What came towards us with unwavering determination were no mind-controlled animals or golems or ghosts. Those were goddamn giant zombies. What came to my mind when I saw them, was “Zombie Hulk”. And as they had the similar unhealthy greenish skin colour that was the trademark of the Marvel original, the interdimensional copyright lawsuits had obviously stripped them of their spandex all-size-fits-all boxers. Not a sight for those with weak heart, I was forced to admit.

I focused my attention on the approaching steroid zombies and tried to get as much information as possible. Huge, massive bodies, generally human-like appearance with exaggerated muscle mass, signs of fraying on lower limbs and sides, weird scar lines that looked like welding joints crisscrossed the surface of the rough skin. Hm, giant Frankenstein monsters? I could see no signature electrodes though. Perhaps some sort of trolls, giants or ogres? I looked at Eala, expecting her to recognize them. Not such luck, she stared at the approaching figures with eyes wide open, apparently as bewildered as I was.

What was odd, no clothing or armor could be seen - if these creatures were artificial, then their creation would be a significant, time-consuming undertaking, and armor would make sense to increase the “service life”. They had no weapons either, and no popular in fantasy metal ridges, spikes or other additions, They were just rushing towards us, ignoring smaller obstacles and rather nimbly sidestepping larger trees. But they unerringly approached us like homing missiles.

---

As the first zombie hulk (tentative name) stepped out from behind the last tree and got into my direct line of sight, I just had enough time to notice that instead of eyes, it had large milky-white orbs in its wide-open eye sockets.

Then, as it tried to reach out towards me with its massive hands, with a swipe of my hands I brought forward the butt of the poleaxe shaft and stepped forward, lightly jabbing it towards the expected solar plexus of my opponent.

I was interested in the unknown creatures, and was not worried about dragging the fight out a bit. I did not expect, however, that my blow, which I aimed at the average center of mass of a humanoid target and measured to be enough to send it flying back, could only make it stagger back a few steps. Those few steps were over four meters, but still much less than what I had expected. Clearly, the mass of the zombie hulks was way above what I had expected, likely reaching a few tons.

As my miscalculation did not take out the opponent as I had expected, the rest of the zombie hulks arrived before I had finished with the first one. Feeling annoyed at my plan being disrupted, I lashed out again with the butt of the poleaxe. Now I used much more strength and aimed at the shoulder and hip joints. Something cracked, something bent and something snapped, and the hulk lost its ability to move. It was still amazing how its skin did not rupture under the force of my attack. If a human would experience it, he would likely blow up due to the hydraulic shock. Zombie hulk, however, felt rather solid and even dry, which made me wonder how it was created.

---

Having dealt with my first enemy, I did not waste time to turn around, instead observing Eala through my perception ability. She was doing rather well, dodging the approaching zombie hulks, sometimes getting on the trees by bouncing between the tree trunks like a crazy pinball ball. She passed the hulks from sides, above and sometimes even from below, continuously lashing out with her water blade. She also constantly changed the hand that held the blade, using her free hand to adjust her movement. While her blade cut well, it did not penetrate too deep for some reason, and the hulks did not seem to feel anything, continuing with their attacks.

“So she is ambidextrous?” - I muttered to myself as I pushed my speed to the fastest I could without actually destroying the terrain, and used my hand to try to dislocate the joints of one of the hulks, which was too busy chasing after Eala. Unfortunately, despite my possible grip strength, my hands were way too small for that. So I had to opt for using the edge of my palm to strike at the joints. It caused more damage than proper procedure, but at least it did not destroy them. Two down, eight more to go.

The zombie hulks were surprisingly nimble and quick, considering their bulks. But compared to Eala’s agility and my unnatural abilities, they were weak. They were quite sturdy though, perfect targets for me to study. Meanwhile, Eala managed to cut a leg off one of the hulks. It had likely taken multiple slashes at the exact same spot, proving her amazing kinetic vision and precision. The hulk crashed down, but still struggled to reach out and crawl around.

I also noticed, that zombie hulks only attacked the target nearest to them. They had no coordination, and when attacking same target, pushed and shoved each other, greatly hindering themselves and ignoring any target further away. So that was why they were so keen on following Eala - during her acrobatic tricks, she ended up between me and the enemies, attracting everyone to herself.

---

Having secured two almost undamaged zombie hulks for later research, I wanted to use the rest for some tests I had in mind.

