Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 64: Chapter 64: They would not stop crying to see you. I brought them closer, but they tried to run toward the gate

The entire mass surged toward the gate.

The barrier flashed violently as bodies struck it together.

Swanly fired again.

One arrow.

Two.

Three.

Each time she reached back, another formed in her hand.

She did not need to reload.

She did not need to worry about ammunition.

She only had to aim.

An infected deer beast jumped onto the bodies of the others and tried to climb toward her. Swanly shot through its throat. It fell backward, knocking down two more.

A blind female rushed toward the sound of Swanly’s bowstring.

The system marked the rot core beneath her left ribs.

Swanly changed her aim and released.

The arrow pierced cleanly through the side.

The female collapsed before reaching the barrier.

The Riverbone beastmen stared from below.

”What kind of bow is that?”

”It creates arrows.”

”She killed five already.”

”No, seven.”

”How can she see where to shoot from there?”

Kael did not look away from Swanly.

His body remained tense beneath the wall, prepared to jump the moment anything reached her.

Swanly fired faster.

Her arms moved almost without thought now.

The strange strength of her snow fox body supported every pull. Her eyes tracked movement more easily than before. Her ears caught claws against stone and wings beating above the crowd.

Wings.

Swanly’s head snapped up.

A bird beastman rose from behind the horde.

Half of its feathers had fallen away. Black rot covered its chest, but its remaining wings were wide enough to carry it.

It flew directly at her.

Swanly drew an arrow, but the creature was already too close.

A pale shape dropped from the tree above.

Thalara landed on the infected bird’s back.

Her long white hair exploded around them. Her black claws closed around both ruined wings and pulled.

The infected shrieked.

Thalara twisted in the air and drove it down into the ground outside the barrier.

The impact cracked one of its wings.

Before it could rise, dark roots burst through the soil and wrapped around its body.

Thalara stepped onto its back and looked up at Swanly.

Her single purple eye glowed beneath the dark horns growing from the places her normal eyes should have been.

Swanly stared.

Then she shot the trapped infected through its rot core.

It went limp beneath Thalara’s feet.

”Thank you,” Swanly called.

Thalara smiled.

Far too widely.

”You are welcome.”

Swanly gave her a long side glance.

”I told you to stop smiling like that.”

Thalara’s smile slowly disappeared.

”I am sorry. That is the shape my happiness makes.”

A few Riverbone beastmen took one step farther away from her.

Swanly sighed.

”Fine. Keep smiling. Just warn people first.”

Thalara climbed the wall with disturbing ease and crouched several steps away from Swanly.

Her black claws sank into the stone.

She watched Swanly fire another arrow.

”Your bow does not empty.”

”No.”

”Does it eat something?”

”Probably my patience.”

Thalara considered that seriously.

Below them, Kael bent his knees.

He was about to jump onto the wall.

Swanly saw him.

”No.”

Kael looked up.

”I am coming.”

”No, you are not.”

”There are flying infected.”

”Thalara is here.”

Kael’s gaze moved toward the Aelari.

Thalara smiled at him.

Kael’s expression grew colder.

”That does not comfort me.”

Swanly fired another arrow and killed a crawling infected trying to reach a crack in the barrier.

”Baby, stay back.”

Kael went still.

Several tribe members looked at him.

Swanly continued sweetly, ”My love, I know you care about me, but I do not want you bitten. Let me handle this.”

Kael’s throat moved.

He looked as if she had attacked him with something much more dangerous than an arrow.

Swanly pointed at him.

”Stay.”

His ears flattened slightly.

”I am not one of the cubs.”

”You are acting exactly like them.”

A laugh escaped from somewhere behind him.

Kael turned.

Every laughing tribe member immediately looked at the ground.

Swanly narrowed her eyes at him with the same expression she used on the cubs.

Kael swallowed.

Then, very reluctantly, he stepped back.

The Riverbone beastmen stared.

Their dangerous black panther had obeyed one look.

Swanly nodded with satisfaction.

”Good.”

Kael folded his arms.

He was not happy.

He was still staying.

Thalara tilted her head.

”You command your mate strangely.”

”I do not command him.”

Kael looked up.

”You just did.”

Swanly ignored him.

She shot another infected.

Thalara caught a second winged creature by the leg and slammed it against the wall. Swanly killed it before its claws touched her.

For several minutes, only arrows, screams and the system’s counting filled the air.

{Forty eliminated.}

{Seventy-three eliminated.}

{One hundred eliminated.}

Swanly’s arms began to ache, but the infected were thinning.

She rolled one shoulder and continued.

Thalara watched the arrows appear.

”Before the rot came, my sisters and I made paths for living things.”

Swanly glanced at her.

”What kind of paths?”

”Roots that carried clean water. Trees that opened for mothers carrying young. Flowers that warned villages when the ground beneath them became sick.”

Swanly released another arrow.

”What happened to them?”

Thalara’s purple eye followed the arrow until it pierced an infected throat.

”The rot came.”

”That part I understood.”

”My sisters were taken into different places. Some were bound beneath forests. Some beneath stone. Some beneath water.”

Thalara looked toward the distant trees.

”I searched until the Rot Nest held me too.”

Swanly’s hands slowed for half a breath.

”You do not know if they are alive?”

”I know they have not returned to the old root-song.”

Swanly did not understand what that meant, but Thalara’s voice had become softer.

