Chapter 52: The Walking Corpses

The deeper they ventured into the mountain, the more oppressive and dense the forest grew, rendering the path increasingly treacherous. Yet, in this challenging terrain, the wolfmen’s pace unexpectedly quickened.

“The scent is getting stronger,” one wolfman observed.

Sure enough, after ascending another ridge, they discerned several figures in the near distance. These figures were leisurely bearing large sacks as they were on the move.

However, what baffled Nina and her group was the appearance of these wolfmen. They didn’t bear the hallmarks of the raiding groups they had envisioned. Instead, they seemed to don the attire typical of nearby villagers.

“Let’s close the distance, but stay alert for potential ambushes,” Nina said.

The wolfmen executed a flanking maneuver from both sides. The woods, familiar territory for them, aided their approach. Yet, even with the home-field advantage, they remained heedful of Nina’s advice and proceeded with caution. Suddenly, recognition dawned on one of them, “Qiao?!”

Upon hearing the call, the wolfmen up ahead momentarily halted to glance back at their pursuers. Yet, they betrayed no sense of urgency or panic, opting instead to retreat deeper into the forest with an unsettling calm.

“Qiao!” the wolfman, unable to contain his bewilderment, shouted even more emphatically. “What’s happening? What are you all doing?”

One of Nina’s men managed to get ahead of them, cutting them off. As he recognized their familiar figure, he too cried out their names in astonishment. Yet, in the very next heartbeat, these figures, in a synchronized move, discarded their burdens and lunged forth in a unified attack.

“Qiao! Rui! Have you lost your senses?”

Cornered and taken aback, the lone wolfman defended himself desperately. His attackers were not strangers but acquaintances. He was reluctant to unsheathe his weapon against them, yet they displayed no such reservations, transforming their bodies into lethal weapons and launching a relentless onslaught.

Nina’s other warriors rushed to the scene, but their comrade had already been surrounded by three to four attackers. After a heart-wrenching cry of pain and confusion, he collapsed to the ground. The attackers, now smeared in blood, turned their attention to the others.

Their fur had noticeably dulled, and there was something distinctly odd about their movements, though it was challenging to pinpoint what.

However, the most chilling detail was their eyes, now transformed into an unsettling shade of gray-white.

“Be careful!” Wu Qingsong, having caught up, instantly grasped the gravity of the situation. “They are dead. They are no longer the comrades you knew. They are walking corpses!”

“Walking corpses?” the wolfmen echoed in confusion, even as they retreated in a flustered manner.

Halting in his tracks, Wu Qingsong quickly aimed his crossbow, letting a bolt fly into the nearest walking corpse. It impaled its shoulder, but the creature displayed no sign of pain and barely missed a beat in its relentless pursuit of the nearest wolfman.

“They’re not wolfmen anymore, they’ve turned into monsters.”

Wu Qingsong hastily reloaded his crossbow. Just then, Ling mustered her courage, relying on her training she shot her first bolt at one of the walking corpses. It went straight through its eye socket, exiting from the back with brain matter trailing. Astoundingly, it continued to another wolfman.

“Damn it!” Wu Qingsong came to a chilling realization. 

These weren’t your run-of-the-mill movie zombies that could be taken down with a shot to the head. They were undead creatures from a world of magic, where one must destroy their core to truly destroy them. Worse still, they might even need to confront and defeat a hidden necromancer to put an end to them.

Of all the monstrous beings, these were undoubtedly among the most grotesque. In this world, where elves had nearly monopolized and purged all magic, from where did such a necromancer spring? Could it be an elf?

The arrow didn’t deal a fatal blow, but it made the wolfmen grasp the gravity of Wu Qingsong’s words. They started attacking these once-familiar figures. Yet they soon discovered that even beheading these walking corpses wasn’t enough. Their torsos would continue their relentless assault. Even when sliced in half, the upper half would unyieldingly crawl toward them.

Heavy-hearted, Nina cleaved a walking corpse before her into two and then pinned the still-moving half to the ground.

She had never faced such a situation before and turned to Wu Qingsong, urgently asking, “How can we put an end to them?”

“There must be a core within their bodies,” Wu Qingsong speculated. “If it isn’t the brain, then… it might be the heart?”

Nina didn’t hesitate. She lunged at a walking corpse which, despite missing an arm, was still trying to bite a wolf warrior. Her blade pierced its chest, nearly bisecting it. Yet with that singular thrust, its movements ceased.

“Aim for their hearts!” Nina commanded.

It wasn’t long before all the walking corpses lay defeated, but the wolfmen found no jubilation in this victory.

“Princess Nina, what on earth… what’s happening?” a distraught wolfman asked.

All the reanimated corpses were wolfmen previously missing from neighboring villages. Many had stood alongside them in battles, and some were close allies. They couldn’t fathom how they had become like this.

Nina’s gaze instinctively sought Wu Qingsong, who, sensing the urgency, declared, “Quickly rinse your wounds with water.”

“A poison of sorts?” 

Nina promptly ordered everyone to heed his advice. He not only recognized what was happening to them but also found a solution. Faced with this unknown threat, Wu Qingsong naturally took charge of the situation.

“I’m not sure,” Wu Qingsong admitted as he inspected the wound of an injured warrior. The blood continued to flow, its hue appearing normal, providing him a momentary relief.

In various games, animes, and novels, the portrayal of necromantic magic differs significantly. Which interpretation did this world follow?

The horrific scene was too much for Ling and Liuli. The slain walking corpses’ blood should have already clotted. When severed, it wasn’t just blood that spilled but a repulsive mixture of pus and bodily fluids, characteristic of decay. Once deprived of movement, their decomposition seemed to hasten dramatically, their flesh and fur melding into a revolting, sticky mess, all the while emitting an overbearing, putrid odor.

Wu Qingsong was once again confronted by the vast chasm between video games and reality. In the digital realm, he routinely scavenged from fallen foes, but who could bear such an act amid the present grotesquery?

Yet Nina, with steely resolve, drew a short blade, dissecting one of the more preserved corpses. She presented something resembling a heart on her sword’s edge.

“Look at this,” she said, her voice thick with barely contained anger.

What she held was no heart, but an object of similar size. It appeared wooden and bore odd engravings.

“Someone has desecrated these bodies, extracting their hearts and embedding these objects within,” she said, her voice reminiscent of a storm suppressed only by sheer willpower.

“It’s necromantic magic,” Wu Qingsong informed her. “My knowledge is limited, but the situation is clear now. There’s a necromancer somewhere up in the mountains, and turns villagers into these walking corpses.”

“We must end him,” Nina declared, discarding the object and grinding it to dust beneath her heel. “Such atrocities will never be condoned.”