“What?” Ivey called out behind him as healing magic spread out to encompass all three of them. It was some sort of regeneration over time ability.

Daniel did not have time to respond, ducking out and through the door. He wanted to scream that zombie had killed his plant magic, and they had no time to do anything. And they had about ten seconds to save the girl, but there was no time. “Hurry,” he yelled instead, not caring if the zombie heard him.

He hurtled around the room and did a U-turn to reach the door. Ever so briefly, he considered shoulder charging the door, but he remembered how his old door had repelled similar effort from the zombies. He pulled himself to a stop, brain over brawn, and magic flowed. The wood in the frame around the door handle broke, and he yanked it open. The door chain was attached, but that came loose instantly with a flare of his magic and almost as an afterthought, he neutralised the auto closing part. The door blasted open, as he was not used to his strength.

“Get away from her, you MONSTER!”

“ROARAG.”

The zombie had turned to face him. It was a big, furry type, but with his club and speed trick, he would be fine. He just needed to lure it out into the corridor. That combined with support magic and he would finish it.

He came to a halt.

The zombie had picked up a nasty-looking club. It had once been part of the second bed in the room, but had been repurposed. It might break with the first swing, but the visible nails on the end would make that one blow count.

“ROARAG.” The zombie took a threatening step towards him. Club up ready to be used.

The door behind him stayed open, and he knew the other two were looking in.

As Daniel watched, the zombie used its second hand blindly to grab some of the vegetation, like someone weeding.

“Roo, Rooee.”

What was happening? Daniel asked himself.

“Get away.”

“ROARAGA.” The monster took a half-threatening step forward.

It waved the club and mimed another lunge. Yet despite the menacing motions, it had not moved away from the girl. Another clump of weeds went flying.

“Dad!”

“Roo.” The noise was soft low enough to be comforting.

Some of the tension seemed to lapse out of the monster.

What?

Daniel was more than a little confused. The zombie’s attention was split between him and the cocoon of plant matter. Its hand dug in, and he heard the cracking of the hardened wooden rings which Daniel had had time to stabilise and strengthen. Another pull and a larger clump of his scoop went flying.

“Get away from her,” Daniel screamed.

The monster’s head crocked to the side like you did when someone said something confusing.

“ROARAGA.” Its teeth stood out as it snarled at him savage and dangerous.

Lightning arced over his shoulder and hit the zombie. It spasmed and fell.

“Die!” Ivey yelled, running into the room with the spear at ready,

“No!” the girl in the corner was screaming. “Dad!”

Daniel’s mind was a whirl.

The behaviour was all wrong. How they had slept together, the club, the way the zombie had been standing protectively and how it had responded to his demand for the zombie to step away.

Almost like it was not feral. Unlike the other zombies, it appeared to still have a functioning brain.

Sort of like him.

He stuck his foot out, and Ivey went flying. Without hesitation, he stepped forward and yanked her backwards away from errant zombie claws. Daniel had always been stronger than most people his size, despite never working out. Farm work could do that. But there was a difference between being stronger and tossing someone so casually.

That extra strength that had been listed on the status screen was clearly more than numbers.

“Daniel!” Ivey spluttered indignantly. But Daniel ignored her, his attention laser focused on the zombie.

The girl had yelled out “Dad.” The connections were being made. The zombie had to be the kid’s dad, but he could imagine a feral zombie protecting something it thought of as their young. Because of the hole in the cocoon, he could see the top of her shoulder, and there was no blood. That meant the zombie had burrowed far enough through his cocoon to reach her. If it wanted to kill her, well, she would be dead. For now, the monster was keeping the girl alive, and she was calling it Dad. He needed to realign his assumptions.

He relaxed slightly, but only a bit. After all, he was facing off against a merciless killer and one that was smart enough to have destroyed his conduit.

Some of the risk was gone, but should he attack anyway? After all, it was still a zombie.

He hesitated. It was not logical, but his brain was screaming out that he was missing something important.

“Rooooee.” Another clump of weeds went flying.

And, at the end of the day, the thing in front of him could have been him. He had almost been turned into one of these monsters.

He held his hand back towards Tamara, silently asking her to halt. Meaning don’t attack, but for god’s sake stay prepared. Tamara had shown herself to be competent, so she would get that last unspoken bit. He knew if the zombie attacked, another lightning bolt would disable it.

The zombie pulled itself to his feet. The look towards the girl was one Daniel recognised. Hope, concern, and fear. Then its eyes snapped back to them, and he was not sure if that was pissed or hungry.

“Can you understand me?”

The zombie jerked and then nodded its head. There were some hisses of surprise behind Daniel.

Smart.

It was smart.

He had been right to stop Ivey. Maybe. There was still a question of whether it was evil or still human, despite what it looked like.

“Can you talk?”

“Raoga.” There was a big shake of the head.

Yet despite the communication, the beast’s club was still up and ready.

“Ouch,” the girl cried out suddenly and thrashed in her protections. Almost instinctively, the creature shifted to comfort the girl before it remembered that it could not reach her and that Daniel was behind them. It almost sprang back to face them, its weapon ready once more. Was it trembling?

