AN: Hello happy people. I've had a lot going on over the last few days. Mostly good stuff (Birthdays for various family members all coming together at once) So, I've been super busy with life.

I opted to update this story again, rather than a few others. It sort of won the story lottery, as the only one that I'm going to update this weekend is Fear Rune, and a Galataea rewrite update later today, otherwise. (Last weekend was skipped so Fear Rune HAS to be updated this weekend.)

Anyway, Earth Tactics Advance and I Hate You Master will be on Monday. Hopefully Origin as well. If not, Origin on Tuesday.

Chapter 33: Battle Tactics

Scott gathered the girls and told them the new plan. The quarantine field expanded, and now they had a chance to earn even more. Further, there were two points of interest to consider.

"Ready?" Scott looked at them, and they nodded in time.

They raced down the road toward several oncoming zombies of the shambling variety. Scott pointed to them and told Kitty she was up.

"Right!" exclaimed the catgirl with a cheerful smile. She ran toward the trio of zombies, while Samantha quietly asked why he'd sent her.

Scott tilted his head in the power armored girl's direction. "Her power was greatly reduced by what happened to her. We need to see if she can still handle three of these things on her own."

No sooner did Scott finish saying that than did Kitty leap high into the air while crying out, "Nyao!"

In mid-air she seemed to hover gracefully for a split second before angling down and rushing toward the ground at a sharp angle. Her foot slammed into the lead zombie and sent it flying with great force. Her gracefulness was so superior that she managed a backflip in mid-air before hitting the ground.

Surprisingly, the zombie she kicked began to smoke a little. Saelil's eyes widened in surprise. "That

creature possesses innate divine energy?"

Scott blinked then nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense..." He recalled briefly that she was partially raised in a holy place, but she also mentioned to them before that she'd fought and defeated an army of zombies alone. She might be based on a popular character, but they were two different people.

Kitty leapt to the side then laughed happily as the next zombie tripped over a piece of broken concrete and performed a backflip of its own before hitting the ground. It was such a ridiculously over-the-top occurrence that the others were immediately suspicious.

Something similar happened when the third zombie reached for the agile feline. Except this time when the monster tripped, it was over its own feet. Worse, there was construction in the area prior to the end of the world. The zombie slammed face first into framework of a small scaffold next to a building under construction. Not long after it hit the ground and screwdriver rolled off the platform above and casually fell down point first to almost gently bury itself in the monster's skull.

"No way," said Samantha in her digitized voice, as [+0.3] floated up from the recently re-deceased zombie.

Kitty finished the battle by flipping backwards, planting one hand to the ground then springing into the air once, more, and landing feet first atop the first zombie. She flipped away from it after the attack and it caught fire.

[+0.3]

She finished the last one off with a casual kick to the back of the head that caused its skull to deform and explode forward. She flipped back casually then crouched down in a cute and sexy pose. She casually licked the back of her hand before sweetly saying, "Sorry boys. I understand the interest, but you're a little too far past your expiration date..."

"Oh god... Fighting game character one-liners," said Scott with a groan. He laughed immediately afterward, though.

Kitty sprung to her feet with a happy little cry then sighed warmly. "I needed that," she said before stretching luxuriously. She then pouted, "I'm still so weak, though."

Saelil's eyelid twitched. "That's weak?"

"You do know that all of those essence crystals we found were mostly gathered by stealing the energy from Kitty, right?" asked Scott.

The dark elf grunted in a most unladylike manner. "I shudder to think of what her power would have been like prior to its loss."

Scott turned to Samantha. "During your exploration, did you see any closets or trunks?"

"A few," she replied.

"Good, I don't want to waste ammunition here, but if things go wrong I want to have access to the stronger weaponry," he said. "Show me the closest closet?"

"It's in the post office, in the front room with the mailboxes."

Scott trotted back to the post office and looked around. He verified the closet and checked it to see if he had item access. He smiled not long after, and shut the door. If he needed anything, he could come get it. His portable spatial storage would be useful to gather items, or to hold system items, but he did not want to risk storing anything in there at the moment that would disappear if he was forced to make a run for the exit door. The last thing he wanted to do was to risk losing one of his awesome new guns.

He did take out four bottles of water, and stored those, however. Zombie hunting was thirsty work.

"Right ladies. Let's get going," said Scott.

Everyone moved out. It was not long before they reached another small group of zombies. Kitty once again went out to face them. She took longer to beat them than a few well-placed headshots, but it was part of training and assessment. So far, she could easily handle seven shamblers with no trouble. None of them even came close to biting or scratching her.

