My body was slanting to the right. I tried to steady myself, but for some reason, I couldn’t stop my fall. It took me a moment to understand what was happening, but when I fell on the asphalt, I realized the zombie had severed my right leg around my calf.
A second later, I saw the claws I’d broken earlier back on its left hand. It had already regenerated and attacked my right leg.
I sensed the clawed zombie trying to do further damage and jumped out of the way with my one remaining leg.
This…was pretty bad.
Now that it had cut off my right leg, I could no longer attack quickly. I was also able to regenerate, but I needed to attach the severed body parts to where they’d been cut off, and I couldn’t afford to do that while dealing with the clawed zombie. What’s more, I’d distanced myself from my severed right leg when I jumped away, and to grab it, I’d have to get past this guy.
I tried to think quickly as I stood there on one leg, but right before my eyes, the zombie raised both of its arms. I had no way of stopping a simultaneous attack from the left and right.
Am I really going to die here and leave Haruka and the others behind…?!
Mai would become a zombie if I died, and the other five would have no way to survive when the food ran out.
I can’t let myself die here…!!
I began swinging the bat around and retreated, crawling. The clawed zombie wasn’t the least bit affected by my feeble attempts to hurt it. It swatted the bat away with its left arm, then raised its right high into the sky.
I’m done for—
“—Hyaaaaaah!!”
Haruka’s shout echoed around me. Instead of fleeing in the car, she’d come running toward us. The next moment, she struck out with the forked pole, catching the zombie in the back of the head and staggering it.
Then someone else hit the zombie from behind and forced it down to the ground.
“Kamiji?!”
What were they doing here? A second later, the zombie sent Kamiji flying, pushed back Haruka’s pole, and got back up.
I made my next attack faster than I could think, swinging my bat at the zombie’s legs. I hit it where I’d aimed, but because my footing wasn’t stable, the strike wasn’t powerful enough to knock it down.
Once again, the clawed zombie raised both arms high in the air. I hadn’t been able to take advantage of the opportunity that Haruka and Kamiji had created for me to defeat it—
“Graaahh…!!”
—but just as I was about to give up, the clawed zombie began roaring in agony.
It stopped attacking me and furiously scratched at its own body. I didn’t know what was going on, but I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by. I leaped off my one remaining leg and plunged my left wrist into the zombie’s mouth.
The clawed zombie glared at me with a pained look, then flailed with all its might, trying to shake me loose. There was no way was I going to let go. I wrapped my right arm around it and poured as much of my blood into its mouth as I could.
The zombie’s pain seemed to worsen, and I felt its power start to weaken.
I put everything I had into knocking it down, pulled my left arm back out of its mouth, and swung the bat at its head.
I had smashed the clawed zombie’s head to pieces, but I couldn’t let my guard down just yet. The first thing I had to do was crush the claws on both its hands.
“—Here, Yuuma.”
Haruka offered me my left arm and right leg. It was nice of her to pick them up and bring them over to me, except her hands were getting covered in my blood.
“Thanks, Haruka, but be careful you don’t get infected.”
I took my arm and leg and firmly pushed them back where they belonged, and they reattached to my body. Those regenerative abilities were as amazing as always.
I quickly stood up, grabbed my bat, and began pulverizing the zombie’s claws. Then I tied up the monster’s hands and feet. Now even if its head was restored, it wouldn’t be able to fight back.
“We can leave the zombie tied up and keep watch over it to make sure nothing happens. Man, the two of you really took a huge risk—”
“Yuuma!! I’m so glad you’re okay!!” Haruka jumped me mid-sentence. I guess she’d been holding back her emotions until we were safe.
“It’s all thanks to the two of you. I don’t know what would have happened to me if you guys hadn’t come when you did.”
“Kamiji’s the one who came up with that great idea to knock out the zombie.”
“What’d you do?”
“Look, over there.” Haruka pointed to something transparent on the ground.
I picked it up. It was a tiny syringe that fit in the palm of my hand. The syringe itself was see-through, and I could see a small amount of red liquid still left inside it.
“As soon as she got in the car, I told her you were going to make that zombie drink your blood. Then she said it was quicker to use a syringe if you wanted to get your blood into its system.”
“Ah…!!”
I was impressed by Kamiji’s quick thinking, and then I realized something.
“You injected it with my blood when you slammed into it?”
Kamiji, who was sitting on the ground with her back turned to us, gave a small nod.
“Yeah. I had Hyuuga distract it; then I gave it about twenty milliliters of your blood.”
“So that’s why it suddenly started moaning in pain. But how did you get my blood?”
Haruka pointed to my left arm.
“From your arm. I saw it on the ground, and I got it from there. You’d lost an arm, so I didn’t think you’d have time for us to give you the syringe.”
“That’s amazingly gutsy… I think anyone would hesitate to pick up someone’s fallen arm…”
Haruka smiled proudly.
“It’s your arm, Yuuma. What is there to hesitate over?”
“I’m surprised you were carrying around a syringe,” I said.