“The scoop was to protect her. She was safe, but your assault has probably turned around some spines,” Daniel explained while they stood in a stand-off, clubs at ready. Violence crackled in the air. Daniel was sure that the zombie was not feral and was the kid’s dad. Everything was pointing towards that, but he would not lower his gaze.

“Daniel, he’s not feral.” Ivey said behind him. Daniel ignored her, he already knew it was too smart for its own good.

At his words, the zombie looked down at its arms. The dark fur was clearly blood-soaked up to the elbows. Those thorns he had included in the greenery had done their job.

With a touch on the wall, a green tendril started growing toward the zombie. They could all see it by the light Tamara had lit the room up with. The zombie was also watching its progress.

“I am going to release her,” Daniel promised the zombie—man—he corrected quickly in his mind. “But I have had several creatures that look like you attempt to bite my head off, so I want you to back away.”

“ROArrgg.” It shook it shook its head furiously.

“I am going to save her,” he continued calmly. “But I don’t quite trust you. Move away.”

The tendril kept getting closer.

“Roargh.”

He felt bad for the man. This was his daughter. He had been turned into a monster, and now he was not even being allowed to protect her.

The tendril kept creeping and touched the mass of vegetation. Daniel kept focusing on the zombie while manipulating the mass of plants. It would have been easy to just let the integrity tumble away, have the girl fall out and have Ivey heal any damage. If the zombie was dead, that is exactly what he would have done, but he would not risk the lives of the women behind him.

First step was control. Broken shards of wood moved, including the one that poked her. They shifted and reinforced and while that was happening; he directed a root to move and loop.

“DAD!” the girl cried out in panic.

Daniel ceased his power even as the zombie spun and looked ready to jump into the mass of vegetation.

“STOP!” he screamed. “She is safe.”

“He’s got a choker on my neck.”

The zombie spun to face him, raising the club.

“Do that and she dies,” Daniel yelled even as the club blasted towards him.

He engaged speed and swung his own club to intercept. Growth magic flowed through his club, and they hit with a crash, and the makeshift weapon disintegrated. Fragments splattered against him, but the bulk of the club went to the side.

A touch of the wall and the secondary trap triggered.

“STOP!” The fear in the girl’s voice froze the zombie dead.

Daniel felt like the only monster in the room.

“No one needs to get hurt,” Daniel told him. The zombie looked at his shattered club and then the cocoon still trapping his daughter, and then up into Daniel’s unflinching eyes.

“Sit next to your daughter, and I will bind you. Once you can no longer hurt anyone, I will let her go.”

The zombie held its hands palm out in the age-old gesture of peace, no need to fire. The long claws probably made it more threatening than the man realised. It was making huffing noises as it sat down. Daniel suspected it was crying.

“Now I am going to send some vines to hold you down. Don’t panic.”

The tendrils thickened between him and the girl, and then he blasted all of his power reserves down to the mass. It flopped over and swept over the zombie. Unsurprisingly, the creature fought back, but tendrils had hooked both wrists and ankles and as it battled, those others circled it like a boa constrictor.

Yet its strength had roots buckling and breaking. While it struggled, Daniel leapt forward and swung the club, targeting an elbow, trying to engage one of the strength skills while he did so.

The crack was loud enough to be heard on the other side of the floor.

“ROARRA.”

Then he was throwing himself on the other arm, using his body weight to pin it to the floor. The zombie thrashed but, derived from the use of both hands; the outcome was inevitable.

“ROARAGA.”

A vine whipped up into the mouth, cutting off a third roar before it started.

“Get off him, brute. Stop hurting.” Small hands were hitting Daniel.

“It is okay.” Tamara’s voice was soothing as she plucked the girl from his back.

There were sounds of violent struggle between the girl and Tamara, but Daniel kept the zombie pinned, confident that Tamara could overpower the girl. While he subdued the creature with his body weight and strength, he maintained a connection with the vines, and while his reserves were spent, the trickle of replenishing energy was enough to layer on the protections, strengthening the roots into matured wood and adding links to improve the structural integrity.

Another minute and it would be done, and he could stop using his weight to pin it.

“Leave my dad alone.”

“Roara.”

Daniel was impressed the man had made that much noise through the gag he had thrown in place. “It is going to be okay,” he told the thing under him. It threw its weight sideways, trying to dislodge him, but its lack of leverage meant that it was easy enough to counter. There was a sharp intake of breath as the shattered elbow hit the ground. “Behave,” he ordered.

Finally, the links of wood were all solid, and it would never escape without help. Daniel rolled away. The zombie thrashed for a moment, but it was bound up so tight that nothing even got strained because of the struggle.

Well, he had captured it. The question was, what next?

“Can I heal him? He doesn’t have the feral prefix.”

“Yes.” Daniel sighed in relief. It did not have the feral prefix. He had made the right choice to keep it alive for now.

Ivey stood next to him as healing magic washed over the mutated human. Daniel looked at the poor guy and frowned inside. He had been protecting his daughter; that much was clear, and they had attacked him in response.