mist spread in the alleyway before a sword appeared in his hands.

"Claude," Elric muttered. "Don\'t waste anything."

"Hah, look who\'s talking. I am saving up for that vampire bitch—"

"Shush. That one\'s mine."

"Claude, to the left!"

The took the left turn in the alleyway. 

A growl sounded as a zombie stood right there. Kicking it\'s stomach, Claude pushed it back and sliced cleanly through its head without much effort. Placing Quinton here would have largely slowed them down.

As expected, more zombies were behind them as well, having broken off the horde that chased the noise.

With Quinton\'s every intruction, Claude sped through the alleys and smashed down all the zombies in the way. Some even neared Elric, but none were able to bite him through his cushion armor. They had no choice but to eat the cushions in the face, then pissing Elric off for sullying the mighty and holy pillow.

In almost no time at all, Quinton screamed for the last turn and they found the exit. The alleyway blocked in all directions with narrow boxes, and on the other side, a zombie and a young woman holding it off.

"There we are!" Claude screamed and jumped out first. 

Elric followed right behind—

"Eh?"

—And got stuck against the wall.

"Sir Elric!??" Quinton screamed. "Move!!"

"I-I am stuck!"

"T-the zombies are behind us, move!"

"Push from the back!"

"This little bastard!!"

Claude looked back and raised a brow. "Huh. Idiots."

With those words, he turned away. Not his thing to deal with. For now, he walked over to the zombie that was pinning the screaming woman down.

"Ah… ah… stop, please stop…" tears fell off the woman\'s eyes as she tried to hold the zombie back with all her might. For all the commotion, she hadn\'t as much as noticed them.

There were other things off.

She could have easily kicked it away, but as if that option didn\'t even exist, she barely did anything.

Claude, frowning, kicked the side of the zombie.

"Gah…" A groan rang out as the zombie slammed against the wall.

"No! No! Honey!" The woman on the ground crawled up and moved toward the zombie. Claude frowned deeper as the woman slowly moved over to the zombie, stretching her hand out. The zombie saw her hand and opened it\'s mouth.

Claude mercilessly stomped the zombies face.

"AH!"

"OOMPH! FINALLY!"

"Ah! They\'re behind us! Jamie, Jamie!"

A sound came from behind him as well as from the woman, but he ignored it for now. Those idiots can unidiot things by themselves.

"Move! What are you doing!"

With tears and snot clinging to her face, the woman pulled Claude\'s leg back. "Leave him alone! Don\'t touch my husband!"

She smacked her fists on Claude\'s foot, who only drove it further into the monster\'s face, trying his best to not let it graze anyone.

"That\'s not your husband," Claude coldly answered. "It\'s a zombie. A monster."

"No!" The woman screamed. Sniffling through her tears, she spoke. "That\'s my husband, that\'s my husband… ah… let him go… don\'t…"

Claude\'s frown deepened.

These zombies.

They weren\'t just zombies.

Not long ago, they were people too. Just like the people in that village, and the people here and everywhere else.

That vampire wasn\'t just attacking others, she was stealing them.

How many people must have been like this woman? To see their dead move, how would one accept it as death?

A strange thought ran in his mind as he imagined Elric having been bitten that night. Would he have turned into something like this too? Would then, Claude, have accepted him as a monster?

Holding his amulet again, Claude closed his eyes.

"Is there a way?"

"You can be sentimental at times, huh? I just wish you\'d only be sentimental and not stupid as well."

Claude\'s grip tightened.

"There\'s no way. Get over it."

A sigh left the young boy as he heard the Lord of the Shadows\' words.

He raised his sword.

"No… what are you doing…?"

Without a word, he moved his leg back.

"No!!!"

And stabbed his blade through the zombie\'s head.

"Kuh…."

The zombie groaned, it\'s lips spread open, it\'s hands reaching for the woman.

"Honey! Honey! No, no no!"

She grabbed the zombie\'s hands.

It pulled her closer, trying to reach her hands with its lips.

And the zombie fell limp.

"No…. you killed him! Why? Why! What did we ever do to you!? Why did you kill my husband!?"

A monster.

To the end.

It was just a monster and not a person.

"Good. As long as you\'re not stupid."

Claude cursed the Lord of Shadows in his mind. The woman\'s screams didn\'t stop for a while.