With four Champions—five, if you counted Aerion, and with her powers, she might as well be—our team went from being efficient to downright deadly. No longer did we have to cower from dense hordes or try to sneak through.

  Whatever path we wanted, wherever we felt like going, we could. And we did.

  Aerion took point, and with the aid of her projected Aralez companion, Senara, plus one of my flying swords, hacked down everything in our path. Arianna and I followed, a moving shield wall to protect our squishier damage dealers.

  Richard did most of the heavy lifting, blasting open a path for Aerion, while I cleaned up whatever he didn’t finish.

  Yashas guarded our butts and kept an eye on everything with his ridiculous awareness, taking out any enemies that threatened to flank us.

  It was by far the strongest team we’d ever had. While Aerion and I made a decent pair on our own, as we’d learned firsthand, sheer numbers eventually overwhelmed us. With Yashas in the mix, we’d been a bit bolder, but now?

  Now we were fucking unstoppable.

  We carved through even the densest hordes like they were nothing, and we did it fast, too. Before long we were running through the streets to the parking garage, and what had taken an eternity before took only minutes now.

  “Into the stairs!” Yashas shouted as we approached the six-story structure, guiding us into a stairwell leading up to the roof where we’d parked.

  We didn’t dare risk the elevator with the horde closing in behind us. Sure, we were shredding zombies left and right, but there was always an infinite amount more, just waiting to smother us the moment we stopped.

  “Richard, take point,” Yashas ordered.

  Richard nodded, and I shot Yashas a sidelong look. Richard wasn’t exactly the guy you’d want at the front. Arianna was much better suited for bashing zombies’ heads in.

  But Yashas knew what he was doing, and Richard, while as weak as Yashas, could insta-kill anything in our path, so long as there weren’t too many.

  Clearly, this was what Yashas had planned, because we encountered barely half a dozen shamblers on the climb. All of them froze, twitched, and collapsed before their broken undead brains even registered we were there.

  It wasn’t just their hearts that popped, either. Richard had grown quite a bit in our time apart, as it seemed like he could make their heads explode too now.

  As impressive as it was, I was just glad Richard was on our side.

  With such an overpowered group, it wasn’t long before we reached the rooftop.

  “Brace yourselves,” Yashas said just before we opened the door. “I’m afraid we have company.”

  With that ominous warning, we rushed out to find the garage rooftop completely swarmed with undead, and even more dense than they’d been on the ground.

  I thought I’d gotten used to the stench of rotting flesh, but clearly, I thought wrong.

  Worse—most of them were clustered around the Humvee, bumping and bashing at it in the most useless way imaginable. They weren’t even trying to break in. They were just… walking into it. Over and over. Tripping over each other and falling off the hood, colliding with the doors like a bunch of malfunctioning Roombas.

  It would’ve been funny if that wasn’t our getaway ride.

  As it was, the situation looked grim. Sure, we could fight our way to the Humvee. It’d be harder with the zombies packed in like sardines, but with this group, it was possible. The question was, what then? How did we get away?

  It wasn’t like we could just abandon the thing, either. It was a hell of a long trek back to Yashas’ pad, and I was the only one with enhanced mobility.

  The thought of putting the other champions in my inventory crossed my mind, but I didn’t think for a second they’d all accept my proposition.

  “I have a plan,” Yashas announced. “Just get me to the Humvee.”

  “You lot have a Humvee?” Richard said, genuinely impressed. “Very nice.”

  “Yep,” I said, pointing to the Brit. “And whether we get there or not will depend entirely on you.”

  “Well, when you put it like that…” he said, closing his eyes and extending an arm.

  A heartbeat later, a dozen zombies dropped dead on the spot. Or, neutralized, I suppose, considering how they were already dead.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Aerion, Arianna, and I surged into the gap cleared by Richard’s attack, fending off zombies while the others caught up.

  Aerion summoned Senara, and with my Soulwoven Mythril sword ripping through throats left and right beside her, she managed to actually make some headway into the swarm before needing Richard to bail her out.

  My own flying swords and Voidsteel shards wreaked havoc, of course, though instead of hitting the same targets as the others, I sent them further out, carving pockets of empty space on either side of our little group.

  Not only did this soften up areas for Richard and give us bubbles of relatively fewer enemies to move into, but it also split the mob as zombies began chasing the spinning swords.

  Splitting their attention made it even easier for Aerion, Yashas, and Richard to annihilate them, allowing us to move through this insane throng faster than ought to have been possible.

  Arianna was no slouch, either, and the more I studied her power, the more I realized she wasn’t just durable. She almost seemed like a magnet, attracting the zombies’ attention more than any of us. It wasn’t a result of anything she did, but rather like how mosquitos were drawn to people carrying a specific gene sequence.

  Still, I didn’t think for a moment this luck would last. It never did. I half expected some monster to fall out of the sky and fuck everything up.

  On a whim, I looked up into the sky… and my stomach dropped.

  There, in the distance, weren’t monsters, but something far, far worse.

