Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 155: Defense of Gravestone Part III

Eliza's lips curled into an ugly sneer as she motioned for Zane to come at her with everything he had.

"Well? Come on, then!"

Zane immediately launched his counterattack, scattering his blood into the air in a fine missed of raindrops, that immediately formed into small piercing needles which fell from the sky at terminal velocity and in doing so rained down upon Eliza's figure.

Such an attack was out of Eliza's expectations, causing her to instantly jump backwards, only to replace that the needles followed her like a hive of hornets.

She clicked her tongue in disdain as she tried to create a wall of her own blood to scatter Zane's attack, but the moment she did so Zane jumped through it and landing a devastating strike with one of his short swords on Eliza's face, cutting a nasty gash across her eye that until now had remained unmarred.

When Eliza realized Zane had tricked her with his attack, and that her face now had another hideous scar on it, one that oozed her coagulated blood, she shouted at the man with intense fury.

"You conniving bastard!"

Zane, however, smirked at the woman as he licked her blood from his blade before motioning it forward in a gesture that taunted her to launch her own attack.

"Mhmmm… Delicious!"

The idea that Zane found her blood to be tasty, when she herself was one to devour living humans, was a deeply revolting concept to Eliza, one that caused her expression to shift to one of disgust. Which was immediately followed by sheer rage as she launched an attack on Zane while insulting him.

"You damn livestock! Know your place!"

Zane, however, vanished into thin air, leaving behind an after image when Eliza attacked his figure. Reappearing behind her as he launched a second attack. Slashing across her back and opening another gash on her body. Naturally, the two attacks Zane had just landed dealt a decent amount of damage to the young Horde King, and also added HP to his health bar.

When Eliza realized she had been outsmarted twice now, she was quick to ask Zane just how he had managed to pull it off.

"That's not possible! You should be dead!"

Zane, however, scoffed, his expression returning to one of pure ice as he explained what he had just done to deceive Eliza, knowing fully well it would not work a second time.

"I'm not gonna lie. I didn't expect you to be so angry that you couldn't tell the difference between an afterimage and my own figure. I mean, you are significantly faster than me, but you were so focused on where I was, and not where I was going to be, that you fell for it. I honestly feel bad for you, so powerful… Yet so stupid!"

Eliza appeared to be the type to lose focus when she got angry, and although there was a significant difference in power and skill between her and Zane. Zane was also very good at manipulating enraged bulls like Eliza.

Thus she charged at him over and over again, trying to take off his head, only for Zane to use the same trick. He utilized his after image like that of a bullfighter's red cape to lure Eliza into vulnerable positions where he repeatedly attacked her.

The more attacks Zane landed on Eliza, the more angry she would get, and thus, the more she was prone to making mistakes. After accumulating over a dozen slashes on Eliza's body, Zane was surprised to see that she was still standing. After all, she was such a high level that he could not see how much health she had in total, only what she had left. Which was more than a stalker had in its entirety.

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[Eliza – Tier I Horde King]

[Level: 🕱]

[HP: 1000/???]

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Knowing that Zane had a long way to go, he sighed heavily before preparing himself for the foolhardy young Horde King's next attack. All the while, a battle was being waged not far away where his women fought with their lives on the line.

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Madison erected a force field around Elena, who was just about to suffer from a walker's bite. Buying her enough time to instantly slice off the undead monster's head. Her own ability was on cooldown, as was Olivia's.

They were facing over ten thousand undead, but luckily, they were not alone. Sentries fired their rifles and machine guns into the crowd, while the other strike team assisted Elean and the girls in their attacks.

With all of them combined, they were rapidly racking up a pile of bodies that numbered in the thousands. Still, there was only so much they could fight before becoming exhausted. And it was while Madison charged forward and bashed a walker to the ground with her shield, before finishing it off with her flaming sword, that she couldn't help but comment on Zane's situation.

"I hope Zane is alright…"

They honestly did not know if Eliza would be making an appearance tonight. But they did know that if she was, then she would likely target Zane while he was alone defending the southern wall. And because of this, a sense of anxiety and dread overcame Madison and the others as they tried their best to kill off these ten thousand plus undead as quickly as possible.

Elena had a sense of false confidence in her voice, trying to convince herself as much as the others that Zane was capable of holding on long enough for them to arrive.

"He will be fine… He's always fine…."

Despite saying this word in a not so reassuring tone, Elena's heart was bleeding as she struggled to deal with the thoughts in her head that were telling her any second now Zane would lose her life, and then she would be all alone in this post apocalyptic wasteland.

Luckily Olivia was far more confident as she summoned a bolt of lightning from the sky, and dropped it on the undead horde, instantly turning well over 200 of the walkers into ash as she did so.

"Zane will be fine! Knowing him, he's probably found some way to make up for the difference between him and Eliza. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if that boy is taunting that little girl into mindlessly attacking him in a way which he can exploit with his own strengths…"

Madison and Elena looked at Olivia as if she had lost her mind in that moment, before realizing what kind of asshole Zane was. Allowing them to calm their hearts and minds as they focused on the task at hand.