Cursed Sorcerer King Of The Arcana

Chapter 29

Rika was moving down the stairs when the sound of the bullet going off had the crowd of corpses rush towards the sound. Strangely enough, none had come her way, she was sure that her yelling and the loud sound of bones breaking would have attached them all yet none came. Her grip on her knife tightened, as she swapped it with her gun for better stealth. All that while the loud tolling of the bell was replaced with the same dreadful tapping from earlier. She did her best and quickly descended the stairs as she tried not to focus on the tapping sound. 

Just as she turned a corner Rika slowed down, her footsteps turning soft as she came to almost a halt. Suddenly almost as if something had taken over her, she leapt forward. Clearing the distance of almost three meters in a single leap, her combat knife burning itself in the temple of the undead creature, almost like an animal her legs pushed her as the blade of her knife met the throat of the second reanimated corpse, tearing a large chunk of flesh and muscle out.

Rika stopped as she breathed heavily, her purple eyes landed on her blood stained gloved hands, her eyes drifting to her blooded knife.

Rika: 'Fuck'

She cursed herself, her instincts and training were too strong and they were growing stronger by the second however that special military training was slowly washing away her humanity like it had been drilled into her to do. Suddenly something tackled her before she could finish the thought, it was the zombie whose throat she had ripped out. It was still moving! Pulling herself out of its grip, her knife plunged itself into the creature's temple and with a push cut open its head, exposing the cerebellum and its grey brain fluids allowing her to throw the now stilled corpse off her. Just as Rika let out a sigh of relief her eyes landed on something else in the room making her gasp, as she clenched her jaw so hard that it caused her teeth to grind against each other.

Hanging from the ceiling of the room were the same horrifying hollowed eyes of the mummified cadaver she had left behind looking directly at her, it was nailed to the ceiling of the corridor. Its mouth was wide open in a grimace of pain, showing numerous rows of pristine white. The thing moved, struggling against its bonds all the while it stared down at him with its cold hollow eye-sockets. The only other sound filled the room was of old leather straining and rusted nails creaking as the ancient body struggled to get free. The body was leaking fresh blood as it hung from the ceiling, that dreadful tapping sound increased by almost tenfold! Rika covered her ears as it began to hurt her. Without hesitation, she drew her pistol and three shots were fired, they rang loudly in the hallway as the corpse began to bleed more from the holes, gushing ropes of blood. It took her a minute to understand what she had done however it was too late. Loud roaring and groans began close in as the floor shook, turning around Rika ran! Behind her, the double door broke from its hinges as a massive group of undead humans, roared and screamed as they chased her down.

Rika grits her teeth as she pushes her legs to run faster. The tapping sound turned into a terrifying sound of nails scratching against a glass. She pushed herself to move quickly and weaved through the hallways of the building. Jumping down the stairs to make her way down the levels, forgoing furtiveness as she ran. Her eyes lit up when she turned and found herself just a few feet from the marked doors leading into the generator room. Without stopping she rammed her shoulder into the double door, unknowingly breaking through a barricade. She paused and removed her glasses to allow her pupils to acclimate to the gloomy dimly lit zone of tangled duck piping, with narrowed walkways and exposed cabling. Rika believed that whoever built this place did so with some form of logic but decades of job repairs had turned the place into a mess of bypasses, loose cabling and pipes that leaked 24/7 hours. 

Making her way through the room was difficult, it was like moving through the building's guts but the knowledge that the large horde of corpses was chasing her down was more than enough motivation for her to keep moving. The leaking pipes, loose cabling and mess of wires appeared to her as a mess of intestines however it did not matter as the scratching sound had taken the sound of a tolling bell, and it was defiantly coming from within this techo labyrinth. She made her way through the coiled guts of the structure making her way past a dead body, that she made sure to stab in the temple just for a safety measure.

Rika: 'Bodies can't turn if the brain is damaged'

She moved further for what felt like hours through hundreds of yards of ruined cabling but soon she stopped. Then finally, there at the end of the long and ominous corridor was the cadaver. The body still contained the three bullet wounds from when she had shot it. All of them dead centre of its dried up bony mummified chest as it continued to leak blood. She could briefly see that its mouth was still open but rather than a grimace of pain, it was stretched wider, as if laughing and mocking her secretly. Earlier the thing had appeared bald but it now had a mane of long white hair like tangled spider silk. Behind it was the generator that she had been looking for so long, it was malfunctioning letting out small sparks that scorched and frayed the tips of the corpse mane. 

Rika took a sharp breath in, her sweaty palms were trembling and she clutched her pistol tightly into her gloved hands as in acknowledgement of her presence the creature slowly lifted its head from the floor and turned to look at her. Its face had changed whereas its eyes had been nothing more than deep fathomless pits of pure darkness now bloodshot eyes bulged from its ancient face. To her absolute horror, she recognised those eyes. Although her skin was now hung in slacked sacks of wrinkled flash and she appeared to have died decades ago, there was no mistaking it. It was the eyes of the police girl she had left in charge of the protection of the hallway back where the other survivors were. Her jaw hung slack open and she reached a decrepit hand out to her as if to beg for help.

Rika: Who are you?!

She shouted and the thing continued to reach for her, imploring her to come forward. A low guttural moan escaped its rotten throat.

Rika: What are you?!

She raged and with a jerking motion, the corpse twisted around to face her and began to slowly crawl towards her hand over broken hand dragging her limp body along the floor and old fire smearing the path behind her. Each hand fell in time with a paralyzing metallic knock that echoed in her skull replacing the tolling bell sound. Something clicked as Rika's training kicked in again, her body moving on its own through her muscle memory as her mind blanked out for a second. Her finger pulled the trigger and she unloaded the magazine into the cadaver's face. It stopped if only for a second.

Its lips stretched inhumanly wider causing its cheek muscles to loudly tear apart causing its sharp rows of filthy blooded teeth to be exposed as the creature roared and as if to prove its unnatural presence it leapt, clearing twenty feet in the blink of an eye. In almost foolish bravery rather than logical thinking Rika too leapt from her spot, the distance between the two of them closed and just as Rika's fist was about to meet the creature's face with the cadaver's crooked broken hand outstretched to rip her throat out. 

Something happened as the purple-haired military woman slammed into something and the ground cracked. Her brain registered that her body had smashed into something hard, it was the cadaver as her purple eyes could see what appeared to be an abnormally large fist punctured through the female-looking corpse's chest.

Almost daringly she looked up, using every last ounce of her courage to look at the reason that had taken the corpse down. The first familiar long blonde hair tied in a high flowing ponytail greeted her and the second familiar thing that just confirmed her suspicion was those massive heavenly blessed boobs!

...And the third was that childish happy smile and bright yellow eyes.

Shizuka: Rika-chan!

Finally, last but not least was that loud high pitched voice of the woman she had called her friend for more than a decade. 

Rika: S-Shizuka?

Rika choked unable to believe the reality in front of her, trying to understand. Her mind unable to process the presence of her childhood friend here quickly turned to the next impossible thing in the room

Rika: What the fuck happened to your arm!?

She shouted as she pointed at Shizuka's arm which was ridiculously large for a normal human. It looked like belonged to an oni, bright red skin with bulging muscles and veins that strained against the skin, threatening to break through. Shizuka sheepishly grinned as she looked at the arm.

Shizuka: Well that's a long story.

Rika: I bet it's one hell of a bedtime story.

Shizuka: Yep!

She smiled as she saw the cheerful nature of her friend. Unable to stop herself Rika wrapped her arms around Shizuka, unintentionally burying her face in her boobs as he hugged her tightly. Shizuka's arm quickly transformed back as she hugged her friend back.