When I observed the hulks chasing after Eala, I also paid attention to the distribution of the magic power. Zombie hulks were shrouded in strings of power that coiled around them. It seemed to be absorbed from the outside and then drawn towards the center of their ribcage and head, before it was condensed and spread out through the body. And their skin had a lot of thin interwoven threads of highly condensed power forming a sort of net. I approached one hulk that had its back towards me, and brought down the poleaxe in a simple chop with little technique involved. The sharp edge, that could cut through stone, was actually hindered by the power net in the skin. It did not have much effect, I only felt slight resistance, but it was still there. Under my perception, the magic strings that were snapped coiled together around the cut, reinforcing the edges. Ingenious design, I had to admit.

The zombie hulk, that reacted to me approaching closer than it was from Eala had no time to react to my attack, but turned around immediately afterwards. I made use of my superior strength and speed to use wide attacks to observe it. As I cut off skin and tissue beneath, I could observe the signs of external interference. I clearly saw different types of metals inlaid into the bones and forming additional layers in muscles. The muscle tissue seemed to be dry, but bloated as if cells were paraffin-processed anatomy specimens.

Having difficulty with detailed observation while exchanging attacks, I directly blocked an attack with the poleaxe shaft in an attempt to gauge their full abilities. My feet sunk almost until my knees into the humid rotting forest floor, and to get rid of the hulk that was aiming to bury me, I swung the poleaxe with my full strength.

Getting dirt all over was something I wanted to avoid at all costs. I did not bother with any technique, so the poleaxe connected to the upper body of the zombie hulk with the flat of the blade. Next moment, a part of the hulk weighting around a ton, disappeared in a murky cloud. With a loud crash, two of the hulks around Eala were blown away as something unrecognizable smashed into them, and they stopped only after crushing a fairly wide path into the jungle, some fifty meters away from us. As the remaining feet and the lower body of the zombie hulk sagged down in front of me, I quickly pushed myself out of the ground and looked at Eala, who kept looking for the two hulks that had disappeared from her surroundings. Hmm, even elves could not track such speeds, it seems.

---

I also felt that I had gained some power from the hulk that I had blown away. Not from the other two, though. Perhaps they were still functioning? It was quite surprising, as I thought they were more like organic robots rather than something living. Or the process that allowed me to claim some power had different rules I was unaware of.

That reminded me, that I had not used my power for quite some time. I could not push any more energy into the poleaxe, as I felt that it could make it explode. Instead, I tried to direct the power into the scaled body armor I found in the pyramid. As I wore it directly on my body, I felt no interference nor difficulty in doing so. But I did not expect that it will drain much more energy that poleaxe did. It actually dared to gobble up at least half of the power I had.

As the red glow on my chest intensified, I figured that I better replenish my battery as quick as possible. With a stomp of my foot, I covered the twenty-something meters that brought me close to the remaining five zombie hulks that chased after Eala. Or rather, four by now. I felt the incoming power rush at the moment she skewered the head of the one that she had brought down previously. That was unexpected that I got credit from kills I did not do myself.

I jumped to get higher and with a chop of my free hand, drove my fist into the head of one of the hulks. My fist did not stop until it smashed all the way down to the ribcage. As the zombie crumpled and I felt the rush of the energy filling me up, I landed, grabbed the poleaxe with my both hands and with a sideways move and a twist of my hips, slashed across the remaining three. Two were cut into two, but still retained some functions, and I felt no power influx. The remaining zombie hulk charged at me, oblivious to the fate of the others, so I sidestepped and pushed it towards Eala. Some exercise would be good for her, and while she looked a little tired, she should be able to do one against one.

Within a minute, I had hacked open the heads of the fallen hulks, including the two badly mangled ones that were blown away by the remains of the hulk that had driven me into ground. Initially I tried to stomp them flat with my foot, but instead, they sunk down into the soft earth. But in any case, I got some power back. It was far from enough to be “full tank”, so it seemed that me creating artifacts was going to be a really rare occurrence.

Meanwhile, Eala had finished off the last hulk and taken off her helmet. She was still not gasping for breath, but at least she had slightly flustered look. And all that after an intense fight against multiple opponents in a humid rainforest. I wanted to shrug, but caught myself on the fact that I had been doing that too often lately, and shook my head instead.