If You Don't Want to Die, Get Out of the Way
"Stairs...?"
While walking forward, they discovered a stone staircase leading downward.
"This dungeon... it wasn't formed naturally, was it?"
Robin, the oldest and most experienced adventurer among them, muttered as he touched one of the steps. No matter how he looked at it, the staircase bore clear signs of human craftsmanship. Beyond it lay only dense darkness.
Since Arke's floating orb of light couldn't be sent ahead for reconnaissance, they hesitated briefly before descending together. Fortunately, nothing happened on the way down. When they stepped off the final stair, a vast cavern greeted them—large enough to hold thousands of people standing shoulder to shoulder. At the far end, a narrow passage barely wide enough for two or three people to pass through at once opened up.
"Gyagyagyak!"
From beyond that passage came the familiar, grating sound they'd grown sick of hearing all day. The moment he heard it, Elsid reacted instantly. He drew his swords and dashed forward.
"Just as I thought."
As expected, a single zombie was shambling toward them from the other side. Chwaak! Elsid ducked low and cleaved the creature cleanly in half. Normally he would have aimed for the neck, but these zombies were different from the ones they'd faced before. They weren't made from human corpses—they were made from animals.
The one he'd just cut down had been the smallest: a rabbit zombie. Rabbits, deer, wolves, bears... herbivores, carnivores, omnivores—every kind of animal zombie filled the space beyond the passage. Hundreds of them.
"I'm going to develop a complex at this rate."
If they'd arrived even a little later, those animal zombies would have already flooded the cavern they now stood in.
"You ready?"
"Yes, Elsid."
After confirming, both Elsid and Rain charged to the front without hesitation. Rain struck first.
"Hah!"
With a shout, he swung his massive greatsword. The zombies struck by it split apart, and the force sent several more tumbling backward. Elsid followed immediately, his twin blades flashing as he cleanly severed heads and limbs.
Yet the fight proved far harder than expected. While human zombies moved sluggishly, these animal zombies retained much of their original speed. Even in death, they lunged forward with frightening agility.
Piyung!
"Damn it, now even animals are turning into zombies?!"
Robin's irritated shout rang out as his arrows felled several more. Still, the zombies kept pouring through without end.
"Huff... huff!"
"You all right?"
Rain gasped for breath, his greatsword growing heavier with every swing. Even so, the blue aura around the blade refused to fade. Seeing this, Elsid made a decision. He planted one foot back and—
"Get out of the way. If you don't want to die."
Thud!
He kicked Rain backward.
Thud.
"Kicking the kid? You could've just asked nicely."
Robin caught the stumbling Rain and spoke up.
"So... you think you can handle it?"
"Why? Does it look like too many?"
Elsid answered Robin's question with one of his own.
"Not a single complaint, huh. Annoying..."
But that was answer enough. Robin asked nothing more.
"Robin, what are you doing?! Elsid is—"
"Leave it. You'd only get in the way with that exhausted body."
"But—"
"Just watch carefully."
Robin held Rain back and spoke quietly.
"Watch what a single swordsman can do."
"..."
Elsid said nothing. He simply gripped his two swords tighter.
"Gyagyagyak!"
With a roar, the zombies charged. Elsid swung his aura-clad wooden swords, cutting down the foremost ones. Because the passage was narrow, only two or three zombies could attack at once no matter how many waited behind them. He held the line like a gatekeeper, refusing to let a single one through.
When a rabbit zombie lunged, he skewered it through the neck. When a wolf followed, he used the impaled rabbit as bait, then drew his blade and severed the wolf's neck with his other sword. A stag zombie charging with its antlers met a parry and a precise thrust to the throat, followed by a spinning slash. A bear zombie swinging its massive paws found both swords buried in its forelimbs; Elsid released them, stepped inside, and used his arming sword to behead it with a horizontal cut before retrieving his blades.
Again and again he fought—cutting, thrusting, severing, throwing corpses to block the path. Each swing added to the growing wall of unmoving bodies that slowed the zombies behind. It bought him precious moments to breathe.
Chwaak!
Still, his body grew heavier and his breathing more ragged. Slash, stab, carve, tear, throw—he had lost count of how many times he'd repeated these motions.
'No matter how strong, no living being can fight at full strength for dozens of minutes. Breathing. If I want to last longer, controlling my breath is everything. In a chaotic fight, using your surroundings is key.'
Recalling his grandfather's words, Elsid continued the desperate struggle.
"Hah!"
He forced out a battle cry to rouse his flagging body. Rotten blood splattered across him, but unlike human zombies, these animal ones weren't acidic. When one tried to bite him, he smashed its face with a fist still gripping a sword, then used his other blade to slice away everything above the jaw.
Ten minutes. Twenty. In a trance, he cut down zombie after zombie without counting. Finally, he crossed his blades through the last one and quartered it.
At that moment, Elsid collapsed to his knees, sweat pouring from his entire body.
"Just who the hell are you?"
Robin hurried forward to support him.
"What do you mean?"
Elsid smiled weakly as Robin helped him sit.
"Just an ordinary swordsman."
"Haha... ordinary, huh."
Robin gave a dry laugh, then looked at the scene before them. Hundreds of animal zombies lay strewn across the ground—slain by a single man.
"If it had been my grandfather, he would've cleaned this up with five swings."
"So your grandfather was a monster too? The king of monsters?"
"If that was supposed to be a joke, it wasn't funny."
Yet none of them—not even Robin—looked at Elsid with fear. Robin helped him sit properly while Arke began casting healing magic.
"O God Pios, grant the power of healing. Healing."
She mended Elsid's torn palms and countless bruises with holy light.
"Elsid, I'm sorry. It's because I'm still inexperienced—"
"It's fine. Nobody got hurt. That's what matters."
Rain apologized, thinking Elsid had kicked him because of his ankle. Afterward, they all rested together, eating the lunches Arke had brought. For several hours they recovered their strength without any further attacks.
"All right. Shall we get moving again?"
When the break ended, Elsid stood and asked the others.
"Yes! This time I'll definitely be useful!"
"I don't have many arrows left, so keep that in mind."
"Leave the healing to me."
Everyone nodded and spoke in turn. Then they walked together toward the passage, stepping over the fallen zombie corpses as they headed deeper into the dungeon.
And there, at what seemed to be the end, they saw three steel doors waiting for them—painted red, yellow, and green—each radiating an ominous presence.