The System

CH- 93: Chaos (VII).

*!ARRH!*

The sound, reminiscent of a fox's howl being strangled, seized Tetsu's attention with an abrupt jolt. Rather than distancing himself, curiosity pulled him closer to the source, where he beheld the most grotesque creation within the system.

{Zeech, Level: 02. Undead: Stitch race. Attributes: Death...? Weakness:...?}

Crafted by a mortician with a questionable understanding of anatomy or whose body parts belonged to whom, Zeech was a chaotic amalgamation held together by smashed pieces, a mixture, and copious amounts of superglue.

A Draugr caught sight of Tetsu before the other undead, and as he attempted to dismiss this solitary foe, his focus, and voice were arrested by the silent stampede of Claytron and ant armies hot on the human's heels. The approaching army maintained an eerie silence, their march stifled by flat feet, skills, and the terrain.

While the Draugr puzzled over the unexpected presence of armies where they shouldn't be, the lesser braindead undead sprang into action. Unlike conventional armies, they lacked discipline, rules, or a sense of loyalty to their leader. At the mere glimpse of life, they lunged forward, eager to snuff it out and bolster the death affinity.

Confronted by the savage advance of Zeech, Tetsu discovered another backlash of Runes. Manipulating an enemy's limb became pointless when they lacked such appendages or joints to exploit.

Zeeches proved to be the ideal foil for Tenco Ten, prompting Tetsu to resort to his trademark strategy: fleeing in the opposite direction. With a third free point and a litany of curses vanishing into the luck stat, Tetsu couldn't help but mutter, "I swear I am going to kill the system makers with my two hands or four if I grow more down the line," as he flung a zombie arm at a Zeech, which gleefully added the gruesome offering to its collection. "That... that," he gawked at the creature. "Is Freaking cheating," he exclaimed, incredulous at the creature's adaptation.

A draugr, brandishing a rusty sword, aimed it at Tetsu. "Fields of despair," he chanted, releasing a field of black mist adorned with silver dots that spread across a fifty-meter radius.

Tetsu didn't even have time to blink before the skill enveloped the area, with the Draugr at its epicenter. "Fight me," the Draugr general activated another skill, compelling everyone to seek revenge and converge upon him.

"Nope, sorry. wouldn't fight you, even if you drop a million XP points," Tetsu retorted, plunging into the ground and swimming away

"Huh!" The Draugr gaped at Tetsu, momentarily forgetting about his active skill. In the ensuing chaos, a flurry of attacks assailed the Draugr until the effects of the taunt wore off, and the living resumed their relentless pursuit of their primary target; the slippery human.

[Ding! Fatigue: 70]

"I'm surrounded by life-force hoarders!" Tetsu grumbled at the undead, feeling a strange camaraderie with them. Despite their disparate motives, both he and the undead sought the same goal, albeit driven by different motives. The quantum harvest targeted trees until the undead intercepted or corrupted the resource bubbles before Tetsu could lay claim to them, and with the undead emanating a constant mist of death, the deeper regions became devoid of life sources.

"Save some for me!" Tetsu booted another zombie head into the Zeech's bizarre collection.

Initially terrified, Tetsu found the pursuit by headless zombies and the multitude of heads attached to the Zeech more comical than dire. Outnumbered and outpaced by the undead, he resorted to his go-to strategy: circling back to gather more life-attuned creatures. Tetsu sought to unravel the mystery of how the undead survived and whether the life or undead hue belonged to the life spectrum, but the hazy realm offered no clarity during the chaos of battle.