Lonelier.

Swanly aimed again.

”We will look for them eventually.”

The words left before she thought properly.

Thalara turned.

Swanly immediately regretted volunteering for another ancient nightmare.

”I said eventually. Very eventually. After food, safety, shelter, sleep, moving the tribe, clearing my system debt and possibly dying of stress.”

Thalara smiled again.

Smaller this time.

”I can wait.”

Swanly continued shooting.

By the time she reached two hundred, sweat ran down her neck.

She reached into her space and took out a cold bottle of sweet fruit drink.

The tribe members below watched the bottle appear from nowhere.

Swanly opened it and drank half in one breath.

Cold sweetness hit her tongue.

Her storage space was filled with things she had hoarded during the zombie world. Water, snacks, canned food, medicine, blankets, tools, clothes and enough strange little supplies to confuse an entire civilization.

Nothing spoiled inside.

Nothing expired.

Swanly rarely used the food carelessly because she did not know when she might need it, but after nearly dying in the Rot Nest, she decided one drink was not going to destroy her future.

Thalara stared at the bottle.

Swanly lowered it.

”What?”

”What is inside?”

”Fruit drink.”

”Why is the water red?”

”It is supposed to be.”

Thalara looked uncertain.

Swanly held it out.

”Do you want some?”

Thalara took the bottle carefully with both black-clawed hands.

She smelled it.

Touched the liquid to her tongue.

Her single purple eye widened.

”This tastes like happy flowers.”

Swanly blinked.

”That is not how I would describe it, but fine.”

Thalara drank again.

Kael looked up from below.

”You gave her your drink.”

Swanly raised one brow.

”Are you jealous of the bottle too?”

Kael did not answer.

That was answer enough.

Swanly reclaimed the drink before Thalara finished all of it.

Then she stood and returned to work.

The final hundred fell quickly.

Some infected tried to flee when the commandless horde thinned, but Swanly did not let them reach the forest. One infected beastman with insect-like wings shot upward. Thalara brought it down with roots.

A massive infected boar slammed repeatedly into the barrier until cracks of light spread through it. Swanly shot both eyes, then buried the third arrow beneath its jaw.

The body crashed against the ground.

The barrier steadied.

Twenty remained.

Then ten.

Then three.

The last infected stood far behind the others.

It was a small female beastman with one broken ear and a Riverbone marking still painted faintly across her arm.

Several people below recognized her.

”Nemi...” Someone whispered her name.

Swanly’s fingers tightened around the arrow.

For one breath, the infected female looked almost alive.

Then her jaw split open, and she ran toward the barrier.

Swanly released.

The arrow passed through her core.

She fell.

Silence covered the entrance.

The system chimed brightly.

{Task complete.}

{Three hundred and fifty infected eliminated.}

{Reward credited: one thousand and fifty points.}

Swanly smiled.

Then another sound followed.

{Debt collection deducted.}

Her smile disappeared.

{Current debt remaining: nine hundred and thirty-six points.}

Swanly stared at the system.

”You just gave those points to me.”

{You owed me.}

”You could have let me hold them for one moment.”

{Why?}

”So I could feel rich.”

{False wealth creates unhealthy emotional attachment.}

Swanly’s eye twitched.

”Fuck you.”

The system bowed.

{System accepts gratitude in many forms.}

It vanished.

Swanly climbed down from the wall using her new claws.

Kael remained directly beneath her, both hands raised.

She could have landed by herself.

He caught her anyway.

His arms closed around her waist and pulled her against his chest before her feet touched the ground.

Swanly’s breath caught.

”You knew I could land.”

”Yes.”

”Then why did you catch me?”

”You were falling toward me.”

”I jumped toward the ground.”

”You landed in my arms.”

His expression remained completely serious.

Swanly decided not to argue.

She liked being there too much.

Then the smell reached her.

Rot.

Blood.

Three hundred and fifty dead infected bodies outside the barrier.

Swanly pulled away and looked through the entrance.

The ground was covered.

Kael followed her gaze.

”Leave them.”

Swanly turned.

”What?”

”They will rot.”

”That is the problem.”

”Animals may drag them away.”

”That is another problem.”

She pointed through the barrier.

”Blood, rot, spores and hundreds of bodies will attract more infected and scavengers. We cannot leave that outside the gate.”

Kael frowned.

”What do you want to do?”

”Burn them.”

A familiar cold voice came from behind.

”That much rot smoke could spread through the roots.”

Swanly turned.

Soren stood near the path with all three cubs in his arms.

Her eyes widened.

For a moment, the dead horde stopped mattering.

”Why are they outside?”

She pointed at the cubs.

”More importantly, why are they on you?”

Soren looked down at them as if he had only just noticed he was carrying three tiny panther children.

”They followed me.”

The eldest cub was tucked against one side of his chest.

The second held tightly to his white hair.

The smallest sat shamelessly on one coil of his tail with both arms around Soren’s wrist.

Swanly stared.

Tilla hurried after them, her mink tail puffed with stress.

”They would not stop crying to see you. I brought them closer, but they tried to run toward the gate. Soren caught all three.”

The smallest cub lifted his head.

”Snake not bad.”

Kael’s face changed.

The cub continued proudly, ”Snake save brother. Snake good.”

Kael walked toward Soren.

”No.”

The cub blinked.

Kael held out both arms.

”Give me my sons.”