The Wild Bones were unable to see what Zain could do, at least the extent of what he could do, because he had fought the devastating creatures mostly in the subway, and they were distracted trying to fight for their own lives against the zombies that were gathering around them.
Now though, they were able to witness Zain's greatness. He would constantly break parts off of the cars around him with ease, as if they were made of bits of cheap plastic, then as if he had a birds eye view, he was keeping an eye on everyone in the group.
He would use the bits of the vehicles he had torn off to throw them toward the zombies that were attacking them and getting in the way of them fighting the stage 2 Titan. As Zain inched closer, he soon stopped throwing items at them and instead used his two machetes he had on him instead.
Swirling around, he sliced through one head of a zombie, and thrust through the head of another. To the others it looked like a scene from the movie, it was done so effortlessly. In this day and age, when would you ever find someone who was so skilled with swords?
In an age where guns usually would have ruled, they were seeing the advantage of the old age weapons. They made no noise, not attracting a horde of creatures around you. If one was on their own they always needed to reload at some point, and unless you had someone covering you or were able to supply yourself with an unlimited amount of ammo this was the better option for a densely populated city.
After a while, the Wild Bones, thanks to Nit and Dali mainly, were able to defeat the Titan. As they angled a long makeshift spear to go through its body and pierce its head at an odd angle. It was hard work as they needed to avoid the large fists that would have smashed their bodies in one go.
"Great work!" Zain said with a smile, as he approached the two of them. "Try find the large crystal in its body, and make sure you don't get any blood in your eyes. I don't have to tell you why that would be bad."
Both Nit and Dali looked at each other. All of it felt very strange, why didn't Zain just fight the stage 2 himself, he was very capable and now they were asking him to extract the crystal as well? In the end they listened, because there was one thing Dali thought he was getting out of this and it was experience.
He was learning how to take out these altered zombies, and what their group needed to improve on. After all, there was also a chance that the Zombie Hunters wouldn't take them in at all, and when Zain left them, they would all be on their own again.
The crystal had been retrieved and, as promised, the crystal was handed to Zain. When it was given to him, the system message popped up, asking whether he wanted to absorb the crystal for exp, but he refused because there was a better use for the crystals this time.
After continuing on through the busy district, the group had eventually reached a park. It had pathways set with trees on the side, but on top of it all, in the distance, in the centre of the grass fields there was once again another Titan.
"This time… I won't remove the armour from the stage 2 for you." Zain stated. "But, I will stay closer to you, so if it looks like you are going to be hit, I will defend the attack."
Inwardly a smile had appeared on Dali. It looked like he was somewhat right, that Zain was training them to be self-sufficient. With that, he willingly accepted the request and before charging in, the group had a talk first on how to deal with the problem in front of them.
When heading in, they had a much more organised plan, and Dali, not wanting to rely on Zain at all, had decided to take out the zombies in the wooded areas first. They struck them down so they wouldn't get involved in the fight against the Titan, and finally it was time for them to take out the main target.
'Oh, now it makes sense how they were able to defend a school so well, but it makes me wonder, what makes a territory, what's the limit of the amount of zombies I can have? If we were to clear this entire area, if we were to clear the entire city, and only the zombies under my control were still here, would I have territory mastery over this whole city?'
While thinking these thoughts, Zain had to dive in as the Titan had gotten close to hitting one of the Wild Bones. Swinging both of his fists out Zain had managed to match the Titan's strength stopping the blow.
Dali was thankful that they had Zain, because it was a harder task than they thought. In the end, though, they managed to pry open a part of its hard shell that was toward the back of its neck. It was a small part that had been attacked over and over again, and eventually a part of it had chipped off.
The only one that was confident enough to climb onto the Titan's back and deliver the final blow, as expected, was Dali. The others were too afraid of getting hurt, but what had surprised Zain was, after seeing Dali on the back of the Titan, the others didn't waste time in distracting it and were attacking fiercer and more daring than before.
In the end, the zombie had been defeated and a second crystal was obtained.
Holding them both in his hands, Zain had a smile on his face.
"Let's rest for the night." Zain stated. "I know it's a bit early, but I will be a bit busy myself."
Rather than an apartment building like they usually stayed in. There was a house situated opposite the park, and they were able to clear the area quickly and rest up in a different place for a change, but for Zain, he had almost immediately picked a room, entered it and they heard the sound of it being locked quickly behind him.
"I wonder… What is he doing in there?" Nit asked.
"I'm not too sure." Dali replied. "But did you see that grin on his face when we gave him the crystal? I'm sure there is something in those crystals. Maybe we should try to get our hands on those crystals ourselves."
"I agree."
In the room, laid out on the bed, Zain had the crystals and the weapons next to each other. He wasn't sure how this was going to work, but he finally had all the items required to upgrade his weapons.
'Let's open this crafting thing and get started.' Zain smiled.
*****
Thank you, everyone, for supporting LUZ so far, and I Hope you can continue to support LUz.