The battles continued. Scott and Samantha watched the area while Kitty fought. Eventually, he ordered Saelil into the mix, but only with the use of her staff. The dark elf gleefully showed her physical prowess by smacking zombies with great force. Her staff often took more than one strike to the head to bring a zombie down, but much like Kitty her power was greatly diminished by recent life events.

The only new member of the team who was not de-powered was Samantha. Rather, her power was technological mostly. As such, she held a rating similar to a level twelve champion. Even if her stats were reset, her equipment remained superior.

"Here we go! Look alive, ladies!" called Scott as several zombies staggered around the corner. There were only a small trickle at first, but Scott knew that sort of tactic well. If that many came around in a clump, then there would be a lot more staggering their way around the corner, soon.

Scott's intuition proved correct. Soon, another five, and then another six, zombies shambled around the corner. "Kitty and Saelil. This is a good chance for you! We'll guard the flanks and rear while you see just what you can do with a larger number of them."

"Right, beloved!" called back Saelil before charging in. Kitty rrowled happily then bounced forward like a happy cat at play.

Without even knowing if it was true, Scott immediately spun around and aimed. There, behind him, was a small group of zombies. "Never fails."

Most zombies were not smart, but they frequently seemed to pop up out of nowhere when people were distracted. He'd rarely faced a moment where a large group of them appeared in the front, but a small group did not somehow manifest themselves behind him.

Scott fired off three quick shots. The trio of undead fell to the ground, large chunks of their heads missing. "I'll watch behind. Keep an eye on those two in case they start to get overwhelmed."

Samantha said, "Understood." while leaving her rear to Scott's focused care.

Kitty and Saelil fought against the tide of the undead. This was their battle. Staff and claw against tooth and nail. Sweetness and light, versus expired ham hocks.

Heads exploded in viscous showers of blackened gore. Zombie bodies caught fire from well-placed kicks and clawing strikes. Twenty at a time were no match for the pair. However, more than twenty came over time. Soon it was thirty, and then forty.

Scott fired repeatedly at the zombies that appeared behind them in ever greater numbers. "It's time, Samantha."

She did not acknowledge him in words. Instead, she allowed her plasma shots to do her talking. She immediately gunned down three of the beasts and moved in closer to attack more of those coming in from the side of the building.

Scott backed away from his pistol reload cooldown went into effect, then continued to mow down the enemy coming at them from behind. His eyes narrowed. Could they hold here, or was it time to seek higher ground? He'd long since formulated a fall back strategy to reach a nearby rooftop in case it proved necessary. So far, they were doing fine in the open. On a rooftop, they would need to keep half the team on standby as lookouts. On the ground, everyone earned EXP.

The moment that Samantha entered the fray, the numbers of the oncoming horde dwindled rapidly. Less than ten seconds passed before half the horde was down for the count. She moved into a position to look down the side-street where the zombies originated and began to fire on the ones that were not in the melee combat zone, yet.

It did not take long for Kitty and Saelil to finish off their opponents. However, word came from Samantha. "There's a lot more coming!"

She could fire quickly, but for every one she dropped two more seemed to take its place. Scott called for the team to switch places. Kitty and Saelil guarded the rear, while he helped Samantha. Several tense minutes passed before the change in plans proved inefficient. A lot more zombies died, but the numbers of the oncoming horde continued to grow.

Scott called out. "Fallback to the center!"

The team rushed back to the mid-point of where the battle began and Scott quickly instructed them on his fallback plan. He and Samantha held ground while Saelil and Kitty ran for a nearby restaurant. There was a roof access ladder on the outside. It was locked at the bottom, but no one would have trouble leaping up to the height above it. Saelil floated upward at a steady pace. Once she verified that there were no zombies on the roof, she called the all-clear. Kitty used one quick bound to reach the edge of the roof then kicked off with her feet and flipped onto the top.

Scott went next, except he leapt up and grabbed the ladder a short distance from the top. Samantha held position until Scott started firing then immediately fell back as well. She leapt up straight onto the roof.

Kitty guarded the ladder, while Scott and Samantha continued firing into the horde. Saelil performed a roving guard of the area, while also watching the distance. She reported that most of what she saw in the area was a few small groups shambling here and there. The majority were in the nearby area already.

"The quarantine zone is not that big. Given the difficulty of the mission, I doubt there's more than a thousand zombies in the area. If we take most of them down here, now, it'll be an easy sweep afterward," said Scott, while blasting a hole in the skull of a zombie clown.

