Chapter 24: Basic Blade Skills

Odin's eyes flickered with a trace of brutality after reading the notification. Any enemy that threatened the safety of the people close to him deserved to die. Whether zombies, humans, gods, or demons — he had long resolved to slaughter everything that endangered his family. He wouldn't compromise, and he wouldn't show any fear or mercy when dealing with them.

"Carol," he said, turning towards his sister. "Do you know how to use a gun?"

"No," Carol replied, shaking her head. "Mom doesn't want us to learn how to use guns."

"Then, you'll have to learn fast after today," Odin said. "For now, first take Bella and hide in the storage room. There are zombies outside. I need to clear them before they attack us."

Carol gasped. "You mean real zombies, like walking dead or resident evil zombies?"

"Yes, those are the ones," Odin replied. "The descent of the apocalypse has induced some significant changes in the genetics of most organisms, including the microbes. Based on my little biology knowledge, I'm speculating that there might be a deadly mutated parasitic microbe causing humans to turn into zombies."

"Oh, my God!" Carol's face turned pale. "Is that what happened to mom?"

Odin sighed. "She didn't fully turn into a zombie. The powerful entity I told you about managed to save her before she could go through the whole zombification process. We'll talk about this later. For now, hurry up and enter the storage room."

His voice was sharp and filled with a sense of urgency, especially after his sensitive ears picked up the messy footfalls and muffled growls in the distance. There were probably several zombified humans already approaching their cabin.

"Bella, let's go."

Carol hastily pulled the younger sister into the storage chamber. Soon the door to the small closet-like room beside the bedroom closed shut, and Odin remained in the living room alone.

"That went pretty well."

Odin let out a breath of relief and inspected his guns. After ensuring that they were fully loaded, he placed them back in their holsters on his belt before picking up one of his machetes. He donned his face mask before marching towards the door.

He was not the least bit scared of the zombies, especially after having witnessed first-hand the strength of the almost zombified Aunt Lucy. He'd already confirmed that they were much weaker than the mutated wolf, rats, and snake he'd faced before. They couldn't threaten his life if he remained cautious and alert. With his potent spatial sense, they couldn't get near his position without him knowing.

The only cause for alarm was the Origin Order's warning about the high possibility of death if he failed the mission. That was why he'd left his sisters hiding inside the storage chamber. He had opted for the safer option because of the notification instead of taking them with him to gain the much-needed first-hand experience of slaughtering zombies at the start of the apocalypse.

"Ka-chunk-creeeeeeak!"

The door creaked open as Odin cautiously stepped out of the cabin. He immediately pulled it shut behind himself as his spirit energy spread out, and his eyes surveyed the surroundings.

The first thing that caught his attention was the group of three fast-approaching zombified little kids a few yards away. Their blood-red eyes exuded a frenzied malevolence while their deformed faces and gnarled exposed skin oozed yellow pus.

The little zombies were surprisingly swift and agile on their feet as they raced towards the cabin. They were not the least bit like those slow-moving walking dead that Odin had occasionally seen in movies.

"Let's begin."

Odin immediately shot toward the zombie kid at the front with his machete. His enhanced strength and spirit attributes synchronized perfectly with his improved agility to work wonders the next moment. With a single two-handed diagonal chop, he hacked off the deformed head of the zombie kid, sending it rolling on the grass like a golf ball.

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[Killed One Pseudo-Type-I Zombified Human]

[Origin Points +2, Current Origin Points: 2/40]

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Odin ignored the notification and stepped back with narrowed eyes. His timely reaction helped him avoid the blend of viscous blood and pus spewing out of the neck of the headless corpse that was already sinking lifelessly towards the ground.

Before he could relax, his spread-out spatial sense detected the other two zombies attacking him from behind. His speed exploded as he immediately dodged to the side.

Using all his strength, he delivered a horizontal machete slash and sliced off the head of one of the zombies, sending it flying high up into the air. Without bothering about the sticky pus and blood that had already stained his clothes, he circumvented the last zombie and unleashed a slanting hack towards the back of its neck.

Odin had used his strong spatial sense to guide the machete slash. Its edge separated the air, gleaming a chilling black, before cleanly chopping off the last zombified kid's head.

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[Killed 2 Pseudo-Type-I Zombified Humans]

[Origin Points +4, Current Origin Points: 6/40]

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Odin didn't feel any sense of accomplishment after seeing the notification from the Origin Order. Instead, his eyes flashed with a complex light as he examined the corpses of the three zombies.

Before the descent, the little zombies had been three innocent kids, only concerned about playing in the pools and flying their kites around the resort. They had even played outside his window that very morning. But after the descent of the apocalypse, they had turned into mindless zombies that could only think about eating human flesh.

