Chapter 125: Alter Of The Dead
Mark didn't have time to think too much about it, so he just promised her whatever she wanted. This was just a test and it wouldn't matter anyway. Mark narrowed his eyes at the zombies running towards the two of them, and he suddenly told Ryax to stop when she was about to hit them.
He grabbed her and jumped back before landing on the floor silently, and he watched as the zombies continued to run towards another man who was shouting loudly at the side.
Mark gently moved his body to the right as he saw a zombie coming towards him and the zombie walked right past him as it charged towards the loud man again. Mark had been noticing this for a while now. Whenever he was in the middle of fighting, the number of zombies would keep increasing no matter how many he killed, but when he was trying to rest silently, the zombies would hardly come towards him.
"What is going on -?"
"Shh~"
Mark told Ryax to stay silent, and he watched as a zombie that was charging towards them just now changed its direction and went towards a louder area.
"They're blind. Haven't you noticed how they always go towards those that are making the most noise? I think they use sound to find their prey. They can't see anything."
Ryax immediately tried to understand what Mark was talking about. She looked around curiously and noticed that the zombies were not coming towards the both of them now that they were silent. Instead, the zombies would go towards anyone who was making the most noise beside them and attack that person instead.
She took a step closer to Mark and narrowed her eyes at the surroundings while tightening her hold on her sword. This was a good discovery, but it didn't do much for either of them right now.
Even if the monsters weren't searching for them specifically, there were still so many zombies in the cavern that they had a chance of finding them just by walking around aimlessly and bumping into them. They couldn't stand still forever and hope that the zombies never get to them.
"So, now what? If we stay here then they will come for us after all the others are dead. I don't think we should risk fighting against them when everyone else is killed. We will surely lose."
Mark raised his hand up and told her to stay silent as he watched something at the corner of his vision.
[Time Remaining: 01:00:30]
[Time Remaining: 00:40:35]
Mark patiently waited for the time limit to be reached. He knew that it might be a gamble, but he remembered the rule from the beginning of the game. The rule stated that Mark would have to survive a zombie horde for five minutes before he could leave, but it also stated that he had to eradicate all the zombies in the cavern before he could leave.
Rather than wasting energy to fight against zombies while they were still coming, why not just wait until they stopped increasing in number and take them all on at once? That was Mark's thought process, but even Mark could not have realized that it was a flawed thought process.
This wasn't a game brought up by a human mind; it was something a god of death himself decided on, and Mark could not guess what would happen to him after the time limit was exhausted.
He simply waited for the time to run out.
[Time Remaining: 00:20:01]
[Time Remaining: 00:01:30]
[The User has fulfilled the first criteria of the test [Survive the Zombie Horde for Five Minutes.] The second criterion is yet to be fulfilled. Beginning countermeasures.]
Boom!
The door leading out of the cavern suddenly slammed shut to prevent any more zombies from coming through, and the fires burning on the wall all died out as the cavern was drowned in darkness. Mark narrowed his eyes as he adjusted to the dark. Even though he was not seeing perfectly, he still had above-average night vision and could see in front of him just fine.
Ryax, on the other hand, was not comfortable with the darkness, and she immediately took many steps back until she was standing back to back with Mark once more. Her heart rate had risen to a steady, beating drum, and she could feel sweat dripping from her forehead. She couldn't die here.
Rumble!
Rumble!
Everyone looked towards the front of the cavern as they heard a deep rumble echo through the cavern, and they were stunned to see a large altar rising out from the ground. The altar was made from a bone-white material that had intricate carvings depicting times of war and suffering on its body. The altar rose till it was almost four feet high before it stopped.
Click!
Phwoom!
A click was heard through the cavern before the top of the altar suddenly began to burn with the same black flames that the torches on the walls were once burning. And right before the eyes of every person there, something unbelievable started to happen.
All the zombies that were killed or destroyed, began to get back up on their feet as they slowly started to heal.
The altar that they were looking at was called the 'Altar of the Dead'. It was an artifact from the age of gods that remained in the hand of Thanatos after he defeated the former god of death, Hades, and took control over his domain. It used to be used in war to heal allies that were injured, but in this case, it was helping the zombies to heal themselves of any wound that was inflicted on them.
So long as the fire on that altar burned, the zombies could get up indefinitely and continue to fight against the humans.
"We are all going to die."
Ryax couldn't help but speak up in fear as she saw the zombies getting up from where they had fallen. Her sword was shaking in her hand, and she was trying her best not to lose sight of Mark in this madness. If she did, then she would surely die from her injury or the zombies. Mark, on the other hand, was perfectly calm as he tried to understand what this new test was all about.
He remembered Sozin telling him a long time ago that the gods would not give him something that was impossible to defeat. They would only give him something that was difficult to achieve. That meant that even this seemingly impossible test must have a method to win.
Rarghh!!! Rarghhh!
RARGHH!
Mark had to snap out from his musing as he saw many of the zombies that he killed suddenly standing back up as their bodies stitched themselves together, and they started to come towards him with bloodlust in their eyes. They were blind, but that did not matter when there were this many of them. Throw a thousand darts at a bullseye at the same time, and at least one of them will hit.
The horde of monsters raced towards Mark and jumped him all at once!