Ascended

The Zombies avoided us.

Now that I had a Bokor blade again, the Zombies that had made it to the roof folded as I held the boy in my left arm and cut the Zombies down with the sword in my right.

I made it to the gate in no time and saw that the gate had been overrun and the Zombies were heading towards the valley to the west.

I jumped down in a semi clear place and started cutting my way through the Zombies. The kid had stopped screaming, which helped not draw as much of the Zombie’s attention to us. I was also only killing the ones in my way or the ones coming at us. I would have loved to have killed as many as I could, but I had a limited amount of stamina and swinging a sword wasted it when I might need it later to protect the kid.

I made it to the valley where Eveth and Val were doing their best to keep the Zombies from getting into the valley.

“Byler!” Val waved as she decapitated another Zombie.

I ran over to her and dropped the boy down beside her. I turned to Eveth and held out the blade for her to take. “Trade me.”

The blonde woman walked over and offered me her old sword.

“No, I want mine back and you get this one.” I pointed at my sword in her other hand.

Her face fell, “Okay…” She handed me my sword and her eyes lit up as soon as she touched it.

“Where did you get this?” Eveth began dancing with it, slicing zombies apart like they were made of nothing but water.

“I…” I thought of the warning that the man had given me. “I found it in the city.” I nodded at the boy. “He was with me when I picked it up.”

Both women turned to the kid who just nodded.

I looked down the valley, but I couldn’t see the caravan. The Zombies were also thinning behind me, especially with Eveth having way too much fun cutting them down. It was like the sword had been made specifically for her.

“Should we get him to the caravan?” Val looked at me.

I thought about it for a minute. “I don’t think so.” The Hunters are going to be here in a few hours. I don’t think it’ll be safe to come back this way.”

“What do we do with him then?” The Red-haired woman looked down at the kid.

“We’ll have to take him with us to the next town.” I looked over at the other woman, “Eveth! We’re leaving!”

The blonde jogged back over. “Where are we going?”

I looked at Val, then back at the newest member of our team. “We’ve got a route to finish, and something tells me that there are going to be a lot more people that need our help. Plus, Master James is expecting us in Port Town in a month.”

“You mean I get to come with you?” She smiled and looked at Val for confirmation.

“You can’t go back.” The older woman confirmed, “And I’d like to see more of what you can do.”

Eveth walked over to me and put her hand on the boy’s shoulder, “What about Zig?”

“We’ll have to take him with us.” It wasn’t the best plan, but it was the one I had. I stepped closer so I could whisper. “I watched his parents get killed. Does he have any other family?”

She looked at him then back at me, “His mom was my cousin, but…”

“Is there anyone else?”

The blonde shook her head, “No.”

“Then I guess he stays with us.” I looked at Val. “As soon as the Bokor figure what she is, we’ll have Hunters on our trail. It’s not ideal to take a kid with us, but…”

“I’m not a kid!” Zig spoke up, “I’m seven!”

I chuckled. It was older than some Masters took apprentices. Except I wouldn’t be teaching his kid how to harvest the heartstones. If what the Master said was true, then I probably needed to throw out the ones I had. Though I knew that our swords were going to need to be recharged at some point. I’d have to figure out how to do that or we’d lose a very potent weapon. We also needed to figure out how to use our magic better, but that would come with time. We were also going to have to walk slower until we could get a horse for Zig, so we’d have the time to work on it.

Val clapped her hand on my shoulder. “You promised me an adventure.” She smiled, “This looks like a pretty good start.”