Odin was once again reminded of the cruelty of the apocalypse. He immediately reinforced his resolve to grow stronger quickly so that he could easily protect his loved ones from the impending perils of the apocalypse.

But first things first, he had to secure the entire neighborhood to ensure that there were no dangers that could harm his sisters. He especially needed to deal with all the zombified humans within the resort. And the best time to kill them off was the first day of the apocalypse before they evolved and grew stronger.

By his estimates, the resort should have had about forty-five guests, including both children and adults, before the descent. There were also the five guards and about ten employees going about their chores that morning. Thus, if the worst-case had happened, there would only be roughly sixty zombies within the entire resort.

Odin was confident that he would slaughter them all before sunset if he exerted some effort. Killing them with his abilities was easy. The hardest part was finding them quickly before they could evolve.

"BANG! BANG..."

Rapid gunshots sounded as Odin was still contemplating how best to solve the zombie problem around the resort. The gunshots grew louder with every passing second, implying that the individuals firing the guns were rapidly approaching his position.

Odin rushed away and hid behind a nearby tree before pivoting his eyes towards the direction of the gunshots. Before long, he saw a group of about ten people approaching under the escort of two armed guards. They were in a sorry state as they escaped from a relatively large horde of zombies chasing after them.

The two guards constantly fired their guns and exterminated some of the zombies to protect the group. But since they were facing off against a horde of more than twenty zombies, they couldn't keep everyone safe.

"Aaahhh! Save me!"

A shrill scream soon resounded across the place as a middle-aged lady tripped and fell behind the group. Before the guards could react, the crowd of zombies leaped on her with reckless abandon. They seemed to forget about the rest of the group and swarmed toward only her.

Odin felt his scalp tingling when he saw the zombies open their bloody maws and gnaw at the lady's body. They soon clashed among their ranks, stumbling and struggling to tear off supple sections of flesh as the lady screamed and squirmed about in pain.

The guards immediately unleashed another rain of live ammo upon the zombies to scare them away. But they could only manage to kill off about five of the man-eating monsters. As for the rest, they enjoyed their feast without stressing about the bullets.

"I'm out of ammo," the female guard with a slightly buff body build shouted towards her colleague. She glanced back nervously as she helped a few survivors move forward.

"I'm also almost out of ammo," the male colleague replied. "Since we can't save her, let's hurry up and squeeze into the cabin in front before they start chasing again. We can use it as a stronghold to catch our breath."

On hearing their intentions, Odin could no longer sit still. He couldn't allow the group to lead the zombies into the cabin where his sisters were hiding. So, he quickly emerged from his hiding place behind the tree before walking toward the group with his long machete in hand.

The lady guard noticed him immediately. "What are you doing? Those creatures are very similar to the strong zombies in the movies. Hurry up and enter the cabin if you don't want to die."

"Don't worry," Odin said while keeping his eyes on the zombies feasting on the lady. "I'm here to help you deal with those zombies. But please, don't enter my cabin, or I'll retaliate."

Odin didn't wait for her to reply before shooting toward the group of zombies still preoccupied with their feast. They let out threatening muffled growls as their red eyes focused on him. But he was not scared since there were only thirteen active zombies remaining in the horde after suffering the assault of the two armed guards.

Whoosh!

Odin's hair flew back in the morning breeze as he covered the distance in seconds. His spirit energy reflexively spread out to form his spatial domain as he unleashed a horizontal sweep upon reaching the zombies. His machete zipped through the air like a black bolt of lightning before chopping off the heads of three zombies in a single go.

Without taking a breather, Odin turned around and focused his scorching gaze on the crooked heads of two zombies trying to attack him. His strength and agility bloomed forth as he made quick work of them with another slanting chop before focusing on another zombie.

Adrenaline soon flooded his entire body as he continued dicing up the rest of the zombies as if they were some vegetables. With his spatial domain deployed, he could monitor the actions of all the zombies in the six-yard radius around him. There was no chance for any of them to sneak an attack on him without him knowing beforehand.

Whenever a zombie tried to attack him, he would immediately rely on his lightning-fast reactions to evade it. He would then counter with his long machete to lop off its head cleanly.

Headless corpses and deformed heads continued piling up around him by the second. And before long, he diced up the last standing zombie and stood in place to catch a breath of air.

His machete and garments were stained with blood and pus from the zombies. But he didn't care as all his attention was on the blood-red notifications flashing before his vision.

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[Killed thirteen Pseudo-Type-I Zombified Humans]

[Origin Points +26, Current Origin Points: 32/40]

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[You have mastered the basic skills of using a blade to kill after a sufficient period of practice]

[You have learned the killing art: Basic Blade Skills]

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