  Helicopters. Several of them, and they were descending straight toward our position.

  “Uh… guys,” I said. “I think we’ve got a problem.”

  Everyone turned and looked.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Richard asked.

  “Helicopters!” Arianna shouted.

  “The military faction!” Yashas yelled. “We need to get out of here now.”

  I concurred. As scary as the zombies were, it was the military faction that truly terrified me. We’d seen firsthand just how strong their firepower was, and they had the nasty habit of showing up right when zombies attacked. I didn’t know why, but I’d bet good money they were related.

  “Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” I muttered as we piled into the Humvee. Yashas fired up the engine as Aerion climbed into the gunner’s turret, while Richard joined me in the back. Arianna took the passenger seat beside Yashas.

  “Just how are we supposed to leave this place?” Arianna demanded.

  “I’ve us a plan,” Yashas replied. “Though I fear you will not like it.”

  “Well, it can’t exactly be worse than waiting for zombies to eat us or helicopters to blow us up,” I muttered, staring up at the sky.

  Not one of us had any way to take those helicopters out, and there wasn't enough ammo in Aerion's roof-mounted .50 cal to deal with them all. And while [Remote Launch] had proven an incredible ability, it couldn’t shoot projectiles half a mile into the air. If the pilots got close, maybe, but I somehow doubted they’d be that stupid. They might’ve been skeletons, but their skulls were anything but empty.

  “They’re coming this way!” Aerion shouted. “They’ve spotted us!”

  “Little wonder if they hadn’t,” I muttered. With the zombies swarming our position, we might as well have a bright neon sign saying, ‘We’re over here!’

  “Brace yourselves!” Yashas yelled. “Richard! Greg! Clear a path!”

  “Not a clue what you’re planning, mate, but I must warn you, I’m nearly out of Essence.” Richard said, and while his voice was even, I could tell the man was fighting to keep it together. He might’ve gotten stronger, but Richard was a family man. He just wasn’t cut out for this stuff. “I can only manage a few more blasts before I’m dry.”

  “Understood,” Yashas called back. “Do what you can. We’ll be out of this shortly.”

  His confidence was admirable. I only wished I shared it. “I’ll take out as many as I can,” I told my buddy. “You mop up anything I miss.”

  Richard gave me a grim nod, and I went to work, firing shards, sending swords, and generally wreaking havoc.

  I concentrated my fire on the spot directly in front of us, and though it felt like my efforts had accomplished little of anything, Richard thanked me before closing his eyes and activating his ability.

  A swath of zombies in front of us collapsed like marionettes with their strings cut.

  Yashas floored the accelerator, and the Humvee surged forward over their corpses.

  Instead of heading for the stairwell exit, though, Yashas kept going… and going.

  It took only a moment for me to realize what he was aiming for.

  “Uh, Yashas? Where are you going?”

  I stared with mounting horror as the Humvee barreled toward the perimeter of the parking structure. “Shit, shit, shit!”

  We smashed through the concrete barrier and went flying into the air.

  “Oh, shit!” I screamed as my stomach popped.

  I wasn’t the only one. A chorus of shouts and panicked yells filled the Humvee as we arced through the air on a collision course with a nearby three-story building’s roof.

  As we flew, my mind spun. Aerion and Arianna would be fine. They were tough enough to tank the landing. Yashas was belted in. He’d probably be alright.

  But Richard? Squishy Richard who wasn’t secured to anything?

  Absolutely not.

  “Greg!” he shouted, already panicking.

  I wracked my brain. I couldn’t Initialize anything. No time. I had seconds before we hit.

  Think!

  My eyes fell on the sword in my hand. My Soulwoven Mythril blade. The answer was so obvious I didn’t know how I missed it.

  Without hesitating, I shoved the sword toward Richard. He grabbed it out of reflex, too shocked to question anything. Then I grabbed him with one hand and braced myself against the Humvee with the other.

  We crashed down hard. Every bone in my body vibrated from the impact, but I held on. Richard would’ve flown off the Humvee if I hadn’t grabbed him, and the sword? Well, the sword gave him the Vigor he needed to survive.

  The man blinked at me, as though unable to believe he was alright.

  But we weren’t out of danger yet.

  We were still on the third-story roof, and Yashas wasn’t slowing down. He slammed the accelerator again. The Humvee tore through air-conditioning pipes, hoses, and wires that ran across the roof before launching again off the opposite end of the building.

  We soared into the night, and this time landed back on the street. Not with a thunderous crash, but with a sickening squish as zombies below us exploded like gore balloons, cushioning our fall. Once again, I held onto Richard, and once again, we all somehow emerged unscathed.

  Yashas yanked the wheel and fishtailed down the street, tires screeching as we sped away from Tokyo Tower.

  But we weren’t remotely out of the woods. Not by a long shot.

  The attack helis swiveled, following us like a swarm of angry hornets, and now that they had a clear line of sight, there was nothing to stop them this time.

  “Well, shit,” I breathed.

  I looked up just in time to see the blinding flash of a missile’s rocket ignite.