"Won't we run out of time, if you have to kill a thousand of those things?" asked Kitty in concern.

"No. Now that we can focus solely on firing from a clear vantage point, I doubt it'll take more than five-to-ten minutes unless these bastards take their sweet time getting here. Ammunition isn't a concern, after all."

The fire team continued taking down zombies with well-aimed strikes to the head. They could only take them down at roughly half their maximum rate of fire, but that still amounted to well over a hundred dead zombies per minute. Corpses littered the area even as experience point counters floated rapidly into the air.

Suddenly, a hellish roar echoed through the area. "Shit, where are you, you bastard?" asked Scott while scanning the area for the berserker. Killing it wouldn't be hard. Killing it before it reached them was the problem.

A loud howling sound echoed from the rooftop nearby just as Kitty shouted, "I've got it!"

Scott whipped his pistol around just in time to see the berserker launch itself from the roof of the next door building, while Kitty simultaneously leapt high into the air to deliver a powerful flying kick. She slammed her foot into its chest mid-way across the chasm between buildings and sent it flying back. She artfully flipped through it air in a single lazy movement, even as the monster's head slammed into edge of the building's roof. She landed gracefully back in her original position, even as the zombie fell to the ground like a broken ragdoll. In death, she gained a few experience points.

[+5]

Scott blinked at the ridiculous show of strength and grace then turned back to fire on the mass of monsters below. Thankfully most of them were slain at a distance so that the bodies did not pile up near the building as much.

It was not long before a second berserker shriek caught their attention. Everyone looked for the source, but it was Saelil for moved into action this time. The creature rushed out of the small wood-line behind the restaurant and rushed the building. Its tongue lolling out of its head, it leapt up and clawed heavily at the plaster casting of the outer wall. With a single powerful bound it hurled itself up onto the roof.

The dark elf instinctively whirled her staff around and unleashed a torrent of flame that whirled in the air like a miniature tornado.

Shrieks of tormented agony erupted from the monster's throat. "No! No!" it shouted while flailing its arms around. It fell to the roof top and flopped around like a demented fish fresh from the water. All the while it screamed, "Burning! I'm burning! Hurts. It hurts! Ah!"

It took far too long for the thing to finally shut up and die. All eyes were on Saelil for a moment and she shrugged prettily. "You did say I can use my magic on special zombies, beloved... Was he not special?"

"Uh, you did good," said Scott to the girl before eyeing the slightly twitching corpse.

He informed Kitty of her awesomeness as well, when he noticed that she seemed slightly disappointed at her former lack of praise. His words brought a warm smile to her lips, along with a thoughtful lashing of her tail.

Scott took aim at another zombie on the ground, just in time to see the badly injured creature raise up her undead hands and press her nearly naked breasts together. Her outfit, once a naughty negligee, was now a tattered gore covered ruin. "You said you loved them!" she screamed, just before a plasma round neatly exploded the top of her head.

Samantha looked to Scott. "Former employee?"

He smirked at her and said, "Can't help a guy for being popular, right?"

A digitized snort echoed from her armor followed by a monotone chuckle. She returned to the business at hand immediately thereafter.

Soon, the zombie horde became a zombie holocaust. Nothing remained save for a few stragglers and wandered into the area on brief occasion.

"I did not know that these creatures can speak, beloved," said Saelil.

"Yeah. The stronger they are, the smarter they seem to be. I wouldn't be surprised if the higher level missions had Return of the Living Dead style zombies."

"Return of the Living Dead?" asked Samantha.

Scott nodded, then explained while raising a finger for each point that he made. "Imagine a zombie that can run, can use radio equipment, can stalk people, can set simple traps, and can't be killed with a headshot."

"So, basically zombies that are like normal people?" asked Kitty, "Except for the headshot?"

"Mostly. Their bodies have to be completely destroyed to end the threat. Extreme high voltage can fry their nervous system and keep them from moving, for some reason. I never understood why that was even a thing," said Scott.

"They can move with a hole in their brain?" asked Samantha.

"The entire body is reanimated. Without a head, the body will just run around like an idiot. It would still be able to find people to kill though, somehow. Even detached limbs can move on their own," said Scott.

They were quiet for a moment before Scott noticed something staggering toward them in the street. He aimed his weapon and destroyed the shambling zombie with little fanfare. However, he looked at the zombified police officer that he'd just downed and chuckled softly. "Send more cops."